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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3809339" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 6: Through the FireThere was no silence when the short fight ended, only the roaring of the flames beyond. As they all recovered and the adrenaline began to, slowly, fade, Aylana moved over to Rennai, already beginning the incantations of a healing spell.    But Rennai raised a dagger, not threateningly, to stop her, “Save it...I’ve had worse.”    She had, in fact, had worse. Aylana remembered their first little adventure together, deep in a mine underground...a Kobold came around a corner in the dark and drove a spear straight through Rennai’s torso, pinning her to the mine wall behind as archers began firing from murder holes. It had been...well...to himself, Falen suspected it was those events that kept them all together. Any internal bickering was minor after what they’d gone through back then.    “At least drink this,” Cor said after he’d walked over to the two women of the group, holding out a small vial with a blue-green liquid within it.    Rennai sheathed her dagger and took the potion, drinking it and trying to ignore the terrible taste of the liquid as it ran through her body, gently healing her wounds. She then handed the empty vial back to Cor, who stashed it in a small bag that was clearly bigger on the inside than it seemed to be.    “What about you two?” she asked, looking to Falen’s bleeding leg and the way that Aylana looked to be having trouble holding her shield up.    Falen simply knelt down and tore off a piece of his cloak before wrapping it around his leg over the wound and tying it off tightly. As he stood back up another moment later, he said simply, “I can walk.”    “And I shall recover, as well,” Aylana nodded her head in thanks to Rennai. Combat was one of the few times that they all seemed to get along...usually, at least.    Cor was looking beyond the cart and down the road. The town of Eschilar was a small one...a single main road going up the center and only a pair breaking off at different places. After that, grasslands again. But all of the buildings, they could see were consumed in flames still, and though the town was small, there were well over ten large buildings there, and, on the other side of town but sticking up higher than the others, what looked to be a Temple spire that was, as everything else, covered by fire.    As the road went farther into the town, the flames began to cross it, and, finally, Cor could see bodies. They looked to be mostly human, though a couple of smaller bodies hinted at either children or Halflings. Still no sign of the town guard, though...or any reason why Orcs and a Giant would be burning it to the ground...    “There are more creatures,” Cor said. Much farther down the road, he could see figures moving. Both flames and buildings were in the way, but he was sure of it. When they all looked that direction but obviously couldn’t see, he clarified, “On the opposite side of the town. We could go around and—“    ”No,” shaking her head, Aylana pointed with her large, glowing bastard sword down the street, “The fires can provide us with cover.”    “They can also burn us,” Rennai mumbled, though her dagger was in hand again, but she did make sure to quickly add, “You’re all packed and ready to be cooked, though.”    Falen looked down to the wolf that had obediently stayed at his side, “There will not be much open space in the middle of the buildings. But I agree on the direct approach.”    That was all they needed to hear. Aylana and Rennai started down the road, with the two others and a wolf right behind. They all had to pull in a bit closer to the center of the road to avoid the fallen pieces of wood from many of the buildings, along with flames that were extending out into the road. An Inn...stables...a pair of houses...a blacksmith...an unmarked building...a town hall...and then they reached the first crossroad, with a road breaking off to their right.    The entire road to the right was covered in a wall of fire, which extended from the town hall on one end of the road to Eschilar’s Temple on the other. The Temple looked to be stone, but wooden doors were thrown to the ground and the interior was burning. There was no symbol, likely torn down, from the state of the building, before it was set alight.    And up in front, along the main road, were three Orcs, all much better armed than the previous ones, and a pair of large, single-headed, hulking giants. Ogres. Two of them. With huge clubs. And together with the Orcs, who were using axes, while another carried a very large polearm, the Ogres were smashing things. More specifically, people.    “The town guards...” Aylana spoke softly, immediately noticing how well armoured the victims were, and the fact that the last of them had been putting up a fight with a glaive before a swipe from an Ogre’s club sent him flying across the road and into the stone Temple.    “Kr’korosh!”    The voice came from the side road to their right. Though the flames that covered the entire road on that side obscured their view, they could make out at least four more Orcs on the other side...and the Orcs had, apparently, seen them, too.    Rennai looked ahead of them at the two large Ogres and the three well-armed Orcs...then to their right, through the flames where four more Orcs had just spotted them. Making a quick decision, she looked forward again and ran, dodging falling debris from the building across from the stone temple at their right, and moving straight for the nearest Orc.    The nearest of the two Ogres made a grunt, raised its club, and swung down at Rennai over the Orc she was preparing to strike. She caught sight of movement above, and saw a club bigger than she was dropping down. Quickly, Rennai dropped to the ground and rolled to the side, but the club slammed into her shoulder when she was getting back up, the Ogre having somehow anticipated her move...the force of the blow nearly sent her back to the ground again, and she was sure at least one bone had broken from the impact.    The second Ogre, farther back and somehow not as ugly looking, reached over to the ground and ripped a long javelin out from a body it had been lodged in, before holding it up, taking aim, and throwing the massive weapon. It flew through fire to surprise both Cor and Falen, and in another second, caught Falen hard in the shoulder and send him onto his back, vision blurring at the intense pain.     As Rennai ran off, Aylana turned to the four others at the right. She took in a deep breath, let it out, and then ran straight through the flames to the nearest of them. The fire singed her armour and caught onto her cloak and the cloth between the plates of metal, but she ignored the pain of the fire and swung her huge sword at the nearest Orc, easily taking the monster’s head off of its body, which simply collapsed to the road under it. As the Orc dropped, she heard a cry of pain from behind, and turned to see, through the dancing flames, Falen dropped to the ground by a huge javelin.    While Falen scrambled to pull the weapon out and get back to his feet, knowing he couldn’t simply lay there for long without being killed, Convel took action. The wolf, shocked at the sudden attack on his friend, immediately moved to help, gripping the javelin in his teeth and trying to pull the weapon out. Falen did his best to smile, but it was hard to through the pain, so instead he reached to the weapon and helped the wolf remove the weapon.    Trying to ignore the blood and the continued pain, Falen let the javelin drop to the ground and said through gritted teeth, “Go get ‘em, Convel...”    As the wolf made a sound of acknowledgment and then sprinted off to Rennai’s side, Falen pulled himself up to his feet again, readying an arrow, taking aim, and letting it loose it towards the Ogre that had hit him. But the injury was in his right shoulder, the arm that was pulling back the bowstring...and he simply couldn’t find the strength, barely getting the bow back before crying out and releasing it, the arrow simply flying a few feet before hitting the path.    Seeing the injury to the man next to him, Cor quickly reached into the bag at his belt, digging through quickly and finding what he was looking for. He retrieved a potion and then handed it to Falen, “Drink this.”    Falen didn’t say anything, but he took it at least. Seeing this, Cor returned his focus to the large Ogres ahead of them. Finding an opening, though Rennai was in the way, he made a quick motion with his right hand, reached out with it, and called out, “Watch your ears, Rennai!” he then lowered his voice and spoke firmly, “Melten baria.”    Just as before, with a crack of thunder a bolt of lighting sprung forth from Cor’s hand. It sparked through the air, shooting straight through a group of flames and towards its intended targets.    “What are you—?” Rennai cut herself off when she saw the bolt of lightning arcing straight for her. Eyes went wide, but her body took action and she dropped to the ground. The air went white hot above her, and the bolt went straight through the Orc in front of her, burned the arm of the Ogre that had previously injured her, and finished its path by hitting a second Orc square in the chest. Both Orcs dropped, and though the Ogre still stood, he looked surprised and unsure of what to do.    When Rennai got back to her feet, she prepared to scream back at that stupid Cor for nearly kiling her, but a bestial roar got her attention. She spun back around in time to see the only remaining Orc near her swinging a huge, bladed glaive at her. Rennai jumped back just in time, and the bladed end of the polearm cut only the air she had previously occupied.    Seeing her chance to make a quick remark before being killed, Rennai screamed back towards Cor, “Don’t think I won’t deal with you once these beasts are dead, Cor!”    She then turned her attention to the Ogre, which obviously had better aimed than this Orc. Rennai took a quick step in closer to the Ogre and thrust up with her rapier. The thin blade went up through a thick layer of leather armour, digging into the Ogre’s lower torso. Rennai removed her blade, shifted her footing, and then sent her dagger up, too, which she managed to drive straight into its upper chest thanks to the Ogre’s terrible posture. With the blade still lodged in its victim, Rennai twisted it, then slashed to the side...and that was enough, the Ogre finally succumbing to its wounds and falling off to the side with a powerful thud.    Seeing its companion drop, the second Ogre roared in anger, shifting its heavy club into its main hand and taking two powerful steps around the remaining Orc before swinging its club at Rennai. Despite the heavy footsteps alerting her to the attack, Rennai was slow to act, turning in time to see the club swinging straight into her. It caught her squarely in the torso, the force of the blow knocking her out and then to the ground.    Aylana, still on the other of the flames and still on fire herself, attempted to bat down the flames while not leaving herself open. But the three Orcs in front of her were not willing to give her the chance. Next to her was a very well-armoured Orc carrying a glaive of his own, but seeing how close she was, he dropped the polearm to the ground and drew a large, curved blade from his side, slashing out at her in the same motion.  Despite the flames that were still covering her, Aylana was able to bring her shield up in time, the Orc’s blade simply scraping loudly across its metal surface.    As she was shielding herself, the two other Orcs were charging around to her unshielded side, huge axes swinging down in the process. Attempting to bring her sword arm up to parry the axes, Aylana was just too slow. The first of the two Orcs brought his axe in horizontally at her back, hitting her squarely against the plate armour pieces and actually through it and into her back. The cut caused her to arch her back up, and this opened up her stomach area for the second Orc’s axe to come in and cut into, despite the armour that should have protected her.    Without the armour, both strikes would likely have simply cut her in two. Aylana tried to focus on this fact rather than the pain in both her back and her stomach, gritting her teeth and looking at the better armoured Orc in front of her, swinging her bastard sword down The blade cut through a layer of crudely crafted plate armour and dug into the Orc’s shoulder, staggering the creature. Aylana saw this and used it to her advantage, pulling her blade up and then changing the angle for her second swing...and easily removing this Orc’s head from its body as she had done to the other.    On the other side of the fire, Falen uncorked the vial of what he assumed was a healing potion, and drank the terrible tasting stuff...at least it made him feel better, even if it left him sore. He then simply dropped the vial to the ground, looking ahead in time to see Rennai dropped to the ground with a massive blow from the Ogre. That couldn’t have been good.</blockquote>

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