Chapter 6: A Wall of Stone and The Final Test
Until Marcus came to their small village, Thane and his friends had only read about the larger world in books or heard about it from passing merchants. The merchants usually brought news on recent events in exchange for the same that the villagers had heard from other merchants passing through. While their knowledge was impressive, there was only so much that could be learned from reading alone. Hearing tales about battles with Orcs is far different from fighting them yourself. Thane knew they were tough, but wasn’t prepared for how tough they actually were. They could shrug off arrows that would be fatal for a human, and had strength that could match him even when he used mana to enhance his own. He knew what a Grey Orc was from a book, but could only guess about how strong it actually was.
Along with new experiences there would also be new discoveries and new friends. I do wish I had been there to see the look on Thane’s face as he met the massive Brun for the first time. He didn’t know if the man was friend or foe. All that he knew was that he was three meters tall, had the drop on him, and could probably snap him like a twig if he wanted.
Luckily for Thane, he wouldn’t be snapped in half today, the giant’s ire was facing towards the orcs, not the little ones that had made a timely appearance. What started that day, would eventually lead to a strange friendship between Thane and the big guy.
Today would also be a day of discovery for Thane and his friends. Today would mark the first encounter with a new species, something that had been postulated before as possible, but had never actually been seen. Thane would never be credited with this discovery, he would simply be labeled as a “traveling mercenary” in the official report. It was probably best that his name wasn’t attached to this event.
Today Thane and his friends would discover and bring word of a new, powerful breed of Malkin. A creature that would be viewed by some as one of the worst atrocities to ever be born.
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Thane
Thane’s voice was caught in his throat. The mountain of a man simply stared, making no move to attack. Thane had his sword loose and ready to be drawn, but he doubted taht drawing it would be a good idea. The man was already close enough to attack and Thane was pretty sure he didn’t need a weapon to kill him. Was this giant the leader of the Malkin below?
The man extended his arm and with a single finger, pointed down below. “That is their leader. Not the grey one, the smooth one.”
Thane hesitated to turn his back on the large man, still a bit unsure what his motives were. He hadn’t made any moves to attack him yet, so Thane cautiously turned around to look where the man was pointing. He sharpened his vision and looked for the “smooth one” that the other man mentioned. It took a while to find him, he didn’t really stand out much unless you examined him closely.
In a way he didn’t really look like an orc. He had the same green tinged skin as the others, and he was as tall as the others but not nearly as well built. Instead of the hairy, coarse skin of the orcs, his was quite smooth, Only the two small tusks coming up from his lower jaw gave away the fact that he was an orc. He almost looked like a green skinned human who some would find attractive. His hair, likewise, was not a jumbled knot like the orcs surrounding him, but was long, smooth and tied back behind him. If it weren’t for the fact that the other orcs would get out of the way whenever he walked by, Thane would have never assumed he was a threat let alone their leader.
“He doesn’t look dangerous.”
“Neither do you,” the large man replied.
“What is he? What makes him so dangerous?”
“He is a half breed, one who can cast strong magic. The Raven seeks the death of him and his kind.”
“What is the Raven?”
“The one who sent me here to find that half breed.”
“Ok, but who or what is the one that sent you here?”
“The Raven”
“Ugh.” Thane pressed his palms into his eyes. He had never heard of an Orc using magic before. He heard that they occasionally had some primitive shamans that could use magical energy, but never true spells. “So you’re here to hunt these Orcs then?”
“Yes.”
“There are at least fifty orcs and goblins down there, can you take that many on your own?”
“No.”
“Are you going to try anyway?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It is the reason I am here.”
“Nnng”, Thane rubbed his temples and was starting to get a headache trying to talk with this guy. But if he is as tough as he looks, it might be a good idea to get his help, and he would feel bad if he just let someone die to a mob of Malkin.
Sarah spoke up, “I know what you’re thinking, but we should just let it go and return to Marcus to make our report, come back here with bigger numbers.”
“Just a minute ago you were regretting that we might not be able to attack and claim the bounty.”
“That was before we spotted the Grey Orc and that Orc wizard or whatever.
“So you don’t think there is a way?”
“I didn’t say that. You can still fire off a good sized fireball right?”
“Yeah but, Fire isn’t really my thing, if you need a strong one it would pretty much tap me dry.”
“If they are grouped together you will only need one, right?”
“How do we group them together though?”
“I’ll tell you in a moment.”
In other words, she had no idea. Thane looked back at the man who was still silently watching them.
“If we can find a way to attack that doesn’t involve dying will you join us?”
“Hmm…”
“What is your name anyway?”
“Call me Stone.”
“Your parents named you stone?”
“They named me Osan.”
“Then w-”
“It means ‘stone’ in the old language.”
Thane gave out a heavy sigh, “So will you fight with us?”
The man finally began to move again for the first time since pointing out the location of the Orc leader. He walked to the back of the cave, “Yes, I will protect you.”
“We can protect ourselves, so don’t concern yourself too much.”
He grabbed the largest axe Thane had ever seen and tapped it strongly against the ground with a loud thump, “Mis cain”.
Thane had no idea what ‘Mis cain’ meant, but the facial expression on the giant made it seem like the conversation was over. He took a look at the massive axe in Stone’s hand. The haft was as big around as Thane’s arm and the blade could span his shoulders. The blade didn’t shine at all, and Thane realized it was made of carved stone in the shape of a bird with spread wings.
Sarah spoke up, “We’ll have our opportunity soon, I think.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s almost meal time. The, uh, meat is ready.” The three watched as the orcs and goblins tore chunks of meat from off the fire and went to sit down. It was then Thane saw what Sarah was talking about. A circle of logs and rocks that were near the fire. A half dozen orcs were sitting down and eating while more were joining them.
“Stone, can you get down to the orcs from here? Going down this slope?”
“Yes.”
“Can you?” Sarah asked Thane. “You said the spell would drain you.”
“I should have enough mana to slow my descent. Go back to the others, tell them to follow the river and swing in. Spells first to thin them out. We know their spells have enough power to take out the orcs. The big guy and I will come down the hill and we’ll hit them from both sides. You..” Thane hesitated to ask her. Partially because the task he wanted to do would leave her dangerously exposed, and partially because he didn’t like to see her cruel side. “Make sure the guys caught in the spell stay down. We don't need them getting up and joining the fight.”
She nodded and Thane continued. “Shoot a whistling arrow once you are in position. Then wait for the explosion. If I ever fire a whistling arrow, cancel the attack and get back to the town as soon as you can. Quickly, I don’t know how much time we have.”
The next few minutes were awkward. While waiting for Sarah’s signal Thane was peering from behind a rock at the Malkin below, while Stone simply sat motionless as if he were meditating. Even while he was sitting his head was level with Thanes. Now he was wearing some sort of leather armor with a large metal disk over the chest and stomach.
“What kind of leather is that? Is it naturally grey?”
“It is whale leather.”
“I’m not familiar with a whale. What kind of animal is it?”
“It’s a fish without scales, a fish that can get large enough to swallow a man whole.”
Thane tried to imagine what it would look like. A fish without scales? So something like an eel then? But big enough to swallow someone?
“Can you take out the Grey Orc first? I’m not sure how resistant he is to magic, and you seem to have enough strength to not have to worry about his thick skin.”
“Yes.”
There were a few more moments of awkward silence before he finally heard the shrill screech of the whistling arrow. Most of the orcs were still gathered in a circle, some of them stood up when they heard the sound but most still sat lazily chewing on their meat.
He activated his magic, and fire began to form in front of him. More and more came and it was continuously compressed into a small sphere in front of him about the size of an apple. He aimed the crimson sphere down towards the center of the orcs, and when he gave it a small push, it shot forward like an arrow.
Before the ball exploded, Stone was already standing up and spoke to Thane. “Stay behind me young one.”
“I told you we don't need your pro-” He stopped as the man jumped out of the cave. He didn’t descend the steep slope like Thane expected, instead he got a running start and leapt with his full strength. Thane was expecting him to use mana or magic to slow his descent, instead it looked like Stone did the exact opposite, making himself fall faster and strengthening his legs for the impact.
When Stone landed there was a large crash and a massive plume of dust and dirt concealed the orc village. Thane didn’t wait for the dust to settle, the large man was surrounded in the middle of the Malkin forces instead of at the side like Thane had planned. He used mana to slow his descent, each step down the steep incline was like sinking to the bottom of a small pool rather than falling. He continued down with large strides until he reached the bottom.
When he was on level ground his greatsword was already drawn and he was greeted by three panicked goblins. Thane was quick to act and attacked before they could bring their jagged blades to bear. He slashed up from a low stance slicing through the front of the first before arcing the blade around bringing it down on the second. Without losing momentum he let the weight of the sword carry him forward, pivoting the sword tip in the dirt and bringing his knee up to the chin of the third goblin. When the goblin was on the ground, he kept pivoting the sword keeping the tip as a fulcrum point and brought the weight of the sword down on the goblin like a guillotine.
This was his second “abnormal” technique that he learned from his father. Usually greatsword techniques involved very little or controlled movement, this technique specialized in fast and constant movement, with heavy swings or a spinning blade that sometimes seemed to carry the user forward. It was a technique that relied heavily on magical enhancements to the users strength, any normal human would quickly become exhausted while fighting like this.
The dust was almost completely settled and he could see several Orcs in the crater created by Stone’s landing. Stone was in the middle of a circle of Orcs and some were pummeling him with spears and arrows as others closed in with axes. It looked like his armor had been struck several times, some of the blows had pierced through and drew blood. Every time he swung his axe another orc fell. Blocking was useless as the massive axe and the strength behind it crushed through any shield, weapon or armor the orcs could bring to bear.
Thane charged the closest archer, trying to relieve some of the pressure off of Stone. He ran towards the closest archer taking it down in a quick strike. Two more slashes took out two more orcs and suddenly a massive impact knocked Thane off his feet. It felt like someone hit him with a building. His entire right side felt the impact and he was knocked off his feet and went flying several meters before smashing into an orc.
His head was swimming and his ears were ringing. He tried in vain to focus his eyes, barely recognizing the form in front of him. It was the grey orc, on the ground and dead, obviously one of Stone’s first victims as the thick hide did nothing to stop the massive axe from splitting him shoulder to waist. He staggered to his feet looking for the orc he collided with. The green Malkin was trying to get up while shaking its head. He brought his sword down on the orc, stabbing it through the back, but losing his balance in the process falling to the ground a second time.
He needed to stay down, wait for his head to clear, regain his focus and balance. He looked over to where he was initially struck. He wasn’t imagining things. The earth had shaped itself into a large wall and smashed into his side. He really did fly several meters before crashing, he was lucky to still be in one piece and conscious.
The strange Orc mage? Thane thought. I need to get out of sight before he catches me.
He tried one more time to stand up, but this time he was stopped. He looked to his hands and feet on the ground. Roots and vines were beginning to wrap around him and he couldn’t break free. Nature magic? Impossible.
He third to shake out the cobwebs, gather some mana, anything to get free, but it was too late. With a quick jerk the roots pulled his arms up until he was face to face with the smooth skinned orc.
The Orc hissed at him “Where is she? Where will she attack from?”
“Where is who?”
“The one that hunts us, the one who wants to kill all of my kind.” the Orc looked around panicked, an obvious fear crept into his voice. “She won't find me here, no no. All she will find is your strung up corpse.” The Orc clutched his staff to his chest and ran as fast as he could, just as Thane was starting to feel relieved, the roots began to coil around him tightly. He felt one root snake around his neck and squeeze.
He tried to take in a breath, and realized it was a futile attempt. His already blurry vision began to blur even more, he felt the pressure build in his cheeks from the trapped blood and the ringing in his ears became almost deafening. He tugged at the roots with all the strength he could gather but it was useless. Then darkness crept in from the corners of his vision dyeing his world black.
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