CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  DEFENDERS AS STRONG AS A MOUNTAIN

  In The Dwarven Mountains, just above the shore, the battle between King Dormir Ironhearth’s defenders and Lord Grimdall’s invading force raged on. As General Shallamok screamed out orders, Ironhearth watched from afar.

  Though he and The Watchers of the High Mountain could enter the battle if needed, King Ironhearth stood calmly, watching his fellow warriors, his fellow dwarves, defend their homeland against Lord Grimdall’s army, who had somehow not only learned to control the sabercats that lived on the almost lifeless island across the sea, but even worse, they controlled the desert spiders that shared The Barren Wasteland with them, and had somehow become as big as trolls.

  “Do not face them head on like the sabercats! Their legs! Take out one side of their legs!” yelled Shallamok, rushing one of the eight legged monsters.

  In an instant, four dwarves jumped from behind a rock, into the fray and attacked a spider with their large battle axes. After it fell they attacked its head, but not before the spider was able to release its sticky web.

  The dwarf closest to the spider was thrown back against the side of the rock they had jumped from, and struggled to get free from the web that not only kept him in place, but started to sear into his skin. After the spider stopped moving, Shallamok cut off its head, slowly lifted it up and hurled it down the side of the mountain as if it was a small boulder.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The goblins and men in Lord Grimdall’s army watched as it came toward them. As a few goblins jumped aside from the direct attack, three big men, guiding a sabercat with rope, stood firm. Then one of the men boasted loudly.

  “Your heroics are only a show, dwarf. Soon these will be our mountains! And you and Dormir Ironhearth will bow to Landon...” Then, after a sharp elbow to his side by his comrade, he finished, “to Lord Grimdall!”

  Shallamok and his dwarves brandished their mighty battle axes and sneered down at the enemy, showing them no fear. Then after two of Shallamok’s warriors cut the web entangling the trapped dwarf, the general stepped forward.

  “You bring magic and monsters to this battle before you have even lifted a weapon to face us. What will happen when your monsters run out?” asked Shallamok with a smile. Then he pointed his axe at the trio holding the sabercat. “Maybe then you will actually face us as real men and not as cowards!”

  One of the men spat on the ground and opened his mouth to retort, but suddenly a horn sounded from below. Then Shallamok watched as the goblins and men directly below him gave him one last look of anger and fell back to regroup.

  “Do not leave this ground. I go to the king, but I will return,” announced Shallamok to the dwarves closet to him.

  “What will you say?” asked one dwarf, lowering his axe, but keeping his eyes on his retreating foes.

  “I will tell him that he has the bravest and strongest warriors in all of Danaria,” replied Shallamok, lifting his axe and pounding his chest. Then he looked far off at the dark and rocky dome below and thought of the black armored man inside.

  “I will also tell him that whether he goes by General...or Lord Grimdall...Landon Rosser still lives.”