While Aerwyn and Nyris were finally finding some success in their battle, Erit and Rorik were experiencing quite the opposite. Rorik lay cut in half, struggling to move as tenebrous tendrils stretched out from both halves in order to make him whole again. Luckily for him, Erit was currently keeping the orc busy, allowing him to heal unhindered.The orc reached Erit and sent his sword out directly towards her face. She narrowly dodged the blow and responded by shooting out her dagger into the orc"s torso. However, between the scale armor and the orc"s tough skin, the wound was superficial at best and didn"t slow the orcs a.s.sault in the slightest.
Erit"s short sword had returned to her hand by now and she decided to press her advantage while she could, stabbing towards the orc"s throat once again. The orc had already recovered from his failed attack and hurriedly swung his sword down, severing Erit"s arm in a single slash. Erit showed no signs of slowing down despite losing her right arm as she attempted to use the dagger in her left hand to complete the task that she had failed with her right.
The orc didn"t have time to swing again, instead he chose to backhand her across the face as he dodged. Erit"s small frame was sent tumbling back a dozen meters by the powerful blow and the orc began to give chase immediately.
Aerwyn witnessed Erit"s body as it was sent flying. He panicked when he saw the state of things, Rorik"s two halves were only now coming together and Erit was in serious danger. Nyris"s death knights had already reached the orc that he had been holding down with his bombardment. He couldn"t offer the death knights much help else he risked killing them with his flames while doing very little damage to the orc. Aerwyn eyes darted towards Erit to make sure she was alright and he was stunned by what he saw.
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"YOU MISERABLE... SWINE FACED... RODENT!" Erit furiously roared as she stood back up. Sparks flashed before her eyes and quickly ignited into the wild purple flames that all of Aerwyn"s undead had outside of the humans. Her arm that was slowly being pulled back to her by the tenebrous tendrils disintegrated into black smoke before disappearing entirely. Smoke poured out from where her arm once was and the missing arm began to reappear on her body as the flames covering Erit"s eyes quickly began to spread like a wildfire across her body.
"AERWYN! MORE ARE COMING!" Nyris cried out behind him.
The distressed words caused Aerwyn to glance at the two new challengers that were making their way towards Nyris. Both were true orcs, however one wore full plate armor which would be difficult for Nyris"s death knights to deal with. He glanced back at Erit who was now entirely consumed in an ever growing purple inferno, the heat of which was keeping the orc that had given chase at bay.
Aerwyn didn"t know what was happening to her but it was too similar to what he had seen in his vision of the doppelganger a few days prior. The only difference he could see was the lack of black smoke but he still found himself unable to look away from the scene. All of the orcs and elves fighting nearby fled the area surrounding her as the inferno grew to nearly two dozen meters wide and a dozen high before it appeared to stop.
The flames receded as quickly as they appeared, revealing eight long black legs entwined with purple flames that created intricate patterns along her carapace. As the flames continued to recede it became apparent that Erit had transformed into her giant spider form, only now she was nearly twice as large as before and had intricate patterns of purple flames etched all throughout her body.
Erit wasted no time and reached the orc that had cut off her arm in an instant. As she raised her leg to impale him, the intricate patterns of purple flames swelled until the flames encapsulated her leg entirely. The orc was able to dodge the first blow but Erit was too quick with the second. The tip of her flaming leg pierced straight through the scale armor, pinning the orc to the ground until it too was consumed by the flames.
"AERWYN!" Nyris cried out once again.
Aerwyn turned and saw the orc in plate armor swinging his sword down only to be blocked by a floating white s.h.i.+eld of bone that appeared in front of Nyris. The original orc that they were fighting lay dead a few meters away and he could only see one other death knight still standing. The death knight was doing it"s best to keep the second orc away from Nyris but it appeared to be on the defensive as well.
Nyris was visibly struggling and his bone s.h.i.+eld showed signs of crumbling but Aerwyn couldn"t shoot a flame lance at the orc without hitting Nyris too. As the orc raised it"s sword for another attack Aerwyn ordered his zin beetle to charge, he wouldn"t be able to kill the orc in melee but as long as he could knock it away from Nyris he wouldn"t have to.
The zin beetle reached max speed in only a few steps but the orc"s sword was quicker. The sword came cras.h.i.+ng down on the crumbling bone s.h.i.+eld, shattering it and continuing on through Nyris"s collarbone before entering his chest.
"NOOO!" Aerwyn howled as the orc pulled his sword out allowing Nyris"s limp body to collapse onto the ground. The orc heard Aerwyn"s shout but didn"t have enough time to dodge as the two meter tall zin beetle came barreling it"s way towards him.
The orc hastily swung it"s sword as the zin beetle made contact, slicing off two of the zin beetle"s left legs. The orc was sent flying back while the zin beetle collapsed and slid forward, knocking Aerwyn off as well. The broken bones in his arm still hadn"t fully healed and the fall only worsened the damage but he didn"t allow the pain to overtake him as he quickly rushed to his feet.
"ERIT DEFEND ME!" Aerwyn cried out as he ran to Nyris"s body.
The orc"s strike had cut nearly thirty centimeters down through Nyris"s chest separating the left half of his upper body and allowing Aerwyn to see the elf"s innards. His eyes were erratically darting around as foamy blood pooled around his lips yet Aerwyn felt relief at such a sight. If his eyes were moving then he was still alive and if he was alive, he could be brought back. At least he hoped, like most aspects of his power, the rules for resurrection weren"t entirely clear so he decided to take extra precautions just in case.
"LORAK! LORAK!" The orc commander shouted out as a horn was blown in the distance.
The sounds caused Aerwyn to glance around the square, making sure it was still safe. Erit had joined the death knight"s battle nearby and his zin beetle mount was already in the midst of healing as it chased after the orc in plate armor. Since Erit was near he felt safe enough to turn his attention back to the dying Nyris.
There was no time to ask whether or not the necromancer wanted this and even if there was, Nyris couldn"t speak at the moment. Aerwyn a.s.sumed he would prefer undeath over what awaited necromancers in the afterlife, even if it meant being beholden to Aerwyn for the rest of his days.
"I"m sorry Nyris... but this may sting a bit." Aerwyn spoke softly as he reached his hand into Nyris"s open chest. Once he grasped a hold of the elf"s heart, he summoned purple flames to his hand. Nyris convulsed and displayed an expression of agony for a brief moment as the flames incinerated his heart before his eyes went blank, appearing to lose all life.
After a few moments Nyris"s soul left his body which made Aerwyn sigh in relief, if he could see the soul that meant he had succeeded. He didn"t watch as the resurrection process continued, instead he picked up his staff and scanned the battlefield. To his surprise the orcs appeared to be retreating despite still having nearly a hundred and fifty men left. While that may not sound like much, the elven forces weren"t much better off and Aerwyn had taken heavy losses as well so it wouldn"t be out of the question for them to fight on.
"Erit lift me up so we can chase them." He called out to Erit who was finis.h.i.+ng off a true orc she had been chasing nearby.
"Master! I"m a little spider again!" Erit shouted cheerfully as she ran over.
"I... can see that. Anyway, let"s go." Aerwyn choked as his mind processed the fact that those words had came from a spider a dozen meters tall and two dozen meters wide.