Broken Skull

I stood in the training yard with my armor on, my axe secured, and having received a somewhat new shield to use in the coming battle. Lakus stood to my left, acting as the messenger to tell Lilith and her team to get moving. I did not call for them, but it didn't take long for the first few to arrive here, all as grim and determined as they could be. Most of them would probably be dead within the next day or so. I might even be among their number. So long as we won today, it wouldn't matter. Eventually there would be enough of us to take the area just outside the dungeon for ourselves, so long as we won today.

More skeletons arrived, some adjusting the straps to armor, others using their own bones to finish ensuring their weapons would be sharp enough for them to fight true. There wasn't much chatter between them, even as those who were part of the main force watched, whispering to each other.

Nearly an hour later, I had maybe half the forces who'd declared themselves willing to fight and potentially die, including the mages and a small number of archers, who were each given two whole quivers to use, filled to the brim with any arrows that could be found that weren't going to Lilith's team.

"I don't think anyone else is going to join us for this." I began speaking, my voice being carried to each of the gathered by sheer will. "That means that as of this moment, you are some of the bravest among us. You are the ones who shall reap honor today, whether death claims you or not. Let this moment be etched into history, that all those who fought with courage and hope in their souls shall forever be remembered." I pulled my axe from the loop it was fastened to, gripping it tight.

"We are the weakest of all monsters. We have neither muscle to empower us nor natural defenses to bolster us. We are those who earn our own death by merely existing. So we have only ever had one option when it comes to survival. One option when it comes to fighting for our future. No holding back. No hesitation in your attacks. Our lives are all or nothing from the very beginning. No other race, no other monster, no other being has to experience that same fear. All or nothing, in everything we do. This operation embodies that same spirit. We either win today, or we fall back down to the role that this world has tried to force upon us." I looked out over the sixth of our total forces, and nodded once to myself.

"That is why should we win the day, I hereby declare the formation of the Cursed Legion. Let our enemies come to fear the same cursed fate that we have all been damned to since our creation. Let those who flee in fear live so that they may understand the curse that lies upon our race." I nodded one more time to Lakus before I raised my axe into the air. The other skeletons followed suit with their own weapons, a genuine war cry erupting from all of them. "Move out!" I began to jog out of the encampment and toward the orc fortress, the newly formed Legion falling in behind me, their footsteps echoing out into the fourth floor.

Not a single orc impeded us on our journey, the lights of the fortress coming into view. I called for a halt, and asked for a few volunteers to begin digging burial pits for use in an ambush. More than half came forward, though I only selected a total of ten of them to dig as many burial pits as fast as possible, even if they were shallow. The ten skeletons quickly got to work digging just out of range of the various torches and light sources, pits of dirt barely shallow enough for a single one of us. I informed the rest of the men and women fighting alongside me today that some would lay in wait under the ground to trip up and then ambush any orcs who got close enough, though I also informed them that if they were too late, that they would likely be surrounded and killed. None even flinched at the idea.

It was for this reason that by the time twenty different pits were dug, I stopped the ten who'd volunteered, and another twenty skeletons buried themselves to the best of their ability, weapons pointing up to trip up or injure any who were careless.

I made sure both mages were ready, both of them conjuring little motes of flame that would grow to incredible sizes upon impact. The archers were setting up their quivers so that they could at their arrows quickly and easily. Some were even jamming their arrows into the ground so that they could use them faster than they'd be able to pull them from their quivers. All the others who remained checked their weapons, and a few even stood near the mages and archers, weapons gripped tight as they looked around, scanning for unseen threats.

The orcs on the wall were moving now, seemingly having heard some of our activity, causing them to become restless as some attempted to peer into the dark, unable to see past the light which dulled their eyesight, incapable of perceiving all of us preparing to kick down their door and take their beloved fort. The few skeletons still available took up positions in and around the burial pits.

Once I saw that everyone was ready, I stepped into the light. Almost immediately, every pair of eyes turned to me. I raised my hand into the air, axe held high. Then I brought it down, and two speeding motes of flame passed overhead, and hit the wall with a puff of smoke. Just as the orcs began to laugh, those same puffs of smoke ignited all the air around them, and exploded into being with an incredible crackling noise, shattering the two parts of the wall that they had hit. Orcs fell to the dungeon floor, not even having had time to scream. Those that survived however started howling in both indignation and rage. An arrow sailed toward me, just under my ribcage, and passed into the ground behind me. I raised the axe again, and brought it down once more. A small volley of arrows sailed out of the darkness and onto the wall, most of the arrows scattering off the metal protrusions, though a fair few sailed into the flesh of an orc or two, the monsters dead before they hit the ground. This served to anger them further as all I did was wait.

Another arrow flew through the air toward me. Before it could hit I leapt back just enough that it hit the ground in front of me, [Haste] working to my advantage here. As the second arrow missed and I stepped forward again, the orcs grew ever more enraged at the singular enemy that had killed so many of them. Howls and snarls emanated from the sections of the wall that hadn't been hit. The gate began to raise slowly, the steady clanking like a clock ticking downward in the endless underground night. I took one final, non-existant breath as orcs struggled to get underneath the gate, a feral horde that began charging straight in my direction.

I stepped back into the darkness quickly, ensuring that they would follow. I reached the burial pits just as the first one reached me, his serrated sword stabbing at my head. Moving it to the side I used my shield to punch him in the stomach before placing the blade of my axe several inches deep in his side, more than enough to open up his heart to the world. His momentum nearly bowled me over, though [Haste] allowed me to get out of the way and even snatch his serrated weapon, moving back further as his corpse and my axe were buried in the rabid mass of flesh and metal. The closer skeletons stepped forward, weapons swinging furiously. While these orcs were far and away meant to be stronger than us, each skeleton here had been baptized in blood and death far more, making up for their even levels with a wealth of experience the naturally strong seldom had.

Accurate and brutal strikes savaged the first of the orcs to reach us, even as we backpedaled over the first burial pit to unearth themself, the skeletal woman lunging upward with a dagger right between the legs of a passing orc, before she ripped the dagger out with a horrible tearing noise. I redirected a strike from a second assailant, stabbing him in the arm so that his weapon fell to my feet. Without thinking, I kicked it over to where she was, the weapon luckily thumping against the leg of an enemy long enough for her to extricate herself from the potential encirclement of bloodthirsty monsters.

Arrows sailed into the advancing orcs one after another, the archers finally firing at will, while the mages began sending shards of ice, bolts of flame, and arcs of weakened lightning into the mass that was already beginning to overwhelm us. I couldn't spare a glance to see if Lilith was making any progress, or check to see if Lakus would arrive soon with the rest of the main force. A third orc swung a club at me, studded with already bloodied metal nail-like protrusions, the weapon slamming into my hastily raised shield and almost knocking me off balance. My sword bit deep into his arms and he let go of his weapon. I ripped it from my shield and caved in the skull of the still squealing beast before me, silencing his screams forever, before knocking the metal ended bludgeoning weapon right into the teeth of the orc who was now trying to rip the sword from his arms. He didn't even get to make a sound as I fed him his own teeth.

I blade bit into my right arm, the bone cracking as I turned back with my shield to beat the skull of an orc who had gotten close enough with a cleaver, even as other skeletons unearthed themselves for the battle, weapons flashing and stabbing and cutting and killing, a wordless battle cry emanating from all of us. The edge of the shield got stuck in the front of his face, enough that I couldn't pull it out, so I instead let it go, ripping the cleaver from my arm. Arrows began to rain down on the battlefield from the orc stronghold, hitting both skeleton and orc alike. For us the arrows hurt, but they didn't hurt us nearly as much as they did the orcs, getting stuck in pathetic flesh and organs.

They didn't hurt nearly as bad as the arrows from the bowman did. A sword swished by my face, the dark metal glinting a little in the spells that lit up the battlefield again and again. A rapid clanking noise rang out again and again from the fort before a deep booming thud echoed out into the fourth floor.

I turned to face my new opponent and continued the fight, a battle cry emerging from my soul.