The wound, though shallow, startled the commander enough that she again made for a tempting target. The upper half of the shredder turned toward her. Another wild laugh escaped the goblin as he maneuvered the whirring blades.
The Sentinels’ only good fortune thus far lay in that this goblin had moved far ahead of the rest and, because of the din created by the destruction of the forest, their struggle went unheard. Haldrissa could not hope for that to continue, though. At the very least, she and Xanon had to escape.
A whirling glaive flew by her. It came within a yard of the goblin before the other arm deflected it. Xanon’s weapon went skimming wildly through the air, at last sinking deep into a nearby trunk.
The attack had at least served to give Haldrissa breathing space. In that time, she jumped out of reach, then readied her own glaive.
The goblin shifted levers. The shredder marched toward her. The one arm continued to act as shield while the other with the spinning, toothy blades stretched forth.
Haldrissa took the measure of the shredder, then, compensating for her impaired vision, threw. Her toss looked as if it had gone wide at first, but as it passed the grinning goblin, it arced around. The commander kept her expression frozen, afraid of giving warning.
But she had underestimated both the goblin and his device. The squat creature tugged a lever, and the protecting arm twisted over his head in a manner that would have been impossible for a living creature.
With a harsh clang, her glaive rebounded off of the arm and away from the struggle. Haldrissa swore.
“C’mere, purple!” the goblin mocked. “Lemme give you a hug!”
The arms swung toward her from opposite directions, seeking to pen her between them so that the blades could do their work. Haldrissa dropped to the ground, barely avoiding being beheaded.
She fully expected the goblin to immediately compensate, but instead the arms began flailing madly. As the commander pushed herself up, she saw Xanon scrambling up the side of the shredder. He did not have his glaive, but the dagger in his left hand was more than sufficient for dealing with the shredder’s operator—if the male night elf could get a little closer.
The goblin was having none of that. The flailing was accompanied by the swiveling of the torso, all in an attempt to knock Xanon free. While it had not succeeded in that respect, it did keep the Sentinel from using his blade.
Aware that trying to signal the others now might also alert all the goblins and whatever other elements of the Horde were nearby of the Alliance presence, Haldrissa tried to think of some way to quickly put an end to their lone foe. She peered around. Her own glaive was too far away, but Xanon’s remained stuck in the nearby tree. She darted for the weapon, hoping that her companion could keep the goblin distracted long enough—and without dying in the process.
But though she reached the glaive without difficulty, pulling it free proved a much more troublesome task. The glaive had buried itself deep, and even though Haldrissa tugged as hard as she could—all the while gritting her teeth as her effort made her wound sting much greater—it would not come free.
Buzzing filled her ears. She glanced in the direction of the other shredders, but they were not even in sight . . . and therefore not the source of the increased buzzing.
Haldrissa ducked.
The blades of the lone shredder tore into the tree. Splinters and sawdust rained down upon the night elf.
A screeching sound tore at her eardrums. As she rolled aside, she saw that the shredder’s blades had met the glaive. The resultant collision had made both the shredder and the tree shake violently.
Swearing, the goblin adjusted several levers. The other arm came up and braced against the trunk. With amazing strength, the shredder used the leverage to push free.
Haldrissa saw no sign of Xanon and had to assume the worst. With his glaive ruined, she surveyed the area for her own.
The damaged tree creaked ominously. Haldrissa stepped back but saw that the danger was not as imminent as she had thought. The tree shook slightly, then stilled.
The goblin adjusted the levers, then moved in on her again. As he did, Haldrissa finally caught a glimpse of Xanon. He lay sprawled next to another tree. She could not see any sign of injury, but the stillness of the body did not give her much hope.
However, seeing Xanon stirred a desperate plan. The commander hoped that she judged the damage to the tree correctly, or else she was about to throw herself into the jaws of death.
“Xanon!” she roared. “To his left!”
The goblin reacted accordingly. Straining at the levers, he made the torso spin around to confront the threat he believed there.
Had Haldrissa attempted to leap up at him, he would have had more than enough time to notice her and prevent success. Instead, the night elf ran behind the damaged tree.
The goblin saw that the male Sentinel still lay unconscious or was dead. He pulled a lever, and the shredder started to turn back to her.
Bracing herself, Haldrissa threw her body against the back of the tree. The collision shook her to the bone, but she heard the wood give a satisfying snap.
The tree toppled.
Haldrissa made a silent prayer to Elune.
She had judged both the damage and the angle true. The huge tree fell toward the shredder.
The goblin looked up as the shadow covered him. He frantically adjusted the levers, raising both arms in an attempt to stop the tree. However, when it became clear that the arms would not stop the tree in time, the goblin pushed himself out of his seat.
He did not make it.
The tree reduced the shredder and its handler to a squat ruin. The tanks that fueled the mechanism ruptured.
The shredder exploded, sending metal fragments and bits of goblin flying everywhere.
Even before the tree had struck, Haldrissa had headed for Xanon. She did not want to leave her officer if there was even a chance he lived.
“Xanon!” the commander hissed. “Xanon!”
He did not stir, but Haldrissa saw that the male Sentinel did at least breathe. There was a heavy bruise on the side of his head, and blood stained his face and arm.
With no other option, Haldrissa wrapped her arm around the other night elf’s upper torso and, ignoring the pain in her arm, dragged him from the site. Peering over her shoulder, she caught a glimpse of one of the other shredders starting to move toward the ruined one. So low to the ground, Haldrissa believed that its operator could not yet see her or her burden, but she nonetheless hurried as best she could. If the pair was spotted, they would never escape.
A glint caught her eye. Grimacing, Haldrissa set down Xanon long enough to retrieve her glaive. It meant the cost of a few valuable seconds, but without the glaive there would be absolutely no chance of defending the two of them.
The sound of encroaching shredders increased. There were no cries of discovery, though. The commander counted on the hope that the goblins would focus on their own, thinking that perhaps the operator had miscalculated while trying to bring down the tree rather than that he had been sadistically hunting down night elf prey. She only needed that false belief to last long enough for her to reach the cats.
Dragging Xanon, Haldrissa finally paused at a spot several yards away and out of sight. She let out a low whistle.
Her heart pounded as she waited. Finally, her mount trotted into view. The nightsaber rubbed its muzzle against her side.
The second cat joined them. It sniffed Xanon and let out a low growl. Haldrissa shushed it, then settled the unmoving officer over the creature’s back. When that was done, she mounted her own animal.
Behind her, a commotion arose as the goblins investigated what Haldrissa hoped still passed for an accident. Exhaling deeply, the commander urged the nightsabers forward.
She did not relax in the least until they were far away. Haldrissa counted the seconds until she reached the rest of the party, all of whom eyed her arrival with trepidation.