choose your own adventure, episode 21b

You decide to hold your ground and hold Gotha’s attention, hopefully distracting her long enough for Magistrius Richard to strike her with a potent spell.

And as the urdmordar races towards you in a crimson blur of armored chitin and razor-edged claws, you question the wisdom of your plan. Gotha lunges at you, both her legs and her claw-tipped arms stabbing for your face, and you use Heartwarden’s power to dodge.

Gotha’s claws miss you by barely half an inch, and the urdmordar whirls with speed despite her armored bulk, and the sides of two of her legs slam into your chest and stomach.

Even through your chain mail, it feels like getting hit in the torso with a tree.

The force of the blow throws you back a dozen feet, and you hit the ground hard, the breath exploding from your lungs, and for a moment sheer pain paralyzes you. Gotha rears up above you, her legs raised to impale you, and you see the glee on her inhumanly beautiful face.

Then a blast of white fire lances from the doors of the church and slams into Gotha. The urdmordar stumbles to the side with a shriek of pain, her clawed legs digging furrows in the square. You see Magistrius Richard standing before the militiamen on the stairs, beginning another spell.

You force yourself to one knee, breathing hard.

Gotha whirls to face Richard, her face twisted in a snarl of fury, and throws out her left hand. A sphere of black fire erupts from her fingers and hurtles towards Richard and the church. The Magistrius raises his hands, and a shimmering veil of white light appears before him. The black fire hammers into the veil with a howling explosion, and a wall of dark flame rises up before the church, devouring both the earth and the wood in touches. You see Richard’s expression twist with strain, and realize that it is taking the whole of his magical strength to hold back the urdmordar’s fire. If he wavers, the black fire will devour the church…and everyone inside it.

Gotha spins to face you as you get to your feet, and you just manage to avoid the swipe of her claws and a stab from her legs. The urdmordar’s crimson hulk pursues you, and you manage to land a blow with Heartwarden on her flank. The wound smokes from your sword’s touch, and Gotha hisses. The side of her leg strikes your shoulder, and the force of the blow knocks you back.

Then you hear a chorus of mad battle cries, and Ulacht, Sir Hamus, and Sir Thomas charge the urdmordar, brandishing their weapons. Hamus’s axe and Thomas’s longsword dig grooves in the urdmordar’s side, and Ulacht’s club slams into a leg with a loud crack. Gotha shrieks in pain in fury…but the wounds the knights and the orc headman dealt begin to vanish at once.

Normal steel cannot harm an urdmordar.

Gotha turns, her legs lashing like a whip, and knocks Ulacht and Thomas to the ground. Hamus bellows and buries his axe with a two-handed blow into Gotha’s thorax.

“Die!” roars Hamus. “Foul urdmordar! You will not…”

Gotha sneers, turns, and drives two of her legs through the old knight like a child ramming a fork through a tomato.

At least his death is quick.

You recover your balance, and Gotha turns to face you, snapping her legs to kick off Hamus’s corpse.

But he’s stuck.

Gotha stumbles, her balance thrown off by the slain knight’s weight, and for a moment, just a moment, she is vulnerable.

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