The torch flickered in the Throne Hall of the Orcs as Red Hurricane appeared right in front of his King, who was attending to his other subjects. Red Hurricane was the last of the Four Avatars of Shaitans to return.
As he materialised, the Red Hurricane already had a knee on the floor to pay the proper respect to his King in front of him. “Where is the head of King Sol?” Orc King Hamu demanded the moment he felt the presence of the Avatar of Garuda.
“Sir, there were…some complications.” Red Hurricane did not know how to properly phrase it nicely to excuse his failing. It was then King Hamu did a simple gesture and his Right Hand Oku stepped forward and threw the heads of the other kings right in front of Red Hurricane.
“Where is the head of King Sol?” King Hamu repeated once more, though this time his voice indicated that there would be no third time asking. The Avatar of Ifrit, Prince of Fire, Green Inferno, laughed at Red Hurricane, who was squirming at the question, for a job poorly done.
“Was it not you who boasted that getting the head of King Sol would be as easy as plucking a gr.a.p.e from the gr.a.p.evard? I also remember someone promising to be the first to arrive! My my ho-” Green Inferno added sarcastically but he was immediately stopped by King Hamu with a simple glance.
“King Sol was still able to perform his cursed Light Magic and an intense one at that when we fought against each other. The missing goblin sons of the Three Generals had returned for no reason and were somehow powerful enough to even manage to wound me. Also there was a humanoid with a half mask of a white bear with black spots who seemed to have no presence but was able to counter the winds of Garuda. The Orc forces that were fighting against the goblins appeared to have been decimated as I briefly scouted around the castle before I returned back here.” Red Hurricane reported with his head down.
His breathing and heartbeat was slightly elevated as he was aware what King Hamu does to incompetent orcs. The Red Hurricane could only hope that his status as being the chosen Avatar of Garuda would be enough to be forgiven. Thinking about it he was the Avatar of Garuda, no matter of the failures, he should be kept alive as compared to when he was just a minor orc. His breathing started to stabilize at this train of thought.
“EXCUSES!!! You were beaten up by some kids and a lowly human? What kind of Humanoid stands a chance against a Chosen Shaitan Avatar? Whatever the case, you let some stupid masked guy halt your unstoppable winds, I am embarrassed to be known as your equal… To imagine such failure brought upon yourself. I can already foresee the other Shaitan nobles laughing at Queen Garuda upon hearing that her Avatar being so useless in battle. Next time, do not boast.” Yellow Ice, the Avatar of Shiva, Queen of Ice, scoffed at Red Hurricane.
“The information I received was not at all accurate. Your Majesty, Please reconsid-” Suddenly, a giant two handed sword was thrown towards Red Hurricane. Yet again his preserving wind barrier was not able to block an attack this day. All that the Avatar of Garuda could feel was darkness seeping into his vision and subsequently, he coughed out blood from the attack. He then remembered that the Shaitan Nobles were susceptible to both Light and Dark magic. Sure, the orc mages may have dabbled with dark magic but not even the Archmages should be able to circ.u.mvent his barrier that easily. There was only one entity who could bestow others with such a power but no one has ever managed to contact the True Messenger of Shaitans, Diabolos.
“….My Lord…You…You have managed to contact it?” The Red Hurricane do not doubt the might of his King but he had once thought with the Avatar of Garuda, the Red Hurricane might be able to overtake the throne with the other Avatars of Shaitan Nobles.
“You are too noisy.” King Hamu sneered as a blackish shadow appeared right beside him. Energy shaped as a black orb appeared at the tip of King Hamu’s index finger and gradually, the Red Hurricane felt his powers waning away.
He quickly realised that the powers of Garuda were being transferred into that particular black orb. No doubt it was the power of the Messenger of Shaitan. It had the ability to take away the powers of an Avatar and choose someone more suitable for the job. But who could be more suitable then the person wielding the power of Diabolos?
King Hamu then turned his palm to hold onto the floating black orb immersed with the energies of Garuda and he pushed it into his chest piece. He knew that an Orc could only hold the Avatar of a single Shaitan no matter how strong willed they were. It was not about the strain on the body nor a fight of willpower but rather the required pact between the Shaitan Noble and the Orc who initiated it. And even though those Nobles were working together, the idea of sharing was nowhere on their mind.
The body of the Orc who was chosen as the most worthy after a bloody offering henceforth belonged to that particular Shaitan Noble and no other magic could break the pact among the Shaitans. However this also meant that should they perish, their patron would get ahold of them. And as the powers of Garuda were being grabbed away by King Hamu, Red Hurricane was required to sacrifice his entire body to the Shaitan Queen of Wind. True enough, a green swirling portal appeared right in front of the injured Red Hurricane and beyond the portal was none other than Garuda staring at him.
“Please!! Exalted Queen! One…more chanc-” The portal was sufficient for Garuda’s enormous finger claw to slip in as she poked Red Hurricane. Particles of his spirit were visibly absorbed by Garuda’s finger claw as it ledged onto Red Hurricane. He yelled with intense agony yet no one was able nor willing to help him in his demise. But the other Avatars of Shaitan burnt that image into their mind. They thought that King Hamu would be too timid to do anything overly drastic against the Avatars of Shaitan but they were proven wrong. Who would have imagine King Hamu, who gained the power of a Shaitan through despicable but similar means, would not be sympathetic to the painful efforts of the various Orc cults to create the four Avatars and destroy a powerhouse of their army that easily.
Once Garuda had finished absorbing Red Hurricane’s soul, her finger claw pointed at the orb containing her powers that King Hamu was holding at his hands. It was obvious that she wanted it back. “Mighty Queen of the Winds, I offer you those goblin heads on the floor. They are still fresh from the decapitation and each of them had been blessed with Light Magic by that Usurper Sol.” Orc King Hamu negotiated and the finger claw did not hesitate to absorb the imbued souls those goblin heads had into her finger.
“Ten days. Return them to me after the dawn of ten or I shall consume half of your kingdom’s population.” Garuda declared as if it was as simple as breathing for her, before she retracted her hand and the green swirling portal disappeared into thin air. Without the spirit, the body of Red Hurricane became just an empty husk. His expression of horror and betrayal was still intact despite being dead. However, King Hamu felt there was still a use for it even though it was just another material for the worms to feast on.
“Put it out and send the message that the goblins killed the Avatar of Garuda. I believe those who preach, pray and follow the cult of Garuda will wish to retaliate with stronger force. Oh, and also tell them Garuda chose me as a temporary substitute.” Orc King Hamu ordered Oku as he placed the power of Garuda on his armour. Normally the King’s armour was supposed to be enchanted with the most advanced runes made of magic gems, but strangely this one seemed simple, as if prepared for just such an occasion. Since there were no other conflicting runes transcribed onto the armour, the power of Garuda enhanced the armour with enchantments of wind. Now King Hamu was not only the Avatar of Diabolos, he had the power of Garuda’s Wind Magic at his disposal thanks to his armour.
“Excellent idea, your Excellency. Especially considering the Cult of Garuda controls most of the Orc Flying Forces. Doing so will make them fiercely loyal to you.” Oku praised his liege as he personally picked up the dead corpse of Red Hurricane and began to make preparations for the official announcement. Separately, the other Avatars of Shaitan Nobles came forward and knelt down awaiting the orders of their King.
“Green Fire, Yellow Ice and Purple Thunder. You’ve done well. Rest now and consume as much as you want. Gold, food or woman. Take your pick. Ask my servants and they will fulfill your wishes. I will call upon you when I need you.” King Hamu dismissed them.
Yellow Ice and Purple Thunder stood up and prepared to leave but Green Fire could not help but ask: “Why are we not allowed to fight now? The airship carriers may bring the elite of our Orcs into various Goblin kingdoms but the newest development from Gob Gob Kingdom may prove to be a threat. Should we not attack them now, before they have the time to consolidate their power?”
King Hamu simply stared at Green Fire for a moment and repeated his order once more.
“Dismissed.”
Green Fire did not say anything else as he had seen the potential repercussion of displeasing the King and fell back with the other two Avatars.
“What about you two? Don’t you guys want to avenge Red Hurricane? He was punished because of that Gob Gob Kingdom! And my intuition tells me that things are not going to be as simple as we had thought.” Green Fire questioned his compatriots once they were out of the Throne Hall of the Orcs.
“I thought you hated him?” Purple Thunder was surprised by the other one’s wish for revenge.
“I did, but losing a comrade no matter how obnoxious he was, is still a …waste. Just think about how many Orc lives were just for him and will be consumed to choose his successor.” Green Fire did not want to show his concern out too forwardly.
“Then make sure we do not fail our mission in the future if you feel it is a waste.” Purple Thunder replied as he snorted and walked towards the outer courtyard.
He quickly found a servant, who immediately went on his knees after seeing the purple leather robe. Though all Mages wore robes, only the Avatars were allowed to dye them into their respective colours. After making sure the servant understood his desires, he went to his own quarters.
“Are you that certain we will be able to come out alive seeing how Red Hurricane was taken away that easily?” Yellow Ice had his own thoughts and walked quietly to the direction of his room thinking that his King might had other plans in mind.
——————–
“So Master, are you just going to fly to the airship carriers with your portal?” Slashreaver had begun to like those teleporting magic, creating chaos from above like there was no tomorrow. He did not expect that the ambush through the skies made their job so much simpler and more effective.
“Stupid, did you forget that Master needs coordinates to portal there?” Piercestriker gently used his spear to knock on Slashreaver’s head and he could not rebut.
“Master, are you intending to use my Magpie birds to carry you there?” Que Er, the Magpie Queen queried since her magpies were capable of creating a bridge between the Mortal Earth and the Immortal Heavens in her old world before she was recruited into the System.
“I actually thought of that…but it is not menacing nor impressive enough. I want the Orcs to fear the goblins so that the survivors if any, might spread rumours and ultimately bring the wrath of the entire army to Gob Gob Kingdom. That way, other goblin kingdoms should not suffer as much. Firepower wise, you can leave it to me.” Jin answered as he stared at the bright lights from afar. It was clear that they were getting brighter and nearer as compared to an hour ago.
In the meantime, Sword General Gladios and Starfire arrived on the roof and explained the situation to Jin and his minions. Apparently, the Goblin King did not want to allow Jin to fight the battle alone when it was their kingdom in danger. (The Generals just want some revenge too.) “Under the commands of our King, we are to follow you into battle.” Sword General Gladios took out the worn out warhorn which he kept at his waist and Jin noticed it resembled a Viking Horn in Jin’s world.
With a deep breath in, General Gladios blew the warhorn and within a short span of time, there was a reply from a distant warhorn which Jin and the others saw a battalion of flying monsters coming towards the direction of the castle. The moonless night made their figures even more terrifying to behold.
“The 38th Flying Goblin Battalion, Dashing Wyverns. They are the unit directly under Spear General Argent.” Starfire introduced it as she was once again amazed by the magnificent looking flying reptilian creatures with two legs and an armoured barbed tail as they came closer with magically power lanterns at their sides to illuminate their presence. Without any hands on the wyverns, the goblins controlling the Wyverns glided around the castle before hovering above General Gladios to show their professional expertise in controlling it with their mind to mind connection.
It was then the three goblin sons saw that Igni and Argent were already commanding their very own unique wyverns which seemed much older, badder and fiercer with General Gladios’ wyvern landing at the edge of the castle walls for him to jump onto.
“I assume you are coming too?” Jin asked Starfire to which she looked away with some dissatisfaction before blowing her own whistle that summoned a white but smaller and younger looking Wyvern to the castle roof. By utilising some magic, she jumped on her own pet Wyvern with ease and waited for Jin and the others to react.
“So, do you all need a ride?” General Gladios chortled seeing how the ‘almighty’ master that their goblin sons were praising stuck at the roof tops.
“It’s alright, I have my own ride!” Jin tightened his half panda mask casually took out his phone as if he was making a call. “Eh, Derpy, your debut, now.” Jin placed a hand in front of his mouth, making it appear as if he mumbled something underneath, when in fact he simply yawned a little as he scratched his head a bit.
The other minions of his were already giggling as the head of a terrifying fish with numerous teeth appeared out of nowhere in the moonless night. The creature of that magnitude nearly scared the shit out of the wyverns who had never seen such catastrophic size. Its presence alone was able to shake the nerves of steel of the Goblins flying the wyverns and the wyverns themselves could have pissed themselves while flying. (some of them did and not just that)
The only wyverns that were able to stay relatively calm were the slightly bigger ones who belonged to the Three Generals. One could only assume that they had seen horrors equivalent to this or something worse than that. Either way, those Wyverns were battle hardened to the point they were not afraid of Mr Derpy.
Que Er assisted Jin by allowing the birds to provide a bridge from the castle roof to the top of Mr Derpy’s head. She understood that by doing so it would only deepen the image of Jin being a mysterious being that needed to be feared since he had the control of not just an enormous monster at his fingertips but even nature had to listen to him to a certain extent. No doubt the other Goblins Wyvern Riders that were on scene were in shock and awe at the existence of such a mysterious figure which even made the Three Generals glad that they were in the same team for now.
This scene did not entirely escape the sight of King Sol as he was in the outer courtyards assessing the damage and personally passing a few Royal Decrees. Those would be announced by goblin envoys as suggested by Jin and would among other things immediately start producing more weapons and gather more food stock.
“I read the legends about summoners, but those seemed not as imposing as that Human. He is a ‘Unique Summoner’ for sure.” King Sol smirked a little as if to comfort himself that his generals would be in good hands, he quickly proceeded to settle other national matters.
At the top of Mr Derpy, Jin summoned his newest monster, Keyrin. Instead of the usual happy face, the mighty beast simply looked at him with some annoyance. “Who do you need me to kill?” The Thunder Ram Demon questioned. He was unable to hurt Jin, but that would mean that someone else had to taste his fury. Jin simply pointed at the edge of the mountain.
“Those mechanical sh.i.p.s. Strike them down with all your might. Release your- FUWAHH!” Jin was suddenly grabbed from behind by Peppers who knocked his head with her staff. (Did Kraft teach the other Bellators his patented ‘appear behind Jin’ move?)
“BAKA BAKA BAKA! WHY DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ME!” Peppers did not let go of her staff as she kept slamming it on her master without fear of retaliation. Even if Jin wanted to stop her and deny her her fill of explosions, she was already about to do so even without his permission.
“This is how you do it Master! BOOM BITCHESSSSSSSS!” Peppers yelled as she was still pushing Jin down onto the Mr Derpy’s head (How could he retaliate against the fury of a Fiery Demonic Sage Queen?) and collected a massive amount of energy into the wooden staff that she was holding. It was to the point that the space and time were visibly distorting right in front of Jin, which made him kind of panic a little.
“DERPY! FULL SPEED AHEAD! Bring us as close as possible to the sh.i.p.s! I do not want Peppers to miss that magic blast at all cost!” Jin screamed at the top of his voice while he kept beating Derpy’s head, telling him to move as soon as possible.
Mr Derpy grinned so evilly that his teeth were showing as he immediately swam through the air like a fish flowing along a high speed river current. He literally took Jin’s command word for word which made Jin regret wording his order in that way due to panic. It was so fast that Peppers nearly flew away and Jin had to hold on to her legs. No doubt she was a little fl.u.s.tered by his touch but it was nothing compared to the excitement of making sure to turn such an enormous flying metal being into one of her colourful explosions.
In the meantime, the 38th Dashing Wyvern with the Three Generals were in a conundrum. Should they…follow this ‘uniquely’ eccentric summoner or stay behind and watch how things unfold? “So ermmm…General? Should we chase after them?” The Dashing Wyvern Goblin Captain asked and before Spear General Argent could say a word…They heard an extremely loud explosion, before the nightly sky was illuminated like a firework. Every goblin diverted their eyes and could not believe what they saw.
From afar, the goblins flying their Wyverns could see an airship carrier being hit and currently being burnt into crisp with a mushroom shaped smoke coming from the middle of the airship carrier. Additionally, Mr Derpy was unable to stop in time so he decided to simply open his mouth and half of another airship carrier disappeared inside of him. Proving he deserved his name, he derped and choked himself, causing him to vomit loads of acid onto the airship carrier’s engines at the side of the ship.
The engines melted in an instant and the airship carrier was unable to function properly. Mr Derpy then pulled the entire airship carrier out of its mouth but in the end merely decided to put it into his mouth bit by bit. He ate the entire airship like a bag of potato ch.i.p.s and even grabbed a bunch of orcs that were on board like a handful of ch.i.p.s before throwing it into his mouth. Some of the Orcs tried to shoot crossbow arrows or even hurl magic at it but either Mr Derpy did not notice, or he was simply enjoying the extra flavour. Despair grew deep for the Orcs and they either jump off the flying platform that was about to be eaten by this unknown creature of disproportionate size and die by free fall suicide.
“I totally…did not expect this to go this well.” Jin admitted as he piggy backed Peppers after she ignited the previous airship carrier. Watching the last bit of it vanish from sight, Jin took a look around. He had counted a total of three airship carriers but the first two which already went down were seemingly smaller versions of the third one at the back.
As if to take revenge for killing his ‘siblings’, the third airship carrier fired a beam of intense magical energy at Mr Derpy. It was… very very ineffective. The large monster seemed to take it in through his mouth as if someone was spraying water into his mouth.
“I am speechless. Master Jin is too…unique.” General Gladios’s jaw stayed open the entire time since the explosion first started. Even Starfire was starting to worry about saying those hateful comments towards Jin in the beginning. Hopefully he was not one to hold grudges.
“Hahaha! It looks like our sons have indeed chosen a great master!” Igni smiled widely. His two long time friends could not even remember when the last time was that Igni had such a stupid grin on his face.
“System, how goes the capture of those Orcs?” Jin asked as he continued to stabilise himself while holding onto Peppers on his back.
“Approximately 45% capture rate. Many were killed by collateral damage of the surrounding equipment in the airship carriers. In short, of the four out of ten Orcs that were being absorbed into the System, only 4.5 Orcs were deemed useable. The rest were already dead upon arrival in the System’s grasp and the System could only dispose them. Resurrecting and controlling them is not worth the resources.” The System replied and Jin could only laugh bitterly. He had nearly forgotten that the System was still a calculative entity. It was not that he could not pity the Orcs but there was no time for any pity. In war, survive first. Emotions later.
“Que Er, make a bridge towards the third airship carrier. Let’s take some high ranking Orcs in for Kraft to interrogate.” Jin requested as he pressed a button on his phone which created a portal that lead to Pepper’s room. Then he gently placed Peppers on the bed before patting her for a job well done and returned to the head of Mr Derpy.
By then, the bridge of magpies was already placed in front of him and Jin began to run towards the third airship carrier.
