Aerwyn"s mind began to race as the charging true orcs blew another horn as if to let their embattled troops know of their arrival. It wasn"t out of the question for the true orcs to have simply responded to the horn blowing when the lesser orcs realized another force had appeared but it felt like he had been strung along on a leash. That wasn"t to say he believed the orcs planned an elaborate trap for the sole purpose of rooting him out but it appeared they had at least planned a strategy just in case of Aerwyn"s arrival.If that turned out to be true then he had been played like a fiddle and that irked him to no end. He didn"t have any training or upbringing that taught him any sort of strategy or tactics. At least none that he could remember anymore, but he believed that he was doing a well enough job so far with leading his army of undead. He wondered if Earl Abery could"ve detected whether or not the orcs movements pointed to a trap if Aerwyn had told him about the events within Setrhyn prior to their arrival.
There was no point in thinking about it with the gift of hindsight but perhaps he should begin to include some of his undead in his decision making from now on. Snapping from his thoughts he turned back to the battle and was once again surprised by what he saw. The orcs were showing a ferocity unseen before now as they pushed forward to close the gap created by Aerwyn"s initial charge.
"Don"t let them close the gap! Push through to the square!" Aerwyn cried out, sending his undead into a frenzy that matched the orcs.
Aerwyn glanced back at the true orcs charging down the avenue, his only solace was that they were traveling at a pace that their non-mounted troops could keep up with. It gave him little time but it was more than nothing. Looking back towards the battle, his undead weren"t making much headway and it didn"t appear like they would break through in time.
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"Is there anything you can do to slow them down?" Aerwyn asked Pontus.
"Not much, the avenue is too large. I can slow them but only for a few moments, my lord." Pontus respectfully responded without any hint of urgency.
"That"s fine do it." Aerwyn commanded as he turned his attention back to the battle.
"All elves of Lyr fall back to me! NOW!" Aerwyn roared.
Pontus finished casting his magic as the elves of Lyr began to surround him. The avenue thirty meters away from Aerwyn appeared to disintegrate into a patch of sand that was a few meters wide and stretched across the road. Pontus wasn"t lying when he said he couldn"t do much, that superb culmination of earth magic would be about as effective at slowing them down as a strong breeze and the elves were taking too d.a.m.n long to get out of combat.
He couldn"t waste any more time waiting and could only hope the elves would be lucky enough to avoid his attacks. Aerwyn began firing flame lances as quickly as he could into the orcs blocking their path. Above the heads of his undead, scalding hot purple projectiles flew out in rapid succession. It may not be able to kill them in one or two blows but the unending explosions would disrupt their lines enough for his undead to exploit.
The true orc"s force reached the sand pit Pontus had created as Aerwyn"s bombardment knocked the orcs around as if they were merely made of straw.
"Let"s go! PUSH THROUGH!" Aerwyn cried out as the zin beetle he was riding began to move. The elves of Lyr and Aerwyn"s defenders charged beside him, all the while he continued to shoot out more flame lances. Sweat dripped from Aerwyn"s forehead as he felt the air surrounding the battle beginning to heat up from the purple flames exploding out in front of him.
It was getting difficult for him to breathe so he couldn"t begin to imagine how the orcs would be faring considering the circ.u.mstances. His purple flames didn"t harm his undead in the slightest, however explosions were still explosions and a few undead were unfortunately hit by friendly fire. If they ended up in the way of a flame lance, the explosion wouldn"t kill them but they would be sent tumbling no different from the orcs. Aerwyn paid them little mind as he continued to pave his way through the enemy lines.
The orcs didn"t sit idly by as Aerwyn rode through, they fought desperately to reach him but his undead were quick to fill any gap his flame lance"s created. While orcs were resistant to magic, much like how Aerwyn was using the explosions created by his flame lances to knock them down, Pontus was creating pillars of earth to do the same to any orc that grew too close.
As they broke through the orcs and entered the square, Aerwyn realized just how bad this battle truly was for the elves. The square looked as if a free for all had broken out long before Aerwyn arrived to Setrhyn as bodies of both elf and orc dotted the ground. It appeared that the orcs were only holding the avenue to either trap Aerwyn or for some other strategic reason that he couldn"t instantly see.
There were only a few hundred elves left and while that didn"t account for those still hiding in their homes, their numbers were still far too low. Aerwyn made some distance from the reforming battle lines and sent the undead troops that had broken through along with him to a.s.sist the elves in holding the orcs at bay.
The heat from his bombardment still cooked the already hot summer air as his body spewed sweat from every pore. He could see Master Ferlin, Sera, and Jeren nearby still looking rather fresh despite the heavy elven loses. Tylin appeared to still have mana as he summoned another batch of death knights to reinforce them.
"Finally..." Nyris breathed a sigh of relief as he rushed over to Aerwyn"s side.
"Are you ok?" Aerwyn asked as he looked at the exasperated elf.
"The losses have been heavy and the orcs already dispatched most of my death knights. I have few remaining that i can call upon. Tylin and i have been conserving our mana to battle the lok"ra but now i fear we have too few elves to support us." Aerwyn didn"t recognize the term "lok"ra" but now wasn"t the time for his curiosity. Besides, he could make an educated guess that the word was the name for what he"s been calling "true orcs".
"I"m going to-"
"GORAK TORAKKA KA LAMOG! GOG!!!" A loud shout resounded out from one of the lok"ra riding a bull, interrupting Aerwyn.
"GRAHHHHH!" The orcs roared out a battle cry in unison that sent them into a frenzied rush towards the square.
The orcs were like a single being, h.e.l.lbent on reaching their destination as they moved forward in unison, using their s.h.i.+elds to push back both elf and undead alike. They were quickly gaining ground and if left be, the square would become a free for all once more. His plan was to continue firing out flame lances until the orcs could no longer bear the heat, much like he had done with the jakku"s cave. Except this time instead of forcing them into webs, his undead would be fighting them unhindered throughout the bombardment.
Now that they were pus.h.i.+ng into the square that plan was useless unless he wanted to cook the elves too in the ensuing free for all. There was only one other option Aerwyn could think of to gain any sort of advantage now and that was his inferno. The orcs magic resistance would amount to nothing once Aerwyn"s purple inferno wrapped itself around them. Even if they could bear the heat for a short time, once engulfed they would be without air and quickly suffocate.
The problems with using the inferno here were numerous. The most obvious being that he had to remain in the darkness to control it lest the inferno run wild and sap all the souls from him, that led to the next problem. He had previously discovered that the inferno burned his soul as fuel once it started so he not only needed souls to control it but also to resurrect those who fall beneath it"s raging flames.
Aerwyn"s undead had killed a fair number of orcs and while he did heed Tylin"s advice by not spending all of his souls during the cleanup of Earl Abery"s men yesterday, he was unsure whether resurrecting orcs would follow the same formula as humans.
"GOG! TORAKKA KEEGUK!!!" The lok"ra screamed out some foreign words once more as the orcs began another push forward, snapping him from his indecisive thoughts.
"Ugh... d.a.m.n it all!" Aerwyn grumbled as he aimed his staff towards one of the buildings the orc forces were pressed against. He shot out a couple flame lances in rapid succession until the building was licked by growing purple flames.
"Protect me." Turning to Erit and Nyris, Aerwyn spoke in a solemn tone before he lowered his body to the zin beetles back, closing his eyes and entering the darkness.