The orcs returned laden with loot from the raid, sharing stuff like food with the rest of the clan while they kept armor and jewelry to themselves. Male warriors used said jewelry to try and impress the females of their clan, although they left the warrior females alone. Their fierce reputation of literal ball-busting had convinced many sensible males to keep away. Of course, there were some males that were strong enough to mate with these females but there were very few who were brave enough to try to court a female.
Meanwhile, as all this happened, Yargul returned home with his father, displaying his new mace and the various prizes that he had gained as well as speaking of his experiences. His mother congratulated him profusely over the earning of his name while his nameless sister glared at him from across the room.
Noticing the stare, the mother snorted, “Psh, go earn a name you useless dolt! Look at your brother here, he already killed the enemy chieftain, gained a fine name, and a weapon! You are related to him, surely you can do something!”
The sister glared with hate at her mother before storming out of the house, the mother saying, “Good riddance!”
After having him tell her every detail of his battle with the Sangwin orcs, a horn sounded and the mother hurriedly rushed her son outside. There was going to be a feast celebrating a successful raid and Yargul would definitely be honored there, he was the first one to earn his name and he had killed the enemy chieftain. And indeed he was, the chieftain of the Ulgar orcs had listened carefully to the words of the veteran orcs, his eyes lighting up when he heard the exploits of Yargul. He was nearing the age of thirty, a great feat but he knew that he also could die at any moment. Therefore he wished to choose his successor quickly and he thought that Yargul was the one.
But, as was the orcish way, he couldn’t just appoint Yargul. No, Yargul must first want the position and then fight for it. So the chieftain could only hope and try to persuade Yargul, although the Surveyor did not want leadership for Yargul. He would have already learned about the intricacies of life in an orcish clan, it was more important to explore more of the world as it was now, things don't last forever and the Surveyor had a hunch that soon, the precarious balance that the world had reached was soon going to end. In fact, it was doing so now, its observers being sent all over to record everything at once.
It did check on these observers but only those that were watching areas of import, such as the capital of Auster, the floating cities of the Alliance, the home of the White Dragon and the capital of the orcish empire, Algren. It was in these four locations that decisions will be made that will change the course of history, decisions that will either keep or break the peace.
As it busied itself with such tasks, Yargul was eating to his heart’s content at the feast, eatingthe best meat the clan had to offer. Alongside him were three other orcs that had earned their names that day: Brugo, Urim, and Ghorza. Brugo had earned his name through the number of orcs he killed, Urim earned his by his skill in the sword and Ghorza earned hers by slaying three enemy commanders. Each was powerful in their own right, their exploits able to hold ground against Yargul’s.
But even so, none of them had killed the enemy chieftain in one-on-one combat. Yargul was clearly the strongest of the new generation and as such, he now commanded a great deal of respect and authority. This was apparent in the days after the feast, with lesser orcs getting out of his way and bowing. This was the same treatment most warrior orcs got except that he now got the same treatment from them. Of course, there were also challenges from various orcs who believed that they were strong enough to defeat him and he vigorously defended his position every day, continuing to fight even if his wounds were severe.
It had gotten to the point that he was unable to use either of his arms as they were broken as well as covered in cuts and bruises. When this had happened, challengers stopped coming, to defeat him as he was now would hardly be a feat worth mentioning. But once he had healed enough to use his arms, challengers once more lined up at his door and he accepted each and every one. Five challenges a day and that continued for three months, only possible due to the modifications the Surveyor had made to his body. He had great strength, near limitless stamina and superb reflexes with a mind that was gaining more and more combat experience as time passed.
His instincts, which were already quite formidable, were honed to such an extent that his body could be treated as a separate living thing, reacting far faster than his mind could whenever his eyes saw an attack. It would dodge, block or meet the attack with one of its own, after all, offense was the best defense. And like his body, his mind learned as well, able to command his body almost as fast as his instincts. This allowed for more creative offensive and defensive capabilities other than just striking away at the opponent and dodging his attacks.
His mind was soon able to discern some of his enemies weaknesses and attack them appropriately, instead of just blindly swinging until his enemy is defeated. He became a cunning fighter, using his newfound intelligence to quickly gain victory over his more reckless and simple enemies. This was once again due to the modifications that the Surveyor had made to Yargul’s body, it would be extremely difficult to gain any proper information from a mind that was hardly more mature than that of a child’s. So Yargul needed enough intelligence to make sensible decisions. After all, rushing in recklessly was a great way to end one’s life quickly.
With his relatively superior intelligence, Yargul was able to analyze his opponents and defeat them, gaining experience and training his body. Two years passed in this fashion, orcs of other clans coming to challenge him now, word had spread of an orc who had been given the title of Invincible. This was an irresistible bait to many orcs, for if they managed to defeat the one called Invincible, this would prove their strength. They did not fear Yargul, rather they saw him as an easy way to elevate their position. But Yargul kept his title against these orcs, although there were many that nearly defeated him.
But all these orcs who sensed that victory was near no longer paid any attention to the fight, believing that it was over. At that moment, Yargul would seize victory, his mind fully focused on the battle. This was a fatal flaw of many orcs and it was one that Yargul took full advantage of, using his relatively above-average intelligence and superb body to defeat his enemies. He wasn’t the only smart orc however, in orc cities, other bright individuals also climbed to power. In a city environment, intelligence had a chance to grow in the minds of orcs, although as orcish society was still simple even in cities. But it was enough to create relatively smart orcs, of course, their intelligence was only the same as that of a regular human.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
But among orcs, they were geniuses, geniuses who pulled victory after victory against all opponents. Their names began to spread, even to the orc clans that had refused to join the cities. But the same was not true for Yargul, his name was only circulated throughout the clans as clansorcs rarely traveled to the city. And even if they went there, it was mostly to obtain metal weaponry and to trade excess harvest from their fields. Orcs had changed greatly and while the clans were a group of orcs that had changed the least, even they had to adapt to the new times. No longer could they raid and pillage human villages and cities for supplies, they had to supply their own.
Of course, they didn’t know a thing about farming so that fell on their human slaves, with orc slave masters running the farms. It was a rather efficient system due to the huge numbers of humans who would work until death and were completely obedient. It was mostly due to their numbers that the orcs could maintain gigantic fields often measuring in a few miles squared, usually separated into squares several hundred feet in length with a crew of humans that would work that particular square. On that little square was a living space for the humans and orc slave masters who were responsible for them.
Of course, farming wasn’t the only source of food, some orc clans raised livestock, creatures like cows, hogs, and horses. Yes, even horses were used as meat as orcs were simply too heavy to ride them. So to orcs, horses were only useful as a food source which was what the horses became. The Ulgar Clan was one such clan, it raised large bison native to the North were orcs had previously lived. These large creatures were often hunted by the nomadic orc clans although these fierce creatures did not go down without a fight. Many orcs lost their lives in front of their hooves and horns.
But ever since orcs had adopted the humans’ way of farming, they began to domesticate these creatures, the Ulgar Clan being one of the first to do so. As such, they perfected the art of rearing these bison and raised the finest bison out of all the bison clans. Thus their bison meat was a much-wanted commodity in orcish cities, cities willing to trade armor and weapons for it. As a result, the Ulgar Clan was considered quite rich when compared to other clans as they possessed higher quality arms. This was because good armor and weapons were scarce among the orcs who didn’t know how to care for it properly and would rather acquire a new one when their armor or weapon broke.
Thus any smith, be it orc or human, was very valuable. A clan who possessed a slave who was a smith was very lucky indeed as they possessed a source of new equipment, something that clans were in dire need of. City orcs quickly latched onto this, having humans train orcs how to smith so they could barter arms for food, for cities were not self-sufficient. They needed to import food from outside. And as city smiths possessed more high-quality materials than clan smiths, their products were more valuable. But this was a fairly recent change, orcs had a rough knowledge of armor building and believed that as humans were weak, so was their way of building armor.
So the majority of armor and weaponry available to orcs were plates of jagged iron that wasn’t even tempered and shoddy maces and axes that were more for crushing. And as skilled human smiths were a rarity, well-made armor like Yargul’s was scarce. Well made weapons weren’t as rare but as orcs didn’t know how to care for them, not many survive two or more battles.
And as the Ulgar Clan possessed a small excess of armor and weapons due to their profitable trades with cities, all of their warriors could be properly armed, something that not a lot of clans could afford to do. As both armor and weapons broke at insanely high rates, higher than the rate at which armor and weapons were produced, there wasn’t enough to go around for every orc warrior. This made the Ulgar Clan a powerful force to be reckoned with and as such, they were sure to be called upon whenever the Orc King went to war.
But ever since all of Occasus had been conquered by the orcs, there was no longer a need for a united orc army. But the Surveyor foresaw that there would soon be a great conflict where the banners of many orc clans will unite under the Orc King once more. Their target would be first Otium and then Ortus, the Alliance was of no threat and if the orcs really wished, they could destroy it. But they did not do so, it was a source of fresh slaves and was valuable as is.
Meanwhile, the Surveyor’s observers were beginning to observe rather interesting data, the movements of the White Dragon. She remembered her ancient home back on Occasus and suddenly wished to return. But she could not just abandon her children, she would never do so again. So she called a meeting with the Emperor of Auster, demanding that he help. He would lend her the great sky turtles to make the journey to Occasus and in return, she would not destroy his empire. The Emperor did not immediately answer, instead speaking with the Council on what to do. Eventually, the decision was reached to acquiesce with the White Dragon’s demands. After all, her threat was not idle, she could definitely lay waste to all of Auster and although their sky turtles were precious, more could always be born.
Two great forces were on the move, the Saurians under the White Dragon and the orcs under their Orc King. And soon to be the center of their great conflict was Otium, a relic of an ancient past. This location was desired by the orcs as it would be a perfect place to prepare their invasion of Ortus, although, something strange had happened to the orcs stationed there. The Orc King had merely assumed that this was an attack by Auster and took it as an act of war. But he did not declare war immediately, he was not reckless like other orcs, no, instead he decided to study the situation a bit longer and secretly prepare his elite army.
The Orc King was willing to delay the war because if his elite army came to fruition, he would lead the first orc army ever to be able to utilize magic. With such a force, he would be able to conquer all in his way. But the army was too immature, it needed time to grow in strength before he dared use it in battle. The Orc King was wise, far wiser than any orc so far, his intellect only being matched by Azemar who unfortunately perished without being able to do a thing.
But the Orc King had not accounted for the arrival of the White Dragon and the Saurians, meaning that a battle would first ensue between them before he could go on to invade Auster. He would most likely be defeated and be forced to retreat to Occasus where he would continue to fight against the Saurians, the White Dragon not hesitating in destroying his race. But this would not be fully in the White Dragon’s favor, the Orc King had come to possess a Divine Item, the Sword of Korbus. It was a blade that hungered for blood and grew stronger every time it tasted it. It was with this tool that he managed to subjugate all the orcish clans under his banner and it would be this same tool that would give him a chance to defeat the White Dragon.
The Surveyor truly did not know how this battle would turn out, the White Dragon was powerful enough to raze countries to the ground but the Orc King was blessed by Korbus, a blessing of a god would nearly put the Orc King on equal terms with the White Dragon. No matter how it went, the Surveyor would be sure to observe and record all of it, this would be a battle that would change the course of history, how could it not do so?