◈ Chapter 94:

“Huh. Well that explains why we haven't seen many monsters around, the Orcs killed them all.”

Opal was standing with her hands on her hips looking down at the enormous Orc camp at the bottom of the valley. Rows and rows of tents and ramshackle constructions and warsmithies and stalls and sties and stables and canopies and carts and latrines and flattened ground where Orcs sparred and brawled in the open cheered on by eager Orcish crowds.

Rain could scent the camp from up on the rise thanks to the breeze and it caused him to wrinkle the bridge of his nose in disgust. Orcs on the move apparently didn't go in for hygiene… or baths. It gave the lower leveler slums a run for its money in stench.

“We should leave. It’s a bad idea for monsters like us to be anywhere near that camp, we’re too much of a target.”

“I… want to go in.”

He blinked and turned to find Lyra. She was looking at the red-headed Orc who was desperately trying to draw in what little air he could to remain conscious as Rain held him up in one paw.

“Why?”

“Because first of all you’re obviously still hungry and I think I can see some cattle down there. We need that cattle because what if there is nothing to eat when we go further? What if the Orcs have stripped the woods bare for miles around? I don’t particularly want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with a hungry you Rain, er, no offence.”

Rain had to admit that was true, he had been getting increasingly concerned with just how starved he was. He needed food, and a lot of it, the sooner the better.

“And second because, well, we’re bloody lost! I’m a city sheep! I don't know my way around backwoods and endless forests!” she jabbed a finger at Rain “And you! You rarely if ever left Lynthia, you know literally one town and one dungeon, that's it!” The accusing finger swung to the side pointing at an annoyed looking Opal “And somehow you're even worse! You hadn't even seen the sky until recently!”

“Hey screw you! I don't need to see some dumb sky to scout!”

“So what direction is Florens in huh?”

“...”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. We don't know where we’re going, so we need… we need a map. I think I can probably purchase that down in that camp. Maybe. So- So I’m going down there!”

Rain eyed the sheep girl. Five foot six. Cute. Fluffy. Then he turned and looked down at the camp. Hordes of huge seven foot Orcs. Muscular. Violent. Currently happily beating the shit out of each other in a massive brawl.

“No.”

“I’ve been in Orc camps before you know. They are still levelers despite their incompetent public image department. They will welcome me fine and they won't even challenge me to a casual brawl first because I’m not very intimidating. It’s when you look like you can put up a fight that you really need to look out around Orcs.”

“...I will come too, as Fitz.”

“And get immediately attacked on sight? Have you seen yourself? It’s not like I can make you invisible without being invisible myself either, and Opal can hardly go in on her own as she isn't a leveler.”

Rain set his lips in a line. She was… annoyingly right. If she could do as she said it would be quite good, maybe even very good, they were in need of both a map and food.

He clenched his paw and the Orc made a strangled cry of alarm as he was squeezed. But then he let his shoulders slump and sighed.

“Alright, it makes some amount of sense,-”

“Of course!”

“-but I’m not letting you go down there with nothing.”

“Yeah she’ll have me with her,” said Opal.

Rain’s eye twitched. “Not what I meant .”

He dropped the red headed Orc and he went sprawling on the grass on all fours, drawing in great raggedy breaths, his chest rising and falling like a pair of blacksmith’s bellows, drool dangling from his lips.

The Orc was on the younger side, about six and a half foot in height, similar to the other orcs that had attacked him in that way, his peers Rain supposed. Unusual for an Orc he had red hair, beaded and shorn and cut with crude runes. His canines which protruded up from his lip were tipped with crafted copper. Having seen just how much the species enjoyed brawling it seemed likely they were capped that way for fighting reasons.

He looked over the Orc’s armour. Hardened leather from a mix of sources, some of it even looked suspiciously like Kobold scales. More important than the material however was the crude Orcish runes carved and marked along its surface, clearly some kind of enchantment to make it stronger, which was fortunate for the Orc as the shadowy wolf teeth wouldn't have had much problem piercing the leather otherwise.

After some time the Orc flopped over onto his back, still breathing hard, and looked up at Rain. There was genuine fear in his eyes, which in Rain’s experience with Orc’s, mostly the anvil wielding maniac Ola, was unusual. The Orc swallowed.

“D-don’t kill me. I’m not- I didn't do anything to you, I never attacked you like the others, it wouldn't be f-fair.”

“You’re a leveler, you expect me to believe that you didn't intend to kill me? A monster? No. The only reason you didn't try to kill me is because you saw your friends get cut down first.”

The Orc paled.

Rain held up a paw and darkness misted from his fur, fringing chromatic. A small cloud formed, condensing and creating a starscape-eyed shadow rat sitting in his palm. The rat blinked and sniffed at the air curiously, its whiskers twitching.

“You know what this stuff does to a living person?” gravelled Rain.

“I s-saw... but I wish I hadn't...” The Orc began to slowly crawl away on his elbows, stealthily trying to put some distance between himself and Rain. Rain didn't even glance down at him, half a dozen pairs of wolf teeth poured from his mane and spilled down on to the grass, circling the Orc and preventing him from going further.

Rain eyed the rat in his paw. Rats were a constant presence in his previous life, happy to make their home amongst the low leveler slums, they were extraordinary survivors and could eat anything… which was a problem as it meant they weren't particularly pure predators.

He lifted his other paw and extended his index, then he gently prodded the rat with the tip of his claw. The rat promptly disintegrated into a cloud of darkness.

Hmm.

He looked down at the Orc who was currently trying his best to shrivel into a corncob in his efforts to avoid the teeth eagerly snapping at the air around him.

The rat being fragile was one problem, the other problem was it wouldn't really be stealthy anywhere on the Orc, it wasn't like the Orc had convenient pockets on his armour. He tried to recall something appropriate, something that would work for what he wanted, something that would be strong and stealthy.

A childhood memory of sitting on the dusty dirt as the summer sun beat down overhead came to him. Memories of being entertained by the smallest of things that darted and fought in the grass and forgotten corners.

The cloud began to reform. Ligaments. Lots and lots and lots of ligaments spun from the dark. Then a segmented body. A flat and long segmented body. The little ligaments wriggled as it formed, a successive wave, rhythmic, dozens and dozens of little legs, then joined by the formation of a pair of large pincers already reaching for life.

The Orc’s face froze up in a kind of stark horror as the thing formed, a crawling dark insectoid centipede that writhed and coiled, an incredibly unsettling air around it.

“Wha- What are you going to do with that?! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THAT!?- N-NO! NO! NO!”

Rain advanced on the now hyperventilating Orc, the Three foot long black centipede’s antenna waving at the air with animated interest.

The Orc shook his head frantically, raising his arms, begging and pleading, but nothing could stop it, Rain held out his paw and the centipede poured from between his digits, slipping down, its legs scrabbling at the air until it found the Orc’s kicking feet. The centipede got a grip and its many powerful legs clutched hold, sticking to the armour and flowing onto its surface, wrapping around his leg, spiralling up. The Orc tried to beat at it, his hands flailing, but the floating teeth took hold of his arms and held him down and the giant centipede was free to crawl up his body until it found a gap in his armour below his cuirass.

The Orc’s deep voice rose into a surprisingly feminine shriek as the centipede crawled into his armour, its flat body allowing it to squeeze beneath the leather and his clothing beneath. With a squiggle of the last of its legs it fully slipped under and vanished from sight.

“OhgodOhgodOhgod!”

The wolf teeth let him go and the Orc thrashed in the grass rolling over and over. The back of his head became visible and at the nape opening of the cuirass a pair of black pincers poked free. The pincers brushed against the hairs on the back of his neck and the Orc froze up.

“You saw what happened to the others when cut or bitten by this stuff Orc. You know those pincers only have to squeeze down a little bit and it’s over for you.”

The Orc didn't reply, clearly too scared to move. As it was he could do nothing but tremble as two more centipedes formed around Rain’s claws and then slithered into his armour, coiling around his body beneath.

Content that the three giant shadow crawlies were now impossible to see he commanded the one brushing its pincers against his neck to pull back. The pincers dipped below the armour but were still held ready to bite down on his spine, ready to sever it on command.

“Stand up.”

The Orc whimpered, but then Rain made the centipedes wiggle their many legs and he squealed in fear and rushed to his feet, standing tense and awkward, freezing up each time he felt chitin move against his body.

“You understand that going against me in any way will result in your death? That your life is now entirely in my paws?”

“Wha- wha- what the fucking hell kind of monster are you!? This- this isn't normal, this isn't supposed to happen! M-monsters can’t do this! You were just supposed to die and- and help me level!” shouted the Orc, his voice cracking.

Opal prodded him in the side with a finger and the Orc yelped and near jumped out of his skin, awkwardly trying to move so that the centipedes didn't puncture his clothing as he landed.

She grinned.

“You’re pretty wimpy for an Orc. First you hid in a bush pooping your panties and now you're as jumpy as a cricket just because of a few cute centipedes.”

“They’re three feet long and in my clottthess!!” replied the Orc with tears in the corners of his eyes.

Opal laughed. “They’re just bugs.”

Lyra was looking at the twitching Orc with a slightly less gleeful expression, more of a mildly horrified expression.

“I think I preferred the floating teeth,” she whispered faintly, an involuntary shudder running up her back.

“With this you have something to fall back on if there are any problems.” gravelled Rain, “The Orc can guide you or make excuses when necessary, or even fight for you if he wishes to live.”

“And what if he tries to betray us?”

“Snip.” said Rain, making a pincer shape with his index and thumb and closing it. “If anyone asks, say he is having a heart attack or something like that and sneak away in the crowd. The centipedes will mist to nothing before anyone knows to look.”

“You hear that Orc boy? You do anything bad and you’ll get the snip!”

“P-please don’t put it like that…”

Opal patted his thigh like a pet and smiled innocently. She then turned and waved back at him over her shoulder. “Come on, we've got food to buy to make wolfy bigger.”

After a moment the Orc attempted to follow, his motions stiff and terrified but easing as he realised that the centipedes weren't going to tear into him just for moving around.

The three of them made their way down the rise with Rain remaining behind.