An icy wind seemed to blow simultaneously in the face and at the back of Lord Carcinovor. The frozen wasteland made him feel uncomfortable. It made movement difficult, little frozen globules of pus covered his sabatons.
He had been congratulating himself that he had slipped by the Hallowed Knights, but here was another Chamber of the accursed Stormcast baring his way to the ship.
Without hesitation he called out for the advance, the words muffled by the twin barriers of his steel face mask and the copious amounts of bile constantly moving up his esophagus.
He raised and lowered his axe as he made the ambiguous words and that was symbol enough, the entire army moved as one off of the shore, taking the first few steps onto the frozen lake gingerly but then moving more quickly.
He could hear Botulox chanting behind him and to his front a ripping sound produced a cloud of green-brown vapour that coalesced into 10 Plagubearers. They looked around in some confusion before recognizing the enemy in front of them, then set off towards the enemy commander.
The Stormcast were standing like statues, snow had started to coat their armour and they looked more white than steel when the enemy became visible. When the Nurgle forces arrived, the army sprung to life and the snow was moved aside to reveal the gleaming armour of the giants as they moved towards the enemy.
They would stop them from reaching the ship. The fate of the Living City depended on it.
Lord Celestant Sredni Vashtar was at the head of his forces when they met the enemy. The stinking daemons of Nurgle surrounded him atop his Dracoth. He swung left and right with his hammer while the Dracoth clawed at them with talons sharper than the sharpest steel blade. Some blows landed, smashing the rotting creatures into piles of flesh, soon frozen to the surface of the lake.
The Retributors were right behind their lord. They swung their hammers but their blows were useless against the rotting creatures, merely tearing away pieces of rotten flesh.
Soon Vashtar could see his units engaged on both sides of him. He called out to them to hold their ground. He could see the most terrible units in the enemy army heading straight for him as he struggled with the Plague daemons.
But then he saw movement in the frozen trees that stood along the single piece of land elevated from the frozen waste and cleared of snow by the driving wind.
"Dryads," he thought, "they come to take the enemy from behind."
Slowly the normally quick creatures advanced on the rear of the Chaos forces. They were not quick enough to attack the Lord of Plagues and Carcinovor ordered Botulox to summon something to deal with them.
More Plaguebearers had already appeared at his command and now above the sound of the howling wind could be heard the buzz of wings, a loud buzz of large wings and soon, three Plague drones were on their way to deal with the menace in the rear.
The clash of hammer and halberd on steel rang over the lake as both flanks were fully engaged. The Knights on the Nurgle right attempted to drive into the rear of the Stormcast forces but were intercepted by the Liberators. Horses skidded on the snow covered ice and Stormcast lost their footing on the slick surface. Both sides struggled together though and many heads were staved in through their steel helmets.
On the Chaos left the Chaos warriors smashed into the awaiting Liberators. The Prosecutors flew up in support and smashed into the Chaos line, driving it but one step backwards.
On both flanks the opposing forces enter a meat grinder, blood splatters the snow as neither side is willing to give ground in their attempt to push the other back.
The fighting went on with neither side gaining a decisive advantage. Carcinovor had hoped that his men would be able to stave in the ice, freeing the ship and destroying most of the Sigmarites in the bargain but his men were too busy trying to stay alive to worry about smashing the ice.
His shouted challenge stuck in his mucus lined throat as he ran towards the Lord Relictor.
Arrows struck him as he ran but he paid little heed. The two champions met in combat, each throwing their most powerful attacks into the other. Carcinovor's wounds were slowly knitting together as Crinsa Maast healed himself with bolts of lightning summoned from above.
The contest was too even and it was a microcosm of the battle in general. Neither side had the upper hand.
Then a sudden drop in the temperature caused a momentary halt in the fighting. The warriors of both sides looked around them before starting again.
Sredni Vashtar finished off the Plaguebearers but not in time to save the Dryads who were ripped apart by the Plague drones.
The buzzing creatures moved to salvage what was left of the Chaos left but Vashtar and his Retributors intercepted them.
They smashed the creatures to the ground, losing only one of their own in the melee.
Vashtar looked about him. The last of the Chaos warriors struggled on to his right, but their were only two Prosecutors facing him now. All around the dead littered the lakes frozen surface.
Then there was another pulse of cold and even the Stormcast warrior could feel his joints stiffening in the cold.
Fighting had become impossible, movement was only barely feasible.
Carcinovor felt it too. Plaguebearers now surrounded him and hacked at Maast. He used the moment of relief to look around him.
What he saw convinced him the battle was over. Botulox was weaving his arms in the attempt to bring more of Nurgles children to the battle when his arms bent in the wrong way. The sorcerer let out a piercing shriek that the Lord of Plagues did not think he had in him. Out of the dark grey robes the putrid skin erupted in tentacles and fly-like parts.
There would be no more reinforcements now.
He brought his attention back to the fight. The Relictor and Plague Lord looked at each other. Maast gave the briefest nod of his head, Carcinovor returned it.
Then both moved away from each other as the armies separated while they still could.
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