In-House Fighting

The battle moves to the Palace as Aedric joins the Duchess of Westmark and her daughters in defending the Queen.

36.

In-House Fighting

 

He had nearly reached the Duchess and her forces when the Ogre decided he had waited long enough, and used his huge club to bat  the hobgoblins and reptilians out of the way, and rushed into the palace foyer.   With a roar that echoed off the walls of the building, he rushed forward, stepping on anyone in his way as he rushed to do battle. 

 

Aedric charged forward, smashing a reptilian aside with his shield, then chopping at his neck as he passed.  

 

Thorm had thrown his Dwarven axe at the Ogre, and the weapon embedded into the brute’s shoulder.  

Fuelled by battle rage, the Ogre just swung his club, sending several reptilians and three of the merchants that they were battling, flying against the wall out of his path. 

Amala, Carn and the Duchess were racing over to confront the Ogre, but Aedric was moving much quicker.   He rammed a Hobgoblin in his way, knocking the much larger soldier down.   He didn’t even slow down, but leapt over the downed Hobgoblin as the Ogre reared back with his club.  

 

The brute swung at him, but he had learned from the tournament field that closer was better when battling the huge monsters.  He dove forward at the last instant, rolling over a few bodies as the Ogre’s club missed hitting him by inches.  

His roll carried him to the very feet of the Ogre, who now tried to quickly bring his heavy club around and down to squash the quick moving Elf.

 

But Aedric was already moving, and he darted through the legs of the Ogre, chopping savagely at the upper leg of the creature as he passed.  

 

His borrowed sword cut deep into the muscle of the Ogre and he staggered backwards, roaring in rage and pain.   Before he could get out of his path, the brute landed on him, pinning him to the ground with his large mass.

 

Aedric desperately began to wiggle and squirm to try to free himself from the monster, but the Ogre slammed his elbow into his back, knocking him flat to the floor as he clumsily rolled over to get to his feet.

 

The Elf had the wind knocked from him by the blow, but fortunately Carn arrived at that moment, wielding his own metal shod club.   The Bugbear roared as he charged the only slightly larger Ogre, and he swung the club with blinding speed.  

 

The blow connected with the Ogre’s ugly snout, and the force of the blow sent the brute - who was at that moment standing on injured, wobbly legs- tumbling over Aedric’s body.   Freed from the Ogre’s great mass, he scrambled backwards to get to his feet, only to be leapt upon by a reptilian who was using his bronze swords like large daggers, stabbing furiously at the Elf. 

 

He fell to his knees, shielding his face with his arms as he tried to fall sideways, on top of the reptilian, in an attempt to pin him much as the Ogre had done with him.

 

His fall managed to pin one of the reptilian’s arms beneath him and he grabbed the wrist of his other arm, and then pounded the creature’s snout with his fist.   The reptilian refused to let go of the sword and bit at his hand as he pounded at him.

 

But then abruptly the creature stopped and slumped backwards.   Aedric looked up to see Amala standing over him, one of the two swords she carried embedded in the neck of the reptilian.

“Thanks.” He said humbly to her, quickly getting to his feet while the Drow girl covered him.  He quickly retrieved his sword and shield while their foes, who had witnessed Amala’s terribly deadly swordsmanship, hesitated before attacking.   

 

Carn and Duchess Aurei by now had finished off the fallen Ogre and they were also surrounded by Hobgoblins and reptilians.

 

A Hobgoblin barked out something loudly in his language, and the goblinoids launched their attack upon Aedric and Amala.  

 

They came at them from all sides, but he still could see the Drow girl in action out of the corner of his eye.   Her swords were blurs as she swung all about, chopping and stabbing, sending down not only the Hobgoblins but even the quick moving reptilians.   He could see that she had the same style that Snoe also used, but this girl seemed slightly faster.  

 

He stayed out of her way respectfully, battling his own foes using his shield and sword skillfully.   The reptilians were fierce fighters, but he had learned that their vision directly in front of them was their weakness, and he capitalized on that.    With a shield on his other arm, he was much better at fighting them and many fell at his feet.

 

Thorm, Mutt, Sirya, Aranthi and the surviving merchants had formed a sort of shield wall against the inner wall of the entrance hall and were very effectively keeping their foes at bay, though the seemingly endless number of creatures swarming through the broken main entrance promised that eventually they would overcome them when weariness made their shield wall falter. 

 

Carn and Duchess Aurei were also holding their own against the onslaught of Hobgoblins and reptilians.   The Duchess also had a two handed fighting style similar to Amala and Snoe’s style.   Her speed and accuracy was as awesome as her daughters’ and she had enchanted swords that made her attacks extremely deadly.  

Carn swung his club right and left, knocking down hobgoblins and reptilians which were then usually dispatched by the Duchess.  

 

But they too were finding that every foe they felled was quickly replaced by another from outside.   How many of them were there, Aedric wondered, and where is Duke Dullerm and his forces?   But he had little time to ponder this, for the relentless attacks continued.  

 

After what seemed like hours, he heard footsteps running up to them from behind and he turned, apprehensive that the enemy was flanking them.   But it wasn’t their adversaries.   It was Queen Eioldth, racing forward holding a wizard’s staff in her hands, with Snoe, Aaron and a handful of the young noblemen.   

She pointed the staff at a reptilian that had broken away from his attack on Thorm and charged at her.   A brilliant blue bolt of energy shot forth from the end of the staff and pierced the creature’s chest, through his bronze chest plate, killing him immediately. 

 

Three other reptilians saw this and now rushed toward her from different sides, while a trio of Hobgoblins came behind them with polearms.    The Queen spun the staff and struck the floor with the end of it as the six of them closed in on her.   Immediately the floor in front of them became a sheet of smooth ice, sending all six sliding off their feet.   They slid forward almost to her feet and before they could figure out how to regain their footing, Snoe killed three of them and a pair of the noblemen killed the other three.  

 

Aedric glanced over to Amala, and gestured toward the Queen.   The girl understood and together they began falling back to her position.   Nearby, Duchess Aurei and Carn were doing the same, as were Thorm’s group.  

 

But the hobgoblins and reptilians kept pressing forward, and now through the doorway into the palace came a group of five men in black plate armor, surrounding a wizard in long dark purple robes, carrying a staff much like the Queen’s own.

 

“Wizard!” Aedric called out in warning as the magic user pointed his staff at them.     

 

But before the Queen could counter, the end of the wizard’s staff began to glow a deep orange red and a moment later it spat forth a ball of fire.

 

“FIREBALL!!” Amala screamed in alarm just as the spell exploded.   The wizard had not bothered to consider the humanoid forces - perhaps they were considered expendable- and the explosion of fire instantly filled the entrance hall with a blast furnace of roaring, searing flames.  

 

The hobgoblins and reptilians between them and the wizard were burned up in an instant, but their bodies only absorbed a small part of the force of the blast.

 

Thorm’s group was the next nearest to the explosion and it threw them down the hall, knocking down Duchess Aurei, Carn, Amala and Aedric as they were propelled like a rag doll tossed by an angry child.  

 

Aedric felt his armor grow instantly red hot and his sword belt and scabbard burst into flames as the blast sent all in its path skidding down the hallway.  

 

There were terrible screams of pain, but he had his eyes tightly shut against the flames, as the fire seared his face and burned his lungs.   There came a roaring to his ears and he found himself trying to scream but it hurt too badly, then there was only darkness and he knew no more.

 

 

Reviews

[Elina]

"...to bat out of the way the hobgoblins and reptilians..." It may sound better "...to bat the hobgoblins and reptilians out of the way..."
"...propelled like a rag doll tossed by an angry child." I love this visual! Haha! Absolutely marvelous.

[Eddie Davis]

Thank you, Elina.