Chapter 56: Orc vs. Paladin

Lexi wrenched her still flaming broadsword’s enormous blade free from the spine of the seared corpse of the hobgoblin she had quite nearly split in two. The paladin wiped the sweat from her brow as she surveyed the battlefield into which her humble campsite had been so suddenly transformed. Illuminated by the gibbous moon’s light as well as the ring of flaming brands encircling the site, Lexi saw that on the opposite side of the deep crevice carved into the earth by Samantha’s first spell, both the mage and monk appeared to be in dire straits.

Although, almost as soon as the paladin had started to advance towards the crevice with the intent of bounding over it to help, she saw a warg rider burst through the wall of flames, making a beeline for Gretel and her hobgoblin rapist.

“...”

The paladin was at a complete loss for words when she realized that the rider was most certainly not one of the greenskin attackers, but was in fact the tiny elf who had only just joined her party the prior day. The look of grim determination on Danica’s face came as an additional shock to Lexi, who had to that point almost exclusively seen the elf presenting a seemingly carefree attitude of wonder and excitement.

I should trust Danica to help the others, Lexi thought to herself. After all, she’s almost eighty fucking years old. Apparently that means she’s got some crazy ass tricks up her sleeve ... like somehow hijacking a motherfucking warg!

Turning her gaze back to her size of the battlefield, the paladin noted that her own situation was apparently about to get a whole lot worse as well. The orc captain still had his honor guard of three riders that he had held back in reserve. As soon as Lexi’s gaze met his, he lifted an enormous clawed hand, pointing straight at her, issuing a command in the guttural tongue of his race. The translation which Lexi saw scroll past her in the game’s subtitles did not set her mind at ease.

“Kill the paladin!”

Without any hesitation, the three warg riders dug their heels into their mounts’ flanks and peeled off, seeking to flank the paladin — two circling around to the right, and the other on the left hand side. This must have been one of the captain’s favored tactics, Lexi realized, because he did not even have to tell them what to do. That alone had her worried, but that worry was replaced by true fear when she saw that the captain himself had leveled his dread standard and was charging straight ahead at her.

In that moment, Lexi realized that she had one — and only one chance — to get this right, and if she fucked it up, she would be as dead as the hobgoblin she had just put down. Her mind working a mile a minute, she concluded that the flanking hobgoblins were, for the moment at least, a distraction, so her attention focused to a pinprick on the orc captain.

The spear tip which was hurtling towards Lexi emerged from the limbless corpse of the poor girl the orc and his troops had so recently mutilated and murdered, impaling her like a spitroasted pig on a spit. Just seeing that horrific display lit a fire inside the paladin. And, as her eyes drank in the enormous size of the snow white dire wolf, a plan coalesced in her head. It would be a long shot, but in that moment it was quite likely the only one she had left.

Ignoring all three of the flanking warg riders, Lexi coiled her strong legs and darted forward directly towards the orc captain and his horse-sized dire wolf. She watched as the orc flexed his massive bicep, drawing his ghastly spear back for what he believed would be an utterly decisive thrust that would put an end to this upstart paladin once and for all. At the very last second, just before Lexi and the mounted orc captain were set to clash, the futanari paladin dropped onto her back, leaping forward to propel herself into an upside down slide on the campsite’s soft bedding of pine needles.

Being roughly the size of a small horse, Lexi was able to slide between the dire wolf’s legs easily. And, as she passed under the great beast, she wrenched her sword upwards with every ounce of strength her new body possessed, dragging the broadsword’s great flaming blade along the belly of the creature. In an instant, Lexi had sliced open the dire wolf from neck to groin, completely disemboweling the monstrous beast with a single slash.

Despite the cauterizing effects of her flaming sword searing the edges of the wound, it did nothing to contain the mass of bloody entrails which poured out all over Lexi. As the momentum of her slide carried the paladin out from underneath the dying wolf’s back legs a split second before it collapsed, she found herself covered from head to toe in a gory mixture of blood and offal. Nonetheless, the dire wolf did fall dead from her blow, pitching the orc captain forward from atop his slain mount.

Unfortunately for the paladin, before she had even fully risen to her feet, Lexi saw out of the corner of her eye that the three mounted hobgoblins were circling around the carnage of their leader’s dead dire wolf, and were closing in fast. Quick as she could, Lexi hopped to her feet, gagging from the sights and smells of the horrific gore which coated her. With all the severed intestines dangling from her shoulders, the young paladin wondered that she would not be mistaken by her companions as some kind of tentacle monster — provided that she survived this encounter. Despite the immediacy of her victory over the dire wolf, the degree to which the odds appeared stacked against her had Lexi sweating bullets.

I just can’t catch a fucking break tonight!

However, just as the three riders began to come in for what Lexi was beginning to assume would be the final approach, something miraculous happened. Glowing bands of light appeared around the arms and torso of the central rider, constricting him so tightly that he fell from his warg into a heap on the ground. Confused at its rider’s action, the warg nearly trampled the hobgoblin in its attempt to both stop its sprint and turn around to see the threat approaching from the rear. Illuminated from behind by the ring of flaming brands, Lexi spied her dear friend Gretel. The mage looked disheveled and abused — small wonder given what she had just been through — but her face was a mask of the purest fury in that moment.