The duo had practiced communicating telepathically for over half an hour. They had gotten used to the odd skill and the godling felt confident enough to resume its hike, while the orb angel continued to stay in its odd incorporeal state supposedly having "joined with" the godling. The godling didn't ask for permission or for the angel's insight either, once it felt confident in its ability to communicate it simply and suddenly resumed its hike up the hill.

The slope was gentle enough that it wasn't taxing and it wasn't just because the godling was a creature that didn't rely on stamina. The hill it was on might have been tall but it didn't climb at enough of an incline to be especially draining on something's stamina even something like a gnome or dwarf wouldn't have been troubled by the climb.

The godling reached the top of the hill within a matter of minutes and it had eagerly rushed over the peak of the hill to lay its eyes on it had anticipated would be the first settlement it'd ever see. Instead what it found beyond and beneath the peak of the hill, nestled neatly in the valley, was something else altogether.

[Hey, wasn't there supposed to be a town of humans here?]

[Yes... I had flown over here just a week ago and I definitely sensed humans here, as well as complex structures. Not... this.]

The sight that greeted the odd duo was an eerie one. Instead of seeing a lively town populated by humans in the distance the two saw the ruins of a small settlement. And without the hill blocking the noises coming from the ruins, both of them could hear inhuman roars and loud commands in the guttural language spoken by orcs, even if they couldn't quite make out the specifics.

Below the peak of the hill in the ruins of the small town, various orcs busied themselves. The town had been destroyed for less than 12 hours, and even though it was a tiny settlement with just a handful of buildings there was still more than enough work to go around so the orderly pack of orcs had settled in and begun to do the work needed to definitively mark this as their territory.

The orcs were the warriors responsible for the town's destruction. It took only 15 of the warriors to overrun the entire town and each of them had the physique of a warrior who spent a lifetime honing their martial skills. Only 3 of the warriors were dressed in heavy armor, they had been the warriors who boldly charged at the town's gates and thus took on the most risk in the previous night's battle.

Their primary duty was to serve as a distraction and rouse the fear and fury of the town's defenders. When they eventually breached the town's gates they efficiently and brutally finished off defenders of the town who were poisoned and often left paralyzed or crippled by the stealthy attacks of their peers. Eventually, they took down the gates leading into the town. This also enabled the archers to enter the town and support them with more accurate strikes than the archers could launch from outside of the gates. These heavily armored orcs used their hands in combat, powered by thick muscles and pure rage.

Of the warriors not dressed in heavy armor, 6 of them served as archers who did their best to surround the town and open fire on any guards who tried to attack their heavily armed companions from behind the supposed safety of weakly built walls. They were equipped with heavy longbows that were nearly as tall as themselves and fired thick arrows laced with debilitating poison over the walls, or in the case of the strongest archer in the raiding party, through the walls themselves.

Their strike were more surgical and struck many of the town's guards. Due to the nature of the poisoned arrows poison, their strikes left those unlucky enough to survive their attacks unable to lash out and in deep pain. This protected their more heavily armored companions. This valuable service enabled their front-line fighters to approach the gates with relative safety and eventually destroy them, tearing them down with their bare and bloody hands.

The other 6 were sneaky rogues who snuck into the town while their companions distracted the town's defenders. The 6 rogues had spilled the most blood in the battle, having struck at vital targets like the town's mayor and the lone doctor in the town. They also caused general mayhem by going around and starting fires at key points in the tiny town like the local inn and the local smithy. They used cruel-looking karambit knives and before the night-time battle was over their knives were slick with enemy blood.

The battle lasted for about 3 and a half hours, and none of the orcs had died even though various orcs had been injured by the very first humans to respond to their attack. The humans themselves either died or fled leaving the town nearly deserted and newly ruined. Now each of the 15 warriors was in a different part of the ruined town, taking stock of the spoils of their battle and exploring what the humans left behind.

The godling had been given a new toy as it walked down the hill to investigate the ruins. The source of its new toy was the orb angel, who recognized the dangers of approaching a ruin but also knew that stopping a creature with the same sort of insatiable curiosity and energy as the godling was difficult at best. The angel also recognized that it was immensely improbable that whatever the cause of the town's destruction was could handle the power of a godling, even one that was less than half a day old.

In its left hand, the godling now held a regal looking staff. The staff was over a meter tall and was the same color as an old oak tree as well as being fairly unadorned with decorations aside from the etching of a few words in the language of angels. It exuded an aura of serenity mixed with power.

Unlike most magical staffs the mystical stick the godling held wasn't topped off with a magical orb. It merely looked like a fancy walking stick, that seemed to imbue the air around it with a fascinating and calming air. The godling itself looked more divine carrying the magical stick, well aware of the stick's true and most unusual nature.

The staff the godling held was actually the shape-shifted orb angel who decided to merely run with things as they were. Rather than try and convince the godling to go somewhere else, the orb angel had decided to aid the creature that might one day become its master by metamorphizing into a form that could increase the combat capabilities of the odd creature. It did this by transforming into a staff and insisting that the godling channel any magical energy used in combat through it, so that the angel could shape and refine the magic into powerful attacks.

The godling had infinite magical reserves but lacked the knowledge to use magic in combat and they could both sense the dangers lurking in the ruins with their enhanced senses. As they neared the ruined settlement the various things they sensed increased in potency and in number.

Now that they were closing in on the ruins they could smell the charred remains of humans mixed with the scent of recently burned wood. Their noses were assailed by the scent of rotting corpses and the godling had a look of displeasure on its face as it neared the ruins.

The godling was also close enough to the ruins to be able to make out words and sentences in the rough language spoken by the orcs and was curious to investigate what the orcs had foolishly dubbed their "spoils of war" and see what it could or would take for its own.

The godling's first encounter with a mortal went about as well as the orb angel had anticipated. Minutes after the metamorphosis of the orb angel, the godling walked past the ruined and shattered gates leading into the ruins and its presence was detected by a particularly attentive orc archer who decided it would guard the ruins from any uninvited guests.

The archer was hidden thanks to the cover provided by the wall that surrounded the town off to the side of the gate and felt confident that the mysterious stranger who entered the ruins would be an easy target to take down since all it had were its clothes and a staff that more closely resembled a walking stick than a mystical weapon.

The orc archer was a brave fellow who felt that it could handle the strange-looking human by himself, especially since the human had its back turned. He thought he had yet to be detected by the godling and the godling's companion, who he was unaware of since it was metamorphized into a staff, and spent several moments notching an arrow that was so densely dowsed in poison that it was dripping, to its longbow.

After that, he quietly moved his bow into place and aimed. When he felt confident its aim would strike true he released the arrow. The arrow didn't go far.

Instead of piercing the orc's target, the arrow flew through the air and then harmlessly splintered into a thousand flakes of lightly poisoned wood after hitting an invisible barrier of some sort. The orc roared in anger and realized that the human had a sort of mystical shield around itself. And then the human turned in its direction and simultaneously rose its staff to be aimed squarely at the bestial humanoids chest.

The godling wasn't sure what to do. It knew that anything the creature tried would fail to harm it, but it wasn't sure of whether or not to stun the humanoid, kill it, or to try and chat with it. The angel in the godling's hand sensed the godling's uncertainty regarding how to proceed and thus decided to speak up.

[Godling, if I might make a suggestion... perhaps you should merely entangle the creature. If you give me permission to do so and supply me with the magical energy needed, I can ensnare the creature using roots. We are fighting on unpaved ground, after all, it shouldn't take much energy to capture this one orc.]

The orb angel's suggestion was a smart one. The duo and the creature they were facing were on unpaved terrain and densely packed grass, so summoning roots to immobilize the beast would do quite nicely. But the godling had a suggestion.

[So far none of the creature's companions appear to be moving any closer. I'm gonna send the energy your way, just like I did with my thoughts earlier, but make sure you silence the creature as well. There's no need to recklessly get the attention of other creatures right now.]

Shortly after using its telepathic abilities to make the suggestion, the godling felt the angel's mental nod of approval and an increase in the respect the angel afforded the deity. The godling responded by smiling softly and sending the angel a rush of magical energy, imbuing the staff with an excess of magical power which was quickly sent forth into the ground beneath them.

The magical energy surged forth in the direction of the orc who was still excessively angry that his plan had been so quickly foiled and had yet to plan a new course of action.

He suddenly and recklessly lunged at the godling, intending to savage the weak-looking creature and for a second before he was captured, the orc was out from under the cover of the wall behind him and the sun shone on the creature's black skin. He sailed through the air in the direction of the godling, intending to fight the creature in melee combat.

While he was in mid-air the orc reached where the magical energy was, which caused an immediate reaction. Roots burst out from underneath the bestial humanoid and tripped the creature.

He painfully tumbled through the air and then slid to a stop not far from the godling, with the roots following close behind. The roots tore through the ground and threw dust all over the scene of the conflict, before catching up to the orc and binding him.

Roots not only twisted like ropes around the creature's thick legs and even thicker arms, but one slid over his mouth and two positioned themselves near his nostrils, clearly threatening the creature. Unlike the other roots which were blunt and thick, the two roots positioned near his nostrils were thin and ended in sharp looking heads.

The threat was clear but the orc was too busy seething at the godling to notice it. So the godling walked over to the orc and forcibly moved his head so that he stopped glaring at the creature who captured him and saw the sharpened roots poised to execute him in an instant if the godling thought such an act was necessary. That was frightening but not enough to curtail the creature's aggression and deep rage at his own weakness and inability to assess a situation.

Moments later the godling had lifted the orc off of the ground and hauled him over to the wall from which he initially struck. Upon reaching the wall which the orc hoped would provide cover earlier, the godling lazily threw the orc at the wall and then waited until the creature had stopped groaning in pain, even though the sound was distorted due to the roots covering the orc's mouth. While it did this it moved closer to the raider and looked at him, moving from standing up to crouching so it could more easily study the humanoid it had just fought.

The godling spent a few moments silently examining the orc. The creature was not good-looking even though he had admirably thick muscles.

This particular orc had dark skin, mostly resembling the coloration of an onyx gemstone. His face was covered in scars, some of which appeared to be self-inflicted and the orb angel informed the godling that they looked to be rough approximations of runes. Even setting aside the scars, the creature was not pleasant to look at.

The orcs face could most charitably be described as if someone took a jet black rock and savagely chiseled the most gruesome looking features they could think of onto it. He would definitely have intimidated any normal opponents, but the godling was unphased by the creature's cruel-looking features.

His dense nose covered in scars wasn't frightening to the godling. His rough and thick cheekbones didn't fill the godling with fear. His resting facial expression was one of barely contained malice but none of that mattered to the studious and cruel creature who had captured him.

The godling's hands began to explore the scars that marred the face of the orc, studying how dense each of them were and mentally noting how the creature reacted to the sensations of his scars being touched. Sometimes the creature seemed to shiver in what might have been a sort of anger-filled pleasure, but other times he obviously winced at even the most gentle of touches.

The godling gently moved the roots covering the orc's mouth aside, and savagely slapped the creature when he tried to bite the god. It had removed the roots so that it could see the creature's teeth, not invite a counterattack even though it had predicted such a response by the humanoid. It responded in a way that would make it clear that it would not allow such actions.

Two of the orc's teeth were thick tusks that had pressed against the roots that the godling had weaponized against him, and some of the others were needled sharklike teeth with the rest, just a handful really, being fierce-looking pointed teeth that the divine being presumed were useful for cutting into flesh. That last type of teeth were oddly placed throughout his mouth. His breath was gross smelling and carried the scent of recently consumed raw meat.

The creature had hate-filled red eyes and never once did his gaze move from the face of his captor. He was clearly memorizing the godling's face and was most likely planning how grotesque his revenge would be if he got the chance to escape from this embarrassing situation.

The godling smiled at the orc and the gesture carried with it a surprising amount of mock-kindness and gentleness. This was done to infuriate the orc further and it did, causing the orc to resume his futile resistance against the roots, a resistance that he had stopped after he got slapped. The orc had correctly identified the roots as the cause of his immobilization but did not have the strength to free himself.

After it felt satisfied with its exploration of the raider's face, the godling continued its study of the creature. The godling spent a few moments examining the density of the creature's neck before it suddenly launched its hand at the raider's neck, effortlessly grabbing the creature and standing up. In standing up the creature also lifted the orc off the ground.

The orc weighed several hundred kilograms but all it took the godling to manhandle the humanoid was a single hand and no effort at all, just the energy needed to stand up from a crouch. The godling experimented with how much strength it put into its grip so that it could mercilessly study how the thickly muscled creature reacted to the painful sensations he was forced to endure.

After a few minutes of cruel and somewhat scientific testing, the godling dropped the orc listening with a satisfied smirk to the soft sound of the orc's unconscious form hitting the ground. The godling's experiments had at some point robbed the orc of consciousness, and so the godling eventually relented.

It was curious and surprisingly cruel but it didn't want to break its new toy.

Before it left to continue exploring the ruined town, the godling turned and directly poured magic into the ground beneath the orc. It envisioned the ground beneath the orc softening like grassy quicksand and absorbing the unconscious body of the orc.

Its purpose in doing this was to hide the results of its mischief from any other orcs who may otherwise come across their unconscious companion. It didn't want the orcs to catch onto the fact that it was there. That would have made them come together and openly confront it, which would be a lot more boring than if it snuck up on them one by one.