Chapter 2:

The Flood

Sezarra kicked over the chair next to him and ran from the main room to the front gates of the keep. He stared out at the castles defenses. A few hundred humans…and against the orcs who attacked Garador? They stood no chance. Sezarra moved toward the base of the wall steps and began scaling them up to the top. Zadachi was following him close behind shaking his head at the human's poor defenses.

Sezarra reached the top of the stairs and looked over the wall and saw hundreds of orcs pouring from the forests. He looked left and right and saw that there was not only one battalion of these brutish creatures, but a whole sea of orcs covering the land like a spreading disease. They had brought the whole army. The scouts must have tracked them here. Zadachi reached the top and stood next to the crenellation looking out at the endless sea of massive creatures holding brutish axes and thick swords. He let out a gasp and began to move down the stairs. For a moment Sezarra thought he was going to leave the castle, but then he stopped and rested on the stairs thinking over the tactics of the city.

Sezarra looked around and saw that there was no way that the town could hold against the tide of this ocean. The walls would surely fall and all of the residents, soldier or not, would be brutally murdered. Sezarra never fled a battle, save the massacre at Garador, he knew that there was a high chance that he would die and Lady Zhinthra would take him into her realm. There he would meet his mother, his sisters, his brother, and Zadachi when it was all over, but now he was ready for battle. He was always eager to show true bravery and prowess.

He looked out over the waves of orcs and saw that most of these beasts were true berserkers, no armor, and all weapons. But there were some that did wear armor. Not just leather or chain mail, but a full plate so thick that no human could possibly walk around wearing it. They carried axes with axe-heads that were as thick as the hand is wide and as long as a human torso. These were real beasts of war. They were organic metal war-machines. If he recalled correctly, they were named Black Orcs, the elite of the tribes, ones who had single-handedly slain a dragon, mountain giant, or taken on an army by themselves. Among the orcs they were the legends, near to being gods, outranking even the most powerful orc warlords.

And Sezarra would have to fight them outnumbered ten to one

Sezarra looked long and hard out at the tide of beastly humanoids and was unsettled by these monstrous metal beasts. The black orcs clambered on following their brethren as if they wore no armor at all; it seemed not to bother them. Zadachi moved down and instead of standing by the gate like Sezarra had thought; he grabbed a longbow and a quiver of arrows.

Sezarra changed his tactic also and followed grabbing a bow and a quiver of his own. He grew up around bows, but was not very good at shooting them, he believed that killing his foe at a distance wasn't a fair battle and showed cowardice to the foe.

He shrugged off any feeling of cowardice, as he knew that this battle was already lost; but he might as well help some people in the process. He swore he would kill as many as possible. Climbing to the top of the wall he notched an arrow as he looked over the wall and saw that the invaders were not far off. He raised the bow and aimed at one of the monstrous metal-clad orcs and released the arrow.

To his satisfaction it hit, that was all he was hoping for, but it just stuck into the metal breastplate and did no further damage. He notched another arrow with anger clouding his mind. He aimed for an unarmored orc this time and released. He didn't hit the one he was hoping for, but killed a different orc instead. The arrow hit him in the upper shoulder and he spun to the ground with a thump. His comrades did not slow their pace, but jumped over the body.

Sezarra slung the bow over his shoulder and ran down the stairs to help the guards on the ground fight against the orcs who were slowly shattering the gate. Once they got in the real battle would begin. A shattered piece of wood shot through the gate skewering a guard. It caught him in the throat and a gasp of air came from his lungs as the blood shot out through his neck splattering to the ground before the body made impact.

Sezarra didn't wince. He paid no attention to the fallen guard, but got ready for the gate to break open so the fighting could really start. He felt along the grip of his katana feeling the familiar pattern of its grip. He slowly drew it as another part of the door shattered. He drew it out slowly. The gleam of the blade glinted in the sunlight that pierced the ever-present clouds.

Then torches rained over the town. The torches fell onto the dry straw roofs of the houses setting them on fire instantly. Some of the guards ran off to extinguish it, but Sezarra watched the door as the first flash of metal gleamed on the opposite side, signaling that the black orcs were at the gate.

In one fell swing the door broke in and threw two guards flying in a bloody pulp spraying the walls and the remaining guards with their liquid of life. Sezarra slowly raised his sword above his blood splattered face and yelled a war cry in the elven tongue.

He rushed in on a black orc, leaping into the air above its head yelling at it in his battle cry of fury. He brought the sword down on his head and the katana's keen edge bit into the helm. Then it slipped off the helm to glide from his shoulder pad and bite into the dirt below.

His eyes darted up to see the drooling rotten teeth of the mouth grinning beneath the iron helm. Sezarra was vulnerable, and he kicked his feet at a rebounding angle to send him gliding backwards for the next attack. The orc's axe swung down and caught one of the protruding spikes on Sezarra's plate armor. It drug him face down into the dirt and he heard the impact and the ringing of his ears. He could no longer see, or hear any part of the battlefield.

He glanced up to see the black orc about to swing down upon him, but one of the human guards rushed up and stabbed it with his spear. The spear sank in and dark red blood drooled to the ground. The monstrous orc turned and roared in the man's face. He swung his arm around and gripped the man's skull firmly in his hand. With one swift movement he crushed the man's helm and skull like a can. Blood shot out from in between his fingers and sprayed over the ground, and over the orc's face.

The orc slung his head back around to stare down at Sezarra with the empty black holes of his helm. He slung his axe around over his head slinging blood across the un-moving body of Sezarra. The axe fell, then there was heard the sound of a wet crush. Then a cry pierced the air.

Sezarra was beginning to regain his hearing and his body was numb, he could hear the roaring "Waaagh!" of the orcs and the war-cries, or maybe just cries, of the towns defenses. He began to push himself upright with his arms. The numbing allowed only a little strength causing him to nearly fall back over. But he caught enough to see the four foot tall dwarf jump off of the top of the armored orc, his hammer smeared lightly with the dark blood.

He shook his head and began to focus, the battle seemed to have spread deeper into the town, but orcs were still pouring in. He was nearly beheaded by one as it ran by, but Sezarra threw himself to his left avoiding the strike. He then kicked his legs behind the orcs knee causing him to collapse. Pulling himself up onto his two legs and gripping the enchanted katana he flipped it over in his hand and thrust it through the orc's gut. The orc fell forward, but Sezarra had already started his dazed staggering to his next foes.

He swung at the nearest orc, armored in nothing more than cloth pants. The orc sidestepped and growled, slinging his axe back around to attack Sezarra. Sezarra ducked and drove his gauntleted fist into the orc's groin. The orc doubled over and Sezarra took the opportunity to stab him through the heart. Blood ran down to the katana's golden hilt and ran down to slick Sezarra's grip on his blade.

He then turned around and ran toward the center of the town distributing blows with his blood-slicked blade. He saw many people running for shelter and saw many orcs trying to attack the women and children. He saw an orc kill a woman and her child in one fell swing of his great axe. A black orc was trying to be held off of some children running for the inn by a two guards. Sezarra saw opportunity and ran up to attack the heavily armored orc. He blocked an attack thrown at him by a nearby orc and thrust his katana in between two plates of the black orcs armor. The orc roared and slammed one of the guards into the wall of the tavern. It then turned to see Sezarra about to attack again. He pulled his katana out and thrust upward through the breastplate. The orc grunted and tried to growl, but only managed to gasp. It dropped its huge axe and fell to one knee. Sezarra pulled his sword out and lashed his blade to slice open the neck of the huge orc. It fell to the ground shaking Sezarra's whole body.

The guard looked at Sezarra in awe and then moved on to fight some other orcs. Sezarra reversed his grip on his blade and thrust into the gut of an orc, its intestines fell to the ground and the orc's body on top of them. Sezarra flipped his grip back to the original position and moved off to where he saw the most black orcs. He ran in parrying blow thrown randomly at him. He cut some orcs as he passed and some he managed to slice into two pieces with his keen edged blade.

Sezarra saw two black orcs fighting close together and swiftly and bloodily felling many guards. Sezarra focused his energy on his sword and it began to glow a soft white light. He swung the sword around under the orcs right arm. The swords white light flashed bright and it burned through the thick metal plate armor of the orc. The sword cut cleanly through its arm. The orcs heavy arm fell to the ground and a stream of blood shot from its arm covering its armor in thick dark blood. The orc swung its other arm around without consent from its parted limb. The giant gauntleted fist hit Sezarra hard in the chest, and during his parry Sezarra managed to cut off part of its hand.

The other black orc turned on him seeing how much damage he was dealing to his comrade. He took a wide sweep at Sezarra and Sezarra leaped back quickly hoping that this swing wouldn't hit him like the last one did. The axe missed him by a hair's breadth and cut his comrade into. The black orc raged and punched with its left boulder sized fist. Sezarra swept to the side and stabbed the orc at his left leg, but his blade ran off the side of the thick plate armor. He shifted his weight and ended behind the massive orc. The orc began to turn on him, but Sezarra summoned forth energy and launched a bolt of blue energy at its helm. The orc jolted and twitched and then began to swing its axe wildly and blindly.

Sezarra took advantage of an off balance maneuver of the orc and stabbed it on the back of its neck. His long blade sliding effortlessly through the thick skin and out the other side of his neck. Sezarra kicked hard off of the orcs back dislodging his katana in the process. He turned around to see a group of about a dozen orcs charging headlong at him. He once again summoned force in his gauntlet-hand and pushed a force wave at the group throwing them thirty or more feet into the town wall far behind them. Next to him on of the guards lashed off an orc's head with his glaive. Looking anxiously around he searched for another area that might need his power, but all he could see was orcs, everywhere. They weren't really strong, but with that many of them, they just flooded in and destroyed with sheer numbers...

As Sezarra looked arouind he noticed that most of the orcs were not charging him, they were avoiding him. But why? Orcs were not known to be intelligent, so why would they avoid one of their enemies. The answer caught Sezarra as he caught sight of a Black Orc giving out commands. The orc was commanding (loudly and gutturally) at the smaller orcs at his feet who were just about to charge him. They held back, and the Black Orc stepped inside of the orcan ring ready for a worthy challenge.