Chapter 6: A Wall of Stone and The Final Test

Until Marcus came to their small village, Thane and his friends had only read about the larger world in books or heard about it from passing merchants. The merchants usually brought news on recent events in exchange for the same that the villagers had heard from other merchants passing through. While their knowledge was impressive, there was only so much that could be learned from reading alone. Hearing tales about battles with Orcs is far different from fighting them yourself. Thane knew they were tough, but wasn’t prepared for how tough they actually were. They could shrug off arrows that would be fatal for a human, and had strength that could match him even when he used mana to enhance his own. He knew what a Grey Orc was from a book, but could only guess about how strong it actually was.

Along with new experiences there would also be new discoveries and new friends. I do wish I had been there to see the look on Thane’s face as he met the massive Brun for the first time. He didn’t know if the man was friend or foe. All that he knew was that he was three meters tall, had the drop on him, and could probably snap him like a twig if he wanted.

Luckily for Thane, he wouldn’t be snapped in half today, the giant’s ire was facing towards the orcs, not the little ones that had made a timely appearance. What started that day, would eventually lead to a strange friendship between Thane and the big guy.

Today would also be a day of discovery for Thane and his friends. Today would mark the first encounter with a new species, something that had been postulated before as possible, but had never actually been seen. Thane would never be credited with this discovery, he would simply be labeled as a “traveling mercenary” in the official report. It was probably best that his name wasn’t attached to this event.

Today Thane and his friends would discover and bring word of a new, powerful breed of Malkin. A creature that would be viewed by some as one of the worst atrocities to ever be born.

**********************************

Thane

Thane’s voice was caught in his throat. The mountain of a man simply stared, making no move to attack. Thane had his sword loose and ready to be drawn, but he doubted that drawing it would be a good idea. The man was already close enough to attack and Thane was pretty sure he didn’t need a weapon to kill him. Was this giant the leader of the Malkin below?

The man extended his arm and with a single finger, pointed down below. “That is their leader. Not the grey one, the smooth one.”

Thane hesitated to turn his back on the large man, still a bit unsure what his motives were. He hadn’t made any moves to attack him yet, so Thane cautiously turned around to look where the man was pointing. He sharpened his vision and looked for the “smooth one” that the other man mentioned. It took a while to find him, he didn’t really stand out much unless you examined him closely.

In a way he didn’t really look like an orc. He had the same green tinged skin as the others, and he was as tall as the others but not nearly as well built. Instead of the hairy, coarse skin of the orcs, his was quite smooth, Only the two small tusks coming up from his lower jaw gave away the fact that he was an orc. He almost looked like a green skinned human who some would find attractive. His hair, likewise, was not a jumbled knot like the orcs surrounding him, but was long, smooth and tied back behind him. If it weren’t for the fact that the other orcs would get out of the way whenever he walked by, Thane would have never assumed he was a threat let alone their leader.

“He doesn’t look dangerous.”

“Neither do you,” the large man replied.

“What is he? What makes him so dangerous?”

“He is a half breed, one who can cast strong magic. The Raven seeks the death of him and his kind.”

“What is the Raven?”

“The one who sent me here to find that half breed.”

“Ok, but who or what is the one that sent you here?”

“The Raven”

“Ugh.” Thane pressed his palms into his eyes. He had never heard of an Orc using magic before. He heard that they occasionally had some primitive shamans that could use magical energy, but never true spells. “So you’re here to hunt these Orcs then?”

“Yes.”

“There are at least fifty orcs and goblins down there, can you take that many on your own?”

“No.”

“Are you going to try anyway?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It is the reason I am here.”

“Nnng”, Thane rubbed his temples and was starting to get a headache trying to talk with this man. But if he is as tough as he looks, it might be a good idea to get his help, and he would feel bad if he just let someone die to a mob of Malkin.

Sarah spoke up, “I know what you’re thinking, but we should just let it go and return to Marcus to make our report, come back here with bigger numbers.”

“Just a minute ago you were regretting that we might not be able to attack and claim the bounty.”

“That was before we spotted the Grey Orc and that Orc wizard or whatever.”

“So you don’t think there is a way?”

“I didn’t say that. You can still fire off a good sized fireball right?”

“Yeah but, Fire isn’t really my thing, if you need a strong one it would pretty much tap me dry.”

“If they are grouped together you will only need one, right?”

“How do we group them together though?”

“I’ll tell you in a moment.”

In other words, she had no idea. Thane looked back at the man who was still silently watching them.

“If we can find a way to attack that doesn’t involve dying will you join us?”

“Hmm…”

“What is your name anyway?”

“Call me Stone.”

“Your parents named you stone?”

“They named me Osan.”

“Then w-”

“It means ‘stone’ in the old language.”

Thane gave out a heavy sigh, and the man continued, “You seem like you need answers explained.”

“So will you fight with us?”

The man finally began to move again for the first time since pointing out the location of the Orc leader. He walked to the back of the cave, “Yes, I will protect you.”

“We can protect ourselves, so don’t concern yourself too much.”

He grabbed the largest axe Thane had ever seen and tapped it strongly against the ground with a loud thump, “Mis cain”.

Thane had no idea what ‘Mis cain’ meant, but the facial expression on the giant made it seem like the conversation was over. He took a look at the massive axe in Stone’s hand. The haft was as big around as Thane’s arm and the blade could span his shoulders. The blade didn’t shine at all, and Thane realized it was made of carved stone in the shape of a bird with spread wings.

Sarah spoke up, “We’ll have our opportunity soon, I think.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s almost meal time. The, uh, meat is ready.” The three watched as the orcs and goblins tore chunks of meat from off the fire and went to sit down. It was then Thane saw what Sarah was talking about. A circle of logs and rocks that were near the fire. A half dozen orcs were sitting down and eating while more were joining them.

“Stone, can you get down to the orcs from here? Going down this slope?”

“Yes.”

“Can you?” Sarah asked Thane. “You said the spell would drain you.”

“I should have enough mana to slow my descent. Go back to the others, tell them to follow the river and swing in. Spells first to thin them out. We know their spells have enough power to take out the orcs. The big guy and I will come down the hill and we’ll hit them from both sides. You..” Thane hesitated to ask her. Partially because the task he wanted to do would leave her dangerously exposed, and partially because he didn’t like to see her cruel side. “Make sure the guys caught in the spell stay down. We don't need them getting up and joining the fight.”

She nodded and Thane continued. “Shoot a whistling arrow once you are in position. Then wait for the explosion. If I ever fire a whistling arrow, cancel the attack and get back to the town as soon as you can. Quickly, I don’t know how much time we have.”

The next few minutes were awkward. While waiting for Sarah’s signal Thane was peering from behind a rock at the Malkin below, while Stone simply sat motionless as if he were meditating. Even while he was sitting his head was level with Thanes. Now he was wearing some sort of leather armor with a large metal disk over the chest and stomach.

“What kind of leather is that? Is it naturally grey?”

“It is whale leather.”

“I’m not familiar with a whale. What kind of animal is it?”

“It’s a fish without scales, a fish that can get large enough to swallow a man whole.”

Thane tried to imagine what it would look like. A fish without scales? So something like an eel then? But big enough to swallow someone?

“Can you take out the Grey Orc first? I’m not sure how resistant he is to magic, and you seem to have enough strength to not have to worry about his thick skin.”

“Yes.”

There were a few more moments of awkward silence before he finally heard the shrill screech of the whistling arrow. Most of the orcs were still gathered in a circle, some of them stood up when they heard the sound but most still sat lazily chewing on their meat.

He activated his magic, and fire began to form in front of him. More and more came and it was continuously compressed into a small sphere in front of him about the size of an apple. He aimed the crimson sphere down towards the center of the orcs, and when he gave it a small push, it shot forward like an arrow.

Before the ball exploded, Stone was already standing up and spoke to Thane. “Stay behind me young one.”

“I told you we don't need your pro-” He stopped as the man jumped out of the cave. He didn’t descend the steep slope like Thane expected, instead he got a running start and leapt with his full strength. Thane was expecting him to use mana or magic to slow his descent, instead it looked like Stone did the exact opposite, making himself fall faster and strengthening his legs for the impact.

When Stone landed there was a large crash and a massive plume of dust and dirt concealed the orc village. Thane didn’t wait for the dust to settle, the large man was surrounded in the middle of the Malkin forces instead of at the side like Thane had planned. He used mana to slow his descent, each step down the steep incline was like sinking to the bottom of a small pool rather than falling. He continued down with large strides until he reached the bottom.

When he was on level ground his greatsword was already drawn and he was greeted by three panicked goblins. Thane was quick to act and attacked before they could bring their jagged blades to bear. He slashed up from a low stance slicing through the front of the first before arcing the blade around bringing it down on the second. Without losing momentum he let the weight of the sword carry him forward, pivoting the sword tip in the dirt and bringing his knee up to the chin of the third goblin. When the goblin was on the ground, he kept pivoting the sword keeping the tip as a fulcrum point and brought the weight of the sword down on the goblin like a guillotine.

This was his second “abnormal” technique that he learned from his father. Usually greatsword techniques involved very little or controlled movement, this technique specialized in fast and constant movement, with heavy swings or a spinning blade that sometimes seemed to carry the user forward. It was a technique that relied heavily on magical enhancements to the users strength, any normal human would quickly become exhausted while fighting like this.

The dust was almost completely settled and he could see several Orcs in the crater created by Stone’s landing. Stone was in the middle of a circle of Orcs and some were pummeling him with spears and arrows as others closed in with axes. It looked like his armor had been struck several times, some of the blows had pierced through and drew blood. Every time he swung his axe another orc fell. Blocking was useless as the massive axe and the strength behind it crushed through any shield, weapon or armor the orcs could bring to bear.

Thane charged the closest archer, trying to relieve some of the pressure off of Stone. He ran towards the closest archer taking it down in a quick strike. Two more slashes took out two more orcs and suddenly a massive impact knocked Thane off his feet. It felt like someone hit him with a building. His entire right side felt the impact and he was knocked off his feet and went flying several meters before smashing into an orc.

His head was swimming and his ears were ringing. He tried in vain to focus his eyes, barely recognizing the form in front of him. It was the grey orc, on the ground and dead, obviously one of Stone’s first victims as the thick hide did nothing to stop the massive axe from splitting him shoulder to waist. He staggered to his feet looking for the orc he collided with. The green Malkin was trying to get up while shaking its head. He brought his sword down on the orc, stabbing it through the back, but losing his balance in the process falling to the ground a second time.

He needed to stay down, wait for his head to clear, regain his focus and balance. He looked over to where he was initially struck. He wasn’t imagining things. The earth had shaped itself into a large wall and smashed into his side. He really did fly several meters before crashing, he was lucky to still be in one piece and conscious.

The strange Orc mage? Thane thought. I need to get out of sight before he catches me.

He tried one more time to stand up, but this time he was stopped. He looked to his hands and feet on the ground. Roots and vines were beginning to wrap around him and he couldn’t break free. Nature magic? Impossible.

He third to shake out the cobwebs, gather some mana, anything to get free, but it was too late. With a quick jerk the roots pulled his arms up until he was face to face with the smooth skinned orc.

The Orc hissed at him “Where is she? Where will she attack from?”

“Where is who?”

“The one that hunts us, the one who wants to kill all of my kind.” the Orc looked around panicked, an obvious fear crept into his voice. “She won't find me here, no no. All she will find is your strung up corpse.” The Orc clutched his staff to his chest and ran as fast as he could, just as Thane was starting to feel relieved, the roots began to coil around him tightly. He felt one root snake around his neck and squeeze.

He tried to take in a breath, and realized it was a futile attempt. His already blurry vision began to blur even more, he felt the pressure build in his cheeks from the trapped blood and the ringing in his ears became almost deafening. He tugged at the roots with all the strength he could gather but it was useless. Then darkness crept in from the corners of his vision dyeing his world black.

*******************

Sarah

Sarah hoped that the massive man was trustworthy as she jumped down from the cave and began to sprint back the path she came from. This had the potential to be profitable if everything went as planned but she had to hurry or their only window for attack would be closed. Three silvers per dead orc for thirty to forty orcs, plus whatever they could get for the goblins, plus any salvage from their village.

If the big guy is as tough as he looks and Thane catches even half the orcs in his initial blast then the rest should be easy. When she found the others she took a moment to catch her breath before updating them on what was happening. She told them about the strange looking leader and the Grey Orc, as well as the plan.

“Just make your way along the river and stop when you reach a pile of logs, wait for the explosion from Thane’s spell before you move in.”

“How many are there?” her brother asked.

“At least fifty total, mostly Orcs.”

“Are you insane? We can't fight that many.”

“We have a plan, and someone else is helping.”

“Anything I should know about his appearance? I don’t want to attack him by accident.”

“He is three meters head to toe and as wide as you are tall. You can’t miss him. Now go, we have to attack soon or we will be forced to retreat.”

She took the bow and a whistling arrow from her brother. Instead of the arrow head, the tip of the arrow was carved like a signal whistle. The air passing through as the arrow flew would make a loud shriek that was difficult to miss. She snuck in until she could hear the coarse voices of the orcs eating nearby. She pointed the bow up and shot the arrow into the sky.

The shriek filled the air and she waited. Either another whistle or a fiery explosion would be the trigger for her next action and she was almost shaking in anticipation. When the attack finally came she could feel the heat from the blast even though she was fairly far away and concealed behind trees.

She smiled, “Either that beautiful idiot has gotten stronger or he overexerted himself again.” She didn't know why Thane hesitated to send her on this task, she was obviously the best suited for it. She could kill quickly and could easily escape if the exposed position put her in danger.

She emerged from the treeline just in time to see the massive man drop for the sky like a meteor. She shielded her eyes from the flying debris and smiled when the dust cloud obscured her vision. This would make her task much easier.

She began her work, slicing and stabbing the orcs that were groaning in pain from the blast of fire or revealing their positions by shouting out. When the dust finally cleared she assessed the situation. Most of the orcs that Thane hit with his spell weren’t standing up anymore, there were very few that needed help dying. All of the Orcs' attention seemed to be on the man who created the large crater. Mahs and Kisha were far from danger, picking off Orcs with magical spears from a distance. She found Thane on the other side of the crater. He was cutting down the archers that were firing on the big guy. She was getting ready to cut a path to him when she saw him take a heavy blow. It seemed like a boulder dislodged itself from the earth in order to crush him. It smashed into his side and sent him flying several meters away, crashing into another Orc.

That...he won't be able to walk away from something like that. He stood up and stabbed through the back of the Orc he collided with but immediately fell down again. He can’t even stand!

She began to run to Thane in a panic. A few Orcs took notice of her and blocked her path. “Get out of my way!” She shouted as she ducked under the axe of the first and slashed into him before jumping back. Her shout caught the attention of Stone, who immediately turned to her and cleared her way, killing both remaining orcs with a single wide sweep. He had turned his back on the others he was fighting to do this, and they didn’t waste the opening. Stone grunted in pain as a spear struck his lower back from behind and a Goblin climbed up his back and began to frantically stab him in his neck and shoulders.

The Goblin was grabbed by one massive hand that slammed him down into a rock instantly turning him into a coarse paste.

With her path clear, she ran to Thane, she saw the smooth skinned orc run around her, but she didn’t have time to deal with him, not while Thane was in danger. He was strung up, his feet were tied down to the ground by roots, while his arms were pulled into the air until his back was arched like a bow. The part that worried her was that his face was turning reddish purple as a root squeezed his neck.

She ran up to him and tried to pull the root off, and the plants around her seemed to writhe in protest. She readied her knife and aimed for the root around his neck. Please don’t miss, she thought as she hacked at the root with her knife and pulled with her free hand. The root snapped and broke free, but he still wasn’t breathing.

She cut the roots holding his arms up but failed to catch him before he fell. When he fell face first into the ground, the impact seemed to kick start his lungs and he gasped and coughed on the ground. He was still unconscious, however, and once she confirmed he wasn’t in danger of dying she scanned the area. The fight was coming to an end. The only enemy movement she saw was a handful of goblins running into the woods scared for their life or scrambling for a place to hide.

“Kisha!’ she shouted, “Thane is hurt!”

Kisha and Mahs came running up to the others with the wide frame of Stone right behind them. Thane had managed to wake up and prop himself up to a sitting position as Kisha approached. “I’m fine for now.” he croaked out with a hoarse voice. “Take care of Stone’s bleeding first.”

“Fine?” Sara said, “You have a dislocated shoulder, probably a few broken ribs and a concussion.”

Thane leaned to the side a bit and applied pressure to his arm, giving out a grunt of pain as the shoulder slid back into place. “See? My shoulder is fine now, take care of his bleeding.” Sarah clenched her fist and glared at him, “Hey, don’t hit the patient, he has a possible concussion, remember?”

Stone raised his hand to stop Kisha “I have had worse,” he said.

“So have I,” replied Thane, “That wound on your neck looks pretty nasty. That should be taken care of first before you bleed out.”

Sarah bit her lip without voicing her thoughts. Stop lying to make yourself look tough.

Kisha reluctantly walked over to the giant who was sitting down. She always had anxiety about her height, a problem that was compounded as she failed to see over the shoulders of Stone as he was sitting down. “Could you lean forward so I can see the wound?”

Thane began to speak as he was being healed, “Why did you do that, I told you we can take care of ourselves but you did everything possible to draw all attention to yourself.”

“You even ignored your own safety to assist me.” Sarah added.

“Do I need a reason to protect children?” he asked.

“We’re not children.” was Kisha's reply, “I’m the youngest and I have reached the age of adulthood already. Besides, we can fight and this child is the one patching you up.”

“Children who can fight are still children.”

Once she finished closing the large wounds on the back and shoulder Kisha moved over to Thane. She gasped when she saw the large purple spreading bruise on his neck, and then placed her hand on his chest and began to heal him once she recovered. “Yeah those are broken.”

“Please tell me when you are done so I can knock him out for being an idiot again.” Sarah said.

“Please don’t” the younger girl replied. “I’m almost exhausted so I can’t heal them completely. They will both be sore until I can get a night's rest and fully heal them.”

Sarah smiled, “A day’s worth of pain should be enough then. It’s unfortunate that the half breed got away.”

“He didn't,” replied Stone, “The Raven has found him by now.”

“What was he?” asked Thane, “You said he was a half breed and he didn’t look ugly like an orc. He used nature magic, was he some sort of Orc Tamlin? A half Fey?”

Sarah looked over to Kisha for a reaction, and tried to hide a mocking smile when the younger girl clenched her fists at the mention of Tamlin.

Stone simply nodded and Sarah thought back to her history lessons. The last Ash Mountain Eruption tore through the Silver woods of the elves, and was rumored to have destroyed the Heartwood Grove inside. If they would have brought back Fey slaves, they could have bred a number of Orcs that could use nature magic.

Once Thane's ribs had fused back together he stood up and rotated his shoulder a few times. He was trying his hardest to disguise the pain but Sarah could tell easily. “Let’s get back to town, I need to eat and rest.”

They began to walk back into the wooded area, leaving the burned and crushed village behind. Kisha took the lead and Sarah stayed close to Thane. Kisha paused when they came close to the tree line and stomped her foot on an exposed tree root a few times.

“What is it?” asked Sarah.

“The woods… everything is...hard? It’s like every root and branch in the area is made of steel.”

Sarah stepped forward and pressed her foot down on a low branch. It didn’t budge at all. She brought her knife up to it and tapped it, then tried to cut into it. Even pressing with all her might she could only make the slightest scratch on the branch of a sapling. She walked deeper into the woods, she saw roots and branches that were twisted unnaturally, like when Kisha was using the plants around her to fight, but on a much larger scale. And many of the branches and roots were covered with large thorns. They varied in size from a dagger's length to a sword's length, and were just as sharp.

“This is the Raven’s doing” said Stone.

“It’s nature magic,” confirmed Kisha, “Extremely powerful nature magic.”

“It will return to normal before dawn tomorrow.”

“Um, that's a bit troubling.” said a new voice, “I don’t suppose you could get me down before then?” Looking to the source of the voice, the group saw Liam wrapped up in roots tied firmly to a tree.

“Liam, did you follow us?”

“Of course I did, this was your last test. I was supposed to report your strategy and decision making skills on an actual assignment. Samson gave me a few magic toys so I could follow you quietly. I was also here to make sure you didn’t get yourselves killed.”

“You were protecting these children?” asked Stone.

“Yeah.”

“You did a terrible job.”

“Hey, it's not my fault some woman tied me to a tree.”

“So does this mean you found number five?” Thane asked.

“Ha ha, this wasn’t a square fight. She told me not to interfere and tied me up while I was distracted by her shapely...um, while I was distracted.”

While the others continued to mock the trainer that had soundly trounced them a few days ago, Sarah continued to pick through this mess of a battlefield. Many of the thorns were stained with blood, and in the middle she found a pillar of roots spiraling upwards. She walked up to the pillar and used her daggers to chip and pry, trying to see what was inside. When she finally got a look she instantly regretted it.

Inside of the spiral was lined with thorns and in the middle was the shredded remains of the Orc mage, the end result of having a hundred sharp thorns dragged across his skin. For the first time in her life she felt ill, backing away she saw the orcs staff on the ground and picked it up. She got a good picture of what happened from the surrounding blood stained thorns and the state that the corpse was in.

She accidentally voiced her thoughts “This wasn’t a fight, she didn’t just kill him, she tortured him. This was rage, pure hatred.”

“Oi, you shouldn’t have looked in there girl. I saw it happen, that isn’t something you should have to see. You’re right though. She kept screaming something about abominations as she tore the guy into bits.”

“The Raven has much that haunts her past.”

“Raven huh? Yeah that fits. Black hair, wrapped all in black from head to toe. Only skin I could see was around her eyes. Had a black feathered cloak too. Wasn’t raven feathers though, unless there's a raven with a 10 meter wingspan out there somewhere. So anyway, can you get me down now?”

Without a response Stone swung his axe, the roots wrapping Liam seemed to be shattered more than cut and Liam finally was able to put his feet on the ground. “Much better.” He looked up at Stone, “You look bigger up close, where did you guys find the Brun?”

“Brun?” asked Kisha.

“Yeah, a large race that lives on the coast. Big into fishing and whaling. Some people call them Half Giants, since they are large, but not quite as big as the real thing. So where did you come from?”

“He was getting ready to attack the Orcs while we were scouting the area.”

“You sticking around, big guy? Up for joining our mercenary band? You could put your strength to good use and get paid for it.”

“My task here is done, my debt to The Raven paid. I will speak with your leader later. For now I will see these children home.”

“My leader? What makes you think that I am not a leader?”

For the first time, Stone smiled, he gave an amused “hmph” before hoisting his axe over his shoulder and walking ahead.

Liam could only say one word before following, “Rude.”