Bron’s greatsword was much more difficult to remove than Guluss’ pike had been. The shattered bones and ripped up flesh formed a cage to trap it. With a concerted pull, it finally broke free. Bron needed her help to replace the sword on his back. Drawing the weapon usually took the aid of the stone hand, but Bron insisted that Rhunal not use it.

As they ripped the sword free. He’d leaned close and whispered to her. “If an orc wizard was involved in this attack, it would be a bad idea to use your magic. It could bring the wrath of the entire town down around us.”

“If the town survives the battle,” she muttered. “I won’t for now, but we don’t know how the battle is going.”

Guluss and Chione were a few paces ahead and waved back at them impatiently. “Hurry up. The rest of the town is still fighting near the gate.”

They pushed on to the main road. This south section of wall was intact. A couple of people ran up and down the walls with bundles of javelins in their hands. One of the agile soldiers turned to glance at the four down in the street. Under the leather helmet was a young face.

“Those guards up there seem a little young,” Bron said.

Guluss shrugged. “Those up there are at least sixteen. You don’t have any guards that young in Greihold?”

“No we don’t. How did you know I’m from Greihold?” Bron asked. “I don’t know how Greihold deals with its youth. We used to have trouble with gangs, but not lately.”

Rhun rolled her eyes at him. “You said it yourself Bron. People know by the way you talk.”

Chione peered over at Rhun with a smirk. “You are a strange one. I’ve never met an orc that liked to talk.”

“Why wouldn’t I like to talk?” Rhun answered. “How else would I communicate?”

The short woman shrugged. “Usually when your people come here to trade, they point at what they want and keep their words brief. Once we pick up the right item, they present what they have in return. Usually furs or even a freshly killed animal. As a she-orc you must be aware that your people are welcome to trade, but not to spend the night in town. With only a day to do their trading, they try to get done quickly.”

“We’re back,” Guluss stated ominously. “The checkpoint.”

The town of Refuge had a wall dividing it in the middle. Guluss explained it as a last resort for the survivors to retreat to. A wide staircase ran to the top of this wall on their side. The top steps were blood-spattered, but at least one human soldier still stood guard.

“So it held out after all. Chione and I were posted here. A group of the blemmyae separated from the main assault. They hit us hard, but we bled them bad too. Eventually it was just one, but Chione and I were the only ones left. Our pikes were shattered, so we ran, drawing the creature with us. We intended to rearm at the smithy, but you saw how that went.”

At the top was a single female soldier. She wore a crumpled helmet over her strawberry-blond hair. A fresh bruise was around her eye and the side of her face. She nervously greeted them. “Chione and Guluss? You are alive?”

“And you live as well Sela! How fares the battle?” Guluss asked.

She waved them up to the top, “Come see for yourself.”

Before anyone could stop her, Rhun jogged up the stairs, excited to see her first battle. Two dead blemmyae occupied the top of the wall, sprawled in the position they had been when they died. Many people had died to stop them, but were all leaned against the wall in a row, placed there by Sela. The power of the headless creatures could do horrible things to a human. Most of the dead were missing limbs. One unfortunate man had been cut in half.

The nervous girl didn’t see what Rhunal was until the she-orc’s reflective yellow eyes and white tusks were beside her. She shrieked in surprise, clumsily grabbing at her sword. “Geez! You’re an orc lady.”

Rhun quickly stepped back, but sensed that the girl wasn’t much of a threat. She grinned, lowering her head and showing off her tusks, one broken one not. “That’s right. Do you have a problem with that?”

Bron stepped between the two, grabbing the sword with his tough leather gauntlet. He shot a glare back at his companion. “Damn it Rhun. It’s the middle of an invasion. The girl is nervous enough without you going after her.”

Rhun turned away, mocking offense. “She pointed a sword at me, it’s not my problem.”

”You of all people should sympathize. Enemies broke into her home and attacked her friends. I doubt she was ready for it.”

The girl looked up at him. ”Can I have my sword back? I am the last one, but the least I can do is make sure no more blemmyae make it this far.”

The giant man loomed above her. He tried to defuse the situation with an apologetic smile as he released her sword. “Sorry. The she-orc is my friend, even if she might lack tact sometimes.”

”I see, then I guess it’s okay. Come over to this side and see the battle.”

They leaned over the side of the middle wall. Rhun’s eyes opened wide at seeing her first battle. Her immediate impression was of a colony of ants defending their hill against an intrusion by bigger, stronger enemies. But it was not with pincers that they pulled down their powerful foes, but with a wall of twenty-foot pikes.

The human defenders swarmed around the huge blemmyae in a loose semi-circle formation. They poked and prodded at them, and the creatures presented a big target. The headless monsters lashed out at this wall of spear-points. Occasionally a pike would be shattered by a blemmyae sword or even their tough hide. But extra weapons had been stockpiled behind the townspeople.

Slowly and inevitably the brutes were forced back towards the wall. Pikes that slammed home mostly pierced nothing of value, but forced the monsters back with constant blows. Critical strikes were building up. Despite their durability, all the monsters were covered in blood. All of them had taken blows to some of their three hearts.

The barrage of spear-points built up to a critical point. Blemmyae fell one by one. And when they fell a frenzy of stabbing pikes drove home into them. A couple of the monsters tried to charge the much smaller humans, but this isolated them. A focused barrage of spear-points slammed them back. Some pikes snapped at the onrush, but there were more spear-points to follow them up.

 With the breakout halted, Refuge’s defenders drove forward more aggressively. Spears stabbed dozens of times into the monsters. The blemmyae turned and pushed for the breach in the wall, but the cordon had closed tight around them. Stabbing pikes sought for them as they tried to escape. Few made it out, and those few were pelted from the wall by a hail of javelins and arrows.