Chapter 29 Chapter 24 Amazing Skills

Drizzt, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, and Regis sat around, looking at a sketch of the town. This rough sketch of Regis also includes the surrounding area, where Drizzt has added many details.The moonlight was eerily dark—not for them, of course, but for the townspeople here.First the orc captive mentioned that a large army had besieged the town; then a woman who had been out on patrol came back, covered in bruises and trembling, reporting that the rest of the squad had been killed by a powerful force up. Although she was clearly terrified, it was clear from her reports that it was a well-coordinated force, a far more formidable foe than the average orc.

No one had mentioned Broken Heel that morning, but the flattened village was vivid in each of their memories.Shallowwater was larger and better fortified than Broken Heel, but every sign seemed to be getting worse. Bruno came in shortly after, scowling. "A bunch of stubborn fellows," the dwarf said, walking up to Regis and Wulfgar, examining the map, and grunting approval. "Weatherglu will not ignore the report of the sole survivor," Drizzt responded. "They lost nearly a tenth of their men this morning." "Oh, he believed what she said, that's true," Bruno explained, "but like everyone else, he only wanted to avenge those murdered relatives. Shallow Water Town is planning to do something big."

"Even if they can't beat such a strong enemy at all?" Catti-brie asked. "I don't think they believe such an enemy is coming," Bruno replied. As soon as he spoke, Drizzt and Catti-brie stood up, the girl reached out and took out the bow, and Drizzt took off the cloak. "I'll go too." Regis suggested. Wulfgar also rose to his feet and took the Fang of Aegis. "You two take the short circle," Catti-brie said. "I'll make a big circle from there, and Drizzt will go scouting in the distance." "Shouldn't we wait until it's dark and take advantage of the darkness to go out?" Regis asked.

"Orcs are stronger at night than by day," Catti-brie reminded. "And maybe we don't have that much time," Drizzt added.He glanced at Bruno and said, "The townspeople should at least agree to let the old, weak, and sick leave first." "I'm still asking little Dagna to make an escape plan," the dwarf confirmed, "but I don't think many people in Shallowwater want to go out. This is their land, the elves, their home, and it's been years." It's the safest place they've ever seen. They trust Weatherglue, and he's trustworthy. I don't doubt that."

"I'm afraid he might be wrong this time," Drizzt replied, "every sign is getting worse. If the coalition forces that are going to attack Shallowwater are as strong as these signs indicate, the town's residents really You should have left here early." "Go check it out," Bruno begged him. "I'll try to make them understand while you're out. I'll have the horses ready and the wagons loaded. I'll have the dwarves ready to go any minute. I'll Go talk to Witherglu again, now I can talk to him in private, without some babbling idiot around, yelling about getting revenge here."

"Do you think he'll listen to you?" Catti-brie asked. Bruno shrugged, then blinked dramatically, and said, "I'm the king, right?" This elicited a knowing smile.After that, the four scouts quickly rushed out of the house and left the town.Wulfgar and Regis turned away, heading for the high ground near the wall; Catti-brie found a similar vantage point a few hundred yards away, but easier to defend; rushed forward. Other reconnaissance parties also set off from Shallowwater, but none were so well-organized and cautious. A party of seven passed Wulfgar and Regis just outside the town's south gate.

"We meet again." A townsman paused to greet them. "You can defend—it's important to your town—as long as you stay in the town and prepare your defenses when the enemy comes." Wulfgar said to what seemed to be the leader: a strong-limbed young man Man, with a look of extreme indignation on his face. The man stopped, and the six people behind him also stopped. He looked at the barbarian in surprise, with a bit of anger in his eyes. "We'll find out what's real about our common enemy," Wulfgar explained, "and report in detail to the town leaders.

No one had more scouting experience than Drizzt Do'Urden. " The man's face remained stern, as if Wulfgar's words were an insult to him personally. "Everyone out there is in danger," Wulfgar continued, without flinching. "It wouldn't be good if Shallowwater lost seven more seasoned fighters." The man's hair was flaring, his eyes widened with anger, and his complexion became more severe. Regis hurriedly waved to him and called him aside. "There are other reasons," the halfling explained, casting a sidelong glance at Wulfgar and a knowing wink at his older friend.

The scout eyed the halfling suspiciously, but Regis just smiled innocently, turned and nodded at the man, asking him to follow.They chatted in private for a while, and when the person from Qianshui Town came back, he was already smiling and still nodding. "Go back to town," he ordered his companions, walking swiftly past them, leading them around with them. "Our friends here are right. We shouldn't disperse our forces until we know the enemy." His companions murmured in confusion and dissatisfaction, but this person was indeed the captain appointed by their team, and the team members followed him and turned around and walked back.

"Did you ever feel an iota of guilt when you used your ruby ​​magic?" Wulfgar asked Regis when the men were gone. "I wouldn't feel guilty if it was for their own good," Regis replied, grinning all the way to his ears, "We both heard them from more than fifty feet away, and I think the orcs must have I can hear you too." He turned his head, looked to the south, and continued, "If there were really as many orcs as we thought, we probably saved the lives of these seven people today." "Give them a temporary reprieve?" Wulfgar asked.The harsh question caught Regis by surprise, stealing the smile from his innocent face.

He and the barbarian looked at each other, and suddenly Wulfgar looked behind him, eyes widening. Regis turned hastily, facing south again, and saw Catti-brie galloping towards them, waving furiously at them. Regis stepped aside.The woman staggered a few steps suddenly, and Wulfgar jumped up, grabbing her by the shoulders.It was only then that Regis and Wulfgar realized that a group of archers was chasing after her. Regis turned to see the seven patrols from Shallowwater rushing back toward them. "Go back to the town!" he yelled at them. "Go back to the town and hold the walls! Get the gates ready for us!" When the halfling turned back, Catti-brie and Wulfgar had joined together, and Wulfgar ran towards him with the injured girl on his arm. A large group of orcs rushed out from behind the bushes and rocks not far behind them. Regis paused to observe, gauging the enemy's distance, but then realized that if Wulfgar and Catti-brie were to run with him, it would be a drag on them instead. So he also turned and started running, and reached the gate of the city almost at the same time as his two friends.They rushed in hastily, and the city gate quickly closed behind them and was firmly bolted.They inspected Catti-brie's injuries for a while, and found that they were only skin wounds, so they rushed up the stairs to the fence and came behind the arrow stack without taking care of it. The orcs are coming, and there are many of them.Alarm horns sounded from all over the town, and the townspeople began to rush around. But the orc army didn't continue to move forward. Instead, shouting, they turned sharply and rushed back to the south. "Probably Drizzt did it," Regis noted. "Buy us a little time," Catti-brie agreed. As she spoke, she looked up at Wulfgar; he stared at her, both grave and anxious. Shortly after sunset the first hurled boulder bounced off the solid ground and struck the town wall.Astonishingly, the boulder came from the north, hurled across the narrow gorge. The horns sounded, and Shallowwater's militiamen hurried into defensive positions, joined by Little Dagna's dwarven troops, and Bruenor and his friends. A second boulder bounced, closer this time. "Can't see them!" Bruno growled at his friend.They stood on the north wall, looking out at the gradually darkening outside of the town. "There!" Regis exclaimed, pointing to a boulder that wobbled in the distance. The others squinted their eyes and looked carefully, distinguishing the hazy figures of several giants in the distance. Catti-brie immediately picked up the bow, estimated the distance, and raised it at an angle.Then she shot an arrow, and the silver arrow was like a bolt of lightning across the dark night sky. He missed the giant, but the flash of the silver arrow as it touched the ground told her that the approximate location was right.She raised her bow again, gritting her teeth to endure the pain in her fingers and shoulders caused by the orc's bow and arrow.Before she could fire another arrow, however, another boulder shook the wall, forcing her to stop and grab Wulfgar beside her. "Concealment!" cried the leading officer. Catti-brie raised her bow and fired a second arrow, and another boulder flew into the wall, and another fell outside, and hit the wall hard, knocking everyone down.Then one of them hit the city wall solidly, and the other grazed the corner of the city wall, and the gravel splashed, knocking down many guards. "How many nasty giants are there?" Bruenor asked, busy crawling for cover with the others. "A lot." Regis gave the answer. "We must find a way to fight them." The dwarf king was about to figure out a countermeasure.But before he had time to think, the sound of fighting on the southern wall told him and his friends that there were more pressing problems at hand. By the time Bruenor, Wulfgar, Regis, and Catti-brie reached the southern wall to join Dagna the Younger's dwarf force, the orc horde was on its way.The land outside the town was covered in darkness, it seemed that there were all charging orcs, and even the air was trembling with their screams.Hundreds of orcs rushed over, and even the rain of arrows from the solid walls of Qianshui Town could not slow them down. "This must hurt," Bruno said, looking at his friend and little Dagna. "This must hurt the orcs," Little Dagna corrected with a smile. "We hold the center!" He shouted to the fifteen remaining warriors, "Keep them out of the town gate! Keep them out of town!" Outside the walls!" While shouting "Mithril Hall!" or "King Bruenor!", Little Dagna's well-trained warriors gathered at the weakest point of the southern wall of Shallow Water Town.They were in line as one; and they drew their dwarven bows or their well-wrought flying hammers, and crouched there.The orc's flying spear and arrow feathers flew over.The dwarves waited quietly at the top of the city wall until the last moment, throwing flying hammers at the charging orc army, blocking their charge. The archers of Shallowwater also rained arrows from the city walls, and Catti-brie's heart-piercing bow also launched a deadly attack, and the silver light of lightning pierced the orc army. A scream from behind told them that a townsman had been hit by a stone thrown by a giant.And the loud noises and tremors on the ground also showed that the giants did not slow down the bombing at all. The dwarves of Little Dagna threw another throwing hammer, jumped down from the wall, and stood guard behind the gate; Bruenor stood with them in the clearing behind the gate.Archers and Catti-brie were still firing deadly arrows into their ranks as the black orc horde approached. The lasso and flying claws were thrown up, and many of them were firmly fixed on the top of the city.The orcs didn't seem to be afraid of the death arrow rain, they put on ropes and began to climb up, while some other orcs slammed into the city gate, and the sudden force bent the heavy latch. "I wish Drizzt was here!" exclaimed a terrified Regis. "But he's not there," Wulfgar responded.The two looked at each other. Wulfgar growled resolutely, and nodded to the halfling to follow him, and the two ran away along the parapet at the head of the city.The strong barbarian grabbed the lasso and flying claws on the top of the wall, and despite the weight of several orcs on it, he tore it apart with brute force. Once Wulfgar had barely reached Flying Claw, and an orc had leaped over a gap in the wall, and the barbarian had to yelp out of the way. The orc gave a cry, and was about to swing his club, when a silver arrow pierced his armpit, knocking the orc aside. Wulfgar glanced back at Catti-brie, reached out and pulled Flying Claw loose. Just as the savage dropped the rope, another orc grabbed the top of the rampart, and he climbed up. Regis slammed his hammer down on his face and mended it again. "There's more to the east!" Wulfgar yelled. In a gap, several orcs have even stood on the top of the city, and they are fighting with a group of archers from Qianshui Town.Wulfgar rushed for reinforcements. Regis followed and ran two steps, but stopped in front of an orc arm extending from the top of the wall.He raised the hammer, then changed his mind, and placed his swirling, blinding ruby ​​in front of the climbing orc. The orc froze, completely hypnotized by the spinning gem, the magic satisfying him.In less than a second, the orc was convinced that the gem-wielding halfling was his best friend. "How strong are you?" Regis asked, but the orc didn't seem to understand. "Strong," the halfling emphasized, raising one arm, showing muscle—not much, but at least muscle. The orc laughed and grunted. Regis instructed him to climb down a little and grab the rope, and the orc obediently complied. Then the halfling slapped his hands hard, motioning for the orc to hang on to the rope.The orc complied again, and the rope was temporarily blocked. Regis looked to the right and saw Catti-brie's expression of disbelief.He shrugged, and looked to the left just in time to see Wulfgar lifting an orc and throwing it at his two companions who were about to climb up, and the three fell together. The defenses in other parts of the city wall were not so tight, and the orcs kept pouring in and jumped into the inner court. In the center of the defense there were seventeen strong dwarves--Dagnar the Younger and Bruenor among them.When the orc jumped down, the dwarves rushed up, axes and hammers hacking away. Bruenor took the brunt of the blow, hitting the first orc who jumped off the ground before he hit the ground.He chopped off the orc's legs, knocking him over in the air and falling face down on the ground.The dwarf charged forward, too lazy to deliver a fatal blow, and met the other orc with his shield as he landed.The two collided so hard that Bruno's teeth chattered. The dwarf leaped back and shook his head violently, his lips quivering.Reflexively, he swung the ax forward, anticipating that the orc would lunge at him. But he only hit the air.He took a closer look, only to find that the orc didn't take the charge easily like he did. The orc sat down on the ground, leaning his hands on the ground and leaning back, his head was still shaking. Bruenor didn't think it was fair, but he charged forward anyway, past the orc, pausing only as the heavy ax sliced ​​his head off. After all, wars are never fair. Drizzt was defenseless against such a fierce attack.Just away from his mates, as he slid down a slope, he saw charging orcs.Dodging them would have been easy, but by the time he climbed out of the lowlands and was about to return to Shallowwater, the vanguard of the orcs had far outstripped him.He saw his three friends running towards the town in the distance, saw Catti-brie stumble from the arrow, but saw Wulfgar and Regis escort her safely into the town. Inside the enclosed wall, the heart that was lifted was finally let go, and he let out a sigh of relief. In the shadows of the trees, the drow watched the orc horde rush past him.He knew he couldn't go back to town, fight side by side with his companions, live and die together. A group of orcs passed right under him.He thought of jumping down and chopping them down. But he lay there quietly, clinging to the trunk.He couldn't help thinking that maybe the orcs he was avoiding were going to kill his companions, but he dismissed the desperate thought immediately because he couldn't be distracted by it.The choice was clear for him - he could rush into the orc army and join the battle directly; or he could use the cover of the battle to find out what the enemy was like outside. The drow watched the orc vanguard rushing towards Shallowwater.How much can he actually do outside?How many orcs could he kill?And how much impact can that reduced number have on this battle? No, Drizzt had to trust his friends and the townspeople to hold on.He had to believe that this was only a tentative attack, just to test the town's defenses. After the initial attack, it would be in their favor if Shallowwater knew the true size and strength of the enemy, as well as the location and defense of the orc camp. When the last group of orcs rushed past him, Drizzt jumped lightly from the tree and rushed out.He did not advance in the direction of the town to the north, but to the east, advancing quickly along the rear edge of the enemy's main body. He could barely raise his hands, he had swung the hammer countless times and thrown countless orcs, but Wulfgar still rushed forward with all his strength, smashing his body into any orcs that broke through the southern wall. . Blood flowed from a dozen wounds on Wulfgar's body; Regis beside him, though not as effective as he, was fighting valiantly, using his mace and magic gem at full force.Like a group of four orcs climbing over the wall at the same time, Wulfgar looked back and right, expecting Catti-brie's reinforcements.But she is not there. The savage was flustered, and was busy looking over the wall as the orc rushed up, a distraction that almost cost him dearly. Almost—but an arrow hissed past him, piercing an orc in a blinding flash and slamming him against the stone wall.Wulfgar looked behind him, and when he saw Catti-brie appearing at the top of Shallowwater's iconic solitary tower, a sense of comfort flooded his body. The woman fired another arrow and gave Wulfgar a stern nod. He turned to resist the orcs who charged again, and the warhammer knocked one of the orcs into the air, and then turned to help Regis block another orc who rushed forward.The orc stopped suddenly, staring intently at the constantly rotating ruby ​​in front of him. Wulfgar charged forward, shouldering the closest orc straight out of the wall, only to be hit by another orc's club.He grunted and was hit again—his forearm was hit hard—but he curled his arms around the weapon and drew it closer, staring at the ugly orc face to face. The orc tried to bite him, but Wulfgar slammed his forehead against his face, crushing the bridge of his nose and knocking him dizzy; the savage pushed him out. Knowing that the orc had fainted, he let go of the big stick, grabbed the orc's dirty leather armor, turned around quickly, and threw the orc out of the town. Wulfgar turned to the orcs trapped by Regis, glanced at the tower, and saw Catti-brie and another team of archers, shooting arrows at the orc troops outside the city wall. Wulfgar paused, seeing another figure there.It was the old mage Witherglu, who was chanting and waving his hands. "They're coming in!" shouted a dwarf from the courtyard below. Wulfgar looked down suddenly, and saw Bruenor and his countrymen stepping over the orcs in the courtyard, rushing to support the gate. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a flash of fire above his head, and a small fireball gracefully cut through the city wall. When Weatherglue's fireball exploded, he immediately felt the heat. The tremor from the fireball released Regis' magical control over the orc in front of him, and before the halfling could react, the orc had already thrust forward. Regis screamed and fell backward into the courtyard. Wulfgar jumped on top of the orc, pinning him to the ground.The orc lay face down, trying to prop up his elbows, but Wulfgar held his head tightly with both hands.With a furious shout, the barbarian smashed his head hard against the stone wall, one after another, even though the orc had stopped struggling long ago, even though the originally hard head had already turned into a bloody mass. He was still smashing the orc as a strong arm grabbed his shoulder. Wulfgar turned wildly, fury on his face, but he calmed down a bit when he saw Bruenor watching him. "They're gone, boy," explained the dwarf, "and I don't think the Orc will give us any more trouble." Wulfgar rose to his feet, slamming the orc to the ground one last time. "Regis?" he asked, panting. Bruenor nodded towards the courtyard. The halfling leaned there, seemingly oblivious to the things around him. One side of his body was stained red with blood, and several dwarves were frantically tending to him. "I guess that must have hurt," Bruno said grimly.