Give Me Some Water (2)
A brutal drought. Orc Queen Amy frowned and lifted her head. The throne atop the high temple. This was the orcs' stronghold.
Until recently, this coastal area had been abundant with water and food. But now disaster had struck. The Boiling Sea. One day, the ocean suddenly began bubbling furiously and evaporated entirely. The sudden craters and mountains pushed the coastline far away, leaving behind nothing but a vast white salt desert.
Fish could be caught with a bit of effort, but water was hard to come by.
"Is the rain ritual ready yet?"
Amy asked, and the priest beside her bowed his head.
"It's all set now."
"Then let's go."
Amy led the priest toward the cliff at the front of the temple's summit. From there, the entire orc village sprawled below in full view. Thousands of orcs raised their arms, cheering toward her.
"Queen! Bring us rain!"
"The queen's looking at me!"
"I'll remember that!"
Amy raised her hand in response to the crowd's shouts. Then she looked up at the priest.
"Priest. What's the chance of rain if we perform the ritual?"
"100%."
"Isn't that a bit too optimistic?"
"It's certain. Because we'll keep doing it until the rain comes."
The priest nodded with unwavering confidence. Amy, looking equally assured, gave a thumbs-up. It felt a little off, but hey, rain was guaranteed no matter what.
Soon, Amy bellowed in a resounding voice.
"All orcs, listen! From today, we begin the rain ritual to honor the water god Coway! We'll share the well water equally until the rain falls! But we'll prioritize the weak elderly, children, and men first—if anyone objects, speak up!"
At that moment, a male orc stepped forward upon hearing her words.
"Male orcs aren't weak! We demand equal shares!"
Then an elderly orc followed.
"Being old doesn't make me weak! I'm still a great orc warrior! I want my share like the young ones!"
Next, a baby orc toddled out.
"Wah! Wah!"
Touched by their passionate speeches, Amy's eyes welled up as she shouted.
"Fine! Then we'll share the water equally among everyone...!"
Right then—
Boom! One wall of the temple crumbled with a deafening crash.
"Hiss!"
A tongue flicking through the air echoed from somewhere.
Orc Queen Amy stroked her long beard, scowling. Her gaze fixed on a horde of monsters standing there.
Humanoid builds, muscular like orcs. But their skin and faces were utterly different. From the neck up, they had lizard heads, their bodies covered in reptilian scales. Their tails were nearly as long as their height.
Lizardmen. Lizard humans with powerful bodies and regeneration.
This pack of lizardmen was now raiding the orc village.
A particularly massive one, apparently their leader and twice the size of the others, stepped forward.
Amy narrowed her eyes and growled.
"Lizard King Ioldrum, huh..."
Ioldrum. The young overlord who unified the lizardmen tribes. He and Orc Queen Amy had been in constant opposition.
Until now, plentiful food had kept direct clashes rare. But with the drought, confrontation was inevitable.
"Hiss! Orc scum! Hand over the well!"
Lizardmen were innately aggressive. Orcs were no different. Both possessed bodies strong enough to rule the ecosystem's apex, instincts that claimed all nature as theirs.
When two such dominant species met, peace was impossible.
"Kill them!"
The clash between lizardmen and orcs erupted. The temple stained red over a spring dripping precious drops of water.
"Grraaaah!"
Lizard King Ioldrum extended claw-blades like longsword edges from his five fingers.
"Hmph!"
Orc Queen Amy hefted a massive iron hammer.
Clang!
Ioldrum's claws met Amy's hammer. The shockwave turned nearby pillars to sand.
Boom! Crash! Stone shards flew, dust clouds rose. Cracks spiderwebbed across the parched earth, starved of moisture.
"Hiss! Not bad."
Ioldrum narrowed his slit-pupiled yellow eyes further. Amy stroked her lush beard—pride of orc women—and steadied her stance.
Screams echoed amid the chaos.
Seeing her subordinates' blood, Amy frowned.
"Gotta end this quick."
"Leaders finishing fast saves our men's blood, right?"
Ioldrum seemed to agree. They both inhaled deeply, powering up. Muscles swelled, sizes nearly doubling to 1.5 times original.
Crunch-crack—Ioldrum's scales bristled like razor blades, resembling a massive hedgehog.
Amy's muscles ballooned like inflated balloons. At the peak age for female orcs—prime 18—she could crush ten 30-year-old males effortlessly. Hers was overwhelming.
"I'll dice you up."
"I'll smash you to pulp."
Tension crackled between the chieftains.
"Hraaaah!"
Lizard King and Orc Queen collided. Their killing intent shaved nearby stones to sand. Lesser orcs or lizardmen would faint just entering their vision.
Then—
Splat! Charging Ioldrum tripped forward.
"Guh!?"
Too much momentum? He tumbled end over end, nearly 900 degrees of spin.
"Hiss! Ridiculous."
Amy smirked at the absurdity. Unthinkable for battle-hardened Ioldrum—a beginner's blunder. In superhuman fights, such slips were fatal. One wrong breath could kill; tripping was suicide.
Normally, she might wait magnanimously. At 18, she craved bloody brawls with the strong. Orcs and humans were alike there.
But now, her tribe's survival hung in the balance. Lizardmen rivaled orcs. She couldn't waste this chance.
"To Coway's side with you, lizard!"
Amy raised her hammer and charged.
But as her foot extended—
A strange sensation in midair.
"Gasp!?"
No time to swallow. Boom! Amy tumbled like Ioldrum.
"Hm!?"
Now she saw why. A transparent thread bound her ankle.
"Tse-tse-tse..."
An eerie chuckle echoed.
Simultaneously—
"Huh?"
"Gah!"
"Hiss!?"
Orcs and lizardmen everywhere floated upward, ankles snared by invisible threads. Thick black fog rolled in—heavy with deadly poison.
Rumble...
A sharp spire on the blood-soaked temple summit cast a dark shadow. Something enormous loomed.
Recognizing it, Amy and Ioldrum gnashed their teeth.
"Curequium!"
Curequium. The spider queen dwelling deep in the western woods. Natural enemy and ancient foe of orcs and lizardmen.
Soon, the woodland sovereign revealed herself. Beautiful human upper body atop massive spider legs, borne by tens of thousands of spiders. A sight both exquisite and grotesque.
"Pitiful vermin. What are you lowly rats scheming, huddled together?"
Curequium gazed down disdainfully, her voice haughty.
"Just a tribal skirmish!"
"What's it to you?!"
Amy and Ioldrum snarled.
But Curequium knew everything.
"I smell water here."
At her words, oversized spiders scurried, ripping away a hide cover deep in the temple. A shallow pool emerged. From its iron-horned bottom, water bubbled faintly.
In this fiery hell and drought, its persistence showed immense power.
Curequium wrinkled her nose at the bubbling spring.
"Ah! Scoured every forest on the mountain—no unfailing spring. But now I've found it! A new home at last."
Outraged, orcs and lizardmen roared.
"Coway, why forsake us?!"
"Hiss! Untie us or die!"
Amy and Ioldrum struggled, but Curequium's threads defied even Lizard King's claws—let alone Amy's hammer.
Seizing their distraction, she'd webbed the rest effortlessly.
"Tse-tse-tse! This temple's water is mine now."
Curequium cackled at the pool.
"Grr!"
Amy trembled with rage, her thick white beard quivering. Born a proud woman, to end powerless without a swing—utter humiliation!
Ioldrum seethed too.
"Now, what to do with you?"
Curequium grinned at the bound chieftains.
Then—
Bang! The temple doors shattered.
Pink light dispersed the black poison fog.
And a pink-haired boy strolled in.
"Amy. Give me some water."
A parched Cliche.