In that instant, Eric finally understood sothing.
The orc chieftain he had just killed was nothing more than that… a chieftain. He could command a horde, but he did not represent them.
Eric watched with a grimace as several orcs padded past their leader's corpse. One of them drooled, clawed a charred scrap of flesh out of the ruined armor, and swallowed it whole before turning its savage gaze on Eric.
There was no trace of discipline in their eyes.
Compared with the Misty Mountain orcs, this legion of Mordor seed even more chaotic and brutal.
Once, Moria had been ruled by Azog, a true warlord who could hold all orcs under his fist. But Azog had been slain, and his son Bolg had fallen too, both by Eric's hand. Since then, no true leader had risen in Moria.
This "chieftain" he had just executed was almost certainly a temporary figure, placed here by Sauron to keep the rabble in line.
Until another warlord of Azog's caliber erged, the only will the orcs truly obeyed was Sauron's.
That dark will pressed down on them like a mountain, binding their snarling chaos into sothing resembling an army. As long as its source remained, they could rally again and again, no matter how many leaders were cut down.
Killing one commander would never be enough to break their spirit.
Which, Eric thought, only made Azog's death more impressive in hindsight.
He grinned. "Well then. If that's how it is… fight it is. Let's see whether Sauron's fear weighs heavier on your hearts than the slaughter right in front of you."
With a crash, a wave of orcs hurtled through the air, raining down like burning teors. They smashed against the stone floor, kicking up clouds of dust.
A scorched arm thudded beside an unfortunate orc, who imdiately tore into it and chewed hungrily before resuming the fight. The most update n0vels are published on n0velfire
"Lovely," Eric muttered. "Nothing like battlefield recycling."
Boom.
Trolls swung their enormous hamrs, each strike shaking the hall. So blows clanged harmlessly against Eric's enchanted shield, others were deflected by golden wards, while a few pounded the ground and left deep dents in the stone.
Boom.
War drums thundered, driving the horde into frenzy.
Boom.
From the pits below, monstrous beasts clawed their way up, their bulk filling the hall with suffocating pressure. Even Eric had to give ground before the combined assault.
Then ca the rumble.
TNT erupted, blasting chunks of the floor into rubble. Orcs were torn apart, their bodies flung in every direction.
Almost at once, lava spilled from the cracks in the pillars, hissing and roaring down like rivers of molten fire. Screams rose as orcs and trolls burned, and even the great beasts stumbled aside to avoid the molten flow.
The battle noise echoed for a long ti through the cavern, bouncing from ceiling to floor, carrying far into the deep.
All the way down… to the very bottom.
A pair of eyes flared open in the abyss. Red as molten iron, blazing with heat, they glowed in the darkness.
Across nearly ten thousand years of slumber, an ancient evil stirred.
Eric felt it before he saw it. A suffocating wave of heat rolled through him, raising the hairs on his neck. Instinctively he pulled the lava back into himself, suddenly uneasy.
It had been a long ti since anything made him feel like this.
Fear, yes… but laced with exhilaration.
Not even Smaug had managed that.
His grin widened. "Perfect."
The orcs felt it too. Their attacks faltered, weapons lowered as they glanced into the shadows.
The clamor of steel on steel faded, then stopped entirely.
The first to bolt were the trolls and the great beasts. They sensed it, a predator above them in every way, not just in strength but in form, in spirit, in the very marrow of their being.
Once they fled, the orcs understood.
With a panicked roar, they stampeded away like a receding tide, scattering into the tunnels, leaving Eric alone with the deepening heat.
He did not chase them. His eyes were fixed on the pit ahead.
A vast chasm yawned before him, its bottom hidden in darkness. The rising heat struck his face like a furnace blast. To the ignorant, it might have looked like a lake of magma below.
But this was no lava lake.
It was sothing far worse.
Eric uncorked a fire resistance potion and gulped it down.
Almost imdiately, the abyss glared back.
Twin eyes, burning like coals, rose from the pit.
Then, with the force of a volcanic eruption, a colossal form surged upward.
Eric leapt aside just in ti, landing hard on a crumbling stair.
The stone groaned. A mont later the entire support column shattered like wet parchnt. Slabs and rubble cascaded downward, and Eric along with them.
From below, a shadow lood. Its charred body blazed with fire from the abyss, vast wings unfurling to cover the cavern like storm clouds.
The Bane of Durin.
The Balrog.
Its roar thundered through Moria, shaking the very bones of the mountain.
Its flesh glowed like burning coal, fire leaping higher as it drew in breath like a bellows. Raising one titanic arm, it summoned a blade of pure fla, a sword that crackled and seethed as though the pit itself had been forged into steel.
With terrifying speed, the Balrog swung.
Eric, plumting through the air, tore a golden apple from his belt, bit down hard, and raised sword and shield.
The strike t him like a hamr.
The shield shattered, runes flaring and bursting, and his enchanted belt released a violent pulse of energy, flinging him away from the beast.
For a heartbeat, his world spun. He glimpsed the Balrog's hulking form, the distorted air around it, the blur of stone fragnts whirling past him.
Then ca the silence of weightlessness.
Eric realized, belatedly, that he had been smacked clean out of the pit.
"Well," he wheezed, midair. "That was rude."
The blow had stripped every layer of runic shielding from his body and obliterated the durability of one of his best shields.
He sucked in a breath through his teeth. "And people wonder why Balrogs have a reputation."
This was no ordinary monster. This was a fallen Maia, corrupted into fire and shadow, an equal to Sauron himself.
That single strike would have split most beings in half. Perhaps even Sauron would have felt it.
Eric's eyes blazed with equal parts dread and excitent.
"Now we're talking."
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