Goldenhold
Chapter 22: Long Jump
Karakzon wanted to catch up to his foes. There was only one way to do it, and he thought of the genius idea as he sprinted down the spiral staircase after the invaders with a speed that even a cheetah would envy. If he wanted to escape back to the main fort though, he would have to pass up ten stories of Kyle’s forces sprinting downwards. The distance to the bottom was the height of one of Gemclod’s towers, three hundred stories in the air.
He really wanted to see his family again. To tell them of his success. And he also wanted to keep this axe he had, shining light in every direction as it rested weightlessly in his hand, the edge of the blade so sharp that it was unseeable. He smiled at it, as if enchanted by some sort of spell to enjoy the weapon. It was hard not to like it- it made him feel like a god.
He decided the easiest solution to the problem would be somewhere between insane and suicidal. He jumped over the rail with a front flip. His face contacted the air, slamming into it as he spread out his arms to slow his decent. He yelled “SUCKERS!” at the army of the humans as he passed them. Many of them gaped at him but he did not know about it.
Two hundred. One fifty. One hundred. Fifty. Time slowed, and he lowered his weapon to hit the ground first to absorb the blow. It hit the ground, the rest of his body above it as if he was raising it to the sky but inverted. Then he flipped forward, rolled on the ground to avoid the jarring shock, and retrieved the weapon. Raising two middle fingers to the air in the direction of the humans, he yelled, “May Armok damn you to hell!” They stopped moving, wondering how he had survived.
He had apparently caught up with the dwarves who had started running down from about the defenses at the one fifty level, and also with the dwarves from the gorge.. He was much further into the mountain than before- and much closer to the heart. They stopped, gaping at him. He was angry and he let it out in a loud, booming voice for all to hear. “Get to the lever! Pull it now! I’ll explain later!”
They sprinted down the hallway, the humans reaching the bottom of the staircase at about the time the dwarves reached the half way point, a forth of a kilometer. The humans sprinted after them, doubling the speed as the knight led the army, maul in his right hand, left hand swinging from momentum.
One of the invaders shot an arrow at a dwarf, and it hit his knee. The a few dwarves lifted him unsteadily, but Karakzon turned around, threw the man over his shoulder, and continued running at the same pace, the screaming body not slowing down his sprint towards life.
He reached the end, ran right around and to the office located the lever, he pulled it with the remainder of his strength. He smiled. The humans would find themselves in a hallway filling with water, have to go up a wide ramp that has a bunker with various ballistas and siege engines in it, and while being shot from all directions by crossbow slits be forced to run down splitting paths.
He moved out to the siege bunker, but hid behind a pillar. The chamber was flooding, but the humans only sprinted more urgently because of it. Some made it to the shore quickly, but hesitated on which direction to choose for a bit too long. They were shot down by a line of crossbowdwarves.
However, a bunch of heads suddenly stormed up the ramp, and one of them was the knight. “TO THE RIGHT!” He yelled, and he stormed off.
“FIRE! FIRE! HIT HIM FROM THE BACK!”
The wounded dwarf cried, “I used to be a guard like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee!” A doctor rushed up to him, and the dwarf yelled “FREE! FREE AT LAST!” He laughed, cried, screamed, and was a peace.
Karakzon had a fight to win, and after a minute ignored the person he carried. He was useless in the grand plan anyways.
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The fighting by the port was only getting worse. The defender’s officers tried to summon up the next round of infantry but they only ran away at the sight of trolls lumbering towards them. Archers were shooting into the slits that the dwarves shot down into the army from. Most missed, but every once in a while a crossbow dwarf’s life ended.
The water in the middle now parted the invaders’ army into two sides, each running along a different side of the massive canal. Red stained the silver floor. Bodies fell into the water every once in a while, flowing down the slide and into the ocean, only making it more red as the cuts seeped liquid out of them.
A dwarf cried, “Close the next gates!” A bridge ran from one side of the barricades to the other, over the canal and the passageways to the sides. Portcullis dropped down from it, cutting access to the inside off by both the canal and the side paths.
However, the steel bent every time a troll swung at it, only slightly though. Bolts, arrows, spears, swords, among many other objects flew in every direction as they left someone’s hands. The siege was slowing on this front also, Amud actually noticing that his forces were taking casualties.
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Topic: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Novel Length Story) (Read 110761 times)