The Rokkaia Chronicles

by Rhys Thomas

  “My champion,” Liu said as she curtsied. Her voice was smoky reminding me a lot of Ariana and Ilya. “I am Liu. Clan head of Banes Horren.” Liu stayed bent slightly from her curtsy.

  Next the short pixie cut sister stepped forward and also bowed. Her body was tighter, and petite compared to the other sisters, making her only slightly a size lower than Loryn. “My champion,” Ruun greeted me in her high and sweet voice. “I am Ruun. Clan head of Banes Horren.” She too curtsied and stayed bowed as her sister had.

  I looked at them for several seconds before glancing at Loryn. I lifted a questioning eyebrow at the queen, she tilted and nodded her head in a way that said I should return their form of ceremonial nonsense.

  I also imagined it was probably after this, that the champion would ravish his prize in a bed, or a toilet, or a bench, or on the floor. But I had better shit to do, than screw about.

  Yeah, I know. I had something weird going on with pretty much all of the women to come into my life the last few weeks. Marisa was quietly pushing me to claim other women, for some apparent power boost.

  Ariana had some kind of strange submissive affection for me, at least I thought she did.

  Shre was a pleaser. She simply wanted me to be fulfilled as far I knew, to be powerful and content.

  Then there was the kindling of a spark between Ilya and I, the Mælic Redeye had thought me nothing but an idiot at first, but since then we had started to grow more comfortable with other. It helped that the dark elf seemed to have a thing for Shre as well.

  Which brought me to the witch Emilia. The young witch was by far the furthest from me in term of friendship right about now. Plus, with my recent decision to not go and aid the Glen’dal against the Shi’en force that was likely at their door step. I was probably her least favourite person to see.

  I also felt a strange pull towards the north, as if my mind wanted me to look in that direction or to go there. But I knew it was simply a feeling I had. To return to Farland and stop the slavers from freeing more people; from Zwericania’s ruins only to enslave them to the Goldranos Dominion.

  I would probably have to deal with them eventually.

  I cleared my throat uncomfortably when I realised, I had been staring off into space. I saw that, Liu and Ruun figures were shaking slightly with the effort of holding their pose. I stood up and thought on how to introduce myself. “I have been called by three names,” I said softly but clearly. “But the one I go by now is Alaric Rosen. I am the heir of Ra’al, the observer of Viria. Tasked with repelling the Shi’en invasion,” I said, and then bowed at the waist.

  When I came up, I saw Liu and Ruun returning to their standing positions and Loryns expression of shock was only matched by those of her sisters.

  “You’re the grey god’s heir?” Liu blurted out.

  “That cannot be possible,” Ruun said shaking her head.

  “Your bewilderment is clearly noted,” I replied dryly. “And I see you’re familiar with the Observer.” And I tried really hard to not roll my eyes.

  “Y-yes,” Loryn stammered and nodded her head. “Not much is known about him, but when the gods last walked amongst us, they spoke in reverence of the Son of Suns.”

  By gods, I guessed that she was describing Ra’als vaporous celestials that helped to fuel his power. Which, now that I thought it, was really then fuelling me.

  “Do the Ogres of Banes Horren worship any gods?’ I asked.

  Loryn shook her head, “no. We only put our faith in ourselves. We provide for our own, a god does not.”

  “That’s a good way of seeing things,” I said with a nod. There then followed an uncomfortable moment of silence, where the ogresses fidgeted, and I ate like a pig. Hey, I had to fight to the death soon, again. Don’t blame me for my lack of manners.

  “Alaric,” Loryn started.

  “Hmm?” I paused halfway stuffing the delish looking biscuit down my throat.

  “Liu and Ruun are here to serve you, and service you,” she said waving a hand at the two grey-skinned women. They both trembled and looked to the floor.

  “I- I’m alright,” I said after I stopped to swallow my bite. “They don’t need to service me, they can do what they want,” I shrugged and resumed eating. Glancing at the three from the corner of my vision.

  “But it’s-” Queen Loryn started to say but then I cut her off.

  “Distracting. I’ll get to know each and every one of them eventually, even carnally if they so choose. But right now, my focus is solely on wining the next three-ish matches,” I said remembering that Loryn wanted me to face an unknown 9th opponent.

  “I’ll even answered all of yours and your sisters questions about myself later.”

  “Of course,” Loryn said nodding her head slightly. “I was looking forward to knowing more about you as it were. If only my sisters hadn’t been so foolish as to make their champion’s challenge you.” She shot a glance at her women beside her.

  “Wait,” I said. “The clan heads are the ones who’ve orchestrated this?”

  “Yes, they see your plan as foolish, to flee to an unknown land. One which is foreign to most of the races of Haroxi. But we cannot stay here now, and they will see it eventually.” Loryn turned back to me as her sisters curtsied to me once again and practically fled the room.

  “Do not bother yourself with them Alaric, just concentrate on the fighting. I’ll be by with more of my sisters once you’ve slain their champions as well. There is much we’ll need to discuss when you’re done. The renewed force of Shi’en is pushing towards us from the east again,” she said. “We sent out a handful of groups to head east along the coast to try and retrieve our ships left in the drydock storage there. We should hear word the day after next, provided they make it. Your Captain friend of the Naiad and his own ship is sailing there to lend aid as well.” Her beautiful face twisted into a bitter grimace for a second before her neutral mask took back its place once again.

  “Loryn,” I said with a nod.

  “Alaric,” she replied and left the room. I noticed then that the door closed on its own after her.

  “Viria, is so fucking weird. I feel I’m constantly being pulled around,” I said with a breathy sigh and went right back to eating.

  ~*~*~*~

  The second match came quicker than I liked, but this time as I made my way to the dropped portcullis, I instantly heard the grind as the gate began lift. “What the...” I said and immediately rushed forward and slid under only to come up and watched as the two ogres I was meant to be facing were already fighting each other. These two had the generic ogre look, big round central eye, a singular horn.

  Though as I usually expected them to be bald, I was surprised to find that they both had a long lengths of dreadlocks cascading down their backs from the crown of their heads. In fact, these two were almost identical in every way, the only difference being that one on the right was wielding a massive great sword that looked more like a steel door it was so thick and had ring shaped holes along the flat of the massive sword. It whistle as it chopped through the air.

  Lefty had a pair thick spiked bands around his knuckles. The knuckledusters seemed more like stone as they blended with the grey of his skin.

  A dull metallic thud to my right informed me that the trident from my previous match had been rolled in. I quickly ran over and scooped up the weapon and returned to eyeing the twins as they fought. That was when I realised that neither had actually incurred any wounds, “they’re just fucking sparring,” I hissed in growing realisation.

  These two would be harder to kill than speedy. He had been all arrogance and brute strength. He was also pretty damn stupid for letting me stall him. The twins twisted to look at my way in an eerie synchronisation that reminded me of all the creepy android movies I had ever watched. “We asked the queen to allow us to greet personally, Human.” Right twin with the great sword said with a gruff nod.

  “We greet you as equal a warrior,” left twin with the knuckles
said. Righty then stepped forward to stand side by side with lefty, “I am Jul, champion and mate of Kulja,” Righty called out and bowed his head a fraction.

  “I am Nunn, Champion and mate of Yalu,” lefty said, and he too lowered his head slightly. So, Jul and Nunn, great—wonderful. Now I know their names.

  “Well, I’m Alaric. And I suppose we should probably get to killing each other,” I said and readied my trident.

  The two ogres looked to one another and then grinned, “he’s as blunt as us at least,” Jul stated.

  “Maybe even as strong as us,” Nunn commented. Were they actually fucking with me, twins and, worse identical twins would always weird me out. You never really knew who you were talking to. Twin redheads on the other hand... Well... Who wouldn’t.

  Jul swung his massive door of a great sword up into something of a salute and I lowered my crouch even deeper, spreading my legs and shifting my weigh to counter. “Go for the neck or inner thighs,” I told myself. “Maybe even the armpit, get him to drop that great-big-fuck-off-sword of his.”

  I was even more surprised when Nunn stepped back till he was up against the wall of the arena. The crowd was quiet, in anticipation.

  “I will allow my brother to face you first. If you survive then it shall be me you face,” Nunn with the knuckles said when he noticed my attention. This had to be a ploy, Jul’s will force my back to Nunn and then the latter will attack me from behind.

  “That’s why they’re quiet,” I whispered glancing at the crowd.

  Then I flinched when Nunn brought his fists together in a loud clanging thump and Jul sped forward, faster than I thought he could move. The massive great sword already whirling around to chop off my head. I sprung into a dive and then rolled to my left to narrowly avoid the follow up overhead blow. The great sword pounded into the ground, and the reverberation rattled my teeth. I kicked out and the tip of my boot just manage to catch the flat of the blade and drive it wide to Jul’s right throwing him off centre.

  I got my feet under me and darted away, making sure to keep as much distance between me and Nunn. “You have good instincts, Human,” Jul said gruffly and then grunted as he heaved his sword to his shoulder to sprint at me again.

  Instead of backing away any further I decided to meet Jul’s half way. I darted forward too; but then dodge to my right when Jul tried to split me in half. I used my own momentum to fling my trident forward and stab at his thigh, my attack was slightly off, so I missed the leg I was aiming for, luckily though as my trident slid across his leg to puncture into the opposite thigh.

  Then I was past and quickly moving to avoid the reach of his sword and keep Nunn in my sights. Jul’s staggered a bit and then righted himself with a grunt. I quickly examined the tips of my tri-spear. A couple of inches of each point were coated in blood. Jul spun back to me, his right leg seemingly more muted and halted in place.

  “That was a good and precise blow, human,” he said in something akin to respect in his in rough tones.

  “Would it make you feel better, if I said I missed my target,” I replied. The ogre grinned sharply and shook his head, squinting his large red eye.

  “It does not matter, a wound is a wound no matter where it might be,” Jul said and noticed that his leg was particularly pissing out blood.

  “It’s a shame though,” I said, stepping forward slowly to meet him. “I imagine we could’ve been something akin to friends had I actually been an ogre,” I said, and I was surprised to see him nod once at my words.

  My instincts screamed and I dove to my right so forcibly, driving the wind from my lungs with how hard I hit the ground. I sprung to my feet spinning and saw that Nunn was now exactly where I had been a moment ago.

  He and Juls were stunned momentarily, and I used that to my advantage by throwing my trident across the short distance and impaling the fucker through his throat. Except I may have put too much force behind my throw as Nunn’s head was completely separated from his body. My trident then proceeded to blow through and impact the wall on the far side of the arena from me. “Fuck,” I exclaimed quietly.

  I looked to Juls and saw that the massive ogre was struggling not to collapse, though if it was from the death of his brother or the blood fountaining from his thigh, I didn’t know.

  I thought about going for the big spiked knuckles on Nunn’s corpse, but they were probably too big for me to use anyway. As soon as Nunn body smacked into the ground and blood pumped from the gaping wound that was the entirety of his neck, I charged Jul. Sprinting at the big ogre, Jul reacted by bringing his great sword around horizontally to cleave me in twain. The movement jarred his balance though and the sword swung wide passing over my head easily.

  I ducked down anyway and drove my body into his wounded leg, ramming us into the ground. Jul’s great sword falling from his weak grip. And I moved to straddle his waist, I felt like a child sitting across a massive fallen trees trunk, except I didn’t beat the shit of the tree’s—when I usually climbed them—with my fists.

  Roaring and pummelling blow after blow quickly down on Juls’ face, blood splattering my chest and face as I Hulk-smashed the ogre’s head to mush. After the fourth blow, skull fragments, brains and viscera coated my arms up to my elbows. I breathed and flicked a speck of brain off my shoulder distastefully, which didn’t do much as I was liberally coated anyway.

  I sighed, hating that I had to kill them. Each I killed meant one less for me to use. It was unfortunately necessary, I stood and walked over to the fallen great sword and found it weighed slightly heavier than the trident had, and all that weight was in the pommel of the sword. Dragging yet another unwieldy thing, I stopped by Jul’s body. I looked out at the crowd, having completely forgotten there were viewers. I raised my arms and the silence that greeted me made me smile wickedly, then I brought the ridiculously massive great sword up in a spin and twisted my wrists so that it felled and sliced cleanly through Jul’s body bisecting the corpse in half at the waist.

  The crunch and slick noise as it carved through bone and muscle easily was all that could be heard. With a flex of my arms to the sword, it came free of the ground and exited the corpse. Walking back to the portcullis I saw it was still lowered as I imagine the ogre operating the gate was far too stunned to move.

  I bent slightly gripping the frame near the bottom and yanked it up so fast it cranked noisily and jammed with a screech of grinding stone into the ceiling. I moved down the dark corridor and into my room, dragging my newly acquired great sword behind like a child would with his favourite oversized blanket.

  Propping it against the wall in the room I went about the ritual of washing my arms again and clothing the best I could. As I sat eating ravenously, the door jarred open to my room and Queen Loryn entered with two new sisters. I sighed realising this would probably be a thing.

  Again, like Loryn they were similar in appearance except for the obvious, I realised the only thing splitting the actual sisters apart from each other were the ways of which they fashioned or held their grey hair and spoke. “Alaric,” Loryn greeted me kindly. Yet her eyes were affixed with something akin to fearful lust. They kept repeatedly drifting to the massive door size sword.

  It really was a ridiculous weapon.

  A toy in my hands, and a frightening weapon in their own, came an errant thought. Honestly this one didn’t feel entirely my own. “Loryn,” I greeted pretending the warmth I showed, as my mind freaked out.

  “Champion,” an ogress whose hair framed her heart shaped face in a bob, “I am Yalu, Clan head of Banes Horren,” Yalu said coldly. I noted how her body was rigid and her expression tight as she bowed to me. I’ll admit, the bowing gave me an uncomfortable amount of pleasure. It made me shiver with want, and I had to fight to suppress my rising urges.

  “My champion,” the other ogress then stepped forward beside her sister, and I saw that tears streamed down her cheeks as she sniffled. Shit this must be Juls’ clan head. “I am Kulja. Clan head of Banes Horren,�
�� her grey hair was tied into an elaborate bun at back of her head. Delicate weaves of jewellery were interwoven with her hair. Her voice was kind and gentle yet broken by her light sobbing.

  As she joined her sister bowing, I decided to speed things up a bit. I stood to my feet and stretched, hearing the satisfying crack of my back. “I am Alaric Rosen. I am the heir of Ra’al, the observer of Viria. Tasked with repelling the Shi’en invasion,” I repeated what I had said to the other two sister’s previously.

  I got the exact same reaction I had with Liu and Ruun, both sisters gasped in disbelief. I turned to look at Loryn and saw a smirk playing across her face as she gaze upon her sisters expressions of shock.

  The queen looked oddly proud, as if she’d known all along and was now watching her younger siblings as they slowly started to catch up. She had known I wasn’t human during our first meeting. And I guess, I was starting to realise it myself. “When will the next match be held?” I asked her. The Queen blinked and looked at me for a moment, her cheeks colouring prettily.

  “Oh! It’s in a few marks. I’m also allowing you to exit the room under guard, so that you may join me at my booth and see your mates and companions,” she said. An idle hand reaching up to fix something in her hair as she unconsciously smoothed her dress.

  That when I got a real good look at her. She was in backless form fitting dress the material made to look like raven feathers with a higher collar that framed her neck and then fanned out at her jawline. The black of her dress and her creamy skin was a stark contrast, and I noticed how the bottom of her dress was a silky green that spilt upwards on the sides revealing a good portion her long toned legs.