Orc Glitch- The Mad King

by KJ Harlow

  Cal and Kai descended the hill and climbed the next. They did this for four moonshifts, defeating new plainfiends that crossed their path. Kai’s amulet was put to good use, showing footage that helped them beat shrubcritters (distant cousin to the stonecritter), venomfin, a snake-like fish that jumped out of ponds and attempted to inject its poison into your neck and riddlewrens, a hummingbird with a needle-sharp beak that flew in flocks of 50-100, possessing sharp, needle-like beaks.

  Cal made sure to always be on the lookout for check points. Even though he had defeated a horde of OP orcs, that didn’t stop him from dying a few times when a flock of 80 riddlewrens decided to chase him and peck him a few times each. Kai kicked up a fuss every time they had to make up for lost ground, but as long as he had plainfiends to slay, he was happy.They ate Sibelleberries between battles to restore their health, which were becoming less flavoursome and restorative as time passed.

  After moonshift after moonshift of up and down, they finally crested the final hill. Bracefell was half a moonshift away by walk.

  “Let’s do something fun,” Cal said, enjoying the view from the top of the hill.

  “Must we?” Kai groaned.

  “It’ll help us get to Bracefell faster.” Kai was silent.

  Cal had pulled on the craft gloves he had stolen back from Crusk. He had been experimenting with them along the way. When he wasn’t in danger, he would deplete his mana with Earth Wall, trying to create shapes and structures that he hadn’t made before. While it was tiring, his high Intelligence stat meant that it only took minutes for it to be recharged.

  Cal pointed his hand at the ground in front of them. A slab of earth four inches thick rose out from the side of the hill. Kai eyed him suspiciously. Cal raised a mysterious eyebrow. He closed his eyes then four wheels appeared on the four corners of the slab.

  Henry Ford, eat your heart out. When this was all over, he would make Terrafaytum’s first line of automobiles. He’d be rich! He held the ‘car’ in place, binding the wheels to the ground. He sat on the surface, grooves appearing for his cheeks.

  “Come on, hop in.”

  Kai eyed the contraption dubiously. “I prefer walking.”

  “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

  Kai hesitated a moment longer before getting in. He eyed Cal suspiciously when Cal created an indent for his backside and tail to fit in.

  “Alright, let’s… go!”

  Cal released the brakes. It was slow going at first, but it looked like Newton’s Laws still worked in ValorVale. They picked up speed, zooming down the hill. Kai wrapped his arms around Cal’s torso. They reached the bottom of the hill, the back of the vehicle crunching into the grass. Gotta work on that suspension, methinks. They coasted for about a quarter of a mile before Cal’s mana ran out. Kai scrambled up just as the model T(errafaytum) Ford disintegrated.

  “Fun wasn’t it?”

  Kai ignored the orc, looking up to his right. “We’re here.”

  Bracewell

  The words shimmered in the air before disappearing. Cal dusted himself off and followed his comrade.

  Bracewell felt different to Rawdriad. Firstly, it looked about 20 times bigger. Houses constructed from large, mortar bricks lined the streets. They had conical roofs with a range of different colours, but only one colour per building. Flags stuck out from the top point of these roofs with different emblems on them.

  Secondly, there was no outer wall around the city. Buildings just suddenly appeared. Cal locked eyes with a human girl with a dusting of freckles on her cheeks gazing out her window in boredom. She stared at him, not displaying any fear. Eventually, she smiled shyly and waved.

  Thirdly, this was a place of commerce. Cal and Kai walked in, looking at all manner of stalls lining the main thoroughfare. A purple and green mercat floated in a waist-high pool, leaning on its paw. To its right hung a silvery fish that had been deftly cut in half from head to tail, displaying pink flesh and metallic-looking bones.

  “Excuse me,” Cal said.

  “Oh a customer!” The mercat suddenly perked up. In its excitement, it splashed some water onto Kai.

  “Calm yourself!” He snapped.

  “Sorry friend,” the mercat said, feigning contriteness to the werejaguar. It turned back to Cal. “What did you want to buy today? How about some mirrorscale? Freshly caught! Will make Mrs. Orc very happy.” It winked at Cal.

  “I… no. I want to see Mayor Javal. Can you point me in his direction?”

  “Oh.” The mercat suddenly looked crestfallen. “Follow along main thoroughfare. His home blue-domed building up sandstone steps. Quite busy today, though.”

  “Not for us,” Kai quipped. The mercat eyed the werejaguar then focused his attention on Cal. “The new king is here. No doubt, mayor will be busy for next two, three moonshifts.”

  “The new king?” Cal said, putting his hands on the counter and leaning into the mercat. “What’s his name?”

  The mercat looked slightly taken aback. “Hmm… Forter? Fisher? I don’t know. Politics, I know nothing.”

  “Thank you.” Cal turned away. He doubled-back, dug into his satchel and slapped a blue shard in front of the mercat. “For your information.”

  “He could have just made all that up.” Kai said, keeping up with Cal. “You’re too gullible.”

  “And you’re too cynical. Besides, I felt sorry for the guy.”

  When the little girl stared at him through the window outside Bracefell, he felt a familiar uneasiness before she smiled. Would people judge him because he was different? Keizen did say that maybe orcs were here too, though he hadn’t seen any yet. When he had first gone into Rawdriad Village, he had felt so exposed.

  In a weird sort of way, it was like nothing had changed from Earth to Terrafaytum: people still looked at him weirdly because he was different. The difference with the latter was that they eventually came to embrace him, but that was more to do with the successfully completing missions than social acceptance.

  He spied a cloak store at the end of the thoroughfare. In the space of 10 seconds, he slipped in, chose the plainest brown, hooded robe he could find and paid a red shard to the startled, balding man at the counter. “Keep the change,” he said, fastening the cloak around him.

  There was a crowd up ahead in a square. Without having to stand on his tip toes, he could just see over the sea of heads, each bobbing up for a better look. The only sound that could be heard was the dull murmur of people curious about what was going on. Clarions sounded, throwing a sheet of silence over the crowd.

  “Announcing his Majesty,” an uncertain-sounding, strangely familiar male voice begun, “sorry, his Awesomeness, The Lord King Fetter.” Clarions sounded again. Unenthusiastic, scattered clapping fell flat in the square.

  Everyone surged forward slightly and now Cal had to stand on his top toes. “Hey Kai, you want to sit on my shoulders?” He glanced around him; the werejaguar was gone.

  Someone who had been sitting down got up, heaving a heavy sigh. Metal scraped on metal as a sword was drawn out of a casket. It clattered on the ground, scraping along the cobblestones. Every so often he would mutter and tap his blade. There would be a grinding sound, like metal on rock and something grey would float up and hover in the air. Cal squinted. It was pointy at one end and flat at the other, cone-shaped like the roofs of the houses at Bracewell, but narrower and with a sharper point. By the time he made his way to the middle of the square, a good two dozen were floating behind him. What the hell were those?

  “Mayor J-J-Javal.” Male voice, sort of nasally, not deep, but not high pitched either. And that stammer. “You have been accused of defying the official royal decree. F-furthermore…”

  This was not going to do. Cal took a few steps back down the thoroughfare. He needed to get a better vantage point.

  “Orc!” Kai hissed. Cal looked up and right. The werejaguar had clambered onto the awning of a store facing the square. He beckoned Cal to join him. There was no way it would hol
d the two of them. A ladder lay on the ground, next to a store that had its windows boarded up. Cal picked it up, propped it against the wall and climbed up. He grabbed the little flagpole in the middle of the roof as he stepped onto the sloping surface, his new robe flapping around him. Not stable by any means but at least now he had a better view.

  “…how do you respond to these allegations?”

  Cal eyes widened. A blue werejaguar stood on a raised wooden platform. A beast of a being, he stood at least half a body length taller than Kai. His arms and legs were the size of tree trunks. His keg-sized chest was puffed out in pride and defiance. A single, long scar stretched from the top-right of his face, over his eye and nose and finished on the left side of his chin. His hands were bound behind his back.

  “With all due respect, your Majesty…”

  “‘Awesomeness’”. The uncertain voice corrected. It belonged to a soldier standing by the platform. Cal squinted, rubbing his eyes with his spare hand. Was that… Hector?

  “Your… Awesomeness. If a royal degree involves attacking the inhabitants of the city that I built, then count me an enemy of the kingdom.”

  The people in the square erupted, cheering for their leader.

  “Silence!” Fetter barked. Cal leaned forward, the small flag pole in the center of the roof bending in his hand. The first thing that came to mind when looking at the king was Lord Farquad from Shrek. He was, what, five four, five five at tallest? A long, fuzzy red robe dragged along the ground, a circlet of gold encrusted with gems sat lopsided upon his faded blonde hair. He had a tic beneath his left eye.

  Cal watched the grey cones floating behind the king. They were currently in a concave formation. Wait… what were those holes in the ground? That’s when it clicked: the cones were made out of the cobblestone. King Fetter could use Earth Craft.

  Cal then noticed something else. All around the edge of the square stood soldiers, like the one standing by the platform. They wore chain mail with a matching mail cap, their swords dangling by their side. Cal’s eyes widened. The emblem on their chest was the black, gauntleted fist on a red background. On their right side were eryn, wings neatly folded into their back. They held their swords flat against their torso, arm bent at the elbow, staring flatly at the proceedings in front of them.

  “My soldiers are b-b-bored, Javal. When your town has so many people,” he swept his hand in a wide arc, red robe swinging wide, “Why not let them play with them?”

  “That’s because your idea of playing involves taking away their lives!” Javal spat.

  Wave after wave of outrage swept through the crowd. The eryn and soldiers turned around, roughly shoving people back. Fetter lost it. He stomped over to Hector and dealt him a cracking blow in the face. He grunted and fell on the floor. “Order your men to control the crowd! If even one person here dares speak out, kill them!”

  “Hurt my people and I’ll hurt you.” Javal growled.

  Hector unsteadily got to his feet and began barking orders to his men. Cal could sense the people in the square were lifted by their mayor but the King’s threat silenced them.

  “Hurt me?” Fetter threw his head back and laughed, hands on his hips.

  “Examine.” Cal whispered, focusing on the mayor and the king.

  NAME: Javal

  CLASS: Werejaguar Berserker

  LVL: 81

  HP: 980/1,095

  MP: 1,840/1,840

  NAME: Fetter Knox

  CLASS: King of Dresham

  LVL: 130

  HP: 2,696/2,696

  MP: 1,522/1,604

  Cal’s eyes watered. Javal looked three times as strong as Fetter, but Examine didn’t lie.

  “I’ll give you one last chance, Javal. Stop your forces from interfering with my soldiers and I’ll let you free.”

  “As long as Karst imbues me, I will not let a tyrant hurt my people.”

  “‘My people’? They’re m-m-mine Javal! Your pathetic little town is in my country!” Fetter’s eyes bulged out of his head before he closed his eyes. “You leave me no choice.” Fetter slowly raised his sword. The stone spires floated out from behind Fetter and, maintaining formation, settled in front of him. Cal looked his right. Damn it, where had Kai gone?

  Fetter’s sword started falling, then the environment blurred.

  Decision Mission II: The King or the Mayor?

  The King: you do nothing and watch Fetter kill Javal.

  The Mayor: you save Javal, but make yourself an enemy of the state. (Gain bonus Support points with Kai.)

  The King | The Mayor

  10…

  14

  The Mayor & The Maid

  20,156th Cycle

  1-Karst

  “Maiden.” Fetter slashed down, pointing his sword at Javal. The spires shivered then whistled through the air towards the large werejaguar.

  Sibelle aid me.

  A cobblestone wall tore up out of the ground right at the edge of the platform. The spires crunched into the wall and exploded on impact, sending brick and debris into the crowd. Some of the spires deflected off the wall and maintained their shape, flying all over the square. Screams of terror erupted as people started ducking or scrambling for cover. The eryn pulled out their bucklers, smashing errant spires with a well-time backhand swipe while their soldier masters cowered behind them.

  “Protect the king!” Hector ordered. His men either didn’t hear him or didn’t care. They pushed past the people, rushing back out through the thoroughfare.

  Cal looked past the chaos at the platform. Shit, no, no, no! A stone spire two foot long and eight inches thick at the base stuck out Javal’s stomach. He was gritting his bloodstained teeth, his hands around the base of it.

  Fetter was laughing maniacally, his sword raised. Out of nowhere, Kai had jumped out from the crowd, his spear aflame, ready to pierce the king’s heart. The spear deflected off something and spiralled into the air. The force of the deflection threw Kai back into some people who were trying to get away. Fetter spun around, looking for his attacker. By his side was a figure cloaked in vantablack. His robe rippled, impenetrable darkness clouded his face, even as he turned towards Kai then Cal.

  The notification screen opened up by itself. A female’s voice, soft yet piercing spoke:

  Hello Cal. Hope you’re enjoying ValorVale so far. Find me later.

  What the hell? He watched him – her – place a hand on Fetter’s shoulder. They blinked out of existence, a deep blip sound marking their exit.

  Cal climbed down the ladder and pushed against the tide of people. Even though the soldiers and eryn had been in the middle of the ring, they somehow made it out first. The only trace they left behind were a few feathers on the ground from the winged fighters. Cal helped some people who had been trampled on the ground get up. Eventually, he made it towards the middle platform.

  “Grand Uncle! By Karst, don’t shut your eyes!” Kai looked up frantically at Cal. “What do we do?”

  Javal was lying down, eyes rolling into the back of his head. He was muttering incomprehensibly, his arms flopping by his side.

  “I’m going to take out the spire.” He started heaving, trying to lift it.

  “No don’t!” Cal shouted. “That’s the only thing stopping him from bleeding out.” Hope that werejaguar anatomy is modelled after human anatomy. Cal stood up and scanned the square. Most of the people had left. Some lay on the ground, unmoving.

  “Is there a medicine man here?” He shouted. Wait… medicine man. Cal flipped his satchel open, felt around for the right compartment and gently pulled something out.

  Kai’s eyes went wide. “The lucentleaf!” He looked at Cal.

  “We couldn’t save Zkar. Let’s hope it can save another one of your family members.”

  Cal focused on the lucentleaf, shutting out the chaos around him.

  How do I use you?

  The lucentleaf shimmered.

  Crush me in a bowl. Heat me by sparkfire. The moment I become powde
r, mix me with water. Drink immediately.

  “Can you make sparkfire?” Cal asked Kai.

  “I didn’t bring any sparkpowder.”

  He looked at the healing leaf again. Will craftfire work?

  The lucentleaf was silent.

  “Here, hold this. Don’t burn it.” Cal said, giving Kai the lucentleaf. He found a part of the cobblestone ground that hadn’t been turned into spire. With an open hand, he raised a pillar of stone to head height. He focused on the top of the pillar, trying to change its shape. He hollowed out the top and rounded out the bottom, making the edge not too thick. He grabbed the stone bowl and snapped it off the pillar.

  “Crush up the lucentleaf in the bowl.”

  “With my hand?”

  “Yes, now!”

  Cal watched as Kai pressed his hands together, grinding the leaf up. It sparkled like glitter as the leaf shards fell into the bowl. Next was the tricky part.

  “Is craftfire as hot as sparkfire?”

  “What? I don’t know.”

  “Can you touch sparkfire with your bare hands?”

  “Yes.”

  “OK. Take your spear out, fire it up then put it under the bowl.”

  Kai wasn’t even arguing now. He did as he was told, holding the spear close to the point in one hand and holding the bowl in the other.

  “Be right back.” Cal dashed off back through the thoroughfare.

  “Friend, I need some clean water.”

  “Hello again. What is going on? People are saying the king is attacking–”

  “Water, now!”

  The mercat scurried away and brought a wooden bowl, scooping the mirror-like liquid into it.

  “Thank you again.” Cal walked as fast as he can, trying not to let too much water splash out of the bowl. “How is he?” Cal asked.