《Greenskin》Chapter 67 - The Stalwart
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The first volley of arrows found the most flesh, the paladin's were already raising their shields when the hail of arrows, flying through the darkness on all sides found them.
Many of the projectiles shattered, wooden shafts crunching against metal shields. But not all of them. Some burrowed into flesh, other scraping and screaming on steel and silver.
The paladin's previous, synchronous and ordered movements fell somewhat into disarray.
The howls, screams and whistles of arrows in flight went silent, instead replaced by the sound of wood scraping on wood, echoing its way through the cavern. More arrows being knocked and drawn.
The knights, along with Kor'Ak fell in close together, locking their shields tight and raising their weapons.
A storm of sharp whistles and screeches flooded the cavern again, though now, very few arrows found flesh to bite, weakpoints to slip through. Instead, the torrent of wood and iron began to pile up at the feet of the paladin's, a circle of splinters and shattered shafts forming around them.
Steal was still hiding in the tunnel, darting his head out to survey the situation for a brief moment.
He could see the creatures, bleach-white skeletons of various sizes, peeking their heads, and bows from small openings in the walls, it was hard to tell there number, but it seemed like they outnumbered the knights four-fold.
There advantage would only increase with each subsequent volley. Though very few arrows felled the paladin's now, the occasional shot found muscle to tear and flesh to rend.
The scrape of arrows being knocked hissed through the cavern again. As the arrows howled, searching for their targets, their sound threatened to almost rise above the thunderous chant that now bellowed from The Speaker's lips, warped by his helmet.
A violent flash of light blinded Steal, forcing his eyes to snap shut and his face to look away from the miniature sun that had sprung to life in the room, replacing the meager light the Speaker had once commanded. The goblin craned his neck back to look back to the group of knights, only to see them levelling their blades forwards towards the skeletal archers. Each man within the circle, besides Kor'Ak let out a simultaneous chant, bolts of bright sunlight erupting forth in narrow, pulsating beams of sunlight.
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The beams scolded and burned into the earthen walls as they raked across them, flowing forwards as they pushed through the gaps in the walls that the skeleton's were firing from, the whitened bones that were caught by the light quickly darkended and crumbled, some of the skeletons dropped to the floor, bones dissasembling and clattering into piles, others lost arms, ribs and shoulder to the light. However, the faster ones had pulled to the side, evading the thin beams.
The beams crackled in the air for another few moments before their light faded, another volley of crooked arrows sprung forth from the skeletal archers that remained, though these found nothing to bite, shattering and reflecting off heavy shields and heavier armour.
With far fewer arrows being fired, and so many of the skeletons incapacitated or injured, Steal's eyes settled onto the gaps in the earthen walls, the closest one to him had been opened slightly by a glancing beam, enough for both he and Adolfus to push through. His feet were moving, pattering quickly against the hard earth beneath him as he heard the scraping of wood again. There was an outburst from behind him, a deep, weighty voice called out from the circle of shields, it was Kor'Ak's.
"Goblin! Get Down!"
Steal shrugged his words off, hurling himself through one of the earthen holes into the dimness beyond, Adolfus in tow. She did not bother to voice them, but he felt her protests in his head, nevertheless, she followed on behind him through the gap in the wall. His eyes quickly scanned through the dimly lit environment, the only light he was given being from the still-floating ball of light in the center of the room behind him.
He glanced left, then right. Either side of him he saw a small corridor, narrow, the ceiling just higher than the height of a human, the wall's spaced apart only so much that single-file movement wouldn't be constricted. The corridor appeared to encircle the room, on his right he could see a slight incline in the corridor, likely raising high enough that it was directly above the entrance he had came from. Steal figured it would likely be the same on the other doorway in the room.
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His eyes snapped left again as he heard the dull scrape of bone against bone. A skeleton charged towards him, holding it's bow two-handed and brandishing it like a club. Without pause, the goblin brought himself forwards, ducking under a wide swing as the bow bounced of the earthen wall, his hand flashed down to his dagger, bringing it up just as fast and stabbing into the creature's chest, blade between it's ribs.
The skeleton twisted it's body upwards, yanking Steal from the floor and forcing him to release his dagger as a sharp burst of pain shot down from his wrist. Steal pushed off from the skeleton, hand reaching down for the other weapon Kor'Ak gave him. He pulled the mace from his shoulder, feeling the weight of the thing, it was different to various daggers and knives he'd been using, heavier even than the spear he'd had when he was alongside the hobgoblins.
He brought the mace up, held tight in both of his hands as he was met with the sound of metal grating on bone as the skeleton wrenched the dagger from it's ribs, tossing the bow at Steal as it brought it's new blade to ready.
Steal's swing was wide as his batted the bow against the wall, wooden riser splintering as his mace crashed against it. His swing was too wide, too much strength, his eyes caught a flash of white as the skeleton took the opportunity to charge towards him, the goblin barely bringing the mace to bare as a dagger flashed down towards him, held firm in the skeleton's bony hands. The thin blade wailed against the metal haft of the mace, scraping down it's length as Steal howled and desperately pushed the undead's arms back, calling for his companion through gritted fangs. "Adolfus!"
No flesh, my venom isn't of use.
He swore he could hear the demon sigh.
His charcoal-black eyes caught a glimpse of movement, a furry ball of black and blue flitting across the wall and launching forwards. Adolfus' body smashed against the skeleton's chest, sending it stumbling backwards. No longer having to worry about pushing his opponent's blade back, Steal charged forward, he'd take advantage of the opening his familiar had granted without fail. His mace swung wide again, it's head smashing into the skeleton's right leg, it's femur smashing into white shards. The skeleton toppled, swinging the dagger wildly upwards, cutting through nothing but air.
Adolfus' furry frame peeled from the skeleton, allowing Steal a clear blow as the goblin brought the mace up, then swung it down. Smashing through the skeleton's skull. The creature dropped, it's bones no longer held together by whatever force kept it animated as it clattered against the ground.
Steal bent to his knee to wipe his dagger from the ground, but was cut off by a sharp word from Adolfus.
More.
She was indeed right, he could see them, piling in behind each other, seemingly forgetting about the paladin's in the centre of the room, instead focusing on the new, green-skinned invader within their wall.
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