"You only have a few moments left. Live and see me again one day, or die and never see me." Graldin closed his eyes in contemplation, then whispered something.
"Maybe it was real, and maybe it wasn’t. It could have been just the heat of the battle, but in any case, you deserved far better. I'll avenge you."
Graldin’s eyes opened, finding the king, chancellor and his friends standing around him. Sadness filled him as he knew deep within that Milena’s words were nothing but an empty promise, though he knew he would get his revenge on Bardos one day. Yes, one day he would rip him apart as the gods had done to her. He would make sure of it, even if it cost him his life.
* * * * *
Kaden found himself floating in darkness, similar to what Graldin had been through moments earlier. He had felt the general’s pain and bloodlust afterwards. If only that Bardos could be taken care of. He sure is a piece of work, Kaden thought, not even worried about his predicament.
"He sure is," Razor croaked. "And don’t take me for a fool. What we just witnessed wasn’t something from your past. That happened hundreds of years ago; everyone knows about that warrior and the battle, when King Raikou fled Maelstrom to the Greylands."
"You are right, Razor. I honestly thought you were just a bird, nothing more, but you seem to know far more than you are letting on. Maybe we should both get clean about anything we might be hiding from each other?" The bird croaked in laughter.
"There is nothing you could hide from me, even if you tried. I was only playing dumb earlier. Everything that you have ever seen, heard and done, I know it all. Now, we wait for Bardos to recall us. Rest up, we will need it."
"Why did you attack me?’ Kaden asked suddenly. "I know it wasn’t Bardos who made you do it."
"True. I felt that if you stayed at full health, that something bad would happen, that you would freeze or something. No hard feelings?"
Kaden chuckled and shook his head. "Thanks for saving me."
Chapter 14
The darkness disappeared soon enough, with bright light replacing it almost instantly. There was a gloomy expression on Kaden’s face, the memory of the kingdom's aftermath would remain engraved in his mind forevermore. He really had no idea what they must have done to infuriate Bardos so, but the emotions had hit him like a brick wall. At the beginning, he didn’t think much of it and was even opposed to helping them, but now he would try his best to do what the king had asked of them.
"Are you alright?" a voice asked to his right, startling him out of his thoughts. He was ever so glad to hear it, and a weak smile replaced the gloom. A chuckle followed before he regained his full sight.
"See, I told you that he would be happy to hear your voice," a second voice added.
"How about you two give me a break, and tell me if I'm alive or not?" he replied, trying to get up. A pain shot through his whole body, forcing him back down.
"Hold it. You are still very weak, and your health is in the red," Laney said, pressing him down. He could finally make out which voices belonged to Laney and Eliana. The loss of his sensory abilities was very frightening. He honestly hoped this would be both the first and last time it would happen to him.
The world around him started coming into shape as two beautiful smiles greeted him. Laney stayed to his right, and Eliana to his left, the eternal grin plastered on her face. How frightening, he thought. He turned his head from side to side, and observed the carnage that his latest attack had brought.
"You sure did a number on the birds and trees," Eliana said happily. What is with that happy-go-lucky attitude, he thought.
"Yeah, I can see that," he replied, looking over the carnage. Bodies, heads and limbs were scattered all over, with trees ripped apart from the roots.
"We need a better way of killing them. This is really nasty," Laney said. Kaden looked down and shrugged as if he didn't care.
"I have nothing better. Do you?" he asked, as if she had hurt his feelings. To be honest, it did annoy him, because he knew how much it would suck for him to use the same tactic again. He had still done it, for all of them.
"See, I told you. His health would be in the yellow by the two-minute mark," Eliana chuckled, as if they had made a bet. Kaden just shook his head and lay down again, looking over his own health bar. Though it was rising steadily, it would be some minutes before he had the strength to stand up. He figured he might as well look at the new message that had been chiming in his head.
In his status screen nothing had changed, but in the skill window he had the option to add another skill level to [Flood]. Upon seeing the result, he grinned like an addict.
Flood, Level 2: Flood a small area, five metres in diameter, and cause 940 direct damage. Over 3 seconds add 600 suffocation damage. Use: 3 times.
"What is it?" Laney asked, seeing his strange facial expression. Kaden still grinned, which slowly creeped the women out. She slapped him across the face, hitting him with a bit more force than she should have.
"What the hell? Why’d you hit me, idiot!" he yelled out, holding his hand to the stinging cheek.
"You looked like you needed it," she said with a blank face. "What was the smirk for anyway?" Kaden sighed, not being able to stay mad for long.
"I upgraded my [Flood] skill and its damage skyrocketed, as in doubled. Of course I would have a smirk on my face," he replied, the slap already forgotten.
"Can you hit all of the Orcs at once?" Eliana asked, giving him a serious face for a change. Taken aback, he almost laughed out loud, but held his tongue as Razor got up on his shoulder and dug in his nails. Kaden’s eyes seemed like they would pop out, and he let out a silent scream before looking at the bird with murder in his eyes.
"No, I cannot!" he said louder than intended, his right eye twitching. "Let me draw the area it hits," he added with a slap at the bird as he got up. In front of him, a rectangular area lit up red as he thought about using [Flood].
He remembered the shape and drew it with a stick. It was about four metres in length, and two deep. Nothing to sneeze at, but the group was too large to hit with one spell. [Frozen Land] didn’t come into question, because the shrapnel would probably kill most of the villagers. There weren’t many to start with anyway.
"I see," Eliana replied thoughtfully. "We will have to lure them all to the entrance where you can hit the majority. Then, one of us two will close the gate on them, leaving the Orcs without a village. If there are any left inside of the walls, I can probably take care of them with my arrows."
"Sounds better than anything I could come up with," replied Laney with a weak voice, all but beaten. "But how do you think we will be able to lure them all out at once?"
Neither one of them knew if the warband would even follow the bait. It was rather improbable, as the brutes probably had more in their heads than the birds. Luring the whole garrison outside would never work.
The three just sat there and stared up at the sky. Stars were visible in the far distance. All of them thought about home, loved ones or just something that they missed. It was very difficult for each one of them, especially in this hostile world that wanted to eat you, just because it could.
"One of you will have to enter and be seen, as you other-worlders have a special effect on these things. I'm quite sure that the appearance of one like you will make them all go crazy," Razor said, annoyed. It looked like he laughed, but the sound was just wrong. His feathers stuck out and moved on their own accord. The spectacle was quite hideous, to say the least.
"So we are other-worlders now?" Laney asked.
"Yes. You ‘otherworlders’ have a special effect on native creatures, races, monsters and whatnot. Just the sight of you will make them go wild and want to kill you. I have seen it happen many times," the bird croaked with what almost sounded like sadness.
"So you are quite old, then?" Eliana asked. The bird croaked once and frantically nodded. ‘Just like me then. I have been alive for two hundred and twenty-seven of your years."
"W
hat?" Laney and Kaden both exclaimed at the same time, with shocked expressions on their faces. Eliana laughed as if she had heard the funniest joke ever.
"Be silent," Razor croaked. They could hear the urgency in his voice. "Look towards the village!" All three of them looked in the direction where they would be heading soon. A thick blanket of smoke lingered above the village walls, and it seemed to get thicker by the moment.
"What in the name of-’ Kaden caught himself as he was about to speak Bardos’ name.
"Are they killing the villagers and burning everything down?" Laney asked. No one had a real answer, as they didn’t know what was going on inside.
He cursed under his breath and started walking, which quickly turned to running, towards the village. Something told him that they needed to be there soon as possible, or everything would be lost.
Minutes later, the three arrived just outside of the village. From the inside, a major ruckus could be heard. Swords clashing, shouts and screams, pleas for mercy and the crackling of magic all mixed into one.
"Go and see what is going on already!" Kaden thought at the bird, who was floating around him.
"Do you think I need you to tell me that? I can’t approach because of the smoke. If I approach an area filled with smoke, my power drains for some reason, and I'll be a goner, so will you in our case," Razor thought back. A loud cough came from behind Kaden. As he turned around, the two women were standing there as if saying, ‘why are you just standing there?’
"He can’t scout through the smoke. We will have to enter and deal with whatever is going on," Kaden said, rushing through the open gate. The first thing he saw through the thick smoke was chaos. An all-out battle raged between the garrisoned forces. Dead Orcs lay everywhere, their bodies and limbs scattered all over the place. Two pockets of enemy fighters seemed to be all that was left.
Kaden crouched down and hid from sight. The two women almost stumbled clumsily over him, but to their luck he steadied them. They crouched down beside him, and observed the situation as it unfolded.
Every single building was razed to the ground, with a few piles of rubble being all that was left from what they had seen merely days ago. One building was half burnt down, while another had only two walls left of its previous four. The wooden stockade was mostly intact, as well as the villagers. Their eyes finally steadied on the Orcs opposing each other.
"We seem to be outside of their viewing range," Eliana whispered. The two looked over at her, nodded and looked back at the scene that was unfolding. A giant Orc swordsman stood to one side, with a few smaller grunts facing off against a wounded magician of sorts, and three wounded warriors. The magician was backed into a corner and didn’t look like he could do anything anymore, except die while his opponents looked much better off.
"Do we try and save him?" Laney asked. Kaden nodded slowly, but stayed still. He had no idea how to go about this. If one magician could wreak such havoc on an Orc garrison, what could they do against him? Die like worms? His eyes, as if drawn to Kaden’s, found them and mouthed something that ached ‘help me please.’
"Shit. What do we do?" Kaden asked no one in particular, his eyes darting from the pleading Orc, to the warrior and back. He closed his eyes and then sighed. As if on cue, a wave of ecstasy coursed through him as he received his favorite four buffs: three from Laney, and one from Eliana. Kaden grinned, and ran towards the group of fresh Orcs in an arch that would take him straight behind them.
Laney and Eliana separated themselves, and moved towards the one ruin that provided decent cover. They climbed on top of the second floor and crouched down behind debris. Eliana drew her bow, and Laney got out what was left of the throwing spears. Meanwhile, Kaden reached the small two-walled shack directly behind the Orc group. He pressed himself into the wall and moved to the corner, trying to overhear what they were talking about.
"Don’t lie, you foul creature of magic! I know that you are no Orc, turn into your real self so that I know what I'm facing!" raged the Orc warrior with his arms held high and sword raised. The magician stayed silent for a moment longer, and burst out in laughter.
"Would you feel better if you knew that someone tall enough to peek into your pants defeated so many Orcs, and almost single-handedly freed the village?" He kept on laughing for a few more seconds before growing quiet at the warrior’s deadly gaze. The Orc drew his sword, and slashed one of his own grunts in two with a swift strike. The sound of a sword cleaving through meat and bone was horrific, making everyone cringe.
Kaden looked the other way, not wanting to see the halved corpse, and accidentally found where his companions were crouching. They were about twenty metres to his left, and by the look of disgust on their faces, they had just seen what had happened as well.
Eliana motioned with her hand in a shooting gesture, and swirled it strangely. Kaden had no idea what she meant and let it show, raising his hands up and shaking his head. He had no better way of telling her that he had no clue what she meant. She sighed and stood up, holding an arrow in front of her. A gentle blue light passed into the arrow. She notched it into the bow and aimed. A second later, the arrow found home as it struck into something meaty.
A fierce growl told him that the giant got hit, and was raging like a bull in a china shop. An icon of two glowing eyes appeared next to the Orc’s health bar. They went from black to red within a heartbeat. The big Orc’s health bar appeared fully above his head, showing that he had a lot of health left, and what was worse, the arrow seemed to not have done any substantial damage to him.
The creature went still, and looked around him for a few seconds. The grunts beside him started to move away from him, as they probably knew what was going on. One of them made the unfortunate mistake to raise his sword. To his bad luck, the grunt died a moment later, cut in half by the now berserker Orc warrior. It didn’t seem to distinguish between friend and foe, the creature’s main goal was utter destruction.
Four of the remaining grunts fought back; two of them put up metal shields, while one stabbed at the giant with a spear, piercing it under its left arm. The berserker howled in pain, and kicked him into the wall. A second arrow slammed into the raging monster’s chest, bringing its health bar down by a few percent.
It's now or never, Kaden thought, and turned around the corner.
[Ice Orb]
You have inflicted 447 damage to Orc Berserker.
The orb struck into the Orc’s back, knocking him a few steps forward. Not waiting to see what would happen, Kaden let loose two more spells in fast succession: [Magic Bolt] and a second [Ice Orb].
You have inflicted 413 damage to Orc Berserker.
You have inflicted 209 damage to Orc Berserker.
Both slammed into the creature’s right leg, immobilizing the berserker momentarily. Its leg froze up slowly and broke at the joints.
An arrow slammed into the creature's skull, followed by a spear, another arrow and another spear. The two women were nowhere near out of ordnance, but the creature's health bar still hovered at forty percent. Their line of view was covered with more debris as the giant now lay on the ground and wasn’t standing anymore.
It tried to get up again, narrowly missing the fourth orb, leaving Kaden with a dozen orbs and a damaged hand. At the rate the health bar was going down, he doubted that they would suffice. If he used anything but an orb, someone might get hurt if the creature did something unpredictable, like run up towards the cage filled with frightened human-looking villagers.
From afar, they looked like humans, but up close they had many different traits. Some had tails, others had long limbs, claws, and fangs combined with fur. Many had long, pointy ears and yellow skin, but some were darker, with bulging eyes and fingers that looked as if they'd been glued together. All kinds of thoughts raced through Kaden’s head, but his main goal was to protect the strange creatures and kill the Orc.
"Kaboom!" yelled the magician as a flaming rock slammed into the Orc’s back, bringing him down t
o the ground. The health bar dropped by a whopping ten percent, leaving it at thirty percent of its total health.
Kaden’s eyes searched for the source of the fire spell, only to find a short, furry creature standing where the Orc magician had previously been. He looked like a squirrel combined with a small bear. He tried his best to not laugh at the creature's appearance, as it was a rather funny sight. His large paws held an upright staff that was twice the magician's height, while his body was much smaller in comparison. He had a long, curly tail and a big head, with fur that had the colour of walnuts.
"Don’t!" the creature stopped Kaden before he could ask him a question. "I do not take joy in stupid questions or insults. First, let us take care of this piece of trash. I've only got one of those spells left, so you will need to do the rest," he interrupted Kaden before he could even speak. But to be honest, he was taken aback by his fluent speech, unlike Eliana, who had a strange accent.
"Look, it’s a squirrel bear!" Laney yelled without tact. Kaden’s palm smacked his own forehead as he shook his head. Women always know what to say in such a situation.
"Really? That’s all you have to say?" he called back a moment later as the Orc Berserker stirred on the ground. Muscles bristled as it pushed itself up on one knee.
Meanwhile, the squirrel bear launched his last spell, which slammed into the Orc's remaining good leg, but it only dealt another ten percent of health damage. He cursed, jumping up and down as the staff fell out if his paws. He kicked it twice and stomped on top of it, enraged by missing the Orc.
"Hey, wait!" Kaden yelled. "Stop it, Let me try something." He walked up to the creature, taking the staff.
Congratulations. You have found Orc Shaman’s staff. Would you like to absorb the staff’s primary attribute? Yes/No?
"Yes, of course I do," Kaden stated to himself. The staff began glowing weirdly as it became smaller, and disappeared into his palms. They lit up for a moment and started burning. Kaden screamed in pain as a bell chimed in his head.
Maelstrom Page 15