Now that the plan was set, the prisoners were anxious to put it into action. A pick head was taken off of one of the tools and hidden in a bucket of ore. Weinmar chose to bring the bucket over to the machine, since it was normal for the older elves to carry the buckets, since they did not have the strength to wield the picks and shovels for any great length of time. The buckets were placed in a long line to be thrown into the machine, so he would have lots of time to get back to the group before the machine jammed. Meanwhile, Zaxi sauntered over to the nearest pillar to begin his climb, while Errol prepared to take his shot.
Not long after Weinmar returned to the group, there was a loud screeching sound, and the grinding machine at the center of the cavern came to a halt. All of the goblins became agitated, and Zaxi used this as his signal to begin to climb the pillar. Once he neared the height of the catwalk, Errol let loose his arrow. It was a direct hit! The goblin staggered back with an arrow in his throat. Zaxi quickly caught him and took its armor before it had a chance to get too blood soaked. When he was ready, he threw the goblins bow and quiver down to Errol who handed it back to another elf. Daddy and Dagmar quickly moved to the left side of the stair case nearest Ashleigh, while Cydonia and Elongil took up position on the right-hand side. Slowly, groups of prisoners started walking towards the staircase. The first prisoners were just starting to make their way down the stair case when an alarm was sounded. A particularly ugly goblin had seen what was happening and began to blow on a warning horn. Errol quickly put an arrow through his chest but the damage was already done. Swarms of elves and dwarfs who were only moments ago walking slowly towards the stair case, began screaming and running towards their goal. Hordes of goblins began swarming out of hidden alcoves and began slaughtering the nearest fleeing prisoners, while a second group ran towards the staircase to cut off their escape. As soon as the alarm was sounded, the goblins on the catwalks began raining down arrows on the escaping prisoners. Zaxi sprung into action running up and down the catwalk hewing down the goblin archers nearest the top of the stairs. The goblins were so focused on the fleeing prisoners, that they failed to notice that death had come home to roost among their ranks. As he ran, Zaxi would kick a stray bow or quiver over the side of the catwalk, hoping that one of the elves below would snatch up one of the falling weapons. The first group of goblins to meet Daddy and Dagmar near the top of the stairs nearly overwhelmed them. Outnumbered nearly five to one, Daddy and Dagmar did their best to stay alive. each had taken numerous cuts to their hands and arms, and Daddy had an arrow sticking out of the top of his shoulder. Dagmar had a shaft in his thigh, and another drooping from his arm. Ashleigh screamed and grabbed her sword to go help the pair, but Cydonia quickly grabbed her and said "You can't, your too little!" Ashleigh punched her in the nose, used a quick wrist release she had learned in karate, and rushed to her Daddy's side. The first goblin she met made Ashleigh think that she may have bit off more than she could chew. It quickly knocked Ashleigh's smaller blade aside and smashed her in the ribs with a war hammer, which sent her flying back into the side of the staircase. Daddy heard her gasp and quickly turned and attacked the goblin who had struck Ashleigh. After regaining her breath, Ashleigh decided to sheath her sword and pull out her crossbow. She hid directly behind a pile of bodies directly behind Daddy and Dagmar, and began shooting approaching goblins before they could reach Errol who had fallen back to near the top of the staircase and was frantically shooting goblins who were trying to slay the fleeing prisoners. Meanwhile, Cydonia had taken a position to the left of Ashleigh, and was doing her best to protect the young warrior princess. Cydonia looked upon Ashleigh as a warrior princess because she had learned earlier that while Ashleigh was small and demure, she could use her martial arts training and an element of surprise to keep herself safe. By this time, Daddy and Dagmar were now fighting back to back. There were large piles of goblin bodies laying around them, which new goblins had to climb over to reach them. About two thirds of the prisoners had now rushed past on the staircase and Daddy was beginning to think that the rest of them were either dead or wouldn't make it. He yelled to Dagmar: "we have to drop back and protect the ones that have already escaped or all of this will be for naught!" "Aye" said the dwarf as he screamed for the rest of his kind to fall back and protect the staircase. Cydonia yelled similar orders for the remaining fighting elves. Ashleigh continued to shoot, as the rest of them fell in around her position. She had noticed an interesting thing about her crossbow and quiver. No matter how many bolts she shot (and she had shot many), the amount of bolts in her quiver never diminished. In fact, she was beginning to suspect that she had a magic quiver! Bolt after bolt she shot into the shambling goblin lines, and not once did she run out of bolts! Not only that, but it seemed that the bolts she shot flew truer than she could likely make them do on her own. In fact, she rarely missed a shot... which also kept Cydonia in awe. Once the remainder of the fighting elves and dwarfs assembled into a tight-nit band, they slowly began fighting their way down the bloodied main staircase.
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