“Hey, will you look at that.” A voice laughed from my left. “What’s with the getup? Looks pretty decent.”
I lifted my head and looked over to where the voice originated from. A large group of men stood or sat there, playing cards and doing whatever as I pulled myself together. I pulled a bottle of water from my subspace and rinsed my mouth clean before I wiped whatever was left on my lips. None of them approached for some odd reason, but there was one thing I noticed right away. Most of them had green bandanas wrapped around their heads or pieces of cloth around their wrists.
“Are you guys with the Green Dragon Gang?” I said after a good minute passed. I felt well enough to talk and to stand there without shaking on my legs.
“You blind?” one of the men snapped. “Don’t you see these?” he asked, pointing at the bandana wrapped around his head.
“Good. I’ve been looking for you,” I said as I drew my halberd. “Who’s in charge here?”
Most of them backed off after seeing the weapon. Any smart man would have, as the higher ranked a weapon was, the more dangerous it looked. These fools, or at least several of them, had no idea what they were even seeing.
“I am!” one of them snapped and got to his feet. He wore an outfit, or a suit of armor to be precise, that was pretty similar to the tyranitaur armor I’d made early on inside the rift. “Who the hell are you?”
“That doesn’t concern you,” I said flatly. “I need to talk to Anton or Enzo. Something important happened outside.”
He narrowed his eyes on me and got up, flexing his muscles like a bodybuilder. It only made him look like a freak, especially since only part of his body was visible in the armor. He pulled out a sword and a shield, brandishing them in front of me as if he were several levels above me. Too bad for him that he was dead wrong.
“You’d better give me a good reason not to gut you right here and now,” the man hissed. “See, you don’t just get to ask for the bosses and live to talk about it.”
“Where’s the owner of this zone?” I asked, changing the subject. If he was so sure about being able to kill me, then that meant they probably had him. Several seconds later I had my answer.
“Over at our place,” he replied with a smug expression on his face. “We bring him out every week to refresh the barrier.”
It was the best thing they could do. No, what if he actually ended up joining them? I’d have to play this carefully.
“What rank did you guys give him for joining you? I might have a similar offer.”
“Oh? Why didn’t you say so right away?” He laughed and stashed his gear away.
A sudden shift in the air caught his attention, and he jerked around, only to see the orcs start appearing one by one. It took him ten seconds until he even reacted to what was going on, but once he caught on, he pulled his shield and sword back out.
“You shouldn’t do that,” I said from behind him. My hand shot out, and I pressed down on his right shoulder, squeezing so hard that he dropped to his knees while shouting in pain.
“What the hell—is going on?” he growled. “Who are you? What’s with these monsters?”
“Stay down, or I’ll have to find another partner to chat with,” I said, my voice carrying a hint of a threat. To my surprise, he didn’t move and stayed down, especially when Grawl walked over to us. “Grab everyone with a green bandana, sash, or anything visible!” I ordered.
The orcs looked flustered as they just stood there, not knowing what to do.
“You heard my blood brother! Do it!” Grawl snapped. His real brother didn’t meet my eyes. He looked away most of the time and tried to keep his distance.
The hundred hunters or so that were milling about in the run-down camp were separated into two groups. To the left, they forced the Green Dragon Gang members to their knees, while a good majority, perhaps even two-thirds of those present, had been herded into a circle and were guarded by the orcs.
“I don’t have time to waste on you, so I’ll ask every question only once. Nod if you understand.”
He nodded hurriedly and looked around as if searching for someone. Was he hoping that his boss would come to his aid? Tough luck.
“Do you want to kill the others?” Grawl asked as he towered over the greeny.
“No, not yet,” I replied and looked back down at our prisoner. “Do you have any kind of map on how to get to your zone?”
He nodded furiously and made to pull something from his left jacket pocket. I let him since there wasn’t anything he could do to hurt me.
“Here, take it,” he pleaded. All the bravado had quickly left him, and all I saw now was a frightened bastard who loved to abuse his power whenever he got the chance. Not anymore.
I took the map from him and looked down. It was pretty different from what I was used to in my own rift. At the dead center was a giant zone, easily as large as six smaller ones, and around that zone were slightly smaller zones, approximately as large as four smaller zones, and they were again encircled by several rows of even smaller zones. It was a strange sight and almost looked like a mix between a spiral and a hexagonal maze, but the further we went, the more starter zones there were.
“How many bases are there? Just like this one?” I asked, not wanting to count. But I did stare at him, which made the bastard even more uncomfortable.
“Forty? All the portals are for locations that lead to other cities across the world.”
“And what’s with the larger zones?”
“The dead center is a volcanic zone, the other four are ice and sand, with every new circle surrounding those four being a season in itself.”
“Isn’t that interesting?” I muttered to myself. “How strong are they? What rank?”
“I don’t—wait. The weakest ones are about rank three, and they go up a rank with every new circle, so at the center, the monsters should be about rank ten.”
“Interesting. That’s quite different than my rift,” I said and pulled the halberd out. “See, I made this after killing a rank eleven boss. Not a monster, but a boss. Do you know what they are?”
He nodded hurriedly, and sweat finally started forming on his brow. “I—yes, we killed a rank eight last week.”
“As a group?”
“Yes, as the entirety of the Green Dragon Gang.”
“Then you can probably understand what it means that I singlehandedly killed that monster. Am I right?”
“Yes, you’re right! Please just don’t kill me!”
“That all depends on you,” I said mockingly and sat down on a chair one of the orcs had brought me. How considerate of them. “Point on the map and tell me where your base is.”
“Wait, but he’ll kill me if I tell you!” he pleaded. “Don’t do that to me, please!”
“Point, or die.”
I didn’t even bother trying to get him to see reason, no, another riftbreak could happen at any moment, so I wasn’t going to waste time on idiocies.
“Here, that one,” he said, pointing at the far end of the map. It had a marking of 1-3, and we were now in 1-41. That was quite the distance we’d have to travel.
I got to my feet and walked over to the other greeny prisoners. I selected three of them and had them point at where their base was. All three of them pointed at the same spot. Just like the man before them.
“Guess you’ll live another day.” I chuckled and walked back to the kneeling man. “What’s your name?”
“Kasper,” he grunted as I pulled him to his feet. “I’m a lieutenant in his organization.”
“A lieutenant, huh? I’m the owner of Sylmar, if you haven’t figured it out already,” I mocked.
“Owner? But Sylmar—wait! Are you the one who took out our base?”
I nodded and winked at the man. “Guilty as charged. Now, how about we chat some more as we make our way over to your base?”
“Wait,” Grawl said.
I turned my head to see what he wanted.
“What do we do
with the prisoners?”
“Kill all the ones with green markings, and let the others go. We don’t need them anymore.”
Chapter Thirty
It was an understatement that I was annoyed by the time it took to even make a dent in the progress. I was sure that there must have been a way to get there faster, or the camp wouldn’t have been as barren, but Kasper wasn’t budging, even when I stabbed him two times. The orcs ended up having to carry him.
Grawl and I took the front and chatted as we followed the map, and then agreed on cutting it short and going straight through the middle instead of going all the way around. We would save a lot of time from what I could make out. That brought us to the issue of loot. He wanted half, so we ended up with a wager. If we came across a big boss, then we’d fight it separately and see who did the most damage. It was a good way to get some competition going.
“I keep telling you that you’ll just embarrass yourself,” he growled. “You haven’t even seen what I’m capable of.”
“Oh, fighting one of you guys is different than fighting a monster, Grawl,” I replied as I pulled out my bow and patted it. “This beauty can dish out some real damage if someone else has the monster’s attention.”
“So you want me to—?”
“No.” I laughed. “Not at all, but if you’re as strong as you say you are, then it will be chasing you and not me.”
“Ahh, I see,” Grawl said as he moved all five of his sausage-sized fingers through his long and thick beard. “That does make sense.”
“It does, huh?” I chuckled.
“Staying with humans has a degrading effect on us orcs. We thrive on combat, the hunt, and any kind of battle in general. You talk too much, which gives me strange thoughts.”
“Oh? Like?” I asked, curious to hear what he was talking about. Sure, I could believe that orcs didn’t have the same kind of thought process as we humans did, but that we had a degrading effect on them? Now that was something new.
“You make me question things. You fight with so much passion that I could swear you are an orc, but when the battle stops, you change to something that is—calm? Is that the right word?”
“I prefer to be calm over being rash, Grawl. See, humans don’t have sturdy bodies, and let’s be honest, we’re not bred for war. Your people are. You have strong and sturdy bodies that can take a lot of punishment. Ordinary humans can’t even manage a percent of what I can.”
“That makes sense, but it still bothers me so. I usually can’t get along with even my brother, but you—I could sit and talk to you for hours on end.”
“Just as we’ve been doing since we left the base zone, right?”
I put a hand on his shoulder and patted it two times before I pulled it back. He didn’t say anything about it, and from there on out we shut up for a while. At least until we came to the edge of the first of the four bigger zones. There was the usual shimmering barrier separating the zones, but to my surprise, I could see everything past the barrier.
“Snow? In the middle of a forest landscape?”
“It seems so, but I have to be honest. I hate snow.”
“So do I,” I muttered. “I love the rain, but that’s about it.”
“Oh? Then we have another thing in common.” Grawl laughed. I stared at him and tried to process the sound coming from his mouth. This was the first time he laughed if I remembered correctly.
“Good. Aside from fighting.”
“And that! And—hah, we’re not even so different, are we?” Grawl asked.
“Not really. Anyway, shall we? My fingers are itching.”
He nodded and summoned his staff out of nowhere. It must have been something similar to my subspace. I already had a weapon, so I didn’t bother pulling another one out. Using the bow was the way to go this time. Let him tank some of the damage if we ended up in a fight. Besides, the thousands of orcs present could do that for us as well.
I stepped through the dome and let the Enma flow around me. It was pretty cold, but with another layer protecting me from the cold, I was doing alright. Grawl stepped out beside me and moved ahead. I just remembered that a large number would follow in after us, so I followed him and stopped at the edge of a cliff. There were snow and mountains as far as the eyes could see. And monsters. Big, hairy, white monsters carrying clubs and tree trunks.
“Do you have any idea what those are?” I asked, nodding toward the large, white creatures. They reminded me of snowmen. Large, strong snowmen.
“They look like trolls from my homeworld, but they’re too furry. Want to see how strong they are?”
“Yeah, I do,” I replied and nocked an arrow.
He held his hand up and stopped me. “Why waste arrows? I’ll send the orcs out.”
“Huh? Why waste lives if I can easily replenish arrows?”
He looked away as if embarrassed by even offering. It was a stupid offer no matter how I looked at it. Why would anyone want to waste lives instead of arrows? Oh well, just went to show the difference in mentality between orcs and humans.
I shot off a single arrow, not even using a skill. It struck the closest creature in the back, and to my surprise, it fell over and died.
“Shit,” I cursed. “They’re pretty weak.”
“Then we don’t need to bother with them,” Grawl growled. “Orcs! Clear a path for us!”
Four groups darted forward. There was a brown in each of them, two reds, and the rest were a mixture of green, teal, gray, and orange-ish.
“Say, how many tribes have you absorbed so far?”
“Oh, how perceptive you are, human Viktor,” he replied. “Three so far. Why?”
“No real reason. The colors, the builds, and the way they fight are different. They complement each other well enough, but it’s easily distinguishable that they’re from different tribes.”
“I appreciate your good eye, Viktor. It pleases me.”
I stopped for a second and frowned. A sudden idea came to mind, though I had no idea if it was doable. “Say, what if we went to several other cities and beat their chieftains? Could you absorb them as well?”
Grawl’s bushy eyebrows rose, and his mouth opened to speak, but he remained silent for a minute as if mulling it over.
“I don’t know. Look, you gave them to me, so it’s not like I beat their chieftains. And do you want to risk losing all the orcs and your blood brother to get several more hundred?”
“No, but I can give you more. See, all you’ll need to do is keep them busy as I fight their chieftains. But we can talk about that once we’re done here.”
He narrowed his eyes on mine and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why do you need so many of us? You’re giving me an army.”
“An army that will protect my cities when I need it to.”
“Oh? Now isn’t that an interesting proposition?”
“See?” I asked and pointed out toward the orcs who were massacring the snowmen. “That’s what I want and need. I’m tired of doing everything myself and having to see every death up close.”
He nodded as if understanding my guilt. “I have killed many… enemies in my long life, human Viktor. I regret only not killing more. If it’s for my people, I would do everything. You should remember that very well. What is more important to you? Your people? Or whoever it is the Gods make you fight?”
I knew he was right, but it didn’t make it any easier. Killing shouldn’t be dismissed so easily, even if it was a strange circumstance. Still, I had made up my mind several times until today, yet there was still some doubt.
“Come on. I want to try to get there just before night sets in, to scout. You’ll stay behind with your orcs.”
Grawl didn’t say anything, but I could feel some kind of confirmation radiate off him along with anticipation for what was to come. I couldn’t say that I wasn’t looking forward to getting even with some people who’d done some pretty bad things in their past and during our last run-in.
We moved through
the snowy land without any issues. We even made it mostly through the largest center zone but were stopped dead in our tracks when an incredibly large creature dropped from the sky. It looked like the basilisk but only if you added feet and wings to it.
“Ever seen anything similar?”
Grawl shook his head. “There are no creatures of this size where I come from,” Grawl replied and pointed his staff toward the creature, which resembled a half-assed attempt at being a dragon. It didn’t seem to notice us, so I moved further in to see better, and boy, did I have something to see. The body was a stark red with some hints of burning orange and black lines. The body was mostly the size of the snake creature I’d fought back at my rift, but that was about it. There was nothing really special about it. Long, leathery wings hugged the body from the sides.
“Do we fight?” I asked. “Or do we move past it?”
“You decide, Viktor. Whatever you want is what we’ll do.”
“Then we’ll move past the damn thing. I don’t want to lose manpower or time here. Have someone pull it far away from us.”
Grawl looked around and motioned for several of his brethren. He didn’t say anything, but they nodded and started running. I stared at their backs in fascination. They were obedient to the core, which was rather fascinating.
The group steadily made its way toward the creature and then veered off to the right, going around a small hill, and climbed up the side. One of the orcs, an archer, nocked an arrow and released it. The arrow struck the boss, and something unexplainable happened. A bolt of energy shot out from the dragon’s forehead and disintegrated the orc. The four others spread out and started laying into the creature, using skills to attack.
“Full speed ahead before I regret it!” I yelled and started moving.
I imbued some Enma into my feet and started running with a speed I hadn’t been able to reach before. Grawl caught up with me rather quickly, and when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw the rest following in a straight formation. A second glance told me only two orcs were still fighting the dragon, or was it a wyvern? It looked rather small in comparison to images I had in my mind when it came to dragons.
Crossroads: A LitRPG Cultivation Series (Towers & Rifts Book 3) Page 23
