To talk plainly, Shadbak WolfenSpire never did, the drugs. Her father, war chief Hrolkug Wolfenspire always said they would make her head soft. Warriors in her tribe often fed fungus beasts to bulls then drank their piss to get orc brave. Those fellas were tough as stone and just as dumb after taking the piss. Sometimes they saw things that weren’t there, like the blonde bimbo holding a gun to her head. Then there was the other human who happily sliced the Wolfen into bloody delicious ribbons. He moved at impossible speeds catching the Wolfen from behind and executing them in a few cuts.

Their hides were supposed to be tougher than steel, but he sliced through them fine. So, Shadbak’s only conclusion was she had drunk deer piss mixed in with a nearby stream.

The short male human grinned at her. “I’ll never get tired of that skill.” He seemed to settle down after his massacre. “Why are you holding a gun to her head? She isn’t a threat to us.”

Shadbak would have felt offended if not for the man’s bloody display. Honestly, it was a miracle they spoke the same language. Learning the common language had its uses; unfortunately, there were many standard versions, and it changed every few centuries.

The blondie’s eyes held the soul of a lunatic mushed up with the intuition of a predator. When Shadbak focused on the man, she felt small. He was three feet shorter than her but felt overwhelmingly large. Shadbak couldn’t believe that his puny body could hold such a massive spirit.

Shadbak knew she must be drugged. It was the only explanation. She was somewhere being eaten alive by the Wolfen, imagining all of this.

“She’s a degenerate alien masquerading in the perfection of the human form. I should have killed her on sight.” The blondie growled.

The man pursed his lips then smiled. “We can use this.” He said, and she had no idea what he was talking about.

Delusion or not, she had to get a grip on the situation. “Use me how?”

The man looked her up and down as if he were inspecting a prized horse. He floated a few feet off the ground and parted her dark green lips to inspect her teeth. She was too surprised to even bite his fingers. “Oh, she is definitely someone important.” The man said.

The man clapped his hands together and formed the forbidden sign. Oh, by the gods, he was one of those crazy humans. “Oh, I’m sorry for being rude. I’m Red, and my friend pointing a gun at your head is named Emily. We saved you from those wolves so let’s be friends with benefits.” Red said.

She sucked a breath as the man reached out and took her hand. His grip was steel. Shadbak nearly fell when he pulled her closer to inspect her injuries.

The man put a hand on Emily’s and slowly lowered the woman’s weapon. “Do you know how to stitch a wound?” Red asked.

For a second, Shadbak thought the human woman would shoot her. But, instead, she holstered her weapon and turned away. “I won’t touch her body; it's unclean,” Emily said.

Shadbak would have felt offended if she had expected anything better. Instead, the man seemed irritated and turned his attention back to her. “I’ll get some water to wash your wounds; don’t runoff. Emily might shoot you.” Red said.

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The woman Emily had kept her hand on her weapon. Shadbak wasn’t going anywhere.

…

Red returned minutes later with a wolf skin full of boiling water. A flicker of tightly controlled qi later, it was cool to the touch. With the care of her father seasoning his prized lamb Red washed her wounds and her body. Sheik’s eyes scrunched up in pain, but she refused to cry out. Showing weakness in front of this man would be a mistake.

The blond sulked and cleaned her sidearm. Shadbak didn’t think making Emily jealous was a good idea.

For a human, she supposed Red wasn’t bad-looking. He was obviously a powerful warrior with dual affinities if his water manipulation was anything to go by.

Red grabbed a handful of her ass. “You know I have a thing for green,” Red said.

Shadbak waited for the man to rip the remainder of her clothes off with a heated face. If Red took her in front of Emily, Shadbak would sleep with one eye open. But instead, he returned to cleaning her wounds.

She narrowed her eyes.

Either Red was the type to toy with a maiden’s feelings or he was terrible with women.

Perhaps he needed another hint. Shadbak spread her shoulder and exposed more of her breasts. What fabric remained struggled to hide more than a hint of her dark green nipples.

With an iron will she put an air of confidence in her voice. “Then you’ll love my tribe; we’re all green,” Shadbak said.

Red smirked but failed to rip her clothes off to take her. This wasn’t how her dreams usually went. The man continued to wash her wounds at a steady pace. He slipped one of her breasts free and washed them with gentle hands. The dangerous man even heated the water while he held her breasts. It wasn’t right; this was too gentle for the least of her lewd dreams.

She gave up on this being a vision. Good fortune like this was only gifted to chosen, and it had fallen upon her. This man human didn’t appear to want to exterminate her people, which was an improvement to the known standard of genocidal humans. He even seemed attracted to her.

Was he too dense or was there a culture barrier? if she learned the mating habits of humans, could Red be bent to her needs.

On the other hand, better than horrible didn’t make him a good mate or her stupid. She squeezed her breasts together in a way that drove the orc boys in her tribe wild. “Well, if you help me get back to my tribe, I could show you my greener places.” Shadbak wanted to roll her olive-green eyes at that one.

She had managed to escape the blood spirits on the way here by sheer luck. Not many made it to get help. If she used him well then, she could make it to a neighboring tribe and get help. They were only a week’s travel to the Gungrale tribe. With the metal workers aide, they’d make short work of the fiends.

“Of course, she’s a member of the tribal orcs. To think I held out hope she’d be one of the nice, settled orcs released by the church.” Emily said.

Red didn’t seem to share his companion’s sentiment. “A tribal orc that’s interesting; tell me about your tribe and traditions while I pack up these trees,” Red said.

She blinked as the man who saved her approached a Magub’s Folly. Of the many gifts of the chaos god, this one was the most obvious. Who would believe such large delicious-looking fruit would remain unguarded?

The man who seemed larger than his height gripped the trunk of the tree and pulled. Roots ripped up from the ground, and the tree shook. However, the fruit remained firmly in place due to the invisible silk webs covering them. And with a heave, the human yanked the tree from the ground. It was like seeing her sister uproot a carrot for the Bush Hares.

Furious spider women charged the man some blasted him with silk as he pulled the remaining roots out of the ground inch by inch. Flames erupted around Red as he ignored the spider women and laid the tree on its side. From there, he took his knife and began trimming the tree. When a spider woman dared to attack him, he killed them out of hand. Flesh that should turn steel couldn’t resist this man’s blade. Once the tree had been cut to some subjective standard, Red picked it up, and it vanished. She blinked as the spider women fell on the ground in great heaps.

The man calmly killed them one by one as they fled. She watched as he monstrously repeated his act tree by tree until he’d gathered them all. It was like watching a smith apprentice collect firewood. Even the bodies of the spider woman weren’t spared. He collected them too and stored them wherever the trees went.

Red smiled at her after he cleared out the last of them. She felt a cold shiver crawl up her spine. He killed the spider women like swatting gnats. Then he collected them too. Red liked green skin; did that mean he wanted to skin them. If she led this monster to the Gungale tribe, it could be a disaster.

She would need to get rid of him and use him at the same time. The man smiled as if he hadn’t just swept through scores of spider women like locusts to a field. Shadbak listened and could swear she heard a soft buzzing sound coming from the man. Was he a living swarm of locusts wrapped in human skin? In a few hours, he had wiped out several nests of spider women.

“Can we finally move out?” Emily asked.

“Yep, I think I’ve collected everything of value here. I hope we can fight something interesting on the way.” Red smiled as if he hadn’t just exposed how insane humans could be. “I hope you can lead us to your tribe. We’re a little lost out here.”

At that omission, Shadbak formed a plan. She’d lead him through the harshest path imaginable through the territory of evil spirit lords, evil deities, and the vilest of demons. She would use him as a weapon to cleave apart her tribe’s enemies. But, first, she’d march him right into the territory of the chained shard of the fallen god Vlorg.