by Logan Jacobs
After the first one went down, it was like a chain reaction, and I watched as eight more raiders fell to their dooms amid screams of pain and shock.
None of the remaining assholes paused to check on their brothers and just left them for dead. They continued forward, but they were really slowed down because they were now treading carefully.
Just as they were about to pass the traps and get into the archery zone, one more fell into a trap. His legs slipped into the pit, and he let out a snarl of pain.
“Vargus, pull me out!”
A beast nearby turned and looked at the orc sinking into the pit.
“Come on, help me out of this!” the trapped raider pleaded.
The bastard named Vargus turned away from the voice and started to walk away.
“Vargus, you fucking traitor! You goddamned pig fucker! Get your sorry ass over here and pull me out!”
Vargus paused, turned, and walked over to the man like he’d been ordered to do, but instead of pulling the trapped man out, Vargus kicked the guy right in the face and sent him flying into the pit where he was impaled by no less than five stakes.
Well, okay then.
After that, I was sure the beast-man named Vargus would continue his march toward our defenses, but instead he just calmly started to walk back to the shore, like he had the idea of getting in a row boat and getting the fuck out of dodge.
Not on my fucking watch.
“That one’s trying to escape,” I snarled to the women beside me as I tossed my own shattered bow to the ground. “Take him down!”
The women nodded, and in unison, they lifted their bows and nocked their arrows.
“Fire!” I shouted.
The twang of loosed arrows was like a symphony, and I watched as the volley of projectiles arched through the air toward Vargus.
The orc picked up the pace as he tried to jog back to shore, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Most of the arrows struck the ground around the retreating raider, but one of them hit him in the shoulder blade. The asshole cried out in pain and stumbled to a knee, but the bone stopped the arrow from penetrating too deeply. Then he quickly scrambled back to his feet and tried to stumble out of range.
“Shit,” I growled, and I turned to take a bow from one of the women beside me.
By the time I strung another arrow, though, Vargus had limped out of range and was making his way down the beach as blood trailed behind him.
Fucking hell, I would have to search the island for him later, but for now, he was out of my hair. Besides, a little hunt for the bastard would be fun, and I’d be sure to string him up from the perimeter wall and make an example of the coward.
I tore my eyes away from Vargus’ retreating silhouette and turned back to the battlefield. A quick tally told me we’d already taken out a good number of the raiders already.
Twelve down and only about thirty more to go.
The rest of the beasts had made their way through the labyrinth of pits just in time to meet their next foe.
“Fire!” I yelled again, and I was greeted once again by a hum of nearly twenty bow strings being released at the same time. Then I watched the orcish bastards drop like flies as the arrows found their intended targets.
Sela had managed to fire an arrow clean through the neck of one beast and into the heart of the fucker behind him.
“Holy shit, Legolas!” I cheered. “Nice shot!”
“What did you say about my legs?” She scowled at me.
“Most amazing legs ever.” I grinned. “Fire at will!” Then I climbed off the platform to join George, Mira, Nixie, and the twins by the hidden entrance at the base of the perimeter wall.
I looked over the battlefield and could see the arrows had taken care of half of the raiders. Dead bodies were strewn all over, and if they weren’t dead, they were damn close. A few of the raiders who were still alive were using their brothers’ bodies as shields against the onslaught of arrows, but the remaining invaders were fast approaching the wall and would be the first to meet my welcoming committee.
Lucky bastards.
I was about to send George off in one direction while I went in the other, but then the gibberish words of my daughter rang through my head, and for some reason, I decided against it. It might take a little longer to kill these fuckers, but we would still be just as effective working side by side.
“Stay close, dear friend,” I said to the dragon through our mental connection. “As odd as it sounds, I don’t want to test Marella’s warning.”
My thoughts precisely.
I nodded and turned to the women beside me.
“Work together,” I instructed them. “And watch each other’s backs.”
“Of course,” Mira replied with a savage grin. “Now, can we get to killing these bastards?”
I laughed, and the twins wore matching sharp smiles.
“Let’s get these sons of bitches,” I said in my best Sam Elliot cowboy voice, and then I pulled my sea glass sword from its sheath.
George and I entered the battlefield first, followed by Mira and Nixie, then finally the twins. Nixie would soon be a formidable predator, but right now, she and Mira needed to stay together. The twins, on the other hand, reminded me of the stabby-stabby rogues from all the MMOs I used to play. They were fast, vicious, and worked best when they could sneak up behind a motherfucker. I kind of wished I could sit back and watch them take the first guy down, but there was no time for that.
My dragon was first through the gate, and he let out a bestial roar that shook the ground. This signaled the archers to stop firing, but it also caused the orc bastard ten feet in front of him to literally piss himself before he tried to run away. George wasn’t having that, though, and he snatched the guy up before he could get two steps into his retreat. The dragon shook the fucker rapidly back and forth, and I could hear bones snapping all over his body. Satisfied that he’d turned the beast into jelly, George then flung the limp corpse at the other raiders, which showered half the battlefield with hot, sticky orc blood and caused our opponents to retreat a bit.
Now, it was my turn.
I charged forward with a battle cry, quickly beheaded the first raider to come at me, and severed the spine of another on the backswing. My sword slid through even the thickest part of their skin with ease and with sprays of hot, dark blood. Even with gore dripping in my eyes and the night time providing cover, I totally mowed my way through a good half a dozen more raiders. I sent guts, heads, and appendages flying in every direction, and I wasn’t even bothered by the blood and viscera that covered me from head to toe.
Before I could celebrate my victorious slaughter of these assholes, though, I found myself face to face with the biggest one of these fuckers I’d seen yet. He actually stood an inch or two over me, which was surprising since every other one of these monsters was shorter than I was. He also had bulging arms so fucking huge, he couldn’t put them all the way down to his sides. His legs were like giant tree trunks, and his neck was a thick mass of flesh almost as wide as his damned shoulders.
So, I guess he was keeping his head.
The beast let out this sort of gurgled growl before he came running straight at me, and he held one of the blunt hacking weapons his kind used in each of his meaty hands. He didn’t even try to defend himself and just came full rhino at me as hard and as fast as he could.
I dodged and aimed a slash at his side with my sea-glass sword. The blade flayed open his side deep enough to expose his ribs, but the cut didn’t seem to faze the behemoth, and he turned to rush me again.
“Mother fuck--” I groaned as I braced myself to take another swing at this fucking moose of a man. I dodged again and landed a deep cut along his hip bone and into the upper thigh of his right leg.
This actually slowed him down with a little bit of a limp, but the son of a bitch kept coming. He left himself unguarded again, though, and I was finally able to land a fatal blow.
“Gahh!” the beast scr
eamed as I buried my sword deep into his belly. Blood and other bodily fluids gushed out along the sea-glass, and he dropped both of his weapons and wrapped his hands around the blade stuck in his gut.
I blinked in shock. Was he seriously going to pull it out? Also, why was he still standing?
I grabbed the hilt of my sword tighter and moved to shove it further into this fucking mutant freak, but then he let go of the sword, grabbed me by the shoulders, and headbutted the ever-loving fuck out of me.
“Shit!” Stars rushed into my vision, and it took everything I had not to pass right the fuck out.
If I had been ordinary Ben still, I probably would have brain damage on top of a massive concussion. Thank the gods for fixing that.
I managed to hold onto consciousness and thrust my sword up into the lungs and more vital areas of this beast. Finally, he sunk to his knees and fell onto his back, dead.
“Sweet fucking Christmas,” I panted as I stared down at his corpse.
I went to pull my sword out of him and realized it was stuck on some inside part of this bestial aberration. I wiped my bloody hands off on my pants and tried again to release my weapon, but it just wasn’t budging. I suspected with the last thrust that finally killed him, I got my sword stuck in his sternum or rib cage.
I tugged a few more times to no avail. So, out of other ideas, I stood on the dead bastard and stomped around on his chest to turn it into jelly under my feet. I felt the bones crunching and caving in under my feet until finally I felt something give and release my sword.
Just as I pulled the damn thing free, a huge dragon roar blew across my face. Then George leaped over my head and snatched up a raider, who had been shot full of arrows but decided his final act was going to be taking me out while I was stomping his buddy’s chest like it was a cask of wine grapes.
Once again, my daughter’s words echoed through my head.
Daddy stay with George.
I turned to the dragon, and we shared a look that said we had a shit ton to talk about soon. For now, though, we would finish what was before us.
I looked around and saw that every last raider was prone and either dead or damn close to it. Then I found Mira, Nixie, Sela, and the twins were all alive and well, even if they were covered in blood and gore.
“Are any of you hurt?” I asked the warrior women in front of me.
They all shook their heads and seemed to be at a loss for words. It had been quite a fight and went on for far longer than any of the others.
“Zarya,” I said, “I know you are tired, but since you are the fastest one here, would you please run to the palace and let them know all is well?”
“What about the raider who left in one of the row boats?” she asked as she wiped some blackish blood off her scaled brow.
“I will search for him tomorrow, but for now, the dark skies and the jungles will keep our other shores safe. Even an ugly fucker like him knows he would be signing his own death sentence if he tried to make it through the jungle tonight.”
Zarya nodded and took off running to the palace.
I leaned against George for a little while and decided to let everyone rest for a bit before we began gathering bodies, removing the arrows from them, and stacking the corpses to burn.
Then I started making a mental list of what I wanted to do next. One thing was to definitely check out the row boats sitting on the shore. They weren’t good for sailing far and definitely wouldn’t hold a full-grown water dragon, but I could possibly use the wood from them to make something larger or at least get a basic idea of where to start.
I was deep into my boat building thoughts when I heard Zarya running back. The tempo of her pounding feet, though, and the quickness of her breath alerted me that something was wrong.
“Ben!” Zarya yelled as she came bursting out of the perimeter wall, and she ran up to me breathless.
“What’s wrong, Z?” I demanded, and my heart stuttered in my chest.
“Nerissa,” she panted, and her eyes were as wide as the moon. “The queen, she’s in labor.”
“Finally--” I started to say, Zarya she cut me off.
“No, Ben,” she whispered and shook her head vigorously, “you must go now. Something is wrong, and things look bad. Very bad.”
I felt my own eyes widen, and then I was running toward the palace before I even gave my legs the command to move.
Chapter Two
I got to the palace faster than I thought possible, and I ran straight to the safe room where Nerissa and the healers were still hiding out. When I finally skidded to a halt outside the room, I was met with a flurry of activity.
Careen and Talise were huddled around the queen, while several other women rushed in and out with supplies or soiled linens. Orders were barked here and there, both in English and the women’s native tongue, but the sounds just washed over me like white noise.
I didn’t know what the exact look on my face was when I approached the room, but it was enough to cause everyone to move out of my way with rather terrified expressions. Then I looked down and staggered to a stop.
Shit, I was still covered in gore from the battle.
Drops of black and crimson orc blood pooled beneath my feet, and a glance over my shoulder showed I’d also left a trail of orc bodily fluids behind me. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, but my finger bumped up against something hard and warm, and I pulled out what looked to be an orc tusk.
“Gross,” I grunted as I dropped the tusk, and I suddenly wanted to take a hazmat shower.
“Ben!” Careen suddenly exclaimed when she saw me lingering in the doorway of the safe room.
Talise gave me a small but rather sad smile over her shoulder at the mention of my name, and I noticed both of the healers looked exhausted and pushed to their limits.
The pink-haired pixie healer had sweat dotting her forehead and chest, her hair was in disarray, and dark circles rimmed her beautiful eyes. The wrap she was wearing was darkened by some kind of spilled fluid, and smudges of something dark were smeared on one of her cheeks.
Talise wasn’t in much better shape considering she also had the dark circles and the look of being totally exhausted, but she’d managed to keep her clothes dry and clean. She was standing at the foot of the bed where Nerissa was laying on her left side, and it looked like the queen was taking measured breaths and resting for a moment.
I started to rush over and demand answers, but then I was intercepted by Careen.
“Ben,” the pixie healer said as she gently grabbed my arm, “you can’t approach the birthing area covered in so much gore.”
“The hell I can’t!” I growled between clenched teeth. A distant part of me knew she was right, but just seeing Nerissa on the birthing bed had banished all logic to the back corners of my mind.
“Ben, please,” Careen begged as she grabbed my arm, “you don’t want to expose the queen and the baby to that filth. Come with me, and I will explain everything while we both wash up. I promise we have time.”
I looked over at Nerissa and then Talise for verification. The queen’s eyes were still closed, and she seemed to be focusing on her breathing. Then the healer and mother of my daughter just nodded her head to let me know it was okay to go with Careen.
I let out a huge sigh since I knew I wasn’t going to get my way, but at least I would get some answers.
“Let’s go,” I grunted as I spun around and strode back into the hall, “I want to get back here as quickly as possible.”
Careen and I hurried over to the bathing chamber where fresh clothes, towels, and soap were already laid out for us. The healer immediately started to remove her soiled wrap, and I quickly followed suit with my own clothes. My pants came off with ease, but the shirt I was wearing was so soaked in blood, I had to climb into the pool and get my whole body wet to get it unstuck from my torso. Then I watched Careen step into the pool completely naked, and I had flashbacks to the greatest handjob of my life.
I was a
guy, after all.
I quickly pushed my lustful thoughts away with an image of Nerissa laboring to deliver our child. I needed to know what was going on and what to expect. The thought of losing my queen and my child sobered me considerably, and I turned to Careen for answers.
“Tell me what is going on,” I said, “I can wash and listen at the same time.”
“The baby is breech and coming feet first,” she told me without pulling any punches. “It is incredibly dangerous because the baby’s head could get stuck in the birth canal. It is also more painful for Nerissa because we don’t dare touch the baby until the body is completely out. We can’t risk the baby moving at our touch and getting entangled in the umbilical cord. The queen must do it all on her own until most of the baby is here.”
“Damn,” I groaned as I scrubbed to get the blood off me. “What can I do?”
“Just support Nerissa,” Careen answered gently. “Hold her and provide her strength. She is strong and can do this.”
I simply nodded my head in agreement because I was scared to open my mouth. Bile had started churning in my gut, and I felt like I might puke my fear for my queen and my unborn child right up if I tried to say anything. So, I just continued to wash my body as quickly and thoroughly as I could. I didn’t want to bring one piece of those mother fucking orcs around my family.
Right when I decided I was as clean as I was going to get, one of the women I’d seen fluttering about the palace stuck her head into the bathing chamber.
“Talise sent me to tell you both that you should hurry,” the woman said with a worried expression. “The queen is asking for you, Ben.”
“We’ll be right there.” Careen was already out of the tub and putting her wrap on.
So, I jumped out, half-ass dried off, slipped my pants on, and took off running to the safe room while I pulled my clean shirt over my head with the pixie healer right behind me.
Calm yourself, dear one, George said in my head. I can sense your fear, and it will cause you to do rash things. I am right outside along with Nixie. Mira has gone to bathe and will join you as soon as she can.