03- The Apostles of Doom Read online

  “I wonder if they realize that puny ball of light does not impair D’Orc sight,” Kirak said.

  “They are elves,” Didar An Sep spat emphatically. “They are cunning and tricky, dishonest, manipulative and cowardly, but still fundamentally stupid, ignorant and useless.”

  “Crooked Sticks!” Zargvarst called back. “See if you can use us to shield your eyesight from Fierd and take aim around us at a target not directly between us and Fierd as we approach.”

  This was actually a pretty good idea, Tal Gor realized as he and Schwarzenfürze moved to comply. As the distance got shorter, fewer and fewer alvar were in line of sight with Fierd. Tal Gor cocked, then raised, his crossbow, his Eagle Sight bringing a target into close range.

  This was actually something he had some skill with. His bad leg impeded his ability to fight in close combat, or chase down and slice open prey while hunting, but he could hunt with a crossbow. It was also the reason that Eagle Sight was one of his best shamanic skills—he used it to hunt both animals and game birds.

  This was a bit different from shooting birds; he was not aiming up and the effect of gravity would be different; however, he should be able to compensate. At their current distance, he could clearly see that these were indeed Nuren Alfar: the pasty face, the dirty dishwater hair, the pointy little ears. The alvar were definitely armed. In fact, the one he was staring at was drawing its bow in preparation.

  They were within range of alvaran arrows, but their accuracy would not be good at this distance. No problem when shooting into an army, but when looking for specific targets, it could be difficult, particularly if one was not a shaman. While alvar had legendary eyesight, it was no match for Eagle Sight.

  Tal Gor could easily target the alfar. He was just a little too short for a traditional quarrel; however, using an orcan recurve crossbow and a shamanic chant of Forceful Accuracy, he should be in range. “Steady, girl—about to shoot,” Tal Gor told Schwarzenfürze. The D’Warg moved into a smooth glide, giving Tal Gor the steady platform he needed. He aimed for the exposed throat; at this range he could not penetrate the armor. He began his chant.

  Steady… Tal Gor thought to himself as he chanted. Now!

  Thung! went the crossbow as it released. Tal Gor continued his chant; he would chant until the quarrel found its target. He tracked it with his Eagle Sight. Going, going… thunk! Hit!

  Tal Gor grimaced. He had hit the shoulder joint. His targeting was off. Curses!

  “Whoa!” Lob Smasher exclaimed in surprise.

  “Hah! First blood, shaman!” Didar An Sep shouted.

  “Hurrah!” shouted the D’Orcs admiringly.

  “By father’s balls!” Bor Tal shouted. “How did you make that shot? That was incredible!”

  “Lots of hunting and a bit of shamanism!” Tal Gor grinned at his brother and then turned back to watch his target try to pull the bolt out of his shoulder. Tal Gor began reloading.

  “Leave some for us, lad!” Kirak shouted.

  Schwarzenfürze’s stomach growled again, presumably in agreement.

  The other orcs began firing. Bor Tal managed to hit a hippogriff’s wing, causing the creature to screech and wobble slightly, but it continued to advance. Soo An narrowly missed her target. Fed Tal cursed loudly as his bolt went wide. Elgrid managed to scrape a rider’s armored leg and perhaps draw some blood from his mount.

  Alvaran arrows began raining down on them, bouncing trivially off the D’Orcs. Of the few in the first volley that made it through the D’Orcs, over half completely missed a target; the remainder hit the D’Wargs and failed to penetrate either their exposed hide or their armor.

  With a resounding twang louder than any of the others, Lob Smasher released a giant bolt from Chest Splitter, his truly massive crossbow. The bolt sped through the air with a scream they could hear from a distance, pierced an elf’s thigh through its leather armor, and appeared to be solidly lodged.

  “Hah!” Lob yelled in triumph.

  “Excellent work, all! Reload!” Zargvarst shouted.

  Tal Gor had finished cranking. He placed his quarrel and raised his bow, taking aim at a different elf, the first one having changed position and no longer an easy target.

  Tal Gor focused his Eagle Sight on his target’s neck once more. “Steady, girl,” he told his D’Warg before he began chanting.

  Thung! His crossbow fired. Tal Gor concentrated on his chanting, trying to will the bolt to strike true.

  Hit! Dead on, through the neck! Tal Gor grinned widely as the elf grabbed its throat and began to keel over, its hippogriff beginning a rapid descent to get them on the ground. Tal Gor imagined that flying around with a flopping corpse tethered to one’s back was awkward. He smiled to himself at the thought, but stopped when he realized that would also be true for their D’Wargs.

  “Insane!” Soo An yelled. “I never realized what a shot you were!”

  “I think we were misjudging you, even before you found Lord Tommus!” Fed Tal yelled as he cranked his crossbow.

  “We may need to start calling you Tal Gor Dead Eye!” Zargvarst yelled back at him with a grin.

  “Getting close!” Didar Sep An shouted, finally drawing her massive great sword. The blade was a good ten feet long, the hilt another three. Tal Gor had to wonder if she’d used the same blade when mortal. It was proportional for a D’Orc, but would have been large even for an orc.

  Of course, the six-foot arc of Zargvarst’s axe blade was just as impressive. All the D’Orc weaponry was impressive. Back that up with their talons, and no one in their right mind would want to stand against them. These alvar were in for some serious damage. Tal Gor shook his head.

  “Let’s hold back so I can get another target,” Tal Gor told Schwarzenfürze, patting her on the back. She slowed their flight as Tal Gor worked to pull and then reload his crossbow.

  It was at this point that the first wave of alvar broke against the D’Orcs.

  Tal Gor stopped his efforts in order to watch. Broke was the right word. Blood was raining everywhere as the D’Orcs flew between the elves and began slashing and smashing into the nearly helpless enemy. Leather armor such as the alvar were wearing had no chance against the Abyss-forged weapons of the D’Orcs.

  Schwarzenfürze was rumbling and throbbing between Tal Gor’s legs. He could feel her guts at work, apparently starving for battle. He fired off his next round, chanting as it sped towards its target, only to see a blade slice through the elf’s neck even as the bolt came within a foot.

  Tal Gor shook his head and began securing his crossbow so that he could use his staff. Schwarzenfürze clearly wanted to engage in closer contact; he supposed he should let her before all the targets were gone. He secured his staff’s wrist strap in place and loosed its ties so he could swing it freely.

  Lob Smasher was now moving in, heading towards alvar more on the periphery.

  “Argh!” Tal Gor screamed as a searing pain shot up his left leg. “What?” He stared down at himself; an arrow had pierced the back of his leg. He had metal greaves on the front of leg, covering his shins, but only leather armor in back. How had an arrow come from behind?

  He turned his head, his eyes widening in surprise. There was another squad of alvar on hippogriffs behind them, more than had been in front of them. “Behind us!” Tal Gor screamed at the top of his lungs to his band. “Backstabbing alvar are behind us!”

  The orcs spun in midair and the D’Wargs started to bank to confront this new threat. Having been in the rear, and then slowing to better target, Tal Gor was considerably closer to the new threat than the others. He glanced back again only to see a very large elf with golden hair and a glowing sword approaching him and Schwarzenfürze rapidly. Rialto Alfar! Royal elf, an alvaran knight! He’d never seen one before, but there could be no mistaking what was coming for him.

  “Dive!” Tal Gor shouted at Schwarzenfürze and pounded on her back and used his heels to goad her to increase her speed.

  She did, but she al
so twisted her head to see what had caused the excitement. Her eyes focused quickly on the oncoming alvaran knight; they widened slightly and then squinted. She looked forward and to her left. Her wings went into overdrive, bringing them down and around in a tight bend. Tal Gor was not quite sure why she had started to make a circular arc, as this actually allowed the knight to close the distance. He had to trust that the D’Warg knew what she was doing. She was growling, and her stomach was rumbling nonstop at this point. Tal Gor shook his head even as he worked to loosen his staff. “Ox dung!” The stupid knight was within ten feet and closing.

  “Faster!” Tal Gor patted Schwarzenfürze, looking ahead again to see where they were heading.

  Click. Click. Click.

  Tal Gor groaned, this was not the time for his D’Warg to get nervous and play with her stupid tail spikes. What was she going to do? Whap the hippogriff in the eye with a spike and blind it? He glanced back. The knight was going to be in striking range soon. He tried to bring his staff around.

  Suddenly there was a loud ripping noise.

  Click. Click. Click.

  Tal Gor wrinkled his nose at the putrid stench.

  Click. Click… WHOOSHHHH!

  Tal Gor did a double take as the pursuing knight and his mount were suddenly engulfed in a miasmic flaming cloud of gas!

  “Flint and steel!” Tal Gor shouted. How could he have been so blindly stupid! That’s what the clicking was; it was flint and steel to light Schwarzenfürze’s farts! He grinned broadly and patted the D’Warg as they now pulled easily away from the still-flaming knight and hippogriff. The creature’s screams of agony was music to his ears.

  “I have never been so happy to have you fart!” Tal Gor shouted.

  It was, however, a momentary respite. They were now under many of the new alvaran forces, who could all clearly see him, and some were heading down! This was not good. There had to be at least sixty pairs in the new band of alvar. His tribe was moving to engage—or rather, Lob Smasher with his magic blade was; the other four orcs were hunkered down on D’Wargback as their mounts moved in for an aerial kill on various alvar and their steeds.

  The shrieks of the enraged hippogriffs melded with the snarling howls of the D’Wargs as the two sides engaged. Tal Gor tore his gaze from the battle overhead to discover another alfar coming straight at him with a lance! Schwarzenfürze was heading straight at the knight and hippogriff, on what appeared to be a collision course! Not knowing what else to do, Tal Gor gripped his staff with both hands, moving it into a braced lancing position.

  CRACK! Thunder rolled over his head as his sight was momentarily blinded by a flash of lightning from above. He dared not take his eyes off his oncoming enemy, but he was pretty sure the alvar had a wizard who was engaging them. He hoped the wizard would go for the most obviously dangerous targets first.

  Tal Gor and the alvaran knight were heading towards each other at breakneck speed. The knight had a shield; Tal Gor’s was on his back. His staff was a polearm, not a lance; he needed to hold it with both hands to secure it. It was going to be a question of who skewered who first.

  Tal Gor whispered a quick prayer to Tommus. He had no idea if Lord Tommus listened to prayers, but he was pretty sure it couldn’t hurt. Tal Gor braced for impact, gritting his teeth while trying to adjust his seating to try to deflect the lance off the side of his armor. That, however, would only work if the lance went where it currently appeared it would go. He had zero experience with this style of combat.

  He felt a rumbling between his knees, and suddenly his stomach dropped out from under him and he was swept by a wave of vertigo as Schwarzenfürze made a momentum-defying ninety-degree vertical turn, plunging the two of them straight down towards the ground.

  Click… click… click… WHOOSH!

  The hippogriff shrieked in agony as Schwarzenfürze’s flame-enhanced cloud of malignant dyspepsia struck the hippogriff’s underbelly. Or that’s what it sounded like; Tal Gor was too close to losing his lunch to pay much attention as his D’Warg continued her dive, which was quickly turning them upside down as the D’Warg doubled back on their original trajectory.

  Suddenly the D’Warg’s wings collapsed inward against him as Schwarzenfürze twisted with a massive effort, spinning herself and Tal Gor on their axis, taking them from being upside down to right side up. The D’Warg’s powerful wings unfurled once more and began pumping hard to regain altitude, heading back towards the D’Orcs.

  Tal Gor twisted his head around to see Schwarzenfürze’s most recent victim dropping his smoldering wooden lance while trying to pat out the remaining flames on his hippogriff’s feathers and his own clothes. Eagle Sight revealed severe burns to both rider and steed. Tal Gor grinned and shook his head. Schwarzenfürze was truly something else.

  Suddenly, from the middle of the second squad of alvar, a fireball raced through the air and engulfed Zargvarst and Kirak, obscuring the two D’Orcs. As the flames dissipated, the two D’Orcs were still on course heading for the second squad.

  “Thanks for the warm welcome, it was like a breath from home!” Zargvarst shouted towards the origin of the fireball.

  D’Orcs were obviously fireproof; orcs were not. Tal Gor suddenly worried what would happen if the wizard shot a fireball at his tribemates. He was able to count all of them, so none had been hit by the lightning bolt; however, at some point the wizard would give up on the nearly invulnerable D’Orcs and start targeting his tribe. Fortunately, at the moment, they were all tightly engaged with the alvar; it would be too dangerous for the wizard to fireball the orcs. Other than Tal Gor himself, who was currently some distance away, preparing to circle back.

  What could he do to protect his tribe from a wizard in battle? That, technically, was one of the core duties of an orc shaman, something that he was ludicrously underprepared to do. Obviously, he had studied elemental affiliations and elemental chants and rituals. He could start a fire, but there was no way he could launch a fireball, let alone deflect or shield orcs from one.

  Shielding would be very impractical; it would require some sort of large magical shield to block the fireball. Deflecting it would be easier, if he knew how to control it. Even so, how would one do that? He could envision attracting a fireball—he understood the idea of using the Laws of Association and Positive Attraction to somehow bring the fire to him—but then what would he do with it?

  CRACK! Thunder rolled again as a massive bolt of lightning struck Zerg Fel Far in the back, right between his wings as he was busy dismembering an alfar and its mount. He did not appear to notice until a few moments later when he let go of his prey, allowing them to begin tumbling lifeless to the distant ground below. He looked up and around. “Anyone else noticed the damn mosquitoes around here? I think just got bit!” he called out to his compatriots.

  Tal Gor shook his head in amazement. He would need something that could positively attract a fireball or a lightning bolt, both of which were aspects of Fire. Not actually towards him, unless he wanted to be a martyr, but beyond him, to some sort of gigantic fire and lightning magnet that the essence of Fire could return to. Tal Gor blinked. Something like one of Mount Doom’s elemental portals. Lord Tommus had used the Elemental Portal of Fire to suck all the heat out of the Abyss.

  Tal Gor frowned. Was that the Law of Positive Attraction or the Law of Negative Attraction? He was not sure it made much sense, but if Lord Tommus could use a Fire portal to suck heat away, surely his lord could use the Fire portal to suck in a fireball or lightning bolt.

  But that was Lord Tommus, and he wasn’t here. Here was only Tal Gor, a sorry-ass apprentice shaman of the Crooked Stick tribe. He needed to think.

  They were coming up on another alfar and hippogriff. “Schwarzenfürze? Do you want to take this pair, as Zargvarst suggested? I need to try and figure something out.” She nodded and growled in happy agreement. “Okay, I’m going to secure myself and my staff down so you can do your thing.”

  Tal Gor hunkered down, securing hi
s staff, similar to what he’d seen his family members do a few minutes ago. He needed to think. He started chanting a calming chant and tried to allow himself to follow his link to his Oath Link through his summoning stone to Lord Tommus; the stone should amplify the link.

  Lord Tommus? he queried respectfully.

  Tal Gor! Good to hear from you!

  With his second sight, Tal Gor found himself standing in a large henge on some material world, definitely not the Abyss. Tamarin was there, as was Vaselle, but neither showed signs of realizing he was present. He wasn't surprised, given that he was technically dream walking, although he might have expected the djinni to notice.

  Am I interrupting? Tal Gor asked.

  We are rehearsing and preparing for an ascension tonight. Creating a new D’Orc, Tom replied. However, I can spare a few minutes.

  Tal Gor’s second sight was suddenly interrupted as Schwarzenfürze crashed into a hippogriff and its rider. Screams and blood flew near and wide and Tal Gor was jostled on the D’Warg’s back as she shredded flesh and gnawed on the bones of her prey.

  Suddenly, Lord Tommus was there with him, insubstantially. Holy shit! You are far busier than me! Do you want to create a gateway for me to come through?

  CRACK! Another lightning bolt lit the sky above them as it struck one of the pack D’Wargs that was nearby. As Tal Gor’s sight returned after the flash, he saw that the D’Warg’s leather bags looked a bit charred, but the D’Warg had continued gnawing on the head of an alvar while it simultaneously fought to slash the throat of the hippogriff with its hind claws.

  Seeing this, Tal Gor was tempted, but he could not always rely on Lord Tommus to rescue him. He needed to learn to do things on his own.

  Actually, my lord, I was seeking advice, Tal Gor replied. The D’Orcs will prevail. However, as you can see, there is a wizard, and it is shooting both lightning bolts and fireballs. I was wondering about trying to deflect or perhaps attract the essence of Fire to keep it from roasting my tribe. I got to thinking about how you used a Fire gateway to suck the heat out of the Abyss, and was wondering if that could be used to suck away a fireball from a wizard.