The Savage Land of Greenfall
After racing without rest through Greenfall, we reached the vicinity of Storm Hill in about a week.
There were two paths leading to Storm Valley.
One passed through the city of Kaum and wound between sheer cliffs; the other climbed the towering, treacherous Twin Peaks straight to the valley’s summit.
The second route, however, had a fatal flaw: the terrain of the Twin Peaks was so brutal that climbing them was all but impossible.
I stared up at the soaring mountains and let out a low groan.
They looked less like mountains and more like pillars holding up the sky itself.
How was anyone supposed to scale a place that offered not a single foothold?
In other words, there was realistically only one way into Storm Valley.
Yet even passing through Kaum was impossible right now.
The guards stationed at the city’s entrance refused to step aside.
I tried offering a bribe, but they wouldn’t take it. What else was I supposed to do?
In the end I could only gaze at the towering peaks and sigh.
Only one choice remained.
Wait, indefinitely, until the restrictions on entering Kaum were lifted.
I set up a small camp on a hill near Kaum and began my aimless vigil.
Three days had passed since I started camping near Kaum.
Those three days might have been enough to grow friendly with the guards who shared no common tongue, yet they still refused to let me into the city.
"Could you just let me through?"
"Kha mo van cha."
Today, as always, conversation went nowhere.
I squatted beside the guards for a long while before trudging back to camp.
Judging by their demeanor, this tribe didn’t seem hostile toward humans, so I couldn’t help wondering why they barred entry.
Then one day, while time continued to slip by, an orc guard took an interest in the sword strapped across my back.
"Bo hai tucha."
I thought he simply wanted a closer look at the blade, but that wasn’t it.
The orc guard swung an imaginary sword through the air. The motion was clumsy, yet it closely resembled the forms I practiced.
He must have watched me train with the sword in the evenings.
"You want me to show you my swordsmanship?"
If I kept building goodwill with the orc guards this way, they might eventually let me into the city.
So I obliged, drawing my blade and beginning to demonstrate my forms right in front of them.
The light, flowing path of the sword blurred as it traced a total of seven stars.
I used no mana, so no trail of starlight lingered in the air, but anyone who had trained with a blade would have recognized the path it carved.
The watching guards broke into broad, satisfied grins and clapped.
Apparently the ancient dwarven swordsmanship—whose creators I didn’t even know by name—had won their approval.
"Can I go in now?"
With no shared language, I had to rely heavily on body language.
I sheathed the sword and pointed toward the city beyond the gate.
Every single guard only shook his head.
I folded my arms and looked up at the orc sentries.
Just how long was I going to be stuck outside?
According to the guidebook, humans had once come and gone freely through this place.
A full week had passed since I began camping in front of Kaum.
The orc guards had sparred with me and shared the monster meat I hunted.
They offered me their own rations in return—some mysterious smoked meat that turned out to be surprisingly delicious.
After my swordsmanship, the next thing that caught their interest was Nightmare.
But was Nightmare the sort of creature who opened his heart easily to strangers?
Of course not. He rejected every outstretched orc hand and refused to let them near.
Sometimes he even seized the chance to clamp his teeth on the back of my collar and drag me back to camp.
He clearly disapproved of me getting too friendly with the orc guards.
I was wasting time like that when, one day, a massive host of orcs began approaching Kaum from far in the distance.
They looked the same as the others—except for their skin.
Every inch of them was a deep, blood-red, as though they had been painted head to toe in gore.
I flattened myself on the high hill and watched them below.
Standing beside the gray-skinned orcs, the difference was stark.
An orc who seemed to lead the red-skinned host began speaking with the guards.
The red orc leader appeared determined to enter Kaum, but the sentries only shook their heads.
The standoff between those who wanted in and those who barred the way dragged on until the red orc leader unleashed a raw, furious roar.
"Kuhaaa!!!"
At the bellow that poured out his rage, the guards drew their weapons.
The red orcs answered by drawing theirs as well—then their leader stepped back and roared once more.
That was the signal for war. The red orcs charged the city with weapons raised, and the wide-open main gate slammed shut in an instant.
I remembered something Agul had said.
He’d mentioned that war might break out soon, hadn’t he?
This had to be what he meant.
In that same moment Nightmare, who had been lying flat on the ground, surged to his feet.
Startled, I spun around—and found three red-skinned orcs closing in on me.
Their eyes burned with raw hostility.
"Oh, hell…"
I drew my sword and slowly backed away.
But there was nowhere left to retreat; a cliff dropped away behind me into the hillside below.
The pressure from the orcs steadily closing the distance was crushing.
I watched for an opening, then swung up onto Nightmare’s back.
At once the red orcs bellowed and charged.
"Kalse!!!"
Nightmare exploded into a gallop.
Cold steel—swords and spears from three directions—stabbed toward his legs and my chest, but I swept my blade in a wide arc and knocked every attack aside.
Mana rode the strikes, so a long, crescent-moon afterimage shimmered where my sword had passed.
Clang-clang-clang—!
Sparks flared as the weapons rebounded; Nightmare drove straight through the gap and burst free of the encirclement.
He never slowed. Ordinarily he would have wheeled around, furious, to trample whoever had dared attack us—but not this time.
Nightmare thundered down the hillside, weaving to avoid the orcs.
Yet more red orcs waited at the foot of the hill.
I yanked on the reins, frowning. Besides the force that had approached the city gate, another group must have been sneaking in from a different direction.
Nightmare loosed a fierce cry and kicked the nearest orc with a powerful foreleg.
Hiiing—!
The brutal front-leg strike, driven by a snort of hot breath, caved in the red orc’s chest.
The creature tumbled backward, coughing up bright blood.
Every eye turned toward us. Orcs who had been prowling the area recognized Nightmare and me, drew their weapons, and even those still pressuring the gate guards spun to glare our way.
Prrrrt—!
Enemies on every side. Nightmare lowered his stance slightly and blew harsh breaths in rapid succession.
His darting eyes seemed to be calculating the best escape route.
Just then one orc who had drawn close lunged at me.
With a savage roar a heavy axe came whistling down.
"Hup!"
I gripped my sword and braced for the blow.
I had little experience fighting from horseback; the grip felt awkward.
The moment my Mana Circle spun faster, starlight mana raced into the blade.
The magic stone set in the sword drank the mana and instantly amplified its power.
Seven brilliant stars flared along the edge—and Nightmare surged forward in a short, sharp charge.
He moved as though he had become my own legs, as if he already knew exactly where the sword needed to land.
The sudden motion startled me for a heartbeat, yet the timing for the cut was perfect. I swung.
The physical blade was far too short to reach the orc, but the starlight edge forged of mana stretched long and clean, carving a deep wound across his throat.
Shhk—!
The red orc clutched his severed neck and dropped to his knees.
Bubbling blood soaked the ground; the watching orcs took a collective step back.
Seizing the opening, Nightmare launched into a full gallop.
The sudden acceleration gouged the earth beneath his hooves, kicking up clouds of red dust.
Thud-thud-thud—thud-thud-thud—thud-thud-thud—!
Nightmare raced straight for Kaum’s outer wall.
As if that wall were the only path left to survival.
At full speed he planted a hoof against the stone and vaulted skyward.
In a single leap he cleared the roughly four-meter wall.
After a brief moment of flight, Nightmare landed hard inside the city.
His heavy weight sent a deep tremor through the ground and raised a plume of dust, yet he looked unharmed.
Gray-skinned orcs stared at us in open shock.
But none of them leveled a weapon in my direction.
All those days spent near the gate with the guards had paid off.
Then an orc broader and more imposing than the rest strode toward me.
The way every other orc deferred to him made it clear he ruled this city.
Of course he, too, spoke no human tongue.
"Kalse ta chara."
The leader orc rattled off more unintelligible words, then looked me in the eye and swung his sword once toward the main gate.
I couldn’t understand the speech, but the gesture was plain enough: fight with us.
I had already made enemies of the red orcs massed outside the walls. How could I refuse?
I clasped the hand he offered and shook it firmly up and down.
At that moment the tightly shut gate began to boom and shudder. Orcs loosing arrows from the wall screamed as they toppled outward.
Simultaneously a mingled tide of crimson and violet mana began to seep in from beyond the city.
I frowned at the ominous energy. It carried the same foul quality as the mana used by dark mages.