Zot'r tried to yell in anger, but moving his jaw hurt his bleeding mouth too much.
"Zot'r!" Nid'r screamed.
She quickly kicked her feet into her direwolf. The big beast jumped right over the other Black Riders and landed right next to him.
"Are you okay, my Sun?" she asked, her eyes full of tears.
Zot'r could not answer her. He could only shake his head to say yes. She gave him a small smile, but before Zot'r could reach out to grab her, her body went limp. She fainted and fell off her saddle onto the ground. A heavy crossbow bolt was stuck deep in her back. She had taken the hit in the air while she had made the jump.
Zot'r's eyes turned completely red with rage. He forgot all about the terrible pain in his own mouth and roared, "Show yourself, you spineless, wretched cowards!"
Right away, another crossbow bolt shot through the bushes straight at him. But this time, Zot'r was ready for it. He blocked the flying bolt with the axe in his left hand. In one quick, powerful move, he threw another axe, which was in his right hand, straight toward the direction the bolts were coming from.
The axe hit its mark perfectly. The sound of metal cutting into flesh was quickly followed by a loud, painful scream and the heavy sound of a body hitting the ground. At the foot of a large tree, a man was rolling on the hrass in pain. Zot'r's axe was stuck deep in his left shoulder, and his crossbow had fallen a few inches away from his hand.
"You cursed monkeys…" the man gasped, trying to crawl away. He did not get to finish his words. The second axe in Zot'r's left hand flew through the air. It hit the man right between the eyes and crushed his skull, killing him instantly.
Jax sniffed the night air deeply and turned to Lorian, "More people are coming from that direction, Master. Probably his friends, and they were attracted by all the noise! We need to leave right now!"
Zot'r nodded. He squeezed his face hard with his hand to try and stop the bleeding. "The cat is right," he said, "You all go Highchief. We will block them all here."
He then turned back to his people, his face covered in blood, "Don't just sit on your mounts like dummies, you good-for-nothing grunts! Find the cowards hiding in the bushes and tear them limb from limb!" Blood splattered like jets from his cheeks as he spoke, making the screaming half-orc look even more terrifying.
Lorian thought fast for a moment and shouted his orders, "Zara, take the girl with you on your horse! Kaelen, Jax, stay here with them and help them in the fight. I am going ahead with Zara and the rest of the Throne Guards. You two finish off these interceptors and rejoin me in the city! And don't foregt to bring our fallen comrade's body. He deserves proper burial with his family."
Zot'r was surprised that Lorian wanted to take Nid'r with him. But Lorian looked at him and spoke in a calm and commanding voice, "If she is going to be saved, it will only happen in the city with trained healers. She will die out here in these woods otherwise."
Zot'r was deeply moved by this sudden act of kindness from a human, especially a high-ranking one. He pressed his fist to his chest and bowed. "Go safe, High Chief. We will meet you in the city after we clean out these maggots!"
"Keep a few of them alive and drag them along for questioning," Lorian instructed, "Do whatever you want with the rest."
With those final words, Lorian, Zara, and the six remaining Throne Guards kicked their horses into a fast run, disappearing down the secret path toward the city.
They had been gone for less than a minute when a new crowd of thirty to forty fighters rushed out from the opposite side of the trees. They were all armed with swords, shortbows, and daggers. Most wore regular clothes, but a few had leather armor.
One of them immediately noticed the dust from Lorian's nine retreating riders. "They are escaping!" he shouted to his archers, "Shoot them in the back! Don't let them reach the gates!"
Before the enemy archers could even pull back their bowstrings to shoot at Lorian's retreating group, a dark shadow flew through the air. Jax jumped straight off his saddle, traveling through the air like a missile, and crashed directly into the middle of the enemy's back line.
The archers were completely taken aback. They were looking at the road ahead, totally unprepared for close combat. Jax did not even pulled out his sword. He unleashed his long, razor-sharp claws and fought like a complete berserker.
It was a brutal massacre. Jax tore through the archers before they could even drop their bows to draw a dagger. He swung his arms wildly, his claws ripped through throats and chests of the archers. Blood sprayed over the grass as the helpless archers screamed, completely unready for the savage attack. They had no armor to protect them, and in seconds, Jax turned their formation into a slaughterhouse.
"Save the cat!" Zot'r roared through his bleeding mouth.
Kaelen and the rest of the Black Riders spurred their mounts forward, crashing into the enemy line to rescue Jax before he could get surrounded.
The battlefield was instantly a mess of pure violence. The enemies were mostly on foot, wearing nothing but regular clothes that offered zero protection against heavy weapons. Only a few of them- the ones wearing leather armor- were on horseback. Because Kaelen and the half-orcs were riding massive direwolves and horses, they held huge advantage over the enemies. They used their height and speed to trample the foot soldiers into the dirt.
The Black Riders fought with total savagery. They swung heavy maces and axes down on the heads of the unarmored crowd, cracking skulls and breaking bones with every single strike. The direwolves bit down on legs and shoulders, ripping men off their feet and tearing them apart. It was overwhelmingly one-sided. The foot soldiers had no training for this kind of brutal force, and they began to scatter in pure panic, running from the monsters.
The only ones holding the line were the few men on horseback wearing leather armor. They managed to parry the first few swings from the half-orcs, using their shields and cutlasses to stay alive in the chaos. One of the armored riders managed to turn his horse around, trying to rally a few men to fight back against Kaelen.
Kaelen raised his sword, his eyes were locked on the armored rider. Around him, there were terrible sounds of snapping bones, guttural orc war cries, and the desperate screams of dying men. Barring Kaelen, who fought like a human, every single person on the field was a savage, brutal monster tasting blood. The real clash was just about to begin as the Black Riders slammed into the few enemies who could actually stand and fight.