Better Than One - Chapter 8 Deepthroat.

We barely got a wink of sleep last night. Instead, we spent the time agonizing and organizing five other kobolds for our team while Globba merrily snored away the night. Estra was getting ever more nervous as the dawn approached. And I’m not gonna lie, but I felt a bit of trepidation myself – an irate boss is one thing, but a bloodthirsty orc is another. One would merely fire you, the other one would literally murder you. Immortal or not, pain is pain, and I didn’t feel like dying.

Maybe it was the stress, but Estra was putting on a whine of a storm – ‘I deserved this; I had it coming; it’s probably better this way; I was gonna be a terrible queen anyways.’ It was an endless onslaught of guilt, and I didn’t know how much longer I could take. Telling her to shut the hell up and concentrate on the task at hand didn’t do any good, it just made her angry and loud.

The early morning sun rose. It couldn’t come soon enough, I was ready to face the orc, if only to stop listening to Estra. I grabbed my sturdier shield, she picked up my club and we set out with five kobolds and Globba in tow. The destination was east and then north around the mountain, in Bashag clan territory.

Their entrance was better structured, higher up off the ground, and even had a solid gate. Once inside, the place was a flurry of activity. Their kobolds were better geared than ours. A few were wearing scalemail, and most had a semblance of a helm to boot. We made our way to the arena, the clan chief meeting table was moved to the side. This large room doubled as an arena and weekly meeting chamber. We were early, only a single other clan chief was there besides us, the young one from Izro. He was there with five others of his clan. Our orc nemesis was nowhere in sight. I could feel our pulse quicken as time approached for our duel; Estra was chewing on her lip.

Globba went off to sit against the wall, gnawing on a large bone. We took up position near one of the six exits, Estra went quiet for a relief. Slowly, the place began filling up with chiefs and kobolds, everyone was taking up position around the perimeter of the 30 yard wide arena. It was mostly circular, with a tall dome shaped ceiling. The place was lit up by numerous torches around the area, with a large hanging brazier suspended in the center. The ground was made of orange hard packed clay and uneven stone. It didn’t have any signs of prior combat – no blood, no dings, nor grooves. The only evidence of use was from the weekly meetings – indents from the table and chairs.

A murmur rose through the gathering, and then there was shouting. The Bashag chief had arrived. He was fully decked out in metal and leather, and not in a BDSM way, carrying a large two-handed sword that looked like a giant machete. Intimidating, was the word. He stepped forward swinging his sword around in flashy but deadly movements.

Bogakh. [Orc]

Chief of Bashag kobold clan.

Weight: 220lbs

Height: 6’3″

Total Essence: around 65,000

“Grovel before me, and I’ll spare your life!” He taunted and his clan kobolds filled the arena with laughter and sneers. Some kobolds left the arena for safety, just in case.

We moved away from the wall and stepped forward, but not too far, we needed the range when this came to the fight.

“Bring it bitch!” I shouted, and the room was taken aback, I heard gasps. Were they all really expecting me to surrender and grovel? Estra looked at me with concern.

He roared and charged straight for us. Everyone else ducked away into the tunnels for safety. An orange glow began forming in Estra’s hand. He was fast, but Estra was faster. The [Fireball] zipped out of her hand and flew straight at him, but he rolled left out of the way and it flew by him. He lost his momentum and was soon back on his feet, but it was enough time for Estra to finish casting [Entangle]. Wrist thick vines sprouted out of the ground and entwined themselves around his legs causing him to lose balance and fall forward. I moved us back around the room to gain more distance on him while he was dealing with the vines, while Estra cast another [Fireball.]

He managed to cut away at the vines with a large dagger, but it wasn’t enough time for him to roll out of the way of the second [Fireball.] Unfortunately, the flaming ball landed off mark just a couple of feet from him, exploding into a cloud of fire and smoke. I kept backing us up, keeping him at range was key to winning this.

He emerged out of the black cloud of smoke mostly unscathed. The armor on his left side was visibly blackened. Just then Estra cast another [Entangle.] This time, he dealt with the vines swiftly, cutting through them before they had a chance to grab him. He dodged the third [Fireball] and ran towards us. I blocked the swing of his massive sword with the shield, and he reared up to for an overhead strike when Estra expelled a [Flame Burst] right into his face. Though his helmet blocked most of the flame, his attack was interrupted and he staggered back. I was already moving us back to gain some range, hoping he was blinded by the spell.

The follow up with an [Entangle] left his legs wrapped up as he was having difficulties with cutting them for some reason. Maybe he was blinded after all. It must have been the Better Lucky than Good perk! It gave a small chance for a critical hit. The fourth [Fireball] hit him in the chest dead on sending him sprawling to the ground, though the vines were thoroughly burned too.

I think we won! He laid there motionless, steam rising up from his sprawled out form. Then I realized we didn’t receive the ‘Essence gained’ notification. I started backing up, but it was already too late. He rose up with a spring, swung his sword and the next moment he was next to us, his sword finishing the swing that he started 10 yards away.

If I had my guard down we would have been cleaved in half, but instead I managed to partially block his heavy attack. I didn’t feel a bit of pain as the edge of his weapon cut all the way to bone of our left arm before clanging loudly against the side of my shield. The momentum of the blade and my awkward sidestep caused us to trip and fall on our ass. It was all I could as we flayed around on the ground and I blocked his subsequent attacks.

“You thought it would be easy?” He shouted between his swings. He wasn’t really aiming, just pounding the massive blade against our shield, aiming to break it apart. Estra’s [Flame Burst] had little effect when she could cast, and he deftly dodged another [Fireball.] His armor seemed to deflect the flames.

My arm was inflamed and trembling as he kept on bludgeoning our shield relentlessly. Finally, he stuck his sword into the ground, grabbed my shield and heaved it out of my grip, throwing it aside. The end was near, we laid there exposed, like a shoe crab without a shell. This ogre form was anything but nimble, I was exhausted and couldn’t get up. I hoped [Immortal] worked.

That’s when he made a fatal mistake. He took off his helmet so we could see his face before he butchered us. “This is wh-”

A dull thud and his eyes rolled up. He fell forward on top of us and then rolled off, landing face up next to Estra. Globba finished him with a sharp end of a large bone through his mouth and out the back. I have no idea how she managed to sneak up on him, but we were grateful. Gasps and cries rose from the arena exits. I suppose what happened was cheating, but then again, who would say anything about it. One clan down, six more to go, and we were starting from the top. The battle with Izro clan was cancelled, they conceded.

Globba got the Essence from the kill, and she quickly discarded her large bone for a new two handed sword. We took control of another clan, got a set of armor that was a too small for our belly, a large dagger, and a small key. It was time for celebration. Estra was in a considerably better mood, little things like not dying can do that.

A few of the kobolds came out of the side exits, and the chiefs congratulated us on the victory, though it felt a bit forced. I wasn’t certain what to do with all these kobolds. We needed to establish some sort of a hierarchy, or maybe they already have one in place, like lieutenants and vice-president types to whom we could delegate work.

I remembered that Estra had an [Aristocrat] profession. It somehow magically made her/our subjects more loyal, increased their work ethic and even boosted their morale. Was loyalty increased through some kind of a mind control? How can a profession make someone else work harder? I had no idea.

“You should put some points into the loyalty part of your [Aristocrat] profession, or we’ll never sleep soundly in this place.” I whispered to Estra.

“Don’t tell me how to spend my Essence, it’s none of your business.” She looked at me like I asked her when her period is due. Which is never now, I could only imagine dealing with her during that fun time of the month.

“I don’t want to get stabbed while we’re sleeping.” I might have said that too loudly, as a few heads turned.

“Then stay awake, and guard me.” She said.

In the center of the arena was Globba creating a large space around herself by mere presence. Kobolds were taking detours just to avoid getting close to her. She was giggling about something while cuddling her new sword like a child.

“How do I get the [Aristocrat] profession then?”

She laughed. “You start by being born a royal.”

We took a quick tour of the place. “This is all nice, but it’s no palace.” Estra said as we entered the chief’s room. To me, it was a definite improvement over our previous accommodations. It had a raised wooden bed wide enough for an ogre, a table and chairs. Besides the bed was a locked wood and iron chest. Using the small key I unlocked the chest, and took a look inside.

A fat drawstring purse with gold nuggets, rings, bracelets and necklaces

Spearheads x3

Axehead x2

Wrought iron bar x6

Steel bar

Spell tome: Stone Shape

Spell tome: Wood Shape

“Which spell tome would you like?” I asked, offering her to have a first pick.

“Ugh, neither. Only commoners use those spells.” She said, while admiring the gold and the jewellery in the purse. She inspected each shiny piece with a glint in her eyes before adding it to the collection she got from the other dead clan chief. We’re gonna have a lot of dead people’s jewelry at this rate.

Myself, I was happy for two new spells. But what really got me excited was the cylindrical bar of steel. You can’t make reinforced concrete without rebar.

Steel Bar, [carbon] with [iron]

Weight: 1.21lb

Material composition: Iron 99%, Carbon 1%

Now I had an idea of the carbon content I’d need to aim for to make steel. All that’s left is to figure out how to get carbon into iron. I suppose I could just ask the blacksmiths of this clan, maybe they know. Every clan had a smithy, and this one was no different, but larger and had more blacksmiths busy at their craft. Off to the side was a fortified door – an armory!