“Watch what you touch, fool!” An orc demanded, his voice rising above the other bickering orcs enough that Sharnlynn and I could hear.
The ground around us rumbled, and for a moment, I was terrified that the passageway would collapse around us. It was only a few moments of shaking before things settled down, and the angry orc’s voice returned. The other orcs seemed to have shut up for the time being.
“You ignored my warning, and now you bring a foe down upon us. Prepare for battle. Let’s hope you can fight better than you can think,” the orc said. There were some war cries and the sound of weapons being unsheathed before things went quiet again. I could hear the rattling of armor and the occasional murmur of nervous soldier’s getting ready for a fight.
All of a sudden, orcish war cries rang out. It was too difficult to make out the words, but I think it was blood and lightning or something to that effect. The shouts were followed by the clash of weapons as the orcs went to town on whoever was attacking them.
“What should we do?” I asked.
“Wait and listen to see what happens with the fight, if the noise fades, we can creep forward and investigate,” Sharnlynn suggested.
Wait we did, and the battle went on with no signs of abating. Minutes passed and the battle still hadn’t lost much steam. What was losing steam was the mana link to my summoner. It wouldn’t be long now before I was sent back. Would I go back to the alleyway, or would I be pulled into Rico’s Place?
“I need to recast the summoning spell on you,” Sharnlynn said, noticing the same thing I had.
“Do you want to waste the mana? I know it costs more each time you renew a summoning,” I asked.
“I don’t think it will be too bad. The original spell I used was a lower tiered one. I was just lucky when you showed up. My cost to renew the spell should be keyed off the original cast, not your true value,” Sharnlynn advised. Her light spell faded, and a new glow appeared on Sharnlynn’s hands as she recast the summoning spell.
The bond between us strengthened and Sharnlynn confirmed the cost wasn’t too high. Casting it a third time would likely be too costly if she wanted to have enough mana to face another foe, which seemed probable given the raging battle going on ahead of us.
“There, the duration will be shorter than the first casting, but this should keep you here long enough to help me deal with whatever is going on in there,” Sharnlynn said, pointing further down the passage.
“Let me go scout things out, wait here,” I said. Sharnlynn nodded in agreement, her light spell was back, but as dim as she could make it. Holding my right arm out, I kept my left hand touching the wall I as moved further down the passageway. Despite being some kind of underground ruin, the passage was relatively free of debris, so stumbling over something in the dark and making a racket was unlikely.
The passageway slightly curved which had blocked our line of sight, but once I rounded the curve, I started to see light. Orcs in this world must not be able to see in complete darkness, and the large chamber they were in was lit with several torches. It was a whole war party of orcs inside, at least twenty or thirty of them were in the chamber battling it out with skeletons of all things.
The chamber was easily a hundred yards across, and I couldn’t see how deep because of all the commotion. From the ceiling two ramps had crashed to the floor and walking down those ramps were skeletons armed with ancient, rusty weapons and armored with the tattered remains of chain and plate. A pile of bones was strewn about the floor, and the orcs were making short work of the skeletons as they made their way down the ramps. Only two skeletons at a time could approach and the orc axes were always waiting for them.
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The number of skeletons walking down the ramps hadn’t abated, and I wondered how long the orcs could keep up the fury of their assault. Even orcs would tire eventually, and after that, even the skeletons with their lumbering movements might prove deadly. None of the forces battling inside the chamber were watching this passage, and I was far enough back that they wouldn’t see me.
I had a good spot to watch the battle, but Sharnlynn was still further down the passageway waiting for me. It took a few minutes to walk back, gather Sharnlynn and return to my viewing spot, but the tide of battle had already taken a turn by the time I returned. There were now a few orc bodies on the ground and the skeletons coming down the ramp were no longer the tattered and poorly equipped things that had first attacked.
Now, the skeletons were fully armored in chainmail and held either a spear or sword and shield. Their weapons and armor, while not new, were well cared for and had weathered the ravages of time much better than the earlier skeletons had. These undead also moved better, their responses were sharp, and they didn’t have the jerky motions of their lesser kin.
“What do you think we should do,” I asked Sharnlynn.
“Let’s try to get closer, I want to see further into the chamber. The artifacts I seek are probably inside there somewhere,” Sharnlynn said. We crept our way almost to the doorway, giving us a better view inside. Sharnlynn tapped my shoulder and pointed toward our left.
There, in the nearest corner of the chamber was a single orc. He was chanting rapidly, and mana glowed on his hands as he placed them atop a plain-looking urn that had been stored there. It was another orc shaman, like that guy that had summoned me from a figurine before. I think his name was Urgblat, Urgy, or something.
As they watched, the urn he was holding shattered and dozens of small figurines spilled out. They were just like the ones I had been summoned from before. The orc wasted no time and began to scoop up the figurines into a large satchel while keeping an eye on the battle raging inside the room.
“Those are the artifacts I was sent here to retrieve. The orcs will use them to summon beasts to attack my village. We need those to defend ourselves,” Sharnlynn pleaded.
“Then let’s get them before the orc shaman notices us. I’ll hit him with my Psionic Jolt, and you follow up with something else. Once I finish casting, I’ll charge in and snatch the satchel. Maybe we can take out this guy and be gone without the other orcs noticing us,” I offered.
“Good plan, get ready,” Sharnlynn said. Her hands were already slightly glowing as she readied her spell. My cantrip didn’t take long to cast, I just placed the targeting reticle on the orc and fired it off. As soon as the spell was cast, I charged forward with the long orc dagger in my hands.
As soon as my spell hit, the orc shook his head in pain, dropping the satchel. He shook off the attack and turned my way, magic already glowing on his hands as he readied a spell to do something horrible to me. I remembered my spell description, it said that those with higher willpower than me might be able to shake off some or all of the spell’s effects, which accounted for why this guy was hardly fazed by the Psionic Jolt.
Three glowing balls of light shot toward the orc as Sharnlynn finished casting her magic missile spell. The spell slammed home with a trio of meaty slaps. Doing much more damage than I had been able to, and more importantly, causing the orc to fumble his spell. The glow of magic faded from his hands as he recoiled from the damage Sharnlynn had just unleashed.
I closed the remining distance to the orc, hammering my blade into his chest before he could recover. The orc gave a gurgling cry, but between the magic damage we had just unleashed on him and a foot and half of steel stuck in his heart, the guy was done. I had to use my foot to help pry the blade out of the orc’s sternum, but it finally pulled free. Snatching up the satchel, I ran back to Sharnlynn.
Roars of outrage followed behind me as the other orcs noticed what had been happening behind their backs. Any orc not tied up with fighting the skeletons charged across the chamber toward us. This amounted to six orcs, far more than the two of us could handle, and given their speed, we couldn’t outrun them.
“Here, take these and save your people. I’ll buy you some time,” I said, passing the satchel over to Sharnlynn. She didn’t argue, just grabbed the satchel and ran.
“Thank you, Rico Kline, for what you’ve done for me and my people. I hope to see you again sometime,” Sharnlynn shouted as she disappeared down the passageway. I liked her, she decided on her course of action and didn’t waste time arguing. Now I had a fight running right at me and if I didn’t at least slow them down, Sharnlynn was toast.