Chapter 13

Bash’s one step brought him within striking range of the bugbears. As their heavy paws hit the ground, there was a dull flash. Three of the bugbears were turned instantly into mincemeat. “Gragh!!!” Still roaring, Bash pushed forward. With each step, one bugbear after another exploded into a spray of blood and bone. To Bash’s heavy, sharp, old reliable sword, the bugbears were little more than cattle ripe for the slaughter. In the end, there were only five bugbears remaining. These bugbears were seasoned fighters, ones that had survived the war. Stronger than ogres, swifter than lizardmen, Boggs’s pride and joy. “Graaagh!” Bash took another step forward, his war cry shaking the cave walls. His sword flashed in a storm of steel. All orc warriors believe themselves to be the strongest. It would be unwise to say it, but even the average soldier held the belief that he could defeat even the Orc King himself if he tried. But even the most arrogant of orcs had to admit to themselves that they could never win in a duel against Bash. None could evade the power of Bash’s slash attack. His sword was simply too fast, too powerful. Boggs’s eyes weren’t sharp enough to follow Bash’s movements. But the bugbears were blessed with better eyesight than orcs, and a greater ability to see objects in motion. They were able to see the attacks coming their way. With their strength, which rivaled the ogres, and their smarts, on par with the lizardmen, the bugbears tried to deflect the orc’s attack. It might have worked. But not against Bash. Even the Human Hero, Ashes the Giant Killer, who had once killed an ogre with his bare hands, could not have parried such blows. Even a dragon, with a hide of thick scales, could not have kept its head on its body in the midst of such an attack. Bash was an Orc Hero who had slain many a foe and was feared by many more. The pride of the orcs. There was no one who could survive against him. The five remaining bugbears were turned into mincemeat in the blink of an eye. “Oh! Ohhh!” Boggs’s eyes were filled with the horrific sight of his beloved war buddies—which had fought for him for so many years on the battlefield—now reduced to piles of gore. His hand tightened around the handle of his mace. Why had he not stepped forward to fight alongside his bugbears? Why had he not chosen to die with them? Why had he not taken even one step forward into the fray? Overcome with guilt and regret, his chest suddenly began to fill up with a yearning for battle, with a thirst for revenge. But he was afraid of Bash. So afraid. Boggs had always believed that the fighting spirit, and battle itself, was everything in life. That belief had led him to defy the Orc King, to end up locked in a deadly duel against an Orc Hero. But now, after everything he’d been through, he was too terrified to move. And he was angry, too…angry with himself. “Gahhh!!!” Boggs made a fist and punched himself in the thigh with it. He stayed as angry as ever, but the fear was gone now, and he found he could move at last. “Baaash!” Bash was unmoved. All he thought about was ending the life of the enemy in front of him. “Boggs!” As he yelled the other orc’s name aloud, flashbacks of his memories of Boggs began to flit through Bash’s mind. Back when Bash had only just joined the war, back when his sword arm was weak and skinny…Bash had seen Boggs one day. Boggs and his bugbears. What an amazing sight it had been, to see them dash across the battlefield in murderous pursuit of the enemy! And how splendid Boggs had seemed to young Bash, right in the thick of battle, swinging his mace with reckless abandon. How manly, how breathtaking! Bash had been certain he would never achieve that level of strength. That’s how otherworldly Boggs had seemed. But Bash had caught up to Boggs. Overtaken him. And now he felt not even one shred of the admiration that had so affected him on the battlefields of his youth. “Graaagh!” “Grooo!” A flash. Boggs’s mace clanged against Bash’s greatsword. Steel scraped against steel. The orc greatsword sent sparks dancing along the surface of the mace as it twisted and bent it into a useless, distorted shape. The demon-tempered sword continued along the trajectory of Bash’s swing, not bending or warping—or indeed suffering any visible damage at all—as it ended its journey embedded deep into Boggs’s head. “Gah…” Boggs’s neck had become a fountain of blood. “…” Now headless, Boggs’s body fell limply to its knees. It knelt there for a moment. Then, finally, it slid to the floor with a dull thud. And there lay the beast tamer who had attained the rank of beast master. The greatest orc to ever tame a pack of wild bugbears was dead. “Hah…” Bash let out a sigh and looked around him. There were no enemies left remaining in the cavern. All fourteen bugbears had been wiped out in seconds. There were no surviving bandits left, either. Even if there were, with Boggs gone, there was no way they could continue with their plot. “Boggs…” Bash looked down upon Boggs’s corpse, thinking on the past. Every soldier knew Boggs, and his reputation as a beast tamer went far and wide. Boggs had been doing what he did for so long—for many years before Bash was even born, in fact. In the midst of what seemed like a hopeless battle, Boggs had spoken to Bash. “Bash, you are the pride of orckind. You are the warrior every orc aspires to be like.” And Bash had responded: “If it hadn’t been for you, I would never have survived in battle for so long.” Yes, Bash remembered those words and how raw and real those emotions had been. Boggs was…a truly remarkable warrior. Bash had been under the impression that Boggs had died in the final battle. He had never dreamed that he would encounter Boggs again out here, as a stateless, rogue orc. Something must have happened to him. But Bash did not know what. Nor did Bash understand the meaning of Boggs’s final words. Boggs, despicable in Bash’s eyes? Not a bit of it. He had respected him. “Was that the last of them?” Houston was speaking to Bash now, his face marred by fresh wounds. It looked like he’d been scratched by a bugbear’s filthy claws. The wounds were red and angry looking. Probably already infected. “Yeah. I already killed all the bandits farther inside.” “What about Judith and the others?” “They’re farther back. No one has died yet, I don’t think.” “I see. That’s good news, then, at least. We should carry them back to the town.” Houston was dabbing his wounds with saliva as he spoke. Bash would be able to handle things alone, Houston had thought. That was why he had prioritized securing the escape route. But Bash had exceeded his expectations. He had killed fourteen bugbears in rapid succession and even cut down an orc warrior. Bash truly was an orc worthy of the title of Hero. …It’s amazing I managed to escape from an orc like that so many times… Houston breathed a sigh of relief.