[Orcbane] Chapter 2 - The Forest Trolls (Patreon)

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Excited by the sudden idea he had just gotten, Naruto was too impatient to continue fishing and cooking. He wrapped the two fish he had hunted in the large leaf and dug a hole into the ground, burying them to save them up for later. 

Hoisting the large war axe on his shoulder, the blonde started heading towards the closest village of the green monsters, shinobi-jumping from one tree to another at a very high speed. 

⁂

It did not take long for him to reach the area of the mountain range occupied by the green-skinned monsters. Climbing to the peak of a mountain, Naruto frowned as he watched the horizon. 

“There are just so many of them…”

As far as his eyes could see, the entire land was covered by villages of savages. With how massive and densely populated those villages were, the surrounding forests were always swarming with hundreds of hunters searching for game to fill their bellies. 

“What’s wrong with them now?” he asked when a loud sound of drums came from the south, and he looked curiously in that direction. 

Despite the vast distance between the mountain he was on and the barbarians’ settlement in the south, Naruto could clearly make out the massive pyramid and the large pyre burning on its peak. 

It was a Ziggurat (not that Naruto knew what it was called), and it was the largest building that he had ever laid eyes on. None of the buildings in Land of Fire or the Land of Waves (the only places he had ever been to) could be compared to it; it was simply on a different scale. 

Momentarily forgetting his initial purpose, curiosity got the best of him, and he started running towards the large pyramid. 

Over the past two weeks, Naruto had spied on the moss-skinned monsters from afar, trying to get a better understanding of them and their habits. As far as he could tell, other than hunting, eating, beating each other, and dancing around the fire, they did not do anything else. This loud sound of drums echoing throughout the mountain range was a significant deviation from the routine. 

⁂

In fear of getting discovered by the sensitive sense of smell of the giant lynxes and mountain lions tamed by the green creatures, Naruto did not dare come too close to the citadel. Nevertheless, even from a distance, he could see what was going on. 

Bile rose to his throat, and his face paled as he watched five people being dragged to the top of the Ziggurat. The distance was too big for him to make out their appearance in detail, but he could tell that they were different from the rest of the green-skinned creatures around them. 

They were pale-skinned, had normal ears, and a humanoid build, and were significantly shorter and less muscular than the monsters around them.

‘Kurama, those are humans!’ Naruto sent his thoughts to the fox. ‘There are humans in this world too!’

Alas, that was the end of his thoughts because, in the next moment, the green creatures violently dragged one of the humans and slammed him down on the altar. The human screamed and cried out in horror, struggling with all his might, desperate to live. But he was helpless against the might of the four savage monsters who were holding one of his limbs each. 

One of the monsters wearing a head adornment made of colourful feathers started a chant, and a dark purple light enveloped him and the altar. Letting out a shout of devotion, the feather-wearing monster stabbed his ceremonial dagger into the chest of the human bound to the altar. The purple shadows exploded in intensity, enveloping the entire upper platform of the ziggurat. 

Unable to keep watching the scene, Naruto turned his head away and closed his eyes. He was trembling with helpless anger, his fists clenched so hard that his nails almost drew blood. 

“Don’t do anything stupid, kid,” Kyuubi’s voice rang in his mind at that moment. 

Noticing his inner feelings (especially his negative emotions), the fox decided to warn him in order to prevent him from doing something stupid again. 

“I can sense over ten thousand of those green creatures in that citadel and many more in the villages around it, at the foot of the mountain. You can’t help them.”

“I know that!” Naruto shot back through clenched teeth. But knowing that there was nothing he could do was not making it easier for him to bear with the situation. 

Unlike the boy, Kyuubi was not affected by the macabre blood sacrifices happening in the monsters’ citadel. 

“Look at the good part. At least you confirmed that there are humans in this world too, not only monsters.”

Kurama's nonchalance reminded Naruto that, in spite of how helpful he had been to him ever since they arrived in this new world, the bijuu was, in the end, not human, and he had no love lost for humans either. 

“Leave this place before you’re discovered. Don’t forget what you came here for.”

He didn’t give Kyuubi a verbal answer, but he did turn around and leave. Even as he broke into a run, quickly leaving the monsters’ citadel behind him, the agonising screams and death cries of the humans being sacrificed one after another echoed throughout the mountains, reaching his ears. 

⁂

Wearing little more than a loincloth and some leather straps holding the sheathes of their weapons, the green monsters didn’t seem like the type of creatures to have several changes of clothes stashed at home. 

‘I’ll have to knock one of them out and steal their clothes.’

Bearing that thought in mind, Naruto quietly approached one of their villages. 

‘Why are they always so alert?’ 

No matter the time of the day, there were always teams of monsters patrolling the surroundings of their villages and, more importantly...

‘Stupid cats!’

Hidden within the dense crowns of the enormous trees, Naruto glared at a group of two green-skinned monsters who were patrolling the forest at a walking pace. Both of them were wearing nothing but loincloths, fang necklaces, and some leather bracers. Other than the shape of their tusks, the main difference between them was that one of them had two throwing axes strapped at his waist while the other was wielding some tribal claw weapon. 

However, the most troublesome aspect of this group wasn’t the two humanoid monsters but the big feline walking by their side. Every single one of the groups tasked with patrolling the forest was accompanied by a mountain lion or a giant lynx.

When they got within a distance of nearly 50 metres of Naruto, the tamed mountain lion let out a growl, and the two savages stopped walking. The claws-wielding monster got into a fighting stance while the other one grabbed the throwing axes hanging from his loincloth. 

Those tamed felines were the reason why Naruto could not easily sneak through the territory of the green monsters and head towards the red and golden forest in the west. All of his attempts had been thwarted by their ridiculously sensitive sense of smell and after that, he would end up getting chased by an entire horde of monsters.

‘I’ll ambush them. I’ll kill that lion first.’

His purpose was to quickly dispose of them, steal their clothes, and disappear before any other patrols arrived at the scene. Killing the lion who could track his scent first was the obvious choice. 

Kyuubi did not comment on his actions, but, deep down, he was pleased to see that the boy was thinking before acting, unlike his past in the Ninja World. 

‘Flinging himself into a completely different world due to his thoughtlessness must’ve beat some sense into him,’ the fox thought. 

Unaware of the fact that the bijuu inside of him was studying his behaviour intently, Naruto grabbed the handle of his enormous war axe and lifted it above his head with both hands. Channelling his chakra into his arms and back, Naruto let out a low grunt as he hurled the barbaric weapon at the lion in the distance.

The strength behind the throw was so high that the two-handed war axe cut through all the tree branches in its trajectory like a hot knife through butter and smashed violently into the back of the mountain lion, splitting its body in half cleanly. The feline died before it could even react, its bisected body spasming uncontrollably. 

The two green monsters let out cries of anger, and the axe-wielder threw one of his axes in the direction from which the attacker had assaulted them. 

But Naruto easily dodged the incoming projective, letting it sink into the trunk of the tree behind him. 

‘Thanks for the weapon,’ he thought as he dislodged the crude hatchet from the trunk and then dropped down from the tree, disappearing into the foliage.

The monsters moved with their backs to each other, observing their surroundings intently. But their caution proved to be of little use because they were not ambushed this time. 

The ground under their feet shook slightly and, a second later, a large group of identical human children wearing animal skins and wielding a throwing axe in their hands rushed at them from all sides.

The axe thrower stupidly threw his last remaining weapon at one of the incoming children, killing him on the spot. A frightened expression appeared on his ugly face when the boy exploded into a cloud of white smoke, and the other shadow clones did not miss the opportunity to jump on him. Six of them chopped with their hatchets at the monster at the same time, striking his knees, sternum, neck, and back of the head. 

But the claw-wielding savage wasn’t defeated as easily. Suddenly letting out a roar of rage, his murky green eyes turned blood red, and thick veins started protruding under his skin. He went berserk. 

Screaming in his native tongue, the green monster transformed into a whirlwind of death as he used his claws, feet, and even his tusks to kill every single one of the shadow clones attacking him. 

Despite that he was holding the absolute upper hand, Naruto watched with trepidation the fight between his clones and the monster. 

‘What the heck is that?’

His clones had smashed their hatchets into the monster's back, legs, chest, and stomach over thirty times already, but it was as if he were immortal. Every single wound was closing at a speed visible to the naked eye, healing completely in a matter of seconds. 

‘Naruto, more than five others are coming. They heard the sounds of the battle.’ 

At Kyuubi’s warning, Naruto woke up from his stupor and ran to the corpse of the lion, grabbing the massive war axe that he had thrown at the beginning of the battle. Then, not wasting a second more, he leapt into the air with the great axe raised above his head, straight at the green creature. 

Distracted by the dozen shadow clones who were hacking at him with their hatchets, the green creature was too late to react to the real Naruto, who fell from the sky, striking a crushing blow into his skull. The brutish weapon smashed the creature’s skull like a watermelon, with the rest of the blade sinking deeply into his torso, almost until it reached his waist. His war axe blow had nearly split the creature in half, vertically. 

The boy felt queasy as he wiped the massive amount of blood that had splashed all over his face and bare chest, but he did not have the time to dilly-dally. Wrenching his war axe out of the creature’s mutilated corpse, he quickly went to the other creature, the axe-thrower, who had died a much cleaner death and rapidly divested him of his loincloth, bracers, and other adornments, with the shadow clones doing their best to help him in this endeavour. 

By the time he was done, he could already hear the other creatures’ roars. He took to the trees and started shinobi-jumping at a great speed without looking back.

 

⁂ POV change ⁂

As she regained consciousness, Liadrin blinked repeatedly to get rid of the cobwebs in her eyes. Her senses had returned somewhat, but she was still dizzy and lethargic. 

She glanced around herself, trying to make sense of her surroundings. 

The circular stone room, the giant wooden masks mounted on spears, the grooves dug into the floor stained with dry blood, and the pain coming from her wrists and ankles left her with no doubts about her current predicament. She had been captured. 

She turned to look at her right side. Her comrade, Dar’Khan, was still unconscious, shivering and spasming as if he were having a nightmare. He let out a gasp as he awoke with a start. 

He glanced to his left and to his right in a panic, struggling with all his might to free himself from the ropes restraining him, but to no avail. He felt sluggish and his mind was hazy. His otherwise powerful arcane magic was out of his reach now. 

His frantic struggle did not last long, and he became motionless. Finally noticing the priestess to his left, Dar’Khan spoke:

“I was trapped in a terrible dream.”

“As was I,” Liadrin replied, gazing at the embers still burning on the brazier in the middle of the room. “I awakened only seconds before you.”

The mage struggled frantically in his restraints once more, but his weakened and drugged body could not keep up with his will, and he stopped powerlessly again. 

“It looks like reality is about to get even worse than the dream quite soon. . . I was not meant to die this way. Captured and tied up like some animal.”

“Giving up already?” came another voice from Liadrin’s left. It was a young man (for high elven standards) wearing the traditional gold and crimson priest robes, signifying his allegiance to Quel’Thalas. He was Galell, Lady Liadrin’s apprentice. “I don’t know about you, but I intend to find a way out of this predicament.”

The mage let out a mocking chuckle at his brazen claims. 

“Truly, ignorance is bliss. Look around you, Galell. Where do you think we are?”

It was Liadrin who replied to him: “We are in one of the trolls’ sacrificial chambers.”

Unlike Galell, who was still young and inexperienced, Lady Liadrin and Dar’Khan had lived for centuries. They had seen and experienced many battles. Now that the forest trolls had captured them, they knew what fate awaited them. They were going to either be tortured for information or offered as blood sacrifices to their Loa. 

“You’re calling me ignorant?” Galell bristled at the mage. “You’re the one who led us into an ambush!”

“It was your incessant chatter that alerted the savages of our presence,” Dar’Khan shot back. 

“At least I was not the first one to get knocked unconscious,” Galell retorted. 

“No, that would require actual fighting. Which you were not. You are, after all, nothing but a priest,” Dar’Khan said. Despite his deplorable condition, he had yet to lose his air of superiority and arrogance. Those traits were ingrained into his very being; after all, he was a millennia-old high elf and an accomplished mage, one of the esteemed Magisters. 

Offended by his remarks, Liadrin spoke: “As priests, our role is to preserve life and illuminate our comrades in the splendours of the Light. It is far easier to draw blood than to staunch it. It’s only when you are battered and dying on the battlefield that you will thank the Sunwell and appreciate having us on your side. But, by all means, do continue arguing. Drawing the trolls’ attention is exactly what we need now.”

Her sarcasm was not lost on him, so Dar’Khan just let out an irate huff and shut his mouth. But, as time passed, the mage and the young priest started debating the reason why they were still alive when all of their comrades had been killed by the trolls already. 

The three of them had been on their way to inspect a faulty Runestone, escorted by a small group of Farstriders, when a large horde of forest trolls ambushed them out of nowhere. 

The tough rangers fought fiercely and reaped the lives of many trolls, at least three times as many as they were. Alas, despite their strength and bravery, the trolls overwhelmed them with their superior numbers eventually. And so, Dar’Khan, Liadrin, and Galell were captured alive and dragged to the trolls’ territory. 

The high elves’ chatter stopped when the door of the sacrificial chamber opened and two trolls walked inside, carrying another high elf tied to a pole on their shoulders. 

‘Hideous beasts!’ Liadrin thought in hatred and disgust at the sight of them. Her parents were killed by the forest trolls during the cruel Troll Wars in the past, and many other of her friends and acquaintances among the Farstriders had lost their lives at the hands of the savages. 

The hatred between the forest trolls and the high elves was inconsolable. There would never be peace between their kind.

Once they arrived in the centre of the circular room, the trolls hoisted the bound high elf up in the air, hanging him upside down from his tied ankles onto a hooked end of a chain dangling from the ceiling. 

Going by the look of his leather armour and the long, dark green cloak he was wearing, Liadrin recognized his identity. He was a ranger, one of the Farstriders.

“In a matter of minutes, this little vilalge of yours will be overrun. The Farstrider Enclave knows about you,” the ranger said to the trolls. “If you let all of us go now, perhaps we will grant you some measure of mercy.”

In response to that, one of the trolls savagely kicked the bound ranger in the face, splattering his blood all over the floor. The other troll laughed in ridicule too. And they would have done a lot more to him if not for the arrival of another troll. Wearing an impressive crown of colourful feathers and carrying a large number of pouches, flasks of potions, and all sorts of fetishes and idols, he was a Witch Doctor.

Adept in Alchemy, Shamanism, and dark rituals, Witch Doctors were the spiritual leaders of the trolls, some of the most respected beings in their society.

When the old Witch Doctor put some green leaves into the burning brazier, the other two trolls ran out of the room, and the Witch Doctor himself quickly followed them too, shutting the door with a bang behind him.

“Not this again!” groused the mage. 

“What’s what? What did that troll do?” asked the Farstrider. 

“They are drugging us. It will not be long before we start hallucinating,” Liadrin replied. 

“My name is Lor’themar Theron,” the ranger said quickly. “I am a lieutenant of the Farstriders. Our three-man party was overcome. We sent a score of the monsters to their ancestors before I was struck by one of their bottled potions. When I awoke, my comrades were dead, and I was . . . as you see me now.” 

Galell asked, “Is it true what you said before about others coming to our aid?” 

“Unfortunately, no. It was just a bluff, but, given our circumstances and the trolls’ level of intelligence, I felt it was worth a shot.”

The other three could not hide their disappointment. 

“Have you recovered your strength?” Liadrin asked the mage. 

Dar’Khan closed his eyes and attempted to concentrate. The two priests and the ranger felt something akin to a tug in their bellies as the mage tried to cast a teleportation spell. But then it was gone. They were still bound and imprisoned.

“Not yet. The spell failed.”

The drugs that the trolls had made them inhale had messed up with their minds, making the mage unable to access his mana and the two priests incapable of connecting to the Light. 

When a wisp of smoke started rising from the leaves burning in the brazier, Lor’themar spoke:

“We may still have a chance at surviving this, but we will have to work together. I am always carrying a small blade in the sleeve of my tunic. All we need is a few minutes. When the opportunity presents itself, I will make a move. When the time comes, do not hesitate. I pledge to you now that no matter what happens, if I am able to free myself, I will not leave any of you behind.”

The black smoke coming from the brazier increased in intensity, blanketing the entire room. Lor’themar’s voice grew louder when he spoke next:

“We are together in this, and whether we survive or perish, we will do so as one!”

His promise and his confident words made hope bloom in the hearts of the other three. After all, Lorthemar was a Farstrider. 

Farstriders were formidable rangers who honed their martial and hunting skills for centuries. Be they trolls, night elves, tauren, humans, or dwarves, as long as the Sunwell shone its magical light upon Quel’Thalas, the Farstriders were not afraid of anyone, even if the enemies happened to be 2 or 3 times more numerous than them. 

Alas, that ray of hope was extinguished a short while later as they breathed in the hallucinogenic smoke. Their sight went dark, and all sorts of illusions started playing in front of their eyes. Soon, the sacrificial chamber was filled with the high elves’ screams of pain and terror. 

As she watched a group of high-elven children getting slaughtered by the forest trolls, Liadrin desperately prayed, calling for the Light to save them. 

‘It is not real.’ she kept repeating in her mind as she shut her eyes closed. ‘It is not real!’

Nevertheless, closing her eyes did not save her from her torment. Two familiar faces, a man and a woman, appeared in her mind. The sharp, well-groomed silvery beard and the deep laugh lines betrayed the man’s age, but his Farstrider uniform and his straight posture spoke of his strength and athleticism. As for the woman, she wore her chestnut hair in an intricate braid so long that it nearly swept the floor. Her gentle smile and her gold and crimson Runecloth robes spoke of her occupation: she was a priestess of the Light. 

‘Light, have mercy on us. Light, protect us!’ Liadrin prayed. 

Those two people were her parents, but she did not rejoice at being shown such a vivid image of them because, in the next moment, a horde of Amani trolls pounced on them. Liadrin watched in horror how the trolls savagely tore her parents apart before biting into their limbs and ripping entire chunks of their flesh, eating it raw. 

⁂ POV change⁂

After killing the two forest trolls and stealing their clothes and weapons, Naruto did not immediately enact his plans. He ran back to his temporary base and dug up the hole where he had hidden the fish that he had hunted earlier that day. 

It took him a good while to get the fire started, but he did not mind it. After all, he had plenty of time to kill. He was planning on infiltrating the savages’ territory at the break of dawn when most of them would be asleep. It was barely noon. 

Due to his anticipation, time seemed to slow down to a crawl for the rest of the day. He could not wait to finally escape from that ancient forest and meet some civilised people. 

‘I hope I'll meet some nice humans in this world… Well, they wouldn’t have a reason to hate me here, would they? If this really is a different world, nobody knows that I’m a jinchuuriki. They shouldn’t even know what a jinchuuriki is.’

That thought gave him hope. Since before he even knew how to read and write, Naruto had always been ostracized and hated by the other people in his village. If some children tried to strike up a friendship with him, their parents would immediately rebuke them and tell them not to stay away from him. The grownups were cold and irascible towards him, always shooing him away or pretending that he was invisible. 

Things had gotten better since he became a genin and formed a team together with Sasuke and Sakura, but he knew the rest of the villagers in Konoha still hated him as much as they always did. 

The thought that he could have a fresh start in this new world made him smile. It was his first genuine smile since he arrived in this new world, two weeks ago. Maybe flinging himself into a different world was not that bad? After all, who was waiting for him back home? Did anyone even care that he went missing?

Naruto shook his head to push those thoughts away. 

‘No, Iruka sensei and the old man Hokage must be sick with worry. I have to go back. I made a promise that I would beat Neji. I promised that I would become the Hokage and made all the villagers acknowledge me! I can’t give up now! I will surely find a way to return to my world!’

⁂

As slowly as time seemed to pass, the moment for Naruto to act did arrive eventually. After smearing mud over his entire body to erase his scent, he Henged himself into one of those detestable green-skinned creatures and put on the primitive clothes that he had stolen from them. 

He hung the two throwing hatchets he had taken from the troll earlier that day to his loincloth and carried the great axe on a shoulder before starting to head towards the troll territory at a relaxed walking pace.

To his great delight, once he reached the area patrolled by the trolls, Naruto was able to pass without anybody stopping him. 

His breath hitched when he saw a patrol group consisting of a bow-wielding troll, a claw-wielder, and a giant lynx. Relief washed over him when the lynx did not seem to react to his presence. 

The two trolls merely gave him a cursory glance as he walked past them, not paying him much attention.

Hours passed, but he kept walking unbothered towards the west. He had passed by two small troll villages and a large one too, a settlement with what appeared to be over a hundred wooden huts. He had met other groups of patrolling trolls on the way but none of them tried to talk to him, assuming that he was just a regular troll who went out for the sake of hunting. 

When the forest with red and golden leaves became visible in the distance, the sound made by a large group of people walking reached his ears, and he became cautious. Although his troll disguise was perfect, he still climbed up in a tree, hiding himself behind its thick branches and dense leaves. 

Half a minute after he hid himself, Naruto watched a procession of trolls marching at a brisk pace underneath the branches of the tree he was in. That in itself was nothing unusual. However, he clenched his hands on the handle of his great axe when he saw the captive they were carrying tied to a wooden pole on their shoulders. 

At first, he was tempted to believe that the captive was a human male. However, unlike the people that he had watched the trolls sacrifice yesterday, this man had a pair of very long and sharp ears. 

‘Are they going to eat him too like they tried to eat me?’

He turned his attention to green-skinned creatures. 

‘There are only about 20 of them.’

He licked his dry lips but recoiled at the feeling of his tongue touching the coarse surface of his tusks in his Henged troll form. But he didn’t let that distract him. 

‘I could take them. There are only 20 of them. I could definitely kill them.’

He grabbed his war axe with both hands. He knew that, as powerful and durable as those savage creatures were, he could still defeat them if he were to make a few hundred clones and gang up on them. 

However, the sound of their battle would undoubtedly attract the attention of the rest of the barbarians in the nearby village. 

‘Don’t be reckless, Naruto. You can’t save everyone. You’re outnumbered and in the middle of enemy territory. Don’t ruin everything you’ve worked for until now,” Kyuubi’s deep voice rang in his mind. 

“But I haven’t saved anyone so far! Yesterday too, I could only watch as the monsters sacrificed those innocent people!” Naruto shot back. “I can do it! I know I can beat these bastards!”

‘Sure, you’ll beat them with your shadow clones. Then what? What are you going to do when the entire village of monsters comes after you? Forget about him. Focus on yourself.’

“No,” Naruto said stubbornly. “I won’t watch yet another innocent person get killed by these monsters!"

‘Stupid brat. Do what you want!’ Kyuubi shouted at him angrily, having lost his patience. ‘Just don’t come crying to me and begging for help when you end up tied to a pole and roasted over a campfire once more, like before.’

And with that, the fox severed their mental connection. 

While he was debating with the bijuu whether he should rescue the captured person, the group of trolls had put a considerable distance between them and him. 

"Hmpf. Call me stupid all you want. I don’t care."

It was not in his nature to ignore someone in need when he could do something about it, all the more so when he had been in that person’s shoes not even two weeks ago. Having experienced on his own skin the terror of nearly being burned and roasted alive, Naruto didn’t have the heart to leave that man to his fate. 

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: I don't know how many of my readers are familiar with Warcraft. Therefore, I have attached several pics to this chapter (and I will continue to do so in future chapters as well).

1. Map of Quel'Thalas (the High Elves' kingdom). 

• Please keep in mind that the distances on the map are not shown accurate. That is just the in-game map. In the lore, the territory is several times larger.
  

• the portion of the map crossed by green lines is the territory controlled by the forest trolls
  

• the territories marked with yellow are some of the larger villages of the forest trolls
  

2. Axe-throwing Troll.

3. Giant Lynx and claw-wielding troll. 

4. Wooden huts of the forest trolls.

5. Forest troll wallpaper

PS: In Warcraft, trolls are much taller and far stronger than most humans. Male trolls stand at 8-10 feet tall (between 2.5 and 3 metres), with some specimens being even taller.