"I can hear talking. Everybody ready?"
The five men nodded.
"Then let's do this. HYUH"
Jeb spurred his horse as did the others, and they rounded the bend and found themselves at what was a large set of wooden doors that now stood charred and splintered.
'Well, it's fair to say we know how they got in. At least the majority of them.'
After riding through the gate, they came upon a scene of absolute brutality. Bodies were strewn across the courtyard, man and orc alike, with crows and vultures feasting on the buffet before them. These beasts didn't even bury or at least burn their fallen brothers. Jeb ordered his men to stop.
"Come out you cowards! It's time we showed you a real fight!"
And just as Jeb beckoned, confused orcs began to file out of the main door to the keep. As they came out, one began to speak in surprisingly decent English.
"So, more sheep have come to be slaughtered like the rest? Well, who am I to decline?"
At this, the orcs rushed towards the five soldiers, and they quickly turned their steeds around and strode away.
The orc who spoke began to laugh and gave an order to the others.
"Release the pups, and follow them. We will see how fast those horses are."
Jeb and his men made it about halfway to the ambush area when he heard something that was no horse nor orc chasing after them.
"WARGS! Faster men! Those things will tear these horses to shreds!"
There were five, maybe six of the monstrous beasts giving chase, with many orcs behind them.
Wargs are a creature slightly larger than your average wolf, but twice as aggressive.
At this, he and his men spurred their now terrified horses to run as fast as possible.
"Cap, they'll catch us at this rate! We have to try to take them out with our bows, Now!"
"Aye! Pull those bows and aim for the head men! Now!"
Following the order, all five pulled their bows and began firing at the now much closer wargs. One fell with the first volley, but it was unclear who fired the arrow. The next few volleys weren't as successful, with only a few chest shots, but they managed to slow the majority of them down.
Then, Wayne, who was farthest back out of the fleeing men, was nearly ripped off his horse by the closest warg when he was saved by an archer in a tree. They had made it and now the archers were tearing apart the confused beasts.
Ace seeing the chaos commented.
"Shit! They have wargs?! Hopefully they haven't given away our position. Get ready boys!"
A few seconds later, before the last warg had even taken its last breath, from around the bend came over a dozen angry orcs, screaming their battle cries as they charged the men with an insane look of hunger in their eyes.
Jeb stepped up a few paces and drew his sword and shield, then spoke.
"Forward men, to me! We do not want to tire them out too quickly now do we? Attack!"
Hearing this, Ace and the others began firing at the orcs. It was easy picking since they were shooting at their exposed flank, and soon multiple orcs were laying in pools of their own blood.
After three volleys, five orcs were dead and two more wounded, yet they still charged. In seconds, the orcs and comrades will be too close to use their bows anymore, so Ace and the others hopped down and charged the bloodied orcs from the flank.
The initial clash was intense, with much screaming and cursing filling the air, followed by the occasional grunt of pain followed by blood splatter.
Jeb found himself face to face with the English speaking orc, and the fight was brutal. This orc was easily the biggest and smartest out of them all, and he was very intent on killing the captain.
"Why did you attack this keep? And where did you come from, orc?"
"I do not answer questions asked by puny humans, I answer to no one but Mog, and I am Mog!"
"Well, Mog, you are very sloppy, letting your guard drop when you see me raise mine."
After saying this, the orc quickly glanced down to see if this is true. Huge mistake.
"Human, what do you mea-"
Mog's sentence was interrupted by a kick to the stomach that likely knocked all of the air from his lungs. The Jeb landed another solid kick to his head, which turned his lights out.
By this point, the battle was over, and the rest of the orcs had been dispatched with very little difficulty, besides a few with shallow cuts and a bite one man received on his hand from a desperate orc.
Ace walked over to stand beside Jeb who was tying up the unconscious orc and spoke.
"Well that went well I think. Nobody got hurt too bad, and we've captured ourselves a chief or something. He should know some things that we might like to know."
"Aye Ace, that is why I did not kill him. He may yet have a purpose. Help me throw him on a horse, would ya?"
"Hehe, hey everybody, Cap asked me to do something instead of barking at me, I like that now!"
The rest of the men, including Jeb, laughed loudly at that remark. Each man and woman who joins their band of mercenaries is their own person free to make decisions of their own at any given time, besides during work. Then they are like a military unit, with rules of conduct and orders that must be followed.
"Aye Ace, the fighting's over, we killed em all waiting on you."
Once again laughter could be heard from the men, and Mog was loaded on the back of a horse, hog tied and gagged, and they set back off towards the keep.