Rise of the Horde - Chapter 538 - 538
Night had barely lifted when the first scream tore through the fallen orcs’ camp. From the southern skies came the sound of beating wings … griffons, twenty-one of them, descending like a blizzard from the heavens. The Griffon Knights of the Baron of Frost had come.
Before the orcs could reach for their weapons, the air itself split with a thunderous cry … the Baron’s voice echoing through the frozen gale. His sceptre, forged from glacial steel, swept in a wide arc, unleashing a storm of razor-edged ice. Tents shredded. Flesh tore. The first ranks of orcs fell screaming as shards of frost pierced through hide and bone alike.
Wind howled in harmony with iron. Griffons dove low, claws raking through the panicked band, their riders hurling lances wreathed in frostfire. One knight conjured a cyclone that ripped through the central bonfire, sending a storm of embers and snow swirling across the camp. The fallen orcs, taken unawares, stumbled and roared, their guttural cries swallowed by the rising wind.
But chaos breeds fury. From the largest tent emerged two powerful figures … the warlocks of the fallen orcs. Their bodies were tattooed in writhing crimson sigils, their eyes glowing like molten iron. They raised their staves, chanting in a harsh demonic tongue. The ground split open beneath them as rivers of black flame slithered toward the sky.
The Baron saw them and gave the order … “Form the second ring! Protect the prisoners!”
The knights wheeled their griffons mid-air, forming a loose circle above the crude wooden cages where human captives cowered. Bolts of corrupted fire streaked upward, exploding around them. Two griffons shrieked as the dark energy scorched their wings, sending both mount and rider spiraling into the melee below.
The orcs rallied. Whatever fear the knights had inspired was gone now, replaced by blind bloodlust. They surged like a living tide, blades glinting red under the infernal glow. The ground shook as hundreds of feet pounded toward the intruders.
The Baron raised his sceptre again …the weapon blazed pale blue. “Hold fast, brothers! The snowstorm answers only to those who command it!”
And then the wind screamed anew.
*****
Iron met flesh. Ice shattered bone.
The Griffon Knights fought like a tempest given form, blades wreathed in frost and gusts of slicing wind. The Baron cut through the band, every swing freezing orcs solid before shattering them into shards. Around him, his knights fought in pairs …one on the ground, one mounted, covering each other in seamless motion. But for every orc that fell, three more came roaring from the shadows.
The warlocks’ chants deepened. A crimson haze spread across the battlefield, seeping into the fallen bodies. The dead orcs twitched, then rose again, their wounds glowing with demonic fire.
The possessed bodies joined the fray.
One knight, Sir Alden, was torn from his griffon mid-flight, dragged down by a dozen clawed hands. He screamed once before his armor cracked under their blows. His comrade, Sir Ilyra, dove after him, hurling a spear of ice that impaled three orcs in a line … too late to save him, but enough to avenge him. His griffon roared, its beak snapping through skulls as he fought to rise again.
The Baron saw it all and pressed forward, fury and frost burning in his veins. With a roar, he slammed his sceptre into the ground. The shockwave froze a dozen possessed in place, their fiery eyes extinguished beneath a sheet of rime. For a heartbeat, silence held.
Then the warlocks finished their spell.
From their joined magic rose a monstrous shape … a demon wrought from shadow and ash, towering above the battlefield. Its claws raked the sky, snuffing out the northern lights. The Baron’s griffon reared, screeching as frost met infernal flame.
“Stand your ground!” he bellowed. “If this is our end, we end it as knights of the snowstorm!”
The Griffon Knights answered with a cry that shook the night. Even as they bled, even as their numbers thinned, they dove once more … blades flashing, ice and wind roaring, wings cutting through smoke and blood.
The battlefield became a tempest … frost and fire entwined, a storm of death where neither heaven nor hell held sway.
And through it all, the Baron of Frost stood at the heart of the maelstrom, his sceptre shining like a frozen star … the last beacon of light against the tide of darkness.
*****
The demon’s roar rolled across the mountains like thunder. Fire rained from its maw, igniting the shattered tents and corpses below. The heat warped the air, turning frost to steam … yet amid that inferno, the Baron of Frost stood unyielding, his breath misting in defiance.
“Form on me!” he shouted, voice cutting through the chaos. Those knights still standing … fourteen of them now … rallied to his call. Their griffons limped and bled, their armor blackened and cracked, but their eyes still burned with the cold resolve of the north.
Above, the demon raised its claw again, drawing in the flames around it. The orc warlocks beneath chanted faster, blood streaming from their eyes and mouths as they fed their souls into the ritual. The very ground groaned beneath the weight of that power.
The Baron looked to the heavens … to the swirling storm that still lingered at his command. He drew in the air, his voice low and solemn. “Wind of the high peaks, lend me your fury. Frost of the deep vale, lend me your purity.”
His sceptre began to glow … not blue, but white, radiant as moonlight on snow. The knights saw, and followed suit, their blades and spears answering the call with flickering auras of cold brilliance. Together, they spread their wings once more.
They charged.
The storm broke open.
Wind howled like a god’s wrath as the Griffon Knights soared into the firestorm. Arrows of ice rained from their lances, shredding the demon’s form. The beast swung wildly, its claws carving through air and mountain alike … but the knights moved as one, darting between the strikes like falcons in the gale.
The Baron dove first, sceptre raised high. He struck the demon’s chest, and frost exploded outward in a blinding surge. Cracks split through the creature’s molten hide. The warlocks screamed … the connection tearing at their souls.
Below, fallen orcs rushed the cages where the prisoners cowered, but the remaining knights held the line. Wings of ice burst from their griffons as they fought tooth and claw, buying their lord precious moments.
The Baron drove his weapon deeper, calling upon every ounce of power left in his body. Frost met flame, wind met ash … and the world itself seemed to tear apart at the seams.
Then came the silence.
The demon shattered into a thousand shards of black glass. The warlocks collapsed, their bodies smoking, lifeless. The fire dimmed. The storm settled.
When the dust cleared, only Twelve Griffon Knights still stood … the Baron among them, his armor scorched, his griffon wounded but alive. Around them lay the ruin of the orc camp: heaps of dead, frostbitten corpses, broken weapons, and scorched banners fluttering weakly in the cold breeze.
The majority of the fallen orcs scattered upon seeing the fall of the demon. Each orc fled for their own safety. With the two warlocks gone, they wouldn’t be causing more trouble less someone else leads them.
Out of the thousands of the fallen orcs gathered, only slightly above five hundred of them fell.
The Griffon Knights had come as a storm … and like a storm, they had left ruin behind.
Yet in the frozen wind, the Baron whispered a prayer to those who had fallen:
“May your wings find the eternal sky.”
