Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  They were a man and a half tall, with bulging muscles, they were covered in grime and scars with two tusks jutting out from their lips.

  They were wearing simple fur clothes that were greasy and dirty, their weapons were clubs that they had crafted themselves or rough metal cleavers. A few were using rusted swords that would have been a two-handed weapon in a human’s hands.

  They advanced, cautious but unworried, confident in their own power. They saw the beast that had been punctured with holes.

  “There are some that are hanging back still, wait for them to enter too,” Lucinda warned.

  The leading Orcs checked the area and then let out roars, rushing the beast. The others behind them let out angry yells.

  Their group devolved quickly as they rushed up to the beast, tearing off chunks and eating it raw. They were more like beasts as they fought one another, blooding each other to assert dominance but not kill.

  “The ones at the entrance are coming in.”

  Rugrat tapped on the side of his rifle, moving from one Orc to the next, practicing and readying himself to move from target to target, scanning the group at the same time.

  Four more Orcs ran in, adding to the fight.

  “Activating formation,” Storbon said.

  There was a faint buzzing noise as they were no isolated from the outside world.

  “Fire.”

  Rugrat stroked the trigger, an Orc fell and a tombstone appeared as he switched to his second target, firing and seeing the tombstone. His third was killed by someone else.

  He killed another and then scanned, but there were no other targets and nothing was moving.

  The patrol of Orcs, fifteen strong ended in a ravine just like that. Some died, still fighting one another, not realizing that they had become the prey.

  “I don’t see any movement outside of the ravine, keeping an eye out,” Lucinda said.

  “Loot the bodies and disperse them, we’ll see if we can pull in another patrol, well done,” Storbon said.

  Like this the team lured and killed five patrols. They would have to change positions occasionally as the other patrols wouldn’t come close to them otherwise.

  The Orcs seemed to realize that something was wrong, a horn came from the camp.

  “What is that?” Yao Meng asked.

  “Not good,” Erik said, he scrambled up a hill, Rugrat right behind him. The two of them were looking over the area around the camp as they heard other horns responding to the first. They came from the direction of the other patrols.

  “Shit,” Erik said.

  A silence fell over the area as if they were waiting for something.

  “Get ready to move,” Erik said.

  The group abandoned their preparations, clearing up their gear and pulling out their mounts.

  The horn at the main camp called out again in a different sequence, there were no responses for a few minutes.

  The horn called out again in a different pattern. Rugrat was watching a patrol. As they heard the horns they started to turn and head toward the camp.

  “Looks like they’re returning to camp, we can either let them go back or we can hit them on the way, weaken their numbers. I’ll go from the sky, if we move on our mounts, pepper them with repeaters, just weaken them, not get into a drawn-out engagement we should be able to take them,” Rugrat said.

  “Let's takedown as many of them as we can now, if we wait they’ll be behind their walls. There are at least six other patrols out there, that’s ninety Orcs,” Erik said. “Mount up!” Yao Meng your upfront. Lucinda call out targets, Yuli hit them with spells to disorientate, use spell scrolls if you need to.”

  Rugrat and Erik moved down the rise, getting onto George and Gilly, respectively.

  “Head to the Southeast,” Lucinda said, as they rode out on their mounts, navigating through the tortured landscape of broken trees and rocks.

  “They should appear on our left-hand side after we pass this rise!”

  Yao Meng was the first to see the enemy. The orcs let out a furious roar as Yao Meng fired his repeater.An orc tried to use his horn, the noise was cut off suddenly.

  Yuli fired out a spell as the others peppered them with repeater bolts. Rugrat and Erik fired their rifles as Gilly shot out water spears and George shot out fireballs.

  It was a one-sided slaughter. None of the orcs were left alive. Several tombstones appeared in their wake but they were riding away already.

  “They’re all retreating!” Yao Meng yelled.

  “Lucinda guided us to the closest group. Once they’re inside the camp they’ll only add to the defense.”

  Lucinda guided them across the ground, closing with the nearest orc patrols.

  Storbon used a grenade launcher, illuminating the dim dungeon, Orc tombstones appearing in the blast radius.

  Horns called out as the Orcs spotted them. Horns in the city changed their tone and the Orcs stopped trying to return to the camp and started striking out toward one another, following the sound of horns to kill the group.

  “If we use their horns then we can get them to come to us,” Yao Meng said.

  “There is a valley to our right, we can use that,” Lucinda said.

  “Do it,” Erik said.

  They moved to the valley, Erik threw down explosives in a few rock outcroppings as they rode their beasts up to different vantage points, jumping off and getting into a good firing position.

  They checked their positions, getting ready as fast as possible, moving rocks around, checking their lines of sight.

  “Good to go!” Yuli called out over the comms, the others did so as well.

  Rugrat checked his grenade launcher and magazine, slapping it back into his rifle.

  “Good!”

  “Yao Meng!” Storbon called out after everyone was confirmed.

  Yao Meng pulled out the horn that they picked up from the destroyed patrols and started to blow it matching other calls

  It let out a baying noise that covered the area.

  “The other groups are coming it looks like it is working,” Lucinda said.

  They waited, scanning the area, their skin itchy and their eyes wide. They could feel their hearts in their chests and every movement was so loud in their ears that they thought the enemy would hear them straight away.

  Rugrat breathed through his nose, scanning to make sure that he didn’t get tunnel vision.

  “Here they come,” Lucinda said.

  “Let them get in closer,” Erik said.

  There were two or three patrols that were coming together, they must’ve hit one of the patrols as their numbers were lacking.

  Rugrat started casting spells on his rounds and rifle.

  The Orcs were now all in range and charging forward, Rugrat was starting to get apprehensive, waiting for the first shot.

  Yuli sent out vines across the ground, snagging the Orcs’ feet as they tripped and fell.

  “Fire in the hole!”

  Erik activated a formation, the charges he had tossed into the underbrush and the rocks exploded, tearing apart the surprised Orcs.

  Yao Meng got onto his knee and fired his grenade launcher into any groups of Orcs he could see.

  Rugrat fired into his targets until they dropped, shifting to the next movement and fired again, Gilly let out a roar and arrows made of stone shot out from the sides of the valley, striking the Orcs.

  The others fired their rifles, dust and chaos filled the area. The Orcs’ blue-black blood covering their bodies as they were cut down by the hidden attackers. Some raged and activated their berserker skills, ignoring their wounds until an explosive or a round damaged their body so much that they couldn’t move anymore.

  “Cease fire, cease fire!” Storbon said.

  The shooting stopped as they looked at the group, tombstones littered where the Orc patrol had been.

  “Shoot and scoot! Let’s move,” Storbon said.

  They were able to pull another group using the same ta
ctic, as the dust settled on their ambush position the gates that were open for the Orcs slammed shut. Orcs were up on the camp walls, looking out at the surrounding area.

  The team gathered their gear, looting the Orc corpses. They had some mana stones, their simple weapons and rare ores with them as well as Orc talismans that would increase the wearer’s attributes, all of their effects were weaker than the stat bonuses that the team received from their Alvan made armors.

  Rugrat went out ahead of the group, scouting for them and finding them a rock outcropping that they could camp behind and use to watch what was happening in the camp.

  “Check your gear, get cleaned up and get some food into you, we’ll have one person awake in the camp and two up on top of the rock observing the camp,” Storbon said through his comms so his voice wouldn’t carry.

  Rugrat heaved himself up on top of the rock outcropping, getting on his belly as he crawled forward, he moved some rocks around, clearing out a better vantage of the camp.

  Using his sight-based spells he looked at the camp. The Orcs were aggravated, staring out of the camp. Instead of the light-roving watchers on the wall, there were tens of Orcs watching the surrounding area, ready and waiting for a fight.

  Yao Meng tapped his leg, Rugrat looked back and nodded, pointing to another position on the outcropping that one could observe the camp from.

  Rugrat took out his rifle unloaded it and used a clean spell on it.

  Weapon cleaning made easy. He oiled up the weapon and loaded it again, storing it away as he studied the camp.

  Alright, so, how would I take it?

  ***

  Erik, Rugrat, and Storbon were gathered together, watching the camp, Lucinda and Yuli were up in the observation post while Yao Meng and Tian Cui were getting some induced sleep.

  Rugrat’s map was between their feet, they had some details that had been added by passing by the camp, others from the different maps that they had purchased, rounding out the map nicely.

  “They’re all amped up over there, got a full guard on the walls, watching everything and anything, we make a move now and they’re going to respond with all they have. We should wait till they relax a bit, get a bit careless, and scout out shooting positions, everyone here has completed their sharpshooter course. We shoot from several different locations, kill a number of them, then we sneak out of our positions, mount up and move to new locations. Wait for them to calm down again, rinse and repeat. Reduce their numbers some more. It’ll take time, but we have time on our side,” Rugrat said.

  “What if they get reinforcements or that carriage train comes back?” Erik asked.

  “We have plenty of spell scrolls, we can use those to break them up. We could use one of the stronger spells and hit the camp with it?” Storbon said.

  “Worth a shot didn’t think of that,” Rugrat admitted.

  After everyone was rested and fed they moved out in smaller groups, Rugrat was with Lucinda, Erik with Yao Meng, Tian Cui with Storbon and Yuli.

  They moved slowly, making sure that they wouldn’t get the attention of the Orcs, it had been a few hours since they had returned to the camp and already they weren’t as alert as they had been when they started scanning the area.

  “This looks good,” Yao Meng said, gesturing to some boulders that they could use to set upon.

  “Let’s get dug in and wait for the others to get ready,” Erik said.

  “In position,” Yuli said a few minutes later.

  “In position,” Rugrat said shortly afterward.

  “Deploying spell scroll,” Yuli said.

  The mana shifted in the area, a spell formation appeared above the camp, looking at it one would start to shiver. Feeling a cold spread through their bones, the orcs looked up in alarm. As the spell formation gathered more power, its lines became brighter and the formation became more complex.

  White smoke appeared around the formation, freezing the very air.

  A beam shot out from the center of the formation, it shot down into the middle of the camp and struck a mana barrier square on.

  Erik’s eyes went wide as he saw the mana barrier covering the camp. The chilling ray slamming into it and washing over the sides, the ground around the camp was hit by the spell, the ground freezing creating jagged ice crystals that covered the ground shining like a field of frozen blades around the camp.

  The Orcs, seeing that they were protected, hooted and hollered, daring their attackers to show themselves.

  The massive outpouring of mana made Erik’s hair stand on edge the barrier continued to hold as he studied the camp, looking for the formation supporting it.

  He couldn’t see over the walls.

  “Lucinda, do you have eyes on the formation?” Erik asked.

  “I have a bird in the air...” She trailed off. “There is a circle of sticks in the middle of the camp, there are shamans inside it they’re all glowing and chanting together I think they’re creating the barrier.”

  “We’re moving,” Storbon said.

  “Understood,” Erik said.

  “Beasts that can use mana barriers,” Yao Meng shook his head.

  Erik grunted in agreement. “This day keeps getting better.”

  The spell scroll depleted its mana while Storbon’s team repositioned themselves.

  Ice blades were spread around the mana barrier and across the ground chilling the orcs as the mana barrier was removed but not doing anything else.

  Everyone got set again for their second test.

  Erik shifted slightly, getting comfortable behind his weapon, his sights following a roving Orc on the camp wall.

  “On my mark, three... two... one..., mark.” With Storbon’s order all of them fired.

  Erik saw his target drop and several other orcs drop in a spray of black and blue blood. He was switching targets, already moving to his secondary targets and firing again.

  He was rewarded with another black and blue spray.

  Silence spells made it so that their weapons didn’t make a noise, but the flash of their rifles was easy to see in the darkness of the dungeon.

  Erik moved back from his firing position, Yao Meng with him.

  “Moving to fallback,” Erik said, he called out Gilly while Yao Meng called out his panther mount and they rushed off.

  Erik saw the mana barrier being raised up around the camp again, shimmering in the low light.

  The Orcs yelled out and turned away from the camp. They looked ready to charge out and destroy the flashes of light.

  Erik and Yao Meng got to their next position.

  “Looks like they want to come out and kill us, the Shamans are holding them back. Seems that the shamans are ready to raise up the mana barrier but they need a few seconds in order to do so,” Lucinda said, using her eyes from above to report what was happening.

  “We could hit them with spell scrolls, drain the shamans? Keep them on alert all the time?” Rugrat said.

  “We could, but we don’t know how strong they are so it could take a lot of spell scrolls. Get reset, shoot them up again, and whittle down their numbers. Get them scared to walk on the walls, then we’ll see what our options are,” Storbon said.

  ***

  Rugrat had been on the move for a day, moving from one position to the next, waiting for the mana barrier to come down around the Orc camp, hit a few more guards and then move again. It was tiring and grinding work, but it was wearing the enemy down.

  They were the hunters and the Orcs were the prey tucked up in their camp.

  “Looks like they’re getting smart,” Rugrat said on the comms channel.

  “Or scared,” Tian Cui.

  “Guess it's time we looked at the next option,” Erik said.

  There were just a couple of guards on the walls, the others were all inside the camp. The head shaman had come out of his tent, was assisting the others in making the mana barrier and would periodically send out attacks at where the teams had been shooting from.

  “
We don’t know how powerful that barrier is, we know that it can stop a level three spell scroll from what happened with the frost field. We don’t know how long these shamans can last. If they were just using a formation we could see its power from the runes, creatures are harder,” Yuli said.

  “How many are left in there?” Storbon asked.

  “Looks to be about thirty of the melee types, five Shamans and the head Shaman,” Lucinda said.

  “Could your beasts get up close and drop off charges?” Storbon asked.

  “Should be able to, now that there aren’t many guards on the wall. If we hit the guards on the wall and then my beasts can do the last little run to the wall without being seen,” Lucinda said.

  “What if we use the charges, blow a hole in the wall and at the same time we pepper the place with grenades, aiming for the shamans. Maybe we hit them, even if we don’t we have a line of sight into the camp, we use that to shoot at the shamans.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Rugrat said.

  “Worth a shot,” Erik agreed.

  They waited for everything to calm down. Lucinda pulled out a number of her beasts and had them take the charges towards the camp, they were quick and small, making it hard to see them as they snuck in close.

  She guided them personally as they got close.

  “Bomb carriers in position,” She said.

  “Three, two one, Mark,” Storbon said.

  Erik fired his rifle, the dust around him moving as he felt the small recoil of the rifle, his higher strength handling it easily.

  Orcs dropped off the wall, Erik and Yao Meng were running from their position.

  “Bomb carriers away,” Lucinda said.“Head Shaman’s casting a spell!”

  A whirlwind appeared close to the camp. The winds screamed as it cut a path through the rock, adding it to its razor-sharp winds. It smashed through the position Erik and Yao Meng had been in moments before eating through the rocks that had been there and churning them up.

  Erik and Yao Meng hunched down over their mounts, fleeing at their best speed as rocks sailed overhead and hit their armor, they turned down a cut in the rocks their mounts’ legs fighting to find purchase, Yao Meng’s panther ran along the stone wall for a second before jumping onto the ground.