'Beautiful.'
After traveling for two days, Magnus saw the mountain where the fortress was located from a distance. And once he saw the actual location, he was enchanted.
The stronghold boldly occupied the side of the mountain, the battlements and towers seemingly carved from it's very stone. The gatehouse seemed to have been cast from metal, yet claw marks covered it, while the gate itself was on the ground, bent out of shape.
The wall that protected the keep was covered in holes, hastily patched over by the current residents. In front of it, a deep moat extended into the ground, with only one bridge leading to the gatehouse.
Most of the towers that were part of the wall were half collapsed, yet Magnus could still see cannons sticking out of the gun ports.
'Yeah. Head on assault is suicide. Plan B-' he turned to look at Volund, 'Asking for help to find some tunnel and sneak inside.'
Roooooaaaaar!
A distant, gutteral road echoed from the keep, startling both of them. Snow began to roll off the mountain, and an avalanche cascades down the sides of the fortress.
"... What is that, Volund."
"I... I don't know. There hadn't been any monsters besides orcs when the fortress fell."
After a moment, Magnus asked with a thought of expression, "Maybe a new band of orcs killed off the old one?"
His fave grave, Volund nodded, "Might be."
"Well, doesnt change anything." Magnus hand passed over his arm, feeling his hair standing on ends. Excitement surged within, as he felt his heart racing.
'Strong, but not overwhelmingly so.'
"Tell me... How did the orcs get in?"
"They dug into our tunnels, and then swarmed us from inside the mines. I don't know if they closed the tunnels though so..."
"It's fine, I don't mind clearing a bit of rubble. But say, do you guys have a forge inside?"
Having exchanged a lot of banter with the dwarf the past two days, he had found out he knew a lot about forging. While he didn't know exactly how much, he could keep up with the dwarf quite easily.
'I need proper armor, at the very least. Can't keep going around half naked.' he glanced at the humble loincloth.
"Ayy. The Hartfire Forge, it was called. I doubt the orc bastards destroyed it, but it's probably in a horrible state."
"Got it. Now then, run back and keep the others company, I'll get to work."
"Sigh... Take care, lad." giving Magnus a pat on his shoulder, the dwarf headed back to their temporary camp.
Now left alone, Magnus began surveying the entirety of the landscape.
'They said the orcs had dug tunnels, but how did they get to the bottom of the moat without dying? Unless they dig from here, which I also very much doubt.'
Right now, Magnus was a few hundred meters away from the bridge, hiding behind a rock.
He narrowed his eyes.
'So if not from here, then they came from the sides. Somewhere where they could easier dig or perhaps even a cave.'
He moved along the ridge, leaving a trail of footprints in the deep snow. His eyes were looking for anything resembling a tunnel, cave and even a hole.
Minutes passed, and as the air grew colder, clouds began covering the sun as a light snowfall began.
'Great, it's going to be harder to find...'
His thoughts cut off.
A cave, concealed under a slightly larger rock. The inside, though filled with collapsed debris, still was passable for him.
Stepping in the cave, the blood stains and the dead orc corpses indicated this was the place. His finger passed over the blood, not yet fully dried.
'Fresh corpses. Something got in here and massacred them.'
He advanced deeper, curious about what got the orcs before him. Minutes passed, and by now he was in near total darkness. Yet lucky for him, the crude tunnel dug behind him had led him into a dwaren tunnel.
Picking up one of the torches on the wall, with some effort and two stones, the torch lit up once more.
Rusted steel beams held the tunnel stable, while the lone railway was in a tragic state. Judging by the overturned mimecart on the side, he guessed it was for ore transporting.
Following in the direction of the rails, Magnus discovered more and more orc corpses. Occasionally, a dwarf corpse littered the ground. Yet the deeper he went, more dwarven corpses than orc ones showed up.
He was about to turn a corner, when a subtle noise stopped him. Gently extinguishing the torch by sticking it's top into the ground, he continued onward.
A light came from the next intersection.
Checking the system timer, he estimated he spent 15 minutes in the caves.
'Not bad. Now then, onto the infiltration. And if that fails - it's time to go loud.'
Turning the corner quietly, he saw a pile of stone blocking the way. Yet at the very top of it, faint light escaped, accompanied by the sounds of orcs.
Advancing forward, Magnus climbed the pile of rocks, surveying the sight ahead of him.
A large storage facility, housing all kinds of rocks, ores and gemstones. The warehouse, easily a 100 square meters, was only guarded by 5 orcs. What he found even funnier was that it was dark with only the entrance having two torches.
Three were at the door, while two were seemingly hauling items somewhere.
'That's... Very sparse. I guess they don't expect someone to try sneaking in from here.'
Slipping past the gap, he began crawling on all fours down the pile up. Carefully, he descended down as to not cause any noise.
Hiding behind one of the crates, he crawled closer to the orc.
'There is something I need to try! If it works it I can take my time grinding them down!'
Magnus, excited, crawled behind the orc. As it bent forward to pick up a crate, a pair of hands wrapped around it's head.
CRACK.
'Shit! It's not as quiet as I thought -' he glanced at the other orcs, which seemed unaware of what had happened.
Exhaling in relief, he snuck behind the second orc. Another snapped neck, and he cautiously hid the body behind a crate.
'Not bad. As for how to get those guys... Hmm...'
He lay in wait, deciding to see if any of them are going to check why the others are missing.
"I'm gona take a shit, wait for me."
"Pff-" Clap.
'Don't laugh!'
Calming down after a few seconds, Magnus removed his hand from his mouth. Finally calm, he stayed out of sight of the other orc, using the first orc as cover.
The moment the first orc got into strike range-
BANG!
A punch to the back of it's head knocked it out. Before the other could react, two hands twisted it's neck.
'Nice, now, the third one!'
He waited behind the door. Seconds passed, and he heard a pair of footsteps stop in front of the door.
The moment the orc entered, his vision spun 180, and his body collapsed to the ground.
'The hunt is on!'
Magnus extinguished the torches, entering the dimly lit hallway. Another roar echoed through the halls, this time closer than before.