Index:
Episode 1 - The League of Iron assembles
Episode 3 - Legacy of the Veil Breakers
Episode 7 - Home is where the hearth is
Episode 8 - Last of the Old Ones
Episode 12 - Mistress of Flesh
Episode 15 - March of the parasites
Episode 16 - Shadows in the Fog
Episode 18 - Kingdom of hunger
Guards.
The Overlord's seat of power, his tall tower with her thick walls, many rooms, and intimidating skeletal beautification, shook down to her foundations. Ceilings fell crashing down, corridors bent and their walls buckled, her wide, nigh impossible to assault circular staircases, shattered. The handpicked Bone Riders he chose to guard his Tower, many of them died deaths most dishonorable in their rush to reach the throne room.
Some fell through the speedily multiplying in number holes in the walls, floors, or were squished into thin paste by falling ceilings. Many never even reached the Tower's top floors; buried beneath the rubble, their oh-so-efficient bone-forged armored suits turned coffins, as they slowly suffocated to death.
Though still enough in number to overwhelm the token few assassins of Alkiorn, the thirteen Bone Raiders who eventually reached the throne room found its gate shut. Even through the sturdy doors and the clangor of their Tower falling apart around them, the loyal warriors heard the sound of battle inside.
Chosen exclusively from the Foot Raiders and all veterans of multiple sieges, the Thulm wasted no time. Four of them picked up one of the toppled iron columns, and, charged at the gate with all their might. Once, twice, and then, thrice, the sturdy door suffered their advance, yet they knew exactly where to hit it. Splintered, the wooden brace which kept the gate shut gave way before their brutish strength.
No longer needed, the small metallic column was discarded and the Thulm, bellowing their warcries, swords, axes, warhammers, and spears in hand, poured into the throne room. One of them, the tallest and the strongest, armed with a longsword, squealed and fell agonizing on the shaking floor. An arrow stuck from his visor, head and half its shaft fully plunged into his thinking meat.
Deep and powerful, a man's voice sang a song in the beautiful olden tongue of the elder Dwarves, its chilling to the Thulm's ear words boomed across the quaking throne room:
Dahuum ulg Burhuum, let loose me arrows,
A Ranger's duty is to put them Thulm into their barrows!
There, atop the second staircase which led to the throne stood tall a mighty Dwarven Ranger! He held his fully strained metallic bow horizontally; its string buzzed, launching another arrow made of metal at them. Pieced straight through her mouth, a Thulm fell, her bone-forged bow clattering on the floor.
Dahuum ulg Burhuum, be strong me limbs,
For to shoot the Raiders dead I'll need wings!
The Thulm need not talk, for their Overlord and his Hag were being assaulted before their very eyes. Thus, they did not stop or shout screams of surprise and pain; no, instead they dashed forth and with their best speed. The Bone Archers, three of them still alive, shot the stalwart Dwarf, yet, as soon as they let fly their arrows, another one fell dead, pierced straight through her left eye.
Dahuum ulg Burhuum, a Dwarf's work ain't over,
Till all invaders feed the worm, the hungry critter, and elder woodland allover!
Three, their missiles reached the Ranger without fail. Two bounced off his sturdy armor. One impaled the side of his thigh and, before he let loose another arrow, the Dwarf fearlessly pulled it, blood gushing from the wound. Undeterred, the Alkiornian nocked the bloody arrow, pulled his bowstring and hit another Thulm archer, straight into her throat.
Dahuum ulg Burhuum, me arrows – rip their guts,
A Ranger's duty is to put them Thulm square on their butts!
The Thulm were getting ever near and their two remaining archers advanced forwards, for fear of hitting their comrades. The Dwarf, however, in a feat that only Rangers of his kin were capable, nocked two arrows and released them at once. These flew impossibly around the charging him Bone Warriors and in parabolic trajectories, nonetheless. One impaled through her armpit and the second, the side of her stomach, the Thulm archers fell to the quaking floor.
Wounded and bleeding, still, the mighty Dwarf stood before the Thulm and there was not a speck of fear in his eye when he sang:
Dahuum ulg Burhuum, I swing an olden blade forged by Elven hand,
To cleave, to stab, and slash invaders dead, protect our peaceful homeland!
Before said Elven sword joined his steely song to wordy ode of Dwarven-craft, the Ranger let loose his last arrows. Again, the peerless father nocked and shot them together, and once more, two Thulm were hit in the weak sides of their bone-forged armor. While they rolled down the bloody stairs, arrowheads ripping their guts apart, at long last the Dwarf unsheathed his sword.
“Hear me, Loendrin, oh forge-master of old!” - Bellowed the Ranger, hands clutching his sword's handle tight; his stance steady, his eyes counting the remaining Thulm who surrounded him - “I swear, the sweat of thy brow shan't be wasted!”
Cleave the sword forged by Loendrin's hand the Thulm, did.
Pierce its tip through forged from red iron chain mail, good.
Slash, the olden Elven blade the Thulm's muscular limbs, through and through.
His song over, the Dwarf still mumbled the harrowing for a Thulm warrior “Dahuum ulg Barhuum!” or “Dying to Fight!” the Rangers' death-promising oath with his every sword strike. There wasn't a Bone Raider alive who did not know the meaning of these words, for their ancestors have been dying by Dwarven hands for generations.
Finally in arms reach, their weapons sought Alkiornian flesh, and their bearers, to assist the Overlord. 'Twas not to be, for the Dwarf was fleet of foot and he dashed away or under their attacks. The blade of Loendrin slew them dead by way of multiple strikes to the weakest spots in their imposing bone-forged armor.
Five times did the Ranger parry, deflect, and dance mortal blows safe, yet his bleeding leg had slowed him down.
One Thulm he managed to cleanly chop the hands off, slicing the wrists with a single swing. Two, he cut their tendons of their knees and left them bleeding to death on the floor. Another the Ranger stabbed through the visor, when the Bone Raider smote his tired shoulder with his bone shattering warhammer. Staggered, the Dwarf half-dodged a swing from his last opponent, and, his left side sliced through the sturdy Ranger suit of armor, delivered a deathly strike in his turn.
Loendrin's blade cut cleanly through Thulm-made gambeson, its blade biting deep into the Bone Warrior's guts.
Screeching, the man fell, yet not before landing one last hit of his own. His left leg gored, the Ranger had to stand up since his mighty Dwarven eyes picked three Thulm warriors etching their way towards the throne room.
Limping, all of his weight resting upon his bleeding leg, the Dwarf nevertheless reached one of the Bone Archers. Snatching five of her arrows he knelt on one knee, aimed and let these loose in quick order.
Peerless, yet, his strength drained from blood loss, the man missed twice.
Two of the Thulm he hit in their knees, forcing them to crawl forward, until stones falling from either the walls or the ceiling crushed them dead.
The last Bone Raider he shot straight in the heart and literally from point blank range, when this one stabbed him in the left chest with his bone-forged spear.
The Dwarf fell on the quaking floor and spat blood, yet there was a smirk on his pain curled lips when he shouted:
“Dahuum ulg Barhuum!”
***
Dear reader, if you liked this story, you might enjoy my published work.
Rather harrowing! Very effective narrative.
Nere ya be messin wit dwarven rangers, me lads.
They'll cut ya down at the knees.