Chapter 11: Orc Slayer

3 Jan 5555
Orcus plateau
[Kalvin Clarke]

With the help of his new magic skills, he clambered up the steep rock wall like a frenzied lizard without any difficulty whatsoever. After all, he had, literally, ‘helping hands’ which branched out of his knees and shoulders like tree branches as he ascended upwards.

After half an hour of climbing, Kalvin was already only few metres below the peak of the mountain. The air was much cooler and it appears that the peak was shrouded in mist. Tirelessly, he continued to ascend and a thin layer of clouds obscured his view of the ground. Soon, he hears noises coming from the top of the mountain. They seem to be voices, a bizarre cacophony of grunts, roars and screeches, far from human. The din only invoked Kalvin’s curiosity to discover what lies on the peak of this mountain. He doubled his pace in scaling the mountain, finally reaching the peak ten seconds later.

Kalvin heaved himself up to the peak of the mountain and stood up. He took a few steps forward, he was surrounded by thick fog. The weird voices echoed in the distance. He darted forward through the fog advancing closer and closer to the source of the noises.

Within moments, he found himself on standing on a small cliff, overlooking vast plains, specked with hundreds of tiny beings running around. It was a massive village comprising of ten thousand mud huts, bustling with activity. The countless villagers, scrambling from one hut to another, were definitely not humans.

Though he was excited, Kalvin’s face remained as cold as ever. With the agility of a cat, he somersaulted off the cliff and plunged down onto the plains below, landing perfectly with both feet on the sandy ground. He stared ahead at the village, about a few yards from where he stood. The creatures did not seem to notice him walking closer and closer to their town.

They were small, midget-like humans whose features resembled apes. They were bald and had bark-coloured skin, and were sparsely dressed, revealing their stout, rotund statures. Kalvin had absolutely no idea who these creatures are but they are known to mankind as the Orcs.

Only a few paces away from the outermost hut, some of the Orcs started to notice Kalvin approaching them. They shrieked in hysteria, darting off into the village and hollering out madly to warn the others of their uninvited guest. Soon, the whole village burst into insane chaos, with everyone fumbling in and out of their huts, completely baffled at this unforeseen occurrence. It appears as if these maniacs have never had visitors in a long time, thought Kalvin as he walked through the aisle which led to the centre of the village.

Moments later, the ground began to tremor. Up ahead, Kalvin saw a huge cloud of dust, moving in his direction. It was the Orcs, rampaging their way up to him, waving their clubs and swords in the air. Kalvin raised his eyebrows, completely unmoved by the fact that he might be trampled alive by these moonstruck midgets. Huts crumbled in the path of the deranged Orc warriors as they had their sights set on their intruder. Kalvin waited for the stampede to advance closer to him. He’d been craving for a good challenge in days.

In a blink of an eye, Kalvin zoomed right into the stampede. The Orcs halted in mere disbelief. He stood in the middle of the entire army, looking right and left, mocking his opponents. Without hesitation, the Orcs sprung into action, flailing their weapons aimlessly in every direction, hoping to land a blow on the man. Instead, they knocked themselves out one by one, as Kalvin parried every attack upon him with his generated limbs.

The half-witted Orcs only pulverized their own comrades in this uncontrollable fray, leaving their sole enemy to easily batter the last remaining few to death. Some even cowardly attempted to retreat but their fate was just similar to those who stood their ground. Kalvin would pummel them rapidly, shattering every bone in their bodies.

Within five meagre minutes, the entire Orc army was obliterated. Some A young Orc came running up to Kalvin and gallantly attempted to bite his shin. He wasted no time and with one ruthless punt to its head, he sent it flying across the battlefield and crashing into the roof of a hut.

Suddenly a loud explosion thundered in the sky above him. Showers of fireballs were descending towards him from above. In a flash, he leaped over the Orc corpses around him, dodging every fireball that collapsed onto the ground. They were definitely no ordinary meteors, as more continued to rain on him whichever direction he went. The corpses and the huts were soon reduced to ashes as the whole village was set ablaze.

Kalvin then realized what was happening. As he leaped onto the roof of a near hut, he noticed in the distance, a group of about forty Orcs standing in a formation on the outskirts of the village. Behind them, stood a massive, horned Orc, clad in bulky metal armour and deadly-looking gauntlets. The other ordinary Orcs around him were clad in silver chain mail and were waving their wooden rods in the air, in strange circular motions. Kalvin realized they were Orc shamans, desperately trying to kill him by casting their spells. The huge, menacing looking one must be their leader, he thought.

The Orc shamans fruitlessly destroyed their village with every miss of their unconquerable target. Kalvin leaped from one roof to another towards the Orc shamans, leaving behind a trail of scorched rubble behind him with every meteor explosion. He sprung one last time off the last roof, and swooped upon the Orc shamans.

They surrounded him with their wands pointing towards him. The Orc leader let out a furious roar which echoed into the distance, but Kalvin did not feel one bit intimidated. His eyes met the Orc leader’s when suddenly a blue orb of light appeared above the leader’s left shoulder. The orb then turned into a petite, slender creature which stood on the shoulder of his boss. Its eyes twinkled in the sunlight as it gave Kalvin a nasty grin.

“Welcome to Orcus Plateau, human,” spoke the creature in a shrill, cunning voice. Kalvin stared at it silently.

“I am Kara Kiri the goblin, and this is our King, his Greatness, Goro Gombobo. His Greatness says that you have atrociously wiped out the entire tribe of Goro Goro and wants to make a negotiation,” screeched the goblin sinisterly. “His Greatness wants you, human, to surrender and we will spare your life. But you must henceforth live of servitude to His Greatness. What say you, human?”

The goblin waited a few moments for the intruder to reply. However Kalvin remained silent and kept his eyes fixed on the amusing creature, trying to contain the urge to respond with a nasty kick to the jaw. Other thoughts too, whirled in his mind.

Is this guy for real? Why does the hell does he have to use big words? Does he really think I'm gonna sell my soul for these butt-faced losers?

The Orc boss suddenly bellowed again in impatience, startling the goblin who hastily seized his master’s thick neck to keep himself from falling off.

“Aiyeee! His Greatness has had enough of your foolish antics! Surrender now and humbly bow before His Greatness or be annihilated!” screeched the goblin waggling his tiny clenched fist in the air. The Orcs gave their enemy a final chance to respond.

Kalvin blinked.

The Orc leader then went berserk and shattered the silence with a wrathful roar at his enemy. He clasped his huge hands together and hammered the ground, setting off a deadly fissure pulsating towards Kalvin. Kalvin reacted effectively, leaping up onto the nearest Orc shaman and delivered a bone-shattering kick to its skull. The victim groaned in pain and tumbled helplessly into the fissure.

The Orc leader then lowered his head, his horns glistened in the sunlight, intending to gore his foe to death. He charged towards Kalvin like a provoked bull. But Kalvin was too fast for him, luring the rampaging Orc leader to accidentally obliterate his own wand-waving minions, one after another. The goblin on his shoulder grabbed hold tightly to his shoulder guard, squealing meaninglessly, asking his master to stop.

The remaining orc shamans desperately yelped out incantations, waving their wands in the air. Fireballs continued to rain from the sky, massive frozen spikes emerged from the ground, blue lightning bolts blasted out their wands. Yet every attempt to attack their enemy backfired as the predictable and unforgivably harebrained Orc shamans continued to unintentionally vanquish their own comrades.

Only five orc shamans remained unscathed and finally the Orc leader screeched to a halt. His eyes suddenly glowed a bright red. Kalvin suddenly found himself immobile. His feet had turned to stone and he was rooted firmly to the ground.

The goblin giggled hysterically, sitting on his exhausted master’s crown. The Orc leader appears not to have much stamina, thought Kalvin as he watched his main enemy panted heavily. The five Orc shamans aimed their wands at Kalvin in rage.
“Farewell puny human!” declared the goblin.

All at once, five devastating missiles blasted out their wands and bolted towards Kalvin. The Orcs smiled in satisfaction at the cloud of black smoke wisped into the air, shrouding the aftermath of the explosion. As the smoke faded, sadistic grins formed on the horrid faces of the Orcs, as they waited to see the body of their defeated enemy. However their happiness was short lived and turned into immense shock as they stared at Kalvin.

He was sitting on the ground, completely unharmed. The Orcs had, unfortunately, missed their target again. Kalvin yawned as he stood up, his feet still implanted on the ground as he anticipated the enemy’s next move.

The Orc leader then roared in impatience, shoving his minions aside and charged at Kalvin once more. His goblin advisor hopped onto the ground, realizing that he could have been the next accidental victim. Kalvin initiated a countdown in his mind, he needed to muster enough strength to neutralize the impact of the collision. He knew exactly when to strike.

At the moment the horns of the Orc leader was only a foot’s length from his neck, he unleashed about twenty arms from his body, with all its hands seizing securely onto the bulky skull of the Orc leader. The Orc leader grunted and pushed tenaciously, kicking back the dirt and sand off the ground, but it was futile. Kalvin had caught him by the horns.

Four more legs then sprouted out Kalvin’s things, and they repeatedly battered against the torso of the Orc leader, crushing his ribs, sending blood splattering out his fangs. The other Orcs and the goblin watched in pure horror as their forsaken king was pounded ruthlessly by this mysterious, devilish man. Soon, the Orc leader fell unconscious as all his strength was drained away. As soon as Kalvin realized this, he stopped kicking his foe. He turned his attention to his implanted feet as the rock layer vibrated and then crumbled into dust, revealing his gray, stained toes.

The other Orcs became instantly panic stricken, dropping their wands and and hustled away in fear. Kalvin noticed them attempting to escape. Without hesitation, his twenty-two hands only grasped harder onto the Orc leader as he spun around, swinging the body of the five-hundred pound Orc leader in mid air. He twirled and twirled, picking up speed at every turn.

In a mere 5 seconds, he transformed into a calamitous tornado of dust, sucking up the surviving Orcs into his vortex. The goblin managed to vanish into a blue orb of light in the nick of time. With a sudden halt, the Orc leader, together with the other Orc shamans catapulted into the skies, far beyond the boundaries of the plateau.

Kalvin then sat down on the ground to rest. He looked around, there was not a soul in sight. This had definitely been one great achievement – to be responsible for the extinction of the Orcs of Orcus Plateau. He then noticed one of the discarded wands which was previously used by an Orc shaman. He walked over to it and picked it up.

This’ll make a good souvenir, thought Kalvin to himself.