Shield of Lies Chapter 5: The Balance of Power
 

The Avariel's strike was hard and fast, but the Orcs counter was no less deadly.

Seemingly from beneath the feet of their larger cousins, entire formations of Goblins scurried about, using the other Orcs as protection. On Antarrak's command, they closed formation bent to one knee, and drew their Cho Ko Nu's. They raised their weapons to the sky, and waited for Antarrak's order.

"Blast them out of the sky." he growled; and the Goblins let loose.

A whithering hail of arrows shot to the sky; Avariel Dragoons dropped in the hundreds to the unending rain of death. The Orc Chieftan nodded to one of his commanders, a short goblin with a feral look about him. The goblin rushed off and squeaked orders to several trolls leading large armoured boxes. The trolls stopped pulling and pried open their charges, revealing what looked like a Balista, with no bolts. Steam gouted out of pipes, and the machine came to life, orcs sitting in chairs at the bases aimed the great weapons to the sky. Each one fired hundreds of arrows each second, and the Avariel began to fall in greater numbers.

Dain watched in horror. He had seen this exact same sight not even a month ago.

Gabriel formed his ranks about him, and ordered the Archers at the walls to fire as John summoned his energies. The archaic elemental chanted and concentrated, and as he raised his hands over the landscape, a titanic wall of ice rose to fill in the gap that had breached the wall. Gabriel signalled for the footsoldiers and anyone else without a bow to join him at the breach. He organized them into two parties, and each one stood at the wall to either side of the breach, and waited.

OOC: Didn't I mention that they had flown out of the reach of the orcish arrows? Besides, Cho Ko Nu's have pretty lousy range compared to an Avariel longbow.

The ballista-things would work, though.

IC: Gwaethir's eyes narrowed, fixing the orcs below with an scowl of hatred. The mages themselves were higher up than the rest, and many were protected by shields of air. The hardest-hit units were the Dragoons, still ascending after their attacks, and some units from other Avariel enclaves.

Gwaethir nodded to the senior mages of the group, and all three of them began to chant. The other mages joined in, and the wind began to stir...

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Hakar's troops were mostly heavy infantry and crossbowmen. He ordered them to stay behind their cover, and continue firing. This was working well so far...but then the half-drow sensed a bright pulse of magic. He dove out of the way, barely in time to avoid a thin, incredibly hot stream of magical flame. One crossbowman was immediately killed, and two more rolled around on the ground as they strove to put out the flames.

He saw a thin orc in red robes striding forward, a skull-capped staff in his hands. Hakar sheathed his blades, hands flexing in the patterns of his newfound spells as he launched a barrage of force darts (little blades of telekinetic force) at his opponent. It would make sense for the orc shaman to attack the wall with his spells...and Hakar hoped he could defeat him before he melted a significant hole.

The orc hopped back, one arm gashed, while some nearby orcs fell to the ground....their eyes and throats pierced. The shaman snarled, blasting at him again...Hakar had been trying to gauge how injured it was, and had apparently underestimated its fortitude. He tried to block with a conjured shield of mental force, but was too late. The bolt of fire seared across the back of his arm, and he gritted his teeth against the pain. The strike had been partially deflected, and the orc hadn't had as much time to charge it as he had with his last attack, but it still stung and burned.

Hakar threw out one hand, the loaded crossbow dropped by one of the injured soldiers springing into his grasp. Raising and firing it in one smooth motion, he sent a bolt of plain wood and steel into the shamans heart, gritting his teeth in a pained smile as he bade it farewell, "Sorry about the unconventional tactics...but I'm a rather unconventional spellcaster." he chuckled, dropping the crossbow in order to whip out his dagger with his uninjured hand, plunging it into the eye of a goblin who attempted to scale the wall via a siege ladder.

Gabriel stood by and waited. He heard through the Ice the cries of orcs, and the clash of metal against Ice. The Orcs were chipping through. The half-elf motioned for the others to back away for a moment. Gabriel stood in the center of the Ice Wall, he could see vague shadows through it.

Clenching his fist, his gauntlet began to charge with electrical force. It spread onto his wrist and down his arm. Soon his limb began to glow with crackling blue force. Suddenly he struck, slamming his fist against the Ice wall, sending webs and strands of Lightning through it. The Ice carried the Electricity through it, and as each Orc Hacked away at the wall, they were blown away by the sheer force of electrical energy. Others clung to their weapons, sending bolts of lightning coursing through their bodies.

Gabriel saw the shadows fade, and then their was a brief silence, quickly broken by the squeaking of wood. His eyes grew wide as he realized what it was.

"GET BACK!" he yelled as he dove for the cover of the stone walls. As he rolled to his feet, a titanic crack rose through the Ice wall, and it seemed to press inward. There was another moment of the creaking of wood on wood, and the stretching of rope.

And then the center of the Ice Wall exploded; the reminants of the Ballista Bolt fragmenting at the ground in front of it.

Gabriel held Thanatos at the ready and signaled for the defenders to wait silently. Orcs began pouring through the gap, not noticing the defenders pressed against the wall. Gabriel waited until about fifty had made it through before yelling, "NOW!"

With that the Archers within the Dirt Trenches revealed themselves and fired, the first blast of arrows knocking out the first wave of Orcs. Their second penetrated the second lines. And then Gabriel was upon them.

His force jumped out into the gap, weapons swinging and cleaved through the unsuspecting attackers. Gabriel spun through with a powerful horizontal swing; the mighty Zweihander cleaved seven Orcs, and sent five others flying back to where they came. He turned on his heel, cutting down some of the back ranks of the Orcs that had gotten through, and then turned back to the breach.

The Orcs had recovered from their surprise.

And they were re-loading the Balista.

OOC: In case I didn't mention this sooner, Hakar IS left-handed, same as I am in real life.

IC: Hakar's troops saw the ballista. The half-drow himself had one hand clasped to his wounded arm, eyes squeezed shut as he focused on encouraging it to regenerate, healing at an incredible rate. It was still rather sore and numb in places, but it could hold a weapon.

Hearing the cries of his warriors, he saw the ballista, and pointed his unwounded left arm at it, focusing on the structural supports that sufficed to aim it. The weapon shifted suddenly, spinning around and firing its bolt into the chief goblin officer assigned to control the artillery firing on this part of the wall. The spear-sized bolt went straight through the goblin's chest, ribs and blood exploding over the place and going through the chest of a goblin behind him, and the pelvis of the orc behind that goblin.

The goblin assigned to fire the ballista hung on, shrieking, until a crossbow bolt embedded itself in the back of his neck.

As another siege ladder was raised to the wall, Jechir ran over to it. Drawing Flashblade, he positioned himself in front of the ladder. As the first orc hand was reaching the top, Jechir spun his enchanted blade in front of him, causing some of the stored light energy to make a quick, blinding flash. As the orc was confused by the bright light, Jechir promptly stomped on his hand while bringing the hilt of his sword to the head of the orc. As the lead orc fell, Jechir pushed the ladder over onto the orcs at the base. He ran down the stairs, back to the castle grounds. Knowing that the orcs had the advantage of range and firepower, Jechir knew he would have to use his wit and agility to his advantage. He silently whispered to himself, "Don't let the Old Man down now," as he entered the fray. Using Flashblade to deflect and defend against attacks, he started looking for an opening to take out one of the ballistae.

Sarin growled as his trance failed due to the hammering to the siege and snarled, taking out his whip and dagger in each hand, "This is NOT working..." Sarin ran over toward where the siege ladders were being acculmated. His whip snapped out tiredly, causing another orc to lose his grip on the tenous position on the wall. He made his way toward Jechir. "Any bright ideas?" the wild elf said to the bandit.

Gug was running along the wall, shooting orcs and goblins with his new weapon, trying hard to supress the glee of unabashed fighting. He took careful aim, then shot out a ballistas front wheels, and supressed his giggle as its ammo shot out into its own army. He felt for his cubes, but realized he would never throw them far enough to do more damage to the enemy than to the castle. If only he had a slingshot...he looked around, saw some suitable material, and went to work.

Jechir deflected a few more blows, realizing now that Sarin was beside him. "I think I may have an idea or two up my sleeve. Think you can give me enough cover to run over there?" He gestured over to a ballista that was being loaded. A grin crossed his face as he wondered if Sarin would pick up on the plan without him needing to explain more. He hoped that a simple wink would tell Sarin to follow his lead. With that, he pushed over the orc he was currently fighting and over him, darting in and out between orcs, trying to reach the ballista before it could be fired.

Sarin put away his whip and dagger, unshouldering his short bow. He notched a wooden arrow to it and sang one discordiant note, letting it loose into a crowd of orcs near the ballistia. The arrow splintered, damaging not only the orc who's final destination it was on, but any within a close proximity as well. He slowly notched another arrow, letting pain and tiredness come over his features, and let another arrow fly, creating the simple splintering spell again...

At the Breach, Gabriel was a blur of motion hacking and slashing through the orcs that entered. He saw his men battling the few that were still in the fortress, and he turned his attention to the breach itself. He turned Thanatos sideways and braced his had upon the broad side of it's blade; he charged the entering orcs, using the Zweihander as a battering ram that shoved them off their feet, and some of them into each others weapons. He jumped as he swung the sword under his feet, cleaving through the Orcs he had dropped on their backs; and in one fluid motion, he brought the Zweihander up behind his back, and then down in an overhead strike on a charging Troll. The sword cleaved deep into it's head, forcing Gabriel to brace his foot upon the dead creature to pry it out.

A large Orc bearing a spear charged in at the Half-elf; Gabriel pivoted on his heel just in time, forcing the Orc off balance before slamming Thanatos down upon it's head. Then another wave of Orcs was coming. Gabriel turned and ran back through the breach into the fortress. Just as the Orcs stepped through, they were met with a volley of Arrows from the trenches. The Captain of the Avariel Guard took this opportunity to survey the siduation.

Another wave of Avariel swooped in, striking down another company of Orcs, but missing the low level Goblins that knelt at their feet. Once again their Cho Ko Nu's took a deadly toll on the winged elves. As the survivors attempted to climb for the open air, the Arrow Turrets tracked their path, shooting twenty of them out of the sky.

We'll never keep the Orcs out if Gwaethir cannot cut down their numbers. He thought, and wracked his brain trying to stop those Turrets. Suddenly, with a flash of insight, he reached into his armour and pulled from it the SpeakStone.

"Gug!" He called into it. "It's Gabriel! I need you at the Breach immediatelly!"