DORULL STORIES - LEGEND OF ROSHNAK
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In a very bright flash of light,
Roshnak found himself back inside the Gogron’s hut, mere seconds after he stepped
through the portal. He rushed downstairs, knowing there’s no time to waste. He
was expecting to jump into the battle, right there on the doorstep. But beside
several women, fearfully peeking through the windows of their huts, and a
couple of elders standing in the middle of the square, the village was
empty.
“Where is everyone?” Roshnak asked one of them.
“Chieftain took the men towards the Novil
fields, three days ago.” one of the elders said “When scouts reported of some strange,
monstrous being, coming our way. Some said, it already destroyed a couple of
villages, down south.”
“No one survived.” another one added.
“Neither will we.” the first elder shook his
head.
“Are the stables empty?” Roshnak asked.
“There should be a couple of steeds left.”
“Much appreciated.” Roshnak nodded, as he
hastily turned around.
A few minutes later, he was already spurring
the young stallion, following the narrow, dirt road, leading south, towards the
lush, green meadow. Just about ten miles away from Vur-Paan, Novil field was
one of the largest natural habitats of the wild horses and cattle in the entire
Chaygor. And as such, very important not just for the village, but the entire
region. It provided everything they needed for life. And now, it will be a
location, where they will fight for the preservation of said lives.
Roshnak could already hear the sounds of the
battle, and they were far from promising. He passed through a rather small
grove, and on the enormous opening. A horrific sight in front and all around,
made him stop in an instant. At first, he refused to believe what he saw. He
couldn’t cope with something so terrifyingly surreal. Hundreds upon hundreds of
burned bodies, lying everywhere the eyes could see. Pungent stench of charred
flesh and nauseating smoke, pinched his nostrils and eyes. Roshnak instantly
felt ill in his stomach.
And then he saw him, the elemental. The stone
creature, responsible for the destruction and senseless killings. Engulfed in
fire, over sixty feet tall, Badzanogh stood in the middle of the field. The
creature was surrounded by orcs, who not even now, despite so much loss,
weren’t giving up on fighting. Roshnak saw their chieftain, Wraog Bogrum.
Almost seven feet tall, brawny orc, who in his fifties, still looked like a
young man. Beside him, shoulder to shoulder, stood Gogron Vagan, his master,
shaman. He did everything in his power, to help the soldiers. But his magic
could only slow the monster.
Roots, vines and weed, which under the
effects of Gogron’s spells, grew wildly all around the elemental, couldn’t
bind, hamper and hold him down, for more than a few seconds. Badzanogh’s fiery
energy would almost instantly burn them all into ashes. Roshnak could see the
remains of the barriers, made out of dirt and rocks, Gogron undoubtedly lifted
before, in an atempt to stop the elemental’s progress. But that also failed,
for Badzanogh had swatted them in just a couple of swings. Energy spheres and
projectiles, the creature barely felt. It was a similar thing with spears and
arrows.
In that moment, several orcs managed to sneak
past elemental’s back. Strong strikes of their two handed sledgehammers shook
him quite a bit. Quite sizable, rock fragments scattered all around. Badzanogh
screamed in pain, as he realized, those were chunks of his legs. Enraged,
almost immediately, he punished the insolent attackers. With the first, very
violent swing, he mowed half of the group. With the second, he finished the
rest of them.
Roshnak knew, if he wasn’t to do something
fast, all of his brothers would end the same. He hastily dismounted the horse,
charging at the monstrosity, but then decided to stop, some hundred yards away.
Orc had hoped, he’ll be out of elemental’s reach out here, but still be close
enough, to use his magical powers. In all of the confusion, he forgot to ask
what was the range of these spells.
“Taemk nis saben ur bethruk!” Roshnak screamed,
stretching his arms towards the creature.
He had to try. There was no room for
hesitation. Even though he knew he had to succeed. There was no room for
failure. It would be quite disappointing to lose the element of surprise, in
such a stupid manner. Albescent, flickering sphere emerged from his hand. It
grew for a couple of seconds, until it was about three feet wide. And then, all
of the sudden, it transformed into a ray, violently bursting out towards the
target. In a blindingly bright explosion, the ray struck Badzanogh straight
into his chest. Caught by the surprise, he stumbled a couple of steps
backwards, grasping for the hurt spot with the palm of his left hand. It stung
like nothing ever did. And it felt cold, and painful. A large patch on his chest
was completely frozen. And it pinched and stabbed him, trying to spread inside.
It was unpleasant to say the least, but luckily for him, it lasted for just a
couple of seconds. Immediately, Badzanogh was searching for the being that
attacked him.
“Taemk nis saben ur Bethruk!” Roshnak said
once more, trying the same spell again.
He was pleasantly surprised by its effect. The
frost ray was obviously damaging this fiery creature. Truth to be told, it was
significantly less damage than he wished for, but nonetheless, at least he
found out that the elemental wasn’t indestructible. This time around, Badzanogh
somewhat managed to dodge the attack. The ray struck his left shoulder,
temporarily paralyzing his entire arm. But he did manage to evade the direct hit.
Which was a shame, because the ray seemed even stronger than before.
Undoubtedly because Roshnak decided to channel the spell a tad longer. Force of
the ice was that much stronger, it cracked the elemental’s arm in a couple of
places. Badzanogh growled, shriveling in pain.
Drawn by this sudden turn of events, orcs
rushed at elemental. At the same time when he, frenzied with rage, begins madly
swinging with his unharmed, right arm. Thousands of scalding, fist-sized chunks
of lava, scattered and sprayed all over, falling on top of the orcs like a
fiery hail. The charge came to a halt, before it even properly started. They
now realized it was a mistake to run at the creature. They jumped on the
opportunity, far too early. Orcs were no longer behaving in unison. Not like
well trained soldiers. This was no longer a battle, but a desperate attempt of
survival. As if they had any chance of doing that, for it was far too late for
them to escape. In only ten seconds or so, most of them were lying on the
ground, dead or heavily wounded.
“No! No!” Roshnak screamed, powerless to
prevent the slaughter.
He could only watch, as everyone he knew was
dying in front of his eyes. He saw their chieftain, Wraog Bogrum falling,
stricken straight in the head. He saw his master, shaman, Gogron Vagan
clutching his chest, as two or three stones pierced through his torso. He saw a
couple of soldiers crawling towards him, begging for help. But Roshnak could
see, they are beyond salvation. They too had died, a few moments later, as soon
as lava melted them from the inside. Orcs charged too soon, before he could
weaken the elemental. This was exactly what Ch’ybal warned him about.
“Taemk nis tragd!” Roshnak yelled.
He had to stop this deadly rain of fire. The
strong gust of chilling wind instantly cooled down the lava rocks. Violent
whirls, for a moment blinded Badzanogh. Roshnak used this to approach a bit
closer.
“Taemk nis saben ur bethruk.” For the third
time, Roshnak summoned the power of the ice ray.
And he struck in the exact center of the
creature. In that same spot on the chest, he weakened moments earlier. Only
this time, he decided not to interrupt the channeling of the magic, for as long
as he could withstand. The beam grew ever so stronger, shining with more
intense light than before. And obviously dealing more damage. Badzanogh could
no longer stand. His legs begin to tremble and shake. The frost was weakening
him. It hurt a lot. It was killing him.
But Roshnak had to take a break. His hands
were hurting from the amount of energy he was producing. Involuntarily he took
a couple of steps forward. He saw a rather large gash appearing in the
elemental’s chest. Trickle of cooled lava oozed out of it.
“Taemk nir phaenkt ur nuir.” Roshnak protrudes
the palm of his right hand.
Strong, ice pulse struck the wound. Badzanogh
grunted and moaned. Orc took a couple of more steps forward.
“Taemk nir phaenkt ur nuir.” again he
said the same spell.
Once more, a pulse struck the target.
Badzanogh’s entire monstrous, stone body shook. Ice already penetrated deep
inside of him. His life was slowly extinguishing. Roshnak was now just a couple
of feet away from the elemental.
“Taemk nir pha…” orc couldn’t manage to finish
the casting of the spell.
Heavy Badzanogh’s fist, suddenly and with full
force, came sideways, catching Roshnak on his blind side. It tossed him more
than thirty yards away. The strike crushed his entire face, and half of the
ribcage. Sharp jagged bone fragments, bursted through his lungs, piercing it in
several places. His limbs flailed around his body, before he slammed hard on
the ground. And he landed sideways, straight on the shoulder, which dislocated
awkwardly in a quite loud pop. Orc tried to get up momentarily, but his body
refused to obey.
“Tae…taemk ni…” Roshnak tried to say the
restoration spell.
He mumbled in an attempt to heal himself. But
his jaw was hanging by a thread, dislocated from the skull, horribly swaying
much lower than it should be. At the same time, Badzanogh tried to regain his
foothold. He will crush this insolent, but surprisingly powerful being. He had
to continue with his journey at once. But all of the sudden, from the other
side, just behind his back, a supple, female figure jumped high, grabbing
elemental’s shoulder. It was Shelur Gonk of Vur-Suun. With a rather long spear,
she was clutching tightly with both of her hands, Shelur threw herself straight
towards the gash on Badzanogh’s chest. Sharp tip of the spear went completely
inside, striking the bright red rock, pulsating in the exact center of the elemental's torso.
Primaeval stone of life, from which he became,
was his heart. Without even knowing, Shelur managed to deal the mortal strike.
But at the cost of her own. Vehement jet of hot steam spurted out of the slit,
as Badzanogh’s heart began to fracture. It struck her directly in the face. She
let a horrific shriek of anguish, jumping sideways away from it. Instinctively,
Shelur held her head with both hands, as if that would somehow relieve the
pain. But it was only growing, and seemingly had no intention to stop. Shelur
sobbed, putting her hands down. And with it, she pulled her entire face off.
Completely shocked, seeing the skin and flesh seeping over her palms, Shelur
let out a barely audible sigh, before falling dead onto the ground.
In the meantime, Roshnak managed to stand up.
The courage of this unknown woman amazed him, but also gave strength to charge
at elemental. In a few strong strides, he climbed on top of him, approaching
the gash on his chest.
“Taemk nir malnneg reib.” with all of his remaining
energy, Roshnak mumbled the spell, holding his broken jaw with one hand, while
he placed the other on the top of Badzanogh’s exposed heart.
Burst of energy cooled the heart down
instantly. Sudden change of temperature cracked it into thousands of small
shards. The intense outburst of energy splashed all over the orc, who stumbled
backwards, expecting the worst. He saw what happened with that unfortunate
female, and was angry at his imprudence. But instead of the pain, Roshnak felt
quite well. To his surprise, all of his injuries were gone. Surely the doing of
that last energy wave, leaving the body of the elemental.
But that was the last thing on his mind right
now. He had to take care of all of these brave orcs, his brothers, who stood up
in the defence of Dorull, besides surely knowing that they had almost zero
chance against such a force of nature. In their deaths, they allowed others to
live. And that sacrifice, no orc will ever forget. Roshnak obliged to it, as he
stood over the body of his dead master. With one of the first spells he learned
from him, he started digging the graves.
Sun was coming down over the Novil fields, one of the largest natural habitats of the wild cattle and horses. Very important not only for the village, but this entire region. It gifted them everything they needed for life. And now, it personifies the place in which Chaygor was defended. It became a place where thousands of warriors from Vur-Paan found their peace. A place that will represent the symbol of orcish strength and unity, for all new generations to come. It was a place, where the legend of Roshnak Baanar from Vur-Paan, wrote its beginnings.
THE END
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