Crystaria standing on the north-eastern wall, that was separating the village from the slope.

She was watching the dust plum up from the rubble. There had been no movement from underneath the rubble since the wall fell. She worried about how many died in the wall’s collapse.

She then jumped down. She liked this perk of being a Demon Lord. The fact jumping from this height, with this small of a body, was the same as if she had hopped off of a stool. She landed nimbly on her feet. Looking down the slope at the rock pile of the collapsed wall. The frown on her face more pronounced than before.

She walks to the pile, her intent to clear the rubble, hoping to find if there were any survivors. To see if their leader was dead; if he was, she would take his body as proof to the troops that survived the collapse of the wall, that weren’t through the entrance.

She reached and grabbed a stone in front of her, then one stone after another. She started to clear away the rubble.

As the pile slowly receded back towards the large pile were the wall met the slope, she found a dark pocket, were there was a clearing free of rocks. She expected to start finding bodies soon.

She cleared a few more rocks to make room before looking into the opening, when an orcish hand covered in white and grey dust.

It grabbed her around the throat. She was so surprised by the unexpected hand shooting out of the rocks, that she didn’t make a move to dodge out of the way of it.

It gripped her tightly. So tightly in fact, that she suspected that if she were a regular goblin, the hand would have broken her neck.

Then, all at once, a figure broke free of the rocks and rubble.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the orc Warchief, looking none the worse for wear.

“How?” She asked in a strained voice, that belied her actual ability to speak.

“How? HOW?!” Gragnueok shouted. “No, Demon Lord! How dare you!” He said with a shake of his hand that shook her back-and-forth; his grip also tightening even further.

She would almost say it was at the point of uncomfortable. But it would be a lie. It was as bad as having a tightly wrapped scarf around her neck.

But she did start to flail gently, reaching up towards his hand to grip it, just to give the appearance of a struggle.

“How dare you drop a wall on Gragnueok and his warriors!” He drops his weapon, then reaches up with his free hand, to put both hands around her neck.

Oof! Getting a little tight there!

Crystaria comments in her own mind. Now that he had both hands around her neck. It was to the point where she snagged the scarf in something. Not really choking her, but also making it very uncomfortable.

“You-! *COUGH* were trying to kill me, to kill us goblins! Why shouldn’t we defend ourselves?!” She tried her best to fake sounding like she was actually being choked and strangled. Which she found out, was actually quite hard, in fact to fake.

Seriously! Those actresses and actors make it look so easy!

But Gragnueok paid very little attention or to notice if her struggle was fake or real.

“Do you have no shame?! Where is your warrior spirit?!” He said with a shake of her body as he held her about four feet above the ground. “How dare you disgrace the art of war! No... For this act of defiance. Gragnueok will not let a single goblin live!" He threatened her.

"What?!"

"That! Right! Gragnueok was going to be satisfied with. Just killing Demon Lord. But now! Now Gragnueok will kill ten-thousand goblins for every orc you killed today! No more will Gragnueok offer goblins a place in his utopia!"

"What are you talking about?!" She asked as she pretended to pull herself up by his wrists to get a better breath of air.

He of course, shook her violently to get her to stop moving.

Well; as violently as he could. She realized.

"You! You are the only one more thing, in Gragnueok way! Gragnueok kills you! Gragnueok bring power to orc brethren! Then Gragnueok use power to bring equality to all races!"

upon hearing his words. Crystaria lost her will to keep pretending to fight, nor to keep playing like he had be choking her.

"E-Equality to all races?" She asked with wide eyes. Hoping she had missed heard him.

"YES! Gragnueok will bring all races to heel!" He stated as he slammed her down into the stone ground. His tremendous strength burying her about a five inches into the stone. "But not goblins! No! Not them no more! For your insolence!" He reached back and grabbed his weapon and held it aloft, over his head. "YOU! AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR RACE! WILL DIE!" He brought the axe blade down with such tremendous speed, and with such terrorizing force. That Crystaria started to sink farther into the rock path, as the blade came down on her.

The Warchief had a genuine smile on his face for the first time within the hour. He went to pull his weapon free, only to have it lodged against the rocks. He frowned at this. He should have been able to pull it free with ease: for he was still in his blood haze.

He looked within the hole he had embedded the Demon Lord. Only to see a small green hand, jutting out of the tiny pile of pebbles and rocks, latching on to his great maul; Their fingers holding the blade were embedding themselves into the weapon itself.

"What?!" The Warchief exclaimed in a whisper of disbelief.

"You know?..." Came the muffled reply. "If you would have lead with that. Things may have gone differently."

"..." The Warchief was in utter shock. He could not find the words to speak. He tried again. This time with as much strength as he could, as he grabbed on to the weapon with both hands, pulling on it.

 

 

Nothing.

 

 

"I would have actually considered letting you have this power: even if that meant I would have to died." The Demon Lord went on to say, unperturbed that she had just been smashed into a hole.

The Warchief struggled valiantly to pull his weapon free. Grunting and groaning, pulling and lifting. But nothing budged the weapon free from the Demon Lord's single grip on the blade.

"But now? now that I see who would have wielded it. I know that you are the kind of person, who would have gone around and gone down the path of warmongering and bullying, just to get people to listen and submit to you." She lectured.

"Shut. Up." The Warchief spat as he tried to pull his weapon free. But for the first time, it gave a little.

He pulled again. But still, nothing happened. He felt that it was raising though. He felt it push against his fingers. Pushing him backwards.

This time, rather than pulling it, he tried pushing against it; but still to no avail. The weapon just slowly started to raise out of the hole.

"If every person who wanted this power, acts like you. Then it is no wonder that the power had to go off world to find someone else." She explained to him in a reproaching manner.

"SHUT UP!" The Warchief screamed. Throwing his weighting into his arms as he pushed down against his great maul.

"But really though, all kidding aside. I really wish you would have told me this. This was one of my plans as well. To bring the goblins to enlightenment. Then spread that to the other races, giving them the option to join us..." As Crystaria broke free of her stone rubble sarcophagus. "It's not to late. You and your men could join us too?" She told him.

"WHO WOULD JOIN YOU?! YOU FILTHY GOBLIN SCUM!" He screamed with absolute rage. Spittle flying everywhere in front of him.

Crystaria could only give a sigh. Looking down towards the ground.

"For what it's worth, I am sorry for what I did: I wish now I would have waited until we talked some more; to have learned why you wanted this power. To see if we could have compromised this some how. But there is no undoing what is done. we can only move on and move forward." She looked back up towards his eyes. "I promise that I will spare as many as your men as I can."

"You think you won this battle?!" He screams at her.

"You don't?"

"THIS BATTLE! HAS JUST BEGUN!" He yelled as he proceeded to roar aloud.

"*RAAAAAAGGHH!!!*" His aura shooting out from his body. Spreading all over the area. This had been the first time that Crystaria had felt someone's aura other than her own. It wasn't a physical thing; much like her own. It was like being in a lucid dream, like being underwater with out getting wet or needing to breath.

When she used hers, it was like pushing against that lucidity. It wasn't something you could latch onto or grab, it wasn't even visible to her eyes. Just a weird, almost haze like vapor in the air, that distorted the area around her, giving it a slight underwater, quality to it.

His is aura on the other had, was much the same. But rather than it being a slow or hard thing to push out mentally. His came like a soft tide that washed over her. It didn't push or pull her. She assumed it was because hers was to strong. But this was her first experience with aura, or someone being able to use aura, other than her: and to her, she found it quite-

Fascinating!

But she didn't have long to revel in this fascination for long. His aura wasn't the only thing that got spread around. His scream echoed off of the natural walls of the slope, which reverberated around the area, right down past the rubble wall. Crystaria's ears perked up, as she heard the returning echo of the Warchief's soldiers' own echoing battle cry, towards their Warchief's.

"Oh no." Crystaria's hope for a peaceful solution was becoming more and more distant.

"OH YES!" The Warchief screamed in pleasure. "That. Sound. Is sound of over a thousand enraged orcs! Readying themselves to fight for their Warchief's aid! What do to say to that?!"

Crystaria just sighed.

"I say, that I am truly sorry." She took a deep breath. "EVERYONE! ATTACK!" Crystaria shouted.

Her voice unexpectedly loud for it coming from such a small goblin. Her shout echoed around the slope, all the way back up to the village. All at once. on the walkways they had carved on the ridge of the slope. Goblins appeared. Some even started to pour down the slope, near the blocked entrance.

The Warchief seeing all this called out in orcish. "TO ME MY WARRIORS!"

The rubble directly behind him started to surge, then the rubble itself lifted up and away. Falling to either side from where it was lifted. From underneath the rubble, the orcish battalion that had come through the gate with the Warchief emerged.

"Oh shit!" Crystaria let out a curse of surprise.

"Oh shit indeed!" Mocked the Warchief. "As Gragnueok said before!" He then pushed down on the great maul's handle for leverage. Which caught the distracted a Crystaria, while she was off her guard. She was lifted off of the ground, because she still had her fingers embedded into the weapon. She dangled from the head of the maul, as the Warchief drew her closer to his face.

"The battle has just begun!" He then reared back his weapon and threw it, along with the Demon Lord, away from himself.

Crystaria pulled herself free of the weapon she was attached, while it was flying through the air. She flipped and turned through the air, landing on a foot and a knee. The weapon continuing on its journey through the air, flipping end over end, landing somewhere behind her.

“Guess it’s plan B then. *SIGH* time for some aggressive negotiations.”

---

 

Athena was leading the charge with leaf at her side, heading straight for the orc.

But just as the orc screamed, the rubble right behind him burst apart, flying in their direction.

“Shields up!” She shouted. She, long with the rest if the front liner fighters, held up their shields as the rocks and rubble came at them.

Lucky, most of the larger piece fell short, with only the small pieces and pebbles pelted their shields.

Just as they brought their shields down, she could hear the orcs start to shout in their direction.

“What is with theses goblins? Why are they so organized?” An orc shouted.

“Where did they get that kind of equipment?”

“What the hell is that thing! It’s huge!”

“It’s a gargantuan goblin!”

“Kill it!”

“I got it!”

She couldn’t understand a word they were saying. But it sounded like they were in a sort of frenzy. One orc in particular started a charge all by himself, heading straight towards them.

“*RAAAAGGHH*“ The orc screamed primally as it headed a little to one side. Which made Athena realize where he was heading.

“Grog! Take care of him!” She shouted as an order.

As the orc came close to the oversized goblin, he swung his weapon. As it came down, the large goblin, who was only about a head shorter than himself, grabbed the shaft of his weapon. Stopping the  forward momentum of his swing.

This surprised the orc warrior greatly.

“Hmm...” Grog hummed to himself. “Me like this weapon!” He then reached with both his hands towards the orcs weapon and pulled it towards him.

The orc not letting go of his great maul, was pulled with it, towards the goblin. He tried to yank it free. But he could barely shake the grip of the goblin who held it.

“L-Let go!” He shouted in orcish. Not caring if the goblin understood him.

“Hmm... Yes! Grog like this weapon!” Grog said satisfied with his inspection of the weapon he was holding, not paying attention to the orc he had pulled along with it.

Grog then pulled the weapon closer to himself, incidentally pulling the orc closer as well. They were chest-to-chest, with the weapon in between them. Grog then looked the orc in the eyes: who had lost his blood haze and had a frightened look on his face.

“Grog take weapon now please! It’s Grog’s weapon now!” He reared back, lifting the weapon, along with the orc holding it, then pushed against the orc.

The aforementioned orc, was then sent hurtling backwards from whence he came, landing on at least five other orcs who had also started their own charge. Knocking all of them over.

Leaf looked over to Athena proudly.

“That’s my brother!” She proudly proclaimed in a jubilant manner.

Athena just rolled her eyes.

“Focus captain, leave your brother crush at home.” She teased.

Leaf started to blush furiously.

“H-H-How m-m-many ti-times must I t-t-tell you p-p-people! I d-dont! Have a c-crush on my b-brother!” She stuttered while she swung her sling through the air, making figure-eights around her body before releasing the stone at an on coming orc.

Who was hit square in the forehead, before falling over.

Athena just laughed at her friend, while deflecting an attack from an orc with her shield. She then used the side of her sword to smack the orc across the face. Another soon took the place of the one Athena just smacked away. This one came charging in with her weapon low, like she was attempting to battering-ram Athena; So she decided to let the orc come at her head on. And as the orc made contact with her shield, Athena let the momentum carry her backwards, rolling onto her back, curling her legs, shield at her front between her and the orc. She then used her feet to push the shield, flipping the orc who was trying to use their weight to their advantage. Athena then flipped the orc over herself, making her tumble end-over-end.

Athena continued her roll with the flip to push herself off of her shield, back to a standing position. By the time she turned around, the orc had just turned over and was trying to right themselves. Which was to late. Goblins all around her jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of the helpless orc. The came at her with clubs and slings. Beating her into submission with easy before subduing her.

Athena smiled at the fast and efficient work of her fellow soldiers at arms. She was proud that they were following their orders to not kill unless necessary.

She then turned back to go back to the front to find more orcs to subdue.

---

"WARCHIEF!" Shouts Lirania as she rushes to her father's aid. "Let me help you dispatch the Demo-"

"No."

"What?!" Lirania looks at her father in disbelief on what she just heard.

"Go back and help our soldiers." The Warchief told her in a low and cold tone.

"But father! you can't possibly think you can beat them alone can you! They took you're strikes with ease!" She refuted. Trying to convince her father to let her join the fray.

"Helping me will be pointless!" He told his daughter. "They is too strong. They could probably take on both of us without much effort: in fact, they probably could have killed me at any now."

His daughter's eyes widen at this.

"Even more reason to let me help you! How are you going to fight them alone?! Let me-"

"With the blood rage." He flat out told her.

"..." This shut her up. She wanted to ask if he was being absolutely serious. But she knew he wouldn't have said such a thing if he wasn't. "Father," She started to say and draw his attention. "You realize, you might be pulling an all or nothing stratagem with the blood rage correct?"

"I am aware."

"... Do you really believe it is necessary?" She asked him, almost sounding like she was pleading at this point.

"I do." He said with a finality that she was sure was the end of this conversation.

She gave him a solemn nod. Acknowledging what he had said: even if he wasn't looking at her. She knew why he didn't want he to fight by his side now. If he was planning to use the blood rage. Then she was endanger as much as the Demon Lord; or really, anyone who came near an orc that let the blood haze take control of them.

She turned to move away when she heard him say.

"Give me your weapon. I kinda threw mine..."

She had to roll her eyes at that.

As she handed him her weapon, she pulled him close and whispered into his ear.

"You win this apa! you have too!"

He finally looked down at his precious daughter for the first time since the battle had started.

"Of course I will." He promised. "Now go! Help our warriors!" He ordered.

"Yes Warchief."

---

As Crystaria was watching the interaction between the woman and the Warchief, she wondered if that wasn't like his spouse or something.

They seemed very intimate.

She watched as the woman handed off her weapon and started to run back towards the battle happening just behind the Warchief.

"So? Is this where our big conflict starts?" She asks in a flippant manner.

But the Warchief just smiles.

"No." He states flatly. "This is where it ends!"

*RRRAAAGGGHHH*

The Warchief shouts in rage. His aura almost exploding out of him. She swore she started seeing pebbles rising up, but knew she was just imaging it.

To clear her head of such silliness, she blinked.

When her eyes opened again. She was almost face-to-face with the Warchief.

"HOLY! FUCK! SHIT!" In the span of a blink, he had crossed the distance of almost twenty feet in an instant. His hammer-axe, as she liked to call it, swung down towards her with such terrifying speed, that she was almost unable to dodge it. She had no choice but to jump up.

She went up almost thirty feet above where she was standing just a second ago. As his hammer-axe connected to the ground. The blast of debris flew up and touched her feet.

JESUS! I am not sure that would have killed me?! But I definitely do not want to get hit by him! She thought to herself. The blast of dust caused by the Warchief's smash, must be at least fifteen-feet across in a circle radius!

As she was looking down at where she had been, She felt a chill go up her spine. She would have swore that she saw his red glowing eyes through the dust cloud, looking up at her.

Which she would have been right. Because not a second later, I figure burst out of the cloud, straight through the top of it, heading right for her. He spun around as he traveled upwards, his arms holding the weapon's handle as he spun to wind up the swing.

She realized her mistake for jumping up and away. Because now she had no fast way down.

I can't dodge! She held up her hands in a cross-guard fashion: with one arm straight-up, with the other crossed over to her other shoulder, behind and pressed against the arm that was straight-up.

luckily for her though, he had used the hammer end of the axe this time. Just as the hammer-axe connected to her crossed arms, she saw the terrible visage of the Warchief's face for the brief second she saw it; which felt longer for her, since when she was in her hyper mode, a second was a long time.

His face had morphed into a mask of pure unbridled rage. Foam and froth, formed near the edges of his mouth. It was also no longer just his sclera that had turned red, it was everything; his whole eye ball, was now just a solid red, luminescent color, that burned into her own eyes as she stared back at it. She was afraid for her own life, for what was probably, only the second time since Crystaria had arrived.

*CRACK* She heard, as the hammer smashed into her. She then flew backwards so fast, that she wasn't even sure where she was by the time she had stopped. As she pulled herself free of the rubble of the ground she was embedded. She realized, that she had sailed all the way through the air, over a five-hundred feet from near the front of the walls, to the complete opposite side of the wall, where the village began.

Ouchie! That smarts a little.

"Demon Lord?! Are you alright?!"

"..." She did a momentary self assessment before she answered.

She felt.

Fine.

As odd as that sounded to her.

Her arms stung, but for the most part, nothing she had smashed through or hit hurt her in anyway.

Even the cracking noise that she had heard didn't come from her or the impact itself. She realized now, that the hammer-axe, must have broken the sound barrier.

GEEZ! How fast did he swing that?!

She shook her arms out, getting blood to flow back to them, since they were a bit tingly. She then turned and answered the goblin standing there.

"I am fine Seshat. Sorry for the abruptly dropping in like this!" She said with a grin.

Seshat only gave her an unamused look on her face.

"You've been spending to much time with Artemis recently if those are the types of jokes you're making."

"OH COME ON! When else could I use that one?!" She argued.

"Joking aside," Seshat interrupted. "Shouldn't you be getting back?"

"Shit! you're right! Got to go!" She said to her before jumping back through the hole that she had made when she was sent flying.

Crystaria realized that she could still win this fight. But she would need to be a lot more careful. While he was faster now, she was still faster.

While he was stronger now, she was still tougher. The smash he had inflicted on her was probably enough to kill most things in this world. But not her now. Sure it had hurt; and it had been the first thing to have hurt her since she had woken up. But even then, it felt like that time when she was punched by the stupid bully back in high school: where that bitch just came up and punched her in the arm as hard as she could. Because she was a bitch.

That bitch! Just thinking about the old school nemesis was pissing her off. I don't even understand why she was always bullying me?! But she shook her head of the thoughts as she neared the Warchief again. It looked like he had just landed from his jump in the air, and was heading towards the battle.

NOT ON MY WATCH!

She took off at the fastest she could. She passed him in less then a second. When she skidded to a halt, the dust cloud she kicked up from her sudden stop, was almost as high as his smash earlier.

As he locked his eyes on to her; Crystaria's on to his. She asked him

"Miss me?"

*RAAAAGGHH* He roared as he reared back to swing his weapon at her.

"Grr, grr, to you too buddy!" She taunted.

As the weapon smashed into the ground. Another plum of dust was kicked up.

This time, rather than dodging straight up or moving out of the way completely. She just side stepped it, then moved back onto his hammer-axe after he smashed the ground.

He pulled back his weapon, only to be surprised to see the thing he was looking for, standing casually on the tips of their feet on the end of his weapon.

"Hi!" The Demon Lord said to him.

*RA- OOF* He grunted halfway through his roar.

Crystaria had run up the shaft of his weapon, then used a double open palm strike against him, in the center of his chest plate. He was sent hurtling backwards almost thirty feet. Even though he wasn't coherent or lucid at the moment, his instinct kicked in. He smashed his weapon down again, dragging it through the ground and rock, as he skidded backwards, helping to slow his momentum.

Cyrstaria watched as he righted himself. There was to pygmy goblin sized, palm indentations in his chest plate now, that perfectly fit her hands.

He has got to have some broken ribs after that. She commented to herself. He was looking down currently, breathing heavily. His head snapped up. His eyes still aflame. He straightened up, taking a deep breath.

*RAAAAAAGGGHHH*

Guess that wasn't enough then. "Let's see how you like this!" She yelled towards him, rushing at a cruising speed forward; the Warchief, rushing to meet her.

---

As Lirania was heading back towards the battlefield, she could hear her father start his blood rage.

Get'em apa! She encouraged he father through her thoughts. She took an assessment of the battle so far. To her, it seemed as the troops on the north-western side were having the most trouble. Most were either down or captured, which confused her a little.

Why are they capturing us? instead of killing us? She questioned in her mind. But As it stood, both sides had also received casualties. just not as many as she was expecting. She only spied a few fallen goblins on the ground, few still of her own men. The southern most side though was almost at a standstill. With neither side taking any losses, nor giving or taking any sort of ground. She decides that her time would be best be used to help those that needed her the most. With that, she rushes off to aid the northern most group of soldiers.

As she is approaching, she notices three of her soldiers lying face down with goblins either tying them up, or applying some sort of salve to their wounds.

Are they drugging them?! She rushes to their side faster, trying her best to make it there to rescue them. A goblin notices her coming towards them.

"H-Help! Orc incoming!" One that was applying the salve screams.

Three goblins rush towards her, intent on standing between her and her soldiers.

Not today freaks! She doesn't have a weapon, but it hardly matters to her. The goblin with a shield charges her, but she just jumps at him and knocks him down by slamming into his shield to spring off of it, shooting over him to the goblin wielding a club. The goblin with a club, eyes go wide as she rushes towards him. He swings, but she stops and skids to a halt, letting his swinging weapon pass. She grabs it and the goblins, then swings and throws them at the third that has some sort of ranged weapon.

*OOF* The two goblins collide with a fleshly smack as they are practically smash into one another. She doesn't spare time for them, as the one with the shield has recovered and is charging her from behind. She just extends her foot out in a kick and knocks the goblin off his feet with a hard shove to his shield again.

"H-HELP! SOMEONE SAVE THE RESCUE TEAM!" The goblin with the shield screams out for help.

Rescue?

Six more goblins come rushing in to attack her. But she is close enough to her companies, that their weapons were near to her. She runs, ducks, rolls, and stands back up in a readying position to fight off the goblins.

"COME AT ME!" She screams at them in goblin. But she doesn't wait for them to attack her, she rushes towards them. Swinging the great maul over head, to slam it into the side of a goblin wielding another shield. She sends that one flying to the side, then moves on to the next one. But this time, letting him make the move to attack her, which she uses as an opportunity to break his hand with the blunt side of the maul. He screams in pain, but goes silent as she kicks him in the jaw. As he goes sailing in the air, she grabs his shield, pulling it free of him. Then throws it to smash into the sides the heads of the to ranged goblins: with them being so grouped and close together, it just ricocheted off of each other.

The two goblins wielding clubs charge at her with what she thinks is a pathetic kind of war cry. In retaliation she gives one of her own, that freezes them in place for a second. She uses this, to charge them instead, holding her weapon horizontally to smash into both of them as she runs past both of them.

They both are knocked down, and stay down after her charge. She turns back, walking slowly towards her fallen comrades where a couple goblins are huddled near by, quaking in fear.

"ENOUGH!"

Someone shouts behind her.

She turns to see a goblin staring at her. A female goblin with long brown hair pull back into a ponytail, stares at her a sword and shield in hand. Glaring at her.

"You're going to pay for hurting my men!" She threatens the Lirania.

Lirania just snorts at this.

"Like you have room to talk! This is a battlefield! Not a place of fun and children's games!" She counters.

The goblins eyes widen at what she said.

"You speak goblin really well. Won't you put down your weapon and surrender?" The imposing goblin asks.

Lirania shakes her head.

"Not happening. This one is here to rescue my men here from... Whatever you are doing to them."

"Healing them?"

"HA! Like this one would be dumb enough to believe that! But enough talk! Have at you!"

---

Athena was next to Leaf, who was pelting rocks every which way. Which would land and smack into an orc. Either hitting a place that would numb their limbs, or a spot which knocked them out entirely.

Grog was close to the think of it, getting support from the goblins all around him. He would get charged by an orc, who thought they could take him down. Only for them to either be the one smacked around, have one of Grog's supports daze them; which gave time for Grog to not them out, or for Grog to just out right chuck them to the side for others to beat on.

The fighting was going well. most of the orcs on this side had either been knocked out or taken captive. While Athena hated to think about it, she saw that they had already lot a few goblin friends; but so had the orcs. Those were the ones that would not relent and had nearly killed a goblin or two. So they had to be stopped. So while the losses were tragic, the number of them was acceptable. She was just wondering if she shouldn't make her way towards the south-side, when she heard a cry for help.

"H-HELP! SOMEONE SAVE THE RESCUE TEAM!"

Her head turned and saw that there was a lone orc wreaking havoc near the rescue teams.

Athena turned to Leaf.

"Captain, the rescue team needs my help! Do you have this position?!" She asks her friend and fellow officer.

Leaf gave a sure nod.

"Go!" She told her. "We've got this!"

Athena returned the nod before sprinting away.

The orc had just finished beating her soldiers to a pulp when she arrives. The orc had its back to her.

"ENOUGH!" She shouts at the orc who was facing the rescue teams and captured orcs.

A very chiseled and strong face, female orc turns towards Athena. Her dark red hair cropped short. Their great maul gripped in one hand.

"You're going to pay for hurting my men!" She threatens the orc.

The orc just snorts.

"Like you have room to talk! This is a battlefield! Not a place of fun and children's games!" She counters.

hearing the almost perfect goblin-primer spoken to her, catches Athena slightly off guard.

"You speak goblin really well. Won't you put down your weapon and surrender?" She asks the orc, hoping she could be reasoned with.

But to her dismay, the orc shakes their head.

"Not happening. this one is here to rescue their men here from... Whatever you are doing to them."

"Healing them?

"HA! Like this one would be dumb enough to believe that! But enough talk! Have at you!"

Athena readied herself as the orc warrior sprinted towards her.

---

Artemis was standing next to Breeze and Hush, looking down with them towards the ever persistent horde of orcs trying in vain to climb or dig their way through the rubble.

Artemis had a whole battalion of troops at her command at the fallen wall. half of them were her own personally trained units of the rangers. The other half was a half-ass attempt to get a few hundred of them half way trained in ranged weapons before the orcs showed up.

The shitty half just used the slings and threw the rocks at random, hoping to peg a few of the orcs trying to make it through to support their fellow soldiers and Warchief.

While the half she had personally trained and was proud of, were using throwing and hunting spears to attack and throw at the more stubborn orcs

not one orc yet had been able to make it half way up the now steep rubble barrier between the sloop and the rest-alm.

As it stood, she had very little to do at the moment besides baby sit and supervise.

Which only served to piss her off.

"I'm bored."

Both the twins let out a sigh.

Breeze said to Artemis.

"General, you can't get involved. You are suppose to delegate. Let your troops handle it."

"I know!" She said petulantly "I am just bored! I hate this, "Being a inspiring figure!" dragon crap!"

Hush started laughing with a deep echoing sound. He makes a gesture towards his sister.

"NO! I can't just look away while you two throw some spears!" She reprimanded.

Hush reaches over to tap Artemis on the shoulder, gesturing a simple: "sorry, I tried."

Artemis didn't know many signs, but she recognized that one.

"It's fine Lieutenant. I didn't actually think we were going to see any action anyways. We're just here as back up."

---

"DAMN IT ALL TO THE EVIL GOD!" The Lieutenant of the orcish army screams. "How are you all screwing this up! how in dragon's crap, are you all so worthless?!"

He was berating his men who had been driven back again-and-again. He was now the only one in charge of the army, now that it was cut off from the Warchief and the General.

he was at least thankful, that nearly all of his soldiers were able to escape the falling building, but many did, and a lot sustained heavy injuries. on top of it all, as soon as their recovered enough to try to clear the rubble to regroup with their leaders, an army of goblins came over to stand on top of the rubble to attack them at range. Since goblin's had the high ground any ranged weapons the orcs may have tried would almost be worthless or non effective.

As of now, he had about sixteen-hundred soldiers on his side of the path. But so far they had not been able to do a thing about it, do to the rubble blocking their way, and the goblins accurate strikes against them from their advantageous position.

They had so far already crippled or heavily injured more than four hundred men while they were trying to climb or clear the rubble.

Out of the sixteen-hundred that survived, Lieutenant Zarnarok, was already down to a thousand men.

"THESE ARE JUST GOBLINS THAT LIVED IN A CAVE! WITH ROCKS AND STICKS!"

Most of his men we were looking down, not daring to look up at him.

"You should all be a shamed of yourself! How dare you call yourselves orcs!"

"...Not like you have tried climbing that hill..." An orc in the crowd mumbles.

"WHAT WAS THAT?! WHO SAID THAT?!" Zarnarok walked up and down the line of men questioning them. "Which one of you worthless dog craps, said that?!" His eyes were burning red. His blood haze right at the surface. "Not a single one of you worthless craps are even worthy of being!-" He stopped. He had a thought just then. He looked back at the hill; at the current men trying to climb it.

One after another, they would try to climb it. Only for a rock or a spear to pelt them or stab them in an area that made continuing hard or impossible. But he noticed something then. He had been seeing it for almost a half movement of the sun. But now he was paying attention to it. He saw an orc climbing just now. They were about halfway up. Then the rocks started to fall. He was pelted relentlessly. After a while of this, a spear was thrown, that was jabbed into his calf. He could her his this man's cry of anguish. He then started to descend because of his wounds. That was when the Lieutenant noticed it.

They stopped?

He noticed that all barrages directly aimed at the soldier, who was limping down the hillside, had just ceased.

The Lieutenant watched another, and another. When finally he put it together.

"Umm... Zarnarok? Is there something a matter?" Asked one of the wounded soldiers who was staring up at his CO, waiting for him to continue his rant. The wounded soldier watched as a slow sinister smile, spread across the Lieutenant's face.

"Actually warrior. There is something wrong here." He looked down at the wounded man. "You haven't been doing enough of your part."

---

"Things seem to be going well." Breeze comments.

"Hmm... almost a little to well. I would have thought that they could have tried something by now to force our hands." Artemis adds.

"..." Hush makes a few gestures with his hands.

"I don't know?... General? what do you think?"

"What did he say?" Artemis looks over at Hush. "I am sorry, I just haven't had more of an opportunity to learn how to communicate with just hand signals yet.

He gestures to her, "That it is fine, that he understands.".

"Well! just now he said-"

"I got that one. What did he say before." Artemis cuts Breeze off from having to repeat everything her brother has said.

"Well, he said that: "Maybe we should send some of our soldiers here to go support the battle down below. Since this one is pretty much safely in hand.""

Artemis pauses and thinks about this for a little bit.

"You're right. Even if we had half capacity, it would be more than enough. we should-"

"GENERAL! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!" Anthemis came running up to the top of the rubble pile.

"Oh! Leaf's sister... umm?"

"Anthemis ma'am." She reminded her.

"Right! Report soldier, what is the problem?"

"You can see it from here General! Look down there!"

All three of the officers were looking at the steep slope leading up the rubble pathway. The orcs were climbing up, with their wounded strapped to themselves.

"Ah!" Artemis gave a very sedated exclamation. "Clever. They must have noticed we weren't attacking the wounded."

Breeze looked at her General like she had grown extra ears.

"Clever? Clever?! Is that really all you have to say about that?! That is horrible?! What barbaric people would use their own injured people as cover for themselves?!"

Artemis gives her an incredulous look.

"The ones that win a battle." She stated flatly. Which surprised Breeze that Artemis would say something like that. "I love the Demon Lord like my own child. But this is the reality her soft hearted nature has brought upon us. They saw a weakness they could exploit, so they are taking advantage of us: just as we're taking advantage of the high ground."

"Well then? what are we going to do?"

"We will do what we must." She looked back to Anthemis. "Sargent? what were the Demon Lord's instructions to us?"

"..." Anthemis was quiet for a moment while she thought over her answer. "To obstruct, defend ourselves, to slow and wound the enemy."

"And?" Artemis encouraged her to continue, since she missed saying something.

"... And to kill them when only necessary."

Artemis held up her hand, like she was presenting something to the group.

"And there is the answer."

All three of the lower ranked officers stared at her with wide eyes.

"Artemis... I may not have know the Demon Lord as long as you. But are you sure this is the right call? won't she be upset with this? She told us not to kill anyone." Breeze tries to counter the order with her logic.

But Artemis was already shaking her head.

"She told us not to kill them, unless absolutely necessary." She pointed at the orcs that were halfway up towards them. "This, is absolutely necessary. If any of them reach the top. They will rage and wreak havoc all along the ridge. And seeing an orc rage is the last thing you want to experience." She turned her head to Anthemis. "You have your orders Sargent: Tell the soldiers to hold nothing back if the orcs tries this strategy again. Kill them."

Anthemis was conflicted, but she gave a solemn nod of her head. Before turning to head back to where she had came.

"..." Breeze was quiet as she watch Anthemis reach her post with the rest of the soldiers. Each one started to switch to spears. Then one by one, very goblin on the ridge started throwing their weapons with precision strikes towards the wounded group of orcs covering the healthy ones. It was such a one sided massacre that she couldn't watch it and had to look away.

"You know," Artemis began as she stoically watched the carnage. "We talked a little bit ago about the reason why the Demon Lord had us, specifically me, here, instead of fighting in the front or taking an active part in this defense. And now, I think I understand why." She told them.

Hush tapped his hands on her shoulder to get her to look at him, then he made a couple gestures with his hands, that Artemis recognized "why is that?".

She gave him a sad smile.

"Because; she knew I had the most experience. Had the most time fighting, most time hunting or killing; she knew if push came to shove. That I could make the hard choices."

They could her the screams slowly being silenced as the orcs on the ridge up were being killed one-by-one.

"Was it a hard choice?" Breeze asked with unshed tears in her eyes.

"..." Artemis was quiet for a moment. As she this time thought of her answer.

"No. It wasn't."

---

"DAMN IT ALL TO THE DARK GOD!" Zarnarok screamed. He started kicking things over. punching anyone who got within arms length of him.

"HOW?! HOW?! How are we losing to freaking insects, like the goblins?!" He went over to a already injured soldier and started to beat him with his fists.

"Wai- plea- no! Help!" The wounder soldier cried out.

"Lieutenant! You need to calm down!" Another soldier said to him.

Zarnarok whipped around towards him.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?! TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO?!" He then threw a punch that smashed into the Sargent's face. He then jumped on top of him and proceeded to beat him.

The orc Sargent could only put up his hands and arms to defend himself.

Two other officers went to try and save their friend. Only for the Lieutenant to turn on them. He kicked out, smashing his foot into the other's ribs. Then her headbutted the other.

"EVERYONE WATCH OUT! Lieutenant Zarnarok has gone into a blood rage!"

Called out someone on the outside of the fighting happening.

Zarnarok reached behind him and unsheathed his weapon. He started to rush and tear his way through his own men, sending some fly or others to the ground with broken limbs.

One unfortunate private came running up to try and stop his CO from hurting anyone else. He got behind him and tried to subdue him.

"Lieutenant please! Stop this!" The private called out.

This only served to enrage the Lieutenant more.

He struck the private with his elbow, knocking his head and sending him to the ground. Zarnarok turned and slammed his great maul down on to the privates midsection.

*GAH* Cried out the unfortunate private. An axe protruding out of his stomach.

Three more officers came, all in a blood haze to try and stop Zarnarok. But as they grabbed on to him, he just let go of his weapon to attack them with his fists. Punching, kicking, clawing, biting. Zarnarok's rage had brought him to a point that he wasn't above anything to fight and win.

---

"..." Artemis saw the battle taking place down below in the orc's camp.

"Look down there. That is why we don't want an orc raging up here: A raging orc is virtually unstoppable, unless killed. Even those three down, can't stop him."

Both Hush and Breeze watched on in horror at what was happening in the orcs camp.

"Someone bring me a spear." Artemis ordered.

"General?" Breeze questioned.

But someone to the side brought her one already.

"..." Artemis inspected the spear. Gave it a quick spin in her hand. Ran her hand along the shaft. Which she gave a it satisfied nod. She then flipped it to an over hand throwing position over her shoulder.

She stood there. One arm pointing outwards for stability, the other holding the spear aloft over her shoulder, poised and ready to throw it.

She waited a heart beat.

Then another.

Then she threw it.

---

The three officers and a few privates were all surrounding the blood raging Zarnarok, who was standing in the middle of the circle of other soldiers.

No one wanted to make the first move and risk getting pummeled to death. But they were also running out of time to save the private that had an maul in his stomach.

*RAAAGH* The Lieutenant started to roar.

*REEEGH-* His roar was suddenly cut off as a spear pierced his neck. The pole going about halfway through the lieutenants throat.

*BLEGH* Blood spurted from the Zarnarok's mouth. His eyes loosing all red haze to them. He kept making pathetic attempts to breath, but couldn't with the spear jammed through his neck.

All eyes were wide at what they just witnessed. Everyone knew the spear had come from the goblins, but no one had seen where it had originated from. Zarnarok took only one more step before falling forward. The spear hitting the ground first before his body. His head sliding down the shaft of the spear as gravity took his body downwards. covering the shaft and everything beneath it with blood.

Only one Sargent snapped out of his daze at what he had just witnessed. He ignored what was happening around him to rush to the private with the maul sticking out of him.

"Hold on Olgran! You're going to be fine!" The Sargent lifted his head. "I need a healer over here!"

---

Artemis decided that she wanted to do one more good deed that day.

"Get me another spear and a bag of medical supplies."

---

All the soldiers were all clustering around the area, a couple were cleaning up and carting off Zarnarok's body to leave it in the woods. Others were attending the wounded. The rest were trying to get Olgran stabilized.

"Don't worry my friend! We're here for you!" Said Sargent Yamin to his fellow soldier.

"Why?..." Olgran tried to speak, but ended up coughing up a bit a blood. "Why did he rage?"

"Damn it man! Don't speak! save your strength! LIVE! We'll get someone here soon that can-"

Then a spear landed no more than a yalm away from the group. Causing everyone there to flinch.

They saw a leather bag tied to it.

No one wanted to approach it. But Yamin was in a desperate state of mind. He rushed to grab the bag from the spear and opened it. Inside the bag, he recognized what were health poultice, salves, and bandages.

He looked up at the ridged from where the spear landed. He saw three tiny figures standing at the top of the rubble. The one in the center had their arms crossed. They gave a single nodded of their head.

He just stared in wonder as he realized what this goblin had done from them.

He snapped himself out of his reverie, to bring back the medicine to his dying friend.

"Here you go. We have stuff for you now!"

"Are you insane?!" Another orc officer questioned. "You're going to trust what goblins just gave us?!"

"The same goblins that aren't killing our men?! The same one that just saved us from Zarnarok’s rage?!" He stared daggers at the other officer. "Yes Dramma! I am!" Yamin turned back to his friend on the ground. "Here! Someone help me apply this to his wounds!" He ordered.

---

Artemis had a satisfied smile on her face as she watch from high up that the orcs were starting to slow their attempts at climbing up. And that the orc she threw the medicine to had used the aid she had lent them.

"Softy!" Breeze teased with a smile on her face.

This put a frown on Artemis's face. She gave her best not pleased expression towards Breeze, but it apparently fell flat. As Breeze just looked at her with smiling eyes, and an even bigger grin on her lips.

Artemis just shook her head.

"Listen... that is what the medicine was for! I am just following orders." She refuted.

"Softy!" Breeze just repeated.

"..." Artemis was slowly feeling blush creep on to her face. "Listen Lieutenant, if you-"

And in that moment. A golden brown light shined from the rubble. A large glowing circle appeared to be surrounding all of the rubble, the circle itself was the same golden brown color. Some of the circle was cut off and seemed to just go right into the rocks and rubble itself.

"What is that-" Breeze started to ask.

"EVERYONE RUN! OFF THE RUBBLE PILE NOW!" Artemis recognized what this was. She then turned and ran off in a different direction. Her orders to run had every goblin on that hill running for their lives. All of them desperate to get away from the glow. Most of them made it. Some didn't.

All at once, the rubble pile that had been there exploded out. Turning all the large rocks into dust and pebbles. Anyone that was caught up in that blast was also turned into red dust and mist.

Now that they were relatively safe from the circle. Breeze looked to Artemis and asked her again.

"What was that?!'

"Magic." Was all Artemis could say.

---

Athena didn't even bother to try and block the orc charging at her. She waited until she was about to his her with her weapon, then used the shield to let the weapon slide off of the surface and smash into the ground off to the side of her.

She then tried to thrust her sword at the orc, but she just jumped backwards, away from Athena's reach.

The Orc then pulled the weapon by the end of shaft to swing it at a distance from the goblin.

Athena saw the weapons head coming towards her, so she jumped over it, using her shield to bounce off of the weapon as it passed. This sent the maul smashing into the ground again. Which Athena took advantage of: she rushed forward, shield forward, sword drawn and at the ready.

But the orc just had a smile on her lips.

instead of pulling her weapon free, she just let it go, in favor of just facing the goblin head on.

This made Athena pause, because instincts told her this was exactly what the orc wanted. She skidded about a yalm from the orc. Who when she saw her stop, just laughed.

"Very good! You are wiser and smarter than the other goblins, this one will give you that." The orc taunted.

But Athena was not moved to speak or to banter with her.

"Oh? What is wrong? Nothing to say? Is this one boring you?"

"Nope. Not boring me. Just trying to decide what the best way beat you." Athena retorted.

"HA! You can't beat this one."

Athena raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know about that." She lowered her stand. "Won't know until I try."

"HAHAHA! Outrageous claim fierce one! This battle will be fun!" The orc said as she charged towards Athena. Athena didn't know what her play was. But as she got closer, Athena went to stab at her. The orc deflected blade with the back of her gauntlet covered hand. She then grabbed onto Athena's shield, which Athena held fast to, but that had been the orcs intentions. They flipped themselves over Athena to land on their feet, then kicked out Athena's feet from under her.

*UFF* Athena grunts as she lands on the hard ground. As her eyes refocus, she sees a booted foot coming down towards her head. She rolls backwards to avoid it. Rolling right onto her shield, which she uses to spring off of to a standing position.

"HM! You're pretty good!" Said the orc again.

"Can we stop the playful banter and just kick each other's butts already?"

"Ahh! But that is half the fun!" She explains.

Two goblins were running towards the orc from behind with their clubs, But the orc heard the approaching. She turned in place to kick the weapon from one of the goblins, out of his hands. And just grab and rip the weapon out of the other goblin's hand. She then spun and kick both of them in the side of their heads in one move, sending them flying to the side.

The orc then picked up both of the clubs. Getting a feel for the their weight in her hands. Athena used this to charge the orc with her back turned towards her.

The orc bent down and leaped from where she had been standing, doing a back-flip over Athena, to land on her feet, both clubs at the ready.

Athena slid and spun around as soon as the orc was flying through the air, so she would be facing her when she landed.

"And you say I am pretty good..." She said petulantly.

This just caused the orc to laugh at her.

"Well.... You are, but this one is no where near as good as our best fighter."

"Well it is only a matter of time before the Demon Lord beat's your best fighter." Athena informed her.

This put a frown on the orc's face for the first time.

"No, that is not correct." The orc told her.

"Oh?! So confident that your Warchief will beat our Demon Lord?" She asked in a mocking tone.

The orc scratched their chin.

"Yes this one is. But that is not what this one was wrong about."

This got Athena's attention.

"And what is it that I got wrong?"

The smile slowly spread back onto the orc's face.

"The Demon Lord is not fighting our best fighter."

"What?! Isn't that your Warchief?!" Athena questioned in disbelief.

"Yes, they are."

"But then, what?-"

"Warchief is Strongest fighter in tribe. Not best fighter."

This put Athena on guard.

"Then who?-"

"This one is!" The orc then charged at her. Her arms out with the clubs drawn at the ready.

"...Oh dragon crap..." Athena thought out-loud.