The Battle of Ebulon (3 page)

The two sides merely stood
staring at one another for the longest of moments before Grock
spoke. “This fear tactic won’t work humans, it is too absurd to
believe…two dozen men killed this many Orcs?” A smile came upon his
wretched face, he was fully aware of just how many Orcs would be
attacking Ebulon, he was confident that by nightfall every human
would be wiped from this world. Quickly he looked to the borders of
the clearing, making sure there was no possible way an ambush party
was waiting to attack his troops. He then scanned the faces of each
of the humans, they were silent but not because they stood strong,
he could see the fear in their eyes and it was so potent he could
even smell it through the stench of death.

Then his eyes rested upon
those of Cada Varl’s and instantly he narrowed his vision, he had
never seen a human with red eyes before, not counting the bloodshot
eyes of the many he had strangled. Even more so, Cada Varl was the
only one who didn’t show fear. He studied his uniform, at one time
or another Grock had been apart of an assault of every human city
in the realm and yet no kingdom bared such a uniform.

“You!” Grock demanded with
a pointing finger and horrid tone. Cada Varl slowly looked him dead
in the eye, showing not an ounce of fear. “Who are you?” he asked.
Juruz felt an urge to warn Cada Varl about Grock, certainly Cada
Varl was powerful but Juruz knew the horror Grock was capable of.
Cada Varl merely stared for a moment before turning to face the
Orcs.

“I am Cada Varl,” he said
simply. Grock snickered, humans had such stupid names and this man
was no exception. “I am the one responsible for all the dead Orcs
you see before you.”

Grock scowled at such
words and after a moment of silence he joined his fellow living
Orcs in a chorus of cackles. They sounded like a murder of crows
squawking at some sick joke. Grock suddenly stopped laughing and
instantly the others became silent.

“You really think I am
that much of a fool? What stupid magic did you humans use to change
this man’s hair and eye colour? There is an outside chance we would
have believed you if you had bothered to paint yourself in the
blood of the fallen. It is hard to be afraid of someone who is too
squeamish to make their lie convincing.”

Juruz quickly glanced to
Cada Varl before looking back at Grock. It was very rare for him to
be bewildered, but in that moment he had no idea what to do. Grock
smiled at Cada Varl, waiting for his façade to crack, but Cada Varl
remained stony faced.

“Very well,” Grock stated
as he slid off his Warg, which was the largest in the pack. As he
did so every Orc smiled a wretched smile. They enjoyed the cruelty
Grock was known to inflict. Grock took several steps into the field
as he said, “If you’re so powerful you should have no problem
killing me? Isn’t that right?”

“Cada Varl,” Juruz tried
to whisper.

Cada Varl heard him but
without hesitation walked into the clearing. The two of them met in
the center as the Orcs continued to smile while the humans watched
in silent fear. From under his black cloak Grock took in hand a
foul blade, forged from the blackest of steel, it possessed jagged
edges like a saw, with the head of a mace taking the place of the
sword’s guard. It was brutal in every way, a weapon of utter
cruelty known as ‘Nurok Bezul’ literally meaning ‘a thousand
terrible deaths.’ There was hardly a single person in Ebulon who
didn’t know of its disturbing power to cause agony and death. Grock
was use to seeing men and women tremble in fear upon seeing the
blade, so didn’t know what to think of it when this Cada Varl
showed no change in his expression.

“Are you not afraid
human?” Grock asked.

Cada Varl waited a moment,
allowing the tense silence to fill the air. “It will take a lot
more than a poorly made sword to fill me with fear
monster.”

His words didn’t anger
Grock as much as the look in Cada Varl’s eyes. This human hadn’t
even bothered to raise his sword. To Grock this kind of arrogance
was the ultimate insult. This Cada Varl would suffer like no human
before him. The Ebulon soldiers had seen what Cada Varl was capable
of, but Grock was one of the most skilled swordsmen in the history
of both man and Orc. He could do things with his blade that men
were simply incapable of.

Juruz looked beyond the
two of them and could see an Orc staring directly at him. It too
possessed a horn at its side; its grubby hand loosely grasped it.
If Juruz called for help it would too. Juruz could now only rely on
hope, that this Cada Varl was capable of defeating Grock, something
no other human had ever been able to do.

Grock didn’t wait a second
longer, his blade was hungry. He moved forward, proving incapable
speed. In the eyes of the Ebulon soldiers he seemed a shadowy blur
as he attacked Cada Varl. The smiles that had once been on the
faces of the Orcs then vanished and a great clash of steel
thundered in the air. Grock stood dumbfounded, his weapon had not
only been blocked, it had been blocked with ease. Cada Varl stood
with his sword slightly raised staring into the black eyes of his
enemy. Grock shook his head, unable to accept what he was
seeing.

“Unbelievable,” Torin
gasped. “He blocked his strike like he was blocking the cane of a
crippled 90 year old man.” He may have whispered these words but
the silence was so great every single Orc and Human heard his
words. No human had ever blocked Nurok Bezul before. Grock
increased his speed and replayed the attack, determined it was some
lucky fluke. Yet it wasn’t, Cada Varl blocked the second strike
just as easy. Grock heard the gasps of his fellow Orcs all too well
as they began whispering their disbelief. Grock could feel the rage
rise inside and he unleashed it in a series of attacks, so fast and
brutal that the humans couldn’t keep up with his movements. While
Grock seemed a blur Cada Varl kept his sword in one hand, blocking
each strike. He didn’t even appear to be paying attention, like
this was a game he had played a thousand times before and had long
grown bored with it.

After delivering another
failed attack Grock leapt back as his rage showed itself in very
heavy breaths. Cada Varl remained silent, as Grock demanded of his
mind to explain what was happening. His state of rage quickly gave
way to bewilderment. He had fought against some of the most
legendary human warriors in the realm and each had died painfully
and swiftly by his hand. Yet this Cada Varl had blocked all of his
attacks and wasn’t even breathing heavily. His instincts then came
to his rescue. He took a strong whiff of the air, his motions were
that of a foul beast. “You’re not human are you?” It was a question
that every single human and Orc desperately wanted
answered.

“Not anymore…” was Cada
Varl’s casual reply.

Every Orc and human
watched in tense silence, all wondering and fearing what would
happen next. Grock raised his sword and was still annoyed that Cada
Varl kept his lowered. This red eyed man wasn’t taking him
seriously. The answer only created more questions. Something was a
miss, striking Cada Varl’s sword felt like punching a mountain,
there was no budge there. He possessed strength greater than even
an Orc’s.

Grock didn’t allow himself
to be overwhelmed; instead his mind came up with another solution.
Suddenly he opened his mouth slightly, revealing rows of crooked,
sharp teeth. His green putrid tongue moved like it was suffering a
seizure as his mouth opened and closed rapidly. Cada Varl still
showed no emotion, yet he was confused as to what his opponent was
doing.

“He’s using Orc magic!”
Juruz called out desperately.

Grock smiled, the
revelation had come a second too late. Cada Varl didn’t even have
time to look over his shoulder at Juruz. A foul smelling black mist
appeared in the air, it was without visible source but knew its
purpose. The mist surrounded Cada Varl on all sides before wrapping
itself around him like a demonic cobra. The mist then became solid,
made from a metal that could only be forged by magic. Cada Varl
glanced down at his imprisonment and when he looked back to Grock,
the King Killer was smiling. Cada Varl may have been a powerful
fly, but still he had been caught in Grock’s web. Even Juruz gasped
at seeing this, he didn’t know the rhyme or reason of Orc magic.
All he knew was it was dark, ancient and very powerful.

“You’re strong,” Grock
began. “But rarely does strength alone win you victory.” He waited
to see fear yet Cada Varl showed none, Grock was hoping he was
about to change that. He lifted his sword noticing his grasp was
now steady. “I am going to make you ask me to kill you a thousand
times, before this is over.”

This magic black metal
amazed Cada Varl, he had never seen anything like it. The fact that
his tremendous physical strength wasn’t enough to break it proved
how powerful it was. Juruz was panicking on the inside, he didn’t
want to force his two dozen troops into a suicidal situation but he
couldn’t just stand by and watch Cada Varl get killed. Cada Varl
looked back to Grock who was approaching very slowly, savoring
every moment of the torture that was about to take
place.

Cada Varl didn’t want to
have to use it, but he knew it was the only way to save himself.
Grock was the first to notice it and stopped in mid step as the air
before the red eyed man began to shimmer as if controlled by the
heat of a flame. Juruz was the next to notice it for it was hard to
see at first. Torin was puzzled as he wiped the sweat from his
brow. This was the dead of winter and yet he was sweating.
Collectively it seemed everyone noticed how hot the air had become.
The shimmer in the air was now joined by a very faint metallic red
light, like Cada Varl was standing in the middle of an
oven.

“What are you doing?”
Grock couldn’t help but ask, his smile twisting into a snarl. Cada
Varl didn’t answer with words but with action. His eyes began to
glow that metallic red and seeing this Grock felt afraid. The red
energy now appeared to attack the black prison and before the
moment was over it had destroyed it like a hammer to
glass.

“This cannot be!” Grock
gasped out, his fear choking his own words. The energy remained
faint around Cada Varl as he stared at Grock with glowing eyes.
“What lie is this?” Grock demanded, the black metal was summoned to
be indestructible, what power was Cada Varl using? He looked into
those red powerful eyes. Grock was rarely afraid, he hated the
feeling but his fear would not be denied. This Cada Varl, whoever
he was had to die and die now.

Ignoring the extreme heat,
he rushed towards Cada Varl, his weapon at the ready. He barely saw
Cada Varl move, before he couldn’t see anything. An Orc was the
first to gasp, because no one could quite tell what had happened
immediately and then it became all too clear. Not only had Cada
Varl cut through Grock’s sword he had cut his head straight from
his shoulders. Black Orc blood could be seen momentarily in the air
before evaporating within the heat of Cada Varl’s faint red energy.
Grock’s body fell lifelessly before him yet Cada Varl paid no
attention, unlike everyone else he knew exactly what he had
done.

“He killed him as easily
as a lion killing an ant?” Torin blurted out.

The Orcs watched on
terrified and dumbfounded not believing Grock was dead. Instinct
took control of one specific Orc and he jammed the horn to his lips
and blew it soundly. The noise it emitted echoed all throughout the
ranges and brought everyone back to the moment at hand. Though
still shocked by what Cada Varl had accomplished Juruz thought
clearly enough to know what this sound meant. Grock was dead but
500 Orcs were alive and capable and in only a few moments thousands
more would be arriving on the scene. He motioned to speak but was
brought to silence as seemingly every peak began to tremble
violently. The horses struggled against the now quaking earth as
every soldier searched for the source.

“So many Orcs are marching
the mountains tremble under their weight!” Ulka cried, as his horse
desperately wanted to flee this place.

“No…” Juruz said, with an
eerie calm. “It is something else,” he knew the march of Orcs well
and therefore knew they were not the cause of this. “The mountains
are afraid…” Juruz added, his gaze distant.

“Afraid of what?” Torin
asked. Instantly when his words were spoken the red energy
intensified around Cada Varl like a match head being violently lit.
Juruz and Torin glanced to one another, knowing the question had
just been answered.

“What’s he doing now?” a
soldier said, asking a question they all feared to know the answer
to. The earth continued to quake as the red energy began to rise
furiously and move within itself like lightning in a storm. The
mass of energy moved to his sword before ascending like a towering
inferno. The ascending energy reached the sky before the moment was
over burning through the clouds like flame to cobwebs. With the
pillar still burning, the world was grasped by the light of the
sun.

In spite of the collective
fear, in that second Ulka was grateful for what Cada Varl had done,
he could see the sun clearly. It was an eerie yet awe inspiring
sight, one that they each silently marveled at. This wrath of
energy felt like it had the power to cut the very world in half.
They all wanted to run to the very edge of existence if they had
to, but no one could bring himself or herself to move for terror
and wonder grasped them all. However Cada Varl wasn’t struggling
under its power, he had complete control of it. With a blood red
glow consuming everything in sight Cada Varl’s arms moved swiftly
as he hammered the energy down through his sword. It crashed like a
gigantic wave upon the mountains and the Orcs were caught right in
its center.