44 Meeting Gnorl (1/2)

Gnorl, the feared chieftain of the goblins who had just given themselves over to me, slowly clambered out of the hole. The first thing I noticed about him was his green skin. The second thing I noticed was that he had a massive black feline on his back. By the time he was out of the hole, he had already laid eyes on me. His eyes were focused, unmovingly, on my strange form.

”Good afternoon Gnorl.” I said to the orc, greeting him as he sized me up. He didn't look particularly perturbed by the fact that I knew his name, and instead continued to calmly study me. The orc's pet, the infamous Hunahpu, dismounted from his back and stepped between him and me.

And then the thing, an enormous, ebony-furred feline, bared its fangs at me, its amber-colored eyes narrowing to thin slits. Guskaxa stepped between myself and the panther and growled at the panther. I chuckled at my wolf's display.

Gnorl himself was about two meters tall. He wore armor fashioned from some sort of dark green chitin, unlike any chitin I had seen so far. His armor was dense like it was fabricated from a gigantic insect that dwarfed any I had seen to date, including my massive spider-ghoul.

Gnorl possessed healthy, thick muscles, and he had an intimidating looking sword at his side. There was also a faint aura of multi-hued magic that surrounded him, magic unlike any I had seen to date. When I researched it, I heard the voice of the domain of knowledge whisper into my mind.

”He's a shaman of some sort. Shamans commune with lesser nature spirits, ones that care to commune with mortals. They grant him weak but flashy magical spells, ones just strong enough enough to cow weaklings, like the goblins.” The domain explained. And then the domain of magic chuckled, before adding that the domain of knowledge was correct.

I waited for a second to see if Gnorl would talk first and quickly concluded that Gnorl wasn't going to initiate a conversation. Which meant that I'd have too.

”What can I say, or do, to get you to engage verbally with me Gnorl? I would like for you to serve me, and it's more difficult... though not impossible, for me to figure out what you would like without you talking to me.” I explained, deciding to deal with the orc honestly.

Gnorl looked at me curiously, one of his eyebrows raised when I said this. He studied me a moment longer, before beginning to talk to me.

”Who are you? And what have you done with my goblins?” He asked. His voice was a low growl. There was a look of annoyance on his face and agitation flashed in his eyes. I chuckled and smiled at him.

His question made sense. The goblins continued to prostrate themselves, even in front of Gnorl.

”There, that's it! Was that so hard?” I asked, a smile on my face as I asked that question. And then I considered how to reply to the question. I opted for honesty. Or at least, I opted for honesty in my intention. As for honesty with regards to my background, I was going to tell Gnorl the same lie that I told the goblins.

”I am Cosecha, a friendly spirit. I am a relative newborn and I seek to gain worshipers. Now, what would it take for you to serve me?” I asked, openly displaying my ambition and intention. But something changed in the orc when the word 'spirit' left my lips.

His eyes opened wide in shock, and a cruel grin danced on his lips. He slowly rose a hand up towards me. Shortly after I finished my statement, he opened the hand he had been raising towards me and I watched his multi-hued aura come to life.

On the minimap, his icon turned red. And a shadow shot out of me, speedily crawling through the ground in an inhuman and terrifying display of undead rage. It went through the panther between us, causing the thing to freeze and begin to vibrate intensely, like it was having a seizure or something.

I quickly checked its condition with my ability to appraise people and animals. It listed the condition of the creature as ”paralyzed and scared”, which explained why it didn't try to attack the shadow.

A second later an ethereal net was shot out of his hands, and it flew towards me.

My shadow reached him before his net reached me. And then the thing leaped out of the ground, suddenly going from a one-dimensional puddle of darkness dashing through the floor to a three-dimensional entity that was determined to attack the orc. He took a step back, shocked by this, and pulled out his sword. Meanwhile, his net was still sailing towards me.

It sailed towards me at an incredible speed, but it wasn't fast enough that I couldn't react to it. The thing that was whipping through the air towards me was clearly magical, as conjuring it caused Gnorl's aura to flare to life. It was made of a strange sort of airy material and was growing thicker and thicker the closer it got to me as if it were expanding to accommodate my size.

I watched it and allowed it to approach me. I was confident in my abilities and could recognize what this was: it was an attempt to capture me. Which logically meant that whatever the orc had just tossed at me, some sort of spell of binding, would be something that attempted to impair my movement. Which meant that it would fail.

A part of me considered using my power to change the orc's hostility, even though I could only use it twice every twelve hours. I knew that if I did that I could engage the orc in conversation, and possibly prevent whatever fighting was about to occur. Probably stop the fighting in fact.

That would have been an easy option to pick. It would have made sense. But a part of me wanted to allow this battle to occur. I was strong enough that I didn't have to worry about losing this fight. There was no real chance of that happening. And I could use this fight to see what choices I have in battle. I also knew that winning this fight in combat would make me even more awe-inspiring in the eyes of my followers.

I weighed the two options in my head for a second. And then I decided that the occasional fight was fine, so long as I didn't let it get out of hand. Especially if there were things to be gained by fighting.

And after a split second of waiting, the net reached me.

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The strange net that the orc threw at me made contact with my skin, specifically, it made contact with my flaming arm. And then it was repelled off of me, by some invisible force I wasn't aware of. Before my very eyes, the net had touched me and then was forcibly pushed off of my skin. It was like someone was batting it away. And then I received a pleasant and enlightening notification.

[Alert: An alteration spell entitled 'Net Of Hate' was just cast and aimed at you. The spell hit, but since it was a spell that would have immobilized you, it failed to affect you. The spell 'Net Of Hate' has been added to your grimoire via one of the magic domain's newly unlocked passive powers.]

This surprised the orc even more than it surprised me. He was able to watch it while fending off my shadow, as the thing was a bestial entity with no intelligence to speak of. It mindlessly swung ponderous appendages of semi-solid darkness at the orc, who batted each strike away or swung his sword through them. It wasn't a challenge for him.

Gnorl was angered at how ineffective his attack had been. And so he opened his mouth, a large maw filled with sharp, dagger-like teeth, and issued a command. ”Hunahpu! Kill the traitors.” He bellowed, now determined to keep me on my toes.

His pet panther reared back and lunged forward, dashing towards the goblins that stood between all of us. They had largely ignored the orc, seemingly focusing on their devotion to me, but the panther was another story.

The goblins understandably got up and dashed away, scattering in a number of directions. This was a bit annoying, but I didn't mind that they weren't slavishly loyal. It was probably better overall that they be intelligent and preserve themselves more than that they were zealots, especially because it wouldn't have made much sense for them to be zealots at this point. I hadn't really earned that sort of loyalty yet. I would, in time, but that sort of trust and devotion has to be earned.

That said, I didn't give the panther a chance to do anything, opening up the earth underneath the feline with my ability to control the earth. I did so in eerie, menacing silence. The panther immediately fell into the hole that opened up underneath it.

I wasn't planning to hurt the creature, so I willed the earth that had just opened up underneath the thing to soften to the point that it wouldn't hurt the panther and would allow it to breathe while I engaged its master, while grabbing the panther with my mind so it didn't fall far.

And then I willed the hole I had created to gently close, trapping the panther underneath a thick layer of dirt and rock. I released my mental grip on the animal and turned to look at Gnorl.

Gnorl was still engaged with my shadowy servant. The thing had taken on a resembling something akin to a bear, albeit one of the same inky darkness as shadows. It opened its mouth in a motion that resembled a roar, but a silent one, as it rose a massive, light-absorbing and destroying limb, and swung it at the orc. Gnorl batted it away and roared at the bear-shadow, and a second later turned to look in the direction of the goblins.

He was surprised to see nothing. No goblins, no panthers. The goblins had speedily fled to the treeline that ringed the encampment and were now watching this strange confrontation. And his panther was stuck underground, alive and unhurt but indisposed.

This moment panicked the orc shaman, who proceeded to unleash a monstrous roar and savagely punched the shadowy bear harassing him in the face, sending the thing into the dirt and sprawling away. He then turned his gaze back at me and began to attempt to cast a magical spell at me. I wouldn't let him.

As he moved to attack me, concentrating on me, I felt an ocean of hostility surge into me. That was thanks to the connections I shared with my undead creations, who were hostile to anyone who threatened me. I took a deep breath and willed the hostility away, forcing my servants into a state of passive-aggression as opposed to aggressive-aggression.

I focused on Gnorl so that my power would properly target the chieftain and then attempted to lift him off the ground with my telekinetic ability. I didn't even physically aim using my hands, instead, I relied on my mind to be capable of handling the task of lifting one orc into the air. I wasn't disappointed.