“You were only supposed to test his battle prowess and not make him injured to this degree.”
A familiar feminine orc voice sounded in Varhan’s ears as he lay on his back. He had an unnatural depression that had made his right shoulder look like it had been deflated. This was Sharog of course, speaking to someone who had put Eren in his current medical condition.
Varhan opened his eyes and tried to adjust his blurred vision by blinking his eyelids a couple of times. Then he tried to get up and soon came to realize that it was a terrible idea.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
An orc-like monster voice was released in the middle of what seemed to be a spacious room that had two large windows that served as its left and right sides. There was only one large exit at the front.
There was a minimal amount of furniture in the room. A large wooden table could be seen not from Varhan’s makeshift bed. It had many beast skin scrolls placed over it along with tiny array disks with runic inscriptions, projecting various regions in 3D spectral forms over them.
Sharog and Borul both stopped their conversation and looked at the fake orc who had tried to get up from his comfortable position. Borul sighed and cast his spell, making Varhan lie on his bed again. This time, he couldn’t get up easily.
*********************
Varhan finally stopped screaming and tried to recall what had happened in his duel with Borul. He remembered everything not long after that.
Varhan and Borul were duelling for quite a while even after the former had finished talking with Alephee and came to know about the former. From then on, Varhan fought to survive not to win.
Of course, Borul didn’t like taming Varhan. He had started to enjoy his duel with young blood like Varhan too. So he increased the intensity with which he attacked Varhan.
The butcher didn’t like being treated like a small fry either. He felt angry that he had met another entity that was powerful enough to play with him. It reminded him of Eliza and all the other powerful assholes of rankers that he had met with in his previous timeline.
That’s why Varhan stuck with what he did best. He bided his time and attacked Borul’s crotch with all his might when the opportunity arose.
Borul wasn’t expecting such an insidious attack from his fellow male orc. Since he had restricted his powers to that of an Orc Leader, he felt every bit of pain Varhan wanted him to feel and then some more. Plus, the mental scar it had left on Borul’s psyche at that time wasn’t something to be ignored either.
Borul was angry, to say the least. And he also felt a bit of fear of this young orc. So for once, he coated his punch in his gravitation-powered earth-element mana and punched over his opponent’s right shoulder seriously. The result of which can still be seen on Varhan’s shoulder. Varhan flew from his spot and crashed hard on the mana membrane before losing consciousness.
The match was called off by Borul at that point after he realised his mistake. But almost all the spectators had already considered him to be the winner of the match.
There was this one guy in the crowd who howled after he saw Varhan losing his consciousness. When everyone was busy cheering for Borul, this guy cried for Varhan. The butcher had no way of knowing that there was a gambler in the audience who wanted him to win more than his desire to win the match.
********************
“Here. Drink this and stay down. You will be patched up soon. Let me have a word with Borul first.”
Sharog spoke up and placed a wooden container of orc booze in his hands before resuming her talks with Borul. This time, Borul adjusted his gravitational powers in such a way that it would not let any sound waves pass through a thin-dome shaped mana layer he had created around him and Sharog.
They both talked for a bit before nodding at each other. Then Borul took his leave, carrying the same laid-back expressions he had shown to his audience in all his matches.
‘This shit’s good. No wonder Ulag was so buzzed when I met him. Maybe I should merge the elven ale’s and this monster booze’s recipes to make my White Raven ale.’
Meanwhile, Varhan gulped the orc booze down his throat while lying down. His shoulder pain almost disappeared as he drank the concoction. He had to admit that although the booze didn’t contain any additional properties like elven ale, it packed a punch.
He felt that his half-blood powers were going to kick in to fix the injury he had on his shoulders. He just needed to use Life Drain on someone to speed things up. But he controlled his functions and let his injury stay the way it was.
“I take it you are feeling a bit better. *Sigh. Borul went overboard a bit. To force his hand the way you did though, we have to admit that you are also a skilled fighter for your level.
Now get up slowly. I’ll help you fix your injury.”
Sharog said and told Varhan to follow her. The latter followed the lady orc’s instructions. This time, since Sharog had not worn her cape, the view he got was a lot more pleasing to his eyes.
Verhan looked around and found out that he was inside a multi-story building. It didn’t look to be too far from the battle ring because he could still hear the cheers and jeers coming from there without strengthening his senses with mana.
He was on the second floor. The stone-like construction of the building looked sturdy. Spacious windows aptly placed at appropriate intervals made the corridors and overall interior of the building well lit. There also seemed to be array disks arranged strategically to function as light sources when daylight gets over.
Varhan climbed to the uppermost floor of the building where a couple of lady orcs could be seen tending to an injured orc hunter. They had him sit inside an array while they worked on it. They sped up the process after they saw Sharog and quickly fixed his open wounds before inviting Varhan to take their place.
‘Healing array too? How the fuck did Tumko conquer this place? Or did he at all?’
Varhan thought to himself as he sat over the array eye.
