Eternal
The orc assumes you’re going to go for his head, but unless you’re trying to kill them, merely smashing an orc in the face with anything less than an iron maul is likely to just piss them off, so while he guards up, you strike at his legs.
Naturally he’s still armored down there, but he’s taken a bit off guard when you duck down start chopping your sword at his shin protectors. Since your own face is now closer to his feet the orc attempts to kick you in the face and that’s what you were hoping for. You drop your sword and catch his foot so he’s at your complete mercy. The orc is already so off balance that you barely even need to shove him so he crashes to the floor.
As he tries to get up, now you smash a heavy-duty wooden chair over his head. It doesn’t break the first time, but when you do it again three more times the legs you were holding loosen enough that the rest of the chair flies from your grasp. While his helmet is protecting him somewhat, the repeated impact of the chair to his head is still enough to keep him dazed. In fact he ends up spitting out a couple of teeth. Despite this, he still seems as if he’s going to continue to oppose you, but you see him briefly look at Gruz who seems to give him a certain look back. The orc then puts up a hand as if to say he yields. You accept his capitulation.
Victorious, you’ve made it quite clear you are not to be questioned. The rest of the orcs stop their jeering at you and a few go over to help their companion. Gruz walks over to you and his expression is now one of being impressed.
“Well I guess you definitely walk the walk. You recognized that by beating the head in of one of the bigger males that you’d earn more respect than beating the female that was openly mocking you. You also weren’t trying to kill him, which shows that you were just trying to establish dominance rather than punishment. I’m guessing the Emperor must’ve told you about orc culture?”
“Not really, I just sort of guessed.”
“Ha ha ha ha! Well I suppose we usually aren’t that hard to figure out. Though you might have more problems on your hands now. Looks like you impressed the lady over there.”
You look over where Gruz is pointing and it’s the same female orc that was mocking you earlier. Again its difficult for you to tell exactly, but from Gruz’s suggestion and the way the orc is blinking (fluttering?) her eyes you can only make one conclusion.
“She’s…she’s not flirting with me is she?” you ask in hesitation.
“She was flirting with you the moment you came in the door!” Gruz laughs.
Not wishing to think about that any further, you call everyone to attention and explain how things are going to be done in an organized manner and how you don’t want to leave anything to chance when it comes to this mission given that it is of vital importance to the Empire. They seem to understand, though Gruz sometimes reinforces the point to them in a more direct manner. You ask Gruz when the svelk are due to arrive back with their report and he says they should be back within a day or two.
Seeing as you haven’t much else to do, you just wait for the svelk and your orders to proceed with your mission for the next couple days. You don’t interact too much with the orcs though you do converse with Gruz about minor things concerning the mission as well as your increasing annoyance that the svelk still haven’t reported in yet.
“We’re paying these fools good money to do a job, is it too much for them to act like professionals?” you exclaim.
“With the svelk? It’s too much to ask them to do anything. Though it is rather odd they haven’t reported yet. Even they tend to obey the rule of money unless someone else has offered them more.”
“Wait, what are you saying? You think the svelk are in league with the shadows and were bribed?”
“Probably not. The shadows aren’t known for hording wealth and anything valuable they might own is probably sacred to their god or something. I’d be more inclined to believe they got themselves discovered and perhaps even ambushed. For all we know they’re all dead and we’ve just tipped our hand.”
“Well, we’ll continue to wait for the official word, besides the svelk have been the ones doing the scouting correct? We can’t very well attack anything if we don’t have a target.”
Gruz nods at your decision and goes back to what he was doing. Another couple days pass and at last the svelk do show up.
“Ugh. Tyren, did we really have to come back to this place? The stench of these green beasts is offensive.” One of them says as he enters.
“I know, but apparently the person we’re supposed to report our findings to should be here now…hey any of you foul smelling gentlemen seen our fearless leader yet?” this Tyren shouts. You guess he’s the svelk captain.
As irritated as the orcs are by the svelk’s words, you’re more irritated by them for everything else.
“I’m in charge of this operation, and where the hell have you been, you were supposed to report in days ago!” You exclaim.
Tyren looks at you as if he’s unimpressed by you barking orders at him and continues to remain dismissive.
“So we’re here now, is it time to attack or something?” he replies.
“No, but as I said, you should’ve reported in days ago.”
“So what’s the big deal? Maybe you’re not aware of this, but scouting this swamp isn’t exactly the quickest thing to do.”
“I don’t want to hear your lame excuses! You could’ve easily sent back a single messenger to give me an update!”
“Couldn’t do that, I needed all my men in case we ran into trouble. Dangerous business out there, I’m sure you know.”
The svelk has an answer for everything and him giving an arrogant smirk the whole time isn’t helping matters. It reminds you of HER and you begin to get angrier. Captain Gruz starts to notice and even interjects trying to smooth things over.
“Tyren I know it’s difficult, but you might want to rein in the whole smug svelk act that your people are so proud of. This man isn’t just your superior, he’s a direct rep from the Emperor himself.”
“Maybe he’s YOUR superior orc, but he’s not mine. Nobody fucking tells me how to do my fucking job. And I have a very hard time believing that this young whelp is a representation of anything other than a sign of how desperate the Empire is getting for officers!”
Something within you snaps and all you can see is a svelk you want to kill for all the shit Mistress put you through.
“Fucking bitch!” you utter and unleash a small ball of flame into the face of Tyren. He screams in agony as the flesh on his face burns. The rest of the svelk are taken by surprise by this move, though they don’t do anything to stop you. You kick Tyren to the floor while he desperately tries to put the flames on his face out. You help him put the flames out by smashing his face in with your fist repeatedly. Unlike the tougher orc bone structure, the bones of a svelk aren’t as resilient and you can hear the crunching sound of his nose, jaw and skull cracking as you continue to do major mayhem on his face. Tyren’s face is a mass of burnt gory meat at this point yet you still aren’t done. That’s when you take your dagger and scoop his eyes out with it. As you carve out the two bloody orbs, the shrieking is enough that the residents of Sinkhole who happen to be walking outside the barracks quickly run home in fear.
Your actions while excessive are probably made slightly more disturbing due to the fact that you’re muttering incoherently and making small giggling noises the whole time you’re doing them. It’s enough to establish to everyone that they’re obviously in the presence of someone who isn’t just in charge, but also may well be a madman. One things for sure, after Tyren’s makes his last gurgling pleas while you’re slitting his throat and you’re up to your forearms in his blood, nobody is thinking about pissing you off now.
You stand up from your bloody work feeling surprisingly much better. Happy even.
“Remember this.” Is all you say to the group of svelk, before you turn to go to your own private quarters.
The next day Captain Gruz gives you the scout report from the svelk. You thank him and go over some strategies since you’re feeling in a better mood now. Gruz is all too willing to give his opinions on how certain places should be approached and handled. He really does have some good ideas. Makes you wonder if you weren’t being a little too hard on him when you first met him.
“Captain, when the orders come in, I want you to be in charge of a second team. We’ll cover more ground that way and they’ll be less of a chance for potential rebels to escape.” You say.
“Are you sure sir, you don’t think we’d be better off keeping a larger force together? I’ve always found that it’s always preferable to have more numbers than you potentially need. But you’re in charge of course.”
Just as you’re about to discuss and ponder the pros and cons of each plan, a messenger walks in. It’s the official orders. Looks like the time for planning is over.
Naturally he’s still armored down there, but he’s taken a bit off guard when you duck down start chopping your sword at his shin protectors. Since your own face is now closer to his feet the orc attempts to kick you in the face and that’s what you were hoping for. You drop your sword and catch his foot so he’s at your complete mercy. The orc is already so off balance that you barely even need to shove him so he crashes to the floor.
As he tries to get up, now you smash a heavy-duty wooden chair over his head. It doesn’t break the first time, but when you do it again three more times the legs you were holding loosen enough that the rest of the chair flies from your grasp. While his helmet is protecting him somewhat, the repeated impact of the chair to his head is still enough to keep him dazed. In fact he ends up spitting out a couple of teeth. Despite this, he still seems as if he’s going to continue to oppose you, but you see him briefly look at Gruz who seems to give him a certain look back. The orc then puts up a hand as if to say he yields. You accept his capitulation.
Victorious, you’ve made it quite clear you are not to be questioned. The rest of the orcs stop their jeering at you and a few go over to help their companion. Gruz walks over to you and his expression is now one of being impressed.
“Well I guess you definitely walk the walk. You recognized that by beating the head in of one of the bigger males that you’d earn more respect than beating the female that was openly mocking you. You also weren’t trying to kill him, which shows that you were just trying to establish dominance rather than punishment. I’m guessing the Emperor must’ve told you about orc culture?”
“Not really, I just sort of guessed.”
“Ha ha ha ha! Well I suppose we usually aren’t that hard to figure out. Though you might have more problems on your hands now. Looks like you impressed the lady over there.”
You look over where Gruz is pointing and it’s the same female orc that was mocking you earlier. Again its difficult for you to tell exactly, but from Gruz’s suggestion and the way the orc is blinking (fluttering?) her eyes you can only make one conclusion.
“She’s…she’s not flirting with me is she?” you ask in hesitation.
“She was flirting with you the moment you came in the door!” Gruz laughs.
Not wishing to think about that any further, you call everyone to attention and explain how things are going to be done in an organized manner and how you don’t want to leave anything to chance when it comes to this mission given that it is of vital importance to the Empire. They seem to understand, though Gruz sometimes reinforces the point to them in a more direct manner. You ask Gruz when the svelk are due to arrive back with their report and he says they should be back within a day or two.
Seeing as you haven’t much else to do, you just wait for the svelk and your orders to proceed with your mission for the next couple days. You don’t interact too much with the orcs though you do converse with Gruz about minor things concerning the mission as well as your increasing annoyance that the svelk still haven’t reported in yet.
“We’re paying these fools good money to do a job, is it too much for them to act like professionals?” you exclaim.
“With the svelk? It’s too much to ask them to do anything. Though it is rather odd they haven’t reported yet. Even they tend to obey the rule of money unless someone else has offered them more.”
“Wait, what are you saying? You think the svelk are in league with the shadows and were bribed?”
“Probably not. The shadows aren’t known for hording wealth and anything valuable they might own is probably sacred to their god or something. I’d be more inclined to believe they got themselves discovered and perhaps even ambushed. For all we know they’re all dead and we’ve just tipped our hand.”
“Well, we’ll continue to wait for the official word, besides the svelk have been the ones doing the scouting correct? We can’t very well attack anything if we don’t have a target.”
Gruz nods at your decision and goes back to what he was doing. Another couple days pass and at last the svelk do show up.
“Ugh. Tyren, did we really have to come back to this place? The stench of these green beasts is offensive.” One of them says as he enters.
“I know, but apparently the person we’re supposed to report our findings to should be here now…hey any of you foul smelling gentlemen seen our fearless leader yet?” this Tyren shouts. You guess he’s the svelk captain.
As irritated as the orcs are by the svelk’s words, you’re more irritated by them for everything else.
“I’m in charge of this operation, and where the hell have you been, you were supposed to report in days ago!” You exclaim.
Tyren looks at you as if he’s unimpressed by you barking orders at him and continues to remain dismissive.
“So we’re here now, is it time to attack or something?” he replies.
“No, but as I said, you should’ve reported in days ago.”
“So what’s the big deal? Maybe you’re not aware of this, but scouting this swamp isn’t exactly the quickest thing to do.”
“I don’t want to hear your lame excuses! You could’ve easily sent back a single messenger to give me an update!”
“Couldn’t do that, I needed all my men in case we ran into trouble. Dangerous business out there, I’m sure you know.”
The svelk has an answer for everything and him giving an arrogant smirk the whole time isn’t helping matters. It reminds you of HER and you begin to get angrier. Captain Gruz starts to notice and even interjects trying to smooth things over.
“Tyren I know it’s difficult, but you might want to rein in the whole smug svelk act that your people are so proud of. This man isn’t just your superior, he’s a direct rep from the Emperor himself.”
“Maybe he’s YOUR superior orc, but he’s not mine. Nobody fucking tells me how to do my fucking job. And I have a very hard time believing that this young whelp is a representation of anything other than a sign of how desperate the Empire is getting for officers!”
Something within you snaps and all you can see is a svelk you want to kill for all the shit Mistress put you through.
“Fucking bitch!” you utter and unleash a small ball of flame into the face of Tyren. He screams in agony as the flesh on his face burns. The rest of the svelk are taken by surprise by this move, though they don’t do anything to stop you. You kick Tyren to the floor while he desperately tries to put the flames on his face out. You help him put the flames out by smashing his face in with your fist repeatedly. Unlike the tougher orc bone structure, the bones of a svelk aren’t as resilient and you can hear the crunching sound of his nose, jaw and skull cracking as you continue to do major mayhem on his face. Tyren’s face is a mass of burnt gory meat at this point yet you still aren’t done. That’s when you take your dagger and scoop his eyes out with it. As you carve out the two bloody orbs, the shrieking is enough that the residents of Sinkhole who happen to be walking outside the barracks quickly run home in fear.
Your actions while excessive are probably made slightly more disturbing due to the fact that you’re muttering incoherently and making small giggling noises the whole time you’re doing them. It’s enough to establish to everyone that they’re obviously in the presence of someone who isn’t just in charge, but also may well be a madman. One things for sure, after Tyren’s makes his last gurgling pleas while you’re slitting his throat and you’re up to your forearms in his blood, nobody is thinking about pissing you off now.
You stand up from your bloody work feeling surprisingly much better. Happy even.
“Remember this.” Is all you say to the group of svelk, before you turn to go to your own private quarters.
The next day Captain Gruz gives you the scout report from the svelk. You thank him and go over some strategies since you’re feeling in a better mood now. Gruz is all too willing to give his opinions on how certain places should be approached and handled. He really does have some good ideas. Makes you wonder if you weren’t being a little too hard on him when you first met him.
“Captain, when the orders come in, I want you to be in charge of a second team. We’ll cover more ground that way and they’ll be less of a chance for potential rebels to escape.” You say.
“Are you sure sir, you don’t think we’d be better off keeping a larger force together? I’ve always found that it’s always preferable to have more numbers than you potentially need. But you’re in charge of course.”
Just as you’re about to discuss and ponder the pros and cons of each plan, a messenger walks in. It’s the official orders. Looks like the time for planning is over.