Sal had started out distracting the poor six orcs who were still armoring. In a few seconds they started to cower behind the armor bins, forcing them to armor slowly but refusing Sal a clear shot. The ranger contemplated jumping to a different tree when his focus was broken by a call to arms from Rem.

"Sal! Take them out while they are vulnerable!" The Suldanian mage shouted.

Sal contemplated his decisions. On one hand, he was still hidden and firing arrows off after those frozen in mud would show those armoring where he was. On he other hand, was he really doing much keeping six more orcs from showing on the field of battle? If he got in trouble with the other six orcs, would the party be able to help him quickly?

Sal decided to trust his teammate and managed to fire an arrow at the orc with a greatsword. A split second later a crossbow bolt flew by Sal's head, thudding into a nearby branch. The Count's cover was broken.

The Count jumped behind his tree trunk and peeked out to see two orcs with crossbows and one with a great axe going to his tree.

Wrong call.
"Icon, to me!"

@Kojashi28 "You little Shit! I'll clopber you" The berserker said reacting to Giffy's taunt and followed him into the forest. Although Giffy was smaller and more agile he would be suppressed by the orc's speed as he wasn't able to initially shake the orc and as he traveled into the forest the orc seemed to be gaining ground quickly.

@Milowan As Tyr ran at the orc it meet the man head on. Both Tyr and the Orc lowered their shoulders to try and knock the other down which resulted in a massive hit between the two. the impact resulted in no clear winner in matter of brute strength as it sent both parties stumbling back it didn't take either long to recover and come back into a grapple neither party readying their weapons yet. "I always look forward to slaughtering you human filth!" The orc responded to Tyr's first bit of talk. "I think you are the one who should try not to disappoint me." The orc growled holding even ground with the barbarian before launching its forehead forward aimed at Tyr's nose in order to break the grapple and start the real fight.

The Orcs were surprised by Rem's attack and it caught them off guard. With three of the Orcs slowed Silus took his chance and was able to shoot two arrows at the orcs before the captain was upon him. The Captain charged forward and gave a heavy vertical slash at Silus. Silus was able to sidestep the blow while using his bow to strike the side of the Captain's sword knocking the captain off balance before delivering a swift kick to the captains side giving Silus a little room and time to put away his bow and draw his Sword and his hunting knife with weapon in hand Silus motioned for the recovering Captain to come at him with a slight grin on his face.

@Pie FlavorAs the Defender was caught up in the roots it wasn't able to completely defend itself and received one of Silus' arrows to its leg further impairing its movement. But even with its movement impaired the beasts reflexes were far better than Fen anticipated. Almost instinctively when Fen went to move behind the orc it twisted to the side swinging his shield hard to slam into the small mage.

@NecrophageAfter the orcs were ensnared the Warrior with the longsword struggled to free himself from the vines, in his struggle he recived one of Silus' arrows to his shoulder, angered the orc attempted to rip out the arrow, but the action caused more damage than the initial strike. instead the orc carried on chopping himself free before charging after the mage who cast the spell.

Sasha found himself the fool, all this time he was looking for pikemen and archers left him still behind when all others had gone ahead. Grapples, living lightning striking those bound in earth, a rain of arrows and one of their own chased off into the wood. Damn his over-focus! Now he felt like the farmer with a hatchet as he loped into the fray behind everyone else.

He did have the small advantage of being able to pick his targets rather than have them thrust upon him, so he chose the one with the longsword hacking himself free of the vines. He had reach as well as mobility on his side as long as he kept him, no, it, busy. Any attempt to break free would be an opening for a killing blow and any swipe at Sasha kept him in place.

He started simply enough, a simple charge with reach aimed at the sword arm in the shoulder. With luck, a disarming wound, with great luck a follow through to the neck or chest for a killing blow. He kept his grip oddly with both hands, he was prepared for the orc to catch his blade along the back of his blade into the handguard and so came in with arms coiled to twist the longsword free in a disarm he had been on the receiving end of when he fought a Thart swordsman who used the twisted wrists in his fighting style.

Giffy sprinted through the woods leaping over roots and scanning for something he could use to his advantage. Then he found it. A large area of overgrown brush. To an average person it would just look like an escape route, to an average warrior it would look like absolutely nothing, but to Giffy the brush looked like an opportunity. He looked back and saw the orc would definitely overtake him soon but Giffy had just enough space to dive into the brush and was able to crawl through to the other side and hide behind a tree without the orc noticing his plan

When the orc emerged out of the brush he looked around confused. The frustrated orc walked around not very cautiously and then walked straight into a knee when searched behind a tree. Giffy drew Nightbane and went stabbed the orc's back. The berserker didn't even looked fazed he calmly stood up and smiled at a Giffy that had just drawn his other sword Desolation and was discreetly pulling out his hidden dagger.

@knighthawk The orc Struggled to free itself from the vines and was distracted not seeing the Silverfang Warrior approaching him until it was to late. The Orc was barely able to get his sword up in time to try and block Sasha's attack, but the beast underestimated the weight and strength behind the blade And although the orc was able to dampen the blow Sasha's blade still sunk into his shoulder an inch. The orc howled in pain before lashing out with a hard punch with its free hand at Sasha's jaw. And if the orc's blow landed or not the beast would rip itself out of the vines and move to meet its foe in battle. It now stands bleeding from both shoulders one from Silus' arrow, the other from Sasha's blade. The Orc looks at Sasha with hatred and bloodlust ready to continue its fight.

@Kojashi28 The berserker rushed through the forest trying to find its prey when Giffy dived into the bush the beserker didn't take the time to wade through it instead the beserker wildly swung his hammers reducing the bush to little more than twigs in seconds. "Come on out humie, I'll bleed you real good" the orc said as it ventured into the forest looking for its prey. But it soon felt the cold steel of Giffy's blade in its back. The orc quickly turned while swinging its hammers in an attempt to crush the small human

Anticipating the headbutt, Tyr threw his weight backwards. This gave the orc so much momentum Tyr was able to throw the orc onto its back. Kicking the orc in the head as he turned around Tyr drew his axes and prepared to finish his prey.

Giffy jumped backwards while parrying to dodge the warhammers wildly being swung at him and felt a tree hit his back. Perfect! Giffy looked completely trapped, so the berserker would have a little less focus now that he thought he had an easy kill. "Come on I was just kidding lad." pleaded Giffy in an attempt to look scared, as he slowly and discreetly scaled the tree making sure to pretend like he was just backing up. He kept going up until the orc looked like he noticed and that's when Giffy threw his knife.

The orc barely dodged it but was stunned enough to give Giffy the opportunity to get to a high branch. Giffy knew if the orc tried to climb up to get him he could stab him easily. "Gods your stupid!" laughed Giffy trying to goat the berserker into climbing the tree. "Looks like your beat, since you obviously can't get your fat arse up here."

The infuriated orc that fixated himself on Rem was quickly intercepted by Sasha. Rem grinned. The Suldan's home wasn't the battlefield yet this battlefield was very advantageous to him and the rest of the group. Rem made himself wary of the crossbowmen moving on Sal's position. Perhaps his call for a deadly shot put his friend in a precarious position. Sal had called his faithful companion to his side. It was a good thing to have for an escape but it would not do for either of them to take any hits from those crossbows.

At the same time it seemed that Giffy was cornered. Like a cat in a tree pawing at a dog below. Sure, berserkers were suicidal but it looked like the crazed orc would find another way to pluck him from the branches. If Rem hadn't stayed near the back he would not have noticed both cases. Sal or Giffy? He wasn't going to choose. This would be tiring but worth keeping either from unnecessary injury.

Rem drew in a calming and deep breath. Despite the adrenaline he needed to focus on the rhythm of life coursing through the ground. "Don't fail me now Sasha." He whispered. "Ernal Finno.." Came the silent words. Several of the strong roots that coursed from the very tree snapped out to grasp the berserker. Just moments later as Rem shifted his gaze to Sal the roots shifted up to provide him effective cover to mount Icon and move out of the bad position.

With an exasperated sigh Rem leaned against the tree. Before allowing any projectiles to hit him from pissed off orcs he took cover behind it, taking steady breaths to help ward off the expulsion of mana.

Fates were with him this day, his quest could continue, the blade sank in but not enough, the orcs blade met his own and it even had the audacity to try to swing a fist at him from its pitiful position. Far be it from Sasha to deny its due stupidity. The powerful arms wrenched from their coils, twisting the longsword out of its hand, driving the blade like a screw through meat down to the bone. He had reach on the orc even with its longsword, now with only a fist it did nothing more than wretch itself free of the roots in a frantic escape.

The sword went wide into the chaos as the blacksmith worked his wrist about like he had the whole way through the forest, muscle memory becoming stronger now as he brought the polearm to bear against the unarmed orc. The blade went around once to build the momentum before he brought a heavy cleaving swipe across chest from east to west, hoping to put a deep enough dent in the thing to make it collapse if not kill it outright.

Sadly, plans never go as well as one hopes. These orcs were more than most and to be given the full respect of their training. The orc stepped in with its left foot and caught the polearm just past the blade into the haft. There was a resounding crack like a broken branch as ribs were shattered but it pressed on with its right hand reached across onto the glaive to keep it in place, it turned for momentum as it drew a sickle from its belt and brought it to bear on the boy.

Sasha saw silver for a moment as the reaping tool ran itself down his arm north to south. Had it been side to side the limb might be ruined, but for now it was a bad gash he could still fall back on. Against all odds, Sasha let go of his weapon, letting the orc bear a blade easily heavier than any greatsword it ever held to throw it off balance as he met its step in with his only good arm and took the hand that the orc carried the sickle in with a bone popping grip.

Each with one arm to their name, the two struggled for control of the blade as its dripping tip thirsted for a throat. As mighty as orcs are, their strength is a natural development, but what is raw talent compared to the dedication of one who builds their body? Both were about to find out.

@Milowan The orc quickly got up after the throw spitting out a bit of blood from the kick. He then drew his sword and axe. The Orc didn't wait for Tyr to attack and charged in. Once he got close enough to attack he brought both his weapons down slashing in an X like pattern while quickly turning the blades to repeat the attack again if needed.

@Kojashi28 The orc watched as Giffy retreated again. "Damn Humie coward, talk big but all you do is run" The orc grunted becoming furious at his opponent. But again his foe had dirty tricks climbing a tree after throwing a knife to distract the orc. Again the little human taunted the beserker further fueling his rage. But instead of trying to climb the tree the orc just smiled "Now you have nowhere to run" The orc said while he belted one of his Hammers. He took the remaining hammer and grabbed it with both hands raising it behind its head. With all his might and rage the Berserker went to throw the hammer at the helpless Giffy, but just before he let go of the hammer Rem's magic vines started to wrap around the orcs legs. This distraction threw the hammer off course while it flew. But luck wasn't on Giffy's side as the hammer smashed into the branch Giffy was standing on. The force of the blow splintered the wood and with a loud snap the branch began to fall folding over unable to hold Giffy's weight after receiving the damage. The berseker then directed his attention to freeing himself from the roots not keeping track of Giffy's fate while freeing himself.

@Necrophage A resounding clunk was heard as an bolt pelted the tree Rem was hiding behind, it was clear they weren't going to just let him cast his spells to disrupt the battlefield anymore and one of the orc crosbowmen had decided to hunt Rem down. The orc moved trying to get a view of Rem while avoiding the rest of the combat looking for his opportunity to strike.

@RabidAnubis The orc with the great axe rushed forward attempting to get the ranger into melee combat where it was sure to overpower the man. And one of the crossbow wielding orcs was also trying to put a bolt into the ranger. But their path was blocked as a wall of roots buying Sal some time. the Axe wielder went to work hacking at the roots attempting break Sals cover getting ever closer to his target.

And as the battles went on the last three orcs got geared up and moved to join the battles. One wielded a spear and tower shield with heavy armor and slowly approached the battle. another wielded a halberd stolen from the Sadan knights looking for his next piece of shinny loot to steal, and the last held a short sword and a dagger looking for an easy target he could get the jump on.

His armour partially damaged by the attack, Tyr jammed one ax into the hand-guard of the enemy berserker's sword, and used his other ax to lock the orc's own ax into place. Tyr then took a step forward, pushing his adversary's arms into an awkward half-backwards position. From there Tyr twisted his axes, disarming the enemy. Throwing his own axes down Tyr began bashing his fist into the orc's face repeatedly, dazing it and breaking a few knuckles along the way. Realizing that he was only causing himself more pain, Tyr roared bringing his head -helmet and all- down on the orc's nose with a resounding crunch. One of the orc's legs gave out from supporting both of their weight for so long and Tyr fell over. Grabbing an axes in his undamaged left hand Tyr rolled back to his feet.

Sal jumped out of the tree, sprinted through the summoned brush and reached his horse. The Count knew he shouldn't panic but that great-axe was looking absolutely terrifying. He mounted just as the axe wielding orc got through the brush. Icon apparently understood what was going on and rode the ranger back behind his team as quickly as possible. The archer was downright certain that he heard a curse from that orc but the ranger ignored it, hugging close to the horse to avoid the crossbowmen.

"Thanks for getting me out of there!" He shouted, thanking the Suldanian for his support.

As soon as he escaped the archer loosed an arrow at both crossbowman. Despite Sal's skill, one panicked shot per second was not a guaranteed hit.


The first six orcs were engaged in glorious combat or dead. With the pesky ranger escaped, the other six orcs looked for a target as they approached.

The captain looked at his six orcs in reserve, approaching the battle unsure of what target they should go for. "GET THE MAGE! The one behind the tree you milk drinkers!" The captain looked back at Silius, smiled, and raised his sword. "It will be fun to fight you. Give me a minute though." The captain then charged for Tyr's back, ignoring Silius completely. Bet he wasn't expecting that!

To a child, this would have been a clash of titans. To Sasha, this was really dangerous! He was taking too long with this orc, others were ariving, he had to finish and move onto the next one. Fighters fight, warriors think. They were two unstoppable forces fighting against each other with one arm.. so why was he fighting with one arm?

Sasha didn't take a step back, he pulled back, using the orcs strength and weight to multiply with his own as he ripped the hand olding the sickle across his body while driving up a knee. THe cracking sound now resounded like a split chord of firewood as the warror started choking up on vomited blood. Green grass growing more verdant from the ichor of rusted copper.

"They really do bleed green, huh."

No time to ponder orcish anatomy, he took up the sickle in his one good hand and scanned the crowd while walking to his weapon. There, someone was flanking up on the source of the wild roots(Rem) and they were a crossbowman. Taking a single test of the weight, he let the weapon fly.

Let's understand somethings here, Sasha is no thrower by professional skill and a sickle is not as aerodynamic as a chakram. But he is stronger than most and hopefully he can put enough power behind the throw to overcome his limitation and save a teamate. Even if he missed with the throw, he was already running behind it, catching the blade by the ring on the bottom with two fingers, he let the thirty pounds trail behind him like the tail of a dragon as he tried to close the distance.

Silus' stand off with the captain seemed to last an eternity, but with the battle around them unfolding seemingly in the order's favor the captain moved to change the odds charging at Tyr. This left Silus to go intercept the orcs that were coming to join the fray, but he couldn't just leave Tyr to the captain without helping him at all so as Silus started to move after the halbred weilding Orc he grabbed a stone from the ground "Tyr watch your back!" he yelled while throwing the stone at the berserker, the stone bounced off the berserker's helmet as a way to try and get Tyr's attention and to warn him of something coming from behind.

As Silus neared the Orc with the Halbred the Orc braced himeself and stuck the weapon out like a spear in an attempt to skewer the man. Silus was already moving to fast to stop so he had to think quick on his feet, and preying that his timing would be correct, and at the last moment moved to a slide to go under the weapon and slash at the orcs calf with his sword as he passed by. But before Silus could even get up he was forced to roll to his side in order to avoid the sword of the rougish orc. Now back on his feet Silus stood up against two orcs ready to fight on the defensive until he could receive aid.

Giffy helplessly watched as the orc got ready to throw his hammer. Giffy knew this was a possibility, but he had hoped the orc wouldn't have thought of anything except charging headfirst at a tree or slowly climbing to his death. Luckily his friend Rem had his back. Rem trapped the orc with roots, causing the orc to throw it's hammer to early and unluckily hit the branch Giffy was on.

Then Giffy luckily landed on a bush, so he stayed conscious,although was still pretty out of it. So that's two lucky things and one unlucky one that means the gods will deliver him one more misfortune before the battle's done. "Oh well the orc's trapped and I could've taken his ages ago easily", Giffy thought as he stumbled toward the berserker. "Damnit!" Giffy shouted a little bit too loud as he tripped over something.

There was his misfortune he hoped would be a little less crucial. Then he realized the something he tripped on was his other sword Nightbane, that he had stabbed the orc with earlier. So was that lucky or unlucky, Giffy wondered right before he felt a warhammer nail his leg. Definitely unlucky! Wait the orc had thrown it so he only had one weapon he could use to free himself. Giffy crawled his way over to the berserker and used both of his swords to pry the remaining warhammer out of the orc's hands just one hit before he would've freed himself. Sadly Desolation had gone with the warhammer, so Giffy would have to fight with only one sword once again. He used a tree to help him up and then charged at the immobilized orc.

As Tyr brought his ax down, decapitating the enemy orc berserker, he felt something hit the back of his helm, and heard Silus shout something at him. Though the words were falling on deaf ears as, when Tyr turned he saw the orc captain charging straight for him. Setting his stance wide Tyr brought his body low and held the war-ax ready in his left hand. Bringing his shoulder back, Tyr prepared to explode forward and hack at the enemy captain's sword-bearing arm, intending to lop the hand off and disarm his foe in one quick strike.

Tyr burst forward and swung his ax at the orc captain. The captain however, anticipated this and twisted his body and arm to deflect most of the blow. The amount of force behind Tyr's swing was still enough to cut the captain but he was in no risk of losing his hand at the moment.

Giffy used a tree to get up, looked at the cut in his leg although everything's been a little blurry since he landed on his head, and then sadistically limped toward the berserker. "Aww is the poor little orc stuck?" Giffy taunted at the orc with no intention of a trick. He then confidently went in for the kill when the orc broke free and jumped at Giffy. Luckily the orc had carelessly left a few roots intact and they flew up grabbed the berserker's foot, then pulled him down. Giffy basically fell on the orc digging his sword all the way through the orc's body. This one killed him. Giffy laid there for a bit recovering some of his energy than pulled out Nightbane grabbed Desolation from the bushes and half limped over to Rem so he could return the favor he received earlier.

@ArthanusThe halberd wielder was not expecting that quick of movement, and dropped to one leg as he grunted in pain. The roguish orc knew he had to draw the fight closer to his wounded ally in order to beat the opposing captain. "Get back here and fight you scumbag! The rouge made a motion to get around to the other side of Cross, trying to force one fighter on each side of the dragonslayer. The heavier orc dragged himself along the ground, understanding this tactic.


@Milowan Wathcing his ally fall enraged Gunthar, but Gunthar managed to calm himself. Tyr's attack was strong, but it fell into Gunthar's plan despite the minor wound. Gunthar used his left arm to go beneath the bottom of the axe and hook onto the unsharpened section of blade, grabbing it with his body. He then pumped out a quick swing at Tyr's head before stepping into the inside of Tyr's elbow, preventing a good swing from his opponent. Then he threw a punch with his left arm, full swing of the body behind it.

Giffy rounded the thicket to meet up with Rem. Another bolt thudded against the trunk of the tree. Rem, not a true soldier, winced ever so slightly at the impact. The reasonable thing was that they could be trying to cover their heavier fellow with the big axe so he could close the gap or flank the rest of Cross' squad. That wouldn't be good. Whatever tactics they were using if they kept it up they would overwhelm the squad by numbers.

"Good to see you." Rem said quickly. He examined the limp. Not taking any extra time, he went through his satchel and pulled out a pre-made poultice. "Hold steady and stay still. This might sting." He moved the cut pants out of the way and slipped the bandage over. It would sting like hell for a moment before feeling great. Rem closed his eyes and placed a gentle hand over the portion that held the herbs. A soft yellow glow surrounded the hand, emitting a quiet and peaceful hum that was barely audible amidst the clash of weapons and mix of war cries. Just like his magic enhanced foliage to move to his advantage this too would increase in its capacity and speed to mend and heal.

Rem exhaled slowly before lifting the hand and leaning back against the tree. The orcs were getting really close. He needed to move before he was pinned. "Stay out of sight. Help me if you can. I'll peel them away from you." He plotted. With little time, he sprinted out. Rem moved through the trees and thickets in a circular pattern so he wouldn't stray too far from the group but would still be able to make distance from the orcs. He still had some mana left to exhaust for this fight but he needed to save it for just the right moment. Surely the orcs would continue being obedient to their bellowing leader and give chase.

"Ah!""Er!"Giffy screamed into his arm so he wouldn't give away the fact that he was with Rem. The sting from the bandage was almost unbearable. Why does such a hard thing to make hurt so bad, Giffy wondered. Then the pain suddenly stopped and when he looked down there was an almost immediate result. The open wound in Giffy's leg was closing at an unnatural rate, making Giffy feel like someone had ripped a bandage off. Hurts at first, but feels better after. Except that this bandage was being placed on him, not off and that the pain and relief is multiplied by like one hundred.

Looks like Rem's plan is working, Giffy thought as he watched the orc's stupidly give chase to him not looking out for any quicksand or other magical traps he could be leaving behind. Perfect Rem just went into the trees and with the new mobility Giffy has, he should be able to follow the orcs through the trees and slowly take them out one by one while they're running.

"There always has to be the unathletic that gets left behind." "Poor lad, don't worry I'll put you out of your misery." Giffy said in a deep creepy voice. The orc looked confused so either he didn't know where Giffy was or he didn't understand what unathletic means. Probably both Giffy decided so he slowly dropped into the brush below him and closed in for the kill. Giffy wasn't proud of this, but he really enjoyed killing helpless enemies.