Root filled out the entrance to the orcs‘ cave while Timber reformed its body to protect Elijah from behind in case any goblins decided to come over and take a look at this part of the rift.
An hour later, Elijah continued his delve.
Chapter Begin
The lair of the orcs looked similar to the goblins’ in terms of structure. Elijah took care of three more orcs who entered the room just as he wanted to leave. They all attacked together this time and ignored his minions to hurt Elijah. Despite the wounds, Root and Timber gave them, one of them managed to slam a fist into Elijah before it went down. While the attack caused him to stumble back a few steps, Elijah replied with his own attack and killed it and its friends quickly.
The next room was a long corridor that winded through the rift and connected multiple caves. Elijah and his minions stealthily moved forward, checking each new room for enemies.
During their exploration of the cave system, Elijah noticed that there were more areas connected to the goblins’ tunnels but he didn’t see a single of the little green monsters. With each room the number of killed orcs increased but so did the scratches, bites, and bruises on Elijah’s body. One orc had managed to leave a particularly ugly wound on Elijah’s leg when he had tried to kick the monster’s head. Elijah’s leg had landed in its mouth and only his wooden nature had kept the orc from tearing his leg apart.
He finished patching up the wound and grew another layer of skin over the wound to stop the bleeding. Got me good, that ugly bastard. Elijah thought, looking at his leg, They don’t even drop anything. I hope the boss drops anything good. He looked at his two minions who were currently in humanoid forms and as tall as him. Most of the wood he had seen during the delve went either into his minions or his mace. There’s no way I would be able to delve this rift without these guys. This skill saved my ass lots of times already.
He stepped out of yet another cave that acted as living quarters and continued to walk down the dimly lit hall. If no torches were hanging on the top half of the walls, Elijah would be up a creek. Even now, he barely could see anything and sent Root forward to lead the way.
Elijah heard the sound of grunting and laughing before he saw the orcs. I already wondered why there are so many stone beds and living areas and why I have seen so few orcs so far. He switched positions with his minion and walked at the front while his minions watched his back. As always, every step, every breath felt too loud, so Elijah didn’t bother this time. The deafening roaring coming from the next room drowned every noise he made anyway. He approached the spacious doorway and morphed his eyes into antennas again to peek into the room.
Damn. A massive gathering of orcs dotted the entire room. There must be at least thirty. Elijah's gaze first landed on a group that appeared to be taller than the rest. Elijah observed how five orcs with powerful tusks and lots of muscles took turns facing each other in one-on-one combat. Four of them were fighting while the fifth orc acted as an arbitrator. Not only did their physical strength appear to differ from the others, but also their skin color. The normal orcs had a dark toxic green skin tone, the skin of these fighter orcs was olive green and much lighter.
The other, toxic-green-colored orcs went about different activities inside the main room. Some of them enjoyed torturing little goblins or making them fight each other, while others watched the various fights, laughing and applauding.
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A long table stood in the middle of the bare room and countless legs of meat covered its surface. The orcs also used their food as weapons as one of them was laughing at another only to get hit by its brethren and dragged into a fight. It was pure chaos and any furnishing would have been destroyed long ago. It is a miracle that the table still has four legs.
If they were intelligent monsters, I would have retreated on the spot and found a team to delve the rift with. Another fight broke out at the other end of the room and three orcs began to hurl goblins at each other. But these guys are a bunch of senseless, mindless savages. I should be able to separate them and take them on one by one.
A goblin landed against the back of the head of an olive-green orc. It turned around, its’ face contorted by rage, and slammed the goblin against the nearest orc, sending it tumbling. Maybe I don’t even have to try that hard. They have been serving themselves up on a silver platter for the last hours, gradually separating themselves from this huge group. All I have to do is wait until the next party comes, kill them, and repeat the whole process until I’ve finished them all off. I highly doubt I’ll get every single one that way, though. At some point, even these idiots will notice that something is wrong.
He continued to watch the orcs fighting among themselves for a few minutes but had to retreat when two of the regular orcs stood up and moved toward his position. His eyes snapped back into their sockets while Elijah rushed toward a living quarter whose entrance was further away from the main room's entrance. Root and Timber followed him and waited for his command as Elijah peeked around the edge to watch the two orcs.
They entered the long hall and moved past the first few entrances, oblivious of their imminent death. Elijah and his minions stood ready and waited for their opportunity which presented itself when the orcs entered another cave. With soft steps, Elijah hurried after them at a pace his minions could match and entered the same room. The two orcs heard the tapping of the minions’ feet against the ground but before they could turn around, Elijah leaped forward and struck their heads with two enlargened fists. Timber and Root were right behind him and hugged the two monsters, their arms lengthening to entwine and entrap the orcs.
Their angry roars filled the whole cave but Elijah ignored their shouts while stepping forward. The first orc stopped its defiant roars after the second hit and died after the third while it only took Elijah two punches to kill the second orc.
The next three hours passed similarly. Elijah always retreated as soon as he saw a group of orcs moving toward the corridor and into one of the many rooms after which he followed inside to take care of them. They never walked around in groups of more than four and Elijah only had to fight once against four orcs simultaneously. He always took care of the two first orcs of each group with an ambush before the rest of the group could react. With the help of his minions, he managed to overwhelm them in a matter of minutes.
Around fifteen left. Elijah looked around the corner into the main room with his eyes again morphed to feelers. The five high orcs, as Elijah had decided to call them, were still fighting among themselves, oblivious of the dwindling number of their group. Aside from them, ten regular orcs were still hanging around, continuing their play with the goblins, sleeping, eating, or following the example of the high orcs, and fighting among themselves. Elijah’s eyes landed on the leftover meat on the table and the number of bones spread on the ground around it. All this fighting made me hungry. Next time, I’m bringing food with me.
Elijah felt his stomach growl as he continued to spy on the orcs. It’s been twenty minutes already. Should I just attack? He discarded that thought when one of the high orcs finally noticed that something was off. It threw a glance toward the door, startling Elijah with the sudden look. He pulled back his head and waited for a reaction, a shout, or anything else. Only after what felt like an hour did he dare to stretch one eye around the edge.
The high orc was approaching with two orcs while the rest kept looking at the door.