Battle for Skull Pass by Warhammer

Author:Warhammer [Warhammer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

36

The dwarfs backed toward their end of the bridge, trying to extricate themselves

from their fights. Skaari heaved his ale-keg at a spider rider and joined them, though

he knew it would be useless. They weren’t moving fast enough. The thunder of

hooves was getting louder. The herd would close the distance in seconds.

The spider riders screamed as they saw the wall of cow-flesh bearing down on

them. They broke away from the dwarfs, shrilling curses and scuttling over the sides

of the bridge. It seemed they hadn’t been told of the herd’s part in the attack.

Free of their fights, the dwarfs turned and ran. Skaari wondered briefly if there

was dishonour in running from cows, but on the whole he thought not. It was no

more cowardly than running from an avalanche.

The first few dwarf warriors reached the end of the bridge and scattered left and

right behind the towers. They were the lucky ones. The deafening rumble of a

thousand hooves nearly shook Skaari off his feet. Five paces from the end, he threw

himself aside. A bellowing cow shouldered him into the stone rail, crushing his ribs

and knocking him to the flags. Another stepped on his leg. He covered his head with

his arms and curled in a ball as the herd rushed by inches away.

Aurik lay beside him, protected by his armour and the shields of two of his

hammerers, who lay on top of him, heads lowered. One of them was knocked away

by a maddened cow, and went rolling and bouncing into the stream of cattle, kicked

and crushed along with a score of other over-run warriors.

Skaari leapt on the shield the hammerer had left behind, holding it in place over

Aurik. “I have it, thane’s son!” he cried. “Stay down!”

His words were lost in the clattering roar of the herd’s passage. Another cow

kicked him in the shoulder as it leapt over him. Its back feet grazed his helm, tearing

it from his head.

And then the herd was past, but there was no respite. The fading thunder of

hooves was drowned by the shrill war cries of the goblins that swarmed in their

wake. They enveloped the fallen dwarfs like a flood tide, stabbing down at every one

they passed.

Skaari squirmed aside from three spear points and lashed out with his axe,

fanning his attackers back. His ribs screamed, his arms and legs throbbed, his ears

rang, but there was no time for pain: giving in to it meant death.

Aurik lurched up beside him, roaring and bleeding into his beard from a gash on

his cheek as he swept out with his shield and smashed Skaari’s goblins to the ground.

His remaining hammerer stood beside him and guarded his left flank. Skaari

instinctively snatched up the other hammerer’s shield and guarded his right. A dozen

goblins thrust their spears at them, howling for dwarf blood.

“Close up!” shouted Aurik to the few survivors who picked themselves up by the

edges of the bridge. “Close up between the towers!” He cleaved a goblin’s skull with

Grudge Ender and kicked it away, then started cutting his way to the end of the

bridge. “Come on, young cowherd,” he said.

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