Once I got out of the basement of the ruined tower that was the Lost Library, the snipers were already working over the orc archers and staged infantry within the fortress, and Sergeant Thor was working Mjölnir. Shooting steadily in a target-rich environment. The poor dumb savage orcs had no idea what was happening to them as their heads began to explode.
One of their war chiefs finally figured out what was going on and ordered a massed charge of the staged orc infantry, some force lying in reserve to support the forward defenses, against the Lost Library adjacent to the rising dark spike that was the formidable Barad Nulla itself. That charge ended badly when Rico and Soprano methodically cut down the entire element. It was a machine-gun team’s dream engagement scenario. Organized groups with little to no maneuver space and almost no cover, giving the team the perfect chance to do search and traverse fire, maximizing the machine guns’ capability. It was literally what machine guns are made for.
Kennedy fired a volley of magic missiles at orc archers attempting to target our snipers in the upper reaches of the Lost Library, which like the other “towers,” Dark Spire excluded, was little more than a ruined shell open to the sun and sky. Those archers caught fire and burned, flaming and trailing black smoke as they fell from their perch. Kennedy moved to support Rico and Soprano on the ground level.
Another orc charge was coming now as Uroo Uroo horns bellowed out and orc captains rallied their lessers to the attack once more. Soprano and Rico were in the middle of a barrel change, having fired heavily to wipe out the first charge, and something went wrong as they did so, allowing a large group of orcs to make the edges and openings of the tower. Kurtz and Tanner were fighting from the entrance arch just to keep them back. Exchanging firing positions as they tried to hold the perimeter and give whatever malfunction had plagued the two-forty the time it needed to be corrected.
Tanner, dry on 5.56, pulled his secondary as a huge orc thundered through the opening. He red-misted the orc’s skull instantly. The next two got the rest of the mag as Tanner backpedaled to get a new one in. Kurtz
began slam-firing like a machine, ruining the orcs that dared to exploit the sudden opening. Shredding them with shotgun slugs.
Rico requested a position change on the two-forty to clear the attack, and Kurtz waved him off. I was there, with Tanner and Sergeant Kurtz. I burnt my last mag and transitioned to my pistol. Rico and Soprano fired short bursts at a group of orcs who were trying to come through the remains of the last wave that had been torn apart in the courtyard. And Last of Autumn and her younger brothers were with us, taking shots with their bows when they could. Getting kills every time. The courtyard out there was littered with dead bodies. Orc bodies.
The plan had been for me to slip on the ring and link up with the captain and the assaulters at the gate to coordinate the attack. But the enemy had basically just turned toward us en masse, either to fight us or flee through our defense. There was no way for me to get through, even invisible, to link up with the main element.
“Hold here,” Kurtz shouted at me as the orcs charged again. “Main element can probably hear the snipers now anyway.”
Looking out through a fracture in the ruined tower, I could see a fire had broken out in one of the towers closer to the main gate. Thick black smoke was belching up and into the morning sky.
That was when I spotted McCluskey.
The SEAL was in his black-rider-Ren-Faire-tragedian getup, dark cloak flying as he crossed from the last line of defenses and ran for the tower of Barad Nulla.
I’d almost shouted “Look” or some equally stupid thing when Autumn casually turned, focused her currently nocked arrow, and fired right into the running SEAL.
She turned to me as she set down her bow and drew her ninja sword from its scabbard.
“I have a request now, Talker,” she said calmly, as though we were anywhere but in the middle of a battle. Out there in the central courtyard that overlooked the valley below, in the shadow of the ominous spectacle that was the ancient tower, the wounded SEAL in his villain getup was bent over double from the silver-feathered arrow she’d just put in him.
Numbly, I nodded to her. My mind was moving slowly, but I was processing what was about to happen. She was going to get him. And I
needed to tell her no. Wait. Let’s do this as a team.
“If I perish…” She was speaking to me in Shadow Cant. “Your Rangers must… go down into ruined Tarragon and destroy the dragon. So no one else from the tribe will ever need to… face S’sruth the Cruel. The little elves you call Lost Boys… my brother is their leader. He will rule one day… when I am no more. And he will die before the dragon, as we all do… confronting the wyrm’s evil. Kill S’sruth and you will save the Elves of Shadow… and our fault… will become untrue. Even if I am gone then.”
Before I could say “no” or “stop” she was gone, leaping out of a ruined window within the wall of the Lost Library, racing to meet the vampire who was even now pulling her ashwood and silver-feathered arrow from his body. He shouted at the sun, arched his back, and saw Last of Autumn coming for him. Then he smiled and drew his own blade. Coldfire.
And I heard Last of Autumn shout as she charged, “I am Queen of the Shadow Elves, low man. I am revenge, Triton. I am revenge!”
