21st Century Orc Read online

  Gore opened her mouth to speak when Bones murmured almost too soft for Gore to hear, “I like this. Just sitting on the back of the truck, looking up at the stars… just like old times.”

  “What did you say?” asked Gore.

  “Nothing.”

  Gore paused, unsure of whether to continue or not. Fingering her wyvern bone earring, she glanced up at the stars. They were nice.

  She could sit there with Bones, and for once not feel the urge to kill him. Gore smiled.

  “Well, I’m waiting,” murmured Bones, spitting out a ball of wriggling shells.

  Glancing into the headlights of the Magnum Orcus, the rumble lingering in her veins, Gore stopped and rubbed her hands together. She sighed, “I need your help.”

  “Oh?” Bones smirked.

  “Don’t get too excited. It’s just one job.” Gore glanced around at Tao Ein, at Elvenheim. “We need to break into my college and steal a piece of equipment for the Magnum Orcus. You in?”

  Gore waited for her brother’s response.

  She didn’t have to wait long.

  “Might as well,” grumbled Bones as he searched his pockets. His hands came out clean. “My supply is getting low and I’m gonna be real bored until the next batch comes in.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Interlude

  The Orc drunk in red from the darkness as he sucked in another draught of Blight bug. He glanced at the graffiti sprawling across the walls around him. Graffiti drawn in blood. Blood, fresher than what beat within the orc’s own veins, yet older than the city itself.

  He shivered, eyes flashing white.

  The orc he was about to visit was not pleasant. If the old corpse could even be called a orc anymore after all these centuries in undeath.

  Fiddling with his pipe in one hand and fingering his rifle in the other, the Orc bit his lip as he forced his eyes to steel. He needed to do this. He needed to make sure this deal went through, for the sake of Momma G. And the mission.

  Finally summoning his courage, the Orc strode into the deepest parts of the Narrows, the Gutter. Into the belly of Tao Ein. Where not even the cops with their armored tanks or the most hardened of criminals — even the craziest and most powerful Warboyz— ventured.

  Where the Corpse Crawlers ruled the haunted streets.

  Good thing that the Corpse Crawlers kept to their own, unconcerned about the greater world of Tao Ein above them except in moments like the Grand Prix, for the old men and women in the Narrows still whispered of the orc ruling the Corpse Crawlers. The Corpse King. The elders whispered that the Corpse King once fought the Warchief to a standstill in a battle atop the Dragon Skull Mountain, shaking the very foundations of Tao Ein. And that was before the Corpse King turned to the dark path of sorcery.

  “Enough,” growled the Orc, slapping himself as he popped in another handful of Blight bug. “There’s nothing to fear. You know the man. He won’t kill you. Plus he likes you. Hopefully.”

  “Yes. He does. The darkness accepts all shunned by the light,” murmured a voice like cracking concrete and whistling wails.

  Spinning around, heart beating out of his chest, the Orc found his first undead of the night. The shambling corpse of a wooly rhino, dressed in a tattered business suit and holding a machine gun. A dozen desiccated eyes sown into the bones swiveled to look at the Orc as the skull clacked, “What business do you have here?”

  “I’ve come to see Cousin Kalask,” growled the Orc, teeth clattering as he pulled his sleeves up to his shoulder, revealing a long series of burn scars that painted a mass of great centipedes working through his skin. “I’m one of his kin.”

  The wooly rhino shivered and a thread of dark energy leapt out of the skeleton onto the wall, swimming across the graffiti deep into the Gutter.

  Only silence whispered to the Orc for over a minute as his eyes slowly faded into pitch black. He tried to resist the urge to run as fast as he could out of the Gutter. But his legs failed before he could summon the will, freezing in place.

  Then, dark energy sprinting across the walls back into the skeleton, the wooly rhino’s skeleton shivered and bowed low, murmuring, “Hehehe… Cousin Kalask will see you now… Follow me. And try not to stray away from me. The other Kin are hungry tonight. Best not to tempt them with warm flesh. Ah… but Cousin Kalask will not let anything come to harm you. For it has been too long, blood-kin.”

  “Aye. Too long,” said the Orc, following the skeleton through the Gutter as he thought, two lifetimes without seeing the old orc again would be too short.

  The Orc tried not to look as he walked past buildings twisted in upon themselves as if gravity was flipped inside out, ripped to pieces by a bored god and then put back together by a mad mortal. Walls made out of pulsing, festering flesh whispered through countless pustules. Impossible streets twisted in and out of his view. Street lamps sucked in light, shadows dancing towards the Orc. Cackles echoed in the distance one second then slithered in the deepest folds of his brain the second. The Orc’s pants grew wet as he stuffed his face full of Blight bug and kept close to the guiding skeleton.

  Best not to linger too long in the Gutters. The orc tried his best to forget the horror. Tried being the operative word.

  At last, the odd pair arrived at the center of the gutter, at a stone door sitting at the edge of a massive hole in the earth. The orc gulped, eyes turning pale as the moons. He had once tossed a corpse into the abyss. The body had never hit the bottom.

  “We’ve arrived,” murmured the wooly rhino’s skeleton as it gestured to the door.

  The Orc followed the skeleton’s hand, blood draining from his face as he regarded the two undead Shasta guarding the door. The massive ground sloths’ held no weapons in their hands but their powerful claws, tipped with iron and enchanted with dark energies by the Corpse Crawlers, could tear through tank armor.

  “Cousin Kalask has a visitor,” murmured the wooly rhino as it bowed low. “A blood-kin. Let him through.”

  Noiseless except for grinding bones, the Shasta turned to the stone door. Their claws grabbed the rusted handholds, spewing dust and darkness as the massive doors swung open to reveal a ancient library stuffed with books and spiderwebs. And at the center of it all sat a small orc with spectacles, reading a book.

  “Hello, cousin Kalask,” growled the Orc, trying to keep the terror from his voice. He tried to smile but failed. “Momma G has an offer. You see there’s this girl called Gore. You might know her…”

  Cousin Kalask smiled, exposing long fangs.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Just like old times

  Scurrying through the shadows, Bones murmured, “Cutting it a little bit short, aren’t we? The Grand Prix’s just three nights away.”

  “I know. But this is the only time the lab’s gonna be deserted,” growled Gore. And the magic fair wasn’t too far either. Just the day before the Grand Prix… If she wanted to complete the black box in time, she needed the blood gem now. “Ready?”

  “That even a question, sis?”

  “Then, let’s start this raid.”

  “Orc style like the Black Hand Hoes.”

  “…Shut up.”

  A few weeks after the Toretto Trials in the dead of night, just a few hours before dawn, after all the students and staff had left for the weekend, when not even a single soul wandered through the abandoned grounds, two orcs slipped over the castle walls into Elvenheim. Padding across the ancient stones, Gore scanned the area, watching for any movement. Though Gore doubted anyone could see her in her camouflage, thanks to the misdirection spells woven into the fabric, she could never be too careful.

  “Huh, this material you got’s working wonders,” murmured Gore, glancing down at her hands. Her callused fingers blurred as if dissolving. “We need to find some way to integrate this into the Magnum Orcus for a stealth mode.”

  “Hehehe… that’d be a pretty awesome idea. Well, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get anymore of this tarp stuf
f. It’s actually a cutting edge stealth tech used by the military,” chuckled Bones as the two siblings jumped down into the courtyard. Grass crunched under the two siblings as they rolled out.

  “Then how’d you get it?” asked Gore, flitting from shadow to shadow under the statues sprouting out of the ground. Statues of old elven scholars formed a ring around the main castle, sentries forever protecting a bastion of knowledge. If Gore had her history right, the statues had also functioned as a shield barrier during the Great War, nullifying the greatest orc shamans and dwarven bombs.

  “Momma G has quite the connections, you know. If I asked nicely, she could probably get me a whole transport ship of—”

  “Wait!” hissed Gore, holding up her hand. “There’s a sentry golem ahead.”

  Gore glanced around her statue, edging her head around the worn stone at the main keep. The solemn shard loomed tall over her, the last relic from a time before Gore’s grandmother’s grandmother lived. Though certain parts had been updated.

  A sentry golem wandered through the second-floor balconies, back and forth across the west face, trudging in circles in an endless mission to keep its castle safe from intruders. The red glare of a laser sight attached to a heavy machine gun slashed through the misted darkness. Gore didn’t fancy her odds against a Blighted war machine.

  “Isn’t that a little excessive?” asked Bones as he rummaged through his bag. He pulled out the Dakka. “Why should a school have a freaking war machine patrolling its grounds?”

  Gore glanced down at the Dakka and countered, “Isn’t a Dakka a little excessive?”

  “No. I live in Tao Ein.” Bones raised the Dakka’s sights to his eyes. He took in a deep breath and prepared to step out from the shadows.

  “And thus we have our answer.” Gore pushed down the barrel of the Dakka before her brother could make another stupid mistake. “Wait, I can handle this.”

  “Um… sis, I don’t think the scared little orc girl act will work on a robot. Especially since you’ve grown up and gotten… bigger,” murmured Bones, poking Gore in the sides.

  “Are you saying I’m fat?” A grim smile creasing her lips, Gore shook her head and reached into her own backpack. She pulled out a handful of pellets and a gas-powered launcher. “No, I just have a more elegant solution. One that won’t scream that two orcs came by.”

  “Heh, always overcomplicating things with your fancy tech. You’re thinking like an elf.”

  “Shut up,” growled Gore as she loaded the launcher and raised it to her eyes. She sucked in breath, held the air in as she aimed down the sights.

  “You’re gonna miss.”

  “Shut up.” The sentry golem landed right in Gore’s sights. Then her hands trembled and the golem jumped back out of her sights.

  “Better take the shot soon before the sun rises,” laughed Bones, Blight bug-bated breath tickling Gore’s ears and nipping at her nose. “But you’re gonna miss anyway so why even—”

  “Shut up,” hissed Gore as she pulled the trigger.

  With a near-silent puff of air, the launcher hurled the bundle of pellets through the air. Like a swarm of hornets, the pellets whistled and curved around the pillars to smack into the golem’s blockhead. An explosion of blue gas erupted around the golem, glint-power crackling through the cloud as the golem sunk to the ground.

  Asleep. If stone could taste the sweet embrace of dreams. But Gore wasn’t a philosophy major so she didn’t have to worry about such trifles.

  “Huh,” murmured Bones as he stepped out of the shadows. He followed Gore across the lawn to the base of the castle. “What’d you do?”

  “Nothing too crazy. The science is kinda complicated, but in layman’s terms, I just mixed in some good old grease and water with a new gel substance the chemistry department’s been working on that can contain glint-powered lightning until the surface is cracked. That overloaded the golem’s delicate neural system and forced it to reboot. Should only last an hour tops and once it’s done, the golem will only register the blackout as a momentary glitch.”

  “Ah… that’s brilliant,” crooned Bones, ruffling Gore’s dreadlocks. Gore snarled and slapped his hand away. “I know quite a few people who’d like to get their hands on this stuff. You—”

  “No.”

  “But—”

  “No,” growled Gore as the two siblings came to their first true obstacle. A locked gate. Stepping aside, Gore gestured for Bones to get to work. “Time for you to earn your keep.”

  “Yeah-up. Time to see the jazz hands.” Bones set the Dakka down and pulled out a set of lock-picks. As well as a pack of chewing gum and some very specific items that Gore couldn’t see much use outside the bathroom.

  “You sure you need all that?”

  “No,” chuckled Bones as he ran his hands over the cast iron gate. He whistled, claws stopping on an indent carved into the stone. “Hm… this might be a little tricky, sis. This shit’s enchanted. I don’t think I can get through without some heavy duty explosives.”

  “Can you at least try to pick it?” asked Gore, spinning around. Her eyes, light-grey, jumped from shadow to shadow, looked for any sign of movement. She watched Bones out the corner of her eye.

  “Sure…” Bones pulled out a piece of whittled bone and inserted it into the keyhole. Then his hands blurred, gathering the rest of his equipment as he went to work.

  A moment later, smoke tickled Gore’s nose. She turned around to see Bones hopping around like a madman, cursing as he tried to put out blue flames licking at his pants.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit-Shit-Shit-Shit-Shit-Shit-Shit-Shit!” cursed Bones through gritted tusks while Gore just slapped her forehead.

  “Drop and roll, you idiot!” hissed Gore, lunging forward but then retreating as Bones reached out and tore off his pants. She covered her eyes. “Oh, by the Blight, you have to go commando?”

  “I like feeling a breeze. It’s nature’s coolant system,” muttered Bones, throwing his pants at the gate. The blue flames disintegrated the pants before the pair even hit the cast iron. “Shit… those were my good pair too. And… shit, my lock picking tools…”

  “Yeah, let’s not go that way. I got a spare set of lock picks but let’s save those for the lab door. For now… let’s find another entrance,” murmured Gore as she walked back out onto the lawn. As she examined the castle, looking for any openings she could exploit, Gore pulled out a hook from her backpack and stuffed one end into her launcher.

  “Ah, I haven’t seen a hook shot in ages,” murmured Bones, joining Gore on the lawn. Still butt naked. Gore rolled her eyes. “Where you thinking?”

  “Well, the lab’s on the four floor so… I’d rather find an open window somewhere near there. And preferably a floor without a sentry golem nearby. No need to chance anything.”

  “Good call…” Bones narrowed his eyes. “Hm… not seeing anything. Though that’s kinda expected. Not like a castle to be built with many windows. After all, window’s are structural weakness that would fall quite rapidly to enemy magic barrages and siege weapons…”

  What the? Gore shook her head.

  “The Dean’s office window! It’s open,” hissed Gore as she adjusted her hook shot. Just a little bit to the right… she squeezed the trigger.

  Just a glittering glint in the night sky, the hook sailed through the air. And sunk into the Dean’s office without even a crash.

  “Nice. I’d rate that seven out of five,” chuckled Bones, prompting Gore to smack him upside the head.

  “Less talking, more climbing,” growled Gore as she pulled on the hook, testing the strength of whatever the hook had sunk into. Good enough. Might not hold her weight but few things could.

  Gore bared her teeth and began climbing, Bones right behind her as they shimmied up the side of the castle.

  “Don’t look down,” growled Gore after she did so, eyes turning white, and nearly hurled out her dinner. Her pulse pounded against her skull.

  “No need to tel
l me twice,” laughed Bones, his teeth clattering like a motor. “Orcs weren’t meant to climb shit. We evolved in the Glass Deserts for Malakoran’s sake.”

  “Amen,” barked Gore as she reached out and grasped the window sill. Ancient oak flexed under her, on the verge of crumbling. Gore stopped, taking a deep breath, readying herself.

  Then she flexed, summoning all her strength, and hopped into the Dean’s office. Bones followed just a split second later.

  “Damn,” gasped Bones, flopping around in the piles of books and papers littering the Dean’s office. “I need to workout more.”

  “Same, so much,” growled Gore as she tried to stop her hands, legs and everything else from shaking. A vain effort. Then she clapped her head and began rummaging through the Dean’s desk.

  “What are you doing?” asked Bones between gasps of air. After a while, he struggled onto his feet.

  “Looking for the Dean’s spare key card. It allows him to go everywhere. I’ve seen him put it in his desk when I come by his office. If we can get that, it’ll make this whole trip easier,” Gore opened drawer after drawer. “What the Blight? What does this guy do other than read papers?”

  “Huh. ‘This guy’ actually has a name, you know,” muttered Bones as he peered down to examine the Dean’s desk. “You always just call him the Dean. But his last name is Acula. Hmm… Phd too. Does that make him a doctor or a mister?”

  “A doctor, just not medical,” murmured Gore, claws grasping around the last drawer she had not yet opened. She tugged. “Damn. The only one locked. This must have something important in it.”

  “Doctor Acula…” chuckled Bones, his claws tapping on a skull while Gore continued to try to open the drawer. He sniffed more pixie dust. “Huh… Doctor Acula… nice name. Kind of feels like I’m missing something obvious though. Meh, probably not too important.”