Chapter 26

"Stupid…ugly…orc…must… DIE!" Each word was punctuated by a measured punch to the face and chest. Left hook, right uppercut, left cross, left front kick, and, on the final word, she swung the axe gripped in her right hand and severed the orc's head from its body. "That was my only shirt, you dumbass!" For extra credit, Buffy whirled and roundhouse kicked the still-standing remains hard enough that the carcass flew several feet in the air before knocking two other orcs to the ground with its dead weight and momentum.

Stealing a quick glance at her now absolutely ruined sweater, Buffy could see the jagged line of blood caused by the orc's slashing sword. Her adrenaline was pumping too hard for her to feel much pain, but she knew it would sting later.

With a sigh, Buffy launched herself back into battle, her fifth in as many days. If she was honest with herself, it was miraculous that any of her clothing had remained intact. True, she did have a few rips and tears in her jeans, those holes were no big deal. They were even fashionable, if one went in for that look; however, her sweater was now just indecent!

The night was pitch black, only slightly illuminated by the orc party's few torches. Their huge, lamp-like eyes reflected the light, making them easy for Buffy to spot. She deftly lopped off the arms and heads of all that came at her. It was pretty easy work until an unusually big and beefy one approached, carefully circling her. Buffy countered its movements and it leered at her, showing Buffy its pointed and blackened teeth. Her nerves were jolted for an instant, recalling the unstoppable creature in her recent nightmare. She shook it off, determined to pummel this one but good.

"Hey, Big Mac," Buffy taunted him merrily. "Looks like someone pays the extra ninety-nine cents to super-size his McMeal."

The orc growled and licked his lips lustily. "I'd eat you, sweet thing," it grunted.

"Hm," Buffy responded as she ducked under the orc's sudden swing. "Word of advice: leave the witty banter to the pros. It's not really up your alley."

Buffy ducked another blow from the orc's sword and began her swift attack, kicking in vulnerable places until she could land a mortal blow. At last, she went for his arm at the shoulder with her axe, but that proved to be a mistake. It was wearing a dark, dull armor which was hard to see in the small amount of light provided by the torches. The axe hit its mark, but bounced off the orc's chest plate, causing her to lose her grip on the weapon, which flew backwards into the tree behind her.

"Oops!" she said as the thing laughed in triumph, and sped up its attack, swinging at Buffy's head and feet. As she ducked and jumped each attempt, she soon realized that she was being backed into a cluster of trees and rocks, where she would soon be cornered. Not seeing the advantage of being trapped without a weapon, Buffy jumped and front-kicked the orc, striking its nose so that it staggered backward. Next, she took the opportunity to tuck and roll past the raging demon, then ran forward, looking for a way to gain the upper hand.

"Aha!" she exclaimed, as she spotted just what she needed.

As the orc pursued her, Buffy jumped up and grabbed a low, sturdy tree branch. She swung upward, completed the revolution, and then kicked the creature in the back as it passed underneath her, unable to stop itself in time. It fell forward, hit the ground, and lay prone, exposing its vulnerable back. Buffy turned another revolution, then did a half pirouette before executing a half pike turn with a twist, landing on the orc's spine with a crunch. Raising her hands in the air with a flourish, she declared, "And it's a perfect ten for Buffy Summers!"

This feat earned an annoyed grunt from Elrohir, who was in the midst of exchanging blows with his own orc. "Must you," he began as he swung his sword, "display your" (clang) "acrobatic skills" (grunt) "every time" (slash) "you engage in battle, Slayer?"

"Jealous, much?"

"Hardly. I need not perform as many tricks as you in order to - oof - subdue my enemies," Elrohir snapped, fending off another blow from his opponent. "Nor do I talk so much."

"Can't help it. It's just my style." She reached down and yanked the orc's sword from its dead and gnarled hand. "Mine now," she said with a smirk.

Their traveling party had been battling their way up to the ruined West Gate of Moria for the last five days. Most of the groups they fought were quite small in number, but Moria was infested with countless hordes, which meant they had quite a task ahead of them. Gimli had been especially zealous in all these battles, becoming increasingly bent on revenge with each one. His fighting was fierce, almost blind, in his quest for retribution, causing Legolas to worry for his friend.

The continuous raids on orcs had been exhausting. Nevertheless, it was a welcome release for Buffy, whose need for a good slay had been building up for some time. Killing orcs wasn't the same as slaying vamps, but she still found immense satisfaction in it. Granted, it was much messier, what with all the ick that came out of the creatures. Burning orc bodies on the mornings after wasn't much fun either. Back home, there was a lot less clean up with vamps as they just went poof. Just brush the dust off the clothes, and you're done. Still, killing these uglies was just as much fun, kind of like squashing spiders. Big, two-legged talking spiders.

It was also a good outlet for all her mixed-up feelings concerning Legolas. What with all the hugging, cuddling, and almost-kissing, Buffy was so stirred up she wasn't sure how much more she could take. The cap on all of it was when she had asked Legolas how he had awakened her from her deadly sleep. Buffy's insides still got the jumps when she recalled how he had looked at her in that moment.

Since then, things had cooled off. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but he now seemed different around her, a little guarded, as if he wished to conceal something from her. Even though they still rode together, he rarely spoke to her, except when necessary. However, in contrast to his silence, he seemed to always be near her when they did battle. Though not unusual when you were a part of a five-person fighting battalion, it did seem that whenever she launched herself into a group of orcs, he would immediately join her. It was a bit irritating.

Tonight, she had encouraged him to be elsewhere when they fought. Well, it was less encouragement and more of a "get your own monsters, these are mine!" kind of thing. Buffy regretted it a little, partly because Legolas was a great guy to have at your back in a fight, but mostly because he'd seemed a little hurt when she'd told him to go.

So Elrohir and Buffy had taken on a camp south of the gate, while Legolas, Gimli, and Elladan attacked a party a little further up the mountainside. They had split up a while ago when Elladan had spotted the second group preparing to fire at them. Legolas let go a flurry of arrows, while Gimli charged forward with a roar, head-on into the fray. Legolas followed out of concern for his friend, as did Elladan. That left Elrohir and Buffy to finish off the first camp, which was proving difficult as they just kept coming, popping out of crevices and holes in the ground. For every orc they killed, three more would take its place.

"What is with the endless supply?" Buffy grunted as she kicked yet another orc in the face. "We need some huge cans of Raid, or maybe a-" she ducked a swing from an orc's sword before gutting it with her own. "- couple of grenades," she finished, before diving into another fight.

"I never have any idea what you're talking about, girl," Elrohir complained darkly. He was trying to concentrate on eliminating as many orcs as possible, and Buffy's incessant talking was driving him a little mad.

"Poison. Explosives," Buffy explained, while cutting off a limb here and a head there. "Explosives are extremely effective. I should know. I once blew up a giant snake…"

"Quiet! Will you please cease your chatter?" Elrohir killed two orcs by cutting their heads off in succession, his annoyance at Buffy giving him an extra boost of strength.

But Buffy was too busy too respond this time. Six orcs surrounded her, and, though she fended off their attacks as best she could, she was quickly becoming overwhelmed. She used her fists, feet, sword, and, at times, other orcs, when she could dodge one's charge and cause it to plow into another.

Elrohir was in a similar predicament, and he yelled for assistance. "Muindor! Tolo hidh dad a edreitho nîn!"

Moments later, a figure appeared, running swiftly and lightly down the side of the mountain. He came to a halt about a quarter of a mile away and began firing arrows into both Elrohir and Buffy's opponents. Each arrow hit its mark faithfully, and the ones that did not kill provided the other two warriors opportunities to deal fatal blows.

As the dust settled, Buffy, Elrohir, and the other elf stayed tense and poised for further conflict, but none came. The elf on the mountainside jogged down to meet them. Elrohir turned to thank and embrace him, but checked himself when he saw the face of their savior.

"Ah, it's you, is it, Legolas? Where is my brother?" he asked, his brow knit in concern.

"He is occupied at the moment, but is in one piece," Legolas assured him cheerfully. "I was closer and able to come more quickly when you called." He glanced over at Buffy appraisingly. "Are you all right?"

Buffy was examining her damaged sweater once more and nodded absently. "I'm fine, but I think my sweater's dead." She pulled at the slashed garment regretfully and inquired, "Where's the nearest shopping mall?"

Legolas chuckled and walked over to her. "I think I may have an extra tunic you could wear. We will not find any markets between here and Imladris, unfortunately." When he got closer to her, he noticed that the garment in question was soaked in red blood along the tear. Panicked, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled at the sweater to examine her wound. Buffy let out a shout of protest, but he held her fast. A jagged, red cut that began near her collarbone and stretched downwards toward her heart was oozing blood.

"You're hurt!" he exclaimed in alarm.

"You and your statements of the blatantly obvious," she chastised him, while pulling out of his grasp. "I'm okay, it's not a big deal."

He grabbed her hand and started pulling her to where they'd stashed the horses and their belongings. "We need to get something to bandage you with."

Without warning, a gruff cry rent the air from somewhere further up the mountain. "Baruk Khazad! Khazad aimenu!"

Another voice cried out, one full of apprehension and dread. "Gimli! Do not follow-" But Elladan's cry was cut short by a grunt and the clash of steel. Legolas, Buffy, and Elrohir hurried up the path to where their friends battled.

Elrohir's steps quickened when his brother's panicked voice sounded yet again. "Muindor!Si nâ nuru nín mabedi dulu lín!"

When they came upon him, they found Elladan surrounded by at least ten Uruk-hai. "Ai! Elbereth! Where did they come from?" Elrohir cried as he rushed forward to assist.

"Damn, those guys are big!" Buffy exclaimed, wide-eyed. "Looks like they've been eating their Wheaties." Buffy made an attempt to join the fray, but was stopped short by Legolas. She looked up at him, confusion and annoyance in her eyes. She took in his concerned expression and knew exactly what he was thinking. "Don't even say it, Legolas. Not unless you want something jammed straight up your ass!" She shrugged off his restraining arm and jumped into the fight with her sword raised.

All through the battle, Legolas stayed close to Buffy, stabbing and killing just before she had a chance to take care of business herself. Finally, she'd had enough, and she screeched at him in exasperation, "Stop hovering!"

To her relief, Legolas left her alone after that, and they quickly finished off the Uruk-hai. Exhausted and gasping for breath, they checked themselves for wounds and wiped the sweat from their brows. Legolas suddenly looked around in alarm and asked, "Where's Gimli?"

Elladan gasped in dismay. "I'd forgotten! After the Uruks came upon us, he chased two of them beyond that copse of trees," he said pointing in the direction the dwarf had disappeared. "We must hurry. I feared he was being led into a trap." With that, the four of them took off into the wooded area.

Indeed, it was a trap, for as soon as they set foot on the path Gimli had taken, they were jumped by a party of orcs and Uruks. Chaos ensued as Buffy and the Elves tried to fight their way out of the mess, hacking, kicking, and stabbing. Gimli's angry yells cut through the fracas, and Legolas tried desperately to extricate himself, but there were too many to for him to break free.

Being much smaller, Buffy was able to duck down and inflict damage from a lower level, felling orcs and Uruks by cutting off limbs, and leaping over the remains. She worked her way out of the mass of bodies and, following the sound of Gimli's voice, she ran as fast and as hard as she could.

She soon came upon a dreadful scene. Twenty orcs were simultaneously attacking Gimli, who bravely threw off each creature that came at him. He had a deep cut on his axe arm, and two black, gnarled arrows were sticking out of one shoulder. Though he kept on fighting, he was getting tired, and his blows were growing weaker.

Buffy took a running leap and triple-kicked one orc from behind, slashing her sword to decapitate another when she landed. Swinging the weapon over her head and kicking out with her right foot, she took out two more. She pivoted and cut through three more orcs before stabbing the sword behind her with two hands, running an orc through.

Grabbing yet another dead orc's sword, she fought her way to Gimli, a weapon in each hand. Orc after orc fell to her fury, and she lost all thought save to help her friend. At last she reached him, and just in time, for Gimli had fallen to his knees, and his axe had been rent from his hands. The foul being standing over him had raised its sword for a death blow, when, uttering a primeval shriek, Buffy leapt, her two swords raised over her head. The sword in her right hand cut through the orc, slicing it from shoulder to hip, while the one in her left hand lopped off its head. Silence rang through the trees, leaving only the echo of Buffy's war cry and the dwarf's labored breathing.

Gimli stared at Buffy, his dark eyes wide. She was an absolute mess, coated with the blood and viscera of the orcs as well of some of her own blood. Her hair was a wild tangle that tumbled all around her shoulders and face, and the fierceness in her eyes spoke of the untamed power that resided in her blood.

She held his gaze for a moment, coming down off of the high that slaying always provided her. Buffy stood, feet apart, a blood-caked sword in each hand, feeling every inch like the warrior that she was.

"Woo! Head rush!"

She closed her eyes, shook her head, dropped the sword in her left hand, and reached out for Gimli. The Dwarf, however, refused to take her hand, preferring to stand on his own.

"I was just about to take care of them myself, you know," Gimli grumbled, his cheeks a little enflamed.

Buffy was a little taken aback initially, but she was used to this. Some men had a hard time accepting the fact that their lives had been saved by a girl. Others tended to just hit on her. "Yeah. I know." She bent to retrieve his axe.

Gimli accepted his weapon from her gratefully and winced. His arm looked pretty bad, and those arrows in his shoulder were stuck quite fast. "However," he assented awkwardly, "your help was most appreciated."

"Welcome," Buffy answered, trying not to smile at his embarrassed gruffness. She gestured for him to precede her back to where she had left the elves. "Come on. Let's get back to the others before Legolas wets his pants worrying about you."

This got a laugh from the dwarf, albeit a rather wheezy-sounding one. Buffy frowned in concern, wondering if he was injured elsewhere.

"Gimli!"

They looked up to see the three elves, Legolas in the fore. They all sighed with relief when they saw Gimli, but were immediately exclaiming over his wounds.

"We must get you back to our camp," Elrohir said gravely. "Those arrows may be coated with poison."

Elladan ran ahead to prepare a poultice for Gimli's wounds, as well as ointment for the others. Legolas was a bit scratched up, as was Elrohir. Buffy's chest wound was no longer bleeding, but still looked angry and red.

"I was so worried for you both," Legolas told Buffy and Gimli, his profound relief evident in his fair face. "There were so many of them."

"Nothing we couldn't handle," Gimli coughed, and Buffy nodded in agreement.

"Yep. Gim here had everything under control," Buffy told the others. "I just helped with the clean-up." Gimli looked up at Buffy in surprise, but said nothing.

They walked on in silence, everyone exhausted by the numerous battles fought that night. They all still felt apprehensive as they had no way of knowing if it was completely over, since Moria still housed thousands of orcs. But the sun was due to rise in about an hour, so they held onto the hope that the activity would now die down.

Reaching their camp, Legolas ushered Gimli over to Elladan, who had gotten a fire going. Pouring water from his skein into a kettle, he prepared some herbs for boiling. Buffy hung back, not wanting to be too close by when they pulled those arrows out.

She looked down at herself to check the slash mark on her chest. To her surprise, not only had the bleeding stopped, but the cut was almost completely healed over. The skin was pink instead of red, and she traced it with a finger. It no longer even hurt. This sort of wound usually took about half a day to heal, not half an hour.

Buffy stood staring into space, her mind abuzz. First, her broken ankle had healed double- quick, and now this gash had done the same. What in the frilly heck was going on? She didn't know how long she stood there, lost in thought. It took Elrohir several loud attempts to budge her from her stupor. When his voice finally broke through her reverie, she jumped and covered the healing wound with her hand.

"I don't know! I mean, what?" she responded to whatever inquiry he had made. Elrohir just blinked at her, bewildered.

"I asked if you had any clean cloths we could use," he repeated for the fourth time, looking at her warily.

Buffy finally came back to the present and shook her head. "No. Sorry. Came into this world with nothing but me and myself."

"Anything the matter?"

"No!" she replied a little too hastily. "I'm just…wondering what happened to my axe is all." Buffy made a show of looking for her borrowed weapon.

"You lost my axe, Slayer?" Gimli's angry shout echoed across the mountainside.

"No! Nope! I know exactly where it is!" she assured him. "Just remembered where I left it. I'll go get it." Buffy turned to go back to the first battle site.

"Shall I accompany you?" Elrohir called after her.

"No, I'll be right back!" Buffy called to him as she left the area. Elrohir watched her go for a second, then ran down to join his brother and Legolas in assisting Gimli.

Buffy trudged up the hill, looking for the tree in which her axe was embedded. Spotting it almost immediately, she ran to it and tugged it out with little effort. Recalling the temperamental trees she had met in Fangorn, she paused. "Uh…sorry about that. Not really my fault, but it doesn't look so bad."

Realizing she was apologizing to a tree, she rolled her eyes and headed back down to camp where she could hear the others preparing to pull the arrows out of Gimli's shoulder. She stopped and winced, hearing his strangled cry as the first one was extracted. "Ow," she muttered sympathetically.

Rounding the boulder that hid their camp, she stopped and flinched again at Gimli's roar as the second arrow came out. Gimli sat, bare-chested, with two oozing, black and red wounds on his right deltoid and a nasty gash in his left arm. Buffy watched as Elrohir took a cloth soaked in the liquid from the boiling kettle and administered it to Gimli's wounds.

Gimli's entire body jerked, nearly throwing Elrohir off his feet. "That stings!" he exclaimed.

Legolas was treating the gash in Gimli's arm with another medicated cloth and had to hold himself steady when the dwarf reacted violently to his ministrations. Elladan then wrapped a bandage around the arm once the cloth had been removed, frowning as he fixed it into place. None of them had noticed Buffy's return.

Buffy walked toward her companions, holding up the axe and calling down to Gimli. "Hey, Gimli! I found it. Hope that helps with the agonizing pain. It's not much, but I think it'll- ahhh!"

Buffy let out a horrifying scream of agony and froze in her tracks. Legolas, Gimli, Elrohir, and Elladan turned to look at her and their eyes widened in horror. Buffy's body went entirely numb and she could neither move nor speak. Slowly, she looked down to see the sharp end of an orc's sword protruding from her stomach.

She let out a guttural cry as the jagged, curved sword was cruelly rent from her body with a sickening noise. The hand holding Gimli's axe slackened and the weapon fell, taking forever to reach the ground. Buffy watched as it bounced and clattered in slow motion until it lost momentum and finally stilled. Her breath came in croaks through her wide-open mouth. Time became protracted, and her vision swam. Lifting her head, she watched as Legolas fired an arrow that whistled over her head to embed itself between the eyes of the orc that had gutted her.

Buffy's body gave out at last and she began to crumple where she stood, but was stopped short of hitting the ground by a pair of strong arms. She blearily looked up into Legolas's frightened eyes before slumping forward onto his chest and slipping quickly into darkness.

Translations:

Muindor! Tolo hidh dad a edreitho nîn! Brother! Come down here and help me!
Baruk Khazad! Khazad aimenu! Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!
Muindor!Si nâ nuru nín mabedi dulu lín Brother! Now it is my turn to request your assistance!

Please don't hate me for leaving you hanging, or for anything else, while you're at it! I promise I'm not as evil as you think! Chapter 27 is being written!