IDWTBTHQ Chapter 104 - Raid Interruption

Yasen Harp was seething with anger.

His patience had already worn thin after riding almost non-stop for two days, reaching the northern border of Brettholz only to be told that the orcs would be attacking Grimdale instead and that he had to go back. However, that alone wasn’t enough to push him over the edge —after all, any professional soldier would be used to hardships, especially in a time of crisis. It took a special mix of politics, bureaucracy and blind idiocy to really make him lose it, and unfortunately he had just experienced a rich dose of all three.

“What do you mean they're going to do nothing?” He screamed at the unlucky telemancer that served with his unit.

“That's what they said.” The man explained patiently. “In their own words: there isn't enough proof that the orcs are actually coming to Grimdale, and they're not going to disrupt their citizen's lives just because of some baseless rumors.”

“Oh, the citizens are going to be grateful about their lives not being disrupted once they're in some orc's belly!” Yasen replied sarcastically. “This is Lord Grimdale's doing for sure! Demons take that idiot and eat him whole! He still thinks this is all some kind of political maneuver to undermine his position!”

The lieutenant of the Royal Knights, a middle-aged man called Rosco who had been listening to the conversation, suddenly approached Yasen.

“Complaining is well and good for the spirit of any soldier, sir.” He commented in a deadpan tone. “But what are we going to do in practice?”

“Let me think for a moment.” The captain said, and closed his eyes to focus on his thoughts. His face relaxed a bit as he let go of his anger, and when he spoke again his voice was controlled and clear.

“First, we have to confirm the presence of the orcs ourselves.” He said. “Grimdale may like to bury his head in the ground, but even he won't be able to ignore my personal testimony.”

“Very well, captain.” The lieutenant nodded. “I suppose we're riding to the southern part of the Grimdale province then.”

“Yes.” Yasen confirmed. “We're going to depart immediately. Get the men ready.”

“Of course, sir.” Rosco said, and then added with a smirk. “That decision is not going to make you too popular though. The men really hoped to sit on something that is not a saddle for more than a couple hours.”

“Then they've gotten soft in the past month.” Yasen replied with a smile. “They did nothing but eat, sleep and flex at the Rassian border. They can certainly use the exercise, otherwise they might get fat and lazy.”

“Ah, but some of us would love being fat and lazy.” The lieutenant said wistfully.

“You shouldn't have signed into the Royal Knights then.” Yasen said with a grin. “Now, stop complaining and go get the men ready.”

“Aye, sir!” Rosco saluted and walked away, starting to round up the knights. There were quite a few complaints, which often included sore butts and the stink of horses, but nonetheless they still obeyed and started packing up their things.

Yasen watched them approvingly. He didn't mind soldiers speaking their minds and goofing around a bit as long as that didn't interfere with their efficiency. In fact, he kind of liked it. Absolute discipline was required only when on duty, and soldiers who always behaved as if they had a stick up their arses were good only for parades in his opinion.

In a matter of minutes, the Royal Knights were back on their horses. Three hundred men, the elites of Medelan's army, all at least Yellow Sheath Aura Users, hand-picked and trained by Yasen himself. They were tired, frustrated and probably wanted nothing more than a bath, a hot meal and a bed right now, but their eyes were focused and their faces showed a grim determination that made their captain proud, even though he had expected nothing less from them.

Yasen rode in front of them to address them all and update them on the current mission.

“Alright, men.” He cried. “The orcs have been confirmed to be gathering on the other side of the mountains, ready to cross Fendel's Mines and invade Grimdale, but sadly that's still not enough for Duke Grimdale to get off his fat ass and start evacuating the population.” A few of his men snickered at that remark. “So it's up to us to find some indisputable proof that the orcs are in Grimdale. We're going south to search for them.” He paused and looked around. “By the way, does anyone know where these Fendel's Mines are?”

“I do.” One of the knights replied. “More or less, anyway. They should be somewhere south of the village of Voridt.” He paused and then added: “Once we get there we can ask the locals. They should know the exact position.”

“Very well.” Yasen nodded. “Show us the way then.” He raised his glaive up in the sky. “Let's go men! We've got no time to lose!”

The knights replied with a cheer, raising their spears as well, and then they started riding south, leaving a cloud of dust behind them.

Tiny-Sneaky was in a good mood.

For the first time ever she had officially been given command over a group of orcs and she really liked it. Ordering others around felt really pleasant after a whole life spent being told what to do, and she meant to enjoy every second of it.

She took a deep breath, savoring the smell of blood in the air as desperate screams echoed in her ears. All around her the human village was being pillaged while its inhabitants were either being killed or herded to the central square, where they sat trembling and weeping like newborns. Burly orcs watched over them and beat anyone who tried to escape, though they refrained from outright killing them since those people were meant to serve as “thinking food” for their army.

Overall the raid was going smoothly. They had caught the humans completely by surprise, to the point that they hadn't even attempted to resist. Most had just either locked themselves in their homes or tried to flee on foot, and the orcs had no trouble catching either. Only a couple of villagers had tried to escape on horse, but Tiny herself had ambushed them right behind the village and they had both ended up in her belly for the trouble.

The ogress burped to underline her satisfaction. As the rumors claimed, humans did indeed taste delicious and she couldn't wait to eat more of them. But for now she had to exercise moderation, as the people she had caught were going to serve as food for the whole army, and Blueskin would likely kill her if she didn’t bring enough of them.  This was the reason why, when she saw one of the guards grab a human and lift it to his mouth with the clear intent of swallowing it whole, she intervened to stop him.

Before the foolish orc could drop the screaming human into his mouth, the ogress kicked him in the gut with immense force, sending him tumbling backwards for a few meters. The orc growled in pain and then started vomiting all over himself, catching everyone attention.

Which was good, Tiny thought, as a show of strength was always the best way to prove your authority. She also grabbed the human, a female by the look of it, by the hair and lifted it.

“These are not to eat right now!” The ogress cried as the woman screamed even more. “They are to feed all of the army, not just you!” She threw the human back into the group of prisoners. “If any of you tries to eat one, I’ll kill him! Are we clear?”

A few orcs cowered at her cries, but some of the bigger ones growled in discontent, as they weren’t used to being bossed around by someone smaller than they were. The biggest one of them, which was almost twice Tiny’s size, actually stepped forward to oppose her.

“You cannot tell us what to do!” He bellowed, sending multiple droplets of saliva flying in Tiny's face as he loomed menacingly over her. “You are small! You are not strong like other ogres!” He smiled, showing his sharp teeth. “I don't even know if you are ogre! You look like these weak humans here! Maybe you are just human in disguise, so we can eat you like them... urgh!”

The orc’s runt was interrupted by a grunt of pain, and looking down he realized that the ogress’ arm was buried into his belly up to the elbow. Tiny then made a sadistic smile and twisted her hand, causing her victim to squeal like a pig, before suddenly taking a step back, pulling out her arm together with most of the orc’s viscera.

The orc collapsed on the ground with a pathetic squeal, and Tiny started licking her hand clear of the fool’s blood. When she was done, she turned to the others and smiled dangerously at them.

“Does anyone else think I can't tell you what to do?” She asked, but no one picked up her challenge. Instead, they bowed their head slightly, a clear sign of submission, and Tiny’s smile grew even larger as she felt her reproductive pseudopod inflate in response to this acknowledgment of her superiority. Due to her closeness with Blueskin, she had never truly experienced such a sensation and she found it extremely pleasurable. Maybe this was the time when she could experience mating as an active partner for the first time...

Suddenly a few orcs started screaming something, distracting Tiny from her fantasies.

“What is this now?” She asked in an annoyed tone.

“Look!” An orc cried, pointing north. “There!”

Tiny looked, and saw a cloud of dust rising from the horizon.

“Good!” She said. “Seems like we have more victims! Prepare to ambush them! Remember, do not let them get away!”

The orcs quickly gathered, preparing to attack the newcomers as soon as they got close.

As for Tiny, she licked her lips once again, anticipating the bloodshed that was about to happen. If the incoming humans were enough, maybe she could have seconds.

“Halt!” Yasen ordered, a few hundred meters away from the village.

There wasn’t a soul in sight and everything seemed quiet, but he could tell that something was wrong. He could feel it in the wind. Not only could he smell blood and hear faint cries, but the air also carried the presence of many scared humans, not to mention hundreds of unknown creatures waiting in ambush.

He didn’t bother to ask his men if any felt like him, because he already knew they didn’t. His ability to perceive things in the wind was something unique to him, probably an innate skill related to his Djinni heritage. However, he had learned to trust it over the years.

“Rosco! Hagen!” He cried, calling his lieutenants.

The two men approached him.

“We’ve got company waiting for us in the village. At least one hundred orcs, maybe two hundred. And about eighty villagers should still be alive… probably held prisoners.”

The two lieutenants nodded. They had spent enough time serving with the captain to trust his instincts too.

“I want you two to take command of the knights.” Yasen continued. “I’m going to scout out the village from the sky. If it’s safe, I’m going to give you the usual signal and you will charge in and attack the orc, while I rescue the civilians.”

The men nodded, and the captain jumped off his horse, landing on the road with grace. He then started focusing his aura, expanding it from his body to the air around him.

On his back, his ethereal-looking cape started billowing like crazy.

A small whirlwind formed around the captain and he jumped up with all of his strength. He leapt in the air, unnaturally fast, and flew towards the sky like an arrow. He stopped at about one hundred meters over the ground and started flowing forward, in order to inspect the village. As he had expected there were at least one hundred orcs there, waiting in ambush, while there was a group of humans being herded at the center of the village square. He couldn’t spot the telltale huge mass of an ogre, only a few larger than normal orcs, though he did pick up something weird from the aura readings of the village. But that reading was really faint, so unless the owner was somehow repressing its own aura, it was probably nothing.

The orcs down there didn’t look like anything his men couldn’t handle, so he decided to give them the signal. He took a red cloth from his belt and started waving it, so that his lieutenants could see it.

A few seconds later, the Royal Knights resumed their ride towards the village.

Yasen waited, floating in the sky and watching over what was happening. When the knights got close enough, the orcs suddenly emerged from the village and with a wild howl they charged at the humans.

Sadly for them, they were expecting them.

The Royal Knights didn’t slow down. They simply responded with a warcry of their own, lowering their spears and charging at their enemies.

What ensued was not a battle. It was a pure and simple massacre.

The orcs were naturally stronger than any human, and were bigger and taller to boot. These ones were also better equipped than average orcs, sporting metal weapons and even some rudimentary armor. Sure they lacked discipline, but they made up for it with raw strength.

Compared to the Royal Knights, they were nothing.

The knights charged right through the orcs, leaving behind only the mangled corpses of their enemies. Empowered by their aura, they were simply unstoppable, gaining an unnatural momentum and moving with incredible speed. Lacking any sort of long pole weapons and moving in loose formation, the orcs didn’t have the means to even slow down the humans, let alone counter their charge, and died without being able to return even one blow.

Yasen watched this all with a satisfied smirk, and then, when he decided that the time was right, he dived towards the ground with the speed of a hawk.

As he dropped, he pointed his glaive down.

He landed behind one of the orcs guarding the humans, cutting the monster in half with a swing of his blade. Before the other guards could even process what was happening he flew with incredible speed and cut down another, and then another.

In the span of only ten seconds, six orcs were dead, and the only one remaining tried to grab a prisoner to shield himself with.

Before his hands could reach the human, Yasen swung his glaive from thirty meters away, and a blade of pure wind flew from the tip of the blade, crossing the air with a hiss and cutting the top half of the orc’s head, sending it flying to the air. The body of the humanoid twitched a bit, and then fell on the ground.

There were no more orcs in the square. The silence grew thick, interrupted only by the noises of the nearby battle, which were growing faint by now, and the occasional sob of a child.

Seeing the need to reassure these people, Yasen stepped forward and started talking.

“I'm Captain Yasen Harp of the Royal Knights of Medelan!” He announced. “Fear not, people of Medelan! We've come to rescue you from the orcs.”

The shocked silence lasted for only one more second, and then something that sounded like a collective sigh of relief broke it. A lot of people were still crying, but some had started getting up on their feet and were helping others doing the same.

As this happened, Yasen’s men also started pouring into the village, having defeated the orcs, and a few dismounted in order to give help to the villagers.

A group of villagers approached Yasen himself, gratitude and relief showing clearly on their faces.

“Thank you sir Harp!” An old man said, tears showing in his eyes. “Thank the gods you came for us!”

“No need to thank us.” Yasen replied. “We were just doing our duty. By the way, is there a mayor in this village? Or someone who can speak for all of you?”

“I'm the mayor, sir.” The man replied. “Heinz Gluber at your service.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr Gruber, though the circumstances are not exactly pleasant.” Yasen bowed his head slightly. “I'm sorry if I'm being abrupt, but I'm afraid we have no time to lose. You and your people should evacuate the village as soon as possible.”

“Why?” The old man asked. “Do you think those monsters are going to come back?”

“Yes.” Yasen replied. “And in much bigger numbers. So many that we won't be able to stop them here.”

Fear flashed in the old man’s eyes as his face went pale, but after a moment he managed to get a hold of himself. Or at least enough to speak properly.

“That’s terrible news indeed.” He said. “We haven’t received any news of an orc invasion. Leaving quickly is going to be difficult… especially now that we have wounded people.”

“My company's healer will help you with your injured.” Yasen replied. “But you still need to leave quickly. Leave everything but the strictly necessary behind and get on the road. If you don’t, I can’t guarantee your safety.” He stared at the man straight in the eyes. “The orcs may be here in a matter of hours.”

The mayor’s face grew even more pale, but he nodded and moved away, going back to his citizens to relate the news he had received.

Meanwhile, Yasen turned to his lieutenants, who had been waiting for instructions behind him.

“Help the villagers get ready to move.” He ordered. “I want them on the road within an hour at most. After that, pick ten men to accompany them and protect them on their way north. Also, tell a few of our men to stand guard. We don’t know if there are any more orcs coming.” He paused and pointed at the company telemancer. “As for you, contact the king, lord Brett and lord Grimdale, in that order, and tell them what happened here. We need to inform them.”

“Yes sir!” The knights answered in chorus before starting to carry out their orders.

About fifteen minutes later, Rosco came back to report that the guards couldn’t spot any orc in the surrounding area, and that the villagers were slowly getting ready to depart, using a few carts to carry their injured.

“Good.” Yasen commented. “Then they might actually just make it. Don’t drop your guard, though. We don’t know when the orcs will come.”

“Very well sir.” Rosco said, with a relieved voice. “Out of curiosity, what are we going to do now? Are we going back to Treval?”

“I'd wish.” The captain shook his head. “Our duty here is not done.” He gestured towards the surrounding landscape. “I've seen at least a dozen villages nearby. If we wait for their inhabitants to evacuate on their own after receiving an official warning, the orcs are surely going to catch them.”

“I see.” The lieutenants nodded somberly. “Which means we have to make them evacuate ourselves, right?”

“Yes.” Yasen confirmed. “I've already contacted his majesty. We have full authority to do whatever we deem necessary for the safety of the people of Medelan.”

“Oh my.” Rosco said in a sarcastically resigned tone. “And I suppose that getting a hot meal and a good night of sleep in a real bed are not necessary for the safety of the people, are they?”

“I'm afraid not.” Yasen smirked. “But try to look at the bright side.”

“And what would it be?”

“At least we won't have time to get bored.”

“I could stand being bored, sir.” The lieutenant replied. “It’s when things get interesting that they also tend to get terribly unpleasant.”

“Ain't that the truth.” Yasen agreed. “Sadly it's not up to us to pick the times we live in. That's the gods' job.” He sighed. “Anyway, getting back to more practical matters, we ought to prepare for departure. We have a lot of villages to visit and a lot of ground to cover.”

“Aye sir.” Rosco saluted him.

A few kilometers away from the village, Tiny-Sneaky slowly crawled on the ground while using her shapeshifting ability to change the color of her skin and camouflage herself with her surroundings. Maybe that was a bit overkill, but thinking about the flying man that had killed her guards she preferred to play it safe. Her life in the Caligare Forest had taught her well how to recognize a threat, and she could easily tell that the tall human was one of the most dangerous things she had ever come across, even more so than the Piraca Emperor or the Rantul Matriarch. In fact, the only living creature that made her even more wary was Blueskin himself.

She had survived in equal part thanks to luck and her skill in hiding. When the flying man had dropped from the sky she was behind a building, looking at the disastrous battle that was going on, and the human warrior hadn’t seen her. So, as soon as she had realized how outmatched she was, she had sneaked away, trying to erase her presence while using her camouflage powers to pass unseen.

Luckily for her, it worked and she had gotten away with her life. However she wasn’t entirely out of danger, especially because she had to report what had happened to Blueskin… and he wasn’t someone who took bad news kindly.

She picked her brain as she kept crawling, examining all possible justifications. Of course the most logical one was to simply tell the truth. She couldn't have known of the knights' presence, and that even if she had chosen to fight with the other orcs the result wouldn't have changed. So, running away to report the knight’s presence to the oni was simply the best thing to do, and nothing that happened was actually Tiny-Sneaky’s fault.

If her boss had been reasonable, this would have been enough, but knowing Blueskin better than anyone else, the ogress was painfully aware that saying this to his face would just result in him venting out his anger on her. She was at least in for a beating, followed by some forced mating —something which she had grown to hate with every fiber of her being— and possibly her death, if the oni felt particularly irritated at the time. No, she needed to somehow channel his anger somewhere else, give him a target that would make him forget about Tiny entirely.

Luckily she just had the perfect scapegoat. The flying man was most likely responsible for everything that happened, and he was incredibly strong. Even Tiny could tell that the human’s flesh would taste especially delicious, and if there was a way to distract the oni it was through his appetite!

Of course, only Blueskin himself would have been able to kill such mighty prey. He was the only one capable of flying, after all. And, Tiny thought in a hidden corner of her mind, if the oni were to lose and be killed by the man… well, she could easily live with that. Sneaking away was her specialty, after all, and she wouldn’t have any trouble getting back to the Caligare Forest by herself.

She smirked, feeling confident that her plan would work, and kept crawling, slowly getting away from Voridt.