vengeance

chapter 2 part 3

  Lunn loosed his second arrow and cursed another miss . He strung another and drew it back , his hand shook with the effort , the bow had been made for someone stronger.

He loosed at an onrushing goblin, the arrow struck it in the shoulder and Lunn saw it go down screaming . His heart raced at the sight of his first kill , the power over life and death made him feel like a god . Another four shots gave him a second , a tall muscled orc armed with a crude bludgeon. 

  It didn’t matter how many arrows were fired the attackers continued to flow from the tree line . They were mismatched in gear and size not like any human army or Elven or Dwarven . Bare-chested 6 feet tall orcs ran beside 4 feet goblins clad in pieces in rusting iron. Some had axes others crude knives and swords , some carried hammers others just ran at the wall with nothing more then their bare hands. They all died when the Elves rained arrows down on them , they fired faster in unison than any living human bowmen ever could. Ul-ion was shouting directions and distances for them to target.

  Lunn released another arrow at a goblin when four huge shapes emerge from the forest. It took Lunn a few moments to figure out what they were but when he did he began to shake with fear. They were crude ramps twenty feet tall strapped to the backs of huge iron clad orcs. Who were howling and hooting. They moved slow at first until they were clear of the woods then they began to run. Lunn was almost to afraid to move , but then he found the courage to shout , his voice breaking with fear .

  “ RAMPS ! Ul-ion they have ramps.” Lunn held out an outstretched hand pointing at them . Ul-ion turned to Lunn , to the ramps  back to Lunn and finally to his archers . Disbelief was written on his face. Fear was written on everyone else’s . 

 “ aim for the ramp bearers , bring them down .”  his elves followed the order without question . Ul-ion turned to Lunn “ draw your sword Lunn , you will have need of it .”

As he said it the realisation struck him , a ramp was coming his way.

  The elves were doing there best but the orcs were so heavily armoured that two of the ramps before they cold hit the wall. With a silent prayer to Bel Lunn readied himself for combat. Gripping his new sword in his right hand and falling into a fighting stance he stood beside Ul-ion in front of the approaching ramp .

 The first thing up it was a orc that stood as tall as Ul-ion but was nearly twice the width of him. Lunn recognised the orc as a berserker from its blood red dyed hair. It slashed at Ul-ion with a crude great sword  , but before Lunn could see what happened next he had his own fight to contend with. 

  A scrawny goblin in rags and pieces of rusted ring mail lunged at him with a spear made from no more then a sharpened stone tied to a branch. It stabbed for his neck but Lunn spun knocking away the thrust with the momentum of his sword. That was when he realised it was glowing , his sword gave off a strong gold light that trailed through the gathering dark . The light stunned the small green monster it simply stood there blinking its big yellow eyes. Lunn lowered the point of his sword and wielding it in two hands drove it through the goblin’s soft belly. 

  Lunn saw its big yellow eyes go wide with shock . Thick black blood poured onto Lunn’s hands and the goblin gave a shrill cry as he withdrew his sword while cutting up towards the ribs . The goblin fell to its knees clutching its open wound and making a sound that sounded like crying. He had expected to feel different staring at the first thing he killed in close combat but all Lunn felt was numb. All around the battle swirled . More and more green skins poured up the ramps , here and there they even managed to raise ladders. Steel and iron rang against each other as  armour broke and wood shields splintered , all these noises chorused by the screams of the dying . 

 This wasn’t what Lunn had imagined at all , the poets and harpists had made it sound grand and honourable to die for what you believe in , but it was a gruesome and brutal affair. He looked down at the goblin lying dead on the wooden battlements , did it think all this was honourable? Did it die for some wonderful cause ? Or was it the mindless puppet of evil gods everyone said? It had cried like a human before the end , was it so different? 

 The gods heard his blasphemous thoughts and gave him a cruel sign in return . From behind him he heard screaming and when he turned he saw three goblins of some sort cloaked in red robes plunging bronze knives into a man repeatedly and he called out in pain for help. Without thinking Lunn ran to the mans aid , filled with rage at the goblins and himself for thinking of them as human. He slashed at the first and caught it jus below its scrawny ribs . It howled as An Claideamh Solais parted flesh and drew blood. Lunn had heard there was no honour in killing a man from behind , but these aren’t men he reminded himself they are monsters , servants of Darkness. The others knew he was there now and they turned to face him . The closest tried to slit his throat but the superior reach of Lunn’s sword allowed him to sever the goblin’s hand at the wrist before it’s knife got close . 

 The third dropped its knife tried to flee over the wall but Lunn caught it by its flowing robes and threw it onto its back. It screamed as Lunn brought down his glowing sword with all his might , taking the goblins foul head from its shoulders. He stood their for a moment breathing heavily from the effort it took to decapitate a foe. He stared as the life left the goblins eyes, only then did he remember the man he had come to aid. What he found was Oisin coughing up his own crimson blood. He tried to speak but when he did all that came out was a spray of blood drops , Lunn could smell its copper odour from where he stood. 

  Lunn fell to his knees beside Oisin , he didn’t particularly like the older boy but it pained him to see him dying. They had been rivals in training but here they were allies and Lunn tried to comfort him. The dying boy reached up with a frail shaking hand and grasped Lunn’s cloak . “ how …… how bad?” he asked Lunn. He couldn’t bring himself to tell him , so he cradled his head and lied “ it will be fine Oisin , any minute now someone will be along to help me carry you to the keep.” Lunn looked up to see Ul-ion running towards them “ see ,” he said “ here comes UL-ion he will help us.” 

  “Ul-ion!” Lunn called out as he neared . “ you got to …. You got to help him , I … I don’t know what to do , Ul-ion he’s bleeding you got to..” Lunn realised he was crying when Ul-ion cut him off . “ Look at him Lunn” he said softly .” he’s passed , may your gods have mercy on him.” 

 Lunn looked down and his tears stopped, Oisin was lying still , his eyes were closed , anyone would have thought him asleep if it were not for the crimson free flow of blood from his abdomen. “ Bel shine a light on his soul.” Lunn said in no more then a whisper. 

“ lets go Lunn the wall has fell , they are in the town we have to rally together and fight them out.” UL-ion said , “ an elf gave his life to destroy the ramps, as long as the gate holds he will be fine we just need to kill the ones that got it.” 

 Lunn nodded a reply and forced himself to stand he was covered in blood , black and crimson alike but none of it his. He heard the guards in the tower begin to shout and Lunn nearly fainted when he heard the words.

 “ second wave  , there’s an ogre , in Bel’s name it’s the one eyed ogre.” Lunn and Ul-ion looked at each other then and both flinched when they heard the gate smash and the ogre bellow.