Come Taste the Steel, Part 3

Bouncing on Ulf's back, Hals burst out laughing.

"You're really crazy, captain! But it's my kind of crazy!" He began to roar. "Come on, you green bastards! Show us what you have! I'll paint the walls with your green blood, you filthy cowards!"

Reiner heard a choleric roar behind them and the barbarians' trot turned into a run. Apparently, they too had guessed Reiner's strategy, and they were not very happy about it. They were getting closer and closer.

But from ahead came an answering roar, and the ground shook with heavy footsteps.

Reiner raised a silent thanks to the gods.

"Watch for the next side tunnel, boys. We don't want to be in the way when the hammer hits the anvil."

"This way, greenskins!" shouted Franka. "Dinner is served!"

"Look out!" shouted Giano, suddenly. "They're coming!"

Reiner caught in a fleeting glimpse, before darting with the others into a side tunnel, huge blurred forms armed with massive black iron blades.

The barbarians following them shouted, but their voices were drowned out almost instantly by a roar of monstrous animal triumph coming from the opposite direction. Voices that sounded more like the shrieks of angry boars than anything human increased in fury as the orcs charged.

The moment the orcs and barbarians collided, the sound was like that of two iron wagons full of meat crashing into each other at unimaginable speed. The roar was instantly followed by the clash of blades and axes and screams of frenzy and agony. Reiner could not resist looking back. All he could see in the dim greenish light were giant silhouettes moving violently, and the flash of sharp blades rising and falling.

"Forward, boys, forward!" he said. "Find a way back to the tunnel prin..."

But suddenly Giano skidded to a stop. Ulf crashed into him.

"What's going on?" asked Reiner.

"Your plan worked too well, little boy." Hals said from Ulf's shoulders. "There's another group coming."

Reiner cursed as he saw more huge shadows approaching them from afar. Fortunately, the area was riddled with tunnels and they were able to slip through another passageway before the orcs spotted them. But the sound of heavy feet now echoed everywhere. There didn't seem to be anywhere to go that wasn't swarming with orcs.

"My genius never ceases to amaze me." Reiner said through gritted teeth as they cautiously moved forward through a tunnel that described a curve.

"No, you're doing fine." Pavel said. "You always get us out of tight spots."

"And you get us into worse ones." Hals muttered.

At last they managed to make their way through the maze, dodging detachments of orcs and running barbarians along the way, and arrived safely at the main tunnel. They set off again after the barbarian column, but they had not gone twenty paces when they saw a detachment of about fifty barbarians running towards them waving their torches. They were led by a giant in black chain mail skirts with an axeman trotting beside him, pointing the way. Before the Norsemen could enter the side tunnel, however, orcs burst from other tunnels along their flanks, roaring and shrieking, and rushed at them wielding huge blades.

Reiner and the others took cover in a side corridor and watched in awe at the bloody scuffle before them. It was a swirling chaos of flailing limbs, slashing weapon blades and flying bodies. The orcs charged with animal fury, compensating for the utter lack of discipline with the brute mass of their charge. The Norsemen, almost impossibly muscular by human standards, were puny compared to the orcs, whose mere skeleton perhaps weighed more than most men. They knocked down barbarians, and those who fell were cut to pieces with blades the size of shields.

The barbarians were slightly more disciplined. After the initial shock of the orc ambush, the captains roared orders to fall back and the barbarians piled around them, facing outward to form primitive squares. In this defensive position, they formed a pivoting wall of steel, drawing circles in the air with their axes and severing the hands and arms of any orcs who tried to penetrate it.

Frustrated by this simple maneuver, the orcs began to throw things at the barbarians from afar. There were very few rocks in the smooth tunnels, so they threw severed heads and limbs and whole bodies of both barbarians and orcs at them, and after the bombardment they charged again. But although orc corpses felled more than one Norse, the Norsemen were now prepared for the charges, and the dexterity of their arms coupled with the reach of the axes began to turn the tide of combat.

A few more groups of orcs emerged from the side tunnels and joined the fight, but the barbarians held their ground until another detachment of barbarians appeared howling down the tunnel and rushed into the fray like a battering ram. The orcs soon lost the will to fight. They scattered down the side tunnels like rats fleeing from a terrier, abandoning their wounded to the tender care of the barbarians.

Reiner and his men fell back, prepared to flee if any of the orcs came toward them. None did. Nor did the Norsemen, who did not bother to pursue their attackers. Instead, they killed the wounded orcs, stripped their bodies of weapons and breastplates, and marched back toward the main column.

"Companions." Reiner said as he let out a long held breath. "I think we're on our way again."

The men began to advance at a comfortable pace, following the sounds of the barbarians moving away.

They followed the war host at a safe distance until it stopped to make camp. Reiner retreated more than half a league back through the tunnel before he felt safe enough to lie down. He wanted to be well away from any guard picket that the Norsemen might post around the perimeter of their camp. The night, if it was night, for there was no way to tell inside the tunnels where no sunlight entered, passed without incident, and when they were awakened by the sounds of the barbarians preparing to leave, they did likewise, more rested than they had been since entering the underworld.

Reiner gave Oskar another sip of painkiller as they set out on their way. He hoped they were reaching the end of the tunnels, for there was little elixir left.

As they progressed, the side tunnels and doorways began to become more numerous until the subway world became less like a tunnel system and more like the corridors and rooms of a castle, or the streets and avenues of a city where the chambers that mediated between them were houses and tenement buildings. Steep ramps leading to higher levels were also more frequent.

"It gives the impression that we have traversed half the world." Franka commented.

"Shhhhh." Interjected Giano as he waved a hand. "I think they stopped again."

The group stopped and listened, trying to determine from sound alone what was happening. At that distance, it was difficult. They could hear orders being shouted and the sound of a great bustle and activity, but a new sound, a deep resonant howl that seemed to be produced by the wind inside a mountain canyon, drowned out any other details.

"We'll have to do some recon." Reiner said. "Maybe we can use the upper levels to spy on them from above. Giano, come with me..." Franka gave him another angry look, but he couldn't say anything.

Reiner and Giano ascended a nearby ramp and began to advance through a maze of tunnels, galleries and chambers. They passed through rooms and sets of rooms that had once had low wooden doors long since disappeared along with the contents. At every turn they stopped to make sure that the sound of barbarians was coming from ahead, and then continued on.

At last, after climbing up to a third level, as they rounded a bend the glow of torches and noise ascended toward them from a round opening ahead. Giano motioned Reiner to get on hands and knees, and they both crawled to the entrance, which led to a wide tier that surrounded a huge circular chamber. There were tiers above and below them, staggered like seats in an amphitheater, with the same steep ramps connecting them at regular intervals. The walls of the tiers were riddled with round holes most of which led to circular rooms that Reiner couldn't tell if they were storerooms or living quarters.

The back of the chamber was completely occupied by the Chaos war host, and its members were so crowded together that they barely had room to turn around. Most were sitting on their packs or eating in silence. The canyon stood in their midst like a bird of prey surrounded by its chicks. Reiner slid to the edge of the bleacher and looked left and right. To the right was the entrance to the chamber, a great black arch within which the rear of the column of Norsemen disappeared. Those barbarians, too, were sitting where they had stopped, and waited with the resignation of soldiers in any army. To the left was the reason for the wait and the source of the noise that Reiner and his companions had been hearing since they had stopped.

It was a wide, fast-flowing river whose course cut through the left wall of the huge chamber at a shallow angle, like a sword slicing through the top of a skull. The swift current roared like a dragon, lashing with such force the broken pillars of a ruined stone bridge that constant waves formed around them and great crests of white foam rose up. A crude wooden bridge had been built over the ruins, and it was this that had stopped the march. It was only wide enough to be crossed by three men at a time.

A huge armored warrior was calling the captains and chiefs, one at a time, to advance and lead their detachments to the other side while the overseers were bawling their eyes out to direct the slaves, who were beginning to push and turn the cannon in order to bring it into line with the bridge.

Reiner grunted as he saw the narrow space to cross. He could see no other means of crossing the river.

"I think we've finally found the 'obstacle' Gustaf didn't want to reveal."