Chapter Summaries

Bolk delivered an urgent joint command from Gordon and Garrosh to Battle Group Commander Barton at the Gray Wolf Mountain garrison. Barton was ordered to seize Gray Wolf Valley within two days and trap retreating Carnford troops between his force and the main army.

• Bolk rode his exhausted warhorse to the Gray Wolf Mountain camp, where the horse collapsed and died despite his attempt to save it.
• Bolk identified himself to the guards and demanded to see Barton with an urgent military command.
• The guards escorted Bolk through the struggling garrison, where soldiers and their families were harvesting grain to survive.
• Barton left the fields to meet Bolk, who handed him the sealed command ordering his unit to seize and hold Gray Wolf Valley within two days.

Old Barton received orders to lead his poorly equipped men in an assault on Gray Wolf Valley, despite believing they could not defeat the Carnford garrison. Bolk refused to delay the attack for the harvest, leaving Barton to prepare his soldiers for a likely deadly march at dawn.

• Bolk delivered the military order commanding Old Barton to seize Gray Wolf Valley and attack the Carnford garrison alongside the main army.
• Old Barton warned Bolk that his men were farmers and military households, not capable soldiers, but Bolk insisted the valley was guarded by only a small force.
• Old Barton asked to finish harvesting the grain before leaving, but Bolk ordered him to stop at once and assemble his troops.
• Bolk announced that he would accompany the force and supervise its attack at dawn the next day.
• Old Barton watched his relatives and soldiers harvest the wheat, knowing they had no idea the order was sending them toward danger.

Oliver oversaw the hurried construction of Gray Wolf Valley’s defenses and trained laborers to help defend it while Karl’s main force headed north. Hoping to prove himself, Oliver prepared a secret stockpile of firebombs and even wished the Sauron would attack.

• Oliver directed sixty militiamen and a hundred laborers as they built a central fortress, reinforced strongpoints, and linked the positions into a defensive system.
• Oliver ordered the laborers to make hundreds of sharpened wooden spears and gave them crash training in basic commands, formations, and spear thrusts.
• Oliver obtained earthenware jars and flammable oil from Roland and had selected soldiers secretly make dozens of firebombs.
• Oliver trusted his fortifications and firebombs to repel a small Sauron force and hoped a victory would help him prove his worth and establish himself in the new Carnford system.

Oliver prepared Gray Wolf Valley’s defenses while waiting for the Saurons on Gray Wolf Mountain to attack. When a sentry reported that the enemy was descending in overwhelming numbers, Oliver sent riders to alert Lord Karl and ordered the valley’s people to assemble.

• Oliver reviewed the completed fortifications, distributed weapons and Molotov cocktails, and noted that the valley had enough supplies for at least half a month.
• A sentry reported that the Saurons were coming down Gray Wolf Mountain in a large force, though he could not estimate their numbers.
• Oliver sent three riders northeast to inform Lord Karl of the attack.
• Oliver ordered the gongs and drums sounded to summon everyone to the center of the village.
• The laborers, militiamen, women, and children stopped their work and rushed toward the village fortress.

Oliver gathered the people of Gray Wolf Valley and ordered them to defend the route needed by Lord Karl’s army to retreat. He then used Roland’s telescope to count roughly six hundred Sauron approaching, leaving him to prepare for a battle against a force four times larger than his own.

• Sentries reported that a large Sauron force was descending from the mountains, and Oliver resolved to hold Gray Wolf Valley.
• Oliver told the militia and laborers that Gray Wolf Valley was Lord Karl’s army’s only retreat route and ordered them to defend it to the death.
• Oliver assigned the militia and laborer squads to the Central Fortress and the east and west support points while keeping the remaining people as reserves.
• Oliver watched the approaching Sauron through a Monocular Telescope that Roland had given him and estimated their force at about six hundred.
• Oliver recognized that his roughly one hundred and sixty defenders were outnumbered four to one but believed the fortifications made resistance possible.

Oliver assessed the poorly equipped Sauron force approaching the fortress and tried to steady the frightened defenders. He inspected the defenses and returned to the command post, ready to face the coming assault.

• Oliver used his telescope to judge the Sauron army’s equipment, formation, and morale, concluding that most of its six hundred soldiers were ill-equipped conscripts.
• Oliver urged the frightened recruits to stand firm and promised military pay, promotions, and homes if they survived and won.
• Oliver inspected the Central Fortress and the eastern and western strongpoints, correcting the defenders and ordering them not to move without his command.
• Oliver returned to the command post behind the Central Fortress gate and prepared to meet the Sauron army as it formed outside the valley.

Bolk took command of the Sauron Army and ordered it to attack Gray Wolf Valley’s eastern and western strongpoints before its central fortress. As both forces charged, Oliver recognized that the enemy’s tactic threatened the valley’s interconnected defenses.

• Bolk and the other knights took control of the Sauron Army, leaving Old Barton as a figurehead.
• Bolk ordered the six hundred Sauron soldiers to split up, with Old Barton leading three hundred men toward the western strongpoint and Bolk leading the rest toward the eastern one.
• Old Barton gave a weak speech before his men charged the western strongpoint with Wood Spears, cleavers, and sickles.
• Bolk rallied his better-equipped troops and led a more organized charge toward the eastern strongpoint.
• Oliver watched from the Central Fortress and realized that losing either strongpoint would leave the valley’s defenses vulnerable.

Oliver ordered the defenders to return fire as Sauron soldiers charged the fortified-house strongpoints. Bolk led the eastern assault and began battering down the barricaded door while the defenders struggled to stop him.

• Oliver ordered the horn sounded and directed the archers on both sides to aim and fire at the attackers.
• The western archers’ volley was ineffective, while eastern archers wounded several Sauron soldiers but failed to halt the charge.
• Bolk reached the eastern strongpoint, pulled an arrow from his armor, and ordered his soldiers to batter down the blocked door.
• The Carnford commander ordered the defenders to shoot at the men attacking the door, but enemy arrows wounded some archers.
• Repeated blows cracked the door and shoved the barricade backward as nearby strongpoints also came under attack.

Carnford defenders used burning grease jars against the Sauron assault, but Bolk’s forces pressed on with ladders and attacked the second floor. Bolk killed an archer at a window as he climbed, bringing the fight to a critical point.

• The Carnford commander ordered soldiers to throw burning grease jars at the Sauron attackers, briefly disrupting them.
• Bolk rallied his soldiers and ordered them to keep battering the door and set ladders against the second-floor windows.
• Bolk climbed a ladder while Carnford defenders fought off Sauron soldiers at the windows.
• A Carnford archer shot a Sauron climber, and Bolk ducked as the falling soldier tumbled past him.
• Bolk threw a hand axe at an archer leaning out of a window and struck him in the face.

Bolk fought his way past the defenders at the window and leaped into the room. He landed among the Carnford militiamen and laborers, who were left stunned by his sudden entry.

• A Carnford archer screamed and fell after Bolk struck him with a hatchet.
• Bolk dodged a spear thrust, then threw his second hatchet through the window and hit another defender.
• Bolk called for a spear and used it to keep the defenders from climbing out through the window.
• Bolk knocked the defenders’ spears aside and leaped from the ladder into the room.
• Bolk rolled to his feet and faced the stunned Carnford militiamen and laborers.

Bolk overpowered the Carnford defenders and challenged their remaining militia commander to single combat. Bolk gained the upper hand, leaving the commander badly wounded and struggling to keep fighting.

• Bolk attacked the Carnford defenders barehanded, causing them to panic and flee.
• The militia commander refused to run and drew his Armed Sword to face Bolk.
• Bolk stopped his soldiers from joining in and provoked the commander into attacking him.
• Bolk deflected the commander’s thrust and overwhelmed him with a fast series of blade strikes.
• Bolk cut deeply into the commander’s left arm, leaving him bleeding and faltering.

Bolk killed the Carnford commander and led the Sauron soldiers in overrunning the eastern strongholds of Gray Wolf Valley. Oliver watched the final stronghold fall and was left facing the loss of the outer defenses.

• Bolk killed the Carnford commander and ordered his soldiers to charge onto the first floor.
• The Sauron soldiers overwhelmed the disorganized militia and laborers, massacring the defenders and capturing the stronghold.
• Bolk’s forces breached the two nearby eastern strongholds, overcoming resistance at the more heavily defended one as well.
• The Sauron army eradicated Gray Wolf Valley’s eastern outer defenses in less than two hours, leaving the Central Fortress and western stronghold standing.
• Oliver watched a Sauron soldier kill a fleeing Carnford laborer and realized the eastern position had completely fallen.

After the eastern strongpoints fell, Oliver prepared the Central Fortress for the Sauron army’s main assault, trusting his trained militia to hold the walls. Bolk led more than two hundred Sauron soldiers toward the fortress, and the first arrows began to fall as they entered range.

• Oliver saw that the eastern militia and his Molotov cocktails had failed to stop the Sauron attack, while the western strongpoint still held.
• Oliver ordered archers and infantry to take positions along the Central Fortress’s eastern defenses.
• Oliver watched Bolk regroup roughly 250 surviving Sauron soldiers and lead them toward the fortress.
• Oliver took command on the eastern wall as Bolk’s troops advanced and entered the archers’ range.
• Bolk ordered his soldiers to raise their shields against the arrows.

Oliver ordered Molotov cocktails launched from crude slings at Bolk’s charging Sauron army, disrupting its formation and morale. Bolk rallied his men to press on toward the Central Fortress despite the flames and renewed arrows.

• Bolk’s soldiers used wooden shields and scavenged armor to withstand the fortress archers’ opening volley.
• Oliver ordered the militia to launch Molotov cocktails from slings installed in the Central Fortress.
• The burning jars set shields and one Sauron soldier alight, causing fear and confusion in Bolk’s formation.
• Oliver’s archers resumed firing at soldiers exposed as they dodged the flames.
• Bolk rallied his troops and led them onward toward the Central Fortress under arrow fire.

Bolk’s Sauron soldiers failed to break through the eastern wall as the Carnford defenders repelled them with arrows, stones, and Molotov cocktails. Bolk led a small squad around the fortress to a weak southeastern wall, where his knight climbed over and faced an immediate spear attack.

• Bolk’s troops stormed the eastern wall, but Carnford defenders knocked soldiers from ladders and filled the approach with arrows and burning oil.
• Oliver used Molotov cocktails to set several ladders and the ground beneath the wall ablaze, slowing the Sauron assault.
• Bolk saw that Old Barton had not captured the western strongpoints and decided to attack a lower, lightly defended southeastern wall.
• Bolk led thirty or forty men around the fortress, where his soldiers formed a human ladder for the accompanying knight.
• The knight vaulted over the wall, and a nearby Carnford spearman thrust at his chest and abdomen as soon as he landed.

Sauron soldiers breached the fort’s southeastern flank while Oliver directed the defense from the eastern wall. Oliver’s accidental unlit Molotov jar distracted the attackers long enough for trained Carnford militia to charge and drive them back.

• A Sauron knight nearly killed a fallen Sauron companion, but another knight leaped inside and interrupted him as more soldiers climbed over the wall.
• Oliver spotted the breach at the southeastern flank and sent a scar-faced militia squad leader with about a dozen men to seal it.
• Oliver threw an unlit Molotov cocktail toward Bolk, but it fell among the Sauron soldiers climbing over the low wall.
• The shattered jar and spilled oil startled the Sauron soldiers, giving the scar-faced squad leader and his trained Carnford militia a chance to charge them.

Carnford militiamen used coordinated Mandarin Duck Formations to contain and kill Sauron elites who relied on individual strength. As a surviving Sauron knight ordered his men to spread out and attack the formations’ flanks, the fight remained underway.

• The scarred platoon leader ordered the militiamen to form two Mandarin Duck Formations as Sauron soldiers charged them.
• The Sword and Shield Bearers blocked the Sauron soldiers’ attacks while Spearmen thrust from behind and Tangpa soldiers trapped enemy swords.
• A Spearman stabbed and killed a Sauron knight after a Tangpa caught his longsword.
• A surviving Sauron knight shouted for his men to spread out and attack the formations from the flanks.

The Carnford militia’s Mandarin Duck Formations pushed the Sauron soldiers back on the flank, easing the pressure briefly. Bolk then broke into the formation and killed Ah Mu, leaving a spearman’s counterattack poised to decide their next move.

• The scar-faced Platoon Leader ordered his men to advance and drive the Sauron soldiers toward the low wall.
• The Carnford militia’s Mandarin Duck Formations forced the Sauron soldiers back and inflicted casualties.
• Bolk vaulted over the low wall and identified the Tangpa wielder as the key to the formation.
• Bolk stabbed Ah Mu beneath his rib armor and killed him.
• A nearby spearman thrust at Bolk, but Bolk dodged and threw an axe at his face.
• The spearman knocked the axe aside with his spear shaft, but lost his distance and chance to reorganize his attack.

Bolk broke the Carnford militia’s formation and led the Sauron soldiers in wiping out most of the reinforcements. As he moved to kill the scarred platoon leader, an unseen archer from inside the fortress struck Bolk with a heavy armor-piercing arrow and killed several of his soldiers.

• Bolk killed a spearman, breaking the Carnford militia’s formation and rallying the Sauron soldiers.
• Bolk and the Sauron soldiers overwhelmed the Carnford militia, leaving the scarred platoon leader and a few wounded men alive.
• Bolk wounded the scarred platoon leader and prepared to deliver a fatal blow.
• An unseen archer inside the fortress fired a heavy armor-piercing arrow, forcing Bolk to block it with his saber and injuring him.
• The archer shot several Sauron soldiers who had surrounded the scarred platoon leader.

Oliver led Carnford’s remaining soldiers in a desperate charge against Bolk and the Sauron forces at Gray Wolf Valley. After pinning one attacker to a wall, Oliver countered Bolk’s attempt to strike him from behind, leaving their duel unresolved.

• Oliver and the surviving Carnford soldiers formed a defensive line and charged the Sauron soldiers before they could use their throwing weapons.
• Bolk ordered his warriors to meet the charge, and the two forces collided in close combat.
• Oliver charged Bolk with his spear, but Bolk dodged and Oliver impaled a nearby Sauron soldier against a wall.
• Oliver drew his Armed Sword and spun around to slash at Bolk, who had crept behind him with his curved blade raised.