Dungeon Crawl - Part 11

Reven and Borengar stood as still as statues as Krassner's words echoed from the walls of the vast cavern. They were on at the top of a stone stairway that had been carved into the rock at the back of the cavern. Below them hundreds of eyes looked up at their position. The dancing goblin shamans piercing shriek interrupted the silence as he raised a pointed finger at the pair and barked something in its foul tongue. As one the mass of goblins surged toward the bottom of the staircase. 

'Shit', shouted Borengar as he made to run back up the sloping passage way that led away from the cavern and the goblin horde. Reven grabbed him by the shoulder, his fingers curling inside of the skull that Borengar wore as a pauldron. 'Wait. If we run now we'll never get another chance at Krassner' a stern look settled on Reven as he spoke. 'Who care's!' shouted the dwarf, 'Let the greenskins finish him.' he added. 'We'll never out run them. We can hold them here, on the stair' Reven indicated to the stairway with Blood Thirster. It was wide enough for about four men to travel abreast. It was also wide enough to accommodate a dwarf and a man that were frantically swinging weapons. Reven didn't wait for Borengar to agree with him and rushed to meet that horde that were already half way up the stairs.

Ush'gar smiled as he watched his kin swarm the stairways. It looked like there would be more offerings for the great spirit this day, and more meat for the pot. He licked his lips as he eyed the plump dwarf at the top of the stairs. He turned his back on the distraction and took a look at his bound captives. Why was the wizard sneering? The shaman followed Krassner's gaze. Something wasn't right about what he was seeing. Were his warriors leaping to their deaths? They were falling from the stairway in ones and twos. Ush'gar took a step closer trying to discern the problem, they should have captured the interlopers by now. 

Reven ducked a spear thrust and with a return stroke of his sword he took his attackers arm off at the elbow. A gout of black blood sprayed from the severed limb and covered the goblins in the rear ranks in fat drops. Reven hacked the one armed greenskin aside and sliced through the skull of the goblin beside him. Blood Thirster seemed to have a will of its own, drinking greedily as it opened up goblin bodies. Reven was using all of the strength and speed he could muster and as yet the goblins had only inflicted a few scratches on him. Borengar was at his side now, swinging his axe in bloody arcs. The goblins may of had numbers on their side but in their rush to get at the intruders they were pushing the front ranks onto the slashing blades of the human and dwarf duo. Their skill with the weapons they wielded was pitiful and they were dying by the score. Reven was under no illusion though. He and Borengar couldn't fight forever. His arms were already feeling heavy and soon his vigour would wane leaving him open to attack. 

The shaman had seen enough, he closed his eyes uttering arcane words that would bring destruction. Ush'gar's staff glowed with power and then with a crack it was unleashed. A bolt of pure white energy shot across the cavern from the staff to where Reven stood. It impacted on the stone steps sending shards of splintered rock into human and goblin alike. Reven felt searing pain down his right side and was blasted into the unforgiving stone wall. The edge of the steps crumbled under where the magical bolt had hit and sent tens of greenskins to their deaths. Borengar stood over the prone form of his friend as he desperately parried spear and sword thrust from goblin attackers. A blade point got through his guard and stabbed into the meat of his thigh. Much of the blow was turned aside by his armour but it was struck with such force that some of the chain mail links where embedded into the muscle. He roared and pushed forward into the crowd of assailants in response. The sound of Borengar's battle cry snapped Reven out of his stupor. He was bleeding freely from cuts caused by several pieces of stone that were lodged in his flesh. He raged against the pain and surged to his feet bringing Blood Thirster up in an arc that bisected the nearest foe. Screaming a cry of his own Reven joint the fray once more next to his friend as they carved a bloody swathe through their goblin foe.

Ush'gar snarled as he saw the human rise. He banged his staff on the floor with frustration causing the ground to tremble. 'Release me' Krassner shouted at him. 'Use me. I can defeat him.' Ush'gar snarled yet again before drawing more magical power into himself. Krassner could feel the energies gathering and was surprised at the mastery that the greenskin showed. A nimbus of energy played about the staff again and Ush'gar raised it high ready to unleash death and destruction. 

Reven saw the light growing from the sacrificial altar as he decapitated another goblin. He risked a glance at Borengar who was starting to falter. Blood ran freely down the dwarfs leg and he could see the colour starting to drain from his friends face. As Ush'gar unleashed magical fury upon the steps Reven pulled Borengar clear of the fight and they tumbled over the edge of the stairs just before they exploded in a fiery blast. The shock wave threw the pair away from the steps and they spiralled down toward the unyielding rock of the caverns floor.