Heavy steps. It was as if his body was weighed down by orc iron.
Gurln had done a good job informing all of the orcs inside the barracks. In response, all the orcs had come rushing out hoping to be of any help to their elderly chieftess.
Unfortunately, Lagakha was already dead. They were torn by grief and they swore in their hearts, some even swore in the name of God, that they would repay that slight.
But Sunuguk, the one that heard her last words, her last wish. Could not feel their same emotions, he instead felt confused for the first time in his life. He told his brothers that the chieftess had a final wish and told them to guard the place until then. But...
What were the boulders of knowledge? Were they not their ancestry, their heritage? They were! They were a part of their culture and their history. Even as an orc of average intelligence, Sunuguk understood that.
The weight of orc iron could not compare. No, that analogy was too mild, it was as if he was being weighed down by the ancestors themselves from beyond the grave.
Sacrilege. Was he really to comply with such an impure wish?
...But the answer was yes. After his tribesmen took hold of the chieftess' body, his feet did not stop moving.
For, even after all these thoughts raced and whirred over and over again inside his head, Sunuguk did not find an alternative. To be frank, they had already lost the war the moment they lost their chief.
"Guardian." Sunuguk finally came to a stop once he came across an iron door. He spoke with a solemn voice while facing the bolted door.
He waited a couple of seconds yet still received no response. Just as he started to panic, the door was unbolted and passage was granted to him by a middle-aged orc.
"What is it?" The orc asked simply with a sniffle as he turned away from the door. His target was a table with a large orc on it.
"Gua- Guardian, the chieftess is dead!" Sunuguk held back his pained expression and candidly replied.
The orc wearing dirty and old robes, the guardian, froze for a second and turned towards Sunuguk with wide eyes. Before being overcome with confusion.
"Did her age finally get the best of her…? But her condition seemed stable…" The guardian muttered.
"No! There's an enemy attack! ...The chieftess says to destroy the stones!" Sunuguk let it out all at once. There was no time to waste and he had to put aside his reluctance to demand such a thing from one of the tribe's elders.
"Destroy them!?" He was flabbergasted. Who would go to a guardian to ask to destroy what they guarded?!
"Th- It was the chieftess' final wish. The enemy must be frightening..." Sunuguk said this with a tinge of dread. He had not seen the beast capable of taking down nearly half of their forces and an elder but… there was nothing more fearful than the unknown.
The guardian was forced to stop and ponder deeply on the matter but his thoughts were interrupted by a loud commotion. The outside had suddenly gotten rowdy. He came to a conclusion.
"I, Herewaruk, as the guardian cannot agree. But… as one of the chieftess' only friends... " Herewaruk did not finish his sentence and simply returned to look at the large orc sleeping soundly on the table. It was the finest of orc engineering.
The orcs were treated from young with specially crafted herbs and when coming of age, they would receive the burden of his runes. The herbs and runes would stunt their minds but it was a sacrifice that he and Lagakha did not mind making.
That is to say, with all that he had sinned, what more was it to destroy the tribe's only heritage?
"Help me with something" Herewaruk told Sunuguk in a pensive manner before gazing towards a simple desk.
***
Sometime later in the confines of the barracks, Ed had lopped the head off another enhanced orc.
The two that attacked him simultaneously could only stall 10 seconds but that time was enough for the orcs from outside to start running in. His side was outnumbered from the get-go it was an inevitable event.
Nonetheless, Ed wasn't worried. He used some of his recovered wind mana to summon a blade of wind that cut down one of the orcs. The others that had come crashing into the building barely ducked in time to avoid the sharp element.
"Heretic! You'll pay!" One of the orcs yelled while madly swinging forward his two axes. Ed looked past the mad orc and saw the other coming with similarly maddened gazes.
He didn't bother to dodge the orcs swings anymore as he took the attacks head-on.
[You've been dealt damage -2hp]
The two axes dug into Ed dealing no more than two hit points of damage. Ed then grabbed the orc with both hands and tossed him at the nearing orcs.
The body flew at unprecedented speed and the approaching orcs were pressed down onto the ground where the earth made quick work of them.
Five or so orcs were taken care of swiftly. The orcs behind those grit their teeth as they looked at the war god in front of them. In their simple minds, Ed looked like nothing less as he was surrounded by the bodies of three of their great warriors and bathed in their blood.
'I need to get moving' Ed shifted his glance away from the orcs and peered down the cobbled hallway. His mana was not at its peak and wasting both time and mana was not ideal when dealing with unknown circumstances.
Ed thus used some of what remained of his earth mana to separate himself and one of the orcs from the others.
"Where is the prison?" He asked the orc he left with him. He however had a clasped mouth and he simply glared at Ed and lifted his axe.
"Damn…" Ed muttered before turning away from the orc and running away. He didn't have the leisure to interrogate the orc. Killing him would also be a waste of mana or time. It was best to run.
Ed's hurried steps thus loudly sounded as he made a rapid turn. He attentively surveyed his surroundings hoping to find a clue, the orcs were not ones to leave signs. Luckily they also didn't have very complex architecture.
Ed could simply break down a door whenever he came across one to quickly take in the contents of said room.
'Where did those giants come from?' Ed hadn't seen them coming thus he assumed he needed to make a turn but, so far there had been no luck.
'Hm?' Surprisingly though, Ed caught sight of something new at last.
A large metal door. It seemed rather well fastened on its place but to Ed, it was no different from the others.
With a bang, he fiercely kicked the door out of place. Well, it took another kick but Ed was still easily let in.
The metal door fell with a metallic thud publicly announcing his presence. Still, the room was empty.
'Something's bound to be here' The room had all sorts of green plants growing in different pots as well as a large table. There were other types of tools and equipment but Ed didn't pay them much mind. He instead focused on a crude wooden desk that felt out of place.
To be specific, there were signs that it had been recently moved. Ed approached it with curiosity and pushed it away from where it stood.
'A hatch' It was just as he had expected. It reminded Ed of Vorgarag's own secret room. It had a crystal and a special formation. That was to say, he was bound to find something of importance in there.
'Is it the boulders of knowledge?' He had guessed that Sarfu might have switched where those boulders were stored but who was to say for sure?
When this thought entered Ed's mind he instantly became much more alarmed. Why would someone go into such a place during a time of peril?
Ed hurriedly opened the hidden hatch and didn't even bother to assess what he was getting into as he jumped on in. Unexpectedly, he didn't land straight away.
There was instead deep darkness that hid the true depth of the shaft.
'F*ck!' Ed instinctively reached out with both arms placing his hand against the walls of the dark shaft. This emergency maneuver proved effective as Ed's descent speed was lowered. There was a small price to pay for salvation though.
[You've been dealt damage -1 hp]
[You've been dealt damag…]
Damage slowly accumulated and the pain of having one's hands grated against a jagged rock did not help Ed in any way. This carried on for a good bit before he finally landed on hard ground.
Ed's hands which Ed could barely see in the darkness were bleeding profusely. Luckily, his large vitality quickly started to work on his scrapes.
Ed assessed his immediate surrounding and spotted some light in the distance. It also helped him see the blue rocky walls.
'This should indeed be the right place' Ed was certain of that but also became curious. It seemed impossible to get a boulder out through the entrance.
He narrowed his eyes and noticed that there was a rope to grab hold of. Other than that, nothing suggested the shaft could fit a boulder.
'Is there an escape tunnel?' This was also an alarming answer as it meant that some orcs might take the liberty to escape with his knowledge in tow.
He, therefore, didn't linger and ran towards the light. Whatever his adversaries were cooking, Ed would put a stop to it!