Breaking the Rules Pt. 03

"Dammit. Every language needs another cast I guess.!Fassada! Hey, come here, I need to talk to you."

{But... but lyena!}

"I will send him away. Tusa, Stand back!"

The feliform retreated to the woods. The goblin dismounted slowly, unsteadily.

{Head hurts.}

"I can help you. Come on, let's talk."

{Hear fine from here.}

The goblin continued climbing down, however. It never saw Tusa coming, but the rhinopotamus did, shifting to the side and causing the goblin to lose its grip and fall free just before the feliform nabbed him and finished him off. Nuru grabbed desperately at the reins and managed to catch one. Its masters now missing, the rhinopotamus lumbered away in alarm. Nuru could scale up to the seats, but they were too small for him, and wouldn't work well.

"Grr.!Mamayar Rai Mafi Girma!" Nuru called out.

With one of the two control lines in Nuru's hand, the Greater Domination spell took effect, all but wiping out Nuru's MP temporarily. The rhinopotamus strode to a halt.

"Whew," Nuru said. He got hold of the other control line to the bridle in the rhinopotamus's mouth, removing them from the harness that passed them up to the saddle, and led the great beast directly from the front.

"Tusa, fastest way back to the orc camp. Show me, then you're done."

Grrmble.

[Boring.]

"I mean, feel free to fight an orc if you want to, but be careful. These guys are tough, and there's a lot of them."

Growrrrrl.

[I'll wait until my wounds have healed.]

"As you like. Wish you'd waited for my signal to kill that goblin, though, I could have talked him into handing the rhinopotamus over with no trouble."

Growl-snap.

[I told you I work my own way.]

The former goblin mount followed a cautious distance from the lyena as Nuru collected the pendant, and again until they reached the camp. The two biggest orcs, those which had been guarding the command tent, were now commanding a large contingent of orcs which were surrounding the entrance to the building, clearly trying to push their way inside. The two were pointing and giving orders. The crowd was having some trouble pushing in; the entryway meant for one giant orc prevented more than two smaller ones from going through at a time, and the two in front were engaged in a furious standoff with the adventurers inside.

"Soyayya!" Nuru cast on the great beast, and took off running.

He heard the massive mount begin to lumber forward and thought of the two massive tusks sticking up from the corners of its lower jaw, and the horn on the middle of its nose, and tried to stay well ahead of each of them. Infatuation spell wouldn't encourage any violence against him, but he didn't trust the dexterity of this giant creature to keep him safe. The orcs in charge noticed him and immediately called for reinforcement; almost a dozen of the regular orcs pressing towards the building turned and came his way.

"!Fushin Kishi Mafi Girma!" Nuru called out as he dodged back away from the front line.

The rhinopotamus brayed with sudden Jealous Fury, plowing headlong into the thick of them, forcing the two bigger orcs to jump aside, out of the way. Four orcs, trapped by the others around them, were crushed to death immediately, and the rhinopotamus began slowing and turning for another pass. It careened awkwardly into a tent and knocked loose a number of the ropes holding the corner together, which started to fall in on itself. The center pole also tilted and the whole canopy flopped over into the passageway between tents.

"Shoot, I probably don't get a single EXP for this," Nuru said.

He ran through the middle of the fray towards the much smaller crowd of orcs at the main chamber, and clambered up to jump from the back of one to another, then dodged to avoid a swinging club that struck a glancing blow to a third as they took opportunistic swings at him, but took a cue from the two bigger orcs and remained focused on the bigger threats inside and outside the building. The two bigger orcs had given up on reviving any of the fallen, and were now turning back to face him with malice in their eyes. They had no trouble hearing the rhinopotamus coming, and stepped aside, apparently calculating the actual threat presented by the two targets. As the mount ran by, they took off after it, laying in a few good hits and spurring it on to faster speed as it hurtled towards the orcs surrounding Nuru, knocking them aside as he lay perfectly flat on the ground. One more dead, three injured and stunned; the rest scattered for cover. The rhinopotamus smashed directly into another tent, tearing it up and splintering the furniture inside; it took a minute shaking the cloth free of its head, and took several more hits from the bigger orcs. The spells wore out, and the mount took off running, to nurse its great confusion and moderate injuries somewhere quieter. Meanwhile, all the confusion had shattered the composure of the remaining orcs at the large command tent, who were now being driven out by a coordinated assault from within, and none were paying any attention to Nuru. The barbarian was laying grievous wounds with a desperate wildness, and the paladin would step in to take the heaviest of counterattacks on his battered shield, while adding his own hits. One orc after another turned to retreat, only to stop short with hit after hit of throwing daggers of the thief who had smoke-portaled out into the open behind them, and by the time they figured out in their low-HP panic that the daggers weren't doing overly much damage when they could see them coming, they were too late to escape the arrows that laid them down for good from behind.

More orcs were pouring in from the remaining passageways, but the two commanding orcs decided that the odds were no longer acceptable, and organized a retreat towards their own mounts in a corral nearby.

"Phew! I think we could have managed, but it was getting closer than I liked," the ranger said.

"I'm not sure how the hell you managed all this, but you have my thanks," the paladin said.

"Quite impressive, chasing down that rhino-thing we almost took down earlier," the barbarian said.

"We'd better get out while we've got a chance," the healer said. "They don't look like they're done with us."

"Time for the second stealth phase," the thief said. "Find a bush out there and hide. Let them run on by and then keep moving. Unless we get terribly unlucky, we'll be back in town within an hour or two."

The thief passed out his looted inventory, and set about taking his share instead from the bodies lying around while the rest of the party spread out and made the exhausting trek at top speed with loaded inventories. Even Nuru got the great war hammer of the orc leader, with the chain slung over his shoulder right under the drum, and the hammer itself hung on his back.

"Good grief, how much STR do you have to have to actually swing this thing?" Nuru said.

"Best not to think about it," the barbarian said. "That's thing's a bit much, even for me."

"!Kafa Mara Nauyi!" he cast. "See you guys back at- ack!" he nearly tripped and fell over himself. "Oh, gods below, that didn't help as much. It only makes me lighter, but not a single thing I'm carrying."

The paladin shook his head in amusement. "I'd take that thing instead, but I'm already close to my limit."

"At least I can balance a little better," Nuru said. "I won't crit myself dropping it on my toe."

"Incoming," the ranger hissed. "Take cover!"

They all found bushes and hid. Dozens of orcs on bulb-faced noseless wargs came crashing through, heedless of anything smaller than a good size tree. Nuru cursed himself for not picking a bush that was also behind a tree trunk, and about had a heart attack when one of the wargs tripped on him, running a leg straight into the war hammer on his back and tumbling past, throwing the orc that was riding it clear. The orc scrambled to its feet, climbed back up, and kept going on the limping warg to the laughter and jeers of the others running by. A long minute passed before anything happened, and then the healer rushed over.

"Owww, that hurt," Nuru groaned.

"Here, let me see that. Man, he really got you. That's bruising up good.!Saukad Da Busa! Good thing he got the hammer and not your unarmored back, you'd be in a real bad way. I can at least keep it from bruising up too bad, but I'm out of supplies for a full heal."

"Thanks. Oof, let's get out of here before they come back."

"Stay with me, I'm following their tracks. They won't think us to be travelling the exact way they've already been," the ranger said.

"I'm going my own way. Pleasure as always, gents," the thief said, vanishing.

"Enjoy your nap," the barbarian said.

"Can't make it mysterious and fun, not even once," the thief grumbled, reappearing to drop his inventory in a bush and climbing a nearby tree, settling into a crook and pulling his hood down over his eyes. "Not my fault the dice rolled me a low CON score."

"It'll even out as you level, don't worry," the healer said.

"Yeah, yeah..."

*****

After that, the return trip was a long slog, and aside from a few distant growls and cries of the remaining war band, completely uneventful.

"Phew. Made it," the paladin said as the city walls came into view.

"Never had any doubt," the barbarian said.

"Nuru, you come with me, I'll fix you up real quick with some fresh supplies," the healer said. "Then I'm going for a foot soak, if anybody wans to join me."

"Maybe next time," the ranger said.

"I'm selling off loot at the armorer, and then sleeping for a week," Nuru said.

"This your first big score?" the barbarian asked him.

"Yeah, actually."

"I'll give you a good rating on the postboard if you give me your name and faction," the paladin said.

"Appreciate it, I'm good though," Nuru said, not having a clue what he'd do about the faction part, since he didn't have one.

"See you around then. I'm turning in the quest, and I'm giving you a full share. Should see your EXP in about ten minutes. Good work back there."

"Thanks, you too. That big guy was no joke."

"Not my first orc hunt. Although, he was bigger than most, I admit. Git good."

"Git good," Nuru repeated the traditional reply.