Chapter 8 - Part 4

A great pressure grew on Delegado’s throat, and the half-orc felt himself slipping into unconsciousness.

No. The half-orc surged forward, breaking free of the warforged, stumbling blindly until he was out of the cloud. Still gagging and wheezing, he drew his sword and spun in a circle, trying to see through eyes that would not stop tearing.

The warforged appeared off to his side, flying through the air with a jumping kick. Delegado staggered and managed to avoid the worst of it, but his follow-up blow missed as the machine went by. The warforged ducked and tumbled, dodging the half-orc easily.

“I regret that this had to be,” the warforged said, readying his stance for another attack.

“Yeah, me too,” Delegado said, whipping the bag that had been clipped to his belt forward. The bag of glue burst around one foot of the warforged, much to its surprise. It tugged away from the fast-hardening glue, but not quickly enough. The point of Delegado’s adamantine blade cut a bad gash in its leg. “You’re not the only one with gadgets,” the half-orc coughed.

The warforged moved back several feet, small, circular knives appearing in its hands. Delegado tried to look around for his bow even as he kept his gaze on the wood and stone figure. “Are you really here for some man named Xavier?” the warforged asked, throwing his little spinning knives.

Delegado ducked one, but another gashed him on the cheek. “Yes,” the half-orc said between gritted teeth. He pulled a potion from his belt and drank it all in one smooth motion. Bruises shrank, cuts closed up, and he was sure a crack in one tooth sealed itself. “But I also plan to get my bow back and kill you.”

The warforged pulled a flask of its own, machine oil rather than a potion. It poured it on its leg, and the gash in the limb closed almost all the way up. “Why do you seek to kill me?”

“You’re trying to kill me!” the half-orc snarled, jabbing the sword forward as he followed the warforged back under the crossbeams towards the open area. At the edge of his attention he heard a loud thumping, like huge footsteps.

“Because you are trying to kill me and because you have killed my brethren,” the warforged said. It cocked its head upwards. “Oh my.”

“I attacked after I was attacked,” Delegado insisted. “It was one of your people that was going to slit my throat while I slept!” A rumbling above him grew with the thumping. The half-orc paused. “What on earth is that?”

“A titan,” the warforged said calmly. “Walking up this hill that it does not know is partially hollow, said hill now serving as a focal point between the forces of Cyre and the goblinoids.”

“I only want Xavier,” Delegado said.

“I believe you,” the warforged told him. “But I do not trust you. You kill too easily, and you would give us away for your own profit.”

“Then let’s quit talking!” Delegado snarled, swinging at the warforged. The warforged ducked backwards, the sword barely missing him. He stepped easily under the blade again, and his fist came up under Delegado’s jaw. The half-orc saw stars, and tried to step back to attack again, but the warforged pressed its advantage, hammering the half-orc around the face and head.

“I truly wish there was another way,” the warforged said. Above it, the grinding grew in pitch.

“Shut up!” Delegado said, finally scoring a direct hit on the creature. His sword went all the way through it, punching cleanly out of the warforged’s back. It stiffened, but pulled it self free, tumbling backwards. A living thing would have been dead, but the warforged persevered. It darted behind another large timber as the noise overhead grew.

Delegado spotted his bow lying on the floor nearby and began to move for it. Then the roof opened, flooding the entire area with sunlight.

The whole of the warforged titan came crashing through the ceiling, a massive machine larger than a house with huge weapons welded to its arms. Shrieking hordes of goblins, some clinging to the thing, fell with it. The tremendous noise of battle came down with the falling debris. Tons of rock and dirt smashed downwards, and choking, gagging rock dust filled everything as the titan and its unwilling passengers slammed into the ground with a crash that drowned out all thought. The dust flew so fast and so thick that Delegado could not see his hand in front of his face.

Nor could he breathe properly. The Jorasco potion had done a lot, but he was still weakened by the warforged’s attacks, and the thick, cloying dust did not help. Instinctively he crouched on the floor, sheathing his sword so that he could properly curl up into a fetal position with his hands over his head.

The dust gradually cleared, but the titan was in the cave with him. One swipe of its great axe started to bring down timbers and crossbeams, generating more of a cave-in. Above, hobgoblin voices were calling for burning oil to be thrown into the pit.

Dodging falling debris, and narrowly avoiding a piece of wood that was ten times his size as it crashed into the floor, he spotted his bow, miraculously untouched. Scooping it up, he bolted for the nearest side tunnel, barely getting ahead of the falling shale and dirt.

There was light ahead, and a smell of water, and the timbers holding up this small tunnel seemed to offer some hope. Delegado coughed one final time, and drew an arrow to the bow as he ran.

The warforged monk stepped out from a hidden side tunnel and slammed a fist into the side of Delegado’s head, and the half-orc fell into unconsciousness.