"Ily! Emily, you need to move!"
I opened my eyes to Batul kneeling beside me shaking me. My head was splitting and the air was heavy. Coughing, I asked, "what happened?" I pulled myself up onto my knees. With my palms on the ground I could still feel the heat coming off it.
"The orc betrayed us," Batul spat. "He is up there," he said pointing towards the top of what was not a massive crater. "There was an explosion and everything went white. It took awhile for my vision to come back and I saw him walking towards the stage."
With my ears still ringing from the explosion, I carefully pulled myself up with the help of Batul giving me balance. I looked up and that's when I noticed the shard of brick sticking out of Batuls left arm. "You're hurt," I stated while reaching out to the shard. "Let me help."
"I'm fine, this is nothing," Batul retorted with a forced laugh. "You should focus more on yourself. From the looks of it you and Gerald need more help than I do."
As he was finishing that last part I followed his gaze to Geralds motionless figure slumped on the ground against the wall. I turned to move towards him and winced from a pain in my leg. I started to collapse forward when Batul caught my arm.
"You need to be careful. No fast movements, I can grab Gerald." With that Batul slowly moved forward and picked up Gerald. Hoisting him up from the ground I could see even more blood flowing from the wound from the brick shard.
"I can at least help you a little," I said as I reached a feeble hand out to the orc. "You have to pull it out, though."
Looking down at the shard the orc put Gerald over his shoulder and reached out with his right hand grasping the shard. With a sickening noise the shard came out followed by a heavy flow of dark red blood. Grunting he looked at the shard and he threw it to the ground.
I concentrated, focusing all of my energy into my hand feeling it slowly begin to emanate a glowing warm light. I held it over the wound on his arm, trying to stay focused. I could see the flow of blood lessening and eventually stop and the hole started to close just as a sharp pain racked my head. I stumbled forward grasping at my forehead and struggled with an enormous pain.
"That's enough, Emily. You're too wounded to help further. You need to stay down here while I take Gerald somewhere safe." He turned looking the way we came from originally, or at least what was left of it. The explosion has caused the tunnel to collapse behind us, leaving the only way out being up.
"Stay here, I'm going to go up and look around." Batul said while adjusting Gerald on his shoulder. "I will be right back," and he turned to make his way up the incline made of rubble.
Just as he started to ascend the mound a series of explosions went off somewhere else in the courtyard, sounding almost as if it came from every direction.
I can't stay here, I thought to myself while groaning from the pain in my head. I got to my knees and started to crawl towards Batul. "Wait, I'm coming. It's not safe anywhere and I'm the only one with any kind of healing." I said looking at him firmly.
Giving me a stern look, it seemed like he was considering the situation before finally reaching out his hand to me and hefting me to my feet.
"You're right, but no more reckless actions. You're hurt and I already am carrying one person. I can't handle two while defending myself."
I nodded at the orc before me and looked over Gerald. His bright golden robe now covered in ash and soot, barely resembling anything other than a dark grey. With his face towards me I could see blood trickling down from his forehead coursing through a bunch of soot marks that marred his face.
He barely resembled the elf that I joked with earlier. "We need to get him healed, he seems to have a head injury," I stated to Batul.
"We all need to get out of this hole before we can do anything," Batul replied looking up. "Come on, we need to move. You can hold onto my back if needed," he said as he slowly started to climb the debris that made up the incline.
"I'm fine," I said, rubbing my temples, "I just needed a moment to recalibrate from everything." I slowly stood up fully and started to climb behind the orc, occasionally slipping every few feet on loose gravel.
The three of us climbed up towards the stage area. At least, what we thought was the stage. It had now been burnt and torn to around a third of its original size. As we started to near the top we could see a figure standing on the stage. “It’s him,” I growled and put my right hand onto the pommel of my sword.
“Now now, let’s not do anything hasty. You’re still badly injured and I’m not interested in seeing you kill yourself today. We need to find somewhere to regroup.” Batul placed his hand on y wrist while looking at me sternly. “We need to get away from this stage to somewhere that someone can help Gerald.”
“If we can find a place to hide I can probably help him enough. I’m injured but I should at least be able to help him. After that though…” I trailed off looking over myself. It was clear I was worse for wear. My entire outfit was covered in dust, along with my hair and face. I noticed that all of my arms were completely riddled with tiny scrapes and cuts from the explosion. I hadn’t even noticed with how bad my head was hurting.
Batul just gazed at me for a second, seeming to come to a conclusion about something he looked around. “There!” He said, pointing to a giant pile of while marble lying on the ground. “We can hide behind that downed Watcher statue.”
I followed his finger with my eyes to what was left of one of the House statues placed in corners of the courtyard. We could indeed hide behind it. It was wide enough for us to all stand behind it now that it had fallen over. “How are we even going to get there? He’s right beside us and that’s at least 20 meters away from us.”
The orc rubbed his chin for a moment in thought. “We can use the debris and the explosions to our advantage. He seems to be… Preoccupied, at the moment. We can possibly sneak out towards the edge wall and skirt around it to the statue.”
“You are all unworthy to be in the place of the Dark Ones origins!” The orc on the stage shouted. “You all hide behind each other! No one is ever willing to take steps to do what is necessary to become stronger. We have come to take everything and burn it down. We will rebuild this unholy city in the Dark Ones image.” He bellowed while gesturing at everything around him. “You all should consider yourselves lucky to get the chance to give your lives up for such a cause. It’s the only thing worth while you will have all done in your whole lives.” He continued, laughing maniacally.
Following those words he extended his left arm and, without looking, launched a massive fire blast at the governing house, causing it to erupt from the impact, setting it ablaze.
“Your lives are all so… meaningless.” He continued while raising his other hand and moving his left hand towards the Traster statue. Almost instantly another torrent of fire launched from both hands hitting the base of the statue. After mere seconds you could see the marble glowing red and the base started to liquify causing the statue to topple over towards the entrance of the courtyard.
“We need to move, NOW!” Batul said to me while pulling me to my feet after being knocked down from the explosion from the governing house. “Run to the statue!”
“But, Eldwin and my father!” I screamed turning towards the flames.
“No time, you need to move now or we all die here, Emily.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my fists. This can’t be happening. I turned to look at Batul who was shifting Gerald onto his other shoulder. “Fine,” I said. “Let’s go.” And I turned to run to the statue.
Since I'm quicker and more agile than the others I was able to dodge around fallen rocks and skirt around smoldering obstacles while Batul had to carry Gerald and do the best he could. I turned to notice that he was having to tread carefully to avoid any civilians that were unlucky enough to be caught in the first explosion.
“Hurry!” I yelled back at the orc just as I reached the statue.
As the words left my mouth I saw a stream of flame surge right towards the Filham statue, the wave of heat knocking my breath out of me. Batul wasn’t so lucky. He was only 5 meters away but he stumbled and he and Gerald went toppling over, Gerald slamming into the ground.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I scrambled out from behind the statue on my hands and knees, grabbing the shoulders of Gerald’s robes and started to drag the elf to safety. “Get up!” I screamed at Batul. “You need to hurry!”
Batul rose shakily to his feet, his armor smoking from the singed skin underneath it. He stumbled over to the statue before falling to his knees and leaning against it and began ripping off the chain mail covering his upper half. Upon throwing it to the ground I could see he was completely covered in burns and blisters.
“Are you able to continue?” I asked worriedly, looking away from the sight.
“I’ve been through worse. Give me a minute,” he replied panting, his dark green skin still smoking from the attacks.
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I’m going to die. Yep, definitely going to die, I thought to myself as I sat behind my cart covering my head from the flying debris the explosions caused. “This is just great.” I looked towards the exit to the right to see, in horror, that one of the giant statues had just fallen, crushing a handful of people while blocking the exit as well.
I groaned. “Think, Gaziz, think.” I looked over the cart to see the orc yelling something that I couldn’t quite make out and letting loose countless torrents of flames all over the courtyard. I turned to rummage through my cart. “I know I have something… Ahh!” I said as I pulled out a decently sized bear pelt. I reached into my spatial bag and pulled out one of my waterskins and put it beside the pelt.
All I have to do is loop around, past the blocked exit, and try to get out through the eastern exit near the governing house. “If I don’t get turned into goblin steak on the way,” I said to myself.
Just then another torrent of flames hit about 15 meters from the cart and I had to lean down to avoid even more of the heat. I have to do this now or I’m going to be burnt alive.
I opened my waterskin and soaked the bear pelt completely before tossing the emptied waterskin to the side. I then placed the pelt over my body using it as a shield from the heat, allowing the water to act as a makeshift barrier.
With that done, I looked around the side of my cart. Nothing. Time to go, I thought and started to dash from rock to rock until making it to the Traster statue.
“What a waste of gorgeous materials,” I murmured while rounding the statue.
Just as I did, a wave of heat emanated from the governing house as the orc unleashed more waves of flame upon it. Stopping behind a pillar that was blown apart I gathered my bearings. The pelt smoking as most of the water had evaporated from the immense heat.
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My glowing hand hovered over the bloodied elf’s face as I concentrated on him. Feeling the welcomed warmth that the light put off I focused all energy I could to healing Gerald. After what seemed like an eternity, his eyes fluttered a bit before opening. I peered into his eyes as he looked around frantically trying to organize his thoughts.
“What’s going on, Emily?” He questioned, his voice trembling. He cleared his throat, leaning up on his elbows he continued. “What happened?”
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding, “Too much to explain at the moment. We need to get out of this courtyard. The other orc,” I said pointing towards the stage, “is set on total destruction of the town for some ‘Dark One’.”I said with a grimace. “We need to move, you’ve been unconscious and Batul is hurt.”
Batul looked at us from his position giving up a wearily thumbs up. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me. Just no more armor for a while unless I want to end up having it become a permanent part of me.”
“Gerald, can you stand? How do you feel?” I asked the confused looking elf.
“I believe so.” He said while starting to get to his feet. “My neck is killing me but I think I’m otherwise okay. That healing magic you know is quite something.” He said putting a dirt covered hand on my shoulder. He walked towards Batul before uttering something and a light frost started to cover the orcs skin. “It isn’t pleasant but it will stop the burns from worsening”
“Thank you.” The orc nodded back.
“Our exit is blocked,” I pointed towards the downed Traster statue. “We need to figure out another way to live through this mess. We can possibly exit through the east or we can try to make our way north out that exit.”
Batul shook his head. “The north is a no go. It’s a literal hell right now. Everything is burning. Our only option is to make our way to the eastern exit,” he sighed.
An explosion shook the courtyard again. I looked around the pillar noticing the orc still laughing and sending more flames around the governing building.
“We need to move fast. He’s attacking the governing building even more right now. Now is our chance to run.”
Gerald moved beside me with a pained look on his face. “Eldwin…” He whispered sadly.
“My father is also there. We need to get to that building and do what we can.”
“I agree, but in our condition that is almost nothing unless the orc is taken care of first,” Gerald replied. “Besides, Batul is completely exposed. I can maybe shield him for a few moments but even I can’t keep the orc contained permanently.”
I looked back at the orc, who was sending wave after wave of flame towards the building. “Alright, Batul, stay behind us. I’m going now,” waving towards the others I dashed towards an abandoned merchant cart close to the wall.
All of us made it to the cart without incident. Looking around Gerald picked up an empty waterskin before discarding it. “What I wouldn’t give for a drink right now,” he muttered.
“I think we can make it to the statue if we hurry. He’s still distracted.” I informed the rest while pointing at the orc.
“Let’s go,” Gerald insisted as he stepped out to head towards the Traster statue. As he rounded the statue a massive explosion came from the governing house, knocking us all back a bit. “Eldwin!” Gerald yelled before beginning to sprint at the downed statue.
Following the elf, Batul and I made our way to the statue doing our best to avoid burnt corpses and flying debris.
“This is horrible,” I stated under my breath looking at the corpse of what I could only imagine was a child.
“They didn’t even have a chance,” Batul said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Come, we must get to the statue.”
All three of us managed to get to the statue before the orc turned his attention to the courtyard. Setting buildings ablaze he laughed maniacally.
“We need to figure out a way to take the orc down,” I gasped.
“We can’t at the moment,” Gerald replied, shaking his head. “Even if we managed to land a hit we’re in the open. We have to get close enough to finish him off without letting him attack us.”
“We can probably make it to the corner of the building if we use the debri as cover. There’s plenty of sizable fragments to hide behind momentarily, if needed,” Batul added.
“Okay, I can lead us a path if you guys can keep up,” I said, looking between the other two. Both of them nodded to me in response. “Okay, let’s do this,” I said looking around the statue. I took the chance to dash to a piece of debri that looked to be about 4 meters wide. With the others closely behind me I turned behind the cover just to stumble over some weird furry rodent.
“What the hell!” the weird animal said.
Shocked from the encounter, I reached for my sword just as the creature shed his fur and stood up.
“Why are you just running into people?” the goblin questioned me angrily, pointing his finger at me.
Gerald and Batul both arriving just in time to see the goblin ask this question.
“A goblin? What is a goblin doing here in the middle of all of this?” Gerald asked, confused.
“Surviving! Or I was, before this girl just knocked me over for no reason. Can’t you see I’m kind of in the middle of something here?” The goblin said mockingly. As he finished saying this he picked the pelt back up, opened up a bag he was wearing, and dropped it into it. It just… disappeared.
“Wait, you have a spatial bag? Those are insanely pricey. How does a mere goblin have one?” I asked, baffled at this goblin.
“How? Well I made it,” he replied laughing.
“You’re an enchanter?” Batul asked, stepping forward towards the goblin.
“That I am, big man. Gaziz, at your service,” he said flashing a grin. “I’d take more time to introduce myself but we’re kind of in the middle of something here,” he stated pointing his thumb back towards the orc that was destroying everything.
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“We need to get to the governing building and see if Eldwin is safe,” the tall elf hastily added.
“And my father,” the human girl added. “He was also there,” she continued with a worried look on her face.
“Well, since we’re all here, why don’t we all go. I have no plans for the day, other than living through it,” I I added.
The girl looked around the giant piece of debris to look at the steps to the building about 20 meters away. “We could probably make it there if we hurried but I don’t think it would go unnoticed.” She said to us.
“Guys, we can make it there, but it’s risky. He’ll probably see us and then it’s all over with.” she let the group know. They all looked around thinking.
“I can probably shield us long enough to get into the building but it will be very close. I can’t keep it up for long, especially with my injuries.” The elf let us all know.
“What about your frost magic? Is there anything you can do there?” the girl asked the elf.
“Unfortunately, no. A spell of that magnitude requires a good bit of water, which there is a massive lack of at the moment.” the elf replied.
“Water? I have water. How much do you need?” I said reaching into my bag pulling out a few waterskins.
“That wouldn’t be enough for anything too serious, I’m afraid,” the elf said sighing.
I stood there rubbing my chin. “You can use shields and frost?” I asked the elf, upon seeing him nod I continued, “What if we each took two waterskins. We could run and if he sees us we can just dump them out when he starts casting. That would let you be able to cast a shield and then you can add a thin ice wall in front of us at that moment. It’s not a lot but it’s something.” I said to him.
“That… might work, actually,” he replied with a thoughtful look on his face. “It would be very close but we could get by with that, I think.”
“I like this goblin,” the orc said, slapping me on the back.
Catching myself before I fell, I let out a nervous laugh. “Please don’t do that,” I joked with the orc just laughing in return.
I handed all of them two skins and took 2 for myself. The human girl looked out once again and confirmed that we can move.
“When we go, I will yell when it’s time to dump the water,” the elf said. “Too early and it won’t be effective, I have to catch it close to us.”
“Well, this is entertaining, at least,” the orc laughed as he walked towards the corner.
The girl turned back to us, “are we all ready?”
When we all nodded back she took one last look before turning to us and giving us a thumbs up. With that she started running with us following her.
We made it about five meters before we heard the demented orc speak.
“What do we have here? Some roaches for the cleansing? You all think you can get out of sacrificing your soul for the birth of a new start here?” He said, laughing. “Not while I’m here!” He shouted, extending both arms our way.
“Oh, shit!” I heard the orc in our group yell behind me as we all saw the orc start to ready a stream of fire towards us.
A moment later a bright red and orange pillar of flame shot straight towards our group at amazing speed, incinerating anything and everything in its path.
“NOW!” the elf yelled, dumping water all over himself with the rest of us following suit.
Just as we approached the stairs going up I could feel a cold take over my body for a moment before a blue energy surrounded us all. Then the heat came. So much heat. We dashed up the stairs watching our blue bubble slowly warp and seemingly melt around us, the ice starting to evaporate straight into the air without turning back to water.
“Jump!” The human girl screamed as she rolled into the vacant hole where the door once stood. All of us doing the exact same right behind her, trying to get out of the inferno. We all tumbled to a stop inside with the flame still rushing past the hole where we just entered.
I laid, spread out on the ground, gasping for air as I heard the orc start, “we made it! Good job, guys. That was pretty close but man, what a rush.”
I sat up, glaring at him. “I NEVER want to do that again.” I replied, staring daggers at the orc.
“It was rather close,” the elf said. “We need to hurry and see if Eldwin and George are okay.”
“George?” I asked.
“My father..” the human girl said, casting her eyes downward with a gaunt look on her face.