Chapter 16: Arrival of Logier’s Family

I was thinking of many things inside the hole I call home, that’s when it happened. It was a shout like none I have heard before, accompanied by reverberating drumming sounds, it was like the marching of a thousand giants that rocked the very earth itself. Getting curious and a little apprehensive, I came out of the hole only to gawk at the spectacle before me.

Standing outside the hole and throughout the hallway, with muscular frames, huge heights and dressed in rags were the orcs in all their glory. Each had a crudely made weapon in their hands while their bodies were adorned with various wooden and other junk made materials, acting as their armors. The way they stood painted a serious-looking image that one wouldn’t see on a daily basis. None of the orcs had a smile or easy-going expression on their faces. I can even see scars and battle wounds littering all over their bodies. They looked like a ferocious and battle-hardened bunch, as expected of a race that thrives in violence.

Leading this long line and standing on the forefront was Logier with an unusually long and serious face. Well, considering how he was representing his tribe, he couldn’t just laze around as he wished, can he?

“Little Imp, I have brought my people here. When do we start the war?” Logier asked me in a tone I was not familiar with. It’s deep and contained a lot of power behind it, let’s call it ‘the chief’ voice. His demeanor too reflected his status. He was nothing similar to what I was acquainted with these few days. I looked at him in the eye and ignored everyone else, “you guys can fight in that state?”

I was sure questions were raised regarding my status as a ‘mere Imp’, after all, not all orcs are wise like Logier or else he wouldn’t be the chief. While strength is the main requirement, having only strength isn’t enough. A strand of wisdom is necessary for an individual to become a leader level character. This factor affects the selection of orcs’ next ruler. The tribal chief position wasn’t a hereditary seat, it’s a place anyone can challenge as long as they can prove themselves before every one of the tribe.

“We orcs are proud warriors, such mere wounds cannot slow us down.” The one who answered me wasn’t Logier whom I asked, it was a buffed up, super muscular orc with many battle scars on his hands and face. One of his eyes was permanently shut with a scar running from a top right corner to bottom left. From his looks and the fact that he could stand beside Logier, I reckoned, he was either a general of the army or someone only weaker than the chief of the tribe, both by influence and strength. Either way, his status among the tribe was unquestionable.

In addition, his rebuttal held a lot of contempt and doubt, all of which were directed towards me. Doubting something or someone who is generally weaker than they are, it’s very normal among monsters. Unlike humans, they don’t have a lot of hidden thoughts or politics. To them, only the strong have the right to say anything. I didn’t get angry or flurried. The fact that Logier wasn’t defending me showed that he wanted me to show a little color so that it can nip this bud of doubt.

“Is this how you show respect to someone who is going to help you in war?” I asked despite knowing that the reply would be a snarky and sarcastic remark. And that’s what I was aiming for. I needed a reason to show off my strength and this orc butting his head against me will give a valid one.

“Hmph, like we ever need help from a weak little thing like you.” The orc sneered at me, showing his disdain openly. I gave Logier a look, asking for his permission. Obviously, I overestimated this orc’s intelligence; he only looked back confusedly, probably wondering why I am staring at him.

“Is that so?” my eyes flashed as I secretly activated my “Cast illusion” skill and synchronized it with the reality.

Cast Illusion successful. The target will be under your spell for the next five minutes.

-1.5 MP

Now that this message popped up, I understood just how weak this person’s IQ was. No wonder he was questioning his leader in the dumbest way possible. Generally, an intelligent species would never disobey their leader no matter how dumb the decision might be.

“You big man… hmm, you are an orc, my bad, do you know, right now you are under my spell?” I asked nonchalantly. Then I changed the imaging around him, turning it to a marsh filled with goblins, buffed up goblins.

“What sorcery is this?” as expected, finding his allies suddenly turning into goblins and strong-looking ones at that, he lost his shit. Looking everywhere in astonishment, he finally looked at me and brandished his weapon. Pointing it towards me he snarled, “What did you do to my people? What sorcery is this?”

I clicked my fingers conjuring a bunch of chains that burst out of the ground and tied themselves around the orc, then pinning him down snuggly to the ground. After he was down, I walked closer to him, “you know, at this place I can do anything to you. Obviously, I won’t do anything rash considering you are my friend’s ally but still you need to stay here as a form of punishment. I heard you orc hate cold places very much, then why don’t you enjoy a little snow?”

I changed the terrain to that of a cold, snow-filled tundra filled with blizzards every so often. The idea was to let this guy experience my power so that he wouldn’t question anymore in the future. I wanted to instill fear of this place in his head, so that, every time he looks at me, this place would be the first thing that comes to his mind.

Right now, I am experimenting with a very interesting concept. Back when I was on earth, I had this weird hobby of watching sci-fi related documentaries. Although I was not a scientist or even remotely connected to one, I still loved to see the documentaries and know about the interstellar world. Even though my physics scores back during my high school years were horrible, I still loved seeing these documentaries. There I learned about a unique concept called ‘time dilation’.

In this illusion realm, I have absolute control over everything. So I thought, since I can control everything, then, can I control time too? But the thing is, I can only influence something which I have a prior knowledge or vision of. For example, in the illusion realm, I can transform a tree into a chair. That’s because I know how both look like and had a clear vision of the both. Conversely, I can’t transform this tree to “Mithril”, that’s because I don’t know how mithril looks like or even what the properties of the metal are.

After remembering how time dilation works, I am trying to incorporate it with this illusion realm… but it was very hard. Technically I can do it in the illusion realm, but my knowledge wasn’t remotely enough to pull that off for the time being. If I could pull it off, I can technically make an enemy “die of old age” inside the illusion realm. Then when they return to the real-world after ‘spending their whole life’, I wonder what their reactions would be.

In any case, that’s a faraway goal. Leaving the orc to enjoy cold, I returned to the real world, or more like my consciousness did, “Logier, what do you think? Can you all fight in that state or do you guys want to take a short break?”

Not just Logier, everyone looked at the orc that head-butted with me. He was standing normally but his breathing was rushed and he was sweating a lot. The wounds on his hands and chest started to bleed ever so slowly. This was an indication that his blood pressure levels had risen to an unacceptable degree. I was startled at this discovery.

Suddenly I remembered hearing a phrase from somewhere, “make the brain believe in something and the body will do the rest” in this case, it seems it was the truth for this orc.

“Will he be alright?” Logier asked me with a hushed voice.

“I guess so…” I was also not sure if he would be all right or not. This was the first time I saw an illusion having an impact on the condition of the real body.

Shaking his head and trusting me, Logier said “we will take a little rest then” and then he signaled everyone with his hands.

The neatly lined orc in the front parted as many small and elderly looking orcs walked out. I watched in fascination as they quietly filled the empty hallway like those emigrants I often saw on television. After a long line of elderly and child orcs, thin(by orc standards) and little short orcs came out holding huge boxes on their backs.

“They are elderly and child orcs who couldn’t contribute to the war. They will stay here.” Logier informed then pointed his thick finger towards the thin orcs, “the females who can’t fight are in charge of collecting loot and providing other supports. They are in charge of cleaning out weapons and arranging food for everyone.”

“Okay. Let them stay here for now.” I started to formulate a steady plan.