Chapter 56: Orc vs. Paladin
Lexi wrenched her still flaming broadsword’s enormous blade free from the spine of the seared corpse of the hobgoblin she had quite nearly split in two. The paladin wiped the sweat from her brow as she surveyed the battlefield into which her humble campsite had been so suddenly transformed. Illuminated by the gibbous moon’s light as well as the ring of flaming brands encircling the site, Lexi saw that on the opposite side of the deep crevice carved into the earth by Samantha’s first spell, both the mage and monk appeared to be in dire straits.
Although, almost as soon as the paladin had started to advance towards the crevice with the intent of bounding over it to help, she saw a warg rider burst through the wall of flames, making a beeline for Gretel and her hobgoblin rapist.
“…”
The paladin was at a complete loss for words when she realized that the rider was most certainly not one of the greenskin attackers, but was in fact the tiny elf who had only just joined her party the prior day. The look of grim determination on Danica’s face came as an additional shock to Lexi, who had to that point almost exclusively seen the elf presenting a seemingly carefree attitude of wonder and excitement.
I should trust Danica to help the others, Lexi thought to herself. After all, she’s almost eighty fucking years old. Apparently that means she’s got some crazy ass tricks up her sleeve…like somehow hijacking a motherfucking warg!
Turning her gaze back to her side of the battlefield, the paladin noted that her own situation was apparently about to get a whole lot worse as well. The orc captain still had his honor guard of three riders that he had held back in reserve. As soon as Lexi’s gaze met his, he lifted an enormous clawed hand, pointing straight at her, issuing a command in the guttural tongue of his race. The translation which Lexi saw scroll past her in the game’s subtitles did not set her mind at ease.
“Kill the paladin!”
Without any hesitation, the three warg riders dug their heels into their mounts’ flanks and peeled off, seeking to flank the paladin — two circling around to the right, and the other on the left hand side. This must have been one of the captain’s favored tactics, Lexi realized, because he did not even have to tell them what to do. That alone had her worried, but that worry was replaced by true fear when she saw that the captain himself had leveled his dread standard and was charging straight ahead at her.
In that moment, Lexi realized that she had one — and only one chance — to get this right, and if she fucked it up, she would be as dead as the hobgoblin she had just put down. Her mind working a mile a minute, she concluded that the flanking hobgoblins were, for the moment at least, a distraction, so her attention focused to a pinprick on the orc captain.
The spear tip which was hurtling towards Lexi emerged from the limbless corpse of the poor girl the orc and his troops had so recently mutilated and murdered, impaling her like a spitroasted pig on a spit. Just seeing that horrific display lit a fire inside the paladin. And, as her eyes drank in the enormous size of the snow white dire wolf, a plan coalesced in her head. It would be a long shot, but in that moment it was quite likely the only one she had left.
Ignoring all three of the flanking warg riders, Lexi coiled her strong legs and darted forward directly towards the orc captain and his horse-sized dire wolf. She watched as the orc flexed his massive bicep, drawing his ghastly spear back for what he believed would be an utterly decisive thrust that would put an end to this upstart paladin once and for all. At the very last second, just before Lexi and the mounted orc captain were set to clash, the futanari paladin dropped onto her back, leaping forward to propel herself into an upside down slide on the campsite’s soft bedding of pine needles.
Being roughly the size of a small horse, Lexi was able to slide between the dire wolf’s legs easily. And, as she passed under the great beast, she wrenched her sword upwards with every ounce of strength her new body possessed, dragging the broadsword’s great flaming blade along the belly of the creature. In an instant, Lexi had sliced open the dire wolf from neck to groin, completely disemboweling the monstrous beast with a single slash.
Despite the cauterizing effects of her flaming sword searing the edges of the wound, it did nothing to contain the mass of bloody entrails which poured out all over Lexi. As the momentum of her slide carried the paladin out from underneath the dying wolf’s back legs a split second before it collapsed, she found herself covered from head to toe in a gory mixture of blood and offal. Nonetheless, the dire wolf did fall dead from her blow, pitching the orc captain forward from atop his slain mount.
Your Attack Hit!
-25 HP (0/20)
Unfortunately for the paladin, before she had even fully risen to her feet, Lexi saw out of the corner of her eye that the three mounted hobgoblins were circling around the carnage of their leader’s dead dire wolf, and were closing in fast. Quick as she could, Lexi hopped to her feet, gagging from the sights and smells of the horrific gore which coated her. With all the severed intestines dangling from her shoulders, the young paladin wondered that she would not be mistaken by her companions as some kind of tentacle monster — provided that she survived this encounter. Despite the immediacy of her victory over the dire wolf, the degree to which the odds appeared stacked against her had Lexi sweating bullets.
I just can’t catch a fucking break tonight!
However, just as the three riders began to come in for what Lexi was beginning to assume would be the final approach, something miraculous happened. Glowing bands of light appeared around the arms and torso of the central rider, constricting him so tightly that he fell from his warg into a heap on the ground. Confused at its rider’s action, the warg nearly trampled the hobgoblin in its attempt to both stop its sprint and turn around to see the threat approaching from the rear. Illuminated from behind by the ring of flaming brands, Lexi spied her dear friend Gretel. The mage looked disheveled and abused — small wonder given what she had just been through — but her face was a mask of the purest fury in that moment.
Before Lexi could even process what she had just seen, the hobgoblin to the right of the magically bound rider slumped forward atop his mount. Protruding from the green creature’s lightly chain mailed back, Lexi saw a pair of feathered arrow shafts sticking up straight as the warg continued bounding forward — unaware of the fact that its rider lay dead astride it. The paladin’s gaze continued along the likely path that the arrows must have taken, and her jaw nearly hit the ground when she was met by a chipper young elf, grinning back at her and waving. Lexi was completely nonplussed by the juxtaposition of the elf’s typical carefree demeanor with the evidence that she was a skilled enough archer to put two arrows almost simultaneously in the back of a moving target.
“…”
As the stunned paladin’s mind raced over the seemingly inane question of whether or not she should return the elf’s wave, her attention was torn from Danica’s prey to the third remaining hobgoblin rider. Unaware of the fates of his two comrades, he continued to bear down on Lexi, axe swinging madly. That is, until the black iron tip of a spear erupted from the center of his chest. The spear ripped through the creature’s internal organs, sending a spray of expelled blood from his mouth as the hobgoblin went rigid from shock, falling like a board off the side of his mount. Looking extremely worse for wear, but more grimly determined than Lexi had ever seen, she caught a glimpse of Samantha some several yards behind the warg rider, just before the monk herself collapsed to the ground. Somehow, even in her apparently seriously injured state, Samantha had been able to hurl the broken half of her slain opponent’s spear with deadly accuracy.
It warmed Lexi’s heart to know that not only had her friends all survived their respective trials in this encounter, but that they obviously cared enough for her well-being to come to her aid — despite their own injuries. However, Lexi had no time to bask in this warmth for long. The orc captain had risen to his feet. And, seeing the carnage wrought to his entire squad by these four adventurers, he gripped his enormous warhammer and charged in towards their apparent leader.
“Die, human scum!” he bellowed in orcish, the translation scrolling in huge block letters superimposed over the bottom of Lexi’s frame of vision.
“Not today!” Lexi responded, a cold and tight-lipped grin spreading across her face.
Meeting the orc head on, Lexi swung her huge broadsword to meet the matching swipe the orc had leveled at her. For all her strength in this new body, Lexi was just barely able to parry the mighty blow. Before she had time to recover, the thickly muscled green arm pistoned back and exploded into motion yet again, sending another hammering strike at the paladin. Again, Lexi was able to get the flat of her blade up in front of the hammerhead, just in the nick of time. The force of the impact, however, was so great that she felt the earth sliding beneath her feet as she was driven back at least a foot. At the same time, the duration on her spell expired, extinguishing the flamed which had wreathed her broadsword’s blade.
“Shit!” Lexi yelled.
In the fraction of a second during which her attention was drawn to the sword itself and away from her opponent, the orc — who was extraordinarily quick for such a heavily muscled creature — had punched forward with the flat top of his warhammer, blasting through Lexi’s feeble attempt at a defense and catching her square in the chest.
You’ve Been Hit!
-20 HP (20/40)
It was a truly crushing blow, cracking multiple ribs, bruising internal organs, and forcing every last breath of air from the paladin’s lungs as she was thrown bodily to the ground. As the system alert flashed in front of her eyes, Lexi wondered at the fact that, even after taking such a brutal strike so fully, that she was somehow not dead.
Fuck! That would’ve so easily killed me just a few days ago. Even still, at this rate, I don’t think I can afford to get hit even one more time by this green fucking giant.
Just behind the orc captain, Lexi’s attention was again captured. A pair of giant etheric fists had reappeared on the field of battle, controlled once again by the mage. Gretel had used the magical hands to snatch up the bound hobgoblin and his mount — and was merrily bashing them together with as much gusto as a child smashing a pinata on their birthday. Lexi was not the only one to have her gaze caught by this spectacle. The orc captain turned his enraged visage to see the now thoroughly mutilated remains of his hobgoblin soldier and the rider’s warg being mashed into a gory pulp up in the air behind him, while Gretel cackled hysterically, miming the motions with her own hands.
This was all the opening that Lexi needed.
The paladin took a deep breath, and rolled up onto one knee, swinging her broadsword out in a sweeping horizontal arc, catching the orc directly in the knee — severing the limb in a geyser of blood.
Your Attack Hit!
-10 HP (20/30)
Bellowing madly as his full weight dropped onto the end of the bloody stump of his leg, the orc delivered a vicious backhand blow with the spiked backside of the warhammer. With her arms still upraised and extended from her slash, it caught Lexi straight in the side. The spike punched a hole straight through her armor, tearing through her abdomen and into the soft organs within. The paladin’s vision began to dim at that point, blood pouring from the gaping wound as the orc wrenched his weapon free, cocking his muscled arm back for another blow. It was only the flashing red system alert that rocketed Lexi back to full awareness of the clear and present danger she faced.
You’ve Been Hit!
-10 HP (10/40)
Somehow, Lexi staggered back up to her feet, still woozy from the internal damage and blood loss, every tortured breath reminding her of the grievous injuries she had already suffered. Limping forward on his bloody stump of a leg, the orc put everything he had into another crushing swipe with his huge weapon. Unfortunately for him, the blood loss from his severed leg had taken far more of a toll than he realized. The blow had none of the extraordinary power behind it, enabling Lexi to parry easily with the flat of her blade. Her blade pivoted halfway into the block, running up the warhammer’s handle to sever four of the orc’s fingers which gripped it.
“Grahhh!” the orc captain yelled, clutching his ruined hand in a mixture of rage and agony.
Your Attack Hit!
-4 HP (16/30)
Not hesitating another second, Lexi spun on her heel, launching herself into a deadly pirouette-like attack. Her sword slashed out in another wide horizontal arc, this time aimed at the green beast’s neck. As smooth as a hot knife cutting through a stick of cold butter, the paladin’s great broadsword sliced cleanly through the orc’s neck and spine. A torrent of blood erupted from the severed jugular veins as his head, the face still wearing a mask of outrage, toppled to the ground below.
Your Attack Hit!
-21 HP (0/30)
Exhausted beyond all measure, Lexi sank to the ground, clutching her wounded side as she dropped her sword. Her vision faded to black, and the last thing she saw before her perception narrowed completely were the faces of Danica and Gretel, bending over her.