The Invincible Hero - Chapter 100

In the Iron Mountain of Mohill Dunn, Dwarves of the Bluesteel city live. Bluesteel city is a new city by Dwarf standards. It was founded five hundred years ago by Mohill Treebeard and Dunn Bluesteel. Today, it has become a very prosperous city. The Bluesteel Dwarves are known for their great engineering abilities and fine products.

In a small cave home, a five-year-old dwarf child, Notal son of Merg Firethorn, bangs away on a piece of iron in his family’s forge. His proud parents watch him fondly as he works on a piece of iron he has just pulled from the furnace. Even though he is only five, he beats on the iron like it is his world.

“Our son is a genius,” Nofi, Notal’s mother, says.

“We’ve known this since he could walk. The first place he walked to was the forge,” he said.

“Remeber how he cried when he couldn’t pick up a hammer!” she said with glee.

“It was the most wonderful moment of my life, I had to make him a baby hammer so he would be happy,” Merg said.

“When my father saw him at the forge working with that little hammer at just a few months old he was so proud. He said he finally agreed you were a good choice for a husband!” she said.

“As if he didn’t know that already,” Merg grumped.

Nofi started laughing at her husband’s annoyed appearance and soon Merg’s joy couldn’t keep him from laughing as well.

Notal worked with great determination, a collection of his work was proudly displayed in the corner. His father built shelves to display his son’s work. It was like entering a weapons shop and seeing various items displayed proudly. All the collection was missing were prices.

The collection was extremely eclectic. There were small swords, shields, and strange contraptions. Notal wasn’t only a genius at forging, but he seemed to have an active imagination. Many times, Merg would puzzle over some of his son’s creations.

One thing the boy seemed to love to forge were images of bears and warriors. The strange thing is the warriors were consistently the same. The two he forged the most were of a male and female warrior. Both were very tall and heroic-looking. The other warrior looked was smaller but looked even more heroic. It was as if the word hero was created to describe this person. Occasionally, Notal would forge another warrior, but this warrior seemed to both good and evil. It was strange.

As the parents continued watching their child, a dwarf burst through the front door and grabbed Merg by the arm.

“Merg, come, there’s an emergency!” the dwarf said in a low rumble.

“Tirdal Mugstamp, what are you doing, what’s going on?” Merg asked in surprise.

“There’s no time, come with me!” Tirdal dragged Merg away from his family. Nofi was left there looking worried and scared.

Looking up from his work, Notal noticed his father being dragged away by the other dwarf. Nofi could see the boy understood something was going on. She saw the look of a dwarf familiar with war in the eyes of her son. Standing up from his work, Notal walked to his collection and pulled out armor he made for himself as well as some weapons.

He looked at his mother indicating she ought to put her armor on as well. Nofi was shocked at how perceptive her son was. After putting his armor on, Notal went back to working on his forging.

After being dragged a few feet out the door of his home, Merg ripped his arm away from Tirdal.

“You better tell me what’s going on, Tirdal! You rushed in and upset my wife,” he said.

“There’s an emergency meeting, we’re about to battle,” he responded.

“Battle? Why haven’t I heard the warning sirens?” he asked.

“Because we can’t win this and we’re trying to sneak the women and children away,” Tirdal said.

“What?”

“Come, we have to hurry!” Tirdal said with desperation.

Merg no longer hesitated, he ran full speed with Tirdal to the main hall where the elders and the chief were leading a meeting. Merg showed up as they were starting. The chief, Bluesteel, looked at Merg and motioned for him to come near him.

“The Goljun Orc Clan is attacking our mountain using Troll troops and other small clans under their rule,” General Deirbo Cloudfrog said.

As he spoke, he flicked a button on a console and a three-dimensional image of the mountain appeared. Surrounding it were various transport ships landing troops and flying away. Four squadrons of Mountain Crushing Gunships hovered in the skies above.

“Why are they attacking us?” Merg asked.

“We don’t know, maybe it’s because of our dispute over mining rights for the Trithon ore deposit we discovered,” the General responded.

“That’s just an excuse, they’ve always hated us and looked for a reason to destroy our mountain!” Tirdal spat with anger and disgust.

“It doesn’t matter why they are here and we need to make sure the women and children can escape with the Grand Elders,” Chief Bluesteel said.

All of the dwarves looked at each other with determination. They knew they probably wouldn’t live through this, but if they could buy time for their families it would be worth it.

“Merg, you’ll lead your Combot soldiers as our frontline. When they blow open the front of our mountain, it will be up to you and your men to buy us some times. We’ll give you cover and support with the external Mountain guns and the internal suppressor guns. You’ll stay behind the city chields to snipe, enemies, until they draw close for melee combat.

We’ll try and open up the armor on some of those trolls and hit them with our Sun Guns,” the General said.

Merg had a grave look on his face but since time was of the essence everyone was dismissed and sent to their positions to wait for the forthcoming attack.

The women and children were already heading down into the escape tunnels to flee from the attacking army. Notal, who was among them, held onto his mother’s hand with one hand and held a sword in the other. He passed a few more of his child-sized weapons and armor to some of the other children.

“Mother, when I grow up, I will get revenge for our people. I won’t let these evil people get away with this,” he said.

“I don’t care about revenge little one, I just hope to see your father again,” Nofi said with tears coming out of her eyes.

Just as then, a powerful explosion shook the mountain filling the city with dust and debris. The Orcs were attacking!