"Hold!" said the Tooninator, raising his hand and peering around the corridor. "We'll wait here for the goblins to come in, while Silvereye and Umir fill them with bolts crossing the bridge. Once they turn the corner, WHAM! Dead goblins. Good training for the recruits."
Nichaey nodded beneath his helm, his steel pick clenched tightly. In the tight corridor, the goblin's long spears would be clumsy while the dwarven solders would be unhindered. His pick, especially, was just the right length for the height of the ceiling. The goblins would feel his pick soon enough, he knew, despite Workerdrone's grumbling about rushing forward to glorious battle. Whether the battle happened in the corridors or in the field, the battle would happen.
Outside, the only sign that the dwarves had noticed the goblin horn was the golden chain that now lay empty in the center of the gold and steel road. Normally, a guard bull was chained there to ward off thieves, but today there would be no thieves. Today, the goblins chose to fight like solders rather than skulking in the shadows. Today, the goblins bravely announced their presence and marched forth with armor and weapons that were little more than toys. Today, the goblins would water the ground with their blood.
In front of him, he saw an armored dwarf walk past on the road, his visor open, idly humming and twirling one of the hammers that the weaponsmiths-in-training had been crafting day and night, constantly re-forging and re-melting them as they learned their trade. He nudged Workerdrone, his squad leader.
"Hey, is he supposed to be out there?" Nichaey asked, pointing to the dwarf on the road.
There was a brief, but intense, burst of whispering between The Tooninator and Workerdrone, before The Tooninator called out.
"Hey! You there! Why are you away from your post?"
The dwarf kept walking, oblivious, and crossed the bridge.
"What is he thinking, that merely being in Lanternwebs makes him a great warrior?" The Tooninator muttered under his breath, before he turned to address Workerdrone.
"You wanted to rush the goblins in the field?" He asked. "Now's your chance. He's going to need rescuing as soon as those goblins catch up to him. Fall back to here when you're done."
Workerdrone straightened quickly, motioning the rest of his squad forward into the brightness of the summer sun as the ran after the errant hammerdwarf.
The expected cry of alarm sounded as Workerdrone crossed the bridge, looking down to see the hammerdwarf tackled by one of the goblin wrestlers as the speargoblins from the first squad moved in to surround him.
Workerdrone ran ahead, knowing that a dwarf inexperienced enough to be tackled like that wouldn't last long in a fight against a full squad of goblins. He drew his sword as he ran, watching the dwarf below him strike a blow on the wrestler and get to his feet and retreat towards the brook.
The wrestler was stunned, but not injured by the blow, gave chase, tackling the dwarf again in the shallow water of the brook, holding his arm until another wrestler could sweep the dwarf's legs from under him, sending him splashing into the brook. Though he tried to stand, a third wrestler had grabbed his legs while the first of the speargoblins stabbed at him, the goblin-forged iron point bending ineffectively against dwarven steel. But the dwarf was pinned well, and his struggles succeeded only in churning the water around him as the goblin leader, wielding an enormous maul, stepped through the ranks of his spearweilders and raised the hammer high, letting it fall with a resounding clang on the hammerdwarf's chestplate like a forge hammer striking steel.
Within the prison of his armor, Ast Imeshdastot gasped for breath, coughing violently as pain shot through his lungs and blood flew from his mouth to spatter the inside of his helm. He could feel the dent in his armor like a great weight against his chest, crushing the air from his lungs. His arms lay pinned to the streambed by wrestlers, his hammer and shield useless as he saw the maul rise again, this time to bash its spiked iron head against his visor. He heard the steel shriek as it gave way, and felt his bones yield to the overwhelming weight, before there was nothing.
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First of two updates today, I'm rolling the things I had planned for yesterday into the update for today, but it's really getting too long.
I'm not sure at all what the dwarf was thinking. Nobody should be wielding hammers, it was long after everyone from the migrant wave was inside, and he didn't even react to the goblins until they were on top of him.
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Topic: Lanternwebs (The End!) (Read 80567 times)