Scorched Kingdom

by Daniel Guevara

  “I hate to admit it, but our savage friend is right. We haven’t got time to wait and study the situation.”

  “I am sorry, my friend, but a blind attack against a force we do not fully understand, in a terrain that we don’t know, is ignorant, foolish and borderline suicidal,” Licius said.

  “I won’t argue with your logic, but you have to trust me on this. There is too much at stake here for us to wait. We have to attack now, before it is too late.”

  The Elf knew that there was information that Arius had chosen to withhold, but the Human prince had not misled him so far. So Licius chose to trust his friend yet again and agreed with a silent nod of his head.

  “Great, let’s kill those fuckers!” said Korgat, as Khall celebrated his enthusiasm.

  “These men are crazy,” Stundroff said.

  Most of the men that Khall had managed to recruit, were not warriors but farmers and wanderers who recognized that they had no choice but to fight.

  They guided their small army towards the Fire Mountains until they made it to a narrow bridge made of solid rock, which crossed a river of magma.

  And on the other side, an army of Fire Orcs awaited them, surrounded by lava stone walls at the base of the mountains.

  The stench of sulfur made it hard to breathe, as they waited on their side of the bridge. Their presence did not passed unnoticed, as an orc controlled by Xandraf crossed the bridge.

  “I wondered when you would arrive.”

  “I am here to offer you a choice, surrender while you can and we may still spare your life,” said Arius.

  “No! There is no way I will let this bastard live,” Stundroff shouted.

  The Orc turned towards Stundroff.

  “Be quiet, can’t you see that the adults are talking?”

  Xandraf’s words taunted the mighty Dwarf, but he managed to restrain himself from attacking until his friends gave the order.

  “He doesn’t speak for all of us, you may yet surrender,” Arius once again said.

  “And what makes you think that I am the one who should surrender? You are completely outnumbered and in my territory. The only reason I haven’t killed you yet is because I want to see the look in your eyes when I tell you that your beloved city has finally fallen.”

  “Do not listen to him, my friend,” said Licius.

  “Don’t worry; I know that what he says is true. But my city is under the protection of the light, as well as our lives, and we shall not die today.”

  “Perhaps you won’t, but your friends and your city will. This you can be sure of. And maybe after I am done with this world, I will let you keep it. So you can enjoy your scourged kingdom…, your majesty.”

  Xandraf’s words brought back the memories of the burned children’s corpses at the farm, which filled Stundroff with an uncontrollable rage that boiled within him with such fury that he grabbed a piece of rock from the ground and smash the Orc’s head with it, killing him immediately.

  “Well, I believe that the time for negotiations has ended.” Licius unsheathed his retractable blades.

  “Fuck, yes, it was about time.” Khall grabbed his axe.

  Licius ordered the troops to charge. And as the strong commanding voice of the Elf general filled the hearts of the few men that stood beside him, Korgat and Stundroff jumped over the magma, landing on the other side.

  Arius raised a holy shield over the magma, making sure that the Fire Orcs couldn’t use it to attack the troops as they made it across. Licius ran and jumped, using Khall’s shoulder as a stepping-stone to jump even higher. Once in the air, the Elf spread the wings of his armor and glided to the other side, landing on the crowded battlefield and splitting two Orcs in half with his blades as he did.

  Khall and the rest of the forces ran across the narrow bridge, while Arius provided safe passage. They quickly joined the fight on the other side, where Korgat and Stundroff used their immense strength to tear apart any Orc that dared to stand in front of them.

  But Xandraf knew that this would not be an easy battle and had prepared accordingly. So as Arius made it across the bridge, the nearby volcanoes began to spit fire and magma over the troops.

  But before a single drop of magma could reach them, Arius raised his holy shield, protecting the troops and dividing the Orc forces, by trapping some of them inside the shield. However, the shield protected them from the fires above, but not from the fires conjured by the Fire Orcs trapped inside of it, which gave time for three Orcs, to join forces and channel a fire spell that began burning the troops without mercy.

  “Stundroff, I need a boost,” Licius shouted at the Dwarf just before leaping towards him.

  The Dwarf caught the Elf in midair and tossed him with all his strength towards the flames.

  Guarded by his armor, Licius glided through the flames landing blade first on the throat of the middle Orc. And before the other two could react, he spun with his arms extended, letting his blades make quick work of the Orcs and their fire spell. But by then, several warriors had fallen to the flames.

  Seeing this, Arius channeled as much holy energy as he could to provide a protective aura to those warriors who were still standing. But the amount of energy needed to maintain the shield on top of them was too great for him to protect them all.

  Stundroff felt an incredible rage boiling inside him, as he saw the injured men on the floor. Fueled by this emotion, he began to make quick work of any Orc that remained inside the shield.

  “Little prince, I need an opening,” Korgat shouted at Arius, as he realized that Stundroff was taking care of everything inside the shield.

  The paladin opened a small hole on the top of the shield, just big enough for Korgat to jump through. The former king of the Outsiders wasted no time in jumping outside of the protection of the shield, landing in front of thousands of Fire Orcs, ready to dismember them.

  “Show me what you got, you filthy beasts.”

  Xandraf had no idea who Korgat was, or what his abilities were. So he immediately put him to the test, by letting five Orcs vomit magma over him. The giant Outsider quickly became completely bathed in the burning substance, but before the twisted lord of fire could finish enjoying his moment of triumph, Korgat shook the magma of his skin, like a wet dog shaking off water. The magma flew everywhere, exposing Korgat’s skin which glowed with burning red light due to the extreme heat, but not a single scratch could be found on his body.

  “Nice trick; now it’s my turn.”

  Korgat jumped and punched the first Orc standing in front of him with such force that the Orc’s body exploded; he then grabbed an Orc by the wrist and used him as a club to smash an Orc standing to his left.

  Xandraf was impressed by Korgat’s might, but he wasn’t going down without a fight. So, over a hundred Orcs began to channel a fire spell directly at Korgat. The flames where so big and so hot that the heat could be felt inside of the holy shield where the others were fighting.

  Korgat fell to his knees, as his skin had finally taken too much and he thought that maybe he had underestimated his opponent, but an Outsider never surrenders and will never die on their knees. So Korgat stood up and lifted his hand towards the sky, summoning his sword, as he worked through the pain. But before his sword reached his hand, he felt the flames being blocked by something right in front of him, giving him the chance to cool down.

  Licius with his unbreakable armor was blocking the flames. Determined not to waste the chance that the Elf had provided, the mighty Outsider summoned a powerful lightning storm on top of their enemies, killing several Orcs in the process.

  Xandraf realized that there was no point in continuing with the fire spell and immediately charged with every Orc at his disposal, but these Orcs where no match for Licius’s speed or Korgat’s strength, and they disposed of the fire Orcs as if they were nothing.

  During the struggle, three Orcs managed to climb on top of Korgat, who sent them flying as he shook them off with ease. And as the Orcs where airborne,
Licius jumped through them, slicing them with his blades. The Elf landed and turned to Korgat.

  “You like that move?”

  Korgat simply smiled and threw his sword with all his strength, killing over two dozen Orcs standing in the weapon’s path and, as the sword began to lose momentum, the mighty Outsider opened his hand and recalled the sword, making it fly backwards killing at least ten Orcs more in the process. Korgat then swung his sword with his powerful strength, whipping it clean of the magma. He smiled at the Elf, who smiled back and said.

  “I am impressed.”

  Xandraf realized that his strategy wasn’t working, so he stopped the lava rain and prepared to use his last trick.

  By then Stundroff had finished with the enemies inside the holy shield, so he and the rest of the forces joined Licius and Korgat outside.

  “I will admit that I underestimated your potential, but the time has come to put an end to our little game,” Xandraf said through one of the Orcs.

  Arius looked up and saw several Fire Orcs standing on top of the huge lava stones that surrounded the battleground. The ground began to shake with tremendous force, as the river of lava behind them quickly rose, destroying the stone bridge and trapping them on that side of the river.

  Soon after the shaking began, the solid stone ground began to crack open, exposing the lava stream that ran several feet beneath it. And then two of the huge lava stones came crashing down on top of the shaking battlefield.

  Korgat and Stundroff immediately reacted and each of them caught one of the lava stones.

  “You see, you are in the land of fire. And I am the lord of fire. I shall bury you all in this place, and your precious city.” Xandraf laughed, the sound seeming to come from the central volcano.

  Licius took one look at the situation and saw how the earth was swallowing men and Fire Orcs alike. And in that moment, he realized that the battle was lost.

  “Retreat, we need to retreat.”

  “Retreat where?” Khall asked, as he saw Arius struggling to prevent the magma from over flowing and burning them.

  The Orcs standing on top of the rocks began to melt those rocks, causing the molten rock to spill over the troops.

  And just when all hope seemed lost, a huge boulder flattened one of the Fire Orcs that stood on top of the lava stones.

  Arius looked over the river of burning magma in the direction from which the boulder came from and saw a battalion of five hundred men accompanied by several bears and elephants. And in the center of the front row of that battalion, Count Barosh and Lizandra stood.

  The prince then looked up and saw several druids in eagle form, as they flew over him and grabbed the few men that were still standing with their talons and flew them back to safety, while the elephants, using their trunks, continued to toss boulders at the Orcs that stood on top of the rocks.

  Three of the druids transformed from eagles to elephants to help Korgat with the huge stone.

  “Now is our chance, retreat,” Licius shouted.

  But the Elf’s words did nothing but enrage Stundroff as he heard them, as there was no way that he would leave that place before killing Xandraf.

  The Dwarf felt the rage taking control, as his vision clouded and his strength multiplied. Stundroff tossed his giant rock aside, killing more than a hundred Orcs. The Dwarf then jumped fist first into a battle which no one could win alone. But the rage had shut down his pain receptors, and he punched his way through the last few remaining Fire Orcs, as they burned his flesh in a desperate attempt to stop him.

  Licius tried to tell Stundroff to calm down, but the Dwarf was lost in his own rage. Unwilling to leave his friend behind, Licius ran through the flames towards him.

  He placed his hand on Stundroff’s shoulder in an attempt to reach him. But he was quickly struck by a backhand fist from Stundroff.

  The attack carried such speed and force that Licius was unable to avoid it, taking the full hit on his chest. It sent him flying backwards, landing near Arius.

  The prince saw how the Bronium armor had been damaged by the blow and immediately assumed that Licius was seriously injured, but before he could step in to help him, he was forced to raise a holy shield around the Elf, as once Stundroff had finished with the last few Orcs, he jumped on top of Licius and began to attack.

  The Dwarf’s punches carried such power within them that Arius felt his holy energy draining with each of Stundroff’s blows, while a barely conscious Licius looked up at his friend and saw nothing but pure rage in his eyes.

  Stundroff began punching harder and harder, as he tried to break the holy shield. And just when he was about to give the definitive blow, Korgat punched him in the jaw.

  The blow released a blast that pushed Arius on to the ground and sent Stundroff flying straight into one of the magma stone walls, burying his body several feet into the structure.

  “What the fuck are you waiting for? Get the fuck out of here; I’ll take care of the Dwarf,” Korgat said to Arius and Licius.

  Arius stood up and ran towards the injured Licius.

  “Come on, friend, you need to get out of here.”

  “What about you?”

  “I need to stay and finish this.”

  At that moment, Lizandra came flying towards them, transforming into Human form as she landed.

  “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

  “Take him; I still need to finish this,” said Arius.

  “Are you crazy? That’s suicide.”

  “She’s right, we now have the numbers. Let us regroup and plan another attack,” said Licius.

  “No, if I wait, my city dies. No matter what happens, I have to kill Xandraf now.”

  The prince unstrapped his two-handed hammer from his back and gave it to Licius.

  “Take this and make sure my father gets it if I don’t return.”

  Licius took one look at his friend’s eyes and saw that it was not rage or vengeance that drove his words, but the iron willed determination that he had grown to admire.

  “Very well, but make sure you come back alive. Your people still need their prince.”

  Lizandra transformed into an eagle and flew Licius away to safety.

  As the bird flew carrying the elf, Licius looked up at Lizandra and said.

  “It seems that yet again, we owe our lives to your timely intervention.”

  “Well, don’t get used to it.” She replied sarcastically.

  ◆◆◆

  On the other side of the flaming river, Arius stood next to Korgat.

  “Think you can give me a hand?” Arius asked Korgat.

  “Of course, as long as we’re quick, because your friend is about to wake up and I doubt he’ll be in a good mood.”

  “I just need you to toss me into the mouth of that volcano.”

  “You’re fucking crazy, do you know that? But I admire your balls, little prince.”

  Then the mighty Korgat grabbed Arius by his armor and spun around twice before launching him as hard as he could towards the mouth of the volcano.

  Still a hundred feet away from the summit, Arius found himself on a terribly hot surface, where the smoke and stench of sulfur made it almost impossible to breathe.

  He covered his body with a protective aura of holy light and unsheathed the frozen blade less than a third of an inch. And from the small exposed blade came a strong freezing wind, both cooling the surface and clearing the air. Arius began to climb towards the summit.

  Back at ground level, the rock surrounding the hole where Stundroff lay began to shake and crack, as the mighty Dwarf made his way out.

  “I hope you’ve calmed down little man, because I don’t want to punch you again,” Korgat told him.

  But Korgat saw that his eyes were filled with rage, and he knew that their fight had just begun.

  The Dwarf jumped on top of him with murderous intent. But the mighty Korgat managed to intercept him and toss him into the ground with enough strength to crack the rocks ben
eath his body.

  He tried to pin him to the ground, but Stundroff began punching with such force that Korgat was forced off of him.

  Korgat knew that he was no match for Stundroff in either speed or strength. But the mighty Korgat the Gore Blade was considered to be the deadliest man on the planet far before he got his magic relic and he wasn’t about to lose a second fight.

  So the mighty Outsider tried his best to defend himself from the Dwarf’s reckless attacks without losing too much ground, but the more punches he evaded, the fiercer the Dwarf’s attacks became.

  But Stundroff’s rage made him predictable. So taking advantage of his size, the mighty Korgat drew his sword and stuck it deep into the Dwarf’s abdomen before his fist could reach him. But the Dwarf continued to fight.

  The wound did manage to slow the Dwarf enough for Korgat to predict his next punch. He wrapped his arms around the Dwarf’s arm, and squeezed, dislocating his elbow. Then he landed a devastating punch to Stundroff’s jaw, which brought the mighty Dwarf to his knees.

  But Stundroff quickly got up and removed Korgat’s blade from his stomach and tossed it so far away that it got lost in the ash clouds, as his wounds quickly began to heal.

  Korgat watched in disbelief, as he saw the endurance and healing capabilities of the Dwarf. And before he could think of anything else, the Dwarf stamped on the ground with such force that it cracked the ground beneath the outsider, plunging him into the burning lava.

  The mighty Outsider found himself completely submerged in a river of molten rocks, trying to avoid the pain as the magma burned his skin.

  Maybe this is it? Maybe my time has finally come? Could it be that this tiny Dwarf is the one, to finally kill the mighty Korgat the Gore Blade?

  Stundroff stared down at the lava making sure that his adversary stayed down.

  Korgat sank deeper in the river of magma until his feet reached the bottom.

  Fuck no, I am not dying today. And if I am, it is not going to be at the hands of a four-feet tall man.

  The mighty Outsider then placed both feet firmly on the ground and jumped out of the lava with such force that it surprised the Dwarf; he landed a powerful punch to the Dwarf’s stomach.