Chapter 848 (2/2)

Without the constant flow of challenges, his outlook turned bleak. He realized why so many ogres spend most of their life sleeping. Because the world was an empty, hollow place. For a while, he found meaning in the Arena, but now he had to move past that. He had to provide a life for his family.

Yet… it felt so empty. Every day was a hollow echo of the previous one. Reports and training and reports and sleep… On and on, in an endless cycle.

But then he heard reports of energy, rich and clean, flowing from the Western Mountains. When he heard the news, Obyrn blinked. Then he smiled. Somehow, even then, he knew this was it. This was the news that would change his life.

To be safe, he killed the ogres that brought these reports. Then he moved his troops out, under the pretext of training maneuvers, and brought them to the mountains to investigate. What he found was so much more than Obyrn had expected.

An entire world, flooded with rich energy. Already, the mountain surrounding the portal was a lush forest from prolonged exposure to the energy. The energy had probably been flowing for several months already. Soon, it would drift far enough in a direction that someone else would notice. But for now…

Quickly, he sent up a base camp and began preparations. He had brought a little less than a thousand trained soldiers, every powerful ogre above Level 50 he could find, and sent one of his captains through to pave a path for him while Obyrn made preparations on this side.

It was pivotal that Obyrn keep word of this strange portal for as long as possible. For all that he was Level 79, there still lived on this planet monsters that were born before the Great Darkness fell across the world. If they found out about this energy…

Even Obyrn shivered at that thought.

What he hadn’t expected was to have his Captain return, bruised and broken, after a single night. So Obyrn assembled a crack squad of scouts and hunters to sneak out and explore the surrounding area.

Within a week, he received word that those, too, failed. They were discovered by a clumsy child and a flaming tree. Obyrn stared long and hard at the letter that informed him of this, but Obyrn knew the author; they were not inclined to poorly timed humor. So Obyrn contemplated this strange world on the other side of the portal.

There, the people did possess physical features similar to respectable ogre men and women. However, they were all… tiny. More like children than true ogres. In addition, they had hair like beasts on their heads, often in garish colors. Their teeth were flat like bovines and their bodies were as skinny as saplings.

Perhaps worst of all, every report agreed that every human only had one head. At first, Obyrn believed them to, therefore, be magicless beings, but the reports assured him that they possessed the ability to use Mana, despite possessing the inferior arcane talent of a single-headed being.

But for all that, they were strong. Strong enough to parry his initial two thrusts to control the surrounding area.

So yesterday, Obyrn had gone to speak with these “humans”. He did his best to suppress the urgent need in his heart to bring his warriors as quickly as possible into this world to train and gather energy and played it cool. He was confident. He knew that the highest Level among them was the bright-eyed woman Alana, who was only Level 67. The difference between 67 and 79 was like that between sea and sky: an impassable gulf lay between them.

As he expected, the humans refused to surrender to him. He threatened violence. They looked on with grim resolve. It was disappointing and yet exciting. For all that these tiny people had none of the strength of an ogre, they had their pride. For that, Obyrn respected them.

He would still kill them like misbehaving chickens, but he respected them. As he had respected all of his opponents in the arena. The prospect of returning to his days of combat set his heart pounding. Already, he could feel the subtle influence of energy in his body; the longer he stayed in the area, the more he could feel his pores opening to absorb the rich air...

As he promised them, one day later Obyrn strode out with a force of four hundred, exactly all of his remaining troops. The rest were either dead, hiding in the hills of this strange world, or making sure word of the portal didn’t leak out on the other side.

This was everything he could muster. It had to be enough.

What he found waiting for him was an army of gleaming metal beasts. Obyrn turned to his trusted aide, Duual. Having three heads, Duual had very powerful magicks and would be able to get to the bottom of these strange beings.

“They have no souls,” Duual advised. The middle head seemed bored, while his left head was actually asleep. But the right head had all the brain power Duual needed, drawing it from the inert heads. “They are but puppets. Yet… I suspect they can fight, or they would not be here.”

“Will your spells reach from here?” Obyrn asked. He scanned the line of metal beasts; undoubtedly, that woman Alana would soon appear. She did not seem the type to allow others to fight her battles. “As it is, our numbers appear about equal. We cannot risk being slowed down here.”

“Perhaps… but I will need time to set up my ritual circles.” Duual answered. Then the ogre hesitated. “Ironfist… must we fight? If we explained our situation-”

“If they knew our weakness, they would crush us,” Obyrn said with a heavy heart. He waved his hand, and slowly the line of armored ogres advanced. This was the only way.