The militiamen guarding the entrance of the small town of Rockham found themselves facing a gang of 12 orc raiders, with all the intentions of pillaging the settlement. They were clothed in sleeveless shirts, long pants and boots, showing off their large, muscled, grayish-skinned limbs to intimidate their victims, and were armed with either longswords, two-handed axes, or one-handed axes in both hands, with the only exception of an elder orc. A short white beard was growing on the lower half of his gray-hued visage, visible from under the hood of the robe he wore, while he was wielding a staff, atop of which was embedded a skull with four spikes planted in its cranium. A peculiar member of the gang was a large two-headed orc, an ettin, green-skinned, shirtless and holding in his hands a morning star and a battle axe dirtied with dry blood, its two heads looking around with fiery gazes, while snarling viciously.
"The raiders are here!" One of the constables shouted in fright.
"Stay strong!" his captain ordered, while unsheathing his sword "Reinforcements are on their way from Creedwood. We must hold firm until they arrive!"
"We won't let them lay even a finger on our city!" another constable proclaimed with utmost confidence.
"Well said!" The captain replied, before raising his sword, and pointing it at the raiders rushing against the entrance of their town "For the King!"
Bolstered by the battle cry of their captain, the guards unsheathed their weapons and prepared to meet the incoming marauders. While most of them, with swords and spears in hand, rushed against the orcs, a pair stood behind and, with bows and arrows, aimed to support their comrades.
"Pathetic. They think they can stop us!" the elder orc shouted "Don't let them scare you! They're weak! We'll snap them like twigs!" The orcs let out a battle cry of their own as they rushed against the guards. When they clashed, they fought fiercely. The constables were able to hold their own against the ruthless strikes of the gray-skinned beasts, who, however, had no interest in ceasing their ruthless assault.
A constable succeeded in keeping an orc swordsman at bay, and then impale him through the heart. However, just as he tore his spear out of the brute's lifeless body, he was to be stricken by a battle axe on the back. The guard attempted to swing the spear back against his enemy with his last slivers of strength, while falling on his knees to the ground, but was to be met with a second strike of the orc's axe, this time aimed at his neck. It was enough to make the constable fall face first on the ground and life fully abandon his body, as his blood was spilled.
Merely a few feet away, two militiamen were holding back two more orcs, spear against sword and sword against twin axes. The blade-wielding bandit vainly attempted to attack the spearman, who managed to keep him at a distance and evade his enemy's vicious swings. The axe-wielding orc was having no better luck, being effortlessly held at bay by the constable, whose sword sliced and pierced the enemy's flesh multiple times, wearing him out, as the assaults of the axes struck only thin air, and were capable of only scraping the guard's light armor. It ended when the guard succeeded in delivering two fierce slashes on the orc's chest, which proved to be the final blow. However, not short after, before the constable could intervene to help his comrade, another ash-skinned raider stood behind him and drove one of his two battle axes into his shoulder blade. The constable was still in the grip of surprise and pain as another blow from the orc's other axe, swung from below, completely chopped off his arm. The marauder then twirled his axe in his hand and struck the constable's back, ending his life.
Three constables were engaging the ettin, their main concern to steer clear of the disruptive strikes of its morning star, as well as the fearsome swings of its battle axe. During the fight, the two heads spoke in anger, not towards the militiamen, but towards one another.
"What do you think you do, Hrebbar?" one shouted "You miss them! How can insects be so much trouble for you?"
"You think you do better?" the other head replied, just as annoyedly, as a morning star strike was met with a skillful parry from a constable's small shield "No blood on your axe, Krummar! No blood!"
It was then that one of the guards, feeling cocky, charged against the monster, attempting to land a slash on its stomach. However, the ettin proved itself quick to react, as it swung its axe against the attacker. The constable, thanks to a jump to the side at the last second, managed to avoid death, but he was still wounded at his hip, albeit not fatally.
"Now there is blood." the head called Krummar commented snidely at the accomplishment. The archers shot three arrows against the ettin, who, with a twirl of its morning star, succeeded in parrying them all, without even one dart coning as close as scraping it.
"Shut up and fight!" the head called Hrebbar shouted, annoyance clearly audible in its voice, while the body it shared with its unwilling companion slammed its morning star into the ground with great force, and swung it outwards, making chunks of earth fly and the constable laying beneath them fall on her back, while also being struck by pieces of soil which, however, caused her only minor damage. The wounded constable was attempting to get back on his feet as the last one standing was still, alert and tense, fighting the ettin before him as well as the fear that was threatening to grip his heart.
Meanwhile, the militia captain was holding off two attackers by himself, parrying their fierce assaults with his shield and swiftly retaliating with his longsword. He was even able to slash one of the bandits in the chest and then embed the sword in his chest, ending his life. He then yanked the blade out of him, letting him fall onto the ground, and was quick to defend himself against the assault of another raider who attacked him in furious retaliation.
It was then that the elder orc, who had been watching the battle unfolding before his eyes, smirked maliciously and pointed his staff at the constables.
"Bones of the earth, rise and bathe in blood…Kumash damun! (Taste the blood)"
He recited it in a whisper at first, but then his voice rose as he kept speaking, until he finished his incantation. In that moment, six large ivory spikes arose from the ground until the constables' feet, catching them by surprise. While some were able to avoid their deaths in a hair's breadth, others were either fatally wounded or worse, impaled upon the ribs of the land, which were then painted blue by the blood trickling down upon them. This fate, in particular, had struck two of the three guards attempting to engage the Ettin.
The remaining constables were, of course, appalled and terrified by the magic the elder orc had just given proof of, but called upon every fiber of their courage to stand firm. They couldn't let those insolent, vile bandits raid their houses and those of their loved ones.
The archers fired three arrows at the elder orc, but he was quick to react. The eyes and mouth of the skull on his staff glowed red, and from it were spawned three eldritch blasts, which met the arrows and left of them nothing but ash.
"Do you see now, weaklings?" the elder orc then stated, as if in a war cry "How strong we are? You have no chance against us!"
"'Tis but the growling of filthy dogs in front of a beloved city and the pride of its defenders!" the militia captain rebuked, just as strongly "We will never surrender to your ilk? We will never hand over our dear town, and the lives of our loved ones! We would rather die fighting for them!"
"Then you will die!! And your town and gold will be ours!! Har har har har!!" The elder orc's malevolent laughter echoed as the eyes and mouth of the skull glowed again. He was ready to cast another spell.
"Men! Let's fight with all of our might!" the captain called, bolstering the courage of the few men he had left, and all of them prepared to fight back...
However, just before the orc could cast his spell, he was stricken on his arm by a bolt of blue magic. The pain caused him to roar out, as he turned his head to where the bolt came from, and could only snarl upon seeing a young mage with fiery-red hair and burning red eyes, galloping towards him and his fellow marauders on a horse, alongside four more fighters.
"An orcish warlock, I see..." Edward commented, his cane still aimed at the elder orc as he galloped closer to him and his raiders, his trusted owl familiar flying beside him. In the meantime, Kain's three blink dogs appeared in front of some of the orc combatants, snarling, and attacked them. One sunk its teeth in the leg of a gray-skinned bandit, another landed a bite on the arm, making him lose the grip of his sword, and the last one jumped up and managed to land its bite on the neck of an orc, who was left staggering, vainly pressing against the wound on his neck, as his strength left him, and he eventually crumbled to the ground.
"Damn! The dogs of the king are here!" the elder orc shouted in rage "Kill them!" While the orcs were taken by surprise and frightened by the sudden appearance of the warriors of the Guild, the militiamen's morale was further bolstered by their eagerly awaited arrival, instead. The chance was seized to kill the two orcs that were left wounded by the blink dogs' fangs, and two militiamen plunged respectively a sword and a spear in their chests. Kain and Mina readied their bows and shot one arrow each against two orcs. One was struck on his hip, while the other blocked the dart with his forearm, before it could reach his heart.
Then…
"HIIII-YAAAAA!!" Fergus let out a fierce battle cry as he rode towards the wounded raiders, taking out his two-handed axe, and swinging it against each one of them, the strikes killing them instantly. Then, as he jumped down from his horse, alongside Kain, Mina and Alba, the half-orc let out a second battle cry.
"COME AND GET IT, YA BLOODY BASTARDS!!!"
The orc raiders were surprised to see a half-orc, in which the blood of their kin was mixed with the ilk of humans, fighting alongside the men of the Guild.
"Dukhal! Mal karash! (Bastard! Oathbreaker!) How can he choose to stand with the vermin?!?" they exclaimed, disdainfully.
"Help the guards and take care of the fighters." Edward ordered as he got down from his horse, latched his cane unto his hip and unsheathed his sword "The warlock is my mark." Oculus let out a cry, as if reasserting its master's words, while flying by his side.
"You got it, Edward!" Kain replied with a nod, as he unsheathed a pair of short swords he carried for close combat. Alba grabbed her daggers and Mina decided to keep her bow, despite having a short sword of her own as a close combat weapon.
Fergus was the first to charge against the orcs, with his axe in his hands, as the bandits charged at him. Not only he struck with the blades, but with the end of the handle as well, to push his assailants back.
"Have you no pride, dukhal?" one of the bandits asked, anger filling every word he spoke, until the blade of the half-orc's axe was embedded in his waist as if it was a tree trunk to cut.
"What do ya know about pride?" Fergus replied just as fiercely, before yanking the axe out of the orc's side. Then, he held his weapon tightly, and swing with all of his strength against the two more orcs that were heading his way. While one was knocked to the ground by the sheer force of his strike, the other managed to stop himself before the axe could reach him, and then delivered a knee strike onto the half-orc's stomach, forcing him to drop his axe.
The bandit the attempted a punch, but Fergus lowered enough to avoid it. The enraged raider tried to hit him with another punch, but the half-orc blocked it with his hand, and pulled the gray-skinned crook to himself before hitting him with a punch in the face, one in the abdomen; and then a roundhouse kick that had him falling on the ground. With that done, the berserker collected his axe once more and went to face another orc charging at him with the sword in hand. First, he dodged the swinging blade, and then delivered a blow to the raider's hip. As he yanked his axe off of his side, he left the orc to fall on the ground. He then turned to the last orc left, wielding two smaller battle axes in his hands.
Before the bandit could rush at Fergus, however, an arrow flew to his back and embedded itself in it, causing crystals of ice to cover it, and chill to invade every fiber of his body. That dart had been fired by Mina's bow, and on one of the fingers pulling the string, there was a steel ring with a sapphire gem embedded in it. As the orc was immobilized by the cold and struggled to stand on his feet due to the arrow in his back, Fergus seized his chance and struck with his axe between the bandit's left shoulder and his neck, finishing him off, then he smiled and nodded at Mina, who nodded back, before aiming her bow elsewhere.
As he turned back, however, the half-orc was surprised that the raider he had knocked down earlier with his fists was trying to get back up. However, before it could stand on its feet once more, an arrow hit his throat, and the orc was left gurgling until life left him. Fergus owed his save to one of the archer, a bespectacled young woman who was quickly led to a startle as the half-orc turned to her. In response, Fergus grinned and gave her a thumbs up, to which the tense girl loosened up a bit.
In the meantime, Kain and Alba were dealing with the Ettin. The two-headed monstrosity attempted to strike them with its heavy morning star and the quite quicker swings of its axe, but such efforts always proved vain, for the two adventurers were too nimble for him to strike. Alba, in particular, moved in great synchronization with Kain's own movements, jumping on the hunter's shoulders and then up from them, swirling around with her daggers turned outwards, which always resulted in some slashes on the beast's arms, before she was able to safely land on the ground and regain her stance.
As far as Kain was concerned, he was quick to somersault and side-step his way out of the Ettin's vicious morning star attacks. Then, as soon as he could see an opening, the hunter would immediately proceed to deliver slashes to its stomach with his short swords.
"Arrrgh! Bugs so annoying!" the head called Krummar complained, frustrated at its inability to hit its enemies.
"Shut up and fight! Swing spiked ball rod!" Its fellow conscience, Hrebbar, shouted, while attempting to swing its axe, and failing to strike either one of its opponents. It was then that Alba looked at Kain and nodded. The hunter, understanding what his mentor meant to do, nodded as well in response.
They twirled their blades in their hands, and flames began dancing along the length on the steel, surprising the ettin.
"Fire? Fire blades?!?" Hrebbar exclaimed in bewilderment. Before either it or its fellow had time to react, however, Kain and Alba dashed at the monstrosity's legs, and cut them, frontally and from the back, the flames burning the green-hued flesh as well. Both the heads of the ettin cried out as it could only fall onto its knees, letting go of its weapons.
Mina, having her bow ready, aimed at one of the monster's two knees, and let the arrow fly, as the sapphire on her ring glowed faintly. As the dart pierced the throat, shards of ice began forming on the flesh, as well as under it.
"K-Krummar!!" Hrebbar exclaimed upon seeing life quickly leave the eyes of its fellow conscience. The ettin's body fell on the side, the one controlled by the head that had been just slain, and the only conscience left was trembling from the cold as it tried to grab its morning star. In a flash, however, the halfling rogue was upon it, both of her daggers raised.
"Goodnight, ugly!" Alba proclaimed, before thrusting both of her blades into the throat of the last head, and thus, all life left the ettin's body. The halfling yanked her daggers off of the flesh and jumped back before the blood pouring from the wounds could reach her. She panted, looking at the monstrosity's corpse, and then looked at her comrades, and gave them a thumbs up, accompanied with a grin. A gesture which was reciprocated by Kain and Mina.
The elder orc grimaced furiously upon seeing his fellow marauders being slaughtered, the skull of his staff aimed at the hunter and his friends.
"How dare you?!?" he exclaimed, as the eyes and mouth of the skull glowed. However, before the warlock could cast his spell, a silver-feathered owl flew on front of him, throwing a handful of hardened feathers against him. The elder orc immediately lost his visual focus on the adventurers, whilst defending himself to the feathers. His eyes were on the Oculus, as it flew back next to its master, who was at about 4 meters away from him, aiming his sword at him.
"I'm your opponent, orc!" Edward proclaimed. He had made for himself an idea of the meager skill level of the warlock by looking at the bone pillars it had been able to conjure.
"Only six pillars..." he thought "How subpar. Even his staff is quite crude. Once I'm in range, I should be able to snap it easily..." With that plan of action in mind, the young mage began running in a diagonal trajectory towards the warlock, predicting that he would attempt to impale him on those very same pillars. In the meantime, his owl familiar flew above them, surveying the area with its sparkling topaz-hued eyes.
"Kumash damun!" The elder orc cried out, aiming his staff at the spellcaster. True to the red-haired youth's prediction, the bone pillars immediately retreated into the ground, and then, the warlock attempted to make them rise on the ground under Edward's boots, one after another. Edward was quick to sidestep away from the rising pillars, as he could roughly sense where they would appear, due to his connection with Oculus, who was tasked with surveying the area.
As he had dodged four pillars, one of which had scraped his upper leg, but nothing more, the mage ran his hand along his blade, and small sparks of lightning began crackling on it. However, it was then that the fifth and sixth pillar began rising in front of him, diagonally, pointed towards him, in an attempt to catch him on the run and impaling him. Edward's response to the impending danger was to run even faster, through the two pillars, before he could be caught in the middle.
While he managed to escape the lethal pincer of bones, one of the pillars caused a cut on his hip, and his black robe was almost ripped by the spike.
"Marginally better, but still poor." the spellcaster thought about his opponent's skill, as he finally felt he was at an ideal range for a counter attack. The orcish warlock, for his part, was increasingly frustrated by the failure of his attempt to impale him, and the eyes and mouth of the skull embedded on his staff began glowing of a menacing red…
"Now!" Edward thought, as his sword was pointed at the elder orc once again.
"Die already!!" the warlock cried out in frustration, as two eldritch blasts came out of his staff, headed towards the young mage. In the exact same instant, a bolt of lightning was cast from the red-haired spellcaster's blade.
The mage groaned as he was struck by the two eldritch blasts, but his bolt still reached its intended target. Lightning coursed through the body of the elder orc, causing him searing pain, and snapped its wooden staff in two pieces. The warlock staggered, his eyes wide in utter disbelief as he saw his staff broken, its two pieces lying on the grass.
"Do you see the difference between us, orc?"Edward stated, panting, as he plucked a small glass bottle from the pocket of his robe, then, upon removing the cork, drank the ruby red liquid in it. His wounds began healing at a rapid pace at that. The spellcaster then pointed his blade at the elder orc, once again, as he snarled viciously in rage. "I'm giving you a chance to surrender."
That was more than the orc's pride could take.
"NEVER!!" he cried out, before taking out a bone dagger out of his cape, and charged at the spellcaster while screaming ferociously with all that his lungs were capable of.
"Fine, then." Edward replied, before swinging his sword, creating an arc of fire. The blade thus generated a small wave of flames, which engulfed the elder orc, as his scream became not only of anger, but of excruciating pain, as well. As the scorching wave subsided, the elder orc, with every last ounce of his strength, kept running towards the spellcaster, and attempted to stab him with his knife. However, as he was next to the mage, and began swinging the dagger at him, Edward was quick to sidestep away, as the momentum led an elder orc deprived of any strength and life to fall to the ground.
The red-haired youth was panting, as he rose his eyes from the burnt corpse of the elder orc to the grassland in front of the gates of Rockham, and saw that every single one of the raiders who had attempted to cross the walls and pillage the town was dead. Kain grinned and gave him a thumbs up, to which Edward replied with a nod and a slight smile that, however, was quick to vanish as the spellcaster saw that the constables had suffered losses as well.
One of the archers, a girl, had run to the corpse of a fallen comrade as soon as the skirmish was over, and all she could do was silently sobbing in despair at the dear one she had lost. Fergus noticed her and slowly walked up to her, until he was next to her.
"Um… I'm sorry for yer loss..." he murmured. As soon as she heard the half-orc's low voice, filled with sincere regret, the girl jolted as she looked back at him, but she saw no malice in his visage. Only sadness, that of one who hoped to lessen the burden of her pain, but a little. At that, she loosened up, and nodded.
"Thank you..." she then replied, almost in a whisper. Fergus's friends were watching as well. Edward breathed in, and let out an elongated sigh, in which his bitterness from the life they had failed to preserve was clear to be perceived.
It was then that the captain of the militia walked towards them, and the mage came back to his senses, and readily greeted him.
"Captain Marlett..." he said, to which the man nodded.
"Young lord Crowley. We meet again." he replied "Perfect timing, as usual."
"Pardon me, sir..." The mage retorted, shaking his head "But I don't think our timing can be appropriately called perfect..." His gaze fell on the fallen constable and the grieving girl, once more.
"Please do not blame yourself for things that were out of your control." Marlett stated, before placing a hand on the spellcaster's shoulder "It's sad that they had to go… However, they died doing their duty, and most importantly, their sacrifices were not in vain. Thanks to you and to them, not a single one of those mongrels made it into the walls of our town..." His words were audible to Kain, Mina and Alba as well. Edward could only nod, since it was true that each and every one of the assailing ogres had been dealt with before it could reach Rockham. "Thank you all for your help, ladies and gentlemen."
"'Tis only our duty, Captain." Edward replied, to which Kain, Mina and Alba nodded in agreement. The young mage then looked back at the two pieces of the staff wielded by the orcish warlock.
"Strange..." he thought. "The materials are the same as those one would normally expect of an orcish magical staff, but the woodwork looks much more refined… That staff is not the product of orcish hands."
"Excuse me, captain..." he then said, to which the head of the constables defending the walls of Rockham eagerly lent an ear.
"What is it, young lord?" he replied.
"May I have a cloth, please?" the spellcaster asked "Large enough for those staff pieces to be wrapped into. We will be taking them back to Creedwood with us."
"Sure, it won't be a problem." Marlett replied, with a nod.