by Logan Jacobs
There wasn’t much time to grieve over the news, though, because we still had a battle to fight the next day. The orcs would know we were on the offensive, and we didn’t have a moment to spare for our grief, so we went to bed with a new determination.
It was most obvious in Nima. I watched her as we ate, though she refused to, and I could already see that when it was time to fight, not a single orc would be able to get past her. She was a woman out for revenge.
“Ben?” Mira said as we both collapsed onto the mattress in our tent.
“Yeah?” I rolled over to face her and reached out a hand to stroke down her soft cheek, and she smiled and nuzzled into me.
“What happened with Netta wasn’t your fault,” she sighed. “There was nothing you could have done.”
This woman knew me so damn well. I had no idea how to stop secretly blaming myself, but just the knowledge that Mira saw me helped a lot.
“I know,” I murmured. “I just wish I could save everyone.”
“You may be a Dragon King, but even for you, that is not possible,” the warrior murmured.
Mira nuzzled into my side and threw a leg over my waist the way she always did, and before long, the warrior was fast asleep.
But I laid awake for hours.
I went over every little thing. I assessed and reassessed the plan in my head, I went over the map of the orc huts, I thought about how we’d smoke them out and take them down.
The number of wargs left, if any, would be negligible. By my count, there had been about fifty wargs, and maybe thirty orcs. Now, I was fairly sure there were ten wargs, tops, and around twenty orcs.
The problem was the orcs knew how to fight, much better than the wargs did. But I had a feeling the women would be able to take them down with their arrows before the situation ever got anywhere close to hand-to-hand combat.
We all awoke at dawn the next morning, and once again, we separated into groups and used the trees to scout out the places where the barrels were. This time, Jemma, Ainsley, and I worked together as we climbed through the trees.
Although Ainsley seemed just as determined as ever, I could see in Jemma’s expression that Netta’s grave situation had really gotten to her. She didn’t seem to want to talk, though, so I left the issue alone as we climbed through the trees and kept our eyes peeled for the markers that indicated a barrel was close by.
“There’s one,” Ainsley murmured, and she pointed to a tree up ahead, where there was a marker.
“Good eyes.” I grinned.
Slowly, the three of us descended and dashed over to the base of the tree, where a barrel of oil was stashed.
The wargs had distributed the bulk of the barrels along the forest line, so they could dump them and then light the fuel on fire, but about ten or so barrels had been placed in strategic locations throughout the forest, so they would push the fire forward.
I glanced around at the birds that flitted through the branches, and I thought about all of the creatures that would have been destroyed and killed had the orcs been able to go through with their plan.
Their nonexistent appreciation for life disgusted me.
“Ainsley, help me carry this,” I instructed. “Jemma, keep your eyes peeled for any activity.”
“Understood,” Jemma replied with a nod, and then she turned her keen yellow-green eyes to the forest around us.
Ainsley and I carried the massive barrel through the rest of the woods. I was able to shoulder all of the weight myself, and I took the bulk of it since Ainsley still wasn’t very strong, but I wanted her to feel like she was doing something to help. Netta’s injury had hit her hard, and I had a feeling she carried the same guilt inside her that I did. There was something about being a leader that made an injury or death hurt more.
After half an hour, we finally made it to the beach, and then we popped the lid off the barrel before we chucked it into the ocean.
Thick, black oil gushed out into the waves, and we all watched in satisfaction. I didn’t particularly enjoy polluting this beautiful world, but I would do anything to thwart the orcs’ plans.
“Take that, intruders,” I said with a proud sneer.
Thanks to our markers and plan, the barrels were all taken down within a few hours. Jemma and Ainsley combed through the outer part of the forest one last time to make sure we’d gotten them all, and then everyone reconvened on the beach at sunset.
It was time for the final showdown.
This felt so much more serious to me than it had on my home island. Maybe that was because this was a full-on coordinated attack, and we didn’t have a wall to hide behind.
“Alright, everyone, stick together,” I instructed. “If we’re lucky, the orcs won’t be expecting our assault at all. I want to take them out fast. Hell, shoot an arrow through two at a time, if you get the chance. We take them down, and then we wait for that ship to arrive.”
I looked around the faces of the women, and they all wore nearly identical expressions on their faces: grim determination.
The sun was directly over our heads when we started our trek across the island and to the base camp of the orcs. We climbed up into the trees and used the wide branches as our transport, just in case there were any stray wargs down on the forest floor. I didn’t want to risk that one might just happen to get away and warn the orcs that an army was coming for them.
The women were completely silent as we walked, which was completely uncharacteristic for them all.
Everyone was deep in their thoughts, though, so I left them to it.
Mira, on the other hand, was completely excited as she looked around with eager gold eyes. Every once in a while, she’d grip the hilt of her sword and give it a little shake, like she wanted the weapon to be just as ready and excited as she was. This was her element, after all: a battle.
When we made it to the orc encampment, I put up a hand to still the group of fifty women behind me and keep them quiet. As the signal was passed from me to each woman behind me, I heard silence fall over the women like a sheet falls over a bed, in a slow, undulating wave.
When only the birds made noise around us, I dropped down two layers of branches and peered through the leaves to get a good view of the camp. Mira climbed down next to me a moment later, and Ainsley was on her other side.
Then we watched in silence for a minute.
The camp was completely empty. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was deserted, but I did know better, so I turned my eyes toward the main house, the one where the orc leader resided.
And just inside the window, I caught the yellow flicker of a small fire.
“They’re in that building,” I murmured.
“What is the move, my king?” Mira asked as she glared at the hut, like it was responsible for the nasty occupants.
“Let’s swarm it,” I told her.
“I will tell the others,” Ainsley replied, and the blonde woman disappeared back into the trees for a moment before she came back down with the rest of the village.
It was quite a sight, watching fifty women drop down from the trees armed and ready to kill, and a savage grin spread across my face.
These bastard orcs wouldn’t know what hit them.
Almost silently, we all dropped down to the forest floor and started to creep toward the building. I kept my eyes and ears on the alert in case there were any unsavory characters in the forest around us, but I heard and saw nothing.
So, I motioned to the women to surround the hut, and they did. Fifty deer women surrounded the small building, bows at the ready and arrows nocked, as Mira and I strode up to the entrance.
I looked at the jade haired warrior, and we shared a nod before I kicked in the weak wooden door, FBI style.
“Hands up!” I yelled out, and for a moment, I got to play out my own personal little cop fantasy as I was faced with the shocked and surprised faces of about ten orcs.
“Who are you?” one of the pudgy ones demanded, and I recognized
him as one of the guards who had held down the warg they’d torn to bits.
“Your worst nightmare.” I grinned.
The orcs all drew their swords and rushed toward Mira and me, but the two of us were quick. We backpedaled away from the building and drew the orcs out, where the fifteen of them were faced with fifty bows and arrows and two swords.
“Kill these fuckers!” Mira cackled, and her golden eyes sparkled with dark delight.
And just like that, fifty arrows left their bows, sang through the air, and made contact with the orcs who stood before us. The projectiles lodged themselves in heads, hearts, and eyes, and the orcs dropped like flies.
“What the hell is going on?” an orc bellowed as he ran up from the beach, with his sword drawn.
But I didn’t have time to focus on him. Because that big ship I’d overheard the orcs talking about.
The one I wasn’t sure would arrive anytime soon.
It sailed over the horizon and straight toward the beach.
And the thing was huge.
The ship was comparative in size to something out of a movie, like the great warships of the eighteenth century, with two decks below the open aired deck. It had four massive sails and what looked like at least a hundred orcs on deck, but there was no telling how many were underneath. Thanks to my dragon vision, I could see there were two canons on each side that looked like they could launch massive balls, and a harpoon was mounted on the bow of the ship.
I could see the ship was about to drop anchor out where the water was still deep, and the orcs on the deck headed toward a bunch of rowboats tied up along the edge.
But, just as I thought we’d bought ourselves a little time, one of the orcs on the beach blew out a long, low, three note signal on a horn he held in his hands.
Shit.
As I watched, the orcs on the deck of the ship backed away from the rowboats and headed toward the main sails, and my heart skipped a beat in my chest.
There was no way they were about to do what it looked like they were about to do. No freaking way would they beach a boat of that size so abruptly.
But that was exactly what they did.
I watched in disbelief as the massive ship ran aground and splintered around the base, and the orcs opted to join the battle more quickly rather than more safely.
“Ladies, it looks like our little attack just turned into a battle!” I shouted.
The orc who had run up from the beach was joined by five buddies, including the orc master. The brutes were all aghast and angry at the attack, and they drew their swords with malice.
Until they saw the arrows that flew their way, that is.
Quicker than they’d run toward us, the orcs started to retreat toward the massive ship that had just plunged itself into the beach.
The moment the ship had run aground, orcs flooded from it. They leapt from the top of the ship and rushed the shore with an angry battle cry.
“Run and gun!” I shouted back to my village women, since I really had no idea what else to say to the deer women, and I’d explained to them that meant they needed to shoot their arrows at the targets while they were on the move.
And then, I rushed the orcs.
I tightened my grip on my sword as I came up on the first wave, who, to my surprise, didn’t seem all that focused on me. Their attention was gripped by the women behind me as they tried to figure out how to capture their prizes and not get killed themselves.
I drove my sea glass sword into the side of one orc, and he keeled over quickly. His buddy behind him wasn’t caught nearly as off guard, though, and he hefted his sword above his head and was ready to chop down over me like a guillotine.
So, I quickly yanked the sword from the dead orc and threw it up, sideways, to block my new opponent’s blow. As I did, I was afforded a quick chance to glance behind me, where I saw Ainsley immersed in a battle with her bow.
The strawberry blonde leapt over the dead body of an orc she’d just felled, and then she let loose an arrow mid-air that slammed straight through the meaty head of another orc. The woman was graceful and beautiful as she fought, even with the snarl she wore.
Metal hissed against my sword, and I ripped my attention away from the blonde woman back to the orc in front of me as he got ready to take another hack at my body.
His swordsmanship was crappy and completely without any rhythm to it, which made my job easier. I dodged the half assed swing at my midsection and stepped around behind him, and quicker than the fatass could react, I drove my sword up and straight into his heart.
I barely had time to pull it from the corpse, though, before three more orcs ran up on me. Apparently, now they saw me as a credible threat.
“You want a piece of the action?” I asked them.
Beady black eyes stared me down angrily.
“Leave our island,” one of them spat. “This is your last warning.”
“It’s my island now, dick-face.” I spun around and rammed my foot into the flabby ass of the nearest orc. He flew forward and straight into his buddy’s outstretched sword. A wet gasp escaped from him, but I didn’t have time to relish in the ease of the kill, because the third orc had stepped in front of me with malice in his eyes.
This orc looked way smarter than the others, but that only gave me pause for a split second. Then I brought my sword around in a wild haymaker, ready to slice open his midsection, but he effortlessly brought his sword down and blocked my swing. To his credit, the block was actually fairly graceful.
That is, until a sharp arrow appeared right between his eyes.
The orc tilted and fell to the side, and I caught a glimpse of Nima just behind him. Her green eyes blazed with a satisfied rage, and she slowly lowered her bow as she stared at the dead corpse.
In her moment of distraction, an orc took it upon himself to barrel toward her with his sword at the ready as he tried to chop her head off.
“Nima, watch out!” I hollered.
Effortlessly, the deer woman spun around and loosed an arrow on the orc attacker. It pegged him in the heart, and he collapsed inches away from the place where he could have driven his sword through the beautiful Nima.
My attention was diverted once again, though, by an orc attacker, but I noticed he was one of the last few remaining orcs as I glanced around. The ones who had not been sliced up by my sword or Mira’s had arrows in their hearts and eyes.
What had been an army of close to a hundred had dwindled to less than ten at the hands of the deer women and their bows.
“You killed my brother!” my orc opponent bellowed, and his slimy black jowls shook with anger.
The metal of his sword glinted in the air above me, but I ducked and dodged his swing with ease. Then I grabbed his midsection with my left arm and drove my sword into his stomach with my right.
I watched as the shiny sea glass tip emerged from his back, and the orc’s body went completely limp.
“They’re getting away!” Ainsley suddenly shouted.
I whipped my head around to see the strawberry blonde pointing toward three orcs out on the shore, right where the waves lapped up against the sand. I recognized the orc leader as one of them, along with two of his cronies.
They were headed right for the massive ship.
But there was no way in hell I’d allow them to take that. For one: I didn’t see how they could get it off the beach without a lot of timely work, and two: I wanted that ship for myself, so I was going to fuck their shit up if they even tried to grab it.
So, I took off across the sand toward them, and the hot little grains kicked up behind my feet like backward rain as I raced toward the orcs.
I was only halfway to them when I saw they didn’t actually try and climb aboard the ship. Instead, they grabbed one of the rowboats tied to the side, plopped it into the water, and started to row away as fast as they could.
They just wanted to escape.
But I’d be damned if I let them do that without a fight.
I had them in my sights. My grip was tight around the smooth wood, and my thumb brushed up against my cheek as I aimed. Waves lapped at my feet as I took a deep breath in, and on my exhale, I let the arrow fly.
The projectile zinged through the air and buried itself in the chest of one of the orcs. The fat lump keeled over, and the orc commander looked up at me with what seemed to be actual fear in his eyes.
I wasted no time in nocking another arrow, but by the time I was able to actually take aim, it was too late. The rowboat was too far away, and the arrow I let loose fell about three feet short and plopped into the ocean water.
“Tell your leader I am the Dragon King!” I shouted after the bastards. “And tell him he’d better fucking watch out!”
The last sentence came out like more of a growl than a yell, and I was sure they couldn’t have heard it, but I didn’t care. The threat was more for myself, anyway.
Because I planned to come for the leader of the orcs. And I planned to destroy him the way my people had wanted to murder Osama bin Laden.
Finally, when the orcs’ rowboat was nothing more than a dot on the horizon, I let out a breath and turned back to the group of village women who waited further up the shore.
I slowly walked toward them, and unease slipped into my being as I saw a few women hunkered down on the sand, but there were no cries or screams, so I took that as a good sign.
“Is everyone alright?” I asked in a weary tone when I reached the women.
“Yes, Ben.” Ainsley nodded, and she bit her lip as her blue eyes welled with tears. Her gaze bounced over the dead bodies of the orcs, and for a brief moment, I thought she was sorry their stupid lives were over.
“Hey, don’t be sad,” I murmured and reached a hand out to cup her cheek.
“I am not sad,” she corrected with a shake of her head. “I am so grateful for you, Ben, King of Dragons. The Goddess Nira brought you to us for this very reason. She knew you would help us fight off the intruders and save this island.”
“Yeah, well, not all of them,” I replied as I looked pointedly to the little black dot on the horizon. The rowboat with the two orcs had gotten away, and because of that, I was pissed. I worried they might run back to their little home island and bring an even bigger army with them. Their numbers seemed massive, and I was sure they’d bring an even bigger army when they actually expected a fight.
