Storri bellowed and chopped this way and that with his axes. Rivers of blood flowed below his feet, and he was having trouble keeping his footing on the mound of Orc bodies below his feet. He was covered in wounds, cuts so deep they would have felled a human. An Orc lunged at him, swinging its choppa towards his legs to bring him down, but Storri was quicker. He shattered the Orc's choppa in two then bought the second of his axes down on the things skull. The blow cleaved the head in two, it splitting apart as brains spilled out over the other blood covered bodies.
"Come now cousin Urgrim!" the slayer shouted, "there is plenty for the both of us!" he looked below at his cousin fighting against a huge troll.
Urgrim panted and rolled aside, aiming one of his pistols into the hideous beasts face and letting a shot ring out before him. The troll reared backwards, black blood spewing forth from the wound. Urgrim laughed and pulled a powder bomb from his belt, stuffed it into the hole he had made with the gunshot and ducked under flaying arms, diving towards his slayer cousin. With a crack and a bang the troll went rent apart. A shower of flesh and organs flew into the air, sending those around the troll to the floor holding their ears.
"Well done haha!" Storri shouted, pulling his cousin up from the bodies and shaking him off.
Around them the battle was in the balance. The spearmen and the knights had fought themselves into a pocket of resistance, the wounded in the middle firing arrow and shot over the heads of those manning the defensive circle. Storri and Urgrim were too the right of it, atop a mound of the dead, even the larger Orcs were now becoming afraid of climbing the mound and facing his axes. Oswald shouted orders and hacked through Orcs with his men around him, swinging the greatsword through three, four at a time. Ulthen and his White Wolves had pulled back into the centre of the ring, four of their number sporting mortal wounds. Ulthen himself was fine, not a scratch on him and yet still caked in blood and gore.
"We will not hold out long" Ulthen said, dragging Oswald over too him and sending a glare towards the mound where the dwarves fought.
Oswald panted for breath "But, we…must…hold here!" he said, watching as a pair of trolls grabbed into the line of spearmen and pulled a handful into the air, crushing them in an instant.
Ulthen shouted an order and a pair of his knights waded towards the trolls, swinging their hammers and chanting Ulric's name. But even as the brave knights fought their way into the swirling melee a thudding boom sounded and the ground shook. Those in the middle, the wounded, the dying looked up and blanched. The giant, the lumbering beast which had placed the stone across the river smashed its way through the taverns to the right of the street and waded through fleeing Orcs towards the spearmen, its gigantic club held over its head.
Oswald gulped and steeled himself. Ulthen too growled and made the sign of Sigmar on his chest.
"May those two get back here soon, we won't last the night".
*
Leopold and Urdafine ran down the street, breathless and fighting against burning muscles. Ahead of them the squire Dwind shouted and beckoned for them to hurry up.
"How is that child so fast?" Urdafine panted, even his elven limbs hurting from the running.
"Sigmar blesses his feet with leather soles and muscles with wood" driven by a desire to help his kin, an admirable quality.
Urdafine cocked and eyebrow before standing again and running after the boy, Leopold following behind as his plate armour clanked and made him sweat within it. They carried on in this fashion for ten more minutes, following Dwind through alleyways, down muddy back roads until finally they found themselves a few hundred metres from the camp and the Inn of The Rotten Mule. Dwind had finally stopped to catch his breath stood to greet the elf and human as they ran round the corner, nearly bumping into him.
Leopold nodded and wheezed. "Finally, here, no more damnable running!" He was about to stand when he felt a hand on his shoulder and felt himself dragged down to the floor with a slam.
The sound of arrows whizzed in the air above him and he watched as their shafts thudded into the wall behind him. Two however found a different mark. Leopold looked up from the dirt at Dwind, two arrows stuck fast into his chest plate, blood trickling down his green tabard. The young squire's eyes were wide with terror as he fell to his knees. Urdafine ran too him, holding his body and staring back behind him, whispering a spell and watching a magical shield appear around the three of them. Leopold stood and pulled the hammer from his side and ran towards the source of the arrows. He ducked more arrows, forgetting the words of Urdafine behind him and focused on the red glint of eyes coming from the ruins of an old house. Damn Goblins, they had followed them the whole way here, and now the poor lad was dying despite his faith and strength of will.
The goblins, fearless with their numbers leapt from the darkness and with chattering words of vice went for him. Leopold roared and kicked the first coming towards him. The goblin doubled over, dropping its little dagger and fell to the floor in a clump. Leopold smashed the hammer into its spine and made the once goblin a mess now on the cobbles. Two more scrabbled up Leopold's back as he hefted his hammer from the ruined goblin corpse. They stabbed down at him with rusty daggers, the blade chinking off of his plate armour, Leopold moving just enough to stop them getting to his exposed neck. He reached behind him and grabbed the ear of one, tugging the goblin off him and holding it in the air, swinging the hammer into its head and crackling the things spine to pieces. The other goblin on his back found a weak point and slid the dagger into his side. Leopold yelled in pain and shook the creature off, bringing his boot down on its face and crushing it before him. He winced at the dagger in his side and yanked it out, swearing through the pain as blood gushed from the wound, the last of the goblins, four of them, stalked towards him, cruel daggers drawn and licking their lips at his bloody wound. A blast of fire passed over his head, and engulfed the goblins that, surprised, panicked as their robes caught light and rolled around as the eldritch fire licked at their flesh. Urdafine strode past him and let a gout of fire flash from his hands, sending the goblins sprawling in mangled heaps. He pressed a flaming hand against Leopold's side and with a stench of burning flesh cauterised the wound.
"Blasted hell!" Leopold said "Sigmar be damned these foul creatures!"
Urdafine looked to the burning corpses and then behind him the body of Dwind, they had hardly known the boy. "I could not save him, his life gave out too quick" he hung his head.
Leopold winced and used his hammer for support. "You could not have done anything Urdafine, we must press on."
As the two of them walked past the body of Dwind it hurt to leave him, so close to their goal. They would tell the guards when they arrived. Hobbling the rest of the way, keeping an eye peeled in all directions for any more of the ambushing forces they neared the tavern and the town square. As they walked past training soldiers, milling townspeople, old men telling war stories and the general quiet of the place Leopold looked everywhere for the man in charge, someone of office. It didn't take them long. In the middle of it all was a long table, covered in maps of the city and surrounded by a plethora of shouting generals and captains. One of them looked up as the bloody priest and his elven ally walked towards them.
"Who goes there" he said, calling two guards from beside him who walked forwards with swords drawn.
"We have news" Urdafine said grimly. "Dire news"
*
The Orcs had retreated now, the giant was making its mark and that's all that mattered to them. What was left of the spearmen, and the knights were desperately ducking and diving around its massive swings, avoiding its huge feet and sending spears flying towards it, hacking at its legs to try and bring it down. The two dwarves however were having much more fun. Being accustomed to fighting giants they were in their element. Urgrim stood back, out of range of its swings and fired his rifle in controlled bursts at the giants face, trying to hit it in its eyes and blind the thing. Storri was on the beast himself, his axes wedged into its arm and climbing up it, laughing like a maniac as he did.
Urgrim shouted from below "It's out! The eye it out!" before turning and running away as the giant lunged for him with its huge hands.
Storri glanced with his one good eye at the bloody stream of crimson dripping from one of the giants ruined eyes and wrenched one of the axes free. With a bellow of dwarven curses he leapt from the giants arm and sunk his axe into the huge cheeks of the creature. It bit deep, cutting into the soft flesh. Storri held on for dear life and instead with great strength swung a punch at the giant's eye socket. The punch connected, a howl of pain which made the air shake sounded and the giant stumbled around backwards, it swung a meaty hand towards Storri in an effort to get him off. Storri however had it all planned out. As the giants punch came towards him he loosed his axe and dropped, flying towards the ground some twenty feet below. He landed with a crack and rolled down Orc and human bodies alike and watched, still laughing as the giant punched itself in the jaw. With a sickening crunch the giants jaw shattered, blood spraying from its nose. It stumbled a little more, the danger of it falling growing every second.
Oswald shouted loudly so all could hear "Take its legs! Cut the tendons!" he raced forwards with a group of soldiers and they began hacking at the giants legs, chopping at its flesh. The giant didn't even respond.
With a sound like a tree falling, the giant creaked on its bones and started to fall. It crashed backwards, falling through the ruins of buildings and settled in a cloud of dust and shattered stone. The defenders cheered, turning and gathering together, weapons still drawn. Urgrim ran to where Storri was, a bloody mess with a large bone jutting out of his left arm. The slayer laughed even then and struggled to his feet as his cousin neared.
"You reckless fool!" Urgrim said, supporting him and shouting around for some help.
"Haha, all in a days work cousin! Just a shame the damn dumb beast did not kill me!" Storri spat out two teeth and gripped his arm. "Bloody hurts that" he said, wincing a little.
"Should think so!" Urgrim growled, as a pair of soldiers and Oswald ran over, Ulthen the White Wolf behind him.
"Where are the rest of the greenskin bastards?" Storri asked, looking around as he saw the spearmen sitting down, resting and catching their breath.
Oswald was about to talk when Ulthen interjected. "They routed, turned round and ran into the streets. They may have fled from us but that means the others are in danger, Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, all manner of creatures are loose in the streets and will fight to the death, kill all they find, like a dog trapped they will be deadly." He turned with this and walked to his own men, only a handful left.
Oswald glared at him before turning to the two dwarves, one of his men was holding Storri's arm but couldn't quite work out how to fix it. Storri could tell this and was trying to wrench it free of the human.
"I hope that your friend have been able to warn the others" Oswald said, looking at the bloody ruin around them. Bodies lain everywhere, Orc and human, the houses around the street burnt and ruined.
"They will" Urgrim said sternly, "They will honour their part of the task, but it seems that they will have more than they bargained for if these Orcs have truly gone ransacking.
Oswald nodded. "We will give the men a few moments rest then be on our way, we must follow the trail of destruction and help those who still dwell in the town centre."
With a flash and a familiar stench Leopold, holding his side, bandaged up, stood with Urdafine before them. Neither Urgrim nor Storri seemed surprised at this, only the men at Oswald's side yelled and retreated from the spell caster and priest as they smoked with magic.
"The rest of the army is warned" Leopold said, gasping for breath and using his hammer for support. "They gather their forces and prepare to fight."
"The Orc have split and gone raiding, they fill the streets with their kind and hide in buildings, ready to ambush, it will much harder now to remove them from the district." Oswald said, sighing.
Urdafine looked to the fallen giant and the mass of bodies around the street and houses. "It seems we have already bested them once, with their dwindled numbers in such pockets we should be able to hunt and kill all that are left."
Urgrim and Storri walked forwards "We will take the lead, find and destroy these greenskins before the day is out" Storri growled, annoyed that he only had the use of one of his arms.
Oswald looked at them with an anxious look upon his face. "I fear not master dwarf." Storri glowed bright red at this order.
"They are my ancestors enemies and I will be damned if I let any of them get away!" he yelled.
Urgrim joined him in his jostling and swearing and the two dwarves with beards bristling approached the old captain. Leopold held a hand up and waved them back, still wincing.
"Let the Captain speak" he said "actions before words have never helped anyone, dwarves should know this best" he frowned at the pair.
With a disenchanted grumble they settled back and glared at the human commander who with a gulp continued.
"We need your help with something else good sirs." He noticed Storri's once glaring eye had become inquisitive. "There is a manor house, across the river in the upper class part of the city which we must get too. Inside are the Elector Count's daughter and the rest of his family"
Urdafine looked at the burning buildings around him and the destruction. "I do not think anyone without military training will have survived this onslaught, they will be either fled, or dead I am certain".
Oswald's hopeful face became full of dismay "We must try, none the less. If they live I could not bare knowing that we could have gone and saved them from whatever denizens dwell in that place now, there are worse than Orcs in this city I fear"
Leopold's interest perked. He had little want to go on a wild goose chance looking for a family that could be dead, however noble the cause. Sigmar will have spared them, or taken them into his arms, but something about the captain's words spoke of something more, something deeper.
"What do you mean Oswald, what others do you believe dwell here?" he stood and watched as the faces of even the soldiers around Oswald became shifty.
Oswald spoke first "It is heresy to mention them Leopold, if a Witch Hunter were to find out we would surely be dead."
"Well you speak to a servant of Sigmar now do you not?" Leopold said "higher than that group of renegade charlatans, your words are safe with me"
One of the soldiers interjected quickly, his word more of a garbled word of worry than a statement "Skkk..Skaven!" he yelped.
Storri and Urgrim looked at each other and a glint filled their eyes. The ratmen were a fearsome enemy of the dwarves, having overrun their holds and driven many of their kind from the tunnels they were born in. Almost as hated as the damn greenskins.
"You believe in their existence?" Urdafine said, his mind too was filled with knowledge of the ratkin and their ways, having experienced their shadowy touch on more than one occasion.
The soldier turned to Oswald who took over "We have met the fiends, and told not to say a word by Ulthen and his White Wolves. They say it was a trick of the mind, mutants, nothing more, but we know better and saw them with out own eyes."
Leopold nodded "We believe you Oswald, we know of the ratkin and their kind, what they are capable of. It surprised me that we did not see any of them in the city until now, but you say they will be in the upper class district?"
"Yes, most assuredly. We met them there only two days ago in the sewers, lost four of my best men to their damn assassins."
"Then we must help the Count's daughter." Leopold said quickly "If I know these fiends they will have kept her safe, but not for a reason as honourable as protecting a maiden, they will use her for their own schemes. You are right Oswald, with your leave we will go now, fight our way too the district and secure the family"
Oswald nodded. "I will make sure Ulthen does not know, quick you must go now yes" he turned to his men and ushered them away "good luck my friends"
Leopold took Oswald's shoulder as he turned to go "When I return we must speak of Dwind"
Oswald shook his head "Do not worry yourself Leopold, I already know, I felt it when he did not return with you. Do not fear, he died in Sigmar's name and will have accepted his end."
With that he moved away, the four companions reunited trudged into a ruined building and made their way back towards the river.
"Now fix my damn arm elf-boy" Storri grumbled.