Much as Ellisaria dislikes the intimation of weakness, she dislikes being impaled on a mountainside even more. Her human form is simply more subtle, and thus better suited to evading the gronn.
Unfortunately, it is also conveniently sized to be eaten in one gulp by the mirror-faced snake (what) that comes out of literally nowhere.
At least she is alive to be indignant, even if she's no longer in Outland.
Brisingr also takes care of circling around, setting afire the ones escaping elsewhere - thr grand halls here don't connect to other mountains, and with their own tunnels collapsed, the orcs are in disarray.
Still, the ones who sheltered inside seem to be organizing a defensive stand, and the orcs on the surface organize archers, but their bows are poor and when Brisingr circles so the sun is behind her their aim becomes worse.
Seems like Ellisaria should head down to take over the frontline. She's more durable than Brisingr.
Brisingr trills an acknowledgement, switching to a rapid fly-by harassment to keep their forces in disarray and to burn up anyone trying to flee.
And Ellisaria will go knock on the front door, as it were. Unless they have a ballista in reserve, she's feeling fairly confident.
They do not seem to have a ballista. They do have spears and slingshots and short bows, which probably wouldn't do much against even Brisingr's soft belly.
Still, there's signs this core of orcs is, at least, trained. They fight in tight formation, kite shields bristling with spears, the ranged support used effectively as they try to harry her. They're also larger and more sturdily built, better fed than the scattering forces Brisingr is burning.
The orcs do seem to realize this rather quickly, though not quickly enough to avoid a few platoons dying. Their anti-fire-dragon tactics are a lot less well developed than their anti-cavalry or anti-cold-dragon tactics, though they somehow keep their discipline, apparently determined to go down fighting even as they split up and have their spear-users switch to trying to distract her from the archers and from a few armed with axes trying to maneuver towards her belly.
This seems like a good time to turn the stone beneath their feet into a forest of spikes.
That kills or injures quite a few, and threatens to disrupt their discipline - it also becomes obvious which ones are leading each unit, as several orcs start barking short orders.
Their forces fall into disarray as their leaders die, their command structure strained past its breaking point. The more distant archers start trying to flee, sparking an almost full rout of the few surviving orcs.
She doesn't have much opposition, now. The laughter breaks the will of the last few standing against her - she can pick off the fleeing orcs at her leisure, if she feels like it.
None of them make it past her. A few manage to be somewhat peskier and more skilled at hiding - but they, too, die.
Outside, Brisingr seems to be having fun slaughtering the escapees to the last, from the loud sound of her cackling.
"Yeah! Usually they hide in their little burrows and getting them out's annoying. Open confrontation is much better."
"Yeah. Mountain orcs are like that - lotsa little tribes. They do better against cold drakes and when they can fall back into their tiny little tunnels - they like ambushing or swarming, and I dunno these ones're good at much else. Sometimes they'll get organized, though - whenever there's a war they show up as shock troops for the actually organized orcs, and sometimes you'll get some orc king or another uniting them then trying to conquer everyone else. And the stories always say the cockroach has a fearless army of orcs and evil men."
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