“I do not need to heal to crush your weak Orc body.”
“Oh, I am sure you don’t, that is why I have gathered every Orc I have near this forest and I am burning it from the outside. I will make sure that you die, even if I have to kill every last tree in this forest to do so.”
Xandraf then raised his hands in the air and a wave of fire began to spread in Stundroff’s direction.
Stundroff was so angry that he didn’t even think about what the fire would do to him; he jumped head on through the flames towards Xandraf’s Fire Orc and landed a punch as he reached him.
The punch was so strong, that the tree on which the Orc was leaning exploded. Crushing the Orc with the force of the blast. Stundroff continue to punch the Orc in the face with punches that were strong enough to kill a Human, as the flames slowly consumed his flesh. He stared directly into the Orc’s eyes.
“There is nowhere you can hide from me; I know where you are and I will not stop until I do this to you personally. Do you hear me, Xandraf?”
The Dwarf’s words were delivered with such conviction that it made Xandraf tremble with fear even when he knew he was safe many miles away from there, for he had never seen such raw power and anger.
It took a few seconds for Xandraf to calm himself, as he realized that he was in no immediate danger. Using his power over the Fire Orc’s body, he looked up at the Dwarf and began to laugh as hard as he could.
Magma drooled down from the Orc’s mouth and poured from its wounds, but this did not stop Stundroff from retaining his grip over the beast.
The Dwarf then noticed that the Orc’s eyes were changing from pure black to red as if they were being filled with fire. Knowing that his message had already been delivered and that he had no more use for this Orc, the Dwarf landed one last punch, crushing the Orc’s skull in the process and releasing a huge explosion that would send him and every tree in the proximity flying, and knocking the Dwarf completely out in the process.
◆◆◆
Stundroff slowly opened his eyes. But instead of the night sky, he found himself looking at the wooden ceiling of a cabin. He tried to get back on his feet, only to find his body completely unresponsive.
“I am glad that you are finally awake, I was not sure if you would survive.”
Stundroff turned as much as he could towards the direction the voice had come from, only to find that it was a little girl the one that was speaking to him.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Maria; I am the one who spotted you floating down the river three days ago. So I called my brothers and between the three of us we managed to carry you here.”
“Where am I?”
“You are at our family’s farm. Is not much, but we call it our home at the edge of the world.”
“What do you mean by, at the edge of the world?”
“That is just a joke my brothers and I make, because there is nothing south from here except for the mountains.”
“I see, so we are close to the mountains and Nel Badhur?”
“Oh, you mean that old fortress. Yes, we are close. But you should not venture there, because that place is full of those monsters.” Her face was filled with fear.
“I am not afraid of those monsters and it is important that I get there.” Stundroff struggled to sit up.
“You should be, because those monsters killed my mama.” The child was almost on the verge of tears.
“Oh, I see. I am sorry, little one, but you need not be concerned for my wellbeing, for I am more than capable of taking care of myself against those monsters.”
“It doesn’t look like you can.”
“Don’t worry, child, this is nothing, just bring me some food and I will be back on my feet in no time.”
“Yes, we don’t have much, but we are more than happy to share.”
It took some time, but as the Dwarf regained his strength with food, his healing powers reappeared. The bones in his leg realigned, the wounds from the Orc claws filled with flesh and his burned skin began to grow back with tremendous speed.
Maria was so impressed with the speed of his recovery that she called her two brothers, so that they could see as well. But by the time they ran into the house, Stundroff was back on his feet.
“That is amazing!”
“Thank you, I don’t think I have ever been so hungry in my entire life.”
“I’m sure you were. You have had nothing to eat for days.”
“That explains a lot. Now if you don’t mind me asking, where is your father?”
The three children paused before one of the brothers said,
“Papa went away to the forest with some men from the nearest village to hunt for food; they were supposed to be back a few days ago, but they haven’t returned yet.”
“Yes, that is why we went looking after we saw the fire two nights before we found you,” Maria said.
Stundroff immediately knew what fate had befallen the children’s father. Even though he knew that they would find out eventually, he found himself unwilling to hurt them further, so he decided not to tell them.
“So it took two days for you to find me after the fire?”
“Yes, it did, we were almost sure that you would not recover, but Papa always said to help those in need,” Maria said.
“Your father sounds like a wise and noble man; I would very much like to meet him one day.”
“Yes, you will. Papa is very strong and swift like the wind. I am sure he made it out of that fire and he is finding his way back home,” Maria said, full of hope.
“Yes, I am sure he is, but I have to get to that fortress, for I have already wasted too much time. In the meantime, you should go to the nearest village and wait for your father to return.”
“No, we are sure that Papa will find his way back home. There is no need for us to go anywhere; besides we should stay where it’s cold, because the monsters don’t like the cold,” Maria replied.
“There is something important that I need to retrieve from the stronghold, but I promise you that as soon as I get it, I will return and help you look for your father.”
Knowing that their father would never return, but also knowing that Nel Badhur would not be a place for them, Stundroff decided to continue his quest and forge the sheath for the blade. And once he had it, he would then return for the children and take them to safety.
The Dwarf found himself in a land mostly covered by snow, with strong winds that came down directly from the mountains. It wasn’t a good place to farm; the children’s father must have taken them there to keep them away from the Orcs.
Still sore from his wounds and not feeling fully recovered, the Dwarf set his sight on the mountains and resumed his journey.
Not wanting to waste extra energy or alert nearby Orcs and knowing that he was close to his destination, the Dwarf opted to continue his journey walking instead of leaping. By nightfall he made it to the gates of Nel Badhur.
Stundroff had no time to be emotional, but a feeling of happiness flooded his heart, as he found himself somewhere that he never thought he would see, a place that only existed in legends. The great citadel, that was home to the great forge and all the Dwarves’ traditions.
The walls were incredibly high and mostly made of metal. There were watch towers every twenty feet; the structure was massive and sturdy enough to retain its impenetrability, even after being abandoned for the last two thousand years.
Stundroff saw no points of entry, except for the front door. But the Dwarf assumed that any Orcs inside would not react well to him simply just knocking.
“For now Xandraf thinks that I am dead; I suppose it is best to keep it that way and avoid unnecessary confrontations.”
Not knowing how many Orcs waited for him inside those walls, Stundroff began to make plans.
Knocking at the front door is out of the question, I could jump over the wall, but I have no idea what is on the other side or if any Orcs would see me falling. I could use my
hands to rip the metal from the walls, but that would probably make too much noise.
The Dwarf was out of ideas and began to consider simply knocking at the front door, but as he stood there contemplating his options night finally fell, and the screams of hundreds of Orcs filled the air as they prepared for their nightly feast.
The dwarf felt a pain in his leg and looked down to see that an ant had bitten him. There was a colony close to where he was standing. It gave him an idea.
Using the cover of the night and the bushes, the Dwarf made his way to the bottom of the east wall of the stronghold. Once there, he began to dig using his hands while trying to remain as silent as possible, but to his surprise the foundations of the great wall where deeper than he imagined.
Stundroff scratched his way through the earth, as he felt his way with his hands, making sure that he would just go under the wall and then back up. The walls foundations were fifteen feet deep and the wall itself was almost twenty feet thick, so it took longer than what Stundroff had originally estimated.
If it was not for the fact that he had spent most of his life living in caves with very little air to breathe, he would have suffocated. But at last he realized that he had finally made it under the wall. Now he only had to go up from there.
It took just a few minutes more, and Stundroff was out of the hole and back on his feet; he then crouched and looked around to get his bearings.
He was in a dark alley that let straight into a stairwell that connected to a balcony that ran all around the main plaza.
Our hero took his time and, making sure he wasn’t spotted, he worked his way out of that alley. Once up at the balcony, the Dwarf was treated to an unpleasant surprise, as he saw that his initial estimate of the Orc population based on the screams was completely inaccurate. There were over a thousand Orcs just in the main plaza.
“I may be in over my head.”
First he would need to find enough Bronium to both use as tools and craft the sword’s sheath. Second he would have to find a forge with a suitable workspace that he could use. And finally he would need to work uninterrupted for several hours, and all of this without being spotted by any of the thousands of Orcs that flooded the citadel’s hallways.
Yes… I am definitely in over my head.
The Dwarf knew that this plan was impossible, and that he would need to fight his way out of there eventually, but every moment he spent without being seen would increase the odds of him finishing his mission.
So with that thought in mind, he climbed up to the balcony and started to slowly make his way around the stronghold. But he found himself staring at corpses Human, animal, and even Orc. Hundreds of half-eaten corpses.
Maybe it was the idea that these beasts were so savage that they would eat their own kind, or maybe it was the putrid smell that made Stundroff sick to his stomach. But without noticing, he took a few steps back to distance himself from that horrifying scene.
Unfortunately, while doing so, the hero bumped a skeleton, sitting up against the wall. The skull fell to the floor. Stundroff tried to catch it, but he fell face first into the ground, making enough noise to catch the attention of a nearby Orc.
The Orc looked surprised at first, as no one had ever been bold enough to enter the stronghold by his own free will. But in a matter of seconds the Orc’s chest began to swell, as it filled itself with air, preparing for the scream that would alert every Orc in Nel Badhur of Stundroff’s presence.
Stundroff couldn’t let that happen. He grabbed one of the skeleton’s ribs and threw it directly at the Orc, piercing its throat. It prevented the Orc from screaming, but it didn’t kill him. The Orc made it to the edge of the balcony and fell straight into the central plaza.
Using a tool, even one as rudimentary as a bone, was not the way an Orc killed. So this immediately alerted the Orcs in the plaza of a foreign presence and they immediately looked up to the balcony to confirm it.
Stundroff tried to duck before being seen, but he was a second too late.
The entire stronghold echoed with the screams of the Orcs as they began to charge towards Stundroff.
Stundroff had no idea of where to go exactly, so he began to run as fast as he could. He made it to a door that lead to a hallway with several side entrances.
But as soon as he stepped inside, the Orcs began to come out of every entrance like ants in search of food. He turned around to try and go back the way he’d come, but the balcony was already infested with charging Orcs.
Seeing there was no way out but fighting, Stundroff charged forward, landing a punch in the chest of the first Orc he found. The Orc was dead on impact, and his body flew several feet, knocking out several Orcs.
Stundroff then punched another Orc with the same result and seeing this, he thought that it could be an effective way to make room for him to move. But by the time the Dwarf prepared to land another punch, he became overwhelmed by the Orc’s numbers, each of them clawing their way through his skin and flesh.
Stundroff knew he would not be able to heal fast enough to keep up with the damage he was receiving.
The floor of the hallway quickly became stained with the blood of the Dwarf, as for every Orc he killed, three more managed to hurt him with their claws.
This was a fight Stundroff knew he couldn’t win; the Orc’s numbers would eventually triumph over his strength and endurance.
Soon it became harder for him to move, as he had become completely surrounded by the beasts that where clawing each other just to get a chance to hurt him. It was then that one of the beasts managed to sink his teeth in the Dwarf’s back. The pain was so intense that it shook Stundroff out of the frenzy he found himself in. He looked up and thought of a way out.
The Dwarf used his powerful legs to jump, sticking the fingers of his left hand into the iron ceiling, hanging from it.
Stundroff then looked down and saw the Orcs were climbing on top of the corpses and even on top of each other, just to get to him. He saw an opening just big enough for him to fit through and just high enough, so that the Orcs could not follow him through.
Gripping into the ceiling, hand by hand, he made his way to the opening.
The small passage served as ventilation for the room it connected to; luckily this adjacent room was both dark and completely deserted. So Stundroff used this chance to calm down and allow some time for his wounds to heal, as he was sure that as soon as he stepped outside that room, he would need to fight again.
It took a few minutes for the Dwarf’s wounds to heal and as the minutes went by the Orcs’ screams diminished.
Stundroff mustered the strength he needed to finish his task and then kicked the door of the room open.
As soon as he stepped outside, he was spotted by a group of Orcs; immediately the screams resumed and so did the chase for their prey.
This was a small pack, so Stundroff charged towards them with great speed and jumped over them using his powerful legs.
He then ran from one hallway to the next, making his best effort to avoid the Orcs instead of fighting them.
He ran, pushed, jumped and used every cunning strategy he could think of to search the entire stronghold for what he needed, only stopping to fight and kill Orcs when strictly necessary.
And finally he got lucky as he reached the main hall on the highest floor of the tallest tower in the entire stronghold.
Stundroff had heard about this his entire life and he knew he was at the right place as soon as he saw it - the great forge, the closest thing the Dwarves had to a deity or a temple.
It was said that the great forge had been burning since the beginning of time and that its flame could never be extinguished; Stundroff always thought this to be a simple myth, but to his surprise, even after two thousand years, the flames of the forge burned bright.
The forge itself was adorned by sculptures of the faces of the first Dwarf kings and the room contained large iron tables filled with every tool that Stundroff could possibly need. Ther
e were stockpiles of every metal that the Dwarves used to work, including the much-needed Bronium for the sword’s sheath.
Stundroff felt a sense of comfort as the heat of the forge touched his skin and he basked in the glory of such a mythical place. Now, if he could only get pass the fifty Orcs that where standing between him and the forge, before the thousand Orcs that where on his trail found him, he could finally finish his mission.
Stundroff stepped inside the doorway of the only entrance to the circular room and immediately caught the attention of every Orc in the hall; our hero knew he had to contain the fight inside that room, while at the same time finding a way to keep the other Orcs outside.
But before he could come up with a plan, the Orcs screamed at him and began to charge. Stundroff knew that time was his enemy, as much as the Orcs inside that room were.
He ran towards the nearest table and flipped it over and used it as a shield to both protect himself against the Orc’s attacks and push them out of his way.
The surface of the table was wide enough to push and hold at least ten Orcs. And the combined strength of the beasts was nothing compared to the might of the Dwarf, so Stundroff quickly began to gain momentum despite the Orcs pilling together to stop him. Soon he had almost the fifty Orcs piled up against him at the other side of the big iron table; now if he could only push them towards the flames of the forge; he could finish the fight in one move.
He felt the claws of an Orc, as they sank into the flesh of his back and quickly began to tear his flesh.
Stundroff immediately reacted to the pain with a backlash from his right hand, leaving only his left hand to push the table. The Orc took the hit and was sent flying against the wall, but the Orcs began to gain momentum, making the table and the Dwarf turn slowly.
Stundroff felt the table turning, but he also noticed that the Orc that had managed to attack him was only one of the many that were entering the hall.
The Dwarf looked around the room for an answer, as the Orcs started to surround the table in order to reach the Dwarf.
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