- Chapter Five -

- The Beast vs The Exile -

- Meydar -

Ar Jek stared out from under his spiked metal helm, slobber running down the two long fangs that pointed up from his lower jaw. His armour was rough and mismatched, randomly picked from battles. They served their purpose. A red pelt of a Cave-Cat was wrapped around his waist, paws and tail hanging downwards. Ar Jek glared down the dirt road that let through a small village of cobble huts with straw roofs. At the other end of the road a woman stood, glancing about. Ar Jek snarled and charged.

The bronze-skinned woman did not remember losing the battle back home. A man had the gall to approach her without respect and Ashka had drawn her sword, ready to teach him his place. Now she stood in what looked to be a small farm town including a church with a short tower. Surrounding the dozen or so buildings were fields upon fields of wheat, bursting out into the horizon in a sea of yellow.

Ashka was a well-muscled woman and a beautiful warrior. The armour she wore was sparse – a spiked pauldron on her right shoulder and a plated one on her left. A spiked guard ran down the side of her left thigh and calf, separated at the knee. A plated guard ran up her right calf, ending just below the knee. Strapped to her right thigh was a long dagger, in case of emergencies. A cloth of chain ran down from her gold-buckled belt and her breasts were bound tightly with chainmail. A plume of spiked red hair shot out of her horned helmet, smoothing out into a river of hair that narrowed as it descended.

She gripped her sword – a tall blade with large, sharp grooves running up from the top of the hilt to the double-pointed end. There were better sights to see than the Beast of the Mountains running straight for you. The stories about Ar Jek were near legendary. While a great warrior, he was an orc without control, without regard for any life, without strategy. Ar Jek's goal was simple. To massacre. Even if Ashka didn't have a faint memory of a set of rules in her head she knew that she wouldn't be able to reason with her Draken brethren. Ar Jek was not the kind of person you talked to.

He came on her like a storm without any kind of hesitation. His great stone war-club was brought down with two hands. Ashka hopped backwards as the stone split the dirt path, sending clumps of mud spitting in all directions. Without pausing to contemplate the missed attack, Ar Jek spun in a circle, sending a vicious swipe at Ashka. She brought up her sword to block the attack.

That was a mistake. Misjudging the power Ar Jek had the club smashed into the sword and sent her rolling backwards. She scrambled to her feet just in time to block a second attack – just as hard if not harder than the first. She was propelled backwards, her back hitting a cobble wall of a small house. Ashka ducked as Ar Jek swung, the club crashing through the cobble wall, completely capsizing the wall to reveal a small room inside.

Ar Jek swept his club in a horizontal line, whooshing closely past Ashka's stomach. Now inside the building, Ashka knew she had to get on the offensive soon. Ar Jek would only get faster and stronger the more he had the advantage. She swung her sword, hoping to catch his neck as Ar Jek walked into the room. It glanced off the armour curving over his shoulders, scraping down the armour. Ar Jek reacted instantly, swinging the club at Ashka's unprotected arm. The stone hit her spiked arm-guard, smashing it to bits. A sting of pain ran up her arm as she stumbled further backwards. She shook the pain away and dodged to the right as Ar Jek smashed a new hole into the house.

She grunted as she swung her sword in an arc, cutting through the back of Ar Jek's knee. If it fazed him he showed no sign. Instead the beast swung his free arm backwards, his fist connecting with her helmet, causing her head to ring with pain. Ashka tried to gather her bearings but the stone club met her stomach before she could.

Ashka slammed against the inner wall of the house with a gasp. The club had hit her like a boulder and she could feel a couple of fractured, perhaps even broken ribs. Ar Jek snarled and rose the club up over his head with both hands. That weapon had to go. Ashka stepped forward and swept her sword upwards. It cut through the wooden shaft of the club easily enough. The stone fell backwards, dropping against the grassy floor of the house.

Once again Ar Jek showed no hesitation or shock. He leapt forward quick as a snake with the shaft of the club. He drove the wooden spike deep into her unprotected right arm. Ashka couldn't help but let out a sharp scream as blood welled up in the wound. She stumbled towards the doorway, the spike still in her arm.

Her sight suddenly went black as she felt a great force on the back of her head. She hit the dirt hard, bits of gravel cutting up her face. Ashka groaned, turning to her back to see that Ar Jek had thrown the stone end of the club. He was now sprinting towards her. Ashka didn't have time to do anything before his foot met her nose.

The crack was audible and Ashka yelled out in pain as blood spurted from the obviously broken nose. Ar Jek lifted her by the hair and boldly threw her across the road to hit another building. Ashka stood straight, her weapon now abandoned on the road. Ar Jek came in with a fist to her stomach, then one to her waist. Another blow to the stomach followed by a third. Ashka managed to bring her hands up to grab both of his arms but without a pause Ar Jek drove his head forward, right into her broken nose.

Bursts of lights sped through her vision, the pain in her head too much to even notice the beating she was taking at the fists of Ar Jek. That was until his fist hit her straight in the jaw. Ashka crumbled to one knee, blood dripping from her broken nose and a cut lip. Ar Jek drove his knee up and for the third time hit Ashka straight in the nose. This time Ashka lost consciousness for a second or two for when she opened her eyes Ar Jek was straddling her, hands closed tightly around her throat with her back against the floor.

Ar Jek's hands may have been small but they were strong. There was no way she could breath and the pain from her nose was too much. Ar Jek was a monster. She knew of his reputation and heard tell of his acts of brutality but experiencing the wave that was Ar Jek was incredible. She had slain the beast Geyhar, led her forces of ten into an army of five hundred and ensured everyone had lived, went head to head with Olfen Dur and survived to talk about it.

Regaining her senses and feeling like her lungs were about to burst, Ashka droves her palms into Ar Jek's shoulder and pushed, switching the position. She went to latch her own hands around his throat but he kicked her off with both feet. Ashka stumbled backwards only for Ar Jek to ram into her shoulder-first on the stomach. Both Draken hit the floor in spatters of mud. Ar Jek slammed his fist down to Ashka's face, but Ashka had the sense to move it this time. His hand slammed into mud and Ashka drove her fist upwards, connecting with Ar Jek's sharp jaw.

Ar Jek's head was flung back and Ashka knew she had to take the chance. She followed up with a fist to the throat. Ar Jek made a sound that could have been a choke but Ashka let out a savage growl and pushed Ar Jek upwards onto her shoulder. His legs flailed as she rammed his spine into a notice-board for the farming village. She smashed Ar Jek straight through it and continued forward, finally stopping by cracking his spine against the corner of the small church. Ar Jek slammed his fists down on her back, clawing at it with sharp nails. Ashka refused to let go and stepped backwards, only to slam him back-first against the corner once more.

Ar Jek put his feet against the stone of the church wall and pushed forward, sending Ashka off-balanced. Ar Jek scrambled from her shoulder and grabbed her arm, whipping her boldly into the oak of the church doors. The doors rattled but stayed closed. Ar Jek dove forward and speared himself into her stomach once more with his shoulder and sent both of them through the doors that snapped off the hinges.

Ashka used the momentum of the move to fling Ar Jek over her head. He landed with a crunch against a pew, snapping it into shards of wood. Ar Jek came up quickly, a long piece of pew in each hand like daggers. He sliced rapidly towards her, but Ashka scrambled to the side. Ar Jek turned and continued to swipe through the air. Ashka reached out and grabbed a long part of the pew herself, bringing it up to block the attacks.

However two weapons were better than one. Ar Jek drove one of the shards into Ashka's ribs, causing her to grit her teeth. Ashka slapped his remaining shard out of his hand with her own and sent its point up towards Ar Jek's open, snarling mouth.

Ar Jek bit down, cracking the wood in his teeth. Ashka barely had time to contain her surprise before he threw a wild punch at her. She blocked with her arm and sent her own at Ar Jek. He weaved underneath it and threw an uppercut. Ashka moved her head backwards, allowing his fist to fly upwards. She grabbed the outstretched limb and tugged on it hard, sending Ar Jek face first onto the floor. Ashka brought her sandaled foot up and slammed it down on the back of his head, but Ar Jek was too quick for that. He slithered backwards on all fours and grabbed hold of an unbroken pew.

He roared ferociously and lifted the whole pew up, swinging it around like a pole-arm. Ashka dropped to a crouch, allowing the pew to swing over her head. Ar Jek let it go, allowing it to smash against the wall. Ashka sprung upwards, driving a sharp elbow into the top of Ar Jek's chest, just above the low-hanging chest-plate he wore. Ar Jek took a couple of steps backwards so Ashka continued to attack. She cracked a fist into his jaw, his cheek, and the temple. The strike to the temple cut his skin wide open, causing a crimson river to run down his eye. Ar Jek only seemed to get wilder.

He grabbed Ashka's fist and sent his own into her side. Ashka responded with one of her arms to his unprotected ribs. Ar Jek replied with a harder punch, punishing her almost certainly broken ribs now. The blow caused her to move backwards and that was all Ar Jek needed. He descended on her in a flurry of blow. She could barely block the blows that were aimed her head, freely taking the ones to her ribs. Ashka backed up under the force and number of blows, until her heel hit a step.

She realized that she had come to the bottom of the stairwell leading up the small tower. Ashka continued to back up the stairs as Ar Jek's wild strikes flooded her. At the top of the stair Ashka stepped backwards quickly, letting Ar Jek hit open air. With the opening in front of her, Ashka slammed the palm of her hand into his chest-plate, sending him recoiling backwards. He teetered at the edge of the tower but flung himself forward again.

Ashka popped him in the jaw with a sharp strike of her fist. Ar Jek blinked, disoriented, the slobber coming out of his mouth in thick drops. She hit him again and again and again in the same place until she was certain he was unconscious on his feet. Ashka grabbed his shoulders and threw him straight to the side – and off the side of the church.

Ar Jek hit the floor fifteen foot below hard, his head bouncing off the ground. Finally free from his flurry, Ashka backed up and leant over, catching her breath. She wiped the blood from her face, pulled the wooden spike from her right arm, and spat a bloody bit of phlegm to the floor. Ashka glanced over to Ar Jek to find he had moved from his spot on the ground. Unbelievably he was climbing straight up the side of the tower like a spider, his clawed nails digging into the stone.

With time to think, Ashka remembered her short sword and drew it, ready for the orc. He burst up with a lunge and landed on his feet, glaring at Ashka. Ashka let out a war cry and sent her short sword forward to impale his neck.

Ar Jek lifted his hand to protect himself and the knife slid through his hand like butter. For a second Ashka grinned, but it was wiped off her face when Ar Jek clenched his hand, dagger and all, over her own. His free hand shot up and squeezed her throat tightly. Ar Jek rushed forward and Ashka had no choice but to move backwards to stop from falling over.

When they reached the edge of the tower Ar Jek didn't stop. He pushed her over the edge and the duo fell through the air, heavily slamming through the top of a house. The straw and wood capsized underneath them and they hit the floor with a heavy thud.

Ashka found herself atop Ar Jek and slammed her fist down onto his pointed nose, trying to get revenge for her own. It snapped with a satisfying crack. She glanced about the room for a suitable weapon and grabbed at a stool, raising it so the seat was pointed down at Ar Jek's face. She slammed it down as hard as she could, twice, three times. On the fourth slam, the thick wood of the stool snapped in two, revealing the animalistic face of Ar Jek, face bloody from his nose.

His fist found her broken ribs and Ashka gasped, falling to the side. She managed to get to her feet and stumble to the left to avoid Ar Jek's lunge. For once, he seemed slower. Whether it was the fall or the stool, Ashka didn't know. All she knew was that perhaps this was the best chance she had. She kicked the table the stool had sat at, knocking it into the side of Ar Jek's leg.

The beast of a man fell to one knee with a growl, but before he could rise, Ashka pivoted on her left foot, slamming her calf into Ar Jek's head as hard as she could. The metal of his helm buckled under the force and Ar Jek collapsed in a heap on the ground. Ashka glanced up to the ragged hole in the roof, marvelling at being able to survive that fall. Next she took note of all the injuries that she had. Broken ribs, a broken nose, a hole in her right arm, another in her side… not to mention the bruises.

She had to either kill Ar Jek or make him unable to fight. The blow to his head had only knocked him unconscious and he'd start stirring soon enough. The dagger lay strewn on the ground, covered in Ar Jek's blood. She picked it up, knelt over Ar Jek's motionless body, and held the point over his throat. It would be a shame to kill such a brilliant, if beastly, warrior.

Ar Jek's awakening was so sudden Ashka barely reacted as his teeth latched hard around her shoulder at the base of her neck, impaling deeply in the flesh. She blinked at the shock and could have sworn the world slowed down. Glancing down, she could see Ar Jek, helmet and skull partly caved in from her kick, gnashing deeply on her shoulder. Blood seeped down her chainmail bindings in rivulets, dripping to the floor.

"Ashka, what is this?"

"I was interrogating the Draken spy! I was…"

"What have you done!?"

"Voel, this man is Draken!"

"That does not mean he does not have rights. You've killed him!"

"He wouldn't give me answers!"

"He didn't deserve death!"

Ar Jek pulled away, tearing flaps of flesh away from muscle. The dagger dropped from her hand as Ashka stumbled backwards, stopping to lean against the table. Ar Jek snatched up the blade and buried it deep into her belly. Ashka bent forward involuntarily, her chin resting on Ar Jek's shoulder.

"Ashka…"

"You've told me enough times Voel. And as I've told you enough times, I'm sorry."

"That is not enough, Ashka. I'm sorry. The Empire is built on rules and regulations. If you can't follow the rules—"

"Are you going to kill me?"

"Why would you think that? No… I am exiling you, Ashka. Find a new home, somewhere they'll appreciate your talents. Perhaps the bandits down at Folkner's Pass."

"You'd make me a bandit!? …I'd rather you kill me."

The dagger was pulled out, blood spattering against the opposite wall at the vicious movement. Ar Jek twisted the dagger in his hand and thrust it deep in the top of her left shoulder.

"Hahaha! You come to us? A soldier of the Empire? A woman!?"

"I am not Empire. Not anymore. And my gender has nothing to do with it. I can cut a man down as well as any of your bandits."

"I'm not a fool. Friends—kill her."

Ashka pulled away from the knife, ears ringing, and her vision hazy. She stumbled to the door, turning her back on Ar Jek. The mistake earned her a knife through the back, diagonally thrust up her left hip.

"You've killed forty of my men… and now you kneel before me, bloody and beaten."

"Just kill me."

"Is that what you want, Ashka?"

"I have no reason to be in this world."

"I don't agree. You wielded that blade like a warrior. When it broke, you picked up the next one, completely different in size, just a well."

"Kill me, bandit!"

"No. I will spare you. And you will show that savagery that you showed me to the rest of the world. To the Empire. Those that cast you out. I can take you somewhere where you will be accepted, where your violence will not be punished, but rewarded."

"…where?"

"Draken."

"Draken…" Ashka whispered through the blood in her mouth and the pain in her body. "Empire… Empire!" The pain filtered away and she could feel something bubbling within her, something… scary. "They cast me out… they cast me out! They abandoned me!" Ashka swung around and slammed her forearm into Ar Jek's face. With her other hand she grabbed the back of his head and smashed it against the house's door. It buckled and splintered at the force and Ar Jek stumbled forward out into open air.

Ashka bounded across the dirt path and crashed her shoulder into the chest of Ar Jek. He rolled backwards, springing back to his feet only for Ashka to bend her head and slam her helmet into his ribs. The horn impaled him all the way to the base. With a twist, the horn snapped off, disappearing in a well of blood. Ar Jek let out a howl of pain but punched Ashka in the face.

She didn't even feel it.

Ashka cracked her own fist into Ar Jek's bloodied temple, sending him staggering. She slammed her knee into his stomach, and followed up by slamming the knee into his lowered face. His head reared back and Ashka snatched her dagger from his hand and drove it deep into his neck.

The howl was louder but turned into a gurgle. Blood bubbled and dripped from his neck. Ar Jek stumbled back, finally stopped. His tongue lolled out of his mouth before he pulled it back in and charged. Ashka didn't even contemplate that he had somehow ignored the grievous wound. She ducked as she pulled the knife from his throat, twisting around so he ran right past. As he turned, Ashka drove the knife up into his ribcage. Ar Jek grabbed her wrists and drove his knee deep into her groin.

That was a surprise. Ashka buckled as if she were a man with a groan. The pounding in her head was unreal, although a voice hidden deep in the pounding told her that the wounds she had were fatal. Ar Jek, blood pouring from his throat, barely cared about his own fatal wound. He slammed into her and they rolled in the dirt. Ashka felt metal on her back as she pushed Ar Jek away. She felt a grin come to her split lip.

Ar Jek charged again, screaming. Ashka swung up with her sword that she had dropped what felt like hours ago. It sliced through skin, muscle, and bone with ease. Ar Jek's right arm flew into the air in a trail of blood, landing softly on the ground.

Ashka should have guessed that even that wouldn't have stopped Ar Jek.

She ducked under his left arm and swung horizontally, cutting through the deep flesh of his thigh. Ar Jek's left leg fell away from his body. Ashka realized that she was truly looking at a monster. He hopped towards her, left arm flailing, fighting to the very end. Gripping her sword with both hands, she swung diagonally upward. The curve of the strike took him under the jaw and came out the back of his neck.

His head bounced off the ground, rolling to a stop four feet away. His body fell to the side, motionless. Ashka half expected his head to keep gnashing. Instead, it was finally still, his bloody tongue touching the dirt floor. She limped over to him with the dagger she had left in his ribcage and slammed it down, impaling the head through the ear. "Just to be safe…" Ashka muttered.

The pain came over her in a tidal wave and she caught a glimpse of pure white light before the white was replaced with black.