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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 197910" data-attributes="member: 143">Book IV, Part 20The desperate melee between the remnants of the ogre and orc forces and the companions raged on, only a few solid blows separating each side from victory or defeat.  Lok had taken down the ogre shaman, but in turn he’d been knocked out by another ogre that now loomed over him, ready to finish the job.  A second ogre was circling to aid its companion, having toss Benzan off the cliff, but it seemed as though its aid would not be necessary.Neither ogre noticed the shadowy figure that levitated back up over the lip of the cliff, immediately ducking to recover the discarded bow lying a few yards away.  The wounded ogre hefted its maul to crush the lingering shreds of life out of Lok, but even as it started its downward swing an arrow slammed home into the base of its skull.  The ogre staggered, its scream cut off by the quickly approaching haze of death, and it slumped to the ground.  The second ogre turned in surprise to see Benzan, who leapt onto a protruding rock, another arrow already nocked to his bow.  “I don’t think so,” he said to the creature, drawing and firing before it could even grasp what had happened.  Cal gave way as a lumbering ogre stormed after him.  The ogre’s club came up for another strike, but even as it slammed the heavy weapon home Cal was gone, rolling forward between its legs and coming up behind it.  The ogre started to turn, but even as it did pain exploded through its lower body as Cal shot another giantbane bolt into it.  The ogre took another step toward him, but it had been pushed just too far.  The rage that had carried it through the battle began to fade, taking with it the surge of energy that had enabled the ogre to fight through its wounds.  Now it faltered, and with that hesitation came the end of its strength.  Even as it fell, Cal was already running toward the rear of the bluff, where the battle still raged.   Dana shook her head to clear the stars from her vision as the ogre that had struck her loomed over her again.  Her eyes widened as its mace slashed down at her again, and she only just managed to duck in time to keep her head from being splattered all over the rock.  The ogre lifted its weapon to strike again, but it staggered as a stream of fire bathed its torso in greedy flames.  “Stay away from her!” Delem yelled, the tips of his fingers wreathed in flame as he stepped nearer.  The sorcerer cried out in pain, however, as a bolt clipped his shoulder from the side.  The last remaining ogre, along with two orcs, had gained the bluff and now approached from the side, weapons at the ready.  Delem, however, did not give way.  He turned to face these new adversaries, his magical shield turning to face in their direction.  “Come on then!” he cried, lost in the flames that danced in his eyes.And they came.  Benzan dodged back as the ogre came on, heedless of the arrows that stuck in its hide.  It seemed that having sought to slay him once by throwing him off the cliff, now it wanted to finish the job with its axe.  As he avoided the first rush he drew his sword, using its power to lift him again off of the ground.  As the ogre looked up at him hovering twenty feet above the ground, dumbfounded, Benzan sheathed the sword and fitted another arrow to the string of his bow. “I wish you could see the look on your face right now,” he said to the ogre, right before he fired the arrow into its face.  “Delem, look out!” Dana cried, as a second ogre rushed at the sorcerer from his flank.  The hard-pressed youth stumbled as the brute’s mace bashed through both his shield and his mage armor to clip his shoulder, knocking him back a step and driving him to one knee.  Both ogres lunged in, eager to finish him, but he drove them back with a fan of burning hands.  Already wounded, the spell drove both ogres closer toward doom, but for the moment both fought on, driven now by a fury that approached madness.  The orcs, wiser perhaps, held back, firing their crossbows at Dana as she tried to come to Delem’s aid.  Their bolts missed the agile young woman, however, moving with magically-enhanced speed as she lashed out at one of the ogres engaged with Delem.  The ogre all but ignored her, focusing on the more dangerous mage, even when Dana’s magically sharp kama dug a shallow gash into its side.  Delem’s defenses absorbed the first attack, the magical shield holding against the force of the ogre’s huge mace.  The second ogre shifted slightly, telegraphing its attack with a wide sweep of its axe.  Delem saw it and ducked under the sweeping blade, but he could not react in time as the ogre changed its grip and slammed the haft of the weapon into the sorcerer’s face.  Delem crumpled like a marionette with its strings cut, blood flowing from his smashed nose.  “No!” Dana yelled, her face a mask of pain and frustration as the ogres ignored her puny attacks.  The first ogre turned slowly to face her, while the second reached down for Delem’s limp form. “I believe the lady said, ‘No,’” Cal said.  The ogre looked up in surprise just in time to see the bolt that caught it solidly in the chest.  The missile barely penetrated the thick fur of its coat, but it was enough to release the stored energy of the weapon, specifically designed by dwarven artificers to kill giants.  In this case, it did just that. The last ogre turned as its companion fell and looked around the battlefield, which had suddenly grown very quiet.  The sound of the wind seemed preternaturally loud in the sudden silence.  The two orcs, again showing a wisdom normally beyond their ken, had already fled, leaving the ogre the sole enemy left standing on the battlefield.  The ogre looked at Dana, her kama bloody in her hand.  It looked at Cal, who calmly loaded another bolt into his crossbow.  It looked at Benzan, who approached, an arrow nocked to his bow.  “Is Lok…” Cal asked, without looking away from the ogre.“I fed him a healing potion.  He’s stable,” Benzan replied.The ogre fixed them with a gaze that was pure hatred.  “Ochbek chital nacros baphomet!” it cried, as it raised its mace to strike at the nearest enemy—in this case, Dana.Cal’s bolt and Benzan’s arrow both struck it in the back as it turned, and the creature screamed a terrible scream as it staggered and fell.  It tried to get up again, despite its mortal wounds, but Benzan was quickly there to finish it.  Dana was already at Delem’s side, pouring healing energy into his battered form.  “He’ll make it,” she said as Cal approached, tears flowing freely down her cheeks as the built-up emotion from the battle now threatened to overwhelm her.  “What about Jerral…”“The ogre… threw her off the cliff, there,” Dana said, indicating the trailhead.  “I… I don’t see how she could have survived.”“I’ll go,” Benzan said, the dark expression he wore invisible to them in the night as he started down the trail.  “I suppose that we won,” Cal said, more to himself than anyone else, as he surveyed the charnel-house that was the battlefield around them.  His own emotions were a roiling storm inside of him, but he knew that for the moment he needed to be strong for them, that the night around them could still hold dangers.  With a soft sigh, he hurried back to where Lok had fallen.</blockquote>

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