"The council will now come to order"
Mask stood in the hospital, surrounded by the council. WoobMonkey, Zekariah, ShadowHammer, Bih, Grimmash. WoobMonkey was leaning up on her bed, straining to see what was going on.
"We have suffered many casualties. There is little we can do but honor the dead and care for the living. We must endure, for the sake the old mountainhome."
"Why?" asked Grimmash, "Why must we stay here. If we do, we will be slaughtered."
"Maybe so..." Mask started, then stopped, as another dwarf, a recruit, burst into the room.
Zlob paced back and forth at the breach. The demonic screams had been getting farther and farther away, never approaching the breach. Perhaps, strange as it might seem, the demons were scared. The military of Orbtrances was the strongest he had ever seen, and it wouldn't be all that surprising that they intimidated the demons.
He turned to leave when his ears picked up a faint noise. The scraping of rock against rock. He paused, listening. The noise came again, closer.
"Stay alert," he barked at the newer recruits, who were beginning to drift off to sleep, "something's coming"
As he finished speaking, four monstrous demons burst out of the breach, roaring defiance. Waves of pure energy pulsed off of their rocky hides, sending Zlob and his men flying backwards against the walls.
The recruit's injuries were massive, his head sliced open. He looked like he could barely stand.
"Ma...Ma.. Mask. The demons... they... they're... attacking... help..."
He slumped to the ground, unconscious. Possibly dead, Mask reflected, before snapping back to the task at hand.
"You heard him! They need our help!"
Zlob stood shakely to his feet, trying to resist the pulses of energy. He drew his dagger from its sheath, holding it between the onrushing demons and himself. Already, the wrestlers were getting struck down left and right.
"You," he snapped at a recruit, who was also pulling himself to his feet, "go tell Mask. Now! Quickly!"
The recruit stumbled off, and Zlob turned back to the demons. He raced towards one of them, plunging his iron dagger into its rocky hide.
"FOR ORBTRANCES!!!!
ShadowHammer raced down the stairs, following closely behind Mask and the elite marksdwarf Erith. They reached the bottom level, rounding the corner to see a scene of devastation.
Body parts lay everywhere, blood painted the walls. Corpses littered the floor. The entirety of the three squads that had remained were dead. All but one dwarf.
Zlob staggerd backwards, keeping himself between the demons and the stairwell. His shield arm was all but gone, but he could still hold a weapon, and as long as he could then damn it, he would fight.
"Come on, you bastards. Let's see how smug you are when I'm through with you.
They ran to help Zlob, but it was already too late. One of the demons smashed Zlob aside, sending his lifeless corpse against the wall, broken. Mask let out a cry of rage and slammed into the nearest demon, her axe cleaving its rocky hide. Behind her, ShadowHammer and Erith raced to help, Erith firing bolts as she ran.
ShadowHammer's mind went into autopilot. Hit, roll, dodge, hit, block, parry, hit. The rhythm became familiar to him, as familiar as his own heartbeat. But the demon was wearing him down, tiring him out. A second demon moved to engage him, but then snarled and ran at someone behind him.
Erith growled as yet another bolt bounced off of the demon's thick hide. At this rate, she wouldn't be able to do anything to help. She saw Mask cleave a demon between its bulging eyes, saw it fall, twitching, to the ground, saw it crumple into lifelessness. She took her last bolt, slotted it into her crossbow, said a prayer, and took aim...
Mask felt a surge of satisfaction as one demon fell to the ground, lifeless. His attention turned to her other assailant, who was still trying to smash him into a pulp. He ducked one of its swings and cleaved its arm off, then, before it could react, drove his axe into its skull like he had the other demon. He didn't see the third demon moving up from behind.
Erith raised her crossbow and fired, straight at one of ShadowHammer's assailants. The bolt flew true, stabbing it between the eyes and causing it to stumble. Her elation was cut short when it recovered its balance, glaring murderously before charging straight towards her. She turned to run, but it was too late.
ShadowHammer dodged another attack, swinging his hammer in an ark against the demon's arm. The arm bent out of shape, but the demon merely roared and swung the arm again. So focused was he on dodging that arm that he didn't see the other swing in from the side.
The demon paused, sniffing the air. Behind it, it could smell dwarf, but above it was far more dwarf smell. It craved meat, and dwarf was good to eat. It lumbered towards the stairwell and began climbing.
ShadowHammer stumbled to his feet, trying to get his bearings. The demon had sent him flying almost into the breach. He looked around, saw Mask strike down another demon, and watched in horror as the demon he had been fighting smashed Mask from the side, caving in his chest.
The next thing ShadowHammer knew, his throat was hoarse from screaming and he stood over the corpse of a demon, shattered and broken. There were two other demon corpses around him, both with axe wounds between their eyes. He looked around for the fourth demon, but it was nowhere to be seen.
WoobMonkey lay on his bed, grumbling.
"Of course, the others get to run off and have all of the fun while I get to lay here and sulk with a wounded leg. How fair is that? If only I could have reached that damn goblin quicker, the troll wouldn't have been able to blindside me."
There came a sudden rush of movement, and a hulking stone figure burst up the stairwell into the hospital. Woobmonkey gripped his axe firmly and leaped to his feet, ignoring the immense pain from his leg. Perhaps he would get to have some fun after all.
The demon paused, examining the dwarf that stood in front of it. This was not the easy meat it had been expecting. The meat was hidden under layers of infernal metal, and it had learned to respect the danger of the puny metallic weapons the dwarfs carried. Nonetheless, it could smell blood, and knew that this dwarf was weak. It would kill this one quickly and move on to easier prey.
The demon charged, and Woobmonkey dove aside, slashing the thing's leg. He tried to stand, but the pain in his leg was too great, and he fell to his knees. The demon turned around, lunging again, and Woobmonkey desperately threw his axe into the skull of the creature. To his surprise, the axe embedded itself in the rocky hide, and the demon lost its balance. But on it came, crashing into him, and all he knew was darkness.
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Topic: Orbtrances, succession fort (players needed) (Read 14781 times)