Orc Glitch- The Mad King

by KJ Harlow

  Behind him was the table with all the loot Crusk made Cal surrender. It gleamed and winked at him, daring him to steal it away again. Crusk threw Cal into the grass, really putting his shoulder into it. Cal slammed into the dirt, leaving a deep imprint before bouncing a few times and landing in a pile seven yards away.

  -29 Damage!

  He slowly got to his feet, wincing. Legs? Check. Arms? Check. He glared at the larger orc. “I’ll take you on Crusk, but on one condition.”

  Crusk sneered. “I don’t know what you are, but an orc you aren’t. If we want something, we just take it. Only pathetic humans bargain. They use words because they lack strength.”

  Cal smirked, courage roaring through his blood. “If it sounds like an excuse, it probably is one.” Crusk’s face darkened. “Are you afraid to lose?”

  Crusk bellowed, spittle flying out of his jaws. “I’ll destroy you! Name your terms.”

  “If I kill you, your horde becomes mine, not to mention your loot.” Crusk couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He put his hands on his hips and laughed. His horde, still shaken by the grisly death of Phoebe milled about uneasily.

  “And when I win?”

  “You can kill me, I’ll give you my pet and my satchel.”

  Kai spluttered behind Cal, but he paid him no heed. His plan was audacious and fraught with risk, but if worse came to worse he could sacrifice himself, allowing him and Kai to respawn outside Gresshia and regroup.

  Crusk was upon Cal in an instant. He swung his axe vertically, then horizontally, then diagonally. Cal kept moving back, dodging the swings by a hair’s breadth. His left fist came next, like a boulder falling off a cliff. Damn it, his mana hadn’t recharged yet. Cal raised a foot-thick earth wall just as Crusk’s fist made contact. It crunched through the Earth Wall, smashing Cal in the face and chest.

  -40 Damage!

  He sprawled onto the floor, rolling on his side until he thumped into Phoebe’s corpse.

  “Cal!” Kai exclaimed. He gripped his spear, flames enveloping it.

  Cal sprung up, wincing again. “When I say run, run.”

  “What in Karst are you doing?” Kai said, his eyes wide with bewilderment.

  Cal looked back at his foe. He was shaking his hand and flexing his fingers.

  “I’m going to outsmart him.”

  Cal walked away from the werejaguar and the orc corpse back towards Crusk. He drew his iron axe and flung his arms out. “Come at me, bro!”

  “RAGNAR!” Crusk bellowed. Lars brought out another axe out of nowhere and tossed it towards his captain. Crusk caught it in his left hand. It was dull grey and slightly smaller than his main weapon in his right.

  “What’s wrong, Crusk? Trying to compensate for something?”

  His eyebrows knitted in confusion before he understood the jab at his orchood. Crusk crossed his arms, his axes flat on his shoulders either side of his face. I need to give my mana time to recharge. When Crusk was two seconds away from impact, Cal bolted right. Crusk anticipated this, changing direction to follow Cal.

  He unleashed both axes, slicing an ‘X’ through the air. Metal slashed through rubberoak and Cal fell. The back plate came undone, dangling from the clasp on his side. Using his hatchet, he quickly hacked it off and threw it aside. It hadn’t been heavy, but the less weight, the better. Vision of Gram standing on the outskirts of Rawdriad Village flashed into his mind, her yellow eyes soft but piercing. Not now.

  Crusk charged at Cal again, slashing wildly with both weapons. Cal sidestepped, hopped back and ducked under his wild swings. He kept leading the orc captain around the circle, staying just out of arm’s reach. All the while he kept an eye on his mana gauge. It was now 45% full. Was that enough?

  Crusk was tiring but still unrelenting. Out of nowhere, he threw his main axe to the side of the ring. It glimmered in the light of the Sibelle before landing with a dull thud into the earth. He swapped the other axe into his right hand then charged at Cal again with renewed vigour.

  Cal wasn’t ready for Crusk this time. He started to move left, but the orc captain had him covered. He raised his axe, a triumphant gleam in his beady, dark eye. Out of nowhere, Kai’s drove his flaming spear into Crusk’s chest, standing between the two orcs. The weapon barely made it through his skin, bending from the pressure on both sides. Crusk swung down, the axe ringing through the air, inches away from Kai’s face.

  “Now!” Kai roared, looking back at Cal. Cal bent his knees and shifted his stance. Collecting all the mana he had recharged, he focused it into his axe and jumped. Crusk swung his axe, grazing the side of Cal’s featherfoot boots as the smaller orc leapt over him. Cal did a front somersault and gripping his axe with both hands, brought it thundering down into the ground.

  “Earthquake!”

  Nothing happened for a three seconds. Then, cracks started branching out from Cal’s striking point. They snaked under and around the buildings, moving at an alarming speed.

  “Now! Run!” Kai yanked his spear free, letting the orc captain fall forward into the ground. Cal ran to the table where Crusk had taken his surrendered loot. Pulling the flap open, he held the satchel open with one hand, using the other to scoop everything else inside. A lot of it fell onto the floor, but Cal didn’t have much time.

  “Stop him!” Crusk roared, chin in the dirt. “TYRAZ GARRR!” His horde was paralysed, their eyes frantically spinning in their sockets. He fastened the cover back over the satchel and paused. He ran past Crusk, bent down and snatched up the axe he had thrown to the edge of the ring. “That’s mine!” He screamed. “TYRAZ GARRR!”

  Cal’s feet thumped into the breaking earth as he ran towards the apothecary. Fissures had started appearing all over Gresshia; the entire plateau was crumbling. There was a grinding sound as if the mountains themselves were bellowing in pain. The land beneath the apothecary broke off, taking the entire building down into the bottomless canyon. Gigantic shards of earth everywhere were splitting off from the plateau and tumbling into the abyss.

  “Hey!” Kai stood at the beginning of the bridge, waving frantically at Cal. Glancing once more at where the apothecary used to be, he ran over to Kai. Together they stepped onto the bridge. It jiggled beneath their feet, like an oversized wooden worm in its death throes. After minutes of running, they made it to the other side. Panting heavily, the travellers turned around just in time to see the plateau implode and fall into the canyon. A giant cloud of dust whooshed upwards, carrying the souls of Crusk and his horde as offerings to Sibelle.

  13

  A Brush With Royalty

  20,156th Cycle

  16-Sibelle

  Gong!

  Level Up!

  Level Up!

  Level Up!

  Level Up!

  Level Up!

  You have been allocated 50 points. Use these to improve your base statistics.

  Skill Up!

  Skill Up!

  You have gained one (2) level for your Skill Earth Wall! Mana Usage -2%/sec.

  Skill Up!

  Skill Up!

  Skill Up!

  You have gained three (3) levels for your Skill Earthquake! Mana Usage -3%, Skill Effect +0.9 sec.

  Cal had never seen so many notifications. He smiled tiredly, reading each one before dismissing them.

  Celeste Woods

  “It’s good to be amongst the trees again.”

  Cal looked up from his vantage point at the bottom of a tall oak tree. Kai had found a leaf similar in size to the surfboard leaves back at Rawdriad, stringing it up between two trees about 30 feet up. He lay in his makeshift hammock, swaying gently as the warm breeze wafted through his whiskers.

  “Mm,” Cal grunted non-committally. 50 points. Daaaayum. New year, new me. Cal knew that a time-wise, a full cycle of the four moons in Terrafaytum didn’t equate to a year, but he was too relieved with how that last battle went to care.

  Time to give agility a little love. Cal was feeling a bit sick after he watched the
saved replays of his epic duel with Crusk. His head should have been lopped off a dozen times, but thank Sibelle, he had made it out in one piece. He dumped 15 points into the speed stat. Immediately, he felt more blue hedgehog than he did orc.

  Earthquake had worked a little too well, but that was only because of the Sibelle. If it wasn’t for the earth moon, he might not have had as much time to steal the loot and escape. He needed to recharge his mana faster between attacks, so he put 15 points into Intelligence.

  20 points split evenly into the remaining two stats, strength and defence. That back plate was somewhere down there in the valley, a huge “X” through it. Kai had done his best to fix Cal’s front plate to his torso but with nothing to secure it to, it kept coming undone. It sat in its own cell in the Adventurer’s Satchel now.

  Cal closed his eyes, focusing on the heightened feelings of power he had installed into his body. Time to see how it all looks:

  NAME: Callahan Rogers

  AGE: 29 (Earth)

  CLASS: Orc Fighter

  LVL: 19

  HP: 230/230

  MP: 316/316

  AFF: Earth (x22)

  STR: 39+2%+50%

  DEF: 40+1%

  AGL: 44+3%

  INT: 48+1%

  ABILITY: Examine, Verdant Whisper

  SKILL:

  Earth Wall – Level 7 – Next Level in 41%

  Earthquake – Level 6 – Next Level in 84%

  WEAPON: Axe – Level D – Next Level in 76%

  He flipped screens:

  Support

  Kai: Level C – Next Level in 45%

  Gram: Level C – Next Level in 70%

  The chiefling still got on his nerves, but he had to admit that they were starting to work better and better together, at least in combat.

  Cal closed the screens and flipped open his satchel. They had been on the move since defeating Crusk and his horde. After travelling for over ten moonshifts, there was still no vengeance-seeking giant orc cloud forming above them. He could finally relax and properly check the loot. Putting his arm in elbow deep, he sorted through each compartment, one by one:

  WEAPON Noble Sword of Alacrity x1

  WEAPON Iron Axe x1

  STAFF Healing Staff x1

  MISC. Mana Potion x4

  SHARDS x2,500

  He had nightmares that after jumping to cast Earthquake, he would strike the ground and the Iron Axe would shatter into a million pieces. Really he should have just gotten rid of it, but even in its state, it could still be used.

  He closed his bag and shuffled up the tree trunk, his back grating on the bumpy, peeling bark. On his hip, next to his ever-trusty hatchet was Crusk’s axe. He pulled it out carefully, hoisting it into the air and Examining it:

  WEAPON: Wild Axe of Power

  LVL: D

  RARITY: Uncommon

  BONUS: +50% to STR (Orcs only).

  An axe that grants a power bonus to orcs.

  Finally a powerful axe! Stealing it right from under Crusk’s nose was the most audacious thing he’d ever done, even crazier than the time he tried to wheel himself out of the hospital with a drip still in his arm. He’d made it as far as the bus stop before Aristotle’s henchmen had found him.

  Kai jumped out of his hammock and landed with cat-like lightness on the ground. “He’s here, Grandmother.”

  Cal blinked a few times then gazed at the glowing pendant on Kai’s chest. “Hello Keizen.”

  “Hello Callahan. Good work against the orc horde back there.”

  Cal sat up straighter. “You saw it?”

  “I saw enough of it.”

  “Your satchel went through a lot of trauma – my bad.”

  The old werejaguar laughed. “I could see that. I’m glad you’re putting it to good use.”

  Kai stood there awkwardly, looking away from Cal during their conversation.

  “Kai saved my skin twice. First was by impaling the orc, next was stopping the orc captain from cutting me in half.” Kai tried even harder not to meet his gaze. “I couldn’t have done it without him.”

  The pendant fell silent for a moment. “Is he still calling you ‘orc’?”

  Cal paused. “He’s trying not to.”

  “That’s an improvement.”

  Kai snorted and put his hands on his hips. “Grandmother, who exactly are we meant to be meeting up with and where?”

  “You will be visiting your grand uncle, Javal.”

  “Javal? This isn’t Wayfarer Javal, who left the forest more than 100 Karsts ago?”

  “The one and the same.”

  Cal raised an eyebrow. Kai’s eyes shone with excitement.

  “Callahan, Javal is my brother. If there was one thing he disliked, it was the racial divides in Terrafaytum. His mission was to build a city somewhere in Dresham that would be all-inclusive. Everyone laughed at him, werejaguar and non-werejaguar alike. Fast forward 50 cycles and he did it.”

  “He built a city?” Cal asked incredulously.

  “Yes, he built Bracefell. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard that it’s the second-biggest town after Thaylia. werejaguars, eryn, mercats, humans, maybe even orcs have gone there and thrived. Best of all, everyone seems to live in harmony. Where are you now?”

  “The Celeste Woods,” Kai said immediately.

  The amulet was quiet for a moment. “Walk north-north-west for another 15, 16 moonshifts and you should arrive at Bracewell. You can get more supplies and maybe some gifts for the King.”

  “So we just walk into Bracefell and ask to see Javal?”

  “He’s the mayor there. Callahan, show him the Mark and he’ll know that you can be trusted. The letter I gave you should also help.”

  Kai looked back longingly at Celeste Woods, now just a speck of green on the horizon.

  “There are trees everywhere around here,” Cal pointed. “What’s so special about the woods back there?”

  Kai turned to the front. “A tree on its own is nothing. When there are several together, they give protection.”

  “Is the wittle pussy cat home sick?”

  Kai snarled, showing razor sharp teeth made for shredding meat. “Don’t make you kill you again.”

  “We’ll respawn in Celeste.”

  “Which I have no problem with whatsoever.”

  Cal chuckled. He could have taken it further, maybe threatened to break their party so they could part ways. He dashed the thought out of his head as soon as it came.

  “Did you see the name of the plains we are on now?”

  “Don’t you ever pay attention?” Kai said. “‘The Plains of Abundance.’”

  Green hills rose and fell as far as the eye could see. While there weren’t any woods or forests, trees dotted the landscape. Strange yellow, spotted, pyramid-shaped fruits swung by their stems.

  Kai crouched, shimmied his bottom and jumped up five feet to snatch one of the low-hanging ones. “Grandmother has told me about these.” He turned it around in his hand, eyeing it carefully. He then bit into it. Dark-pink juice ran down his chin, matting his fur. “Sibelleberries.”

  “Sibelleberries?” Cal echoed.

  Kai nodded, pointing at the brown moon. Just over two thirds of it was still leaning on the horizon. Cal cast Earth Wall underneath himself. He jumped into the tree, climbing up. He grabbed a Sibelleberry from the very top. It was slightly larger than Kai’s, with sharper corners. He shook it; it sounded like there were two little seeds rattling inside.

  “The Plains of Abundance are so called because of the everytrees. These trees grow fruit depending on the current moon. Kai eyed the orc as he sniffed it. “Take a bite.”

  Cal opened his jaws and manouvered the piece of fruit between his tusks. It popped, sending juice dribbling all over his face and down his forearms. It tasted like grapes and oranges.

  Kai was unimpressed. “Why did you pick a ripe one for?”

  Cal wolfed the fruit down. “I thought fruit at the top of a tree was better,” he said between
mouthfuls. Cal would have picked another one, but the sticky residue was off-putting. He ran to the top of a hill and scanned around.

  “I’m going to wash myself in that pond there.” Cal jogged over, getting there faster than he expected. He looked at his reflection, unbroken in the water. His eyes, a light purple on earth, now seemed a darker violet. His touched his fingers to his tusks jutting out of his lower jaw. They were getting longer. Was that because he was levelling up, or because of time?

  He closed his eyes, splashing the water to his face. When was the last time he had actually checked whether the “Exit” button could work again? Did he want to go back? Did he care anymore? He stared into the pond again, the water growing still. For a second, he saw himself, the real him: unkempt hair, 5 o’clock shadow, always sort of sick looking. He blinked and then he saw Erika. She was the only good thing in his life now. If it wasn’t for her, he would have given up a long time ago. If she could see me walking now, she’d be pretty happy.

  “Orc.”

  Cal snapped out of his reverie. “What?”

  He was expecting another snide remark.

  “Come.” Kai walked past Cal towards the north. He started heading up another hill, taller than the others they had seen so far. Cal stood up, shooting a final glance at the water. It was just orc-Cal again, staring back at him with slightly lost eyes. The werejaguar turned back, a figure of blue and black against a green canvas.

  Cal caught up to the Kai and together they climbed the hill. The view at the top was breathtaking. A vast town with twinkling lights could be seen a fair distance away. The light felt like fireflies huddled together in the cold, keeping each other warm. Hundreds of hills undulated between their vantage point and Bracefell. Fly up high enough and it would be like looking at the skin and pores of a green giant.

  “Yeah, there are no other towns in sight,” Cal said. “That must be Bracefell.” Cal squinted, looking further out. It was pretty hard to make out, but something that looked like a grey smudge against a dark purple background could be seen. “Alright. Let’s keep moving. It looks like there’s not much choice besides going around or over these hills, both of which might take quite some time.”