Interlude 1 - It's all Ogre Now

Orcs are sapient humanoid creatures that have made their appearance in Aos during the course of the 18th century. They are well known for their huge appetite and their violent disposition.

The average adult orc is about two meters tall, though it's not uncommon for them to reach three or four meters of height. They have scaly, green-brownish skin, thick waist and limbs, and their arms are so long that they can easily reach their knees. Their shoulders are extremely wide and muscular, to the point that they are forced to walk in a crouched position, and their faces are reptilian-looking, lacking a pronounced nose and having small horns protruding from their foreheads, but their most striking feature is their mouth, which is disproportionately large compared to their small heads and can grow even larger, since they can dislocate their jaw at will to ingest their prey whole, which they do often as they get more nourishment from eating other creatures whilst theyare still alive.

Orcs are usually lazy and sluggish, generally being active only when chasing a particularly appetizing prey —usually a sentient being— or when brawling with each other. The same carelessness can be found in most of their activities and crafts. It's however important to notice that orcs can be suprisingly cunning, it's just that normally they don't feel like making excessive use of their heads.

The orcs are usually organized in small tribes of a few dozen individuals, and their hierarchy is established by raw fighting prowess, with the strongest one being the leader. The same trend applies to their mating rituals. All orcs are hermaphrodites, having both female and male organs inside of their cloaca, but they take on a female role when interacting with stronger orcs and a male one when interacting with weaker ones. In fact, mating with a defeated opponent is actually how the orc leaders establish their supremacy, at least when they don't just eat their rivals alive to add their power to theirs.

Orcs have a peculiar innate magic, that allows them to absorb part of the aura of the creatures they eat, becoming stronger in the process. Creatures with strong auras are considered delicacies by the orcs, and eating them while they are alive allow for the greatest rate of aura absorption.

...when an orc's aura surpasses a certain threshold, they can evolve into ogres. Ogres have a much stronger aura than orcs and they also have an almost complete control over their bodies, something which gives them impressive regenerative capabilities and even limited shapeshifting powers. Because of this, ogres can vary greatly in appearance, since they can alter their characteristics —although it's not a simple process and it takes a lot of time and effort for them to drastically change their shapes— but most of them choose to simply look like bigger, stronger and tougher orcs.

Finally, in some rare cases ogres can evolve further, becoming creatures commonly known as oni. An oni's powers and aura are several magnitudes above those of an ogre, being able to alter their shapes pretty much at will and regenerating entire limbs in a matter of seconds. Because of this, oni are extremely dangerous and difficult to kill, but luckily they are also exceedingly rare. The last documented appearance of an oni date back to the 21th century though there have been rumors of some of those creatures living in the Dark Heart.

Excerpt from “A Wayfarer's Guide to the Unknown Volume III, Creatures and Monsters” by Septim Logan, published by Auric Golden Press

The oni called Blueskin, also known as the Blue Terror by the goblins, was staring with hate at the big hill in front of him. He himself was a majestic looking creature. His appearance was that of a lean but muscular man, about two meters tall, with the only things that set him apart were his scaly blue skin, the two horns protruding from his forehead and his silvery white hair. His eyes had pitch black sclera and glowing golden irises, and his features were ruggedly handsome, in a very manly way. His expression, however, was a rather disgusted one, expressing all of his annoyance and disapproval of what his eyes were seeing, and to be fair the landscape he was observing was far from pleasant. The hill was a solid block of grey stone emerging from the surrounding woods like a colossal molar tooth. The ruins of a once-mighty castle were still visible on top of it and a thick, yellowish mist flew out of that building like a stream of pus, covering the whole place and the surrounding area and giving it a sickly appearance. No plants grew inside of the mist, and the nearby flora was also dying and rotting, filling the air with the smell of decay.

Overall, this place was horrible and Blueskin would have loved to leave it and return home. Sadly that wasn't an option, since the ruins on top of the hill were the last stronghold of the Piraca, or rubbies as the orcs called them because of their rubbery skins, and the oni needed to take it in order to put an end to the war against those creatures.

He had arrived here about a week prior, leading a hand-picked force of five thousands elite orc warriors and about one hundred ogres, more than enough to make quick work of the defenders, or so he had thought at the time. Unfortunately, he didn't even have the chance to put his estimate to the test.

The main reason for this delay was that damn yellow mist. That stuff surrounded the entire hill and, as the scouts had discovered at their expenses, it was incredibly acidic. Anyone who tried to cross it would die puking out their lungs and then melt into a puddle in a matter of minutes. Not even the rough hide and regenerative powers of the ogres could completely protect them from it, but the Piraca themselves seemed to be completely immune to that substance, actually waiting hidden in the mist to ambush anyone who somehow was able to endure the acid.

This situation was especially frustrating because Blueskin knew that the Piraca wouldn't stand a chance in an actual fight, and so he had ordered to lay siege to that hill, in hope to starve the defenders out and forcing them to attack. Unfortunately the rubbies didn't seem to be starving and were content to wait things out on the hill , only occasionally making a sortie to keep the orcs on their toes.

And the most infuriating thing was that this passive-aggressive, cowardly strategy was working.

Not only the food supplies of the orc army were wearing thin fast, but morale was also at an all time low due to the reduced rations, forced inactivity and general feeling of powerlessness. The soldiers were quickly getting rowdy and unruly and even some officers have started to show a rebellious attitude.

Luckily, at least the latter problem had an easy solution, and one that would allow Blueskin to vent some of his frustration to boot.

Blueskin turned around, finally paying attention to his lieutenants that had gathered behind him and who were busy chatting and bickering with each other, with a couple of them even looking about to come to blows, but the oni wasn't really listening to them, nor he had any intention to. He had called them here under the pretense of holding a strategy meeting, but in reality he cared nil for their suggestions, since he knew that he was smarter than all of them combined and every suggestion they would make would inevitably be stupid at best and downright retarded at worst. No, what he actually wanted to do was to put them back in line, and in order to do that he needed to make an example to remind them of the pecking order.

He scanned the ogres to find a suitable scapegoat. As always the sight of his lieutenants was enough to make him internally squirm in disgust. In stark contrast with him, the ogres not only were a lot less human-like, having much more reptilian features and monstrous shapes, but they were also, surprisingly, much more female looking. The last thing was actually Blueskin's fault, since back when he had risen to power and had been expected to mate with his underlings to show his dominance he had commanded his lieutenants to take a female appearance, which he would find more palatable. Sadly that order had backfired since those morons knew nothing about femininity and also weren't really putting much effort into trying to look appeasing for thier chief. Besides, since they cared a lot more about strength and power than appearance, they weren't willing to reduce their size and their muscle mass. As a result most of them had turned into something that looked like a grotesque parody of transexuals, with the only traces of femininity they possessed being their wide hips and their boobs, which by the way almost always looked completely fake, like balloons of scaly skin attached to their chests. However, as unsightly as they were right now, they were still much more attractive than they used to be, so Blueskin had decided to put up with it at least for the time being.

Incidentally, the biggest, ugliest and loudest ogre, clearly the one that had obeyed the least to Blueskin's order, was the one that he had chosen as his scapegoat. 

The ogre was called Longfang, and it had been a pain in the oni's neck for quite a long time. The humanoid, who used to be the chief of its own tribe, was incredibly stupid, arrogant and full of itself, something which often forced Blueskin to put the moron in its place using violent means, though that never lasted long thanks to the ogre's limited memory span. Pretty much the only thing that prevented Blueskin from just eating that arrogant idiot was its usefulness for keeping the other ogres in line.  Longfang was the strongest among the ogres, second only to Blueskin himself  in battle prowess, and that made him a perfect example to remind the others of the pecking order. After all, if the biggest, baddest ogre was costantly humiliated by the oni, none of the other, weaker ogres would even think of rebelling or challlenging his authority.

Right now Longfang was busy complaining about Blueskin, something it really liked to do despite the potential —and oftentime immediate— negative consequences. As usual the oni decided to let it do that, in order to pick up anything he could use as an excuse to beat it up. Knowing the ogre as he did, he knew he wouldn't have to wait for long.

“I'm sick of stayin' here!” Longfang howled. “I'm getting hungry and we have nuthin’ to eat but scraps of rotten meat! I want to go huntin and get something fresh and alive under mah teeth!”

“Yeah, I feel ya Longfang.” Another ogre replied. “I'm hungry too. But we gotta kill the rubbies first. And hey, if we can get to their castle, we can eat their Nobles!” The humanoid smiled, showing an unsettlingly large amount of teeth while openly drooling. “I don't care much for their texture, I admit. Hard to chew, both skins and organs. But you get used to it, and the flavor... ah, they got dem strong auras that makes them absolutely delicious!”

“Fat chance!” Longfang cried with anger. “We can't even get close to them with dat damn mist in the way! We're just rotting while sitting on our asses here!”

“Eh, we can't really leave the rubbies alone.” Another ogre chimed in. “We killed a lot of them, now's the time to finish the job. Boss said so. Also, I'm sure Blue will think of something. He always does. He's got his head full of dem ideas.”

“Ah! Not this time!” Longfang replied with a derisory tone. “He's been thinkin all week now! I dunno how his head didn't explode, and he came up with nuthin! We're still here just because he doesn't want to admit that we can't cross dat mist! Also, who cares if the rubbies come back? It's more food for us! It's just that Blue has all those silly dumb ideas about finishing the job and establishing orc supremacy and all nonsense like that! We shouldn't worry about all this crap! We are orcs! Everything else just exists to be our prey! Let them multiply and come to us! We'll eat them just like we always did!”

A lot of ogres, while not openly voicing their agreement, were clearly being swayed by Longfang's words, so Blueskin decided it was the time to intervene. Besides, Longfang had openly disrespected him by now, so he had more than enough reason to put it in its place.

Without a second thought, the oni acted. He lifted his right arm and suddenly the limb started growing, the muscles inflating and the skin expanding, until it became more than thirty times its original size. Then, as if swatting a fly, Blueskin brought down his now giant hand on Longfang, slamming the ogre into the ground with a deafening boom.

That got everyone attention. All of the ogres stopped talking, staring silently at their chief with fearful eyes.

“Well, that's enough of that.” Blueskin announced. “I do not mind if you speak your opinions and suggestions openly, but I won't tolerate outright disrespect or insubordination. Am I clear?”

Everyone else nodded. The only one who didn't was Longfang, who to be fair was still planted a couple feet into the ground and couldn't really move or hear.

“And another thing.” The oni continued. “To answer all of you who want to leave this place, you may have had a point if it was another species, but the rubbies are different. They are dangerous. If we leave them alone, they will come back to attack us when we are vulnerable! And even if we manage to beat them back, we're gonna be in the exact same situation as we are now!” He opened his arms, as if to show the ogres where they were right now. “And if that happens, we're gonna be stuck in this forest forever, and most of us will starve to death! Is this what you want? Or you want to get outside of the forest, where more plentiful prey are living? In the lands of the humans and beastmen, there is more food than you can eat in your lifetime, and so many delicacies that you can't even imagine! Do you want to keep eating the worm from the dirt here or do you want to go there? Because if that's what you want, you're gonna have to follow my orders! And if you do that, then the whole world is gonna be our buffet!”

The ogres cheered in response, their doubts apparently completely dispelled by Blueskin's little speech, and the oni had to struggle to keep a straight face and not to smirk with satisfaction. It was tremendously easy to convince the orcs of anything, if you brought up the argument of food.

Meanwhile, Longfang had started squirming under the weight of Blueskin's hand, trying to free itself. With calculated care, the oni suddenly grabbed the ogre's head and lifted it up, as easily as if he was picking up a mice.

“So... have you calmed down, Longfang?” Blueskin asked with a smug smile. “Or do you need to spend some more time eating dirt to chill?”

A defiant and angry spark flashed in the ogre's eyes, but it quickly disappeared as Blueskin painfully strengthened his grip on its head.

“Answer me Longfang.” He insisted, turning serious. “Did you have enough? Or maybe this time you are actually volunteering yourself to be my snack? We both know that in my place, you'd have eaten me long ago... perhaps it's time I respond in kind.”

A glint of fear appeared i Longfang's eyes, quickly drowning out the fire of rage and pride.

“I had enough.” It finally replied with a pained grunt.

“I had enough who?” The oni asked, not lessening his grip.

“I had enough, sir!” The ogre finally cried in pain.

“Very well.” Blueskin nodded and released Longfang, who fell on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. “I'm letting you off easy this time, but if you cause any more problems in the near future, I'm gonna be very, very angry. And very hungry. Are we clear?”

“Yes sir.” The ogre replied, suddenly acting all submissive and coy now that it was recognizing Blueskin's authority. Even its voice sounded more weak and feminine.

In response to that act of submission, Blueskin felt his reproductive pseudopod growing as blood rushed to his head. The instinct to mate had kicked in, but a quick look at the hideous appearance of the ogre quickly made it subside. He had mated with it before in order to prove his authority, but right now he wouldn't be able to endure laying with such a disgusting-looking creature. Not while sober, anyway. And

“Man, I 'd really like a beer. Or even better, a dozen.” He thought, not for the first time. But sadly, there was no alcohol in the Caligare forest, and the orcs lacked the means to produce any. So he sighed and decided that he had accomplished what he had called his lieutenants for. Now he didn't need them anymore, and he needed some peace and quiet to think.

“If you understand your position, it's fine.” He said to Longfang, waving his hand to dismiss him. “Return to your unit, keep your soldiers in line and wait for further orders.” He turned to the others. “The same goes for all of you. Go away.”

Slowly, Longfang picked himself up and started limping back to his quarters, followed by everyone else. Blueskin stared at them with barely hidden contempt.

“Disgusting creatures!” He thought bitterly. “Ugly and stupid. Why couldn't I have been reborn as a member of a more beautiful race? I'd have gotten an harem of pretty waifus by now instead of a menagerie of ogre trannies!”

He sighed, stopping that train of thoughts. Complaining about things that couldn't be changed was of no use whatsoever.

“Well, at least being smarter than all of them combined makes it easier to control them.” He said to himself, trying to find a silver lining in this situation.  “And they do perform admirably as soldiers, I gotta give them that. Still, it's such a waste! I mean, they are a bunch of strong, wild creatures that have to be fucked in order to be submitted! This would be a nice plot for an hentai game if they weren't just so damn ugly!”

He sighed again, and then turned to the hill once again, focusing on trying to find a way to cross that damn mist. As he tried to concentrate, he also found himself wishing to possess some weapons from his old world. Shelling that hill with artillery or carpet bombing it from the sky would have been incredibly easy, but alas this world didn't possess such technology, so he would have to make do with what he had available to him.

However, despite these difficulties, he was confident that he would be able to find a solution eventually. This was his story after all, and the main character couldn't be stopped at such an early stage. Besides he had all kinds of advantages on his side that would certainly assure his victory.

Blueskin had been special since the day of his birth, not only he had been allowed to retain the memories from his previous life, a time when he had been a man from another world called Earth. And the knowledge he had acquired in that past existence together with the unique powers he had been granted were more than enough to ensure his success in this new world. Just like he had been promised.

Truth be told, Blueskin's previous life hadn't been very remarkable. Quite the contrary, actually. He had led a pretty uneventful and unsuccessful life after being kicked from the army boot camp for misbehaviour. He had even become some sort of recluse, living in his parents' basement and spending most of his time playing games and reading manga and novels on the internet, bitter and misunderstood, until he had met his demise by tripping down the stairs. But now he knew that stage of his existence had just been a necessary footstep for him to gain the knowledge and wisdom to excel in his current life. Armed with the notions he had acquired both from his stint in the army and from the stories he had read on the internet, he was ready to conquer this new world. This was clearly his destiny, to become someone more special than anyone else.

This was what had been promised to him.

And it looked like that promise would actually become true. There wasn't much room for doubt, and clearly the powers he had been given at birth put him leagues above any other creature in the forest. Apart from his blue skin, a physical sign of his uniqueness, he also had an improved version of the orc aura absorbing skill: not only he gained much more power from his preys but he also got some of their memories out of the meal. This gave him an unparalleled way of collecting information, something which had allowed him to not only survive, but thrive in this new, hostile world. With every opponent he defeated and consumed, he grew stronger and wiser, managing to evolve into an oni after barely two years from his birth, while most orcs couldn't even become ogres after many decades, and by now there were very few things that could stand up to him in a fight.

Using his overwhelming power, he had quickly raised through the ranks of the orcs, first becoming the chief of his native tribe and then starting a long campaign of unification, challenging and submitting every other orc tribe of the forest. Then he had used his knowledge from his previous life to organize the orcs in a functioning military, turning them from a bunch of indolent, lazy beasts into something resembling an army of proper soldiers. And finally he had started to systematically conquer the northern part of the Caligare Forest, either enslaving or outright killing any other race that threatened his rule. He had an easy time with the goblins, the trolls and other tribal races, but the Piraca and the Rantul had proved to be much more of a challenge, since like the orcs those species had also been united under a single leader. Still, the orcs were still much stronger than both of them combined and had dealt them a series of crushing defeats, becoming even stronger in the process by eating the captured enemies alive and establishing themselves at the top of the food chain in the Caligare Forest.

Quite ironically, it was right after that moment of triumph that problems had started popping up.

First off the orcs, not having any more predators or even competitors, had multiplied uncontrollably, reaching a population of over thirty thousands, something which, while positive for Blueskin's future plans, was also a drawback i the current circumstances because there wasn't simply enough food to feed them all. The resources of the forest had already been depleted, and most of the other sentient races, the main food source of the orcs, had either been hunted to extinction or fled. In addition the Rantul and the Piraca, while greatly weakened, were still a potential threat and had started using cowardly and downright infuriating ways to fight, avoiding straight up engagements and relying on hit-and-run and guerilla tactics. These attacks weren't really that damaging but they were creating havoc and causing a loss of morale amongst the orcs, who were already unruly because of the lack of food. If allowed to continue, it was possible that not even Blueskin would be able to keep his forces in check, causing his army to crumble.

Something had to be done, and Blueskin wasn't someone to stay still without acting. So he had marched out to the stronghold of the Piraca —kind of a forced choice because he didn't know where the Rantul were, since those arachnid bastards had somehow managed to avoid any attempt to locate their nest— fully intent on putting an end to their race, but once he had arrived he had found himself stalled by that detestable yellow mist. He had tried many ways to cross that thing and reach the ruins on top of the hill, where the rubbies were hiding, but all of them had failed. Trying to make anti-acid suits out of Piraca skin had proved ineffective due to the poor craftsmanship of the orcs, who were completely unable to make those suits air proof. Building a tunnel under the mist was likewise unfeasible because the hill was basically a giant, solid block of rock. And finally using the ogres' shapeshifting powers to make them grow wings and fly directly to the castle couldn't be done because the stupid gits weren't able to grow functional wings. Only Blueskin was able to do that, but he wasn't really eager to try and take the whole fortress by himself, especially because the Piraca Nobles were all capable of flying and could gang up on him.

And now he had no more ideas to try. It seemed that only the rubbies themselves could cross that mist, and although he did have many Piraca captives —which he was keeping as food reserves— he had no way of reliably coherce them into working for him.

While he was thinking, he sensed a faint presence approaching him from behind and he turned to see what it was, but he didn't see anyone. However, now that he concentrated on it, that presence was very familiar.

“Oh, it's you.” Blueskin said with a nod and an amused smirk. “You're back then. Have you discovered a way to go through the mist?”

The air flickered, and suddenly a humanoid figure appeared about five meters from him. It was clearly an ogre, but unlike the others this one was much smaller, being less than two meters tall, and extremely feminine. It still had vaguely reptilian features and an incredibly large mouth, but its body was very toned and shapely, like that of a female olympic athlete. This ogre even had hair, a wild blond mane that somehow completed perfectly its amazonian beauty.

Blueskin felt his smile getting larger. This newcomer was Tiny-Sneaky, his most trusted lieutenant and also his favourite concubine. They both came from the same tribe and had known each other ever since they were newborns, but while the oni had always been stronger and more powerful than other orcs, Tiny had been born with a weak and small body. She would have almost certainly died if Blueskin hadn't taken her under his wing, protecting and feeding her. In return, she had always served him with loyalty, functioning as his confidant, servant and even as his lover. It had been a very advantageous deal for Blueskin, especially ever since she had turned into an ogre. Not only she had actually put effort into looking beautiful with stellar results —at least when compared to the others— but she also had the rare ability to control the pigmentation of her skin, essentially giving her camaleontic powers.

Right now, she worked mostly as a personal spy and scout for Blueskin, though it pained him to let her go since she was the only ogre he actually liked to mate with. Still, he told himself, it would be a waste of her talents to keep her as a full-time concubine, so he would have to make that sacrifice for the sake of victory.

“I have discovered a very important thing.” Tiny-Sneaky replied, with a deep but still quite feminine voice. “But not how to get through the mist. It completely surrounds the hill and I saw no passage. However, on my way back, I saw something weird.”

“What?” Blueskin asked with interest.

“I saw one orc leaving the camp. It had a blank expression and it moved weird, so I decided to follow it.” The female ogre said. “He went to the north west for almost a day, until he reached an isolated clearing. There, he met with a Rantul warrior and started talking with it.”

“What!?!” The oni cried, incredulous. “Why? Are you telling me that this soldier is in league with the spiders!?!”

“Maybe.” Tiny shrugged. “I couldn't understand what they were saying because both of them were speaking in the tongue of the Rantul. However that orc was really weird. It didn't move its mouth while talking, it just kept it open and chittering sound came out of it. Also, there was something moving in its head. I could see something resembling spider legs occasionally coming out of its ears.”

“That's... peculiar.” Blueskin said, frowning. “From what you say, that orc almost looked as if it was possessed by a brain spider... but brain spiders are not in cahoot with the Rantul, to my knowledge. They are not in cahoot with anyone, actually. Sure, they are smart enough, but they consider everything else either as a threat or as a prey. They have never allied themselves with anything else. Heck, they barely collaborate with one another.”

“Well, this is what I saw.” Tiny-Sneaky shrugged again.

The oni remained silent for a moment, trying to process the information he had just received. Then he turned to the ogre once again.

“This weird orc... what have you done with it?” He asked.

“Nothing yet.” Tiny-Sneaky replied. “I just followed it back to the camp, and when it went to sleep I came here to tell you about it. You told me not to do anything important without informing you first, so I came here to inform you. Did I do well?”

“Yes.” Blueskin nodded, suddenly feeling his mood improving considerably as he suddenly realized an enticing possibility. Maybe it was possible to kill two birds with one stone. “Yes you did.”

“What do you want me to do now?” She asked. “Do I go back to kill it?”

She sounded very eager to do that. But right now Blueskin had other plans in mind.

“No.” The oni said. “I'll do it. This way, when I eat that orc I'll get its memories. If we're lucky, it may know the location of the Rantul nest. And if we're really lucky, it may even help us find a way to finally deal with this mist.”

“How?” Tiny asked, curious. “How can it know how to deal with the mist? I mean, from what I saw he's in league with the Rantul, not the Piraca.”

“That's because only a Piraca can safely cross the mist.” Blueskin said with a smile. “Or at least, something wearing the skin of a Piraca. If the Rantuls have found a way to control the brain spiders, we could make use of it to deal with the rubbies as well.”

Tiny-Sneaky nodded.

“I see.” She said. “Good. I'll guide you to that orc then.”

“Wait.” Blueskin said, with a very, very large and almost predatory smile. “First, there is something I need to do.”

He grabbed Tiny-Sneaky, lifting her like a doll and kissing her on the mouth. The female ogre didn't put up any resistance, just letting the oni do anything he wanted. Then Blueskin put her back on the ground.

“I've had a horrible week, and I really need to blow some steam right now.” He said, feeling his reproductive pseudopod growing. “Bend over. I'll make it quick. After all, we've got some important things to do."

Without a word, the female ogre obeyed.