by John Nest
With the silver Flame Knight in the lead, two-thousand out of the six-thousand OrkElves disengaged from the mad charge against Wertlosvati. The sudden shift of their movement, caused the Orks to topple against each other.
Apart from losing their footing, the Orks also became confused. Several of the green giants fell backward, pulling down many of the Orks beside them.
Seeing this, Cynar quickly took advantage of this crack in their defense.
“Forward! These stupid Orks don’t know what to do!” Cynar called out to the OrkElves behind him. “Werlosvati’s head is ours for the taking!” he screamed.
A sudden boost of morale fell over the OrkElves under Cynar’s command.
Cynar then motioned to one of the bulky OrkElves behind him. “Beistand,” he called out. “Take the lead and refill the gap in our formation.”
In less than ten seconds, Cynar’s assault pushed on. Even with his decreased number of men, they still plowed through the Orks with little care for defense. Their life bars slowly chipped away by the attacks they choose to ignore, solely focused on getting to where Wertlosvati was.
After crossing two-hundred meters of Orks, more than five-hundred OrkElves had fallen. Yet, Cynar paid it no mind, as he finally saw a white banner with two double-headed axes crossed against together. The weapons were positioned in a way that the axes formed a “W.”
Paralysis darts, broad swords, and spears pierced through the final wall of Orks, as they forcibly pushed their way to the UrukHai General.
Finally, Cynar and his men arrived at their destination. They were gasping for air in front of a dark green Ork, more than three meters tall, brandishing two double-headed axes.
“Me impressed,” said Wertlosvati, mounted on top of the biggest dirus wolf in the battlefield. He then lifted both his axes and motioned for the Orks to give them some room.
At once, a clearing appeared between Cynar and Wertlosvati.
“You, my weakly son from… Quelle Village?” asked the Ork General, pointing one of his double-headed axes at Cynar.
“Me remembering yours to be thinner,” went on Wertlosvati. “Yours seem to have put on some meat. Plan to take on my straight attacks?”
Cynar did not reply, and only clenched his fists. Looking straight into Wertlosvati’s eyes with an abyss of hateful silence.
“Yours silent making me remembering yours mother,” said Wertlosvati. “She no making sound when me came to her. She no even fight me.”
As Wertlosvati spoke, the Orks continued to back away. An engrossed Cynar failed to notice, that he and his men were now enclosed. The path that cost the lives of hundreds of OrkElves, now vanished.
“That’s right,” replied Cynar, breaking his loathsome quietude. “I heard she didn’t resist you. Do you know, why?”
Wertlosvati guffed. “Of course! Because looking at me? Me am most handsomest of all!”
“Gruk gruk gruk gruk,” came the noise from Wertlosvati’s maniacal laughter.
“Gruk! Gruk! Gruk! Gruk!” chimed in the rest of the Ork Horde.
“No,” said Cynar, shaking his head slightly. “It was so that she could give birth to me.”
“Yours mother wanted my children?” asked an astounded Wertlosvati.
“She did,” replied Cynar.
In a blur, Cynar’s hands disappeared as they went to his quiver of paralysis darts. He unleashed the last ones, targeting the Orks behind his father.
“Yours missed me!” snorted Wertlosvati. “Gruk gruk gruk! Yours weak and cannot be aiming! Gruk gruk gruk!”
Cynar reached deep into his robes and let out a new weapon on each hand. They had a short, wide, triangular blade of forty centimeters in length.
“Them are strange weapons,” said Wertlosvati. “But nothing—”
Cynar stopped Wertlosvati from yapping on, as he screamed. “She had me born to kill you!”
The OrkElf Assassin disappeared from sight.
SWISHK SWISHK SWISHK SWISHK
As Cynar materialized behind the Ork General, a rush of deep stab wounds inflicted Wertlosvati’s back.
“How do you like my katars?” asked Cynar, driving his triangular blades deeper and faster.
Wertlosvati screamed in pain. “Warraah!” He extended his axes as far back as he could reach, forcing Cynar off him.
SWISHK SWISHK SWISHK SWISHK
Sounds of twin katars piercing Wertlosvati’s flesh resonated in the skirmish, as Cynar reappeared in front of him.
“Nagunsair kamori dirah! Atakir!” bellowed Wertlosvati. He stroke down his double-headed axes, and hit nothing but the ground before him. “UrukHais, atakir!” he yelled and commanded the Orks around him to attack.
Without needing for Cynar’s instructions, the remaining OrkElves in the clearing charged forward. None of them showed signs of hesitation, as they plunged into the fray of Orks.
“They may have us surrounded, but we’re now about even in numbers,” said Cynar, as he pointed over to the direction of the Orks on the wall, who were fighting against Smoke, Chrys, Blaise, and the Inferno Squad.
“HOOH-HA!” screamed the OrkElves in cheer, as they brandished their long spears and broadswords at the UrukHais.
With the morale of his men at an all time high, Cynar repeatedly vanished instantaneously. But he always dealt a massive amount of damage on Wertlosvati each time he reappeared.
“Weakling, face me like a man and take my attac—” taunted Wertlosvati, but was silenced when a katar went straight through his mouth and the triangular tip exited the other side of the Ork’s face.
“I knew that I was far below your strength,” explained Cynar, stabbing his detested father. “That’s why I heightened my speed even more.”
SWISHK SWISHK SWISHK SWISHK
Afterimages of Cynar appeared from all side, as he sped up further.
Despite having the advantage, Cynar suddenly stopped. “How do you like me know?”
A bleeding Wertlosvati replied. “You’re more Ork than you think.” The Ork General went down on his knees and dropped both his axes.
Cynar sneered and stared down at his father. “Don’t call me that just because I’m about to kill—” began the Assassin, but was cut short.
In one sudden motion, Wertlosvati raised Cynar up by the neck. Next, the Ork General pried off Cynar’s katars and disarmed him. “No, no because of killing,” explained the smug Wertlosvati. “Yours Ork because yours arrogant and stupid!” he said and began to crush his son’s neck.
* * * * * *
When Blaise and the Inferno Squad broke off from Cynar’s group, they started targeting the fallen Orks near the base of the castle walls.
The arms of the mounted OrkElves swirled fast like windmills, slashing the exposed necks of the green giants.
Despite being injured, the Orks fought back. Using their mighty two-handed swords, mallets, and axes, the UrukHai brought down one out of ten mounted OrkElves to the ground.
The ones who were grounded would not last a minute, as the UrukHai would focus on the tripped riders until their last HP left them.
Abandoning the lead, Blaise turned around and went to help one of his grounded subordinates.
Since there was a wide gap between Blaise and his men, he used one of his flaming flamberge’s active abilities. The salamander tongue segmented into several parts, extending its length to five meters. The flames of the sword became hotter in between the broken blades, burning the green skin off the Orks.
Using a flurry of whip-like strikes, Blaise saved one of his subordinates. However, there were eighteen more of them lying on the ground, dead.
“Suerte, take my mount and lead the rest of the Inferno Squad towards Faux,” Blaise said to the OrkElf he just saved and dismounted from his dirus wolf. “I’ll grab their attention and hold them off here.”
“But, Sir. There are too—” began Suerte, but was silenced with a stern stare from Blaise.
Before the Orks could reach them, the silver Flame Kn
ight hurriedly propped up Suerte onto his mount and said. “Now, go, and don’t look back!”
When Suerte was out of range, Blaise used his sword’s ultimate ability, Incinerator. The segments of the lengthy flamberge broke off from its handle and flew in all directions, stabbing and slashing the Orks within its range of ten meters.
Within seconds, a dome of blades and flames materialized with Blaise at its center. Whenever the Flame Knight moved, the dome of segmented flame blades moved with him.
Only after two minutes, Blaise depleted all of his mana. As the flames of the Incinerator ability died out, the salamander tongue returned to the shape of a flamberge.
Dozens of burnt Ork bodies laid on the ground. Most of them were severed off to tiny portions while a few only had missing limbs.
However, the Orks who were outside the range of the Incinerator had now gathered around the silver Flame Knight.
“Come!” said Blaise to the Orks with bravado. “I’ll send all of you to Mictlan today!”
Despite putting up a powerful front, the injured Orks swelled in numbers as they gathered around him.
Even after the Inferno Squad’s initial charge and Blaise’s Incinerator ability, the UrukHais near the wall still numbered two-thousand. Only half of them were killed.
Trapped, Blaise held his flaming flamberge with both hands. Sixteen Orks came at him at once, from opposite directions. Swinging wildly, he struck two of them and sent them flying back to the throng of green giants.
But the remaining Orks, who got past Blaise’s desperate swings, dealt heavy blows to his body. While he barely dodged a sword aimed at his head, a mallet slammed hard against his back. He received more and more blows, as his life bar displayed (180,000/860,000 HP), and was still quickly declining.
Additional Orks charged towards Blaise, a cloud of dust picked and directed the sand towards the green giants’ eyes. Chrys’ cyclone did little damage to the UrukHais, but it still served its purpose of distracting them.
Smoke stepped out from the dust cloud. He launched several magma-spikes from the ground, piercing the Orks from the back.
At the same time, Suerte and the rest of the mounted Inferno Squad charged for another run at the Orks.
The combined attacks of Smoke, Chrys, and the Inferno Squad left the UrukHai bewildered. Most of them turned their backs and ran towards the flag of the twin axes.
It was then, that Blaise saw Cynar was being strangled to death.
“Faux!” called out the injured silver Flame Knight. “You have to help Cynar!” he said desperately, pointing to Wertlosvati’s banners.
Smoke then turned to the green Prime Wizard of Vectas. “Chrys, I’ll leave this area to you,” he said and glided towards Cynar.
* * * * * *
With the walls free from Orks, the Breathtaking Ballistae trained their attacks on the UrukHai near Wertlosvati. A timely occurrence since the OrkElves under Cynar now outnumbered the Orks two to one. They might hold the advantage in numbers, but it needed two regular OrkElves to fight one UrukHai.
Yet, despite the favorable odds, a disarmed Cynar was suspended in mid-air. He was gasping to breathe, held up solely by Wertlosvati’s right arm.
“Boangi, yours a weakling till the end,” Wertlosvati said to Cynar. “Yours die before me leaving.”
“Aawak, aack, aack,” was all Cynar could reply as he pounded his fists against Wertlosvati’s muscular arm in futility. His life bar displayed (64,000/664,000 HP).
“Goodbye mine weakling,” said Wertlosvati, tightening his grip around Cynar’s neck.
Then, a bright light from the sky made the Ork General pause and turn towards it.
CRASH
Several pieces of rocks flew everywhere, as Smoke used his Comet Crush ability right next to Wertlosvati.
With the Ork General stunned, Smoke used his melded elemental manipulation. Sixteen magma-spikes erupted from the ground and pierced through Wertlosvati’s body.
Smoke focused one of the magma-spikes towards Wertlosvati’s arm, freeing Cynar. The OrkElf Assassin fell down with a loud thud.
“Thank you, Faux,” said Cynar in between breaths, as he gulped for air and massaged his neck.
Meanwhile, Wertlosvati was screaming in agony. The burning magma-spikes inflicted the Bleeding and Burned status on him. His life bar had 25% left.
Smoke gathered magma in front of him, and was about to launch the killing blow, but Cynar yelled out.
“Stop, Faux! I’m the one who’s supposed to kill him!” Cynar said to Smoke, as he crawled to where his katars where. “I’ll kill you if you do!”
Smoke continued gathering his magma and said. “Sorry, but we’ve got to end him now.”
Then, an unexpected notification window popped up.
– WARNING: Killing Wertlosvati would decrease your Intimacy with Cynar.
THWACK
A war hammer struck Smoke squarely on the back. His head skidded on the ground. Fortunately, his pyro mask took most of the damage, but his spine took the full attack. The force of the sudden back attack pushed him down, sending him to skid face first for three meters.
THUD THUD
A green gigantic Ork landed next to Wertlosvati. He pulled on the iron chain attached to the war hammer, bringing it back to him.
“Are you sure you’re fit to be our General?” said the wielder of the war hammer.
Smoke was still struggling back on his feet, but he could understand their Orkish clearly.
“Shut up, Wertlosrauber,” replied the captured UrukHai General. “Just get me out of here already.”
“Stop!” yelled Smoke in Orkish. “None of you are going anywhere!”
“A DarkElf who speaks our tongue?” said the one called Wertlosrauber. “Maybe he really is more powerful than he—” began the Ork Colonel, but was cut short. Green wind-cutters pelted on his chest, which made the Ork parry the attacks with his hammer.
Dozens of Orks swarmed around Wertlosvati and Wertlosrauber, blocking any clear shots at the two UrukHai leaders.
“Faux? You, alright?” asked Chrys hovering from above, flying closer towards him. He then created amplifying casting circles above the UrukHais near Wertlosvati. Shortly after, fireballs from the Mages on the wall passed through them. Debris flew everywhere, as powerful spells rained down on them.
“Chrys, what are you doing here?” asked Smoke. “What about Blaise?”
“Who?” replied Chrys, while attacking the Orks who were about to assault Smoke.
“The Flame Knight I left you with,” explained Smoke, as he fought attacked the incoming green giants with magma-spikes. “What about the Orks near the wall?”
“Most of them were already dead, that’s why the Flame Knight told me to back you up here,” said Chrys, as he fired wind-cutters on the Orks guarding Wertlosvati. “So, that’s the leader, huh?”
“Yeah, we have to kill him now,” said Smoke while attacking the same area as Chrys. He switched to using earth-pillars, as his mana bar was already running dangerously low.
With Smoke and Chrys focusing their attacks on the Ork guards, a half-dead Cynar jumped over the assaulted UrukHais and dove straight into them.
“That suicidal idiot!” shouted Smoke. He stopped attacking with earth-spikes and followed suit. He leaped up and used his Comet Crush ability on the gathered Orks. He hesitated to use it before, as he would have practically no mana left to defend against the Orks at such a close range.
CRASH
Eight Orks near the epicenter of his crash site were blown away. Given the little clearance, Smoke spotted the mad Cynar desperately stabbing his katars at the nearest Orks.
Almost depleted of his mana, Smoke equipped his brown manatl staff. He ran towards Cynar and fought the Orks beside him.
“Where is he? Where is he!” screamed Cynar, while stabbing his triangular blades into an UrukHai’s neck.
“I don’t see him anywhere,” said Smoke, beating an Ork on the head with his manatl staff.
“How could you let him go?” Cynar asked Smoke, flailing his arms everywhere.
Smoke did not reply to Cynar’s idiocy. Instead, he focused on fending off the Orks closing on Cynar’s back, as he was confident that the ones facing the mad Assassin were being handled with his bloody katars. His brown staff did little damage, but it proved to be effective at crowd control, pushing the mob of Orks backward.
After three-minutes passed, wind-swords pierced through the Orks Smoke was fighting against. A flying Chrys killed them, as he drew closer.
“The Flame Knight and his OrkElves are heading this way,” said Chrys from above. “We got them, Faux—” Chrys was cut off, as the sound of loud horns echoed in the battlegrounds.
TOOTTRRROT TOOT TORROOT TOOT TORRROOT
All of the UrukHai immediately stopped attacking and scrambled to escape.
TOOTTRRROT TOOT TORROOT TOOT TORRROOT
“No! Not again!” screamed Cynar. “Someone give me their dirus wolf!” he ordered to his OrkElves.
Cynar ran over to the first dirus wolf he saw.
“Wait,” called out Smoke and blocked his path. “Let’s regroup first. We can’t just—” he was cut off by Chrys’ warning.
“Faux! Behind you!” yelled Chrys.
Smoke turned around and saw Wertlosvati’s double-headed axe heading straight for him. Without a second to spare, he put up a concave manatl in front of him.
TWANG
Wertlosvati’s ax made a loud noise as it smashed into Smoke’s purple barrier.
Smoke grinned, as his manatl stood firm. But his smirk vanished as soon as he saw the Ork General’s second ax flying past him. It was headed directly for Cynar.
With what little HP the OrkElf Assassin had left, Smoke was sure that Cynar would be killed by the ax.
Before anyone could react, Blaise appeared in its direct path. The silver Flame Knight sliced the double-headed ax with his salamander tongue.
Unfortunately, the first half of the ax plunged deep into Blaise’s cranium, while the other penetrated into his chest.
“Blaise! What did you do?” screamed Cynar, as he caught the falling body of his friend. He rested Blaise’s head on his lap.
