Upon hearing his words, the nearby orcs couldn’t help but let loose their excitement, cheering and dancing although they kept a fair distance from Yargul. They were not so drunk that they would dare offend the Invincible One. Yargul downed the wine in his bowl in a single go and laughed, the other orcs sharing his laughter. After a day’s celebrations, more serious matters were attended to at night, mostly who would defend the village while the warriors were out to battle. Once, the entire clan would move out to fight but this was no longer possible, the orcs had settled down and it wasn’t so easy to uproot their more permanent home.
But the matter was soon easily decided, there would just have to be a contest where the winners of each round would get to go to war, roughly dividing the good fighters from the bad. Through this method, roughly half of the population would be selected to go to war, although there would have to be some rules. No killing as that would be wasting valuable orc-power but anything else would be allowed. It was a simple but effective solution, one that satisfied the orcs as well. They had always solved things through fighting and this would be no different.
This was to be put in place tomorrow when most of the orc population had recovered from the festivities, it wouldn’t do to lose any potentially powerful orcs just because they were drunk. Yargul wouldn’t be participating however, he had already proven his strength, his title alone was enough to scare most orcs. But he would not refuse a challenge, although he would have no mercy to those that dared to even desire his title. That was how he would keep his title, one moment of weakness could prove to be the last mistake that he would ever make. Thus Yargul was determined not to make such a mistake, he had seen too many powerful orcs who had dared to show mercy and then get stabbed in the back, sometimes quite literally.
To die so pitifully was not how Yargul wanted to die, if he wanted to, it would be against an opponent which he could not defeat. Not that Yargul planned to let that happen, he was the one that was going to reach the top of the world, he was going to be the most powerful of all orcs, how could he reach such a title if he were to die so pitifully? Night soon came and all the orcs retired to their beds except those that were on guard duty. Some orcs went directly to sleep while a few others spent a few hours more enjoying the company of the opposite sex, although there were some exceptions.
These orcs were viewed as strange but those that survived had the power to keep their lifestyle, although they did their best not to offend Yargul. He had only allowed their existence for this long because he simply did not care about whatever they did, only that it didn’t bother him. But he could not deny that he saw them as strange, just what the hell made those of the same gender so attractive to them? But Yargul often lost interest in this train of thought before he would keep himself awake with such thoughts, he had learned that the path to happiness often involved not digging into things that he had no business in.
A hard lifestyle for some to follow but it suited Yargul just fine, after all, the one who was going to become the strongest of all orcs could not busy himself over such meaningless things. What he should focus on his the condition of his body and the acquisition of more strength. That was of the utmost importance, everything else came after.
Later, the soft light of the morning peaked over the horizon, Yargul waking alongside the sun. He left his house, stretching as he did so, grunting with satisfaction as his body loosened. He went off into the woods to take a piss, his mind absent of thoughts, just taking in the peace of the morning. There was silence out in the woods, almost absolute except for the slight rustle of the leaves in the stillness. Along with the stillness, the scent of wet earth, rotting leaves, and the trees gently caressed his nose, his mind peaceful and calm.
He stood out there in the forest for a long time, just enjoying the tranquility. Finally, he yawned sleepily and finally began to walk back, thinking that he should do this every now and then. To do absolutely nothing at all really wasn’t so bad, no, it really wasn’t.
Upon returning, he cleared his throat a few times before shouting, “Hey! Wake up! I’m gonna explain how you’re gonna be chosen to go to war!”
At the word “war,” orcs hurriedly exited their homes, some being run over in the process and sustaining light injuries.
Yargul then shouted, “Basically, its gonna be one huge brawl where those that remain standing after I say stop will get to go to war. No killing but anything else is fine. Any who kill shall be personally killed by me, I don’t need orcs who don’t listen.”
The orcs just stood there and slightly irritably, Yargul said, “Well what are you waiting for, begin!”
The orcs stood still for a moment before breaking out into the largest brawl in Ulgar history, Yargul sitting back to enjoy the show. Aside from him, a few others had found nice spots to watch the brawl as well, the elders and children of the clan, they were too weak to be even considered for war. The elders had looks of regret on their faces, if only they were ten years younger, then they would still have a chance at war. Indeed, the worst thing that could happen to an orc was getting old, it was simply terrible to witness their slow decline. It is unbearable to an orc to watch themselves deteriorate and be unable to do anything about it other than to die while they still had a chance to display their strength.
These elders, however, had been unfortunate, the battles that they had attended during the last serviceable years of their lives had not claimed their lives, it just served to be a painful memory of a time when they could fight. These orcs just exist to teach the younger generation their skills, for they hoped that through the knowledge they taught, they would live on. That was how some of the greatest orcs continued to live on, their legacy their weapons and way of fighting. Despite what most enlightened races thought, the orcs did possess some form of martial art, although this was limited to only the greatest of them and it was still primitive at best.
But it was a martial art nonetheless and it was in this way that the greatest warrior orcs were remembered throughout the centuries despite the short memory and lifespan of orcs. Of course, the original fighting style had been lost to Time, one cannot teach a sequence of movements perfectly to another and the one who inherits the style will obviously make changes to it to fit their needs. But the name of the style’s creator would still exist, remembered for as long as the martial art exists. This was the equivalent of history to the orcs up until a thousand years ago, that was when history itself changed to fit the orc narrative.
The First Orc King was the first orc to be remembered for his feats rather than how he fought, his story a legend that many orcs teach to their children. Orcs told his story was told to drive their children to higher heights, to make a new legend that would be remembered. But this was a difficult feat, as of yet, no orc had yet made a legend that was greater than that of the First Orc King. That is of no surprise though, after all, the First Orc King was the greatest orc then and perhaps now, an orc that had unified all of Orckind under one banner. But that still did not stop orcs everywhere from desiring to write their own great legend.
It was like a fire burning in their minds, their ambition and determination serving as fuel to make the fire greater. But most orcs often lost this fire once they grew up, they realized just how weak they truly were and the realization often doused their ambition. But the opportunity of war temporarily reignited their ambition, after all, all famous and powerful orcs became known only through war. War was where the powerful truly shined and all these orcs were unwilling to lose the chance to shine. But lose most of them did, for they simply lacked the power. What use was ambition if you did not have the power to fulfill it?
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With a brief reignition of their ambition, the Ulgar orcs fought fiercely so that they would be chosen to go to war, holding no mercy in their hearts for their enemies. Teeth were knocked out, ribs were shattered, and limbs were broken, the injured dragging themselves out of the melee lest they be trampled to death. Some were but Yargul did not care, they were not killed purposefully. Those that did so were immediately killed with a throw of a stone, the stone flying through the air with the force of a cannon, tearing through their heads.
Yargul meant his words when he told the orcs not to kill, he needed orcs that followed orders, not ones that couldn’t control their bloodlust. Bloodlust was fine, orcs had fought with it for ages but Yargul had discovered that keeping a clear head often was a huge advantage in combat, he couldn’t teach this to these warriors but he could at least have them follow orders. If they could follow orders without having their bloodlust get in the way, he would be satisfied.
Eventually, Yargul called for them to stop when he saw that roughly half the orcs remained. He saw that some of the weaker orcs had teamed up to take down stronger foes but that didn’t bother him too much, if they could keep up this teamwork on the battlefield, they would serve better than the same number of elites. Individual elites could be taken down but a group less so. Yargul understood the value after he had stumbled onto a group of regular frostwolves, the bastards were a lot harder to take down than a Frostwolf King for even though their individual attack power was less, they were able to chain them in such a way that it was continuous, constantly chipping away at his defense.
Under such an assault, he was unable to attack and if by some miracle he was able to, the wolves would cover for the one being attacked, attacking him more ferociously while the targeted wolf retreated before rejoining the fray. But once the teamwork is disrupted, it was a fairly simple matter to kill them although Yargul only managed to do so because he managed to last long enough for one of the wolves to make a mistake. The wolves had never met such an opponent so when Yargul showed a moment of weakness, one of the wolves couldn’t take it and rushed in.
This was all accidental, Yargul didn’t plan to slip up but when he saw one of the wolves rush in without support, he thanked his luck and promptly killed the wolf. After that, with their teamwork disrupted, it was only a matter of time before he killed them all. So if these orcs could do the same, they would be almost unbeatable. Training was still needed but with a good base, they would be a powerful force to be reckoned with. He told them as much when he went to inspect the orcs he would be taking into battle, saying that as they teamed up to win in this challenge, they’d have to stick with it. The orcs protested and Yargul told them that if they didn’t, they weren’t going to war. Their individual strength was useless without being in a team and he did not need useless soldiers.
So they could only keep silent and regret their choice, they wanted to be an individual warrior who slaughtered many, not some coward who fought in a group. But this was what they got for using such cowardly methods in the brawl, they were lucky that Yargul didn’t care whether or not they used cowardly means. But the results were in and the defeated were to stay. As this was only one of many villages in Ulgar territory, Yargul had a few orcs spread the word, repeating the same competition to select the most suitable soldiers for the Ulgar Army.
This took roughly a week to complete, enough time for the Skull Lord ambassador to deliver Yargul’s terms. Upon hearing them, the Skull Lord chuckled, he did possess a few high-tiered weapons but he wasn’t just going to give them away. But this Yargul had caught his interest, he would have probably been the Sixth Orc Lord if he had so wished but strangely, Yargul had not pursued such a position. He could certainly do so but instead he spent most of his time out in the wilderness, presumably training.
But the Skull Lord did not dare think that Yargul was not without ambition, he wouldn’t have asked for a high-tiered weapon otherwise. It just meant that the title of Orc Lord was meaningless to him, that he sought something better. This intrigued the Skull Lord, could it be that Yargul sought to be the Orc King? Or perhaps his desire was greater than that as well. The Skull Lord finally decided that it wouldn’t hurt to pay him a visit, to meet this orc who still retained such lofty ambitions.
He was about to set out to personally accept Yargul’s terms, bringing with him a great battle axe which was forged by the dwarves deep in their mountain forges. It was infused with the energy of Agleon herself, proving to be unbreakable and unusually sharp. But it was not the Skull Lord’s personal weapon as it was as heavy as it was powerful, the power of Agleon was not so easily used. Only one that had received the blessing of Agleon herself could use its full potential and that was partly why the Skull Lord decided to bring this particular weapon. He did not know or believe that Yargul had attained the blessing of Agleon, Yargul had stolen it along with the power of the Mountain Ape. The Skull Lord smiled, it would be amusing to see Yargul’s reaction when he found that he was unable to wield the high-tiered weapon that he had asked for.
Four days later, the Skull Lord arrived to personally accept Yargul’s terms, looking around at the interior of the Ulgar Clan, seeing mostly wounded orcs. He nodded with approval upon seeing this, this meant that the Ulgar Clan was not lazy and always kept battle-hardened warriors. His right-hand orc asked for the whereabouts of Yargul once they reached the main village, an Ulgar Orc directing them to Yargul’s home.
Upon reaching it, one of the Skull Lord’s servants announced, “The Skull Lord has arrived to accept your terms!”
There was silence following the servant’s announcement before a grunt emerged from the house.
The servant was about to protest at this obvious disrespect but the Skull Lord held him back, if what the rumors said about Yargul were true, then he had the power to be so arrogant. Soon, Yargul emerged from the doorway, dressed in only a bearskin kilt, displaying his scars and muscles to the small crowd before him.
Seeing the Skull Lord himself, wearing the skull of a young drake, Yargul nodded his head before asking, “So where’s my weapon?”
Once more the servant tried to reprimand Yargul on his rude behavior but was again restrained by the Skull Lord. The Skull Lord then waved his hand, two orcs immediately moving to towards the wagon at the back. They hefted the insanely heavy battle axe onto their shoulders and brought it over to Yargul, dumping it unceremoniously on the ground before him.
Yargul raised an eyebrow.
“Huh, looks pretty heavy.”
But he still stooped down to pick it up anyways, an emerald light shining the moment he touched the handle of the axe. He suddenly felt the energy of Agleon surge through his body and into the battle axe, finally dying down with the gem at the center of the axe’s head, once a clear crystal, glowing a soft emerald. He stood up, hefting the axe with ease with a large grin on his face.
He nodded to the Skull Lord.
“This’ll do. Now, about the armor and weapons for the Ulgar Clan...”
The Skull Lord quickly regained his composure and said, “They are on the way.”
Yargul nodded and asked, “Well my clan doesn’t have much to offer except for bison meat, would you like to some?”
The Skull Lord thought for a moment and then shook his head, he couldn’t leave his city for long lest his absence causes a mini-civil war.
Yargul just nodded and turned to enter his home, stopping when the Skull Lord said, “In twelve days, assemble your warriors and march to my city, arrive three days after you set out.”
Yargul nodded once more and returned to his home, the Skull Lord taking his leave. The Skull Lord hadn’t learned as much as he had hoped to but he did learn a few things, one of them being not to offend Yargul. He possessed the great battle axe and the blessing of Agleon and although the Skull Lord possessed the magic of an Ironhide Wyrm, he wasn’t confident that he could defeat Yargul.