“Oh? Someone made you angry enough to want them killed?” asked Scar.
“He killed my father,” said Rodger with a sour face.
“I see. So where is this person that you want killed?”
“I don’t know exactly where he is right now, the last place I saw him was in the southern swamplands. But it seems the werewolves have either gone into hiding or they have left to live somewhere else. I am sorry I can’t give you anything more solid.”
“That request sounds like it will take a lot of effort just to find the target and complete it. If they have moved… I hear that the sea is a dangerous place to travel which will make finding them even harder if they left this continent.”
“Don’t worry you will be properly rewarded!” said Rodger.
“Hmm…is it just me or do you remind me of someone… What was his name…Mac…Mak…Marc! That’s the one,” said Scar as he looked at Rodgers’ face.
“You knew my brother?”
“Oh, so he was your brother. I met him only once, it was a short meeting but he left a deep impression with me. How is he?”
“…he died during the last great war…” said Rodger quietly.
This was just another painful reminder that he was now the only one left alive. His father, mother, and brother were all dead. The only relatives he had now were from his marriage to his wife Ruth.
“Ah…so that’s how it ended up, huh. Well, since I was such good friends with your brother I will accept this mission,” said Scar with a wide knowing grin that made Rodger feel uncomfortable.
***
“Hey boss, I just got a big mission I need help with,” said Scar as he entered a small one-room building.
“The buildings in this city are too expensive! With the money our guild is making right now we can only afford to rent this crappy one-room building for our guild house. What’s worse is everyone and their brother is trying to make a guild and going out and buying up all the free buildings driving up the cost of rent in the city,” complained Fela, a light purple-haired bespectacled woman who was in charge of the guild’s gold.
“It can’t be helped, we just started recently and have to use most of our gold to help buy equipment for everyone,” said a man that was over 6 ft tall with a body of nothing but muscle.
His head looked like it was one size too small for his large body but he gave off an honorable trustworthy feeling to those who did not know him.
“Scar, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me boss. I may be the guild leader of the Demon hunters, but you are second in command so you can just call me by my name,” said the tall muscular man as he looked over to Scar.
“Ah, sorry Ualtar. I forgot. But it’s only because you picked such a hard name to remember…” said Scar mumbling the last part.
“What quest did you get? Is it something that will help the guild?”
“The reward is huge! 1000 gold and the reputation with the Beorin kingdom will immediately become friendly for whoever completes the mission!”
“The gold is nice but are you sure about the reputation? Isn’t that supposed to be really hard to raise?” asked Ualtar.
“It’s true I checked to see if it was correct several times. I’ve hit the jackpot already. I need to make sure no bad luck comes looking for me.”
“This mission, what is it that we have to do to get such a reward?”
“Kill someone, but I have no clue where he is. The last he was seen was in the southern swamps. The person I received the mission from said that they may have even left this land altogether.”
“Haaaa…so that’s why. This will be hard to do if we don’t know where the target went. I’ll have the information officer Brand and his underlings go look for clues to find where he is now.”
“It’s a good thing I got this mission before the other guilds could take it. If we complete it we can move to the Beorin kingdom and get many benefits from our high reputation.”
***
Varbu and Cargan stood at the head of the group of 400 young orc warriors from the clan as they waited for the rest of the civilians to gather at the front gates.
The other four young warrior chiefs were all well-built blood orcs like Varbu. They all waited silently with their warriors along with grim looks on their faces.
The Orc clans combined forces totaled around 2000 young warriors that were of fighting age and had completed their warrior training.
The young warriors would have to protect the caravan of over 5000 civilians as they moved from the mountains and towards the sea.
As they waited for the civilians to finish their last preparations. Princess Gobalina and Prince Gobbers arrived with another 500 fighters and 2000 civilians. The two did not talk to anyone and just waited along with the others.
The large caravan now had 2500 warriors to protect over 7000 women and children.
Varbu had already said his goodbyes to his father and his crying mother who he had never seen cry before, so when the last person exited the city the large caravan began its long march towards the sea and Varbu did not look back at all.
***
The Orcs continued to travel in a big blob of bodies separated only by the clans they belonged to.
There was no unified leadership of the Orc clans so although they were traveling together they kept to themselves.
Varbu had tried repeatedly to get the others to listen to his suggestions on getting a more firm command in place. But since he was the youngest of the five warrior chiefs everyone ignored him.
The only person who had accepted his offer of cooperation was Gobalina.
So the goblins and Varbu’s clan joined together at the rear of the large caravan, while the other four clans vied for the honor of leading the caravan from the front.
A week had passed since the Orcs had left the protection of the rocky Orc territory. They were now traveling in the vast wide open human lands.
The caravan came to a complete stop long before it was supposed to.
“Why did we stop?” asked Varbu. He looked to Gobalina next to him so see if she had an answer.
She just silently stared back at him with her clear eyes blinking a few times.
“Oh right, I forgot you can’t speak this language,” said Varbu sheepishly. “I’ll go see what’s going on up ahead. Cargan, you are in charge of the civilian’s protection until I return.”
“I will do as you command. You five go escort the chief to the front,” ordered Cargan.
“That’s not necessary.”
“I’m just following orders from your father. I need to make sure that you stay alive.”
Varbu jogged to the front of the large caravan surrounded by five Orc warriors that were extremely proud to be given the honor to guard the new warrior chief.
When he reached the front of the caravan he found the four warrior chiefs were standing out in front of the caravan. 20 feet or more in front of them was a small group of ten humans all wearing an odd mismatched assortment of clothing and armor. They were all talking to each other loudly not caring if the Orcs heard them.
“What is this? Is it a special event?”
“But there are no details on what to do?”
“There is only one way to find out!”
The humans all went silent and turned to the orcs who were watching them warily.
Grat the oldest of the five young Warrior chiefs took several steps forward and pointed at the humans while asking, “Who are you? Why are you blocking our path?”
The humans were silent and only unsheathed their weapons causing several Orcs to laugh.
“Do you think the ten of you weaklings can fight us? Leave now and…”
Swosh! Swish!
Several exotic special skill attacks flew towards Grat and slammed into his sturdy body sending blood everywhere into the air and causing his body to fall to the ground.
“De…De… Demigods!” said Urikil, one of the young warrior chiefs.
Cries of horror erupted throughout the nearby woman and children as they tried to get as far away from the demigods as they could.
“Sound the horn of battle!” ordered Varbu immediately.
One of the bodyguards had a war horn on his hip and raised it to his lip and let out a long blast.
Buruuuuuu!
Several more attacks were launched at the three other young warrior chiefs.
But they were not careless like Grat and jumped to the side or fell to the ground to dodge the attacks… only to hear screams come from the women and children that were hit by the attacks.
“All warriors follow me! We must attack!” shouted Varbu in a booming voice as he pointed his club like quarterstaff that Akira had made for him at the Demigods and charged forward.
The demigods seeing Varbu charging towards them along with his bodyguards turned their attention away from the other clan chiefs and the civilians and focused on Varbu.
Several exotic glowing skills came flying towards Varbu.
He launched himself forward into the air dodging all but two of the attacks that slammed into his chest and exploded burning all his exposed skin.
Several cries of pain could be heard as the skills hit the unlucky warriors who followed behind him.
Gritting his teeth Varbu put all of his strength into his arms as he descended, swinging his quarterstaff down onto the head of one of the Demigods who was wearing cheap cloth armor and holding twin daggers.
Splat! The head of the Demigod disappeared as it was smashed into nothingness. Several seconds later the body also disappeared in a burst of light fragments.
“Kill that Orc! We have to get revenge for Tricky Dick!” shouted an enraged Demigod.
Unfortunately for the small group of Demigods they were now surrounded by the Orc warriors and were forced to focus on fighting the nearest threat.
They continued to use their exotic spells and skills hitting everything in front of them. Flashy sword attacks, colorful piercing arrows, explosive fireballs, and ice shards.
Varbu continued swinging his quarterstaff and even used the fire gem inside to great effect.
Boom! One swing, one kill.
The demigod’s heads, chest, and rib-cages were completely caved in leading to their immediate deaths where they would disappear into light fragments.
With their combined power, Varbu and the warriors were able to kill the remaining Demigods in under five minutes with Varbu killing six of them.
Varbu and the other clan chiefs gathered for an emergency meeting.
Surprisingly Grat was still alive and joined them after he was wrapped up in several bandages to stop the bleeding from the several cuts all over his body. With all the bandages wrapped around his body, he looked more like a mummy than an Orc.
Although he was alive, he had suffered a great loss when one of the attacks severed his right hand which was his main fighting hand. This lowered his ranking among the other warrior chiefs.
“How many people did we lose?” asked Varbu.
“Twenty warriors and 80 civilians…” said Nugrug.
“Were those really demigods?” asked Urikil.
“That’s a stupid thing to ask. You saw their bodies disappear into light,” said Rubrokk.
“Yeah, and every one of them used a weird skill, and they freaking hurt when you get hit with them,” said Grat.
“I know someone that has a skill that can cut through tens if not hundreds of people in the weak leather and cloth armor they were wearing. Their attacks are surprisingly weak compared to his,” said Varbu.
“But how can they be the legendary Demigods when their bodies were so weak and they were killed so easily? Aren’t they supposed to be unkillable like in the war stories?” asked Urikil.
All of the young chiefs had been children when the last great war had occurred. They had all stayed far away from the battles that were fought, so the only information they had was from the adults who had fought them.
Hearing all the horror stories from them the demigods were near impossible to kill.
“That doesn’t matter right now. We need to quicken our pace and leave this place as soon as possible before any more Demigods decide to attack us,” said Varbu, bringing a halt to the discussions.
Although the young clan chiefs did not want to admit it, they had performed like crap in their first battle with the demigods. The only one to rise to the occasion was Varbu.
Thus his rank among the five warrior chiefs rose near the top and they did not complain and just followed along with what he said.
***
Over the next week, they were attacked three more times by the same group of Demigods.
Although the warriors had now lost most of their fear of the Demigods that did not mean they could take it easy when fighting them.
Hundreds of orcs and goblins, both civilian and warriors, were killed in the repeated attacks.
“What kind of monster are you? You kill everyone with only one attack,” asked a dying demigod.
“I’m no monster. To me you are the abomination!” said Varbu as he watched the last demigod disappear into light particles.
“Grand chief we should only be a day away from the sea where the transportation should be waiting for us. This should be the last attack we have to fight off if we don’t stop to rest,” said Urikil as he looked at Varbu.
Varbu had gained the position of Grand Chief of the five clans, through proving his power and leadership in battle as he repeatedly crushed the demigods when they appeared. With his battle powers and leadership, he gained the respect of the other warrior chiefs as well as the civilians.
“Let’s do that. Each time the Demigods appear they end up killing more civilians. This time it seemed like they were only focusing on them instead of the warriors.”
“Despicable. They have no honor,” said Rubrokk loudly.
“I’m beginning to understand why the elders and old warriors said the Demigods were near impossible to kill. It’s because they won’t stay dead,” said Varbu.
***
“Did you find where the target went?” asked Scar.
“Brand and his underlings were able to confirm that rumor that the entire werewolf race left the continent for another place across the sea. They also found two guides that know a way to get to the new continent. Are you planning to go with them?” asked Ualtar.
“Are you crazy? Why would I want to waste several weeks to months on a trip to an unknown barren continent? I need to grow stronger so I am not left behind by the members of the other guilds.”
“Then why did you accept the mission if you weren’t going to complete it.”
“Just send a few of the underlings over there to take care of it. It shouldn’t be hard for them to do that much.”
