Chapter 3: Orc Subjugation
AN: Here we have the first 'action' of the story.
Tracks from orc wagons signified a recent passage of orcs in the area. The wizarding group landed in the open field with many orc tracks. There were some more recent tracks, but those were made by local wildlife, rather than the orc stampede.
The evening sun was approaching the horizon as Blaise scouted the field for any orc presence. The sound of orcs felling trees was audible even almost two kilometers away, but the wizards had to dispatch of the outlying groups of patrols. Blaise saw Harry and Colin signal the sighting of separate orc patrols, and quickly went to join them.
The plan was not overly complicated. They had the superior mobility and powers, at least individually. They planned to isolate and overpower orc forces in small numbers. Then they would portkey them to prison cells.
Each one of them was responsible for construction of twenty-five prison cells. The bars were 5 cm thick and each cell had the standard 2*2 meter dimensional build. All cells then were connected to each other, so that the shocks that the orcs put out on the bars would be absorbed by the whole structure, rather than the cells alone. The roof system of interconnected shock absorbers allowed for this innovation to take hold. Four hundred cells were constructed within two hours, and a portkey was made for each cell.
The wizards were overestimating the enemy purposely, just to be on the safe side. The estimates that the wizards came up with counted only about two hundred fifty to three hundred enemies. The wizards made some extras in case they missed a part of the enemy forces. With all the preparations ready and a light mana potion consumed by each one of them, the wizards were ready to start the attack on the orcs.
Blaise joined with the rest of the team and joined the almost silent council on how to proceed. They all agreed on the strongest stunning spells. With that in mind, the ambushing wizards disillusioned, masked their scent and approached the incoming orc patrol.
The orcs had no idea that anything was amiss, the trolls with them were making lewd jokes on the captured night elves. Just the previous night they had the pleasure to feel the thrill of battle coursing through their veins, yet this night was proving very boring.
With that thought in mind, the leading orc did not notice the glow that quickly surrounded his subordinates and himself. Half a second later, before he could fully process the significance of what was happening, he lost his consciousness.
The wizards let go of the breath they were holding. The spell worked exactly how they wanted it to. The effects were slightly unpredictable when they were dealing with a race as biologically different as orcs, but the contingencies they had in place were fortunately not needed. They threw ten portkeys and watched as the orcs quickly vanished. The first prisoners were in place. The night elves would look after them until the wizards returned.
The second patrol that evening to come through the site was overcome just as silently, bringing the number of captured orcs to twenty two. Then came the hunt for orcs. The grunts who were chopping down lumber even in the dying light of the evening, started vanishing very quickly. Capturing them proved to be very easy, so the wizards concentrated on them first.
By the end of the first half hour of the hunt, all the lumber workers were captured, bringing the total number of captured orcs and trolls to one hundred and twelve. They only completed the easiest portion of the mission.
Grunt and troll patrols were more frequent now. The outer patrols were being captured still, but the inner patrols were also now being targeted. The standard patrol strength of seven grunts and three spear trolls was present in all eight outside parties. The inner patrolling parties consisted of five trolls, twelve grunts, three Raiders and one shaman.
They required a bit of a change of tactics through. Since they orcs had the superior numbers, they could not be all cursed at the same time. The wizards addressed the issue within 2 minutes of discussion.
A silencing bubble would be erected in the path of the approaching patrols, about forty meters in diameter. The prerogative in the mission was in maintaining secrecy of their advance.
As soon as the prey would be within the bubble, the hits would occur on the first fifteen targets. The hunting party made sure to include everyone but the grunts in the first salvo. The six other grunts that were left grabbed their hanging axes and charged with mighty war cries. Sadly for them, they were simply banished away from the wizards, and while they were getting up, they were stunned as well. The group was eventually portkeyed out and the dome of silence dissipated.
The same procedure was repeated on the other three patrols. Some proved crafty, some were just overcome with shock. In the end none of them made a squeak outside the silencing bubble.
The main group was starting to take notice of the building silence in the night. It was already fifty minutes after sundown and the camp was steadily growing quieter. The leader orc, whom Harry could see, sent out a scouting force of thirty grunts going in three directions.
Scorpion army captured the orcs and placed them under imperius curses to come back saying that everyone was taking a break. The leader had no idea of the existence of such curses as imperio, so accepted the reports and went back to command tent with an uneasy feeling.
When Grom Hellscream got the negative answer, he entertained the idea that it could be just his imagination. Unfortunately for the wizards, Hellscream did not get his name from being a relaxed fool. He issued a loud war cry to gather his remaining forces, whatever they may be. Not one orc came from outside patrols, not one lumber worker showed up. Thankfully his forces from two out of three barracks showed up.
Now Grom knew that they were being attacked. Just before he commanded his subordinates to check on the thirty traitor grunts who gave false information to him, a magical translucent wall was raised in front of them, about twenty paces in front. The same occurred all around them.
In the meantime, the wizards were surrounding one of the barracks with an active ward up. The sounds that pass through the ward were copied by it to be played over in a loop, while stopping other sounds from passing through. This was a perfect ward for isolating forces and dealing with them separately. The din of noise of an active barracks would still be heard from outside and the ones inside would still hear the occasional sound from the outside. More appropriately each of them would hear the recorded sounds over what would happen in real-time.
This ward had been raised just before the orc chief sent out his scouts, and was playing the loop by the time the scouts returned. The denizens of that barracks would not trouble the other orcs. The wizard hunters were just about to start scouting the inner side of the barracks, when the orc chief issued a war cry calling everyone to him. Thankfully at least one barrack would not heed his call.
The wizards knew that the warchief would know of the missing patrols within a few seconds. The only ones that posed them any amount of challenge were the local shamans, so they decided to use their orc grunts in subterfuge. While the orcs were gathering, Harry dug out his trunk for the physical isolation device that he built for vampires back in the day. It was a set of sixteen artefacts that could be connected in pairs, making 8 translucent walls that allow no physical passage through, but allow sight and spells to be cast. The walls were arranged so that an octagon was formed, but it didn't have to be perfect. The walls were crisscrossing each other at the edges, so that the captives would not be able to reach them in order to disable.
The orcs became restless, they began reconfiguring their positions to better accommodate any threats from any side. Scouting eyes narrowed in every direction, since the magical enclosure surrounded them. They still could not see their damned attackers. This was most likely a retaliation from the night elven women from the previous day.
One of the twenty two Witch Doctors was about to make the command to cast their sentry wards, when the thirty grunts that went scouting previously simultaneously bashed them on the head with the flat of their axes.. Most of them had at least a concussion, or worse, but the end immediate result was that all the shamans were disabled. The grunts quickly turned their flat weapons on the rest, while the small stones fell onto bodies of the shamans and ignited into blue color. The unconscious shamans disappeared in the middle of the ensuing brawl.
The orcs were stunned at the teleportation magics displayed in front of them by the attackers. The enemy would now meet no mercy from their swords and axes. If the enemy was powerful enough to launch teleportation magics of the enemies right between the orcs, then there was too much danger in letting them live. The orcs had no idea how right they were.
Then the unthinkable happened, the Raiders were dislodged from their beasts and launched over the enclosure. Along the flight they were hit with some kind of a red light of a spell and their screams turned mute. They might as well had been killed. Then the same happened to every troll headhunter. From their force of one hundred and some orcs, fifteen or more orcs were launched that way every ten or so seconds.
This was infuriating to the commander. He, along with the rest charged the wall right after they finished dealing with the traitor grunts. While his Gorehowl axe sank through the barrier with no resistance, his hand could not pass the barrier. It infuriated him when the grunts at his side were launched over the wall. Unleashing a mighty war cry, he started charging Gorehowl with all the magic he had and let it go at the wall. It seemed that the wall was actually suffering under his ministrations. There were ripples coming out of the places where Gorehowl hit the wall and spreading throughout the wall. A minute or so later, the wall seemed to have disappeared.
At this time there were only ten of the orcs left - Grom himself, two of his captains, three grunts, one kodo beast without its rider, and three raiders. This time the raiders were blown backwards from their beasts. All of the orcs were lifted off the ground the next moment. The only one to break the forced levitation was Grom, and he narrowly avoided the incoming red spell. The rest fell, leaving the Chieftain to fend for himself. The attackers finally revealed themselves, or at least one of them did. This was one of those wretched humans, who imprisoned him just a few scant months ago. The levitation was attempted on him again, but he broke it off just as easily as the first time.
The human narrowed his eyes speculatively, then drew a sword from his back sheath. He almost silently darted toward Grom and engaged in a breathtaking fight.
Harry was finding the chieftain to be somewhat interesting. There was an edge to this greenskin that was absent in the rest. There was wisdom mixed in with the bloodlust of the orcs. He had the ability to dispel the levicorpus charm. The greenskin also found a way to damage the integrity of the prison machine that withstood vampires with their blood magic. The axe the orc held lit up in Harry's mage sight very brightly. It was a marvel to see such a well enchanted piece of metal on a species perceived to be as savage as the elves claimed. They supposedly face the orcs in the past and knew them to be nothing more than savages, but this piece of metal disproved all that. Harry had half a mind of asking the orc where he got that axe in the first place. Oh well, Harry wanted to see if the orc was as impressive with that axe as he was interesting. He drew his sword from its sheath and dispelled his own disillusionment. Giving the command to the others to stand by and watch, he started a light trek to the orc. Charging the orc, he reviewed the moves and style the orc had displayed so far. It consisted of mostly brutal swings of that axe at the wall and some more finesse displayed against the grunts. Overall the orc had a great strength behind those axe swings.
The movements of the orc became so fast that Harry was hard pressed to keep up. This one orc was almost as fast as Akima and had much more strength than Harry. Harry ended up making sure to never parry his enemy, since that would put too much pressure on his wrists, however thick those may have been. Deflecting those axe swings was not too much problem though. Ten or so swings later, the orc made a leap backwards and concentrated. As Harry launched a 'Seko' cutting spell, the orc seemed to have split into two individuals. Harry felt some other piece of magic being cast simultaneously, but did not have time to register it. Both versions of the orc charged him simultaneously and Harry began to fend off both. Three double swings in, and Harry managed to embed his sword in the ribcage of one of them.
A split second feeling alerted him and before he fully realised what it meant, his sword sliced out of the puncture and was in a guard stance across his back. A fraction of a second later, an axe hammered at the sword with great power. The sword fortunately did not pierce its own sheath, which was the first thing it contacted on his back, under that pressure. Harry quickly apparated back about twenty meters.
The double with the sliced open chest was in the process of vanishing in a puff of smoke, and the other double was running towards him already. The real one was running too. Harry never encountered magic of this kind. He did not know how dangerous the copy was. The last thing he wanted to do was to underestimate the double for a fluke and find out that it could hurt him just like its master. Harry was sure that it was not alive like its master though, so he felt no regret as he launched a cone of spreading spears at it. It batted off three spears, but the other six still pierced it, sending it to the ground. Before it hit the ground, it vanished in a puff of smoke. Harry was very interested in the spell used to create it.
Grom was mad when the surprise attack on the swordsman did not work out. Gorehowl was almost singing with delight at the prospect of drinking this strong wizard's blood, but then the damned human deflected the attack. Something like a 'blink' spell brought the wizard away from him, but the wizard showed up only a few paces away. Charging him, and commanding his double to attack as well, he was surprised to see the wizard lift his sword and launch some type of spears at his double. The double was dead within a single second. Grom stopped right there. The wizard's eyes were on him and Grom fully understood that the first few minutes of their combat were fully indicative of the skill level of the man. Here was a spell that could have ended him as well as it just did his double. The wizard gave him a nod of understanding. This man had him outstripped on many fronts.
Warsong Clan was captured. His skills were not enough to fend off a single man. His pride was taking a savage beating by this man. The orc's knowledge was not sufficient enough to win this day. He angrily acknowledged that not one of his subordinates was lying dead on the field. Indeed there was no one on the field at all, other than them. Then he noticed the wizard's team uncloaking. He was overwhelmed by the number of the enemies. He couldn't deal with a single one enemy across from him. Fifteen enemies was too much even for him.
Defeat gnawing at the pit of his stomach, he growled out one word at the wizard. "Why?" This was a human male, not one of those women. The man should have no reason to attack him, but he did, and Grom wanted to know why.
The human looked at him with a slight smile on his face. They made eye contact and a few seconds later Grom's eyes widened when he felt a strong intrusion in his mind. Surprising really, that this intrusion was felt only so deeply within his mind. He tried to break the connection, but he was denied. He tried to avert his eyes, but the wizard was so deeply into his mind that he no longer needed the eye contact as a channel. Grom closed his eyes and let out a growl as he understood what was happening. The wizard was taking his knowledge. The wizard had the language down already, the skills Hellscream attained during his long life were also taken, the latest plans of the orcs were taken too. The wizard then answered him in orcish.
"You have invaded this forest claiming many trees. The denizens of this place would have slain you all had I not interfered. You had no place to do that, much less the permission of the local inhabitants for your residence here. I came here to deal with you without much bloodshed. What do you have to say for yourself?" Harry was not playing games with this orc.
"We are fleeing the Eastern Kingdoms. There our previous masters have come back. The Burning Legion is back on Azeroth and they came to exterminate us. Our warchief Thrall is en route to a meeting with the Oracle known in these lands." Grom was desperate for help from Thrall. Negotiations with other species or other tribes were never among his strengths. He gave information too freely. To abstain from that, he generally fully avoided conversations altogether. "What do you think of doing now, Human? Where is my clan? What have you done to them?"
"Your subordinates are in cells asleep and bespelled. The only ones hurt were the ones your men hurt during the brawl you had. You are most likely to join them. I will grant you an audience with the local headquarters where you may present your case. You will be tried and judged."
At that moment the ward around the last barrack fell and it shone in blue light from inside. From the door the wizard's companions exited without a scratch on them.
"That's it, you are now the last orc in this camp who draws conscious breath. Your last forces are now with us. Come peacefully with me, and you will have your case tonight. What do you say?" Harry did not want to make an enemy right there, so tried to work with the orc. The news of the return of the burning legion was troubling him, not that he would allow it to show in his countenance. He saw potential in these orcs, unlike Cenarius.
"What will it cost me? I will not be shackled like some criminal. Lead me to the council you spoke of and then we will talk." Grom was gaining his confidence back. He saw that not everything was lost. His clan was safely imprisoned, not one of them was killed. His position as the commander was lost, true. His mission to the warchief was forfeit, at least the way the warchief wanted it. Holding onto Gorehowl, Grom approached Harry. There was a minute tension in the wizard and he said:
"Grom Hellscream, if you want that audience with the inhabitants, you will have to surrender. You understand it well, there is no need to pretend that that's not the case. Submit your axe and your daggers. You will be given a bracelet to limit your mobility. You will be unable to come closer than 2 meters or farther than 30 meters from me. Do not forget why I came here."
The orc glowered at him for more than half a minute, but then his shoulders slumped and he threw Gorehowl onto the ground. It was summoned quickly by the wizard. By the time it reached Harry's hands, the daggers were on the ground as well. The orc had no armaments left on him anymore. A bracelet was levitated to him and he put it onto himself. A brief darkening of light around it signified that it now latched onto him.
They trudged off in the direction of the opening in the enclosure. The orc was told to wait for a few minutes while the wizard conversed with his teammates. For some unknown reason to the orc, the wizard who captured him stared at some female for five minutes with no explanations. Then the process was repeated by both of them on new targets. Then the process repeated itself twice more.
It was unusual for the leader of the Warsong Clan to be this bewildered by the actions of others, but he definitely was now. They seemed to communicate silently, when they had the full capability to communicate verbally. Silent communications were not a topic well covered in the orcish knowledge, but they were touched upon by the shamans. It was well established that the silent communications relied upon body language, but the wizard displayed none. The language was inferior to verbal language, since there was much less that could be conveyed in that method. The combination of the two languages is what most orcs used. This was the established way of contact between most species too.
Yet the wizard then did the same with others and they also accepted the silent treatment. The unusual way that this phenomenon seemed to spread among the cloaked humans, prodded Grom to understand that this was not just simple silent communication. Something more was being done there.
While the first pair of humans was occupied, the others quickly went around the town and brought down the enclosure's walls. The artefacts were placed in something akin to a trunk. Grom was not believing his eyes when four wizards walked into a trunk one after the other. In the six minutes that they were absent, six more wizards joined the leading pair in the staring match, first two and then four. The remaining eight wizards inspected the buildings, threw around some of their spells, and generally entertained themselves, all the while looking at him. Just as the five minutes were finishing up, the wizards looked at him and raised their wands. A dome arose around him, impossibly heavy and opaque. Grom was plunged into darkness. He fumed as the minutes passed. He somewhat understood what was coming up. All the wizards would be incapacitated for the next five minutes and nobody trusted him enough not to try to retaliate against them.
At the end of the five minutes, the dome became translucent and a moment later just disappeared. Grom looked at the face of the leading wizard and grunted his acknowledgement of the need of that treatment.
The man smiled and brought out a horn, of all things, from his pouch. He blew it long and loud. By the end of the blow, the air beside them shimmered as many night elven figures arrived with the teleportation.