"I sent over 30 of you to go and capture a young girl, and you come back with nothing!"
Roars the commander with unbridled fury.
"But commander, she ran into the woods in the middle of the night," says an orc."
"Her race allows her to see in the darkness easily," another orc retorts.
"Silence!" Bellows the commander. "I have lost 2 of you in the forest and I will not be sending any more. We will be traveling at double speed, anyone that walks out of line," he glares menacingly "I will deal with personally."
Many orcs want to retort over the increased traveling pace, but none do as the threat of violence is ever present on the commander's posture, his hand ready to unsheathe the greatsword on his back.
"No complaints......good. We travel immediately to the mountains," orders the commander.
With fear on their faces, the 51 odd orcs quickly prepare for the transportation of the slaves.
___________________
Slowly, Lin wakes up from a very well rested sleep, her nose twitching from the smell of cooking food. Immediately, memories resurface from last night, a smile slowly forming across her face, as she remembers her new friend Valy.
Valen, a simple name, but so hard to pronounce."Valy is much better," Lin whispers with a smile on her face. Slowly she gets off the very comfortable bed, pushing the warm blankets aside. The cuts from the previous day, all but healed, with only dirty and bloody fur to show as a reminder of the perils Lin had overcome. The fear of running continuously through the dark night, as the torches of light chased her, will be just a memory in due time.
A sizzling sound interrupts Lin's thoughts, all but replacing them with the thought of food. carefully Lin gets off the bed and exits the metal home in which she slept so peacefully in. Outside she finds Valen, a pan in his hand as he hunches over a fire.
Valen, engrossed with his work, notices the sound of small feet, leans his head slightly, finding Lin running up to him.
She immediately grabs on to Valens pants, looking down, Valen finds a cute smile plastered on her lips as Lin stares up at her savior.
"Good morning Lin, it's nice to see you so cheerful and energetic," Valen answers, pouring batter into a pan."I was thinking what would be a good breakfast for a young kid, and what I came up with was" Valen pauses, a smile plastered on his face" pancakes!" Vallen yells with a great deal of emotion.
Lin, confused, turns her head to the side and repeats "pancakes?".
"Yes, Lin, the greatest invention to strike the food industry. And you young lady," Valen points at Lin" will be the first in this world to taste pancakes."
"Pancakes!" Lin yells, a smile on her face as she mimics Valen's energetic yell.
Within a few minutes, Valen has two plates of pancakes in his hand as he walks towards a table he summoned earlier. Lin immediately taking a seat as he places a plate with hot pancakes in front of her.
Eyeing thoughtfully, Lin stares at the pancakes as Valen pours sliced up strawberry's, bananas, and chocolate chips over the pancake. Quickly he then pours syrup all over and tops it off with whip cream and a cherry.
Lin just stares mesmerized at the colorful array of food in front of her. Looking at Valen, she finds him already using a knife and fork to cut up his own. Slowly, Lin takes the knife and fork provided to her, and she copies Valen's movements. A moment later, after the first bite, Lin is quickly scarfing it down.
Valen watches, amused at the little tigress who is enjoying the food with such gusto. "Pancakes!" Lin screams, a smile on her cream covered lips.
Within a few minutes, both are done with breakfast. Lin is slumping on her chair, a noticeable bump on her stomach.
Valen slowly gets up and strolls to Lin, a predatory grin on his face. Lin noticing his grin, eyes him warily.
"You have rested, and are fed, now Lin, it's time for a bath" immediately a covered tub forms on the ground next to Valen. Quickly he removes the cover to reveal a large amount of water.
Lin, noticing the water immediately attempts to run away but is quickly caught and subdued by Valen.
Slowly he carries the squealing Lin towards the tub of water, a savage grin on his face.
__________________
Valen follows a clean Lin as she tramples the ground with her new sandals. Her flowery dress flowing through the wind. Her hair in a ponytail is kept together with a butterfly clip.
Surprisingly the bath was less stressful than Valen predicted. The hard part was getting Lin into the bath. But once he got her in, she became very complacent and allowed Valen to properly clean her up. Only when he was finished cleaning her and summoned some clothes for her did Lin quickly cheer up.
Having packed up everything in the camp, he continues to follow Lin as she sniffs the air continuously. Valen watches, giddy and hoping to find more of her kind.
_______________________
The sun is slowly setting, already partway down, and the dark night approaches every minute. As night descends, the orcs quickly attempt to make camp next to wagons, which are a foot into the ground. The slaves watch as the orcs trample through mud, exhaustion present across their faces; both from the grueling pace, and the constant need to help pull the wagons out of the mud.
The furious look on the Commander's face is all the orcs need to not complain. The commander watches as the orcs quickly make camp. A camp with too many trees and far too much shade. Unfortunately, a more favorable location is not possible since the wagons are stuck into the ground with little light to spare pulling them out again.
As the commander wanders around, making sure none of his men are taking it slow, Leona stares at him like a predator to a prey. Slowly watching his movements between the bars of her cage.
The camp comes into existence as the sun finally falls from the sky. Torches and a campfire illuminate with a soft glow.
As most of the orcs go to bed, the others quickly find themselves staring into the burning light, training all but forgotten when the commander's presence is no more.
As the camp slowly gets used to its rotations, Lin and Valen slowly get out of their hiding place.
____________
Having found the camp, Valen directed Lin to hide while he scouts the camp. 43 slaves, and 52 orcs in total. Lin watches patiently as Valen identifies targets. Deciding that a battle in the day would be a horrible idea, Valen resolves to wait till night, where he would be able to utilize the lack of light.
As the silence of the night finally arrives, Valen gets up and using his Mana, replaces his clothing with a pure black body armor. Turning to Lin who is also getting up"Lin, you stay here" Valen points down. Lin immediately gets back down without a word, clearly understanding the situation, complete trust shown in her eyes.
As Valen notices Lin's compliance for her to stay safe, Valen forms a black helmet on his head, equipped with night vision, infrared, and a zoomable display. He slowly starts moving into the camp, silenced weaponry at the ready and his mana brimming with anticipation.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
______________________
The camp is silent, with only the crackling of flames from the fire in the center causing any sound. Even the orcs around the fire do not make much noise, more so to not wake their commander and face his wrath. They surround the fire, talking softly while taking glances into the dark forest. A few lights of torches move around the camp, lone orcs who walk the perimeter of the camp.
As the night continues, Saria slowly wakes up from her cage to the sound of purring. Moving her bunny ears that have fallen in front of her face, Sidney slowly gets off the hardwood floor of her cage. Immediately she notices her friend Saria as she stares into the darkness, a soft purr rumbling from her chest. Her black tail swishes back and forth in excitement. Confused, Sidney walks close to her friend whose concentration is focused towards the dark woods.
"You seem happy" a smile forming on Sidney's face as a small jump comes from Saria's body. "Dammit Sidney, don't scare me like that," says Saria, glaring at the bunny-kin. Sidney gives it no mind" Oh? Whats this, a panther-kin who thrives in assassination can't handle getting surprised herself?" a giggle escapes Sidney's mouth as Saria continues to glare at her friend.
Sigh "Sometimes I wonder how I became your friend," Saria answers with an amused smile."
"So what got you excited some much that you completely forgot about your surroundings?"
Immediately Saria's tail starts to swoosh left and right as she remembers what is currently happening."It seems that there is someone taking out the orcs in the perimeter of our camp." A smile forming on her lips "and that someone is very silent. The patrols are thinning and those idiots don't even realize that half their patrol is gone," with a wave of her hand, Sidney points in the direction were an orc with a torch slowly trudges through the ground on the far side of the camp. As Sidney watches, the orc immediately falls to the ground, dropping his torch right next to him. Immediately a dark figure shows up, and a quick movement of his hand, the torch is quickly extinguished. The orcs around the fire notice nothing as the tent blocks their sight.
"My god Saria, what is that?" Sidney asks with mouth agape.
"As you know, the panther kin have the best night-vision of any of the beast-kin kind. It is the reason we are prized in night assaults and assassinations. The ability to hunt silently is what the females in our kind find most attractive in a male." a predatory look comes onto Saria's face" Killing without even having the prey react or even realize that they are being hunted is one of the most attractive things in a male."
“Ohhhhhh, so that’s why you were purring, you find this man very attractive?” Sidney giggles, with a perverted smile on her face.
"It seems like little Saria wants kittens," Sidney says, a blush forms on Saria's face.
“This man is not even a panther-kin. He is wearing very black armor that makes no sound and is taking on their whole camp alone! What woman would not want to mate with someone so amazing.” Saria retorts, her green eyes staring directly at her friend.
As Sidney is about to answer, a scream is heard in the center of the camp. Next, to the fire, Leona has a sword in her hand which is currently impaled into the chest of an orc, his screams of pain loud enough to wake the camp.
“Attack! Its an Attack” screams an orc, as Leona pulls out her sword from the chest of her victim.
"Leona you idiot," Saria says with an angry retort, the camp quickly waking up.
Immediately a deafening sound is heard as many of the tents explode and burst into flames, orcs screaming from within as their bodies are engulfed in an inferno. The entire camp is alight and awake.
_____________________________________________________________
Valen slowly makes his way around the camp, taking down lone patrols and quickly extinguishing the light from their torches. Slowly and carefully Valen trims their number. 8 patrols dead by his hands and nobody notices the disappearing lights in the night. As he makes his way closer to the center of the camp. He slowly passes by the tents of sleeping orcs and throws in a remotely controlled claymore into the center. By the times he passes by and booby-traps most of the tents, he notices a lone orc as he stares into a cage where an older version of Lin sits, an angry look upon her disheveled face. The orc, looks closely at the cage, making sure that no damage to it is present.
Slowly Valen walks behind the orc and immediately forms a black knife into his hand and quickly slams it under the orc’s armpit, straight into the orc’s heart, while his other armored hand covers the orc’s mouth so that no sound may be heard. Slowly the orcs frantic movements weaken as the blood stops pumping into his head. Valen slowly lowers the orc’s body onto the ground. Immediately Valen extinguishes the light from the torch and looks around the cage, noticing that the orcs around the fire have not noticed a thing.
As Valen prepares to leave the area of the cage, a sound is heard from its inhabitants.
“Free me,” a soft whisper is heard from the cage as Valen is about to leave. Looking back. Not understanding the language but understanding the gesture, Valen shakes his head at the tigress, slowly attempting to move away from the cage.
"Free me now," a louder voice is heard behind Valen, which is also heard by some of the orcs at the center of the fire. All but their destroyed night-vision keeping them from noticing Valen standing in the darkness. With an annoyed click of his tongue, Valen walks towards the lock of the cage, summoning a bottle of powerful acid into his hand. Quickly he unscrews the cap and pours a little of it over the lock. The acid makes a slight sizzling noise as it eats away at the metal. Immediately the metal breaks and Valen opens the cage.
Leona jumps out of the cage and pushes Valen to the side, almost knocking him down. She immediately goes and grabs the fallen orc's sword, pulling out of his sheath. Leona's body starts to smoke as her mana starts to flow through her body. Her muscles slightly bulge and with a quick look at Valen, she runs towards the center of the camp, where ten orc's sit staring into the darkness.
Leona's enhanced movement surprises Valen as she starts to sprint with speed rivaling that of a car. The sheer momentum of her movement allows her to stab an orc straight through his armor and impale his chest. The resulting scream is deafening.
Valen quickly notices that the orcs in the camp are waking up and getting out of bed. He immediately turns to the display on his helmet, and with a quick voice command, the charges placed inside the tents are set off. The loud explosions being drowned out by Valen's helmet locking up.
The entire camp is alight as screaming orc's attempt to exit the tents, their bodies burning and limbs missing. As the camp is in an uproar, the slaves in the cages find themselves awake and screaming as the fire slowly spreads towards them.
Immediately Valen runs to the cages of the beast-kin and quickly summoning a battery powered electric saw, he turns it on, the small engine easily being drowned out by the screaming orcs.
Valen begins to slice up the metal locks on the cages and quickly rips open the door as the Beast-kin jump out of the cages. A short black panther-kin rubs her hand across Valen's armored chest as she exits the cage, an aroused predatory look on her face.
While Valen runs around and releases the captured beast-kin, Leona does battle with the surviving orcs. Her enhanced speed and strength allow her to easily dodge attacks and decapitate them left and right. As she slaughters with impunity, the orc Commander walks out of his burning tent, completely unharmed except for the slightly singed and dented armor. As he looks around, burning, dead, and bleeding orc's meet his presence. The Beast-kin all but free from captivity, and Leona in the center, covered in his men's blood and surrounded by their corpses.
Completely naked and with only a sword in her hands, Leona stares around for more prey and immediately notices the commander of the orcs.
The commander quickly sends out his mana through his tusks, enhancing his already massive strength, but also creating a slight sheen around his high-quality runic armor. The runes on the inside of his armor slowly glow with a dark light.
"You fucking animals have cost me more than you may realize" The commander bellows."I am commander Gorz of clan Garzand, and today I will end your pathetic miserable lives," with a practiced and fluid movement, Gorz releases his Great-sword from the scabbard on his back. The sword in question glints menacingly in the firelight.
With a throaty growl, Leona answers his challenge as she releases more mana into her body and runs like a bullet towards the commander. Gorz takes on a trained guarded poise as he quickly blocks her overhead strike.
The battle commences in full swing as the commander takes hits towards his runic armor, while Leona constantly dodges his strikes. As Valen watches a physical display far exceeding anything humanly possible, he decides to prepare in case the tigress loses.
As the battle rages on, Leona starts to slow down and her mana expenditure starts to decrease. Her body is covered in sweat as she is slowly forced into the defensive. The mana coursing through her body starts to recede, in turn, her enhanced reaction time starts to slow down as well. As she attempts to dodge an overhand swing from the Commander but is quickly met with a knee into her face. The resulting attack slams her back and forces her to let go of her severely dented sword.
As Leona attempts to get up from her back, an exceptionally large foot immediately lands on her chest, a scream bellows from her mouth as pain echoes into her head. Desperately she tries to remove the leg, but the sheer weight and size of Gorz make it impossible.
Looking down, Gorz smiles at the trapped kitten beneath his leg."The Tiger-kin have the remarkable ability to not only increase their physical strength but their mental strength as well." a smile forms on his face as he stares at the desperately moving Leona."But all that speed and reaction time means nothing if you can't even get past my armor."
Slowly the pressure on Leona's chest starts to increase as Gorz leans his body towards her."You would have been a great asset to my clan, but unfortunately, you will have to die" Gorz immediately picks up his Greatsword and positions the tip towards Leona's face. Leona stops struggling, fear finally hitting her face, as she stares at the end of the blade.
Before Gorz could impale Leona, an incredibly loud sound is heard, at the same time a bullet blasts into Gorz's chest and passes through to the other side; organs being pulled through the chest cavity, littering the ground behind him, and blasting him backward.
As the ringing in the ears of those watching finally starts to recede, all eyes turn towards Valen as he remains crouched over an anti-tank rifle, smoke still wafting from the barrel.