The Half Dwarf Prince: 02 - The Dwarf War (14 page)

Three assassins came running into the room from a side door just as his axe returned to him
. Rundo’s dagger shot past him followed by Dobo and Gobo. The first dagger slammed into the chest of the assassin in the middle. The second stopped when it hit the assassin on the right—he had some kind of armor under his clothing. But that would not stop the two charging dwarves. Dobo threw his hammer at the assassin’s head just before he reached him. The man ducked, swinging his sword up to deflect the war hammer at the same time, but Dobo hadn’t been trying to hit the man, he just wanted his arm up. Dobo crossed his arms in front of his chest and the spikes on his bracers drove into the man’s chest, puncturing everything as he bore the man back into the wall. He ripped his arms free of the man’s body and retrieved his hammer.

Gobo charged in with his axe out. The assassin threw a dagger at his face before drawing his sword. Gobo already had his axe in front of him, and he turned the head slightly
to deflect the dagger. He swung his axe in a downward slash. The assassin was able to get his sword up and deflect the blow enough to move out from under it, but Gobo was already spinning his axe, catching up with the momentum of his body. The Black Dragon tried to get his sword up, and he did get his weapon out in front of him, but the weight of Gobo’s blow was too much and the axe slammed into his chest. It didn’t cut through, though; it just threw the man back into the wall. Gobo followed the man, drawing out his enchanted dagger.

“Wait
!” Grundel shouted. Gobo looked back at him. “Save the armor,” he told the dwarf. Gobo turned back to the man and buried the dagger in the man’s face.

They all spread out in the room. “Jerrie
, search the bodies,” Grundel said, moving to the man Gobo had just killed. He pulled back the torn black shirt with the white dragon embroidered on its front. The man wore a thin shirt of leather. It didn’t appear to be anything more than the leathers a man would wear as padding under his armor, but Grundel knew better. He stripped it off of the man’s body. He walked back to the door and called to Captain Douglas, who came into the room with thirty men following him. “Here, put this on,” Grundel told him, holding out the leather shirt.

The Captain took the shirt with a look of confusion. “It should protect you from magic,” Grundel told him. That motivated him, and he slid his chainmail off
and quickly put the shirt on. He picked his armor back up, but Grundel stopped him. “The shirt will do it; leave the mail.” Captain Douglas set his armor down hesitantly.

“Here
, take this too,” Jerrie said, handing the captain a long curved knife. “If you get into it with a wizard, use that.” The Captain took the knife and slid it through his belt. He turned back to his men, sending a squad to each of the groups.

Grundel didn’t tell his
men to do anything; they all knew what to do. Dobo and Gobo both had their main weapons in one hand and their magical knives in their other hand. When the squad of soldiers came to them, they took off through the door the three assassins had come through. Jerrie and Rundo started up the steps. Grundel let their group go up, and then he followed with his group. There wouldn’t likely be many wizards on this floor, and Dobo and Gobo could handle the assassins easily enough.

Jerrie and Rundo were bombarded with magic the second they made it to the top of the stairs. There were two wizards standing in the hall to the left
, and Jerrie and Rundo ran toward them. Rundo’s belt had absorbed the black tendrils of the first attack. Jerrie was running down the hall ahead of Rundo, and the ball of fire that came at him deflected at the last second, slamming into the wall on his right instead. Rundo threw his magical blades at two of the assassins that stood defensively in front of the wizards; both of them began falling with holes in their skulls, and Rundo’s daggers had returned to their sheaths before the men had hit the ground. Jerrie had a dagger in each hand, and he bent to lunge at the last assassin. When the man reacted, Jerrie leapt into the air, flipping over his head and leaving him exposed for Rundo to stab in the chest. Jerrie landed in front of one of the wizards. A black tendril shot out at him. His belt attempted to deflect it, but he was so close that the tendril still caught his arm. He couldn’t reach the wizard with his other arm. The wizard smiled into his face, and Jerrie called on the magic of his knife. The knife was all of a sudden a sword stabbing into the wizard’s face. Jerrie fell to the ground, his arm burning. He turned on the other wizard with Rundo now beside him. The wizard pushed out another black tendril, having seen that it had worked somewhat effectively for the other wizard, but Rundo was closest, and the tendrils were completely absorbed as Rundo leapt through the air, bringing his dagger down into the man’s neck. Jerrie watched as Rundo rode the man to the ground.

When they turned around
, they saw that the soldiers had two assassins trapped between them. The assassins ran into the room to the left. Jerrie and Rundo ran back down the hall. “Don’t let anyone get past you,” Jerrie said, following the men into the room. One of the assassins threw a dagger at Jerrie, and he dodged to the side. One of Rundo’s daggers shot at the other man. The man was able to dodge the knife and just barely got grazed on his shoulder. Rundo reached out a hand, stopping Jerrie from advancing. Jerrie trusted his judgment and froze with his knives at the ready. Rundo reached out, linking with the air around him, and pushed. The two assassins were suddenly and forcefully thrown through the window. Jerrie and Rundo ran to the window and looked out. The assassins had landed a few feet from the base of the building, and soldiers were cheering, looking up at the two of them in the window.

Dobo and Gobo charged into the next room. The room was empty
, so they continued on. The next room must have been some kind of lounge, but now it was a room where a dozen assassins had gathered to defend together. The dwarf brothers didn’t even slow down. Dobo turned his head to the right, just barely avoiding the crossbow bolt that had come at him. Gobo took two daggers in the chest, but they were stopped by his enchanted armor. He charged into the group of assassins, swinging his axe, and they all leaped out of the way. These men were outmatched in this fight. They were trained in stealth and finishing an enemy quickly. They weren’t used to defending. The soldiers marched forward, circling them, so they were caught between the soldiers and the crazed dwarves. Dobo spun wildly, swinging his axe. The men around him were all fighting with long knives, so distance was his friend. He cut the first man down as he threw himself into the group. He spun in a wild circle after that, and his axe caught another man in the stomach and pushed everyone else back. Some of them were unfortunate enough to be pushed towards Gobo.

Gobo ran out to the edge of the group of assassins
, knowing that he didn’t want to be near his brother’s wild tactics. Dobo had just killed his first man and the one next to him had leapt out to the side, away from him. Gobo brought his hammer across, collapsing the man’s knee as he tried to avoid his brother’s axe. The man fell with an ear-piercing scream of pain. Gobo spun around, bringing the spike of his axe into the man’s face and silencing him. He spun back the other direction, his hammer caving in the chest of a man who was trying to escape the chaos that was Dobo. Gobo heard someone behind him, but when he spun around he saw that one of the soldiers had cut down an assassin who had tried to escape behind him. Gobo and the soldier both turned on the main group. One man faced off against the two of them. He parried the soldier’s sword, but got his hip smashed for his effort. As the man fell the soldier’s blade ran across his neck. They scanned the room. There were four dead men around Dobo, two that Gobo had killed, one the soldier had killed, and one they had killed together. The soldiers had killed the other four assassins as they tried to escape.

Grundel watched Rundo and Jerrie run down the hall to the left, so he took the one on the right. He opened the door to the room on the right. The room was empty. He pushed across to the room on the left, but it was also empty. He checked all six rooms down the hallway, and they were all empty. He thought that the Black Dragons must have abandoned the building until he opened the door at the end of the hallway; the moment he opened the door, lightning, fire and black tendrils flew toward him.

“Get back
!” he shouted as he charged into the room. His belt absorbed all of the initial attacks, but he knew it could absorb only so much. He could already feel it heating up through his pants. He threw his axe to the right and ran to the left. There were at least a dozen men and most of them were wizards, but he didn’t take the time to count them all. He heard the man behind him die as his axe hit him. He called the first axe back to him as he slammed his other axe through the magical shield of the wizard in front of him. The wizard died, and he heard the grunt of a man behind him. His axe had crashed into the man’s back. That had been lucky. He called the axe up from the man’s back to his hand as he moved toward another wizard; his belt absorbed more fire and black tendrils. A bolt of lightning slammed into his armor from the side. He grunted as he was knocked to the side, but he was unharmed—his armor saved him. He was happy he wasn’t wearing metal armor this time. All of the wizards started using lightning, thinking it was somehow what his magic wasn’t stopping, then he saw the confusion on one of the wizard’s faces when his lightning was also absorbed into Grundel’s belt. His axe cut through that man, and he followed that swing with one from the axe in his left hand, coming down on a wizard who was trying to magically travel away, but his body was still substantial enough to be cut in half by his axe.

Captain Douglas came into the room a few second
s after Grundel and went the other direction. He stabbed one of the wizards in the face. He then threw his dagger at another and it buried into the wizard’s chest as he started to disappear. Another of the Black Dragons charged at him. Douglas drew his sword. The man must not have been a wizard, because a wizard wouldn’t be trying to get close. The man was quick. Douglas ducked under the man’s initial slash, getting a cut to his leg. But he stayed on his feet, swinging his sword out with one hand as the man rolled away. Douglas felt his sword make contact and then turned toward the man. The assassin was trying to get to his feet awkwardly, and Douglas thrust his blade into his back. Just as he did so, he was hit with a ball of light from the side. He slammed into the wall and then everything was dark.

Grundel threw one of his axes at a wizard who tried to travel away. He cut down the assassin in front of him with another.
His belt started to absorb a ball of fire, but the belt reached its maximum capacity, and part of the fire continued into his chest. He was knocked backward and tripped over one of the fallen bodies behind him. As he got to his feet he was hit by another ball of fire, but he leaned into it. He knew he’d be burned, but the armor stopped most of it. He threw his axe and drew his knives, one from his boot and one from his belt. He threw the boot knife, which cut through the shield of a wizard who had stopped trying to travel away when he had seen Grundel hit with the ball of fire. When the knife buried into the man’s stomach, he burst into flame. The wizard next to him was distracted for just a second, and that was long enough for him to catch Grundel’s second knife in the neck. Grundel charged the next man. He had thrown all of his weapons. His last thought was about how he should never do that again, and then he was slamming into the last wizard. The wizard smashed through the window and Grundel’s momentum sent him tumbling right after him. He held on to the wizard. He felt himself start to become insubstantial, but this wizard wasn’t Anwar. He couldn’t travel fast enough, and Grundel rode him through the sky, slamming into the ground. He felt the man's body crunch underneath him. He rolled, and the world was spinning. When he opened his eyes a soldier was bent down next to him. He couldn’t understand what he was saying because his head was still reeling.

“What
?” he asked weakly as he started to get his breath back.

“Are you ok
ay, Your Highness?” the man asked.

Grundel rolled to his back. He definitely broke something,
but he wasn’t sure what because pain was coming from everywhere. “Get in there and check on Captain Douglas. He was in the room I flew out of,” Grundel said. The man ran off with a couple of other soldiers, and another soldier knelt next to him. “Help me up,” Grundel said.

“Your Highness
, maybe we should wait for a caretaker,” the man answered.

“Help me up,” Grundel
repeated. The man nodded to another soldier and they each wrapped an arm under one of his and helped him to his feet. “Tell them to throw one of my axes down.”

They shouted up to the window
, and a second later one of Grundel’s axes was tossed out. Grundel walked slowly toward the axe, leaning on the two men. His legs weren’t broken, at least, but something was definitely wrong with his left arm and he was sure he broke some ribs. He bent down and picked up his axe. “Let’s go,” he told the two guards supporting him. He called upon the magic of the axe. It carried him into the air and back through the window he had come out of, taking him to his other axe. Captain Douglas was lying unconscious against the wall with his skin burned and a lot of hair burned off one side of his head. “Is he alive?” Grundel asked, nodding toward the man.

“He is breathing
, Your Highness, but he won’t wake up,” one of the soldiers next to the captain said.