Continued from The Battle Begins.
Ulagret gasped for air as he pulled himself out from under the large demon. Wiggling his sword, he was able to pull it out of the demon’s eye socket, crimson blood covering the blade. All around him, he could see his allies fighting against the demons, spears, sword, axe, and club, all being swung in mayhem.
The impact had knocked the wind out of him, but as he gazed over to his left he prepared to continue the fight. He finally understood why these dugouts were such an important part of their battle strategy. In such tight quarters, the number advantage that these demons had was effectively neutralized. Unfortunately, it also meant that movement was restricted for his allies.
Seeing Innap decapitate a red-skinned demon with horns protruding from its back, Ulagret turned his attention back to his right. He was glad he did.
Taking a step back, he watched as a winged demon swooped down and took out one of his elf brethren. The soldier attempted to defend himself, but the demon was too quick and powerful, slamming the smaller elf against the wall and crushing his throat. Without delay, the demon tossed the dead body aside, turning towards Ulagret and lunging forward.
With night black, leathery skin and red stripes running across his torso, the demon looked absolutely terrifying. It had no spikes upon its back, but the giant bat-like wings added significantly to the intimidation factor. Even more terrifying, the creature’s claws looked strong enough to rip straight through muscle and bone.
In the split second that he had to think, Ulagret decide his best move was to duck under the attack. As the demon soared towards him, he dropped down and thrust his blade up. The demon was better prepared than he had thought, for it flew up overhead, avoiding the edge of Ulagret’s blade.
Quickly rolling over, Ulagret pushed himself back to his feet and tracked the demon’s flight. It was coming back down. As he had been taught, Ulagret tuned out the rest of the battle, ignoring the shouts of his allies and the roars of the demons. People were dying throughout the dugouts, but all Ulagret could worry about right now was his own survival.
Just as the demon descended towards him, the young elf got an idea. Reaching behind, he grabbed a handful of dirt with his left and waited. Time seemed to slow down as the demon neared, and Ulagret could feel his heart pounding in his chest. As the demon was just outside of sword range, he threw up his left hand and let the dirt fly. Simultaneously, he ran to the right of his attacker.
The demon let out a foul shriek as the dirt impacted his eyes, and barely was able to stop itself from impacting the wall of the dugout. Jumping up against the other wall of the dugout and kicked off, Ulagret thrust his sword down with all the energy he could muster. The blade sunk into the back of the demon’s neck, penetrating all the way through.
Ulagret attempted to hang on, but like most of its kind, this demon would not die without putting up one last fight. While the demon thrashed around, Ulagret released his hold on the sword and rolled away from the demon, praying that he wasn’t stepped on in the process. Evorath must have been smiling upon him, for he rolled away without incident, and watched as the demon slowed its rage before finally collapsing.
He saw Innap again, who was now standing in the middle of five separate demon corpses. One of the demons, a purple-skinned creature about the size of an elf, was still moving until Innap shoved his goat-like foot down on the beast’s head. Had he killed all of these demons himself?
“Good job!” shouted Innap as he wiped his sword off on a dead felite’s tunic.
“I’d say you’ve got me beat though,” replied Ulagret, his adrenaline causing him to ignore the fact that, even in battle, Innap was taking the time to joke.
“We should go topside,” continued Innap. “It’s getting too crowded down here.”
Innap was right. After only a few minutes of battle, there had to be fifty or more dead bodies down in this dugout. Still, making it to the ladder might be difficult.
Turning back to his right, Ulagret started making his way in that direction, figuring that Innap would follow. Most of his other allies within earshot were already dead, but he could see the pair of felite who had been listening to his story earlier and a single lamia up ahead by the ladder. Stepped over a fallen lizock, he heard a low growl come from above before Innap shouted.
“Down!”
Ulagret acted without thought, diving forward and rolling away, still holding his sword tightly as he pulled himself back to his feet and turned towards the attacker. A hellhound stood there in the dugout, its hind legs atop the fallen lizock. As it growled a small amount of fire seeped out from its mouth, and its eyes dug into Ulagret’s soul.
Keeping one eye on the hellhound, Ulagret looked behind to Innap, who was cautiously moving forward with his blade poised to strike. He wouldn’t make it in time, so Ulagret had to act on his own.
“Come on,” he spat towards the hellhound and positioned his sword parallel to the ground.
The beast charged forward, its paws throwing up dirt as it dove towards Ulagret. Once again hoping to use the close quarters of the walls, the young elf ran towards the wall of the dugout, but this time he jumped and thrust his sword in. As the hellhound clamped its jaws only inches away, Ulagret was able to pull himself up and swing around to land behind the creature.
While the demon dog slowed its charge and came about, Ulagret had time to retrieve his sword and made an attack of his own. Just as the hellish creature faced him, he thrust his sword into the creature’s open mouth, the blade coming out the top of its skull. Not waiting for even a moment, Ulagret twisted and yanked his sword back out, leaving the creature to fall harmlessly to the ground.
“Now that is a story to tell,” exclaimed Innap as he arrived as Ulagret’s side.
“Indeed,” replied the young elf. “Now let’s bring this battle to an end.”
Innap smiled and both soldiers proceeded forward to meet the two felite and lamia, who, upon closer inspection, were attempting to mend the wounds of a satyr, the same satyr who had been with the two felite and Ulagret earlier.
“You’re wasting your time,” coughed the satyr, some blood trickling out of his open mouth. He was right.
A chunk was missing from his torso, claw marks showing where a demon had ripped out part of the satyr’s side. His ribs showed through, and Ulagret was pretty sure he could even see the satyr’s intestines. It was an unseemly sight, and if Ulagret were a betting elf he would predict this creature’s death any second now.
“Just let me go,” continued the satyr, more blood now coming out with his choked words.
“He’s right,” interjected Innap. “Let him go.”
The three warriors all turned towards Innap, dread upon their face. This satyr must have been a true friend to them, for their eyes told a story of deep friendship and connection. Ulagret felt a pit in his stomach as he watched the lamia holding back a tear.
“We will avenge your death,” promised the lamia, hissing as she squeezed the satyr’s hand one last time before letting go.
Both of the felite said nothing, but they cast there gaze downward, probably offering a silent prayer.
“That’s right,” said Ulagret. He didn’t know what possessed him, but he knew what he had to do.
“We will avenge him. Let’s get up there and take out these demon bastards.”
Everyone looked at Ulagret, a hint of surprise in their gaze. They all nodded.
Not waiting for them to follow, Ulagret grabbed hold and started up the ladder. As his head peaked over the top, he looked upon the devastation that the demons had wrought thus far. Many of the tree stumps were ablaze with hellfire, and ahead there were scattered corpses: demons, elves, satyr, centaur, lamia, lizock, felite, and barghest.
Quickly pulling himself up, he kept his sword at the ready. Behind him, there were various holes in the wall, and he could see through to a centaur engaged in unarmed combat with on the medium sized demons, wrestling to take out the hellish beast. An elvish druid was to his left, trying in vain to mend the wounds of another centaur warrior. To his right, he noticed a pair of barghest fighting against a lizock and a couple of elves. It did not look promising. With a glance back down, he saw the others following, but he didn’t have time to wait.
Keeping his sword diagonal to the ground, Ulagret charged forward towards the fray. Both of the barghest were quite large, their brown fur already covered by the blood of other allied soldiers. Their muscular frame and dog-like features made them difficult to kill, especially in close quarters. While Ulagret closed in, one of the barghest snapped his jaws down upon the shorter of the two elves, biting clean through the warrior’s left arm.
The elf screamed in pain, but the lizock took this as an opening, bringing his club down over the back of the dog’s head. Just a meter away, the other elf was doing her best to keep the second barghest at bay, wildly swinging her sword as a deterrent.
From his position, the barghest who had just gotten a club to the head could not see Ulagret approaching. Taking advantage of this, the young elf arrived and swung his blade overhead, slashing down the barghest’s back. While the creature howled in pain, Ulagret circled his blade around and stabbed into its spine.
The lizock acknowledged Ulagret for a moment before turning to help the female elf. Leaving his sword in the barghest’s back, Ulagret ran to the aide of his elven brother who was missing an arm.
The elf was in shock, and he collapsed on the battlefield grabbing for his missing arm. He moaned in pain, cursing as he rolled over.
“Stay still,” insisted Ulagret. “Help is on the way.”
With no real knowledge of magic or of treating wounds, Ulagret didn’t know what else to say. Fortunately, he wasn’t completely wrong.
Innap, the pair of felite and the lamia all showed up only seconds later.
“Help him, I can.” The male felite spoke as he knelt down next to the dismembered elf.
“Relax, you should,” he insisted as he laid his hands upon the elf’s stump.
Ulagret watched as green energy coated the felite’s hands and then flowed into the elf’s arm. He could see the pain leaving his elven brother as the energy coated his arm, and the blood slowed for a few moments before stopping completely. Magic may not have been able to fix someone missing a chunk of their intestines, but it certainly could patch up an arm nicely.
Looking back out at the battlefield, Ulagret felt his heart flutter.
Slowly walking towards the dugouts -no more than eight meters away- the arch demon was approaching.
