Champion of house Cadash

Ch2.

Mahkel was at the head of the forward unit, a force consisting of seventy men. Their mission was to scout ahead and work to remove any threats ahead of the main force. When they turned a corner however, what they found turned out to not be darkspawn, but a group of humans, all wearing armor decorated with a white eye surrounded by flames.

One of the humans turned around and saw the approaching dwarves. He quickly alerted the other men around him and they all drew their weapons. Mahkel and his men followed suit, all of them stood with weapons ready. Mahkel counted about a dozen of them, and smirked at the fact that the soldiers of Orzammar outnumbered the humans more than four to one. The one whom Mahkel assumed was the leader stepped forward. She wore no helmet, unlike her comrades, who were all masked by helms that covered their heads.

The woman spoke first, using an accent that Mahkel had to listen to very carefully to understand. "I'm Cassandra Pentaghast of the Seekers of Truth! Who is the leader of your unit?"

Mahkel stepped forward, his weapons were down, but ready to fight should the need arise. "I am the commander of this unit; I'm Mahkel of House Cadash! What is it you seek so far from the dwarven lines?"

Cassandra looked about to say something, when the ground began to shake below them. A strange green glow began appear from seemingly nowhere. Cassandra and her seekers all turned in the direction of the strange glow. And what they saw was what Mahkel assumed they were looking for.

A portal of some sort had appeared on the far wall down the hallway. It was colored a poisonous green, and seemed to have waves of energy that came from the center and stopped at the edges. After growing to an impressive size, shapes began to form from within. They were like nothing that Mahkel had ever seen before. Tall dark brown creatures possessing one glowing eye emerged; they seemed to grow out of the shadows on the ground. They charged in great numbers towards the group of humans and dwarves. "SHADES!" One of the Seekers shouted, drawing his sword, his comrades doing the same. Mahkel raised his own weapons and turned to his second in command. "Send the order down the line to draw weapons and prepare for battle, and it's not darkspawn, humans are allies!"

"Yes Commander" He rushed off to deliver the orders to the rest the men. Mahkel raised his shield and led the charge of his men into the tide of Shades that were trying to flank the Seekers.

Mahkel swung his sword into the chest region of the first shade to come within his reach. The creature lurched forward, which was all Mahkel needed to know he had dealt some damage. He slashed again, aiming at its face, but the creature was able to dodge. It retaliated with a swipe of its claws, which Mahkel blocked with his shield. He bashed the demon with his shield and followed up with another slash of his sword. The blade carved through the monsters flesh, and while it was bent over in pain, he stabbed it through the head.

The creature fell to floor and moved no more. Mahkel looked around him, and saw that the rest of his men were arriving, but so were more Shades. It seemed that his men took at least one Shades each for every one of them, but they were growing increasingly out numbered. He looked at the Seekers and saw that their numbers had nearly been halved.

He fought threw another Shade and now stood back to back with Cassandra. "Seeker! We need to fall back and regroup or we're all done for!" Cassandra grunted, slashed a shade across the chest.

"Do you have a place we can retreat to dwarf?"

"We passed a Thaig on the way here, if we can seal the door behind us, it should buy us some time!" Cassandra nodded, and signaled her men to fall back and follow her, with Mahkel calling for his men to do the same. With some difficulty, and some casualties, the force of human and dwarf fell back the way they had come. Mahkel noticed that the Shades could glide along the ground reasonably fast, but with some carful work, (And a well-placed trap or two) they soon gained a lead.

The doors of the Thaig were just ahead, but the Shades were finally closing in on them. Mahkel was bringing up the rear of the column of men, watching out for stragglers, and acting as rear guard. He saw the gates preparing to close, and quickened his pace. He could sense the presence of a Shade reaching out for him, and could see the gates closing. He made a final jump and rolled inside as the gate closed behind him.

He pushed himself up onto all fours, and looked at the massive door that was now their shield. One of the men of his unit offered him a hand, which he took. Standing up he looked about and saw that many of his men weren't present. After a quick look over, he had to assume that he had lost at least half of his men, and there were likely even more demons by now. He found his second in command and waved him over. "Tell the men to do as they please for the next two hours." He nodded and went to tell the men.

He walked over to where Cassandra was standing with her men. "Well Seeker, got any plans on how to kill those demons?"