Justice Part 10

10 K again, wrist feeling fine.  Book will 'stop' in about 15k words, and I'll fluff certain sections for the extra 10 k as I go through it in edits.  I retconnec the end of the last chapter.

Chapter 35, the retconning.  

As I stepped back into natural light for the first time in hours I looked around to the lovely river before me, and below me.  Well below me.  I was about forty feet in the air in a tunnel that ended in a small waterfall that was almost directly over the river.  I looked around for a bit and finally saw Elana fishing, patiently.

I got the rope out and drove several pitons into the wall of the cave with about 6 more pitons that were strictly necessary before she finally saw me and walked over.

“I see you caught dinner,” I stated, causing the woman to wheel around to look at me.  She was not Elana.

“Explain,” I said.

“We just arrived, there was no one here.  This is the place we were supposed to meet?” said the woman, uncomfortably.

Chapter 36: The Damsel

“What do you think happened,” I said, searching the area.  It didn’t take long, there was a spot where someone obviously fought.  It was a close range engagement, it would have had to been.

“That is Elana’s bow,” said Justice.  He was right, I was just used to seeing it in one piece rather than two.

“Do you see horses,” I asked and Justice searched the area.

“I see three horses, Gringer is over there,” said Justice.

I whistled, an old trick my father taught me.

“We’ll have to follow her,” I said as Gringer ran over to me.  I quickly found his saddle and prepared him while the other scouts figured out something was very wrong.

“We though that was part of the earlier fight.”

“No, Elana was taken,” I said.  “The rope leads to a house inside the walls, I’m going to find her.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“A knight can always find a damsel in distress,” I said and blasted off on Gringer.

“Also you have that tracking stone,” said Justice.

“Well, better to leave a bit of mystery,” I said as Gringer charged after the other horse, even without the stone he clearly knew which way they went.  Given that the fort was barely 8 miles from here, the only chance we had was if the orc wasn’t moving too quickly.

A good horse could run at over 30 miles an hour, but they weren’t that good over the long haul.  After two or three miles, Gringer would get too tired to move at full speed anymore.  Still a trip of 8 miles was still only a few hours of movement at a normal pace.

Everything was going to depend on if the orc took Elana straight to the fortress or if she managed to somehow delay him.  Given that the tracker was not on the straight line to the fort, I was hopeful.

After fifteen minutes of traveling at a brisk pace, Justice got something.  “I see the horse, they have stopped.”

“That could be good or bad,” I said and realized that just because she had the tracker did not mean she was alive.

“Can I amplify your scan for more detail,” I asked.

“I do not believe it would help at this range,” said Justice.  “They are stopped by some water.”

“Is he torturing her,” I asked, realizing that there was another terrible option.  The more I thought about it, there were lots of terrible options and only a few good ones.  I wanted to race Gringer there, but if the orc heard me and Gringer was too tired to give chase I’d have a whole different problem.

I wasn’t in the mood for any more problems so I moved Gringer there with purpose, but not so quickly or loudly that we would be detected.  The red rocks around here drank up the sun and made everything too hot.  There were a number of streams, and other pools of water but just as often as not the streams would end or you’d see a pool that dried up too recently.

“The ground here is particularly holey,” said Justice.

“As in there is an important religious aspect,” I asked.

“No, I mean holey, as in the ground is like swiss cheese around here,” said Justice.  “There are caves everywhere.”

“Good to know,” I said as we got closer.

“I mean, I lose him,” said Justice.

“Shit,” I replied.

“But she is still visible,” said the sword.

“Oh, so it’s a trap,” I said as Gringer walked over a ridge and I could see a small pool with Elana tied up.  She was sitting on the edge of a shallow pool of water, and even at this range I could tell she was hurting.

I hopped off Gringer.

“We must rescue her,” said Justice as I surveyed the situation.

“I agree, but this screams trap,” I said, patting my horse on the side.  He snickered, also obviously determining that we were walking into the lion’s den.  The shallow pool was in a depression in the ground, which likely was why the pool was there.  This wasn’t spring fed, the area saw enough rainfall that that pool could easily be filled.

The depression was steep enough that I needed to be careful.  There were trees, rocks, and the possibility that the orc was hiding somewhere I didn’t know.

“I don’t see any other enemies, and there is no obvious campsite here,” said Justice.  “I think he stopped here for the purpose of seeing if he was being followed.”

I checked the minimap and the area was surprisingly detailed.  I realized the pool of water linked into the network of underground streams we’d traveled through.  There might even be a connecting passage somewhere, but I doubted that.

“Caves,” I said looking at the map, the side of the depression was just tall enough that you could have a cave on it considering the local geography.

“I cannot scan through this much rock, but yes I would be suspicious if the water flowing out of this pool didn’t go through a cave somewhere,” said Justice as some of the water suddenly flashed orange.

“That’s a pretty big area,” I said, “But thanks, I can probably manage that.  Keep on the lookout.”

I considered my situation briefly, I was absolutely walking into trap.  If I came in wearing my armor, I was going to be heard on the way in.  If I snuck in, there was a greater chance that I’d be able to surprise the ambusher.  The deciding factor was knowing where the ambush likely was.

Giving the possible caves the largest possible berth, I crept towards Elana regretting my lack of stealth gear.  The fact that she was looking at me like I was an idiot pretty much confirmed that the orc was still around and planning on ambushing us.  I was spending half my time watching the minimap and the other looking for danger.

“Movement,” said Justice and I saw the dot highlight just as the arrow rocketed towards me.  At this range, I could sidestep it and did so.  The arrow flew past me, digging into the mud uncomfortably close to Elana.

There were only two caves, and the orc was hiding in one of them.  He growled, stepping into the light and watching me with his bow still at the ready.

“You are fast, for a human,” said the orc.  He was one of the taller, lanky ones but he was also the largest version of that type of orc I’d seen.  If he straightened I was sure he would have easily topped 8 feet, as it was he seemed kind of curled up almost as if he couldn’t straighten up.  He was wearing lighter armor than mine, probably to compensate for his massive size.  There were two overly heavy weapons  on either of his hips that looked like someone couldn’t make up their mind between swords and axes.

Of course, he was holding a massive orc bow.

“I am, what is your name, Sir for I am Tim,” I stated.

“The Tim wants my name, how silly,” said the orc.  “Humans call me Breaker.”

“Alright Breaker, I am a knight, if you shall allow me to rescue this damsel, we can proceed with an epic battle,” I responded, channeling Justice.

The orc snorted, “I am not interested in battling with a grok.”  That was an orc word, it was not a pleasant one.  It’s literal translation was a bit different than actual definition.  Literally it wasn’t terrible.

“A lesser animal?” I asked.  “I assume that you shall fight dishonorably then.”  The meaning was lesser animal, an animal unworthy of honor or respect.  While all orcs viewed humans as little more than livestock, some were far worse about it than others.

“No honor for grok,” said the orc as he adjusted his bow which was no longer aiming at me.  The second arrow went straight for Elana.  I interposed myself and swung Justice in a quick arc, the arrow shattered.

It was still an aspect of range.  The orc was about twenty paces from me and even with his superior orc strength, the arrow couldn’t do anything but obey physics once it was released and I was damn quick.

The orc blinked at that, “Another skill user?  There are so few grok who know skills.”

“I am a Knight,” I said, holding out justice in a salute the orc did not deserve.  “You shall treat me with more respect.”

“Grok want respect,” chuckled the orc, “Yet grok pretends to be a knight.”

“I demand respect, honorless,” I replied, in orc.

Grok was a bit insulting if you lobbed it back at an orc, but it would have been the equivalent of a small child saying a swear word.  You would most likely get laughter from the comment.  Calling an orc honorless, now that was a fighting word.

The orc snarled, throwing down his bow and pulling out two very large swords axes.  I tossed a dagger to Elana while I summoned my armor.

Breaker watched that and chuckled, “An actual knight?  Where did you find that sword?”

“My sword is as unbreakable as my vow,” I replied trying to think what else the sword would say.  Oh.  “I bring Justice to these lands, yield and I may let you live!”

Breaker chuckled, “I shall enjoy breaking you.”

He charge, his heavy boots splashing into the water are he came straight at me.  I blocked the first blow from the ax and then sidestepped the second slash.  Spinning around he brought the first ax straight at my face and I deflected it with Justice, but not sufficiently and it slammed into my pauldron.

The metal dented, but the impact wasn’t enough to do any lasting damage.  Still, through a full parry, that was depressing.  He was preparing for a fourth strike when I drilled forward with a kendo slash towards his head, this time he had to dodge back.  He frowned.

“You still stand?”

“Justice always stands,” I replied and surged forward in a series of cuts, forcing the orc onto the defensive as I drove him back first one pace, then two.  The orc’s expression switched from mildly curious to annoyed when he attempted to counter attack and I managed to get a firm chop into his upper arm, a metal ridge running down the arm was the only thing that saved him from serious damage.

Against a smaller orc, even the impact would have seriously injured him, possibly I could have broken the arm.  Breaker just snarled and swung one of his axes, knocking Justice away and finally getting a clear shot to my chest.  As he swung I burned dexterity attempting to move out of the path of the strike.

He burned dexterity, but not quite fast enough.  I spun away as the ax smashed into my plate armor and smashed powerfully into my chest.  I managed to deflect the damage, somewhat, but he’d probably broken a rib or two.  I stumbled back several paces, but was able to stay on my feet due to dexterity.

“Remember your position, keep your ally to the enemy’s back,” said Justice.

“She’s tied up,” I muttered through gritted teeth.

“A dexterity user, like her,” said Breaker.  “She thought that and her silly bow would be sufficient.”

“A skill user like you,” I stated.

“Grok’s do not use skills like orcs, you use skills like animals, stupidly.  I was giving you a chance, now you will see what it is like to fight and actual skill user,” said Grok.

“How many points of Stamina do you think he has,” I asked Justice.

“Unknown, but having more than 5 would be extreme,” said Justice.

“I only have four,” I replied.

“You have mana to turn the tied,” said Justice, “Just be careful, his whole suit is not magical armor but there are ridges of hardened magical steel around the vital spots.”

“Great,” I said, glancing at the map where Elana still stayed motionless.  Apparently the dagger was not close enough or she was too tied up to use it.

I dropped back into my stance, ready for round two.  Breaker was adjusting the grip on his right arm, the one I struck, telling me that at least some damage had occurred.  I inhaled, wincing at the feel of the injury but it wasn’t enough to merit healing.

In theory, I should have a reach advantage.  Justice was slightly over four feet in length while the sword-axes were both barely two feet.  In practice the lanky orc’s arms were so damn long that they more than compensated for the difference.

He swung both sword-axes at my midsection and I danced back before reversing and trying for another strike to the head.  He jerked his head to the side and brought the rear side of his weapon against Justice where I noticed something disturbing.  There was a weapon catch there designed to bind my blade.

I aborted the strike, saving Breaker from serious damage while at the same time preserving Justice.  Justice might claim he couldn’t be damaged, but if the orc managed to bind my sword he could use his long arms to attack me with his ax.

“Can we damage the weapons,” I asked.

“They are enchanted, at least the outer steel is,” said Justice.

“But not the insides,” I asked as I pulled back in a spiral, deflecting shot after shot.  The orc hadn’t burned any more stamina, and I was beginning to wonder if he would when his weapons began to speed up.  I burned dexterity and attempted to deflect the attacks only to find them overwhelming me.  I was backpedaling as quickly as I could through the ankle deep water.

“A blade art!” yelled Justice.

“What is that,” I said as the attacked finally subsided.  My arms trembled from the exertion and I realized that I had burned power unconsciously to keep the attacks from killing me.

“A special skill that can be used through your weapon, they are even less common than general skills,” said Justice.

“Well, I exhausted one stamina and burned two more, think he is tapped out,” I wondered and then committed.

Holding one stamina in reserve was silly, if the orc just tapped himself out then I could finish this in one strike.  I swung down with my sword only to find the orc responding with similar speed.  He still had stamina in the can, enough o respond to me at any rate.

Still, now that I could see what was going on I was a touch faster than him.  It wasn’t much, but that was all I had so I attempted to make use of it and I executed four strikes as I pushed him back.  His deflections were slower than before, but still adequate and while I tagged him twice neither was enough to overcome his armor.

It wasn’t that I needed to hit him, even with Justice’s ability to dig into steel, I needed to get a solid blow and the two times I struck the orcs armor was simply not enough to do sufficient damage.

As dexterity ended I felt strange.  I knew the feeling, I had overexerted myself.  With conditioning it wasn’t enough to drop me to my knees, but I knew I was going to be slower and the orc was smirking.

“Stupid knight, what are you without that sword,” yelled the orc as he activated a different sword art.  I held Justice at the ready to defend myself but instead of attacking me, both sword-axes converged on Justice with a mighty sound like a bell ringing.

Both axes deflected, and the orc stumbled back as the blade entirely ignored the strike.  Unfortunately for me, the strike sent so much energy down the blade that the only reasons I was able to keep my grip was the gloves.

“I think my hands are broken,” I said after a moment.

“Oh boy are they, I’m going to cast heal and hope it is enough,” said Justice.  My hands went from feeling like goop to just hurting tremendously.  I was barely able to grip Justice decently and the orc was shaking his head.  He was built far more massively than I and his hands appeared fine.

“I shall break you,” said the orc.

“No humans call you Breaker do they,” I said, holding up Justice.  “You just named yourself that because you think it sounds cool.”

“I am Cho-tak, and I will be the last thing that you…” stated the orc who stopped mid sentence.  He turned around and looked behind him where Elana was laying on the ground, with his bow laying near her feet.  There was no way for Elana to shoot the weapon normally, so she’d turned it inot a foot bow.

As he turned I spotted the thick arrow shaft sticking out of his back.  He stumbled, dropping to his knees where he began fumbling for something in his pouch.  Finally finding it, he dragged out a potion and reached for the cork.

That’s when I activated magical strike and cut his arm off.  The stoppered potion, and most of his arm, fell into the shallow water.  Cho-tak grunted.

“You grok cheat,” he said.

“Honorless one, you set the rules for this engagement,” I said as I picked up the potion and sent it into storage.  I felt a point of stamina recover and activated it, slamming justice down on the orcs helmet.  It was minorly magical and it took two full strikes for the metal to cave in.

I walked over to Elana, she was bruised but obviously still full of fight.  She had also only cut herself somewhat free, free enough to worm over to the bow with the muddy arrow in her teeth.

“Need help,” I asked.  Using Justice I cut the remaining bonds before helping her back to her feet.  She walked over to a nearby rock and promptly collapsed down again.  She had been beaten rather soundly.

“I thought I had him,” she said finally.  “He was poking around the area but didn’t know I was there.  My first shot nailed him in the back but didn’t do any real damage.  Then it was on and he was too much for me.”

“He was very powerful,” I said.

“Did he have you,” she asked.

I thought about that for a moment, “It was not going well but I’m sure I could have pulled something.”

Elana snorted, she immediately looked embarrassed as girls did when they had terrible laughs.  That was a doozie.  I sat behind her and leaned my back against her.  She protested for an instant, before realizing that meant she could sit up more comfortably.

“Thanks for saving me,” said Elana.

“Likewise,” I replied before chuckling.  “ you make a terrible damsel in distress.”

Chapter 37: The Secret Invasion

When we got back to the camp, I took Elana to the infirmary tent.  Gringer brought back his prisoner, the orc’s horse, and I went to visit Bella, who was annoyed.

“We ditched the wagons,” she said without preamble.  “And just when I was getting a head of everything.”

“Where,” I asked.

“One of the burned out villages a while back.  We managed to camouflage them in the nearby ‘woods’.  Those large bushes will conceal them for a while,  but I don’t think they will remain hidden for very long.  In any case, this is going to work in a few days or it won’t,” said Bella confidently.

“That’s one kind of confidence,” I said.

“But there is no hammock and sleeping on the ground is uncomfortable,” she said, eyeing me.

“You are insatiable,” I replied.

“There is nothing interesting to do,” said Bella looking at her portable equipment.  It was a far cry from her support wagon.  I handed her both sword-axes and she eyed them.

“These look fancy, but I can’t do much with them here,” she said.

“They are magical, I was hoping you might be able to do something with them,” I said.

“Well, when we get back to my actual forge I will have a host of options,” she said grinning at me. “For a fee.”

“Silver?”

“Helping me move things in the back room,” she said.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about trading sex for equipment, on the one hand Bella was pretty and adventurous.  On the other, I was being used like a piece of meat, and I wasn’t quite 100% on board with that.

“The things we do for Justice!” said the sword.

“Yeah,” I replied, leaving Bella in her meager forge.  She still had work to do, just nothing more elaborate than simple sharpenings or small armor patches.  It was the equivalent of telling a certified mechanic that she was going to be changing washer fluid.  It needed to be done, but it wasn’t going to hold her interest for long.

I walked by the rope ladder up to the cave.  That was probably the easiest solution, it was pinned at the bottom and the top and every thirty seconds a soldier went up the ladder.  A single sergeant was at the bottom yelling for when the next person could go.  Apparently they only trusted it to hold two people at once.

Zahir was by the ladder, talking to several individuals.  She spotted me and shoed them away.

“An orc was here,” she asked without preamble.

“Dealt with, your daughter will recover and is getting checked out by the infirmary,” I said.

“Good,” was all she said, but I could see a slight amount of tension leave her body.

We both stood a moment while another person started climbing the thirty foot tall ladder.  Even with everything tied down, there was still some sway to the rope.  It took a person nearly a full minute to climb the thing in most cases with the second person climbing it at once not helping matters any.

“No wood,” I asked.

“I have a few scouts chopping the scrub trees, but the first wooden ladder we made didn’t hold up,” said the general.  None of the trees around here were all that tall, maybe ten feet at most and none of them looked like hardwoods.  Thinking back, I hadn’t seen an actual proper tree since the fucking spider forest.

I shuddered.

“The path is eightish miles underground,” I said.  “There is only one real way to go and I marked everything with Justice.”

“We figured that out, you are lucky that sword doesn’t dull or what  you did in the first few caves would have ruined it,” said Zahir.

“You treated me like some useless toy, I am sword with thoughts, and feelings, and JUSTICE!”

“Yeah, but he is invulnerable,” I said, thumbing Justice slightly out of the scabbard.  He needed a good polishing, but I didn’t think we had time.

“We won’t have much time when we get into town, I am planning on launching the attack quickly once we get our bearings,” said Zahir turning on my.  “So my question is can you take Corgo?”

Before fighting Cho-tak I would have assumed yes.  Now I realized that was not the case, me winning that was far more listening to Justice about keeping Cho-tak in the proper position and far less about me actually winning the fight.  In order to do beat Cogro, I’d need to be much smarter.

“Of course,” I responded anyway.  That was a knight did.  That’s what Justice was screaming to do, and if I came in smarter I’d be able to do it.  How much tougher could Corgo possibly be anyway?

She dismissed me and I went to check in Elana.  She may have been beaten, but she was in no way broken.  After a dose of the low grade healing potion the camp could manage she looked mostly intact.  The massive bruises had receded into small bruises and she could flex both hands enough to wield a bow normally.

I handed her mine.

“Seriously,” she said.

“Treat it as a gift,” I replied.  “That bow has seen me through many battles.”

“No,” she said holding the bow and trying to pull back the string.  It barely moved.  “I’m a human woman, not some mythical knight.  I can’t use this thing.”

“You could restring it,” I said.

“Having to reduce the pull is so depressing,” she said sadly and walked over to Bella to get a longer, weaker, bowstring.  It didn’t take long, those were a dime a dozen and the orc bow to human bow conversion wasn’t complex.

Elana placed the longer string on the bow and the put her foot into it.  Carefully she cut the old string which caused the bow to jerk outward as the arms expanded.  That reduced the strength needed to pull it as well as the bow’s power.  She drew it once and sighed.

“I miss my old bow,” she said as I pulled out Cho-tak’s bow.

“Wait, I killed him,” she said as I pulled the bow back.  It was strong for me, but I could manage it.  I handed it to her.

“When you can draw it, I’ll let you have it,” I said.

She tugged on the string once with her arm and handed it back to me, “That thing is a work of art, I refuse to spoil it by converting it.”

“You up for a trip throught the dark, bodyguard,” I asked as we reached the rope ladder.

“Race you,” she said cutting into the font of the line and charging up the ladder while burning dexterity.  Not to be outdone, I used power and my ring of jumping and leapt above her.  I started climbing while burning my own dexterity.  “Not fair!”

“All is fair in love and rope climbing,” I yelled as I reached the mouth of the cave first despite one impressive try by her to climb over me.  I stepped back into the cave and another sergeant looked at me sternly.  I brushed past him and started walking down the tunnel where nine other soldiers were standing against one wall.  The tunnels weren’t massive, but you could easily squeeze by them so I did.

I drew Justice and lit him up, “Be prepared for a whole bunch of nothing.”

Elana whistled causing an odd echo.  “So this is a place from my nightmares.”

“You should see the tentacle monsters.”

Chapter 38: Back in Kenin

“Seriously how many,” she asked.

“MAybe four,” I said as we continued up the last section of the passage.  We’d passed everyone since we’d started walking.  Most people were suitably worried about monsters in the dark as we traveled through the underground, not us though.  I had the confidence of someone who had been here before coupled with Justice’s ability to scan things like a radar dish.

Mainly it was that since he’d seen the ceiling without anything on it, he knew how deep it should be.  So we were extremely confident that the creatures hadn’t been replaced in our walk back.  The pools were even less of a danger, one was as deep as your waist if you went all the way to a corner and tried, but Justice could scan the water better than he could scan the walls.

Overall, while I was certain that monsters would eventually move back into these passages, it wouldn’t be soon.  We would have plenty of time to move the army into position for Zahir’s plan, and hopefully that would allow them to hold the south for a time.

“He was more like the orcs I expected to fight,” said Elana.

“What do you mean,” I said as I scratched the wall a few more times to make sure everyone knew to come this way.

“Kobla wasn’t that tough,” she said.  “I know you drugged him, and that his men were borderline insane when we fought them, but none of them were what my mother described during the war.  Breaker was.”

“I have fought skill using orcs before,” I said.

“But he had multiple skills and knew how to use them,” she said.  “That was the expectation during the war.  All of the main orc forces were full of skill users and you’d almost never see any of the grunt types.  All of them were those huge guys that were his size.”

“So wait, the orcs are smaller now,” I said.

“No one knows why,” said Elana.

“I know someone who might,” I said as we continued towards the passage, but that was puzzling.  I checked with Justice and got a great response.

“They do not follow the path of justice, so of course they are becoming weaker!”

“Of course,” I replied  as we got to the spot I’d crawled out of the wall from Kilva’s house.  I spotted it because of the damage to the wall where I’d burst out.  Even with me stacking rocks here to stop a breeze, it was painflly obvious that I’d come out here.  However, Elana was looking down.

“A giant X,” she said.

Where I’d laid in the stream of water to wash off, I’d effectively made a mud angel, and the mud was red colored due to the clay in the soil.

“I didn’t want you guys to miss it,” I said.

I pulled out several chunks of rock and started throwing them across the tunnel to block the way forward.  I didn’t have nearly enough material to be successful at that, but I did have enough to make anyone walking here look at the big X and the open passage to their left.  It was still only approximately my size, so we took a few minutes to cut out more of the wall.

“Not too much,” Elana said eventually when we’d expanded it enough that you could crawl on hands and knees throught it,  “I don’t trust the roof of this cave either.”

“I think we can get a bit more,” I offered.

“I hate you,” said Justice, the tool that I’d been using to expand the hole.

Elana looked at it and thumped it with her fist, then shook her head.  I tested it as well and decided she might be right.  There was something there when you struck it that was not stable feeling.

“I’ll go first, I have a priceless magical sword,” I said.

“You are an evil, wicked sword bearer,” said Justice as I stuck him behind the curtain and let him scan the area.  I got much less filthy this time, considering there was now enough space to actually crawl properly.

When the minimap came up empty, and mostly unchanged, I lifted the curtain with my sword and shimmied the rack out of the way.  Someone had replaced the bottles on it that I’d moved.

I stepped out cautiously, examining everything however that attention appeared unwarranted.  There was no one else in here, still, “Check all the wall hangings with your knives.”

Elana moved quickly and quietly, stabbing the wall hangings to verify that there was indeed nothing behind any of them.  I did the same, until we were both satisfied that the cellar was in fact empty.

“Is she still there,” I asked.

“I cannot see through walls unless you Amplify me,” said Justice.

I looked at the door and shrugged, sliding the tip of the blade just underneath it.  Justice didn’t complain, he was good about conserving resources.

“No, she had moved,” said Justice, “The door to her room is open and the body is also missing.  I think they may have cleaned up the blood as well.”

“It's clear,” I said, opening the door and stepping out.  They had cleaned up the body, and a large carpet I remembered was gone.

“Do any of the rooms have good vantage points,” asked Elana following me out.  She had a sausage, and was cutting off pieces of it with a small knife.

“Master bedroom had one, kind of curious to see what happened to the bed,” I said.  Elana gave me a side eye.  “I left an orc maiden tied up there.”

Elana shrugged, “I’d have killed her.”

“Yeah, but she’s a non-combatant,” I said walking up the stairs.

“The orcs kill our non-combatants,” said Elana carefully.

“Well, I’m not an orc,” as I opened the room.  The bed was damaged.  Apparently if you pulled on the wooden frame long enough chunks of it broke off.  The corner Kilva had been tied to was no more.

I gestured to the window and Elana stepped closer.  We were on a tall second story.  Orcs were taller than humans so their average ceiling height matched that.  This was a human house design adapted for orcs, so instead of having a ten foot ceiling, it was closer to fourteen.  The window had a commanding view of the keep.

Elana blew out the lamp in the room, keeping the interior dark enough that the glass should obscure the two humans looking out.  It was late in the day, but not quite dark yet.  A number of orcs were busy walking around the area we could see through the window.  It was looking into a public square, with the keep beyond.

“Is every one of them male,” asked Elana as she pulled over a chair and sat down.  Her feet didn’t touch the floor, so she lifted them up and sat on them.

I popped the question over to Justice.

“I cannot tell if any of them are female using my Scan spell,” said Justice.  “I am working on that, but it will be a few more levels before I can differentiate with any certainty.”

Nodding to him, I responded to Elana.  “I don’t see any females at the moment.” But that was a lie as soon as I said it.  A single orc female with a single orc male walking behind her looking daggers at everyone was storming away from the keep.  She was heading straight towards the house at breakneck speed.

“Is this her house,” asked Elana, hopping up.

“Yup,” I responded, lifting up the chair and putting it back where she got it.  “You better hide.”

Elana glanced around then hopped into closet.  “There is so much silk in here.”

“Yeah, she likes that,” I replied looking around.  I hid under the bed.

“Do Not Disturb Me,” bellowed Kilva as she slammed the front door.

“Where is she,” I asked, considering my options.  The other soldiers were not to come in until we notified them, so there was no danger there.  That said, I had been concerned that Kilva was going to come in with another guard or two with her.  She came in alone.  I was about to start crawling out from under the bed when she started storming up the stairs.

I had recommitted to hiding when she stomped into the room and slammed something down on her dresser.  “Damn it.”

From my position on the floor I could see Elana through the blinds that made up the closet door, she was looking at me wondering what we should do.  I considered for a few more moments when I heard a bottle come out and a cork pop.  Then Kilva started chugging the bottle of brandy.

A whole bottle of brandy in one chug was a pretty impressive trick.  Then she started muttering, “I am calm.”

“There is a hidden container next to the desk, it appears to contain bottles,” said Justice and I heard her pulled out another one.  She grunted and suddenly the bottle went flying, landed on the bed, then plunked down onto the floor in the nice soft carpet she had around the bed.

Grumbling Kilva reached down to grab it and her hand stopped.

I rolled out from under the bed.

“You’ve been hiding there the whole time,” she spat.

“For a while, yeah,” I said, stepping between her and the door and shutting it.  Her former husband was into role playing and the walls were pretty thick.  Kilva shook herself realzing what my plans were and she stumbled towards the door but I grabbed her the bodice of her fancy dress and shoved her onto the chair, where Elana threw a silk rope over her.

“Not again,” said Kilva frantically.

“There are many strange things back there,” said Elana as she started tying Kilva up.  Kilva struggled, of course, so I had to help.  It didn’t take much for us to tie her to the really firm chair, and as a pro she was dressed this time.

“I will kill you,” she half sobbed.

“So is it safe to say that given your attitude no one is going to be coming to visit you for the rest of the night,” I asked.

Kilva’s eyes went wide and she looked at the ground.  “No, someone will.  At minimum to ask me about my marriage prospects, because I’m not marrying Cogro.”  She slurred all of that in english for my benefit.  She hated hearing me speak in orc so much she was will to talk in my tongue to avoid it.  Kilva just forgot about Elana.

“Hey, we were interested about Cogro, how is he,” asked Elana.  “Know where he is, his vulnerabilities?”

“LIke I would commit treason,” said Kilva, her lower lip trembling.

I reached over and picked up the letter she had tossed down and read it, “So Cogro wants to marry you, isn’t that a step up?”

Kilva stared at me and then screamed a bit.  It was loud, but we could see the square through the window and no one noticed.  I looked down at her and waited.

“No, it is not,” she said finally, “But I need time.”

“Time for what,” I asked.

“Time to get another marriage proposal,” said Kilva, glaring at me and then Elana.  “Even she would understand my reasons.”

“I don’t know, I’m kind of stupid,” said Elana flatly.  “Please explain.”

Kilva’s head slumped down, “Corgo has the rights of a lord, meaning that he can request any bride he so chooses.  That is his right as the grandson to our great lord.”

“So,” I asked.

“He already has nineteen wives, he had twenty the maximum allowable but one of his wives recently died in childbirth and he wants the number back up to the largest legal amount,” said Kilva.

“And you don’t want to be one of twenty,” asked Elana, actually kind of feeling sorry for the orc.

“What, no, I dont’ want to have stupid children you daft cow,” spat Kilva looking at Elana as if she were particularly stupid.  “My mother’s sire is one of the sons of the great lord, so Corgo is my cousin.  Everyone knows that children born in line with their sire are weaker.  I don’t want weak babies.”  She sniffled at that.

“She’s a bit baby-crazy,” I said when Elana looked at me.

“I am not baby crazy, I just want to have twenty or so of my own,” sniffed Silva, “But I don’t want them to be inbred.”

“That doesn’t seem to be a big problem for most of the orcs,” I said.

“That’s because they are inbred and stupid now.  I liked to read, and in our histories it often mentions that our empires collapse because of the rights of the lord.  It must be because we have so many stupid babies,” sniffled Kilva.  “My babies are going to be ugly, stupid and defective.  There are only a few orcs in this whole town who aren’t my blood realitives, and this asshole keeps killing them.”

Kilva spat and tried to rock her chair at me in an attack pattern.  That didn’t work and she fell face first onto the ground.

“Ouch.”

“We could kill Corgo,” I offered.

“I’m no traitor,” replied Kilva.

“He’s going to make you carry stupid, defective babies,” I offered.

“No, I won’t.  Maybe you can kidnap me, and hide me under the bed,” she sniffled.  “I just need to wait until Cho-tak comes back.”

“Cho-tak,” I asked.  “You mean Breaker?”

“Yes, he was banished from the heart lands because of his birth defect, but that’s probably not congenital and I could just drown any babies that had it, unless they were huge like him.  I could have big, healthy, non-inbred babies,” Kilva sniffled, then paused.  “How do you know his name?”

I smiled real apologetically.

Didn’t help, Kilva started sobbing uncontrollably.  I sat down on the bed and started reading the letter in more detail.  Cogro wasn’t wasting any time.  After her last husband died ‘mysteriously’ she had until tomorrow morning to get her stuff packed up so she could move into the keep.

She was appointed a small room, not even a third the size of this one.  Her allowed luggage was basically enough for some traveling clothes and other necessities of a member of Cogro’s harem, where she would be the most junior member.

“You don’t even have the right to sit at the same table as him,” I asked.

“It's too small, and he’s too cheap to expand it,” Kilva sniffled.  “I spent my whole life learning how to seduce, conceive and other important womanly arts and he doesn’t care about any of that.  I don’t even get a separate nursery.”

“Are orc babies as loud as human babies,” Elana asked.

“Louder, and I might have 4 of them at the same time,” said Kilva.

“Hey, you are expected to help the other mothers, but they aren’t expected to help you,” I said.

“What,” said Kilva turning her head from the floor.  I held the passage in front of her and she paled.  “But then my stupid inbred children will be even stupider.”

“And if you don’t show up tomorrow morning on time, he’ll bring you in as a ‘conquered prize’, what does that mean,” I asked.

“It is an old custom,” Kilva hissed out.  “I’d be treated as a Grok.”

“Like a human, you poor girl,” said Elana with exactly zero sympathy.

“Man, you are super loyal to this guy who’s not loyal to you at all,” I said.  “Well, we’re going to just leave, I mean we could untie you but I don’t really see that as being too much better than what you are going to get anyway.  Enjoy your stupid inbred children.”

I waved Elana to the door and she gave me the most sour look.  I rolled my eyes and she nodded before patting Kilva on the head, “There you go for being a good human, you better get used to it.”

We hadn’t made it one step closer to the door before Kilva broke.  “I’ll help you, just get me out of here.”

“I guess we could help, but first I’m going to need to know a few things,” I said, lifting the chair back up.  “Where are the skill trainers?”

Chapter 39: The battleplan

“Kenin keep is a much larger version of the keep back by Tarrytown,” I said.  We all knew this, but it was best to establish a baseline.  “It is three stories instead of two and there were over five hundred orcs here as early as last year.  Most of them have left to deal with attacks on Cogro’s other territories.”

“So this is the edge of his territory,” asked Zahir.

“Yes, I pulled out the map and pointed north.  “I don’t have the exact details of where the orc heartlands are, but the rumors of fighting are correct.  The orcs are in the middle of a pre-civil war, if you will.  When the old chief dies there needs to be a new chief, or many new chiefs if one isn’t capable of ruling the same territory.  There are at least nine sons and one grandson who are well situated for a claim to the throne.  Cogro is not one of those.”

“Who is here,” asked Zahir.

“The town garrison is among the weakest because this part of the orc kingdom is considered very low priority.  Not many resources, not many humans so it would require significant investment which they never made, most of the orcs here are the rejects and defects from better areas,” I said looking around the room.

“I figured as much,” said Zahir.  “Even they are going to be tough, but not nearly as bad as the regular orcs, though we have an advantage right now.”

“Numbers wise, there are maybe fourty elite orcs some of whom are skill users, and maybe two hundred normal orcs though at least some of them are deployed out of the town at the moment,” I continued.

“Plus Cogro,” said Zahir.

“Yes, he is in the fort for the moment because his northern territories are being raided by elites, they want his head and he wants to keep it so he moved down here.  Cogro considers this place to be the ass end of nowhere and hates it,” I said.

“He’s not a total idiot," said Zahir.  “How do we get into the keep?”

“That is going to depend on the patrols,” I said pointing to another map.  “The keep is built directly into the northern wall, but the fortress was never designed to have this much town inside of it, especially not one built for orcs.  The walls are three stories tall, but those are human stories and many of the buildings are two orc stories tall which are about 30% taller than human ones.  In short, the main square leads directly to the keep and due to the size of the buildings there is only really good visibility from a few directions.  If we are careful we should be able to get a reasonably large party to the keep without being seen.”

Zahir nodded at my assessment.  She walked around the house looking out the second story and had been appalled at the build up in the courtyard.  This was supposed to either be empty, or have a few single story buildings in it to service troops.  There was a town that spanned the entire courtyard.

“Can we count on any help from the other humans,” asked Mitch.

“They don’t know we are here,” said Zahir, glancing over at me.  I nodded.

“Not initially, and there is a strong curfew in place,” I said.  “I doubt we are going to see significant support from the people living here in any case.”

“Are there any people we should be rescuing,” asked Zahir, which caused Elana to look over at me as well.

“The skill trainers were sent up to Cogro as a bribe after the death of the warlock,” I said.  “They are still kept as pets, for lack of a better word, by the head orc in the harem.”

“What are we going to do with the orcs,” asked Mitch.

Zahir cut me off, “We are going to eliminate any that oppose us, the ones who remain we will discuss, but if they are at all hostile towards you feel free to gut anyone green.”

Everyone looked at me and I remained motionless, that was neither support or denial of what was happening.

“You cannot let them kill prisoners,” said Justice.

“Those orcs have done terrible things to the humans,” I replied.

“Their honor is stained, not yours,” replied the sword.

I did nothing.

“The first objectives in the fort are going to be the armory and the lower ranked officers quarters,” I said pointing to the ground layer.  “Essentially every room there is a target.  The officers keep their equipment with them, the rank and file are not permitted.”

“Where are the higher ranked officers,” asked Mitch.

“Houses like this one,” I said.  “From my source we know at least six more in town, and who lives there, but an unknown number of orc officers are in town at any point in time.  There is an argument that we could send strike teams to eliminate them before the attack, but…”

“Basically only the Knight is capable of handling an officer in a one on one situation, and if he screws up the keep will be alerted,” said General Zahir.  “Instead, after we have breached the fort, kill teams will be deployed from here to all known locations to attack them in overwhelming numbers.”

“Each of those units will have at least one Skill user, preferably more and I’m going to warn you that you are going to want to go all in right away,” I said.  “The orc officers all mean business, but putting armor on takes a while and if you catch them unprepared with significant numbers you should be able to deal with them.”

No one fancied that, and our skill users were limited but we did have some and the orcs theoretically wouldn’t know what is going on until it was too late.

“Both sides will move to take the wall after the initial fight,” said General Zahir.  “The protection the wall grants is limited from the inside, so getting up there shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.  If we can hold the walls and the keep, we will win the day by sunrise.”

“What about Cogro,” asked another skill user.

“I’m going to engage him personally and take him out,” I said.  “Mind you if any of you dexterity users can get a good shot in on him, I won’t complain.”

“I thought you knights were all about honorable battles,” said Mitch.

“None of the orcs I’ve battled with so far have any concept of honor towards humans, so you will excuse me if I don’t tie my hands in battle,” I said.  “Mind you, that only applies in battle.  If the fight is over and they have surrendered I’m honor bound to accept that.”

Mitch nodded, “I get it.”

“You don’t,” I replied as Justice yelled at me.  “I’m honor bound to accept any surrenders unless they are obviously going to go against their oaths.  That does not kill them before I see them, it means I will take their surrenders and honor them.”

Everyone looked at each other.  Finally Zahir said, “He is a knight, that is his price for his assistance and we will adhere to that.  There will be no atrocities under my watch.”

That wasn’t popular, but it was also acceptable to most of the people in the room.  I suspected highly that if I aggressive reviewed every fatality there would be issues, but unless Justice prompted me I should look the other direction.

“When do we go,” asked Mitch.

I looked out the window as the shadows started creeping over the town.  “It won’t be much longer now, we will fight with Justice on our side.”

Chapter 40: The Assault

I started down the street quickly as Justice started updating where all the guards were.  They were patrolling and occasionally one would look inside the wall but it was rare.  Of course, there were over one hundred of us so we had to be more than a bit careful.

The main road lead directly to the back of the keep and we started moving as soon as the long orc patrolling that section had walked out of sight.  I could have snuck to the keep by myself, but Justice’s ability to see around corners made it possible to bring the group with me.

There was only one point where we had to hide everyone, and that sucked as much as anyone expected it would.  A guard walked the other side of the wall and occasionally looked down the road.  Everyone ducked into alleys and behind carts, and from his angle and threw were not enough hiding spots for everyone.

I had my bow at the ready and waited as he glanced down the road, and waited a bit longer as the orc continued walking.

“He did not see us,” said Justice.

I relaxed, I was looking at the orc.  Justice was using a radar map and I didn’t fully understand how much detail he was getting, or what details he was looking for.  I suspected it was a combination of the lack of obvious signs of notice combined with a steady walking pace.  In any case I signaled and we continued moving.

The first hurdle was the change over from the street to the back of the keep.  While the orcs had been incompetent about their town building, they weren’t laughably so.  There was a gap between the walls and the nearest building, and that meant there was no cover.  Further, everyone was in armor and we were now close enough that just running across the space would alert someone.

The best scouts followed me over to the back fo the keep on my mark.  We snuck across the open patch when Justice gave me the okay.  The door was stout wood, with a small eye hole cut into it.  The kind that flipped back to allow a guard to see out without giving any degree of access.  The door, of course, was locked.

“Alright, what now,” whispered Joe when we got to the door.  That was easy.  I knocked.

The guard walked over to the door and opened the eyeslit.  When he did that I activated magical strike and jammed Justice all the way into the wood before dragging it across to the lock.  Nothing there was magical, and the lock separated just like any other metal against a magical strike.

I pushed the door open and stepped over the dismembered guard.  Justice did about as much damage as you could have possibly expected, and the guard had actually fallen into three parts because one of his arms was hanging down when I started cutting.

The second squad came over, then the third.

I nodded and Joe and the rangers moved over towards the armory while the armored troopers started towards the officer rooms.  I didn’t know what kind of security existed internally, but I knew our hidden assault couldn’t last too much longer.

They spotted the fifth group of soldiers.  Seven of them made it through the door when an arrow slammed into the shoulder of the eight’s man.  The heavy arrow shattered the bone and killed the man instantly.

The orc that shot him didn’t live long enough to do much though because one of our archers got him, and they began hunting the other orcs on the wall as everything started all at once.

I instantly started running deeper into the keep, turning the corner I spotted several confused orcs moving towards the armory so I started cutting through them.  They were unarmed and unarmored, and the attack was a slaughter.  I looked down the hallway where door after door was being kicked open exposing empty rooms.

“They aren’t here,” said Mitch looking around.

“Hit the barracks,” I said, and the soldiers responded rushing past me into the barracks.  Instantly the sound of battle filled my ears, but where were the officers.  I started moving down the fortress looking for targets when I spotted three humans cowering in the corner of the kitchen.

“Where are the officers,” I asked, but none of them responded.  I was about to get more forceful, when I noticed a tray piled with food and several flaggons of ale.  The door to the great hall opened up as a large orc stepped out and spotted me.

I slashed at him, and he moved back with supernatural speed so I burned dexterity.  Chasing after him, I was faster and drove Justice into his chest, twisting the blade as I yanked it back.  The orc tumbled back, dead, right in front of every officer officer in the fortress, and Cogro.

“What is the meaning of this,” yelled the massive orc.  He was bigger than any of the other orcs I’d seen, both in height and in weight.  He was a massive muscular ball of an orc who was easily pushing eight hundred pounds.

“Your time is done, foul orc,” I declared.  “For Justice has come for you.”

The orcs stared at each other for a moment and started laughing.  This lasted for several seconds until the main door to the hall opened up and a bloody orc stumbled in.

“Uprising.”

The orcs stopped laughing.

“Justice and friends.”