Their eyes had turned the colour of frozen meat. Graznak glanced about him at the greenskins of all sizes. He was one of the few that had not succumbed to the slippery fog running through all of their minds or the whispering promises that dragged some of his warriors in different directions.
Most of the orcs were still following him, with his waaaaggghh rising above the shrieking wind only barely. There were few of the grots now with him, those that still moved forward did so only because they were hanging onto the bounding red beasts they rode into battle. Those creatures were so brainless neither the Memory Mirror nor the Slaaneshi temptations could turn them aside from a chance to bite something. And the stupid creatures crashed ahead of the orc force and were through the gates of the marble city before any other greenskins.
As Graznak made it through the wall he could see the man mounted a sinuous beast, the tall crest of his Corinthian helmet rippled with the wind, as the Warlord lowered it over the most serene face Graznak had ever seen.
With imagined speed the man was among the Greenskins, his blade whirling in the air in perfect synchronization with the undulations of his serpentine mount. Had his foe been a more predictable enemy, an enemy with the brains to move to its defense and plan a counter attack, they would certainly have been sliced to ribbons. But his enemy was currently drooling greenskins, clinging with instinct to the back of creature that bounced in seemingly random directions as they moved. His cuts would have sliced one of the creatures in half if, as the blade moved towards it, another of the creatures had not smashed into it and thrust it aside.
The man's mount hissed in pain as the bounding mouths took chunks of its daemonic flesh away. In its pain it turned the man from its back and he crashed to the ground, several of the creatures landing on him as he tried to rise. His armour besmirched (for the creatures had another opening in them besides a mouth) and his helmet missing he bent to pick up his glaive. Two of the creatures collided in the air above him as he did and one twisted downward as it fell toward him. As he rose with the weapon his head moved directly into the path of the creatures slobbering gob. The sound of his tearing sinews and snapping vertebrae did not rise above the snorting, gnashing sounds of the creatures or the shrieking of the wind.
Graznak tried to catch up to the creatures but he was quickly cut off from the main body of his army by a horde of warriors. He met them at the center of a frozen reflecting pool. After several moments of desultory fighting where neither side could gain purchase enough on the ice to make an effective attack the warriors were hit on the flank by Karzad and his Gore Gruntas.
The men parted before the savage orc warriors on their massive steeds while they were caught on the other flank by Graznak's warriors. Those that did not fly before the pincer movement were cut to pieces, leaving dark red stains on the ice.
Beastial warriors had held up much of Graznak's army in the center but now were being cut down as the majority of his force made their way to the combat.
Just as resistance was about to collapse the Slaaneshi witch shrieked something above all the battle sounds. The snakes that made up her hair drooled a venom that quickly coalesced into solid, lithe forms and Karzad found himself beset by razor clawed fiends that sliced through the flesh of orcs and their mounts with equal ease.
It was then that the shattering of glass could be heard all across the battlefield. All combatants, human, daemon, greenskin, troll and giant clutched their heads as the entrapped memories of the mirror exploded out and whirled around the battlefield inflicting agony on the creatures whose brains they flooded.
The squigs seemed uniquely unaffected. They bounded past the destroyed artifact and quickly landed near the witch. The battle ended soon after that.
Graznak looked about him. His losses were few, no longer bouncing the squigs tore chunks of flesh out of the fallen humans that littered the dais and the reflecting pool.
As the orc warboss surveys the field his mind clears. It is no longer a struggle to think, or at least no more of a struggle than usual.
They will head back towards the Realmgate.
After a short rest, the army begins its march south.
As the frozen landscape thaws the storms set in about them. Rain pours out of the heavens. Graznak is in a foul mood. The army moves slowly born down by the mud they wallow through but more importantly by the mist that clings to the ground and hampers the efforts of the scouts he sends ahead. Suddenly one of the scouts returns with a frantic report.
"I've seen um, da enemy. Dey saw us and they hid in da forest," said the scout.
"We'z gonna go in dere and flush 'em out den," Graznak said.
He said, "they can't hide from us."
"Dere wuz one uver fing boss," said the scout.
"Wassat den?"
"We saw Kroirriogs too."
ponders nirvana.
