Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  Erik glanced at him, Rugrat caught the look and reeled in his emotion.

  Not that I don’t understand him, we’re fighters and they’re coddling us like we’re damn children.

  “What I’m saying is that we need to take that camp’s position, see if there is any intelligence in there, find out what the hell the orcs are doing. The people that were taken away in the cart, if we don’t do anything then I doubt that anyone else will,” Rugrat said.

  “George will take a few hours, but he’s made of stronger stuff, he’ll be fighting ready by then, Tian Cui will take a few more minutes,” Erik said.

  Storbon seemed to be having an internal battle with himself.

  “We have a foothold, we need to capitalize on it, if we just turn and run then when we return we could be right back at square one, and those people in the carts, they won’t be coming back out of those caves,” Erik said.

  “Shit, alright, you’re right. It’s hard. I know you’re both stronger than my people, but my mission is to protect you both.”

  “Sometimes that comes secondary,” Erik said.

  Storbon sighed and lowered his head.

  He raised it a few moments later. It looked like he had come to a decision.

  “We head to the camp, clear out anything else that is in there. Yuli looted the bodies of the group we killed at the choke point. There was a horn that the head shaman had that might be useful, the rest of it was trinkets and mana stones.”

  He pulled out the horn.

  ==========

  Horn of Obedience

  ==========

  Use this horn to gain the obedience of surrounding Orcs. Affects an area 15m x 15m.

  Uses: 4/12

  Duration: 1 Hour

  ==========

  “Well that could be useful,” Rugrat said.

  Storbon put the horn away again.

  “Okay once Tian Cui is good to go, we'll head to the camp.”

  Chapter: A New Quest

  Tian Cui recovered quickly. Rugrat stored George away in a beast storage device and rode on Lucinda’s beast again.

  “Dismount, we’ll take the rest on foot,” Storbon said.

  They got off of their mounts, looking at the camp. Up close they could see the damage that they had done to the camp over the last half-day.

  They walked through the shattered walls, weapons up and ready, dead Orcs that had been pulled off the walls made a pile in the corner, the flies getting to them already.

  The camp smelled like unwashed bodies and a non-working sewage system.

  Erik and Rugrat were using their domains to the fullest, making sure that there was no one hiding in the camp waiting to jump out and attack them.

  “Yuli and Lucinda on watch, make sure nothing sneaks up on us,” Storbon said once they had confirmed that the camp was empty.

  Everyone took a moment to put a cloth over their faces to block out some of the smell.

  Storbon looked through the Orc’s barracks, it was nothing more than a hide tent that had been strung up across wood with bone used to seal the entrance and pin the tent to the rock.

  The person or creature that these came from had to be at the Body like Stone or higher level for them to be driven into the ground and not destroyed.

  He searched around finding rusted and broken weapons, discarded clothing bones and putrefied meat from their unfinished meals.

  “Got something!” Yao Meng said from a side tent.

  “What is it?” Erik asked, approaching from where he had been searching, the others went over as well, leaving Yuli and Lucinda watching the area again.

  “Looks like a map and some written words, I got a quest when I picked it up,” Yao Meng passed it to Erik who got there first.

  Erik looked up from the papers, seeing a notification as he waved his hand, reading through it all.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Erik passed it to Tian Cui who arrived after him, so it went with them passing around the page.

  Storbon got the papers as well.

  ==========

  Quest: From Orc Jaws

  ==========

  Adventurers, lost souls and villagers have been captured from the lands surrounding the Orc territory and sent deeper into Orc’s territory. Find these prisoners, free them and escape the Orc Territory.

  ==========

  Requirements:

  Free the Prisoners

  Lead them out of Orc Territory

  ==========

  Rewards:

  Wandering Hero Title

  EXP (Depends on final result)

  ==========

  “Well, it looks like we have a firm goal,” Rugrat said.

  “I’ve got something!” Lucinda called out.

  “What?” Storbon asked.

  “Orcs.”

  “Fuck!” Rugrat.

  ***

  Erik was up on the wall with the others as they watched the orcs boiling out of the caves cut into the side of the dungeon, massing their numbers as they stared at the camp.

  A horn called out.

  “Must be some kind of signal,” Rugrat said as the Orcs waited after the horn faded away, looking at the camp attentively.

  “And we don’t have a reply to give them,” Erik said.

  “What do you want us to do?” Storbon asked.

  “If we run then we’ll be attacked from behind, we might lead them to Kuldir,” Rugrat said.

  “The walls are smashed to hell here with what we did, if they flank us we’re screwed,” Storbon rebutted.

  “They have numbers and they’ll have shamans, I guess it is about time we stopped limiting ourselves,” Erik said.

  “You are the leaders of Alva,” Storbon said, stepping forward.

  Erik and Rugrat looked at the young man, they saw the coldness in his eyes. He had been one of their powers in the Alva military since the beginning going from a young man that had never left his village to a spear-wielding veteran of some of the bloodiest battles they had participated in. He had proven his ability and it had changed him, making him much older than his outward appearance would suggest.

  He deserved their respect and to be treated as an equal.

  “We might be the figureheads of Alva and Vuzgal but they are both places for those that call themselves Alvans,” Erik said.

  “First and foremost, we’re fighters. I’m a Marine, and he’s the unlucky medic that got stuck with us cause we were down a Corpsman. We don’t run from a fight, we run toward them. There are people that the Orcs have and we’re all they have. We’re not leaving them behind. That is our code.” Rugrat said.

  Storbon was gritting his teeth, it looked like he was debating if he could drag these two idiots away from the fight by himself.

  Erik smiled and put a hand on Storbon’s shoulder. He felt responsible for Storbon, a bit fatherly. He had healed him, he had trained him, he had watched him grow into the man he was now and he could see the difficult expression on his face.

  “When we reached Alva we stayed, when we went to Tareng we invited those under attack into our home and protected them. We’re idiots for lost causes, but we’ve made it through so far. We are strong but we haven’t used all of our power, constantly holding back and relying on our gear. We have a powerful and strong enemy ahead of us. I think it’s time that we leveled up a bit,” Erik’s smile widened as he saw Storbon going through decisions he clearly didn’t like.

  Storbon just sighed.

  “You are the commanders of the Alva Army, guess I should just shut up and listen to my bosses,” he said finally.

  “He’s the boss. I just hang out for the free lunches,” Rugrat said.

  Storbon cracked a smile.

  “So, what is the plan?” Rugrat asked.

  “Defend, as well as we can. Get firing positions up and hammer the enemy with ranged weaponry and spells,” Erik said.

  “Trap formations around the walls?” Storbon said.

  “Good idea and that will slow the
m down from entering our broken walls,” Rugrat said.

  “Thin out the trap formations there, create a natural funnel, the area is covered in rubble, makes it harder to cross, if we make it easier for them to enter, we have melee fighters there, supported with ranged to kill them,” Storbon said.

  “Smart,” Erik nodded. “If you can see who you’re supposed to kill then you’re more likely to charge at them instead of a massive wall in your way.”

  “Put explosives out behind the breached wall, the shamans like to hide out in the rear, if we can get it right we can get some of them in the blast, if we get it wrong we just get more Orcs,” Rugrat said.

  “Let’s get to work. Have Lucinda send out her birds to keep us up to date on what is happening with the Orcs, everyone else gets working on defenses,” Erik said.

  “We should clear up the chain of command. I’ve been doing this awhile but I am used to offensive operations more than defensive. You both have more time doing this,” Storbon said, looking to the other two.

  “Rugrat,”: Erik said looking at the confused Marine.

  “Huh?”

  “You’ll be back from the fighting. You’re fast and you have ranged attacks that can help to control the battlefield. It gives you a better view of everything that is going on,” Erik said.

  Rugrat raised his lip to start arguing and let out a sigh instead.

  “Alright, fine, let’s get to work,” Rugrat used his comms and relayed the plan to the rest of the Special team. Erik and Storbon ran off outside the camp and started to wave their storage rings, tossing out formation plates. Gilly followed behind them, using her magic to cover the formations in rock so that they were hidden from view.

  George who was now back on his feet went around the camp and used his flames to open holes in the side of the wall that Rugrat had marked, creating firing positions for the Special teams members.

  Yuli was laying down several amplification formations while Yao Meng was putting together a mana barrier formation in the middle of the camp.

  Erik finished his first loop of the camp and continued prepping the defenses. Pausing for a moment, he looked over at the Orcs, seeing that they were still massing.

  “How many do you put that at?” Rugrat asked.

  “Too damn many,” Erik said.

  “‘Bout fifty?”

  Another group joined up.

  “Seventy?” Erik said.

  They got back to work, they didn’t have time to stare at Orcs.

  Erik was laying down explosives. Gilly went around creating pits in the ground Erik would plant explosives and an activating formation, then she would fuse the upper layer of stone so it didn’t look any different from the surrounding area, but as soon as someone stepped on it the formation would activate and set the explosives off.

  Erik could’ve used his mana, but he was saving it. He was their main healer he didn’t want to be fatigued starting. Also, Gilly’s mana pool was much bigger than his and while he had great control over Earth mana, Gilly used it on almost an instinctual level, much closer to the ‘pure magic’ that Tanya in Alva was studying.

  A horn called out from the caves.

  Erik looked over. It had taken some time but the Orcs seemed pleased with their numbers. There had to be over one hundred orcs waiting at the entrances of the caves.

  “Pull back into the camp, move to your firing positions. Gilly, work on the ground around the broken walls,” Rugrat yelled out his orders.

  Erik ran and jumped, grabbing onto the wall and using his strength and agility to climb up.

  Gilly used a pillar of stone and a jump to get over the wall. The pillar collapsed into itself so that the orcs couldn’t use it. She ran over to the broken wall and smacked her feet. The ground reacted. Spiked protrusions grew from the ground and the stone on the ground fused to it, looking like loose rubble but if someone tried to kick it away they’d find it was part of the ground.

  The spikes and berms that rose from the ground created covered firing positions and a single path firing corridors.

  Erik pulled out his rifle and dropped to the ground. The Special team members were checking their weaponry.

  Storbon, Lucinda and Erik were on the wall, Yao Meng Tian Cui and Rugrat had grenade launchers in their hands while Yuli was gathering the surrounding mana, her robes were billowing out as the runes on the formation below her glowed with power.

  George was looking much better, he was prowling the ground beside Rugrat. Erik could feel the rage rolling off of his body. Someone had dared to attack the proud flame wolf, worse, they’d attacked, his beloved master.

  He wasn’t about to let that go easily.

  Erik checked the drum magazine on his rifle, one of the newer products with the rifles, ensuring it was fully loaded and flicked from safe to auto. He put the bipod of the rifle down on one of the firing positions. He could hear the roars of the Orcs reverberating off of the roof of the dungeons cavern.

  Night, or the Dungeon equivalent of it, had begun. Different luminescent plants that illuminated the area and light shafts from above had darkened. The Orcs had adapted to the darkness while the Special teams helmets cut through the darkness easily.

  Erik checked the socket formations and the runes that directed power from his magazine into them.

  Just looking for things to do before this all kicks off. Erik made sure to breathe so he wouldn’t tunnel, checking the others around him. Lucinda and Storbon all had the same setup as him, waiting and ready along the wall.

  “In range!” Rugrat yelled.

  Whoumpf! Whoumpf! Whoumpf!

  The grenade launcher team instantly fired off their grenades as fast as they could fire them, altering their aim just slightly from left to right to displace their attacks.

  They ejected smoking cartridges from their launchers and loaded a full six shot cartridge back in and readied themselves again.

  Erik watched as explosives landed around the Orcs. Only a few hit close enough to affect the beasts.

  Lucinda called out changes to their aim.

  They fired again, this time they were right on the money, explosions hit the forward lines of the Orcs and passed through their formation, the Orcs running into the grenades.

  “Tough fuckers,” Storbon hissed.

  The Orcs took the hits and kept on coming, their shamans buffing themselves and their fighters.

  “George! Yuli!” Rugrat yelled as he fired off his third round of grenades.

  Blue flames ignited around George’s body as wisps of flames floated away from his body, gathering into fireballs the size of bowling balls. Suddenly they shot out over the wall, curving towards the Orcs.

  He did this all in just a few seconds, and he was sending tens of blue fireballs at the same time.

  Erik saw the grenades impact the Orcs, thinning their numbers once again.

  George’s blue fireballs hit the ground, exploding into flames that melted the stone they landed on. It was like a rocket barrage, coating the area with blue flames. The Orcs’ madness seemed to turn to panic for a second as they tried to slow their forward momentum. Two fell down and were trampled by those behind them.

  Letting out fresh roars the Orcs increased their speeds. Horns blared out as shamans started to cast different spells.

  The fireballs coated the area. Orcs were set aflame. Shamans sending out spells to contain the flames as hasty barriers were set up.

  Some pulled off what looked like big headdresses from their backs.

  Those look like totems.

  They slammed the totems on the ground. Making them look like carved tree trunks. They were covered in different symbols and seemingly random ornaments of bones, gems and other parts.

  The totems created barriers or shot out blasts of green light, thinning out the incoming fireballs. Shamans needed to stay next to them in order to control them.

  Suddenly, a mouth formed of stone opened in the ground underneath one of the stationary shamans and their totem
s.

  The shaman let out a cry, falling into the mouth before it snapped shut and disappeared into the ground.

  Other mouths formed before lines of fire were traced across the land in front of the Orcs, forcing them to squeeze together to get past the flames.

  Erik looked at the marker that they had placed outside the camps, showing them the range away from the camp.

  Still out of my range.

  Grenades targeted the openings in Yuli’s firewall as her stone mouths snacked on running Orcs and shamans, messing up their barrier cover as George continued to coat the orc horde in flames.

  Tough fuckers indeed, some of them are missing limbs but they’re still charging forward, being healed and recovering from their wounds. If we had been fighting all buffed orcs from the very beginning it would’ve been hard to take more than ten of them even in one of our ambushes.

  The Orcs had fully left the caves. They had just under two hundred melee fighters and about twenty shamans.

  Erik felt the air pick up behind him. He glanced out the corner of his eye to see Yuli with a crate in front of her. It was covered in poison symbols, a cloud of golden dust with a green haze around it rose up in front of her, held in tornado spell.

  Yuli waved forward as she chanted, the formation reinforcing and multiplying her power. The tornado shot out air blades that crossed the area in front of the camp hitting the Orcs that had made it past her flaming obstacles.

  The wind blades filled with poison dust cut at the orcs, they defended themselves against the attacks but were left with a few cuts that quickly started to heal under their buffs effects.

  Blades turned the air into a shimmering mess, making it hard to see the dungeon’s roof above.

  The flame lines started to dim down, running out of power.

  As the wind blades were still attacking. Yuli held out her hand, chanting and casting a second spell at the same time she was controlling the last of the wind blades that had separated from the tornado.

  Spell formations appeared on the cavern above, unseen by the orcs. The spell formations sank into the roof, the area around them turned red as parts of the ceiling started to collapse, rocks dropped and exploded as they hit the ground, sending rock shards everywhere before magma fell from the ceiling.