The Great Orc - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"The hells was that!?" Garah rubbed his eyes and blinked several times, still slightly blinded by the massive flash of light on the distance.

"I don't know, but it came from the direction we're heading." Jhase answered.

"Yeah I noticed that." Garah groaned and rubbed his eyes again. "That's why I'm half blind right now." He took a few steps forward and stumbled.

"Slow down." Jhase put a hand on his shoulder. "At least give your vision a second to come back."

"No time. You said yourself, that's where we're heading, and that means Blue could be caught up in that! We don't have time!"

Jhase argued, "I'm not saying we should stop, but I choose to take that as a sign she is handling herself."

Garah pawed his eyes again and then began marching forward. "I'm fine. Let's go."

---

Iyana crashed through the brush in a stumble. She had to get back to town and find Garah and Jhase, but it wasn't easy. She was totally out of breath after the dual with Grizzag, not to mention she was still sore after the incident with the guards.

Suddenly she heard a crunch of twigs and boot steps rushing toward her. She hid behind a tree and began trying to summon any leftover magic to defend herself.

Carefully she listened as the steps closed in. Then she lept out and raised her arms offensively.

"Blue?" Garah held one arm up defensively.

"Garah?" She was startled. "Is that really you?"

He answered by wrapping his arms around her. "I'm so glad you're safe." Then he pulled back, crinkling his nose. "Ugh, what is that smell?"

"Orc jizz." She said sheepishly. "It's a long story."

"How did you get away?" Jhase stepped forward, clearly struggling to contain his own excitement at finding her safe. "And what was that light flash?"

"It's a long story."

---

"Great!" Garah threw up his hands. "So it wasn't some random orc warlord. We literally walked onto the turf of one of the strongest orcs in history! You know, sometimes I get sick of our luck."

"It's very interesting...." Jhase tapped his chin. "At least that explains why he didn't seem to care about getting stabbed." He turned back to Iyana. "Did you learn anything we could exploit?"

"Well... not exactly. Nothing like a secret weak point or an element he's weak against. But, remember what I said about his mother?"

Garah nodded. "Yeah?"

"Well I was thinking we might be able to do something with her. He might be stronger than us, but she really isn't anything special. And if she is anything like me, she's probably running low on magic after our fight. If we go fast we could probably capture her."

Jhase asked, "Sounds pretty good, but do you think we can use her, against him?"

Iyana shrugged, "Maybe. I didn't get the impression they are very close, but he doesn't seem heartless, I mean he was nice to me. Kind of."

"You mean after he knocked you out, nearly killed us, kidnapped you and then let his army rape you."

She shook her head. "I told you he wasn't involved in that. He actually rescued me from them."

Garah waved his arms. "For all we know he only did it so he could have you to himself. Sorry if I don't trust the good will of an orc warlord."

Iyana pointed a thumb at herself. "You didn't talk to him, I did!"

"Yeah, when I met him he was too busy calling me weak and stomping me into the dirt for me to talk!"

Iyana shook her head. "I'm telling you, he doesn't feel ruthless like that, to me." She turned to the monk. "What do you think Jhase? You've been quite for a while."

Jhase was pacing. "I've been thinking..." Jhase snapped his fingers.

"You have an idea, don't you!?" Garah stepped forward, grinning at his teammate. "I know that look."

"It's not an idea yet, but what she said reminded me of something I read." Jhase said slowly.

"What?"

Jhase recollected, "It was about how the orc is immune to pain. It got me thinking. I've read books about anatomy and the body, I remember one entry about men who had taken a potion that made their bodies totally numb. Apparently they were able to go beyond their physical limits. Not because of any magic or anything, but because they couldn't hear their bodies telling them 'no'. They could push themselves; they could lift more, hit harder, but only because they couldn't feel the strain of it. So they would break their hands, punching harder than they had before, and split their muscles, lifting huge amounts. It also meant they were really difficult to fight, because they could literally fight until their bodies gave out."

"Okay...." Garah hooked a thumb on his belt. "What does it mean?"

Jhase continued, "I am getting there. So you know how usually in a fight you need to either land a mortal blow or wound them enough that they can't fight or don't want to? But with these men I read about, they could literally fight until they were restrained or died on their feet. Even if you gave them a deadly wound, they would keep fighting until the wound actually took them."

Garah asked, "I get it, what's the point?"

"Let me finish! In the book, this was an experiment by an old king who wanted an unstoppable army that didn't stop fighting just because they were injured. Even with all the advantages of being immune to pain, this king's army was defeated, which makes sense, or all soldiers these days would use the same kind of potion. What happened?"

"I don't know."

Jhase concluded, "What happened, is that the army was almost unbeatable on the battlefield. But right after each skirmish, they lost huge numbers. Why was that? Well just like in the middle of the fight, when they got back to camp, they still couldn't tell when they were wounded. Small injures went unnoticed and they died in mass, from infection. Others died of blood loss and a few even starved to death because they didn't realize they still needed to eat. That's why this story was in the book. It was an example given to explain the purpose of pain in the body. Pain is our bodies way of telling us that we are in danger. We need it. It can make fighting difficult, but without it, we would take more damage and maybe even die. Pain is what keeps us alive. Do you see where I'm going?"

"So you're saying......" Garah furrowed his brow. "That he's actually weaker than us?"

"Sort of. I am guessing by all his scars and Iyana's story, that whatever magic gave him this power, had a few other benefits. Clearly he hasn't died to blood loss or disease. And while it's possible that he's just been lucky, I'd say it's more likely that the magic gave him a resistance to sickness and a higher rate of healing and blood production. Again, from all the scars it's safe to guess he has taken a lot of damage in his life. It's highly doubtful he isn't a little more resilient than usual to survive."

"Alright, you lost me again." Garah was confused.

The monk explained, "I shouldn't have, it's still pretty simple. I was just explaining why he is stronger than average, but the weaknesses still apply. It shouldn't be difficult to put more wounds on him than we could with a normal opponent."

Garah looked puzzled. "How does that help? It wasn't that we couldn't hurt him before."

Jhase said, "That's true. But what if we were using more than just steel?"

"What do you mean?"

Instead of responding, Jhase began to scour the forest floor. He grabbed at a handful of moss and a cluster of mushrooms.

"His body still works like a normal orc. Which means poisons and things will still work on him, even if he doesn't realize until it's too late. If he won't stop fighting until his body fails, then we have to speed up the process."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Garah clapped his hands. "That could work!"

Iyana interrupted, "Could we do it without... actually poisoning him?"

Both Garah and Jhase stared at Iyana, with their mouths open.

"What?" Garah made a show of digging the wax out of his ears. "I must have misheard you because it sounded like you said we should hold back against him."

The half elf pleaded. "I just... I would prefer if you didn't kill him."

"This is a fight! A fight against one of the strongest orcs in history, I don't know if we can make that decision up front. Why would you even care?"

"Look, I feel like I kind of owe him. He helped me out with the other orcs. I may not have really needed the help, but he had no reason to help me, and did anyway." She explained.

Garah rolled his eyes. "You've got to be kidding!?"

She shook her head. "I want to talk to him again. I am the one who got you the knowledge to fight him. You owe me."

"But...."

They both looked at Jhase.

"Umm..." The monk winced at being put on the spot. "I... Well I could always make it a paralytic poison, not a lethal one. His muscles would seize up and he wouldn't be able to move. The downside is, the only version I know is a lot slower acting than the lethal option, so it will be a rough fight until it takes full effect." He cringed Garah. "And I get the impression that is going to hurt. A lot."

Garah rubbed his bruised rib and shot Iyana a dirty look. "It's a good thing you're pretty."

"Don't worry, I promise to make it up to you."

Garah sighed. "Okay, well what do we need and how are we doing this?"

Jhase looked around. "Well... I am going to need to gather the ingredients. Seeing we're in a forest, that shouldn't be hard, maybe ten to twenty minutes. As for the how, I would say we coat our blades with it. But it can't be too thick a coat, or it will be obvious what we're up to...."

The monk clenched his teeth and thought for a moment. "Oh! What we could do, if you sit back with your bow and stick him with a few arrows, we could absolutely drench those things in the poison and no one would notice."

"Good idea. We could act like we're just trying a different strategy to fighting him. And I hit a good couple arrows, with your poison, and then rush in with the sword when I realize the arrows aren't working!"

"Exactly. We'll still want to coat our blades. But the arrows will hopefully speed the process, so he doesn't kill us first."

Iyana shook her head and chuckled at the absurdity. "What about me?"

"You're not really a sword fighter, but it would be nice if you kept the old orc off our back."

"I can do that." She rubbed her hands together. "While you get your ingredients, I can see how much of my magic I can regenerate."

"Right." Garah clapped his hands. "Let's get to it!"

Continued in Chapter 6...

---