ARC 3 PART 4-3
2 Hours Later
The Giant Eagle comes swooping into the continent across the sea from Vale. It’s a dark and brooding land. A stark reminder of a bygone era of war and untamed evil. The Eagle sat down the rolled carpet that carried myself, Wraith, and Arduwan in. As we unraveled ourselves it took us a moment to find our footing again. Not only were we a little dizzy but our muscles were cramped from laying in place for so long.
After the bird left, Wraith posed an interesting question.
“How are we going to get back?” he said, as we watched it fly away back over the sea behind us. We had been placed right atop some coastal cliffs with waves crashing below us. Up ahead was the dark brush of an unknown land.
“We’ll have to figure that out later,” I replied, “for now, we just need to cautiously move forward.”
We gathered ourselves and our things and started inland. According to the Oracle, the Tower of Mardu wasn’t far from the coast since it was once used as a beacon to signal impending threats to citizens of Vale. We certainly would have seen it ourselves on the way in if not for being wrapped up in that carpet.
As we scurried into the brush, I halted for a moment and made a suggestion.
“Hang on a minute. If I cast Perimeter Check, then we’ll be tipped off by anything we come across that tries to get the jump on us. The only problem is, I won’t be able to cast anything else while using it. So Arduwan, stick close beside me and I’ll keep my sword drawn. Wraith, you walk just behind us so you can make an evasive maneuver if we get into a fight.”
They both nodded to me and got into position. But then the unexpected happened. The moment I cast the spell, fear washed over my face.
“Eric, what’s wrong?” Arduwan asked.
I couldn’t bring out words. I was completely shaken in fear. Every fiber of my being trembled. I could tell the others were getting scared just at the sight of my paling complexion.
Just as I was about to faint, Arduwan put her hand on my shoulder and asked, “what is it?”
“Yeah, buddy, what’s wrong?” Wraith added.
I was finally able to muster the words, “Hundreds…there’s hundreds of adversaries appearing on my psychic radar from the Perimeter Check spell.”
“What?! What are they?” asked Wraith.
“I…I…I don’t know. The spell only indicates locations. I can’t even determine friend from foe with it. But do you really think that whatever it is out there in this place is friendly? I mean, I doubt we’re stumbling upon a woodstock concert.”
“Well,” Arduwan courageously noted, “there’s only one way for us to find out.”
She took a few steps forward into the bush and looked back at us to signal for us to move ahead. At least we knew there was something out there even if we didn’t know what just yet.
Wraith and I stepped forward and were shoulder to shoulder with Arduwan as we moved through the brush. We made it about fifty more feet from where I first detected the presence of foes. Through the treeline, we could see what must’ve been the tower, so we crept a little closer to the edge of a clearing.
All three of us got down to a crawling position as we peered through the vegetation to get a better look. And there it was. A white tower, comparatively about twenty stories tall to buildings in my world. We were about three quarters of a mile away from the base of it. And lo and behold, between us and the tower, was a field of orcs!
The orcs were stationed in multiple encampments between us and the tower, as if they were guarding it. No, it was as if this was a rallying point for something greater. Nothing about their positioning looked like it was permanent. There must’ve been easily two hundred of them. If not, three hundred.
We were slightly uphill from them and the nearest group of orcs was about a football field's length from us. Most of the orcs we could see were about six foot tall, not much more than me and Wraith. But they were bound with muscle, had thick, pale green looking skin, and pig-like facial features. They mostly carried crude weapons such as clubs, axes, warhammers, and spears. Some had shields and a few had pieces of armor, clearly pillaged from fallen warriors.
“Well, we’re dead,” Wraith resigned himself and declared our defeat.
“Not so fast, man. We can figure something out. You’re the great strategist here after all.”
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“I have a plan, Eric,” said Arduwan, who usually followed our lead rather than make decisions herself.
“What do you have in mind?”
“You know how fast I can run. If I can get out there and cause a diversion, I’m sure I could lead most of the orcs away from here. You and Wraith should be able to fight your way to the tower then and get the Cleric out. He’s probably trapped in there since all of them are here out front. I can circle back around and meet with you once I think the coast is clear.”
“Arduwan, that’s a great idea!”
“Holdup,” Wraith interrupted, “I’m not so sure about this. I mean, you do realize this isn’t some Disneyfied fairy tale right? Those things are like First Edition AD&D orcs out there. You know how amorous those things can get? They’re gonna take one look at Arduwan and become uncontrollably ravenous.”
Arduwan sighed and said, “Uhh, Wraith. I can handle myself. I know what they’re capable of and that’s why I thought to do this. Don’t worry, I’m confident I can outrun them. Ask Eric. I can run for hours without getting winded.”
That was true. During our training together we would sometimes loop the country roads near the mansion and after a while she would lap me.
“It’s alright, man. Trust her. She was born to do this stuff,” I said.
He didn’t seem convinced, but he looked at Arduwan and saw her resolve before saying, “alright. It’s not like we have many other options. Do we?”
“No, we don’t.”
So after a few minutes of preparations and going over the plan one more time, we decided to take action.
Wraith and I stayed undercover not far from where we first looked out over the orc horde. Arduwan went lower downhill before exposing herself from the brush, that way she could get a running start before any of them noticed her. It would be on her signal that we would act.
“Now remember, Wraith. I have to maintain concentration for this to work. And I’m gonna be pretty weak once we reach the tower door from casting another spell, so I may be out of magic for a while.”
“Yeah yeah, I gotcha. Let’s just hope she gets enough of them out of here to make it worth it. Then we won’t have anything to worry about.”
Suddenly, Arduwan burst from the treeline in a full sprint. She tore off running like Usain Bolt in a direction away from the tower but flat enough for her to have little resistance. Even under these dire circumstances it was hard not to admire the sculpted elegance of Arduwan’s physique. It was like a scene from Baywatch of her running in her skimpy adventuring outfit as her thighs jiggled and her ample bosom bounced.
The entire orc encampment looked in her direction. You could see their salivating gaze even from where we stood. Without hesitation, a large group of them began moving in her direction. Just as she was about to disappear into the treeline once again, you could hear what was almost like a clap of thunder from the mass movement of well over one hundred orcs. A moment later, dozens more joined their ranks in pursuit of the buxom blonde barbarian beauty.
“It worked!” I noted, careful not to alert the remaining orcs, “look, there’s only a few dozen left. And they’re pretty spread out.”
“Yeah, but there’s about ten of em near the tower door,” Wraith pointed out.
“Let’s just go. We can’t let Arduwan run out there forever so let's use this advantage she gave us.”
“Right!”
“Wall’s of Reflection!” I said, as I cast a spell around me and Wraith that made a perfect square of invisible walls that would project around us what was on the other side. Basically, if you stood between two people, each person would see one another but not the person in the middle casting the spell.
We moved quickly. I had never used this spell before and even though I had been flexing the magic muscle quite a bit lately, I could already feel myself fatiguing from projecting a double sized wall around the two of us.
We were now down in the field. The other orcs seemed to be distracted from the excitement moments ago and went back to doing whatever they were doing. Some built fires, some cooked, others just grazed.
There was a fair bit of ground to cover before we reached the tower door but I was confident we could at least make it there before I ran out of MP. Getting the door open and passing the orcs guarding outside was a different story. Wraith would probably have to kick it into high gear for that one.
Hastily, we made our way down through the clearing. We easily passed by the small encampments of orcs without any of them noticing us. Thankfully, we didn’t have to get too close to any of them anyway. That is, until we got near the larger group at the base of the tower.
I signaled Wraith to stop about ten yards away from the group of orcs we saw earlier. I counted nine of them. I was just about to signal for us to rotate around them and get to the door to try and open it and get inside before they noticed when something unexpected happened. A single orc stood up and walked in front of me. We stood completely still. He started sniffing the air, but remained in place about three feet away from us. After a moment, he grabbed his axe and swung mightily in our direction.
Wraith and I sprang backwards and my lack of concentration broke the spell. We were now clearly visible. The orcs sense must’ve indicated humans were here and he instinctively reacted. The benefit was, I wasn’t nearly as drained from the spell as I should’ve been since I ended it earlier than I had originally planned. The disadvantage was, now we had a fight!
The orc stepped forward and swung again. I dodged to the left. Wraith went airborne and somersaulted over the orc. When he landed behind him, he drove his scimitar into the orcs back. By now, the other eight orcs nearby were coming to their feet and advancing on us. I drew my bow and immediately felled two of them in rapid succession. Thanks Higgins.
Wraith was completely in rock and roll mode too. After the first three orcs went down, he dropped a smoke bomb and cloaked our movements. One, two, three, four! Using his throwing daggers, he eliminated four more of the orcs. When the smoke went up, I shouldered my bow and drew my sword. I had eyeballed the location of the remaining nearby orcs and annihilated them under the cover of smoke.
Of course, the other orcs in the area didn’t just let all of this happen. They had started converging on our location the moment the battle began. Thankfully, they were spread out and far away from the tower. We had plenty of time to open the door and get inside before the smoke cleared and they reached us.