The orc

The orc was heavily built, a mountain of meat with dark green skin. Muscles larger than mine. He had a bald head with short pointed ears. He possessed no nose, but slits for nostrils where his nose should have been. He snarled with yellow, pointed and crooked teeth. His yellow eyes wide in anger. All he had for armour was a hide loin cloth that hid his privates. But in his hand, was a steel great-sword with dried and encrusted blood on the blade.

Our new foe was close to Elle and her group, I panicked. The orc roared menacingly. As stunned as we were, the battle with the orc began. Drent flashed forward first, but was quickly battered away with a meaty fist, Drent dropping his weapons in the scuffle. Elle, who possessed more bravery than I thought possible, picked up one of the blades and charged at the orc.

With great-axe in hand, myself and Robbis bolted to join the fight.

Elle was grabbed at the neck by the orc before she could carry out a strike. Karl rushed to aid, but the orc swung with mighty **** with his great-sword at him. Karl raised his shield to block the blow. His shield splintered like the shack door, sending Karl crashing away from them. I saw Elle struggle in the orc’s hold, and he noticed the advancement from Robbis and I. He squeezed his fingers around Elle’s throat, causing her to ****. We both stopped in our tracks.

The orc smiled a disgusting toothy smile. He focused his attention mainly on me, stealing glances at Robbis, making sure he didn’t move.

I could only guess that Mistle was startled by the orc’s arrival like we were, and now with Elle in his grasp, she didn’t want to shoot. She probably didn’t want to risk hurting her friend with an arrow, or anger the orc into injuring Elle.

“A wolvir!” The orc shouted. He looked at Elle in his **** grasp, then back to me.

“This one’s special isn’t it.” He regarded to Elle. “ I can smell the wolvir spunk on her.”

He laughed maniacally. “Her corpse will fill my belly!”

With the knife still in her hand, Elle raised the blade and plunged it into the orc’s eye. It screamed in pain and dropped Elle from his grasp. She scrambled away as it at cursed at her.

I dropped my great-axe, un-burdening me of the extra weight. I tensed my legs and with rapid speed, lunged to the orc. Robbis did his best to follow after.

He fixed his attention back to me, ready for my attack. He held his weapon aloft, ready to swing. An arrow flew into its neck, causing him to drop his stance. With blinding speed, I extended my claws and struck to lacerate his throat. His flesh was tougher and thicker than that of the human bandits, so the cut wasn’t as deep as I wanted it to be. Still, blood seeped from his wound, and the orc held a meaty hand there to staunch the bleeding. Robbis had caught up, and with all his strength, swung his war-hammer to the back of the orc’s skull. This only made the orc stumble, and in retaliation, struck back at Robbis. The great-sword made contact with the shaft of Robbis’ war-hammer, he had anticipated an attack and Robbis used his weapon to block the blow. The orc still managed to knock Robbis back and off his feet. I geared myself for another attack. The orc roared at me in pure rage. And catching me by surprise, the orc exploded. Chunky bits of dark green flesh, viscera and blood flew in all directions. Blitz then walked up to my side and said ‘bang’. In his hand was a spherical shaped object, a bomb.

In the aftermath of the fight, we gained our composure. Mistle joined us from her advantage point.

“Fuck!” She exclaimed. “Where the hell did he come from?”

I rushed to Elle, making sure she was ok. She dispelled the need to be fussed over, guaranteeing that only her throat hurt from the ****. I could see marks around her throat from the orc’s grasp. After again reassuring me she was fine, only then did I relent. We kissed.

Robbis attended to the injured. Karl had broken his arm and Drent suffered a minor concussion.

“It wasn’t in the report.” Robbis told us. “Maybe it was leading the bandits, or he was their ace in the hole.”

“We should get extra for this,” Karl nervously laughed out, nursing his broken arm.

“I’ll make sure we do.” Robbis assured them.

Making sure the bandits were all dead, and their bodies looted, we rounded up the stolen animals. The horse was tethered on a post near the edge of the camp. It had a dapple grey coat with strong looking legs. Karl held it by the reins in his hood hand, and calmed it down from the commotion of the battle.

The coin taken from the corpses was gathered in a pile, mainly bronze and a few silver. The last to loot was the orc and the shack it came from. The only thing of worth off the orc was its weapon, but its wear and tear wouldn’t fetch much coin, so it was abandoned. In the shack, was a bed that the orc must have used, broken floorboards and shelving could be seen. In the corner was a chest, Robbis and I bring it out to the rest of the spoils.

Opening the chest, multiple sacks were nestled inside. Robbis inspected one of them. Inside were several gold and silver coins. He inspected another, the same again. He gave us all a large grin. Our spoils.

It turned out that all seven of us had two sacks of money each. With the money from the corpses and promised payment of the job fulfilled. We were looking at a tiny fortune on our hands. We filled our bags and satchels, collected the animals and headed to the nearby village of Bramblebrook.

The villagers were happy to see the return of their animals and to be informed of the bandits demise. It wouldn’t bring back their own dead, but they could sleep better knowing that the bandits couldn’t hurt anyone again.

Robbis asked many of the villagers if they knew of the orc, and if it had raided their village along with the bandits. They all had no knowledge of the orc.

Elle was playing with a small girl who looked about four years old. The held hands as the danced and hopped around in a circle, laughing and smiling as they did. Elle looked adorable as she engaged with the small child. Her red her in buns, bounced lightly as she danced.

With many thanks from the villagers, the seven of us departed for Haywood. Upon our return, we had a quick drink to celebrate, not as heavily as last night.

Robbis promised that he would return later with our share of the payment. In the meantime Elle and I went shopping. I purchased materials for when I would go hunting, buying bait and traps for small animals like rabbit and squirrels.

Ellanor had visited the physician again, buying more womb potion in preparation of our companionship. We had agreed to journey together, which thrilled Elle to no belief. She also went to the tailors and returned with a large bag. I asked what she’d gotten, but she acted coy and told me I would find out another time.

We didn’t use any of the money we took from the bandit camp, we wanted to wait for Robbis’ return so we could tally all of our earnings together.

It was an hour later when Robbis came back with our share. The money wasn’t as good as the bandit camp spoils, but still worth more than the contracts currently. Robbis offered that we could join his company any time, the talents of a Wolvir would be welcome with the steel malleum. Elle and Mistle promised to stay in touch and to meet up again soon to have a girls day together.

As we got back to Elle’s room at the Golden Boon, which now became my place of residence with Elle. We took our newly gained finances to her desk. We piled the bandits money, then the money from Robbis, which had added some gold to the bronze and silver. We took the sacks and emptied them to join the other coins making a short golden waterfall. As we unloaded the last sack, something different fell onto the pile. A blood red diamond.