Aftermath of Blue-Rock - Day 9

Sephenia

There had been an attack. One of the ogres had wandered from the pack and found its way into the village. Days before, after I had tended to my leg, I went into the village and warned as many people as I could about the ogres nearby. They had accepted my warnings, whilst some of them were frustrated with me recently, they knew that I wouldn’t lie about something like this. A group had gone to the manor to beseech Lord Motten for help. They had been denied of course.

The village itself was an open place with too many entrances to build proper defences for them all, to do so would have required a wall to have been built which would have been months in the working. Instead, weapons were kept either in hand or by the entrances to the buildings, if one of the ogres attacked then people could quickly grab something to defend themselves with. I say they are weapons, though I mean that in the simplest sense of the word. There were axes and a few old swords that wouldn’t hold up too well against ogres, though the bulk of the arsenal consisted of pitchforks, hoes, scythes, and makeshift spears with stone tips.

When the ogre was seen approaching the village a horse and rider had been sent to the manor to ask for the aid of Lord Motten once more, he was denied again.

We were left to combat the monster by ourselves, if it weren’t for my leg, I would have been able to take it by myself. I might have taken a few injuries, but I would have been able to slay it. Now though, there was only so much pressure I could place on the leg that a dark hound had bit into. The creams that Maya had given me seemed to be working well and it was healing faster than it would have otherwise, but by the time I was fully restored, it might be too late.

The ogre had started by attacking the wooden structures of the village, it was nearly as tall as a house and almost half as wide. Unlike the one that Aucus had battled, this one did not have a weapon, simply using its fists to assault anything in its sight. It’s punches had cracked and splintered the wood of the buildings, leaving holes and doubt regarding the stability.

As it had persisted in its attacks, we had lured it into the village square where we were provided with a wide-open space to surround it and try to keep it from the buildings. Fortunately, it wasn’t market day, and the dirt square of the village was only housing a few people who quickly scampered away.

There were four of us fighting the ogre, Matt and Rien were farmhands on Cranley’s farm, the other one helping was Clen. The kid who wanted to be an adventurer and frankly, was a little shit. He was strong, I had to admit, but he had no control or common sense in a battle, he simply swung his axe in the direction of the ogre.

Fortunately Matt and Rien had accepted my authority in this situation and were doing as I instructed. Clen had to obey as well, given that the others saw me as the lead. Matt had one of the makeshift spears and Rien was using a pitchfork. I had heard the sound of the ogre approaching the village and brought one of my old swords with me, it had aged since I last used it, but the steel was still good.

The ogre swung it’s clenched fists at us, almost sweeping Matt from his feet but he managed to dodge in time and fell to the ground. “Get him out of the way” I roared, Rien obeyed and pulled Matt back by his shirt in time to avoid a crushing blow. He rose to his feet and quickly thanked his friend.

Whilst the ogre was distracted by the two farmhands, Clen had charged at it with the axe raised above his head. He was roaring loudly as he charged the monster, the idiot. The ogre turned around and flung it’s fist out, catching Clen by the arm and throwing him backwards.

I thought I heard something break and as Clen lay on the ground, I heard a less heroic roar coming from him. It looked like it would just be the three of us fighting the monster now.

“Rien, when I say go for the back of its legs. Matt, stab its spine” I said and saw them give their nods of acknowledgment. I shouted at the monster, getting its attention as I circled around it so that it turned its back to the farmhands.

It let out a loud roar, throwing the acrid spit into my face and splattering my clothes. Then it charged. I wasn’t expecting it, but I had to make it work. I reached out my empty hand in the direction of the ogre and channelled my mana. A spear of water as long as the real thing lanced out from the palm of my hand at high speeds.

If it weren’t for the trailing liquid, the spear may have been mistaken for ice instead of water. As it made contact with the stomach of the ogre, a bit further left than I would have liked, it cut through the flesh and tore open a terrible wound. The spear sloshed into water and fell to the ground as I broke my concentration and yelled the signal to Matt and Rien, “Now!”

The ogre had stumbled and fallen to its knees on the dirt, clutching at the glaring cut through its stomach. I didn’t think I hit anything vital, the attack wouldn’t have killed the ogre, but it looked like it had hurt, a lot.

Rien charged the distance to the ogre, he jammed his pitchfork into the back of the ogre’s knee, making an audible crunch as it hit bone. He pulled the pitchfork out and stabbed again and again, widening his wound, and crippling the beast. The ogre roared in pain and flailed his arms around, trying to hit anything that was in range.

With the ogre on the ground and seemingly unable to get up, Matt did his part and charged with his spear held before him. It was only a makeshift spear, and I was worried that it would not be up to the task of breaking the flesh and bone of the beast. It seemed I had nothing to worry about. As he thrust the spear tip forward, it cut the skin and hit bone. The ogre screamed again, this time sounding more pained than enrage.

The body fell limp to the ground though it continued to scream. The blow to the spine must have paralysed the monster, it couldn’t move but it’s head seemed to still work and was roaring in a new frenzy.

I stepped forward, brandishing my sword as I looked down at it. I swung down onto the neck; it began to gurgle blood and I struck repeatedly until I decapitated it. My face splattering in gore as I hacked through flesh and muscle.

I panted with exhaustion as the battle came to a close. I looked around, we had been able to contain the skirmish to the centre of the square for the most part, the ground had became rutted from the trampling of the monster. The nearby buildings had some minor damage, though it was nothing that couldn’t be repaired.

I walked over to Clen who was still laying on the ground, balking at his pain as he clutched his arm. I crouched down and examined him, “Stop whining, you’re alive” I said as I took his arm in my hand. He screamed again as I touched it. I then went over the rest of his body; he whimpered a little, but it didn’t feel like much else was wrong. “Your arm is broken, and you’ve got a few bruises. Go and see Maya, you’re not going to die”

He nodded his head as I helped him to his feet, “Thank you” he muttered as he slunk off towards Maya’s home.

I sat down with my back against a wall as I recovered from the battle. The wound in my leg had opened once more and a slow trickle of blood came from it, I felt a bruise in my side from where I had fallen as a result of one its attacks.

As I lay there, one of the villagers came to me with a skin of water. I accepted it eagerly and gulped down the liquid, spilling some of it down my body in my haste. Drinking the water, I heard the stamping of hooves and the clattering of a wagon as it was pulled from the direction of the manor. A group of guardsmen in armour and the livery of house Motten descended from the horses and approached the fallen monster

One of them began barking orders and the others descended upon the corpse. They hacked off the limbs and hefted them atop the empty wagon that had been brought. With effort, I pushed myself to my feet and walked towards them. “What do you think you’re doing!” I shouted at them

The one who seemed to be the commander looked me up and down before answering, “The monster was killed on the lands of Lord Motten, it’s parts belong to him by right. We’re collecting the carcass and taking it to the manor where it will be sorted for parts and sold” he said calmly, as though he found the whole situation to be utterly boring.

“Like hell you are, we killed that thing. It belongs to the village. You had your chance to help” my hand moved to the hilt of my sword as I glowered at him.

“It was Lord Motten’s right not to provide assistance, as it is his right to claim his property” he said slowly as his hand moved towards his blade. His men, seeing the situation, followed suit. My gaze slowly moved over them, weighing my options. I wanted to draw my blade, I wanted to kill them. But I was in no state to fight.

I relaxed my grip and spat at his feet. “Fuckers” I muttered and walked away. A slight limp in my wounded leg as I headed home, walking through the wake of the damage. A glum feeling settled over me as I walked, I had protected the village, killed the ogre, but it still seemed that Motten had won. I missed Aucus.