Quickly abandoning his friends rule to 'stay quiet', Shork rushed into the battle, his drunken mind not bothering to think up a combat strategy. He had drawn his mace not long after Aliah had unsheathed her own weapons, and now charged forward, grabbing one of the lighter adversaries with his spare hand and carrying on straight down another tunnel, into a far wall. The arc of the tunnel caused the mans head to violently snap forwards, and he went limp. Staring at the body with a confused sense of excitement, one of the other warriors took advantage of his light-headedness and took a swing for the back of his neck with a war axe. His dampened reflexes almost cost the Orc his life.
Diving forwards onto the floor and feeling the polished metal narrowly skim over his skull, he was forced to do a sideways roll in order to evade a follow up attack. Pushing up with surprising strength, Shork was back on his feet in time to intercept yet another swing. This time he was prepared however, and by putting both hands on his mace the mercenary was able to keep the enemy axe at bay. Now he followed up by pushing the man backwards, while maintaining their crossed weapons, but now he had the upper hand, and dizzily but with force pushed the man against the wall. His opponent finally disengaged his weapon, only for the Orc's mace to crush his windpipe against the wall.
Unable to draw air, the Brotherhood warrior was barely able to lift his axe again before collapsing to the floor, dying of suffocation. After catching his breath after the brief engagement, the Orc made to move back into the main tunnel, where he could still see Aliah fighting. As he shakily stepped back from the two bodies, he turned and noticed two beady eyes staring at him from the shadows. On closer inspection the eyes were revealed to belong to a Skeever, which looked displeased at this unexpected arrival in its territory. It stared at him, then at one of the bodies. Thinking the creature to be beneath him, he snarled at it, hoping for it to back off.
It drew its fangs in retaliation, refusing to back down. Admiring the creatures bravery, he fished into his knapsack and brought out a rabbits leg that he had neglected to eat. It had expired in days gone by to the point where even he refused to eat it, but he threw it towards the rodent anyway before turning around and jogging back into the battle.
The Elf woman had held her ground in his absence, but now the leader of the Brotherhood's party was approaching. Shork was fortunate in that he had his back turned on the seasoned warrior, and tried with some degree of stealth to sneak behind them and swing his mace at their temple. Unfortunately his drunkenness cost him yet again, and the target heard his approach, spinning round and grabbing his moving mace, then ripping it cleanly out of his grip.
Forgetting about his dagger in his confusion and thinking himself unarmed, Shork stood frozen on the spot, surprised at the change of events. He briefly looked to Aliah for help, but something else had caught her attention momentarily, and this silent and futile call for help was ended by a kick in the guts from his opponent. Falling backwards onto his rear, the Orc tried to crawl backwards in order to gain some ground, but the warrior-knight closed in on him, preparing to bring their longsword downwards into the Orc's torso. Just as they were about to carry out their impaling of him, a small figure out of nowhere sprung up onto their face, briefly incapacitating Shork's foe. Seizing the opportunity and now remembering his recently acquired dagger, Shork drew his secondary weapon and leapt forward, tackling the warrior to the ground.
As his saviour -which he now identified as the Skeever from before- jumped to safety, the Orc quickly pinned the knight and tried to drive his dagger into their skull. His soon-to-be dead opposition briefly grabbed his arms to keep the blade away, but as he pulled back and began another arcing attack they made a weaker attempt at resistance, and was promptly killed once their arms gave in. Pulling out his dagger and cleaning off the blood by scraping it on his shoulder pad, Shork stood back up and turned to look in Aliah's direction. She too had just concluded her engagement, and was now walking over.
Grabbing his head as it suddenly began to ache, his ears picked up the sound of more combat in some distant tunnel. As he turned to look in the rough direction of the noise, the light from a nearby torch suddenly revealed his Skeever ally. It stared at him with a look resemblant of curiosity on its face, but snapped loudly and scampered off as Aliah came over. Even with the battle concluded, the Elf looked as though she had something troubling on her mind. But after the almost fatal encounter, he was in no mood to stop and chat. As a familiar roar filled the tunnel, emanating from the same direction as all of the other battle sounds, he turned to look at his companion, speaking with a mix of urgency and exhaustion.
"It sounds as though the Brotherhood is here in force. We should get to the others while they're still breathing" Shork muttered, though his dark tone of voice was followed up by an unstoppable belch. He picked up the nearby torch from its brazier, then started to jog towards the sounds of the fighting. His companion easily kept up with the Orc, and they arrived together at the scene of another battle with the Brotherhood; in this case one where many of the combatants were shrouded in darkness. Having the advantage of a nearby light source, he was able to see Aliah stood next to him, though she refrained from staying too close to the flame. "Can you see our allies?" he asked, figuring the vampiress was more at home in the darkness.