Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1) (13 page)

“Something is wrong,” said Rubic, looking over the lip of the hill at the campsite below. “This soon after the battle, they wouldn’t make camp and not post a guard, would they?”

“No, they would not,” Khazatch replied. “Certainly, I would not, anyway.” He looked again, using his ability to see into the infrared. Although more limited than many of the other races, the orcs had developed it when they lived underground, and many of them were still able to see the differences in heat. He scanned the camp again. “Wait. There
is
one guard, but he’s hard to see because he’s on the other side of the campfire.” Khazatch slid a few feet to the left to get a better look that was less impeded by the fire. “How many were there supposed to be?”

“They left with five. They had the devil, the half-orc, the outlander, the paladin and the cleric.”

“The one I can see is small, so it must be the outlander. Wait, they must have added someone else to their group, because I see five more heat sources in their bedrolls. There are six total.”

“What do you recommend?” asked Rubic.

“Have the troops circle the camp, and then have the shaman cast a Hold Person spell on the guard. Send in the worgs, followed by the rest of the platoon.”

“I agree,” said Rubic. “Do it.”

Khazatch gave the hand signals and the rest of his platoon deployed. When they were in place, he moved forward slowly with the shaman until they were in range of the guard. The shaman cast two spells, saying the words so quietly that Khazatch, who was standing next to him, could barely hear them. The first was cast on the patrol leader, helping him resist fire. When fighting a teufling, it was a wise precaution. The second was cast at the guard, after which the shaman nodded, indicating that the guard was held immobile. Khazatch gave the owl hoot to signal the attack.

The worgs raced into camp, followed by the orcs. As they entered the circle of light cast by the campfire, the orcs screamed their battle cry to help disorient their foes as they woke. The worgs gave a scream of their own, but theirs was one of pain as the ground grew spikes all around them. The orcs’ screams of defiance turned to confusion as the undergrowth developed a mind of its own, and vines started wrapping themselves around the orcs’ legs. The orcs were entangled, their motion slowed.

“They know we’re coming!” yelled Khazatch, jumping back from several vines that reached out to grab him. “Rally to me!” He moved back outside the Entangle spell’s area of effect; the rest of the patrol wasn’t so lucky.

The mages watched as their enemies raced into the camp. “Now!” said Ghorza, who had the best night vision of the group.

“
Globus Incendi!
” commanded Dantes, and a bead of fire sprang from his pointer claw. The fireball traveled to the center of camp, growing slightly en route, before detonating with a low roar over the campfire. The worgs that had attacked the sleeping forms in their bed rolls were all roasted by the fireball. Most of the orcs were still outside the main blast area, though, and were only singed by the flames. The fireball also burned the covers off of the forms ‘sleeping’ by the fire...rocks, which had been heated by Dantes to give the illusion of body heat.

The sixth worg attacked Fitzber, who didn’t move as the wolf raced toward him. As he had expected, he was held in place by the shaman’s Hold Person spell.

Any time now, Telenor, he thought as he watched the worg lope toward him, saliva dripping from its fangs. Fitzber had plenty of experience hunting worgs on the frontier; he knew it wouldn’t be distracted by his lack of movement. Although some bears wouldn’t attack if you played dead, worgs would just chew on you until they got the reaction they were looking for.

“
Obstupefece!
” commanded Telenor, removing the paralysis.

Fitzber felt life come back to his limbs and shook out his arms. Although he hadn’t been held long, he knew he needed to get the cast right the first time, or he would be dead, buried beneath a wolf that weighed three times as much as he did. “
Empathia Feri!
” he commanded, casting a Wild Empathy spell that befriended the charging worg. As the beast gathered itself to spring on him, Fitzber saw the worg’s eyes glaze over, and the animal went into a head-first tumble as the expected pounce didn’t happen. Fitzber stepped out of the way as it crashed past and then took a step over to it to scratch it behind its ear. “The green ones want to hurt us and our pack,” Fitzber said. “Let’s go kill them.”

The worg bounced up from the ground and oriented on the closest orc. Nothing was allowed to hurt a member of its pack, and killing was not only something that the worg understood very well, but also something that it liked doing. A lot. It raced forward while Fitzber picked up his bow. The orc saw the worg racing toward it but didn’t give it a second thought as it stumbled forward toward the patrol leader. He turned away from the worg, so he didn’t see the giant wolf spring. It leapt onto his back, and the orc barely had time to feel the worg break his neck as it slammed him face first into the ground.

The rest of the companions dropped from the trees on the opposite side of the campfire from Fitzber and Telenor, and Lady Ellyn sprinted toward the patrol leader and the shaman, helped along by one of Ghorza’s Haste spells. Telenor raced from the other side of the camp to join her.

Dantes’ second fireball erupted in the closest concentration of orcs, killing several of them outright and burning two more that dove to the side. It also served to alert the orcs to the group’s location. “Get them!” yelled Khazatch. “Kill the casters. I will take care of the paladin.” The nine remaining orcs turned and charged the mages.

John had never been attacked by anything that intended to do him harm, much less things that were armed with swords and battle axes, and he felt his knees go weak. He couldn’t think of any of the trigger phrases that he had labored to memorize just an hour earlier; all he could think about was running. John’s eyes twitched to Dantes on his right. The teufling was gesturing in preparation for casting a spell. He looked to the left and saw that Ghorza was doing similarly.

“
Molaris!
” Dantes shouted, and two force missiles shot out from him. They started small, but then grew to almost a foot in diameter. The missiles hit the leading orc in the chest and face and exploded; what was left of the orc wasn’t pretty. The dead orc fell backward, missing most of its head.

“
Segniter!
” Ghorza commanded. A crackling black ray shot out of her hand to strike two of the orcs behind the one that Dantes killed. As John watched, they seemed to shrivel and grow old as their life force was pulled from them. Their movements slowed, and they fell to their knees, gasping for breath.

“Don’t just stand there, do something,” grunted Dantes. “Cast Magic Missile, if you can’t think of anything else.”

John snapped out of his daze. He remembered the pictures in the spell book, how the movements went and... “
Missilis Magici!
” he commanded, and two missiles jumped from his finger at the next orc in line. Smaller than the ones that Dantes cast, the missiles sped unerringly to their target and hit the orc in the chest, knocking him backward. The orc wasn’t dead, but he didn’t appear to be an immediate threat any more.

“
Dormi!
” shouted Ghorza, casting a Sleep spell at one of the remaining orcs. Nothing happened; the orc kept coming. Ghorza drew her scimitar as the orcs were almost on them.

“Scorching Ray on three,” said Dantes. “One...two...three!” As one, Dantes and John both commanded, “
Fluxum Ignis!
” and a stream of fire blasted forth from their outstretched fingers. The two cones of fire overlapped in a wave of blazing destruction that washed over the charging orcs. The orcs screamed, sounding like squealing pigs. Three of them didn’t make a sound; they fell dead. The other two orcs pushed their dead bodies out of the way and leaped to attack the defenseless casters.

The first orc carried a battle axe, and it swung at Dantes and John. Both casters dove out of the way of the killing blow. John fell to the ground, and the orc took a step toward him, raising the battle axe over his head. Before he could chop down, he suddenly lurched, and the battle axe fell backward out of his hands to land on the ground behind him. His eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell forward onto John, an arrow sticking out of his back.

The second orc swung his sword at Ghorza, intending to take her head off. Having grown up with orcs, she recognized the attack and used her scimitar two-handed to block it, the two swords clanging together sharply. As the orc’s sword rebounded, she let go of her sword with one hand, pointed at the orc and commanded, “
Dormi!
” The orc fell to the ground and lay still. After a moment, it started snoring.

Lady Ellyn approached the orc leader and his shaman with a speed born of Haste, while Father Telenor came as fast as he could to join her from the other direction. The shaman gestured behind the orc, and Khazatch momentarily glowed. Lady Ellyn had fought enough orcs to know that the platoon leader had just received a Protection from Good spell; he would now be harder to hit. She slowed, both to allow Father Telenor to catch up as well as to catch her breath. Running in armor was tiring, especially when Hasted.

The shaman gestured again with his staff, and Lady Ellyn was plunged into darkness. Stupid orcs, thought Lady Ellyn; they can never do anything honorably. She tried to back out of the darkness, but was unable; the shaman had cast it on her. She knew that while she was disabled, both of the orcs would attack Father Telenor, hoping to remove his support. “
Inveni Malum!
” she said, casting a Detect Evil. Sure enough, she could see two forms through the darkness, both circling her, one on either side. Based on where they had started, she was fairly certain the one on the right was the leader, so she backpedaled to the right to cut him off.

“
Lux Diei!
” said Father Telenor, casting a Daylight spell. Not only did it banish the darkness spell, but it turned night into day, taking away the orcs’ better night vision. The orc leader
was
the one on the right. Lady Ellyn cut him off with a swing of her sword. Momentarily blinded, the orc blocked her swing with his battle axe. Unable to look directly into the spell, the orc drew a dagger and threw it at her, hoping to gain some time to let his eyes adjust.

Lady Ellyn advanced, not wanting to give up her advantage. She held up her left arm and the dagger bounced off the vambrace on her forearm. Pressing the attack, she used her Haste to swing several times at the orc. The patrol leader blocked her attacks with his axe as he continued to backpedal, reaching behind his back with his off hand.

Coming to Lady Ellyn’s aid, Father Telenor saw the darkness envelope her and knew the orcs would come for him. He knew he wouldn’t last long against the fighter, so he went around to the left of the darkness to intercept the shaman as he cast the Daylight spell. Father Telenor saw the shaman gesture with his staff, and a thick mist surrounded the priest. Unable to see, Father Telenor held his mace in front of him as he tried to back away. He felt a presence to his left and heard the shaman say, “
Vulnera Mediocria,
” casting a Cause Wounds spell. He felt the shaman’s touch, and a large cut opened up on his side. As he spasmed in pain, he swung his mace in that direction and was rewarded with a solid crunch as it hit the shaman.

Although Father Telenor gained a couple moments’ reprieve, he knew the shaman would be back, and that he couldn’t take many more wounds like the first one the shaman gave him. He could feel blood pouring down his leg and realized that he needed to even the odds.  “
Flagra!
” he cast, calling down a flame strike. Although the mist caused him to almost completely miss the shaman, the divine flames were successful in burning away the mist that had been obscuring his vision. He caught the shaman circling around to his left, intent on hitting him from behind. The shaman’s left arm was hanging limp; Father Telenor’s mace had crushed his shoulder.

As Lady Ellyn pressed in on the leader, trying to beat down his guard with a series of strikes, the orc’s left hand came out from behind his back holding a whip. He lashed out and wrapped it around one of Lady Ellyn’s ankles; pulling with all his might, he threw her off balance, and she went down.

The orc took a step forward. Dropping the whip, he raised the massive battle axe with both hands. A giant of an orc, Lady Ellyn knew that if he hit her, the axe would split both armor and paladin, as well. “
Caede Malum!
” she said, casting her Smite Evil spell. A divine flame roared out of the heavens, hitting the orc on the head and blasting him with divine power. The orc was knocked backward, the axe falling from his suddenly numb hands.

Lady Ellyn used the respite to roll to her stomach and get back to her feet. She picked up her sword in time to meet the renewed assault by the orc but realized that her reflexes were back to normal; she was no longer Hasted. She saw that the orc’s attacks were no longer as crisp; he’d been hurt by the Smite spell.

Father Telenor could feel his strength leaving him and saw that the shaman was beginning another spell. “
Consiste Hominem!
” he said, casting his last offensive spell. The Hold Person spell was effective, and the orc shaman was held in place, unmoving. Laying his hand on his side, he said “
Remedium Magnum,
” channeling positive energy into his injury with a cure spell. The wound closed, and he felt better even if he was still a little physically weak from the blood loss he had incurred. Before the Hold spell could wear off, he stepped forward and finished the shaman with a well-placed strike.

Lady Ellyn continued to trade blows with the orc leader. He had used a cleaving spell on her which had opened up a gaping wound; she had used her laying of hands ability to cure it and had continued on. The orc had been unable to recover completely from the Smite spell and was tiring fast. She began to beat his attacks back and came closer and closer to landing the blow that would finish him. She could see in the orc’s eyes he knew it was coming, and Lady Ellyn knew she needed to end the fight before the orc did something desperate. In previous fights she had seen orcs that knew they were going to lose do a variety of daring things to kill their opponent, even though they knew it would open themselves up to be killed, as well. They were happy just knowing they were taking their opponents into the next world with them.

Lady Ellyn knew it wouldn’t be long before this orc tried something similar. She needed to end the fight
now
.

On the orc’s next strike, she blocked it less well than she could have, allowing the head of the axe to glance off her leg armor as she parried it down to the side. Stepping back, she stumbled, as if the axe had numbed her leg. She could see in the orc’s eyes that he believed it. The orc followed her forward, putting all of its flagging energy into a swing that would decapitate her if it landed.

She was no longer there, though, having used her leg to push off and dive forward. As the orc leader overextended himself with the roundhouse swing, she came up on his side and drove her dagger into his kidney. As she stepped back away, she chopped down with her sword, severing his Achilles tendon. Lamed and mortally wounded, the orc attacked as well as he could, trying to kill her before he died. With two good legs, she was able to stay out of his reach until he wore down and fell to his knees. She stepped in and drove her sword through his heart, killing him. The companions had won.