Seeing this, General Ludko had ordered his dwarves to relocate the machines further along the wall. Although the ramps were portable, they were heavy and sluggish and took some time to move, and then the ammo had to be shifted along as well. But they were set up again and spaced further apart, protecting a larger section of wall. Any dwarves not working the ramps were ordered to assist in helping any section of wall that had been breached. Having full confidence that his lads had things well in hand, General Ludko gathered some of his dwarves together and ran off toward the centre of the wall where more fighting seemed to be taking place.
It wasn't long before the dwarves came across a section of wall where a tower had made it, and the orcs looked to have the upper hand. General Ludko, with his ten dwarves in tow, intended on changing that. The dwarven general asked to borrow the shield of one of the other dwarves, promising to return it swiftly. Then with a quick thought about his lost comrades to get the anger flowing, General Ludko charged in hard at the first orc he saw. That orc had just cut down a human defender and was looking quite pleased about it until he noticed a furious dwarf running straight at him.
The orc planted his feet and prepared to defend. The orc no doubt expected the dwarf to slow before getting to him and bring his axe to bear, so the grimace on his face went to one of surprise then to one of pain as the charging dwarf brought down the borrowed shield in front of him and slammed straight into the orc, propelling him backwards into the orcs behind. That orc was swiftly dispatched by the trailing dwarves as General Ludko dropped his borrowed shield and pulled out his second axe and started chopping this way and that, felling the off balanced orcs with each swipe. The dwarf that had lent his shield to the general quickly retrieved it and joined the fray. Orc corpses surrounded the dwarven general within moments, renewing the spirits of the human defenders who began to press against the orcs once more.
After the initial shock of the charging dwarves, the orcs did manage to regroup and more were still coming out of the tower, as they continued to climb the structure, and so General Ludko soon found himself fighting two orcs at a time. Those orcs didn't stand a chance and were dead before realising it. The human defenders gave the dwarf some room, not wishing to be struck accidentally by one of his wildly swinging battle axes.
The general engaged another orc and was shocked as the orc was able to parry his initial attack routine with ease. It became a fight of two small battle axes against one great axe. The orc was quite adept with his weapon and actually had the dwarven general backing up a few steps. But the large cumbersome weapon soon began to tire the orc as he tried to keep pace with the dwarf and General Ludko began to press his advantage.
He swung an overhead, downward chop at the orc with his right axe and as the orc blocked it with the head of his own axe, General Ludko swung his other axe across horizontally. The orc tried to get the handle of his weapon down to block the swing, but he was too slow and soon found himself with a vicious slash across his stomach. The dwarf's reach wasn't long enough to make it a killing blow, but the orc doubled over from the pain long enough for General Ludko to chop down again with his right arm, embedding the axe in the back of the orc's skull, killing the orc instantly.
The other dwarves had killed their opponents by this stage and had caught up to their furious general. Shoulder to shoulder the burly dwarves strode forward, chopping down enemies as they would chop down small trees. Before long, the dwarves were at the open door of the portable tower, killing any orc trying to gain the wall.
"Grab some of those long poles," shouted the general. "Let's see if we can tip this orc infested tower over." He cut down another enemy.
The long poles were brought forward a few moments later, and while a few defenders prevented any orcs getting out of the tower, General Ludko directed the men with the poles, telling them the best place to position them. Once he was happy with the positioning of the poles, every available hand nearby grabbed hold of them and began to push. The tower slowly tipped backwards and the orcs still inside began to stumble over each other.
"Rock't back and forth," shouted the general, realising they weren't going to be able to push it over in one movement.
As the defenders eased up on the poles, the tower came back in against the wall. The instant it hit the wall, General Ludko shouted for them to push with all their might. The tower shot back out from the wall. The tower's momentum stalled before exceeding its point of balance and so the defenders let it come back against the wall. It hit the wall with a thud, shattering bits of the tower apart, but the bulk of the structure remained intact.
Once again they pushed out to the full extent of their poles. The tower hung suspended for a moment as if trying to decide which way to fall. To the relief of all the humans and dwarves, it finally dropped back away from the wall. It crashed to the ground, shattering apart on impact. The orcs below had seen the rocking tower, and had plenty of time to get out of its way and so none were crushed underneath it, but those inside had a rough time of it, and for those that had survived the fall, their injuries would certainly keep them out of the fight for a while. But the big win was the destruction of an access point to the top of the wall. The breach had been sealed and those defenders went off looking to aid others in fighting back the orcs.
* * *
General Kehar had blood dripping from a number of minor wounds, but orc corpses lay scattered across the ground in his wake. The general felt no pain and his goal was now clearly in sight. The orc filled tower was only ten strides away from him, and although orcs were crammed into that space, his soldiers were right beside him making swift progress. Captain Hillsworth was directly to his right and had killed almost as many orcs as the general. A shout from behind told General Kehar that the barrel of fire oil was approaching
"Right, boys, let's push them back into their hole," shouted the general as he furiously engaged the next orc in line.
Responding to their general's call, the soldiers increased their own ferocity and the orcs were on the back foot. The barrel of fire oil was brought up right behind the general by two soldiers. "Pick the barrel up, lads, and on the count of three, throw it over my head," ordered General Kehar.
The soldiers did as instructed, and grabbing an end each, hoisted the barrel up over their heads. A moment later the general began to count. On the count of three, General Kehar ducked low as he jabbed the orc he was fighting in the belly. The men behind him threw the barrel with all their strength, sending it crashing into orcs still in the tower. The barrel cracked open as it hit the ground, spilling its content all over the inside of the tower and any nearby orc. Only a line of two orcs stood between the general and the tower, and with a flurry of quick strikes, that was reduced to one.
"On three, throw the torch and everyone fall back," shouted the general. Once again, General Kehar killed the orc in front of him on the count of three, leaving a clear path to the oil soaked tower.
The torch bearer threw his torch into the tower as the defenders hurriedly retreated away from the structure. With a loud whooshing noise, the tower went up in flames, burning all the orcs inside. Orcs further down the tower began to trip over one another trying to get out of the death trap. Those climbing up the outside of the tower chose to jump and risk injury from the fall as the blazing fire spread. General Kehar and his men quickly killed any orc fleeing onto the wall. A short while later, the tower began collapsing and the orcs below began to clear the area around it, getting as far away from the burning tower as they could.
* * *
Master Pilk kept a watchful eye out for any shaman, ready to counter any magic they may try to use. The other wizards were also spaced evenly around the wall aiding where they may. He had already killed the one shaman and, he believed, seriously drained the phoenix summoning one, but he was under no illusion that many more shaman could be among the throngs below. This army was obviously many tribes joined together, and some of the larger tribes were known to have four or five shaman amo
ng them. While the majority of shaman weren't overly powerful, the occasional one did excel in his trade like the phoenix summoner.
Master Pilk looked along the length of the wall each way as far as he could and noticed the defenders were now faring quite well. Most of the towers had been destroyed and the majority of breaches sealed up. Still the orcs came on, throwing up ropes with grapple hooks and erecting their many ladders, and the men on the wall were looking weary.
As he was watching some of the soldiers defending the wall against orcs that had made it up the ladders, he noticed a cloud start to form around them. But as he looked closer, he noticed that is wasn't a cloud at all, but rather a large swarm of insects. Thicker and thicker the insect swarm became and the soldiers were running, trying to get away from them. They were being bitten from wasps and bees and even spiders and scorpions and all kinds of nasty insects that were forming at their feet. The insects were getting inside the men's armour and driving them crazy. Some started taking their armour off so as to reach the annoying and vicious insects.
Master Pilk thought for a while as to how he was going to combat this spell. Because the men were preoccupied with the insects, orcs were starting to pour onto the wall and it seemed as though the insects didn't bother them at all.
Pilk began casting the best spell he could think of to deal with the in-sects. Moments later a strong wind blew around the soldiers, a minor spell called 'Victors Wind Sphere' that Pilk had been taught during his apprentice-ship. He didn't think that it was a very useful spell at all actually, as the wind never seemed to be strong enough to do overly much. His master was a strong wizard and he was able to get the wind sphere quite strong and covering a large area, but it still wasn't strong enough to lift a man from his feet. So Pilk thought that to be the perfect spell in this case, the wind would collect all the insects within its sphere without upsetting the men too much.
But Master Pilk was still getting a feel for his new powers and soon enough the wind sphere became so large and so strong it began to lift the defenders off the ground. Thinking quickly, Master Pilk moved the sphere further along the wall where the orcs were coming up. Soon enough the majority of insects were swirling around within the sphere along with a couple of orcs. Before the spell collapsed, Pilk moved the sphere out over the wall hovering it high above the battlefield. When the spell finally failed, the orcs within the sphere were dropped to their deaths, while the swarm of insects had already disappeared within the sphere as the shaman's spell failed.
The soldiers on the ground looked at Pilk with a mixture of thanks and anger. Yes he had removed most of the insects, but he had still knocked them to the ground with his spell. Master Pilk just shrugged at them and ordered some nearby soldiers to attack the orcs still coming up the ladders and to get the men that had been bitten by the insects to the infirmary.
* * *
Despite fighting two orcs at once, Decker heard the unmistakable crash of a falling tower further along the wall, but didn't let it distract him. The orcs he was fighting, however, were distracted briefly by the loud crashing noise, and in that instant Decker skewered the orc on his right with his short sword and kicked the orc on his left in the same movement, pushing the distracted orc off balance. The orc did well to block the first of the two following attacks from the ranger, but the third struck home and gutted him. Still, the defenders were badly outnumbered on this section of the wall and Decker had to take a few steps back as a group of orcs charged his position.
Decker found himself pinned against the front of the wall with seemingly nowhere to go. The five orcs charging him realised this and charged all the harder. But Decker was not so easily cornered. With a huge daring leap, he jumped on top of the parapet at the last minute, and quickly flipped himself over the top of the orcs, jabbing one in the top of his shoulder for good measure.
Landing lightly on his feet with his back to the group, Decker quickly turned and slashed at the closest orc, opening up his chest before the orc could get his own weapon in place to block. Decker now only faced four orcs and one of those had a wounded shoulder hampering his movements. However he did have a larger problem, by flipping over the orcs and turning to face them, he had put a lot of enemies at his back. He just had to hope that the other fighters could keep them off him long enough to kill this group.
Their confidence reduced after observing the ranger's agility. They slowly stalked in at him, splitting up as they approached so they could attack from all sides. Decker didn't plan on giving them long enough to do that as he went into a furious attack routine, his two blades a blur of motion. One of the orcs slightly to one side of the ranger stood with a confused look on his face, all strength leaving him as blood poured from a deep wound in his belly, before collapsing lifelessly to the ground.
The three remaining orcs had now rearranged themselves, forcing Decker to defend on three sides. The two orcs on either side of the ranger wielded axes, while the one in front held a jagged long sword. Both axe wielding orcs attacked with a simple downward chop as the orc with the long sword in front of him jabbed straight out. This made it easy for the nimble ranger to simply step back out of range of the three basic attacks, and as he did so, he sliced down with his short sword, severing the left hand clean off the orc to his right. The orc howled in pain and dropped his axe. Not wanting any more of this dangerous human the orc turned and ran off, leaving his axe, and his hand, on the ground.
The two remaining orcs were also looking a little uncertain, but still they pressed the attack. Decker didn't possess a weapon that could directly block a swinging axe, and so was limited to deflecting and dodging it, but this he did with ease. The orc with the long sword proved to be an above average sword fighter, at least for his race, and was able to block a number of Decker's attacks.
Time was running out for Decker, though, as he braved a quick glance behind him and noticed the dwindling number of defenders and still a large amount of orcs. He knew that if he didn't finish these two swiftly, he'd have a lot of enemies charging him from behind. With that thought in his mind he attacked furiously at the orc in front while kicking out to the side at the axe-wielding orc, pushing him off balance.
The orc in front was pushed back until he was hard against the para-pet. By doing this, Decker had put the other orc behind him. Knowing orcs as he did, Decker knew that orc would think him vulnerable and slash horizontally as though he were trying to fell a tree. He proved to be right in his assumption, and as the orc did this, Decker dropped to the ground at the same time as the orc in front of him jabbed forward, stabbing his comrade and getting an axe imbedded in his side at the same time. Decker rolled to the side as the two orcs collapsed to the ground. He quickly finished the orcs off and went to help the remaining defenders.
As he reached them, he heard a loud battle cry coming from the rear of the attackers. He'd recognise that battle cry anywhere. General Ludko had come to lend a helping hand. The orcs quickly found themselves outmatched but with nowhere to retreat, they were forced to fight and, some time later, every last one of them lay dead upon the wall. Noticing the large amount of orc corpses sprawled across the wall and the few remaining human defenders, General Ludko said to Decker, "Seems I came at the right time, lad."
"I had the situation well in hand, general," replied Decker who was now gasping for breath.
"Hmm, plannin' on killin' all th' orcs yaself were ya then?" asked the dwarven general sarcastically.
"As many as I can, my friend. As many as I can." Decker grinned.
* * *
As the sun began to dip below the horizon in the west, the final tower was destroyed and soon after, the wall was clear of orcs. General Kehar had received word from his runners that the battle along the northern wall fared well. By all reports, they had managed to destroy most of the hastily built towers before they had reached the wall and in fact one tower had fallen apart on its own accord. The wizards Pilk had sent to the northern wall had been able to counter any magic the sha
mans tried and managed to inflict devastating damage to the attacking force. Any breach in the wall was quickly sealed up with minimal casualties.
General Kehar wished he could say the same about the western wall. It looked as though they might have held the orcs back this day, but a lot of his soldiers had died in doing so and by all reports the infirmary was overworked. Below the wall still looked to be a sea of orcs, even though they had possibly lost 8 to one. A loud horn sounded, bringing the general out of his musings, followed by another horn blow and then a third. The orcs were retreating. Further horns could be heard faintly in the north. The retreat was on in full. Archers picked their shots carefully at the retreating orcs, while catapults fired off whatever they could before the orcs were out of range. No cheer went up among the defenders. General Kehar could see that they were all too exhausted and they no doubt realised, as he did, that they had a long way to go before winning this battle. He quickly set about organising the clean-up and ordering the more exhausted soldiers to get some rest.
* * *
Master Pilk was exhausted. He had been casting spells as often as he could; coming to the aid of the soldiers where it was needed, and so he was relieved to hear the retreat sounded. On his way back to his quarters in the griffin wing, Master Pilk decided to drop in and see how his sister was managing.
The infirmary was abuzz with activity with clerics exhausting their magic's and healing skills on the wounded. Every bed was filled and some of the less wounded lay strewn across the hard stone floor waiting to be tended. Master Pilk began scanning the large room for Cressida, but it was so crowded he could not see more than a few paces in any one direction. He was just about to turn and leave when Vik came hurrying by him.
The Gate - A New Breed of Orc (The Gate Series Book 1) Page 26