Holy crap, I'm
so sorry. No picture in this, because imageshack is once again being a bastard. However, in two day's I'm increasing my download limit to 20 Gig so that shouldn't happen again, so expect pictures in two days time. Also, tell me what you think of the extend combat descriptions. People with characters not yet added, that'll happen next update.
The campMen were rushing out from all sides, in complete pandemonium, trying to obtain weapons and get their armour on and get to the front of the camp, all at once. The dwarves and men of Eli Eremo were a rock in the middle of a raging sea, the mercenaries breaking around them.
“Kill the dwarves,
kill the dwarves!” screeched the commander.
“Oh he-“ began Vilien before Kogan cut him off.
“Not now, let’s just get out of here,”
The dwarves began to run, all except Workerdrone, who pulled out his axes and removed the commanders legs, followed by his head.
“WHO’S A GRITSUCKER NOW?” he roared, before running out of the camp with the other dwarves. It was a blessing that the entrance was so close, or they might have been brought down beforehand. As it was, the two men who had been guarding the Commander charged them. Humaan drew his sword and parried a blow from the guard’s poleaxe, then grabbed it and wrenched it out of his grip. The man simply drew his sword and charged. He swung down viciously, a blow which Humaan only just managed to block, before slashing upwards. Humaan stumbled back, then thrust. The man jumped to the side but knocked into another man, rushing to get to the rapidly growing pool of mercenaries, and stumbled. Humaan stabbed again, thrusting his sword into his opponents armour and driving it home, piercing his heart. The man die almost instantly. Meanwhile, Raptor was under attack. His battle didn’t last as long, as Ryan let loose a bolt that stabbed deeply into the shoulder of the man, causing him to drop his poleaxe and grasp the wound, allowing Raptor to lop off his head.
“Now what?” asked Barbarossa, impressed.
“Now,” said Kogan. “I suggest we get out of here.”
A low horn sounded. The line of horsemen had begun to move.
“Oh Gods… That’s Quirin’s Crimson Hooves,” said Bjorn. “The biggest and the best cavalry company there is. They number about a thousand. We need to get out of here
now.”
They were standing a short distance behind the still unprepared invasion force, but before they had a chance to run-
“Hey, dwarves!”
“What the hell are they doing here?”
“Yrjar, take your company and get rid of them! Where the hell is the commander?”
“Oh hell,” said Bardbeard. “Get back into the camp!”
The cavalry were about half a mile away, and getting closer by the second. The dwarves ran for the camp, follow by about forty men, probably Yrjar’s company. They made it into the camp, turned around…
phwush
Crossbows fired, trying to take out the horsemen. Some fell but with a colossal crash, with neighing and screaming, with sword on sword and sword on bone, the cavalry thundered into the line. Instantly, the mass of men was pushed back and the entire length of the line buckled. But they held firm and suddenly both sides were fighting for their live, screaming in terror, pain and anger. Behind them, the rest of the garrison was charging across the field.
“Holy hell,” said Kain, but the company had no time to stop and admire the view. The group of men chasing them had also stopped to watch the charge, but now they were focused on the dwarves and charging.
“Spread out!” called Barbarossa, just before the enemy crashed into them.
Barbarossa knocked the first man over with his crossbow and fired into him, point blank. The second man was more cautious and jump forward, stabbing low, but Barbarossa jump back. The man swung a wide and clumsy blow the he easily avoided, before jumping under his guard and skewering him on his bayonet, something Oldbeard had devised though for the life of him he couldn’t think why he hadn’t thought of it before. He shook his head and concentrated on the fight.
Workerdrone wasn’t really in any sort of duel. Axes are, by definition, the full stop on a short battle and he emphasized this by splitting his opponents head open. Pulling out the axe, he swung it at another person, who jump out of the way and tried to skewer him. The sword point hit him in the side and bounce off his armour, allowing him to bring his axe crashing down into the mans chest, crumpling the armour inwards with the force of the blow.
Humaan was surrounded by three men, two wielding swords and one holding a club. This was bad. Okay, left? Parried. Stab? Turned aside. He settled for jumping backwards, causing one of the men to step forward. He slashed at him, hitting him in the sword arm and denting the armour so that the man dropped his weapon. His friend came to his rescue, slashing upwards at Humaan and caught his sword, sending him stumbling backwards. He recovered and drove the sword into his opponent’s chest, splitting the chain mail and skewering him. The other man punched him in the head, sending him spinning around, his sword flailing wildly and due to some ridiculous stroke of luck, connecting with the man’s neck, cutting deeply into it and severing an artery. The man dropped backwards with a howl and bled to death in seconds. Humaan was on the ground at this point and the last man came up, raised his club and grinned. A bolt split his side, sending him careening into the ground. Forrest helped Humaan back to his feet.
“What d’you think you’re doing?” asked Humaan, annoyed. “That one was mine!”
“Ha ha,” replied Forrest. “Let’s get going.”
Bardbeard was fighting back to back with Tamunshin and they were proving to be an unstoppable force. Even if Tamunshin’s enormous blade didn’t sever an arm or pierce armour, it still shattered bones, whilst Bardbeard was quick to move in and finish off anyone who moved inside Tamunshin’s range. Bardbeard parried a hopeful attack but was drawn out in his attempt to kill his attacker, leaving Tamunshin undefended. Another combatant seized the moment, ducked under his sword and… stopped. He rocked for a moment, his lips turning dark blue and his skin turning white, before he fell backwards.
“Don’t fail me now. You need access to a corpse and if you die, the master will be… very upset…”The lich’s mocking laughter rang in his ears as he reached into his pocket to grasp the crystal. It was so cold it burned. He couldn’t believe he had been forced into serving this damned thing. His thoughts were interrupted by another person attempting to kill him. He punched him in the groin, before bringing his sword up and shattering his chin, cutting deeply into it in the process.
Kain was having a harder time of it. Maces don’t have the reach of a sword and so he had to be careful and fast to get under the swings of an enemies blade, but he was managing it. One good thing about the mace was that it incapacitated easily, allowing more time to kill your opponent. His current opponent was at the moment actively trying to separate his head from his body. Kain danced under his swing and crashed his mace into the man’s leg, causing him to drop to the ground in pain. He was thrown backwards by the force of the next blow, which caught him on the chin.
Raptor wasn’t suited to a long skirmish, preferring to strike a single killing blow, but he had two people trying to kill him and he was parrying, counterthrusting, dodging, slashing, doing everything he could to find an opening. He found one. Dodging to the side and causing the man on the left to spin around, he drove his blade into the artery in the man’s leg. The other man jumped at him, roaring in indignation, but in the process leaving himself very, very open. Raptor’s blade caught him in the chest and his own momentum skewered him.
Ryan fired his crossbow, blowing his would-be opponent’s brains out the back of his head. He quickly fixed a bayonet onto his bow and charged. He skewered the midsection of the first man he encountered, but was caught off guard by the second, who managed to cut into his side with his spear, a painful, but non-fatal wound. He managed to knock the spear aside and stab the man, killing him, but was forced to fall back.
Kogan was actually having fun. No-one had managed to get near him yet, and the death toll was rising. Another man came at him, and he blocked the blow, kicked the man’s legs out from under him and stabbed him in the head.
Vilien was, uncharacteristically, not screaming abuse. The fact that he had three opponents to deal with had something to do with it. Instead, he settled for cutting one’s legs out from under him, bringing his head in line with his sword. He severed it. Turning, he narrowly avoided a spear from the second man.
“You motherless son of a whoremonger!” he screamed, grabbing the pole. He yanked it, overbalancing the man and bringing him in range of his sword, which soon came into contact with his head. The third man jumped at him in a rage, shielding himself with his kite shield, axe extended. Vilien moved aside, blocked the brutal blow from the axe and stabbed right through the man’s shoulder. He head butted him, yanked the sword out and stabbed him again, through the head.
“You fool,” he muttered.
Walter was having an easier time than most of the dwarves because he was naturally able to reach other humans. This made him, in the enemie’s eye, the biggest threat. What this meant was he now had five men, three with poleaxes and two with swords, bearing down on him. He grinned, sheathed his sword and fiddled with his gauntlet.
PHOOSHThe resulting flame was fearsome, enfolding the men. Their screams were horrific, but Walter ignored them, drew his saber and cut the men down where they stood. He turned, to see another two men standing there, one with his axe raised high-
PHWOOMThey were both blown aside like dolls as Oldbeard’s hotshot hit them. In one of the most grotesque things Walter had ever seen, they were splattered onto the taunt stretch of one of the tents. He almost vomited.
“C’mon know laddie, you can handle it! Why, in my day we splattered people all over the walls all the time and thought nothing of it! Well, Davis Rockfist did. Before the guard’s got to him. He was a creepy bastard, he was,” said Oldbeard, coming up beside him.
Limul Thak was wielding his axe with vigour, crushing armour and bone alike, as well as cutting through flesh. He turned. Three people were charging towards him.
Oh hell. He reached into his pocket and grabbed his crystal, the crystal he had found, abandoned on the shore before they were captured.
Navi! he called, desperately trying to get the attention of the long dead elf that had crafted the crystal, and now had taken residence in his skull.*
Now? came the voice.
Now! he said, desperately.
CRACKLightning lanced out from the gem, smashing into the charging men, throwing them backwards and killing them instantly. Limul pocketed the gem, but was overcome with tiredness and dropped to the ground.
Oh no. Are you alright? I was afraid that might happen. We aren’t going to be able to do that all that often. came Navi’s worried voice.
“It’s okay, I can stand,” he assured the elf. He staggered to his feet. He felt like he was going to drop dead for exhaustion. He turned, and saw two men advancing cautiously towards him. He didn’t have the strength to raise his weapon.
Oh Gods…Bromrek appeared out of nowhere, dancing across the two men, his axe gleaming with blood. He backed off and the two men lay dead upon the ground. He turned and grabbed Limul, who had almost fallen.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah… I’ll be fine,” said Limul.
“They’re retreating!” called Barbarossa. It was true. Those few men that remained were running back towards the rapidly thinning line of men, who were now under attack from the full three thousand strong force that made up the besieged, and were suffering from repeated charges from the mobile cavalry. They looked like they would break at any second.
“Run for your lives!” came the call.
They broke.
“Oh, hell,” Said Barbarossa. “Into the tents! Find cover in the tents!”
The dwarves broke for the tents as the invading army fled backwards, towards the camp. They were not pursued as both sides had taken heavy casualties. The dwarves were safe, as the men streamed past them, trying to get as far away as possible. In a few minutes, it was over. The dwarves emerged and gathered together.
“What now?” asked Bardbeard.
“I say, we go over there, and try to find employment,” said Bjorn.
“What, over to the massive army?” asked Kogan.
“Yes. We need a white flag,” said Bjorn.
“We aren’t surrendering,” said Workerdrone firmly.
“No, but it means they won’t attack us on sight,” said Bjorn.
“Okay, we do that,” said Barbarossa. “But, uh, Limul. What the
hell was that earlier?”
“I have no idea sir,” said Limul, breathing deeply. He was feeling better.
“Hm,” said Barbarossa. “Okay, let’s get a flag made. Later, we drink to our victory!”
The dwarves cheered.
*Just explaining it for those who don't read the journals
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Topic: To venture north, into Hell: Othtar Noloc, world at war (Read 106691 times)