Battle of the Bolt

Along the Continental Road on the Southeast side of the Bloodwood Forest there is patch of road several miles in diameter that marks the location of what is known in the Southlands as the Battle of the Bolts.  Several hundred years ago, there was a political 'misunderstanding' between the Taenya Elves and the Southland over the proper way to show deferrence to the Elves. Apparently this particular group hadn't heard that upon greeting, you were to slaughter your horse as a sign of trust. Since the Southlanders didn't perform said task, the Elven guard took offense and took care of the issue themselves. This escalated until only a handful of Southlanders remained who fled. The Elves returned to their woods, knowing there was likely to be some retribution.
They were not mistaken.
Below is a historical transcript from the library of the Southland archives, the journal of a soldier that partook in the battle.
"It's been three days since we attacked.  The army recruited every able man they could.  I was unlucky enough to be drinking that night when the army came in.  They tossed us all into line, gave us a bow or a spear.  Some of us were lucky enough to get armor.  They tossed us all into a local square, with guards around to make sure none of us would sneak off.  They were smart, some did.  They were caught, whipped, and then tossed back into the mix.  You could hear the screams for miles.  Nobody tried after that.  The trained army sat back in the barracks, eating, drinking, laughing.  We were not happy.  The next morning, we were marched out towards the woods.  The Sergeants kept talking about the disrespect to Southland by the Elves.  I was just thinking about my shop.  Nobody was around to man the shop.  Rent was not going to pay itself.  And I'd never seen an elf.  Didn't really care who or what they did unless they did something.
They marched us out to the edge of the forest.  You always hear about the forest, how big it is, how scary it is.  You don't think much about it until you see it in person.  It is massive.  Even with the thousands of troops we had in person, we weren't going to go do anything to this forest.  Everyone could see it.  You couldn't see the edges of it looking both directions.  But they decided to assault the forest anyway.  Us grants with our spears were forced to run towards the forest.  We got halfway there when we heard the sound.  Arrows.  Hundreds, if not thousands of them came screaming through the sky from the forest.  The screams.  I'll never forget the screams.  I've never seen a force stop as suddenly as that group.  I didn't know a force COULD stop that fast.  This wasn't a professional force.  Screw that, we turned and RAN!
The professional force wasn't too far behind us.  They just let us run as they marched forward, fancy metal armor, shields, spears or swords.  Knowing what is coming, they were prepared for the next wave of arrows.  Yeah, they faired much better than we did.  But a few did go down.  We couldn't even see them from the trees.  And while the Southlanders were prepared for the arrow barrage, they were not prepared for the wolves.  Yeah, that's right, wolves.  Hundreds of them came barreling at them.  As a force itself, it didn't seem bad, but it was a distraction, and the arrow continued falling.  The professional warriors didn't fare much better than we did by the time they retreated.  it was getting dark, so they called it a night.
We were expecting something.  Anything, but nothing happened, and that was almost worse than something as we kept waiting.  There were lots of howls and such.  Turned out that something DID happen during the night.  Turns out an entire company of the professionals, were found dead in their sleep.  Nearly 100 men.  Throats slit.  While they slept.  Apparently nobody saw a thing.  If it weren't for the fact that there was no where to run to out in the area, I'd have called it (again) then and there.  As it stood.  The commanders had another bright idea.  If they couldn't see their attackers, they would simply burn down the cover.
It took nearly a day for them to construct the trebuchets.  They used mostly natural materials for most of it, but had brought the specific metal parts just for this purpose.  Apparently the commanders had some engineers or such running around.  Anyway, it was nearing dusk when the first ball of fire went flying into the forest.  They had taken a bunch of wood, covered it with tar, lit it on fire, then tossed it into the Bloodwoods.  They did that over and over again up and down the line all night until there was flaming forests everywhere.
No elves were sneaking up on us that night.  It felt like morning, but nobody had slept.  The sky had continued to darken all around us.  It was rather odd, and my mates agreed.  It was also odd that we hadn't heard anything else from the forest.  The commanders considered that a win.  We were winning and had scared the elves away.  I don't know know much about them, but just looking around, the Forest is a REALLY big forest.  Throughout the morning and into the afternoon, the trebuchets kept firing.  Inching closer and closer to the forest as it burned to reach further and further back.  And the sky kept darkening.  I was convinced that that this was not smoke fire.  It didn't take long afterwards to prove me right.  A lightning bolt fired from the sky, disintegrating one of the trebuchets in an instant.  Horses panicked, soldiers shouted, and I dove for cover covering my ears.  And then another lightning bolt from the sky hit, and then another, and soon, it was a literal Armageddon from the  skies.  It was good thing I WASN'T wearing that metal armor.  I hear metal attracts those bolts.
And yeah, I'm not a big believer of the gods.  I mean, yes, < TBD god of light> has helped a friend of mine once who swears its true, but I really have seen it.  But this, if THIS didn't prove that the Elven goddess TBD didn't exist, then nothing would.  When the heavens finally stopped falling, it was deathly silent, and all of us started getting up to see if the world still existed.  Where our camp stood was something I'd seen in my nightmares.  And then someone gasped and looked towards the forest.
Highlighted by the still burning forest was an army I'd never seen the likes.  Elves stood shoulder to shoulder with some kind of horse beast next to wolf men, and then the wolves, and bears, and all types of other creatures stood, glaring at us.  And with a roar, they charged.
That's it.  I was done, I ran.
I wasn't the only one.  One of the professionals I passed tried to gut me as I fled, calling me a coward.  He managed to slice my chest.  I don't how far I made it before I finally collapsed.
I woke up here in a medical tent.  Apparently maybe 1 in 20 made it out of there alive.  I'm going to stop here.  I lost a few friends I'd made there, and it brings up some ugly memories.  And, well, I'm late.  I have to go give an offering.