A Soldier's Life - 203 - Orc's Torment

Chapter 203: Orc’s Torment

Only one orc was still breathing. He was unconscious, and the spear had severed his spine. As I worked the spear out of him, he stifled a groan. When his eyes focused on me standing over him, he could feel the tip of the spear at his throat. “Do you speak Telhian?”

His black eyes focused on me, radiating pain and hate. “Not good legionnaire.”

“Excellent. Why are you here?” I demanded, pressing the tip lightly downward. It parted the skin too easily, so I retracted the pressure. Instead of answering, his hand moved to his belt, and I shifted my weight forward, pushing the spear through his neck. I should have tied him up before questioning him. I really needed to add rope to my dimensional space.

I did two quick arcs with the spear to clean the blood before sending it to my dimensional space. I put on the aether channeling ring to help expedite my aether replenishment. I rested the collector on his chest and activated it. A major essence for endurance formed shortly.

I studied the dark blue essence for a moment, reflecting on where it had come from and how dispassionate I had become about killing. I hadn’t hesitated in combat, and my mind had been crystal clear the entire time. The one thing I noted that ironically scared me a little was the absence of fear. I had changed immensely, and my thoughts only focused on how to kill my enemy and limit the injuries to myself.

My thoughts turned to Renna. Had I failed to protect her? If she had remained with me, there was no way I could have protected her from the nine attackers. I regretted yelling angrily at her to run, but it had to be done. I began to worry about her injury. Had she flown in the correct direction? Did she have enough aether to return to the tower or find the group? Would she encounter other orcs or a beast?

I hesitated, thinking I should go and find Renna. My indecisiveness lasted for minutes while I used the collector. I decided to remain here and wait as night was almost upon me. The sky was cloudy, and it could be a dark night, and not wise to wander the woods blind.

In all, I ended up with eight essences. One orc didn’t return an essence even though the density of the aetheric smoke seemed enough to form one. For major essences, I had two of endurance, two of dexterity, and one of quickness. The three minor essences I harvested were perception, quickness, and coordination.

I consumed the major quickness essence, getting slight motion sickness for a few steps as it worked through my body. I dragged all the orcs together in a row and pulled the floating Hound’s body out of the muddy water. It felt wrong to try the collector on him, and he had probably been dead for over an hour anyway. Nine orc bodies—and one needed a head. I deposited the head from my dimensional space and jumped back, reaching for my sword. The eyes of the orc looked around wildly for a few seconds before light faded from his eyes forever. I shook my head and couldn’t help but darkly chuckle.

I started searching all the bodies; surprisingly, the orcs had no smell to them. Since they were orcs, I expected them to smell—dirty. Each had two or three vials on them that I assumed were potions, but they were all unmarked. Of the pile of 22 vials, 10 were green, and 12 were light blue. The light blue had glitter in the suspension when I inspected them with a glowstone behind them. Light blue was the color of the potion vial I had shattered, so I assumed these were orc healing potions. I didn’t break the wax seal on any of them and sent all 22 to my space.

Most of their weapons were good forged steel, but nothing exceptional. There was one runic short sword among the longer blades. It was not dungeon-forged but clearly a runic weapon by the markings along the blade. It was much lighter than it should have been as well, so it was not steel but maybe an aluminum or titanium alloy.

I swung it a few times and did not like the feel of it. A weapon's mass helps apply force to your strikes, but this blade felt like a toy in my hand. I sent it to my dimensional armory and would probably forget about it. It may be a good weapon for a child or woman. I did find two good skinning knives among the weapons, and they were the only other blades I took.

The orc bows were larger than the compact short bows the legionaries used. I tested the draw weight on both and found them underpowered for my draw strength. The arrows were thicker, but lighter than the Telhian arrows and were made of black wood, or perhaps they were stained black. Unfortunately, I had already gotten acquainted with them during the fight. The feathered fletchings were black as well. I took all twenty-two arrows and two quivers into my dimensional space. Looking back at the orc bodies and what they were wearing, I realized they really liked the color black.

Most likely, their ensemble was so they could move better under the cover of darkness. But how had the orcs camouflaged themselves? I doubted they were mages as none used spells during the fight. Maybe the intricate tattoos didn’t enhance their physical attributes. Maybe this was an assassin squad? They were certainly smaller orcs than the imposing ones from the arena. Maybe they were hunting Renna?

The night was settling in, and I made my way to one of the massive evergreen trees and climbed to a wide branch about forty feet off the ground. I sent my pauldron and greaves to storage so I could climb faster if needed—up or down. I sprinkled some myconid powder below and settled down in view of the row of bodies below. I had two of each of my pellets in hand: smoke, blindness, and sneezing as I took short naps during the night.

The clouds hadn’t cleared, and it was near complete darkness as I waited till morning. Waiting alone in the woods is not a comfortable feeling when you have seen the horrors I had. Every brief span of sleep was a nightmare of some creature finding me in the tree. Giant weasels, orcs, hill giants, wyverns, and goblins flittered through my thoughts. After a few hours of short naps, I felt rested from my ring and focused on the sounds of the forest. My aether core was full, so I sent the channeling ring to storage, and the enhanced aether burn faded. I was only sustaining my spell form for slow aging now.

Four coyotes trotted below me, but after sniffing the orcs, they continued on, oddly passing on the free meal. The only other encounters of the night were when I surprised a gray owl that landed nearby on my branch and a large skunk passing below me.

As soon as the sky grayed, announcing the sun’s imminent arrival, I climbed down and put on my pardons and greaves. I started to circle the area using my earth speak skill. I located the bodies of two more Hound trainers beyond the marker tree. As Sofia had said, these Hounds must have been out here for the mage trainees. I made a wider circle, still searching, but I didn’t find what I was looking for.

The orcs must have packs of gear, food, and equipment nearby. The orcs were good, as I couldn’t find any markings noting their path. Konstantin would be upset with my failure as I eventually gave up, surrendering to the possibility they had used magic to conceal their path. Yes, that must be what they did, and what I would tell Konstantin if it ever came up. I returned to the row of bodies, three Hounds and nine orcs. Flies were buzzing even in the cold morning air, laying eggs for the next generation.

I moved a distance away and settled on a rock with a tree to support my back. If no one came by midday, I would head back on my own. Of course, it started raining an hour later. I was sheltered under the tree, but large drops splashed on my helm every minute or so. Mid-morning, I spotted movement in the light rain. I remained seated and studied the trees. Definitely Hounds and not orcs. At least two, maybe three.

A flash of movement far to my right told me they had gotten closer than I thought. I waited on the Hounds, remaining completely still but easily visible. They were being extremely cautious even though I had laid out the enemy in plain sight. It took almost an hour before a gray-haired Hound walked boldly from the deeper woods. I recognized him immediately. It was Cornelius.

The old man paused at the row of orcs, walking down the line, inspecting each one. When he reached the Hounds, he kneeled and inspected them more closely. I guessed he was determining how they had been killed. Finished, he stood and walked toward me, standing over me as I had not stood. “Are you injured legionnaire?” He asked. His body was tense, ready to react to any threat I posed.

“Just tired. Is Renna okay?” I said, meeting his eyes.

“The red-haired mage? She is fine and has been healed. Returned late last night. She created quite the storm, even attacked First Citizen Cashius, blaming him for your death. Looks like she underestimated you.” Cornelius told me, a smile forming on his lips.

“Underestimating me is common. Is Renna in danger?” I stood slowly to appear non-threatening. I assumed there were multiple Hounds in the woods. “Where is Zyna?”

“Chancellor Zyna,” he stressed her title. “She was tracking the two gnoll packs in the area to make sure they didn’t interfere with the mage testing.” He waved behind him, “We thought the gnolls were the only threats in the area. Orc Pathfinders this far from the coast is a surprise. As to your red-haired mage, Zyna interceded. The attack never landed, although Cashius is still screaming for her head.”

“Orc Pathfinders? Not assassins?” Maybe I had assumed that they were assassins because they wore all black.

“The Caliphate definitely uses them as such as well. They are similar to our Hounds or the Rangers of the Bartiradians. They work in groups of nine, usually all related in some way and perform a variety of tasks for the Supreme.”

“What were they doing here, and what is the function of their tattoos?” I questioned the man.

He looked over his shoulder at the bodies, “Most likely stealth spell forms. That group was probably an advanced scouting detachment. One of the trainers might have talked, and they thought they could eliminate some promising young mages. It was a bold move and probably a signal that things are about to get a lot more interesting very soon.” His voice was laced with sarcasm. “We will get some heads to a necromancer to confirm.”

His voice turned serious. “So, how did you do it? Nine dead, and all you have is a hole in your cuirass and a dozen scratches.” Yeah, Ignis had put a lot of work into repairing and making the resin-hide armor look new, and now it looked like I had been in a serious fight.

“Mostly luck. Renna helped, freezing one in the pond. I managed to fight them in pairs as they were spread out for an ambush. I eventually took an arrow.” I fingered the hole above my heart. “But by then, there were just three left. Fortuna was smiling at me as well because my black blade is an Orcsbane. Not only did it cause them immense pain, but it also prevented them from healing.”

Cornelius eyed me skeptically, so I drew the blade and handed it to him. He took it and shook his head as the luster it had gained was already fading. “Orcsbane, interesting name. If it does what you said, then it is called the Orc’s Torment. About a hundred were forged centuries ago, and very few remain. Where did you get it?” He asked patiently.

“It was wielded by the captain of the guard in the Angella family. First Citizen Boris Angella lost it to me in a bet.” I told him, and he chuckled.

“Ah, yes. I recall now. The dreamscape amulet bet.” He said it like we were sharing a joke, but I didn’t like that he knew about the amulet. Hounds began to move closer from the trees, and I must have missed Cornelius giving them an all-clear sign. They were on the bodies, searching them. “Take the heads for the necromancer to commune with. We will find out why they were here,” he ordered.

He returned the black blade. “You need to continue feeding it orc blood. Most of these purpose blades deteriorate and weaken. I am guessing the Angella Guard Captain rarely used it in battle.”

Cornelius seemed to consider the devastation. “You know, we were having trouble getting you into the Hounds because you are a foreigner. I think you just helped your case. We are in desperate need of Hounds who can do this.” He waved his hand at the line of bodies that were being beheaded. I guessed they only needed the head to talk with the dead.

“Are we heading back?” I asked as the Hounds finished their grisly work.

“Eager to see your red-haired mage, are we?” Cornelius smirked at me. “I am sure Zyna is eager to talk with you as well.” He laughed at my shock and added, “The young, fiery-tempered one as well.”

The Hounds found the gear packs of the Orc Pathfinders deep in the woods, and soon, seven Hounds and five Hound trainers were escorting me back to the Gnoll Gardens tower.

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