As you get closer to him, you arc your sword over your head, aiming for his neck.  The Imperial soldier slams it away with the flat of his blade and, mid-push, brings his blade back down.  The sword cuts through your thick leather armor, biting into your shoulder.


You wince and grunt as he pulls his sword, the both of you passing each other and turning in preparation to charge again.  Behind him, you see that the orcs seem to have pushed the Imperial horsemen back a bit, and the orcs on the hill have wounded several archers in each column. 


The battle is going well enough for the orcs. 


As you charge the Imperial knight again, you consider your next move.

You throw your axe at the horse

The horses gallop forward, the knight's elbow tenses and he leans forward on the horse.  He seems intent on running your through.  As you ride forward you let him think this will be a jousting match….


Like a bolt of lightning, you draw the axe at your side, throwing it at the Imperials horse.  The axe embeds itself in its forehead, and it lets out a pained neigh.  You dip to the side as it lurches forward, the knight being launched off with a cry of dismay. 


As he lands a sickening crunch sounds out.  The knight groans and tries to pull himself up, but his arm is twisted and bent horribly.  He buckles and falls onto the ground, a defeated sigh escaping his lips. 


"Come on, knave," the knight says, not moving, "what are you waiting for you brute?"


Before you can ride forth to finish him, a loud cry emanates from the forest behind you.

You for the Emperor!

You turn your horse.  From out of the trees, an enormous group of humans comes rushing out, screaming and yelling.  You notice they are quite different from the knights. While some of them have the silver coats, most of them just have some kind of padding and the Imperial soldier robes.  Their boots, gloves, and helmets don't look anywhere near as nice as the knights'.


These must be the lowly soldiers of the Empire, but there sure are a lot of them.  You turn again as you see the lawless orcs bring up a cry, charging towards the humans.  You watch as your comrades also charge the humans, so you decide you should as well.


Galloping forward, you prepare your axe.  A battle of strength versus numbers, you decide that Gigalak will decide the winner today. 


You trample a couple of humans, their cries ringing out.  The axe bites into another, and as he dies his sword nicks your arm.  You slash, hack, batter, and even punch one.  A dying soldier cries out, digging his dagger into your side.  You gasp and slam your axe handle into his eye, a squishing sound resounds as blood squirts out and onto your leg.  He lets out a blood curdling scream as he flails, soon going limp and falling to the ground. 


With the dagger still in your side, you circle back, needing to fight through a few more soldiers to do so.  Panting, you see that the battle is being lost for the orcs.  But some still fight on, despite their injuries and overwhelming odds. 


Chief Greusim charges into the middle of it, laying waste to soldier after soldier.  His mighty club denting helmets and cracking skulls, breaking arms and busting jaws. 


You watch as he cries out, someone plunging their sword into his side.  Gasping, you ride forward to save him.  But there are too many soldiers to fight through, and before you can reach him the grunts pull Greusim from his horse, stabbing, slashing, punching, and beating.  You see his own club being raised to be used against him.


All the other orcs in your tribe watch as the chief goes down, along with the other orcs he had around him. 


There's just too many, you'll never fight through them all.


"Fall back! Fall back!" some orc cries out.


As you all do so, the lawless orcs seem shocked as to why.  Before they can get away, the Imperial troops have swept them up and begin to butcher most of them.  Few escape, and you even swing one onto your horse as you ride away.


You all ride into the forest, lucky to have escaped death on this day.  The same cannot be said for many others. 


You exchange glances with Rolomag, who nods and pokes his chin to the valley.  Although you don't like the idea, you all will have to go there to recover and make plans….