Axe and The Wolf

Chapter X: Dust And Steel

"In the dance of battle, every step is a move on the board of fate. Choose wisely, for each decision shapes the outcome of the war."– General Harak Stonehelm, The Art of War

"Undead, up ahead, 50 meters out" called out the blond paladin from under his helmet, all of them dismounted and took out their weapons. The fighting began as the servants of Kelemvor quickly began mowing down the risen corpses, some of them carried large swords, Ulfrun had at times being commissioned to make those, some humans called them Greatswords others Claymores, irrespective of names, the weapons were large and required a lot of training to be handled properly, but the paladins and clerics had that covered, they had solid footwork and constantly moved their blades to maintain momentum, the witch hunter unholstered, much to the dwarf's surprise, two gnomish pistols, which he fired at the same time, then again, he holstered them and unholstered another pair, firing in total four pistols, afterwards he pulled the falchion from the scabbard and began to join the melee. Ulfrun began scanning the battlefield, and saw from within the forest undead humans coming out, but armored and armed. His eyes opened wide, the draugr, he thought, the manlings were right...

He did not wait, he grabbed the two short axes and looked at them before throwing them, smacking with the edge, making a wet thwunk sound as it landed. Two of the armed undead in the head. He held out his hands and the axes returned with relative speed, he continued to fight at range this way until another draugr got too close, before he could recall this axes the creature was upon him, Ulfrun grabbed his battleaxe and stopped a sword strike, the zombie's free hand grabbed him by the collar and tried to tussle with him and get the blade to stab his flesh, but once again, trying to wrestle a dwarf was easier said than done. The strength given by the gauntlets allowed Ulfrun to keep the draugr off with one hand while the other broke the hand holding his collar. The dead warrior staggered back, and as he went to attack again, Ulfrun swung his axe, cutting him in half, then proceeding to crush his skull under his boot. He turned the axe to his saddle, Abshag was moderately startled, he recalled his axes and returned them to his belt. The paladins had defeated their own horde of around one hundred enemies, and were beginning the process of burning them, but the dwarf didn't feel at ease as in other fights, his gut was trying to tell him something.

A horn, crude, hollow in sound, like a mocking laughter to the senses came from the snowed forests. And a scream "WAAAAAAAAAGH" that echoed among the pines and conifers. An orc striked with a heavy maul into the side of one of the Ilmater paladins, his breastplate caving in, another orc landed upon him with an axe, cleaving into him. "Fucking Greenskins!" yelled out Ulfrun, an ancient fury boiling deep inside of him; orcs had always been the eternal enemy of the Khâzad, some holds had even been lost to them before. War-like and tribal, the orcs were savage pillagers and despoilers, they enjoyed their murderous life of constant pain and bloodshed. They approached him, murderous smiles on their tusked faces "By Moradin, you shall die for that, orc!" he proclaimed, the Dwarffather was a sworn enemy of Gruumsh, the patron deity of the greenskins, who ordered his ilk to plunder and murder across the world, particularly against dwarves and elves. Ulfrun threw his axes, cleaving into the heads of the murderous orcs after they had butchered the knight, he kept attacking other hostiles afterwards, two at a time, recalling the axes back to his hands, he unholstered his pistol and fired, opening an orc's head open with a shot as he was trying to engage the blond paladin.

Soon another orc ran towards him with an axe, screaming, the dwarf dropped the pistol, dodging the axe blow, pushing the orc against the trunk of a tree and punching into his face, caving it in and killing the orc instantly, another came from the right, Ulfrun lifted his arm and blocked the strike, the weapon was a single-edged sword, a crude implement, using the movement, the dwarf moved the orc's arms under his armpit then he swung his left fist into his attackers jaw, turning his head and making the neck snap, he unsheathed his knife and when the next orc appeared and he dodged the swing from the warrior by ducking and rolling forwards, deftly, Ulfrun sliced the back of his knee, the orc growled in a deep gravelly tone, the dwarf grabbed an axe dropped on the ground and sunk it into the back of his head. The smith retrieved the pistol and reloaded shooting another orc in the distance, he could now see the other men in his group fighting for their lives against the ambushers, he saw an Ilmater paladin get killed, the poor man tried blocking an axe strike but the orc was stronger, despite using half-swording the hand that held the blade went sideways, he was kicked in the chest and was then hit in the head by the axe.