Forgotten But Not Lost

12

They can smell our sweat, can't they?

That was the question Rin was asking herself as she saw monstrous reptilian mounts that the Orcs used to drag along their supply wagons moving through the flattened strip where the human party had set up their ambush.
Dragon Horses. That's what they had called them, but there was a big difference between just hearing the name and seeing the creatures in the flesh. More than eighteen feet in length with large jawed heads perched a good eight feet off the ground. Coal black eyes sweeping over the surroundings as they struggled against their muzzles, their forked tongues tasting the air though the slight gaps in the material.
Their bone structure seemed to be more like that of a horse than a lizard, in that their legs were straight under them rather than the more wide hip joints of a lizard. It remembered her briefly of how birds called raptors were descended from reptiles that were probably very similar to these creatures. Though the idea of comparing a chicken to these apex predators seemed laughable. One of these monsters was fast enough and strong enough to rip a fully armored knight to shreds, and the Orcs had seven of them dragging their equipment along the rough terrain, each one trained from birth to act as beasts of burden… and to hunger for human flesh.
These were to be Rin's responsibility in the fight. Her and the one other mage who had mastery of lightning type magic. Their scales were thick and hard enough to make hacking them up a challenge, even for the massive swords and strength of the Warriors. While Paladins' [Saber] blessings would allow them to cut the monster's down, it would be risky. They were also fire resistant and water tight. Lightning magic was the best option for dealing with them, and even than she was told it would probably take four or five casts of lightning to take one of them monsters down.
She had to work fast. If the Orcs released the Dragon Horse's from their harnesses and let them move about, then there would be little chance that she would be able to land a hit on them. For each one she didn't kill, they would likely kill two or even three of the raiders a piece before they could be put down.
…No pressure.
When compared to the Dragon Horses, the Orcs themselves seemed laughable. Buff as they were, they were only around human sized, with green skin, pointy ears and a pair of tusks. Each one of them grew their hair out in weird styles and dyed it bright colors, apparently as part of some kind of male dominance thing, because it takes a real man to pull off having hot pink mohawk and green skin. They were ugly and stupid looking, but not intimidating.
'Dragon Horse hides are pretty valuable as armor among Mages, Hunters and Thieves. Shit isn't light, but its lighter than metal, a lot more flexible, and don't get in the way of Elemental magic. Each corpse will probably be worth around two or even three gold a piece depending on the size and color. White ones are the most valuable, but I doubt we will be seeing any. A full-grown white male's corpse is worth forty gold right there.' Kuro had mentioned before the battle when he had heard Rin was made responsible for the Dragon Horses. 'Remember, you kill it, you keep it.'
"There is enough meat on those things to last a month." Shirou whispered to her as they watched and waited for the first trap to be stumbled into. "I wonder how you're supposed to cook it."
She had to choke down on a laugh. A monstrous creature that looked like a miniature wingless dragon was working around right in front of them, and he was thinking about eating it instead of it eating him. "I imagine it tastes like chicken." Rin said sarcastically. "Please tell me you didn't become a Hunter just so that you could eat everything."
"And what were you thinking while you were busy staring at them? What kind of boots you're going to make out of them?" Shirou teased back.
"I was thinking that the red one would make a nice top for my new outfit, and the black one could be used for the leggings." Rin said with a teasing smile of her own. "I think those shine black scales will really show off my hips." She slid a hand across the hips in question for emphasis.
Shirou blushed a bit and turned his eyes away. "Is that so. Maybe I should also be making a list of all the equipment I'd like to get out of this fight and pick my targets based on that. I could use another spare sword or two, since you seem so attached to mine."
"You're supposed to be prioritizing their archers. So, I hope your list includes a lot of arrows." Rin reminded him. The back and forth teasing helped Rin calm down. She wasn't the only one out there, and so long as she threw everything she had at those overgrown lizards, there was no way that they would get back up afterwards, and even if they could, Shirou was there. He was the one person she could always count on to help her make things right.
Their back and forth banter stopped as the front of the Orcs' column reached the pits. The first of their number stepped onto what had seemed like normal grass when his entire body fell through, falling twelve feet down onto sharpened sticks, not even having time to give a shrill cry before his lungs were punctured. It would take a few moments before the rest of the Orcs who weren't close enough to see what had happened to get the message, but before that happened, ropes were cut and down the sharp hill rolled fifty large logs. Each picking up speed as they fell down on the Orcs.
The location of the ambush had been carefully picked for the sharp ridge overlooking the strip that would allow the Orcs to avoid the most rocky areas of the forest and have the swiftest trip, but the strip was too narrow for quick maneuvering of the carts that could result in a retreat. Everything had been planned out.
Before the logs were even half way down the hill, Shirou was already standing up out of cover, bow drawn and firing off arrow after arrow at any Orc unfortunate enough to be holding any form of ranged weaponry.
Following Shirou lead, Rin got to her feet and started to cast her spells, targeting a large red Dragon Horse. One bolt of lightning, and then another. The creature was brought to its knees, though it still was alive. The Orcs were going crazy, confused by the logs, arrows and lightning strikes that had appeared out of nowhere during what had been a peaceful escort mission. They were struggling to drop their packs and get their weapons ready when the storm hit them.
A nearly deafening roar shook the battlefield as Typhoon Rocks descended on the Orcs from behind. Rock, Kuro, Tsuga, and even the normally quiet Kajita, all let out their [War Cries] all at once, and Moyugi added to it with his own [Dark Howl]. The killing intent produced by the five men's skills was so intense, that it made Rin very happy that she had recently taken care of her business and that the wet mark left by her peeing herself wouldn't be easily noticeable, and she wasn't even near them or the target of their ferocity. The memory of a black giant holding a sword made of solid rock appeared in her mind, and this was a mental image that she was very glad to have taken away from her.
"Don't stop casting." Shirou said, though his own face paled a little at the sound.
Rin nodded and returned to casting her lightning spells, though she couldn't help but to glance at the gorefest that was happening with Rock and his men.
A typhoon really was the best way to describe them. The way they just pushed straight though their enemy, cutting them down with hardly any delay at all. Orc after Orc fell to the men, most of them not even trying to fight back, but trying to run for their lives from the creatures that hungered for their blood. Even the Dragon Horse that was closest to the party completely lost its shit, thrashing about so much that they tipped the cart it was anchored to over, breaking the reign and managing to get free.
Too bad for the freed beast, it ran straight into Moyugi. Dark tendrils wrapped themselves around the Dragon Horse's front legs, causing it to trip as Moyugi brought up a sword covered in a cursed black fire and cleaved off of the monster's head.
These five people were put down in the plan as being capable of killing a hundred Orcs by themselves.
In Rin's ever so humble opinion, Shinohara clearly underestimated them.
Even Tsuga, the Priest of the group, moved about, slicing through armor and necks with the sharpened ring on the end of his metal staff. He was praying for the souls of those he had slain even as he slayed some more.
While this was going on, some of the other Volunteer Soldiers started to get their acts together and rushed down the hill, preventing the scattering Orcs from running up them. Pushed from the sides and the back, what Orcs were still running were running straight forward into the traps and falling to their deaths.
For that first minute, everything looked as though it was going perfectly, and like they would easily take their loot and go home with no real opposition at all. Shirou had long stopped firing his bow, choosing to save his last three arrows just in case, and Rin herself had managed to bring down three of the Dragon Horses. That was when one final element to the battle made itself known.
It was as the Volunteer Forces were cutting off Orcs and the front and pushing towards the back to meet the Typhoon Rocks push forward. They had just passed the first of the supply wagons and had glanced inside to make sure that there were no Orcs in their that would be attacking their backs.
The woman who had looked in gave a startled gasp and stumbled away from the wagon right before a massive black sword pushed upwards through the roof of the wagon before coming down straight on top of her, crushing her to death. Shouted of panic erupted from the humans as the thing inside of the wagon stood up, ripping through the wagon's roof as he did so.
Rin's mind went blank as she stared at the massive creature. "What the hell is that thing?" She mumbled.
"A Monster Rex." Mary said, her hands tightening on her staff. "A monster that for some reason grows to be much bigger than the normal members of its breed."
Rin almost laughed. Much bigger didn't even begin to describe it.
She had heard of the Monster Rexes, but just like with the Dragon Horses, hearing about them was one thing, seeing one was another.
Standing at over twelve feet tall, it was easily twice the size of a normal Orc in all dimensions. Its entire body was covered in a sort of black scale armor that seemed to shimmer in the afternoon sun. The armor covered absolutely everything with not even a single gap save for the ones in its visor around the monster's mouth and eyes, and small gasps around it head to allow for its long mane of bright purple hair to fall through. It would have looked silly if it wasn't so terrifying.
The giant sword, equal in size to any that the Warriors were wielding, seemed like only a long sword in the hand of the behemoth and it swung it around with ease as it hopped out of the cart it had been riding in, the clay soil cracking underneath its feet as it dismounted.
"What are we supposed to do about that?" Rin asked as the monster gave its own roar. One that somehow didn't seem as threatening as when Rock's team had done it.
"Don't worry. A Paladin will be able to cut through its armor." Mary assured her, though the girl herself still looked half panicked, almost as if she was about to freeze up.
Hinata started to approach the Monster Rex, spreading blood onto her blade in the shape of a six-pointed star. "O Light, may Lumiaris's divine protection be upon you. [Saber]!" She said, causing the blade to start to glow with bright white light.
"No!" Shirou said, shocking the two girls. "A Paladin can't do anything about that monster!" Shirou started to run down the hill towards the battlefield, ignoring Rin as she told him to stop. "Get away from it, you won't be able to cut it!" He shouted at the girl.
Hinata didn't hear him. She dodged first slash of the giant Orc and went in for an attack of her own, slashing her shining sword at the Orc's chest with a strong [Punisher].
There was the sound of shattering glass as the sword meet the metal armor, and in that instant, the glow of Lumiaris's blessing disappeared from the sword. Hinata was surprised and tried to retreat as the Orc swung at her with an open hand, but she only succeeded in putting herself in range of his sword. She lifted her shield, impowered by her god's blessings, in order to protect herself, but the moment the black sword came crashing into shield the same sound of shattering glass occurred and the blessing disappeared. Hinata's arm was broken and she let out a scream as the blow ripped the shield from her arm and sent her skidding across the ground. She had been moved outside of the monster's reach as its sword shattered the earths surface where she had been standing. But the Orc didn't seem done with her just yet, taking another step towards her downed form.
Shirou cursed and drew and arrow, boosted his bow and the arrow itself to the point where if he strengthens them any further they would have broken down under the stress, and fired the shot straight at the Orc's head. The air around him was ripped apart as the arrow flew at incredible speeds, smashing into the side of the Orc's head, the arrow shattering on impact with a loud *bang*.
The beast staggered to the side, but quickly righted himself. Shirou had known that the arrow would do no good. Not against armor like that, but he had hoped that it would have at least distracted the monster away from the helpless woman. But it seemed like the supersized Orc wouldn't be distracted from finishing the job.
Shirou couldn't fire another one of those shots immediately. It was the fatal flaw in Kuro's technique. You needed to use [Steel Guard] to reinforce the bow's strength after having pulled back the string in order to add extra strength, but once it is reinforced it takes a moment for the bow to return to normal so that you could pull the string back to its fullest again. While the bow could still be used at its normal capacity, he would need to wait for the [Steel Guard] to fully ware off before firing another one of the more extreme shots.
Shirou knew as the giant lifted up its sword that he wasn't going to make it. But as the sword fell, someone else stepped into the way. The sound of the two blades didn't sound quiet right to be steel scrapping up against steel, as Rock parried the massive monster's sword strike with his own overly large sword. The exertion of getting there in time, combined with the sheer physical strength needed to overwhelm a monster that most likely weighted ten times as much as him, left the Typhoon's leader in a pant, but even as he panted, there was a fury in his voice and eyes.
"Don't… you dare… touch her… you TUSKFACED BASTARD!" The short man roared, flipping forward the edge of his sword and swinging it up along the side of its opponent, all the way up to the giant's head, the tip of the blade just barely reaching its jaw.
The speed and strength behind the swing was only enough to knock the monster back only a few steps, even though the strike had been powerful enough to break the tip off of Rock's blade.
"Get her out of here!" Rock shouted at some nearby Warriors, who had been to shocked to move. Brought back to their senses, they rushed forward to grab onto Hinata's crumpled body and drag her away from the danger zone. Rock watched them go for a half second before gritting his teeth and turning back to Monster Rex. "I'm going to make you suffer for what you did to her."
The Orc just began to laugh. It probably didn't even know what Rock was saying, but there was no mistaking the hate in the man's voice. The other member's of Typhoon Rocks were closing in on the monster, leaving the rest of the battlefield to the other Crimson Moon members as they went after the biggest threat. They encircled him, preparing to strike.
"[Dark Grasp]." Moyugi said as he cast his demonic ritual. Black tendrils formed from the shadows around the monster, reaching up to grab onto its… *crack* There was the sound of shattering glass and the spell was canceled. "What's going on?"
"It's his weapon and armor!" Shirou said as he joined the group. "They are made from an alloy of cold iron mixed with rainbow pyroxene. It's three order of magnitude harder than steel, and rejects the blessing of the gods and interferes with the Elementals. Offensive and Defensive blessings won't help at all here."
"Are you telling me that this thing is immune to all magic!?" Rock growled. As if in response to his question, a lightning bolt came down on top of the creature's head, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass. The monster didn't even flinch.
"Sort of. Yeah."
Enter the Berserker.
For anyone who wants to know if Rock is going to get some... no. He isn't. Because nice guys finish last. In other words, Heroes never get laid.
Its why he doesn't want to be seen as a heroic type. Because then girls ask stupid questions like "Do you think that just because you saved me means your entitled to sex? What kind of girl do you think I am?" Even though he never even tried to imply he was entitled to it... he just wanted to have the option open. You know, start dating, get to know each other better. But no, once you save a girl's life, all chances of a normal relationship are over.
Poor poor Rock.