and he deserved a better death. Braal turned around to face his enemies, prepared to die with the rest of his friends.
Suddenly a huge explosion shook the ground around him, sending him flying through the air to land heavily on his back. As he slowly arose, he noticed that the forty or so remaining boargs had retreated to the log wall. They all stood, surrounding a huge smoking hole. A ten foot section of the wall was blown inward, the large logs shattered and smoking on the ground.
The remaining fifty men retreated back to Braal. Tired and covered in blood, they glanced around, unsure of what to do. Suddenly all was still. All they could hear was their hearts pounding as a black mist slowly drifted through the hole.
Braal suddenly wanted to flee, to get away from the evil that was stealing his resolve. His men felt it too. But they were frozen with fear, on the verge of running away from the darkness, but they could do nothing but stare at the dark shape slowly emerging through the hole in the wall.
A massive black horse carrying a shrouded rider appeared from the darkness like a wraith. Braal’s hands began to shake. His axe dropped to the ground. A dark cape draped the rider’s deathly form. Beneath it, he wore fearsome spiked armor as black as night and etched with intricate carvings of demons and other creatures of the dark. Ram-like horns curved down around his ominous looking helm, barely concealing the specter’s glowing red eyes which radiated hatred and malice, sucking everything of light into its dark aura that surrounded it.
***
The boargs continued to swarm over the gate like cockroaches. Airos had long ago put away his bow but not before he had killed a score of them as they tried to scale the log wall. Suatha moved up and down the lines allowing Airos to cut a line of death as they went. Suatha would sense the boarg’s movement and position Airos for the kill every time, his magic blade easily cutting into the boarg’s tough hides.
The men and women around him were not faring as well. The front line was almost decimated, and the reserve line was moving in to fill any slots that opened as the boargs tore someone to pieces.
Airos was quickly surveying the scene when a huge boarg leaped from the top of the wall. Airos sensed the attack and turned just in time to take the full impact of the beast right in the chest, sending them both flying backwards onto the snow covered ground. Airos hit the ground hard rolling backwards to absorb some of the impact. He quickly got his feet underneath him and leaped up with his sword held in a defensive position.
The boarg, now standing, swung its powerful arm with impossible speed. This boarg was huge, two heads taller than Airos, and its fur was more silver than gray. Airos realized he was fighting the leader of the pack. He ducked underneath the swing, launching a series of offensive attacks. The beast was fast, very fast, and it was able to avoid the strikes by dodging them and using the flats of its tough large palms to smack the blade away when it got too close.
Airos drew his razor sharp hunting knife, thinking he may need his skill with two blades to defeat this opponent. He looked to his left quickly to see that Suatha was busy keeping two hungry boargs away from her flanks. A cavalier’s steed was no ordinary animal, they were able to think, reason, and use magic of their own. Even riderless they were still formidable in a fight. Suatha’s powerful body and hooves were as deadly as any warrior’s sword.
Airos was on his own for this fight. He could kill the boarg with magic but he knew that he might need all the strength he could muster when the Banthra arrived. The use of magic always taxed him physically and mentally and therefore Airos had to be judicious with its use.
The huge boarg moved in quickly, both arms reaching to grab him in its iron-like grip. Airos spun the two weapons in a defensive blur, repeatedly slicing into its flesh and narrowly escaping those deadly arms.
The boarg quickly changed its tactics and tried to ram Airos. The huge powerful head charged at him like a blacksmith’s hammer, the two horns, both as thick as a man’s arm, leading the way. Airos could strike the