[Orcbane] Chapter 3 - Zul’jin (Patreon)

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Chapter 3 - Zul’jin

While he was debating with the bijuu whether he should rescue the captured person or not, the group of trolls had put a considerable distance between them and him. 

Shinobi-running from one tree to another as silently as he could, Naruto rushed to catch up to them. However, by that time, the savages’ village came into view. 

‘If I attack now, I’ll have to deal with a hundred of these monsters or more. Damn it. What should I do?’

Undecided, he could only watch how the large group of monsters dragged the captive into their village. 

‘Should I make the maximum number of clones I can and swarm the village?’

One-on-one, his clones were much weaker than the moss-skinned monsters, but they could create some chaos and confusion while he escaped with the captive. 

‘And if we get out of this alive, maybe he’ll take me to his village or to his country.’

After all, he was in a different world. He did not know this land. He did not know the countries in it. He did not even know the language. His knowledge was restricted to the intel he had gathered during his last two weeks of scouting: he was in a mountain range, stuck between the green-skinned monsters’ nation who occupied the western side of the mountain range and the sea. 

Alas, due to his argument with the demon fox stuck inside his gut, Naruto had missed the opportunity to attack the group of barbarians and rescue the captive. He could only watch how they took him into their village. 

‘Are they not eating him? What are they up to?’ he wondered when he saw them taking the pale-skinned man into a distinct building. 

Unlike the wooden huts that the rest of the village consisted of, this building was made of stone and it had three floors. 

Ten minutes later, Naruto was still on the outskirts of the village, pacing around on a tree branch restlessly. 

“He’s probably dead by now. They must’ve taken him inside and butchered him. Maybe these monsters have the notion of preserving and drying food too instead of eating it all on the spot. You should leave. Take this chance to finally escape this dangerous forest.”

Naruto scoffed. 

‘I thought you said you’d leave me alone. Why are you talking to me now?’

“Believe it or not, I want what’s best for you. I want you to live, kid. My survival is tied directly to yours,” Kyuubi said in annoyance, his voice rising as he spoke. Naruto just had a special talent for angering him. 

At that moment, Naruto caught a peculiar movement in the village. It was a tall creature, a head or two bigger than the largest green-skinned monster he had seen until then. His wild mane of white hair made a stark contrast with the forest-green colour of his skin, and, unlike the rest of the barbarians around him, he was wearing something more than just a loincloth: a pair of red pants, some tough-looking footwear that protected his shins (but still left his feet bare for some reason), and a vivid purple shawl that covered his neck, shoulders, and the lower half of his face, only letting his ivory tusks visible. 

Even without knowing who he was, a gut feeling told Naruto that this newly arrived monster was bad news. 

His premonition was spot on because, a few minutes after entering the stone building, a scream of agony burst out from inside, as if someone was being tortured.

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The hallucinations and nightmares had yet to end when a voice rang in Liadrin’s ears:

“Da Light not gonna save you now.”

Although her eyes were closed, the botched Thalassian and the strange accent of the speaker betrayed the fact that he was not a high elf but a troll. 

“You be guilty. Guilty o’ drivin’ us outta our own land . . .” the troll spoke again. “Guilty o’ killin’ me bruddas and sistas-”

Despite the mental torture she was still suffering from, Liadrin had yet to lose her spirit entirely. 

“You were the first to raise your blades against us! It was the trolls who attacked first, not the high elves!”

The large troll grabbed her by the chin, his three-fingered hand large enough to cover her entire head. 

“Da elves came to our land. You thinkin’ you own everything around you. But dis is Amani land.”

The hallucinations faded by now, and Liadrin opened her eyes, looking at the fearsome beast whose long tusks were almost stabbing her neck. His unusual attire and appearance for a troll immediately led her to assume that he was Zul’jin. 

She had heard many stories of the infamous troll leader who staged guerilla attacks upon the villages on the outskirts of Quel’Thalas, reaping the lives of many Farstriders and innocent civilians alike, and always managing to escape before the high elves’ reinforcements arrived. He had been plaguing the kingdom for decades now. 

Nevertheless, despite the fact that her life was literally in his hands, there was no fear in her eyes. 

There was only hatred and disgust. 

“Amani land? When the highborn elves arrived here 7000 years ago, there was nothing but snow-covered ruins. There was not a living soul in sight.”

“Dey be Amani Sacred Grounds! Dey be our ancestors' land!”

“Your ancestors stole the land from the Aqir and then left it to ruin. The trolls conveniently remembered about it when the highborn exiles arrived. You do not care about land. The trolls never cared about the ruins of the Aqir. You are nothing but a horde of savage beasts, just looking for a reason to spill blood.”

Zul’jin’s heavy slap twisted Liadrin’s head to the side. 

“You think you better den us. Da Aqir tried to make our ancestors go away; da Night Elves tried to make us go away; da High Elves tried to make us go away, but we be like a bad dream dat just won’t go away.”

“Da Amani never give up! Da Amani never lose, da Amani never die! And since we won’t go away, I think we should retake our land. Burn your pretty buildings. Send you running back da way you came. But it won’t be easy. Da High Elves be tricky . . .”

The troll leader took out a very long and sharp dagger from his waist and started playing with it as he continued talking. 

“Your Runestones make our own magic weak. Da High Elves magic be protectin’ dey cities. But I been watchin’, and I been thinkin’ . . . I think you get your power from dat fountain o’ light. You call it da Sunwell. I think it gives you power. Without da Sunwell, maybe da High Elves not dat strong after all . . .”

While the troll was speaking, Liadrin looked at her comrades, hoping that they were making some progress with their escape attempts. But Dar’Khan, the mage, appeared to still be tortured by the hallucinations, while the Galell, the young priest, was scrunching his eyes shut, looking as if he were praying. 

Only the ranger could be seen making some minute, discreet movements, a sign that he had yet to give up. 

Zul’jin started caressing the sharp blade of his long dagger and walked closer to the ranger, who was hanging upside down, tied from his ankles to the ceiling of the sacrificial room. 

“I wanna know how to overpower da Runestones. I wanna know everything about da Sunwell and the High Elves cities’ defenses,” he spoke to Liadrin. “Your friend here, maybe he don’t talk. He be a ranger, no? Dey a tough breed.”

The troll’s voice took on a deeper tone when he said next:

“But I show you how I skin him alive, and you hear him scream till he got no breath left, maybe one o’ you talks.”

He waited for an answer from Liadrin, but the high-elven woman just glared at him in contempt. 

“Dat be no surprise to me. You, high elves, always be proud. But we be seein’ now how long you can keep your pride up.”

The dagger’s sharp tip sliced open Lor’themar’s leather tunic, revealing his pale skin. 

“No! Get away from him!” Liadrin shouted in horror when she saw the troll slicing the ranger’s belly open, dragging a bloody vertical line with his dagger. 

To his credit, despite the cold blade cutting him open, Lor’themar gritted his teeth, not making even the slightest sound, and doing his best to focus his attention on getting his hidden blade out and freeing himself. 

However, even the tough ranger could no longer bear with it when the troll trusted his fingers into the open wound, tearing it open wider. Lor’themar screamed in agony. 

Zul’jin and the other two trolls in the sacrificial room were so absorbed by the torture of the ranger that they didn’t notice that Galell, the young priest who had kept his eyes shut close up until that moment, had somehow freed himself from his bindings. 

In the first place, they had never expected him, the youngest and most inexperienced among the captives and a priest, no less, to work his way out of the ropes. It was more realistic for the ranger or the mage to pull off something like that. 

Before the trolls could react, Galell snatched one of the ceremonial spears hanging off the sacrificial room’s walls. 

Alerted by the sound (the troll’s long ears were not just for show), one of Zul’Jin’s subordinates quickly turned around. But, to his misfortune, Galell was already in position and thrust the ceremonial spear at him, stabbing him straight in the throat. 

Despite being skewered by the spear, the troll’s regeneration was formidable. Even with a spear piercing through his neck, the troll grabbed onto the handle of the weapon and desperately tried to pull it out. Maybe he could have even survived such a fatal wound if not for Galell suddenly twisting the spear in his neck, beheading him completely. 

Startled by his own actions, the young priest froze for a split second at the sight of the blood bursting like a geyser from the troll’s headless corpse. 

He had been a greenhorn. He had never been in a real battle before. This was the first time he had killed anyone. 

Alas, that short second of stupor was more than enough for the other troll to react and swing his own barbaric single-edged sword at the priest. 

Galell instinctively parried his swing with the handle of the spear, but the force behind the strike of the physically stronger troll sent him tumbling backwards, slamming into the wall. 

The troll raised his sword above his head to deliver the finishing blow, but, in the next moments, the moss-skinned creature inexplicably collapsed, his knees smashing hard on the stone floor while he was holding his head with both hands, screaming in agony. 

It was because of Liadrin. Seeing her young protege about to be killed, she mustered her entire strength and cast a spell that a priestess of the Light like her would normally avoid casting at all costs. 

It was Shadow Word: Pain. It was a spell one would cast with the sole intent of causing pain to torture. 

Zul’jin stopped torturing the ranger and rushed at Liadrin, suspecting that whatever happened must have been her fault. 

When he turned his back to the ranger, despite the gaping wound in his stomach, Lor’themar had managed to finally get a hold of his hidden blade and free himself. 

Zul’jin violently smashed his massive foot into the slender woman’s stomach, and the pain was so great that Liadrin lost her concentration and the Shadow Word spell that she had cast on the troll subordinate was broken. 

Before he could turn around to check up on the ranger, Zul’Jin howled in pain as a scalpel-like blade stabbed deeply into the side of his neck, severing his carotid artery. It was Lor'themar.

However, the troll leader regeneration factor was not to be trifled with. Dizzy from the massive blood loss, the ranger was unable to react in time when the much taller and more muscular troll threw a back-kick straight into his eviscerated stomach. 

The elf collapsed on the stone floor in a heap, the unimaginable pain making his sight go white for a few moments. 

Liadrin was in despair as she looked at her comrades. Dar’Khan was still unresponsive, still tortured by hallucinations. Lor’themar was on the floor, a pool of blood around him. And Galell was pinned to the wall, held at swordpoint by the other troll. 

This had been their last opportunity to escape. The trolls would be extra careful after that. It was over. They failed. They were going to die a terrible death. 

She called upon the Light, praying ardently for a miracle. If the Light responded to her, Liadrin could teleport herself and her comrades out of there in a heartbeat. 

The priestess was still in the midst of her ardent prayers when the thick and heavy door of the sacrificial room was opened with a bang. 

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The moment he heard that scream of agony coming from the stone building, Naruto appeared to revert to his old self as he jumped off the tree from his hiding place and rushed into the village headfirst.

Some of the trolls nearby watched him bewildered, not knowing how to react; after all, what they saw was one of their own people (he was still disguised to look like them) sprinting towards them as if there was a pack of lions on his tail. 

Naruto was only 15 metres away from the first troll when he formed a cross seal with his three-fingered troll hands and shouted:

“Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!”

The large village was instantly crowded by the sudden apparition of over 500 shadow clones, all of them Henged to look like trolls. 

The other trolls let out screams of panic at the inexplicable phenomenon, all of them shouting a word that Naruto could not understand - “Loa!”. 

Not having expected the trolls to react that way to his jutsu, Naruto did not look a gift horse in the mouth and took full advantage of their momentary shock, rushing straight to the stone building in the centre of the village. 

He kicked open the door, making the four moss-skinned creatures inside jump to their feet startled. But they didn’t even have the time to draw their weapons before Naruto and his shadow clones raised their waraxes and swung them at the trolls, splitting their bodies in half and splattering the blood all over the walls, floor, and ceiling. 

Not bothering to wipe the blood off his face, Naruto burst into the next room hurriedly and kicked it open with a bang. It took him not even a second to assess the situation. 

The male captive that he had encountered earlier in the forest was lying curled up on the floor in a pool of blood; another man with long blond hair was chained to the wall, seemingly unconscious; a woman whose face was all bloodied and bruised and crying while struggling against the ropes binding her; and a younger-looking male with brown hair was pushed against the wall and hit with the pommel of the sword in the temple, collapsing on the floor out cold. 

Aside from those pale, long-eared human-like people, Naruto also saw a headless monster’s corpse on the floor and two other green-skinned savages standing over the captives. 

The tall and muscular troll with the purple cloth covering his lower face screamed something at Naruto, but the boy didn’t understand their tongue, and he had no intention of talking to the green monsters at that moment either way. 

He rushed into the room and raised his great axe above his head, swinging it at the largest troll he had ever seen with his entire might. 

In the meantime, two of his shadow clones charged with their waraxes at the other troll, while the rest quickly went to the captives to free them. 

Although Zul’Jin was much taller and much stronger-looking compared to Naruto’s Henged appearance, his three-foot-long knife snapped from the clash against Naruto’s waraxe. The great axe's blade sank deeply into the troll’s shoulder. 

Zul’Jin screamed something at Naruto yet again, but Naruto didn’t understand a word. He pulled his great axe from the troll’s shoulder and swung again. 

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The priestess was still in the midst of her ardent prayers when the thick and heavy door of the sacrificial room was opened with a bang. 

Zul’jin shouted something in the troll language, and Liadrin’s eyes widened when a group of forest trolls burst into the room and one of them jumped into the air with an enormous war axe, swinging it viciously at Zul’jin. 

‘By the Light, what is going on?!’

Momentarily, she had a hard time wrapping her mind around what she was seeing. 

Not only that Zul’jin was inexplicably attacked by one of his subordinates, but the troll, despite being a head or two smaller than his leader, actually got the best of him in a clash of strength. The troll insurgent’s war axe snapped Zul’jin’s dagger in half and wounded his shoulder grievously. 

Liadrin’s surprise turned into shock when one of the trolls who burst into the room also came to her and cut off the ropes binding her wrists and ankles, and the rest did the same to her other comrades too. 

She let out a cry of surprise when the troll suddenly threw her over his shoulder and rushed towards the door. Thoroughly bewildered by the situation, Liadrin instinctively punched the head of the troll who rescued(?)/kidnapped(?) her from the sacrificial room. 

A puff of smoke clouded her eyes, and the high-elven woman let out a yelp of pain as she fell on the hard floor, the troll from before nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared into thin air. 

‘Was that a Mirror Image?!’

Although she was a priestess of the Light, Liadrin was still a high elf. All high elves were deeply familiar with magic; furthermore, Dar’Khan, who was a Magister, was one of her close friends.

‘Could it be that another Magister got wind of our capture and infiltrated the troll territory to rescue us?’

As if to confirm her thoughts, another one of the trolls who had burst into the room earlier came to her, dropped to one knee, and showed her his back as if to tell her to climb on so that he could carry her out. 

She glanced at him suspiciously, unsure of whether to trust him or not.

‘Why is he not saying anything?’

If he were an ally, he could at least converse with her. 

But Liadrin’s doubts took the backseat in the next moment because Zul’jin, cornered by his waraxe-wielding opponent, let out a war cry and his body suddenly puffed up, growing way beyond the proportions of a normal troll, and he hunched over until he was standing like a beast, on all fours. 

The troll leader’s green skin darkened, fur grew on his arms and back, and his head turned into that of a different creature. In the blink of an eye, Zul’jin had transformed into an enormous black bear, a beast so large that its head was touching the tall ceiling of the sacrificial room. 

Losing all hesitation, Liadrin quickly climbed on the kneeling troll’s back and shouted, “Run!”

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Zul’Jin screamed something at Naruto yet again, but Naruto didn’t understand a word. He pulled his great axe from the troll’s shoulder and swung it once more. In desperation, the troll leader threw himself to the right, rolling away to escape. 

In the next moment, Naruto was stupefied to see the green-skinned monster suddenly turn into a massive, vicious-looking bear. It was no smaller than an elephant. 

At the same time, he also heard the woman shouting something. He didn’t understand what she told him, but he could deduce what her words meant: “Run!”

The gigantic bear’s roar made the entire building shake from its very foundations. 

The shadow clones were the first to rush out of the room, carrying the captives on their shoulders, and Naruto was quick to run after them, giving up on any thoughts of fighting against that monstrous bear. 

Ultimately, his purpose was not to fight a battle in the middle of a village of trolls but to rescue the captives from a terrible fate. 

While running of the room with the captives, Naruto got flashes of memories from the shadow clones that he had left outside the building as they were attacked and dispelled by the other trolls. 

It was the first time he was taking notice of that detail, but he decided to think about it at a later date and focus on escaping from his current predicament first. 

With how enormous the bear war was, its size worked to its detriment because the door was too narrow for it to pass through. Thanks to that, Naruto and his shadow clones escaped together with the captives. 

Coming out of the house, Naruto saw that his clones had thrown the village into chaos, with all the trolls fighting against each other, not knowing who was the ‘evil loa’ and who was not. 

Strong gales of wind were stirred as Naruto and his clones broke into the fastest sprint that they were capable of. Liadrin felt the air leave her lungs when the troll carrying her took to the trees and started jumping from one branch to another through the forest at a speed that was making her dizzy and unable to make sense of her surroundings. 

She heard troll roars and screams as Zul’jin and the rest of the trolls started pursuing them, but they soon faded into the distance as the one carrying her and her comrades ran deeper and deeper into the mountains. 

A while later, the dizzying movement came to an end, and Liadrin opened her eyes to find herself on the shore of a narrow but crystal-clear mountain creek. 

The trolls that had been carrying them laid them on the ground and disappeared into clouds of white smoke.

Remembering that Lor’themar was in critical condition, Liadrin quickly came to check up on him. 

Having escaped from the sacrificial room filled with toxic fumes and having spent some time breathing in the clear air of the forest, Liadrin had somewhat recovered her bearings. 

She kneeled next to the ranger and prayed, calling upon the Light. Her hands glowed with a bright, warm, yellow light, and Naruto watched in amazement how the fatal wound in the man’s belly closed up at a speed visible to the naked eye. 

“Whoa!” he exclaimed in wonder. 

The sound he let out made Liadrin turn her attention to him. Her first intention had been to convey her words of heartfelt gratitude, but she became speechless when her eyes fell on him and she saw her rescuer’s real appearance. 

It was not a Magister. It was not a proud and powerful high-elven mage. 

It was a boy. A human boy, so short that he was not even reaching her shoulder height. 

“Am I still hallucinating?” came Dar’Khan’s voice from her right, and Liadrin was happy to see that her old friend had regained his consciousness. “What is a human boy doing here of all places? How did we even escape from the trolls?”

“That boy. He saved us,” she answered. 

“Surely you are jesting,” Dar’Khan said sceptically. 

“He appears to be a mage,” Liadrin explained. “And a skilled one at that. He made use of Transformation and Mirror Image spells to infiltrate and rescue us. He also fought against the troll leader to a standstill.”

Done tending to Lor’themar’s wounds, Liadrin stood up and walked closer to him. Bringing a hand to her heart, she bowed and spoke in Common, the language spoken by most humans in the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth. 

“My name is Liadrin. On behalf of my comrades, I wish to express my sincere gratitude for saving our lives.”

Naruto walked out of the stream (he had been washing the mud off his face) and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. 

The long-eared lady’s voice was pleasant, melodious even, but that was all there was to it. He could not understand a word. 

“Sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Liadrin and Dar’Khan exchanged a look. “Do you understand his words?” she asked the mage. 

Dar’Khan was no less bewildered than her. 

“I have never heard that speech before.”

As a Magister, Dar’Khan was fluent in most of the languages spoken by the intelligent races living in the world of Azeroth. He even knew the language of the savage trolls. 

Liadrin glanced at the boy again. The more she looked, the more confused she became. And it appeared that Dar’Khan was mirroring her thoughts considering what he said next:

“I know that humans’ technology and level of civilisation is far below that of Quel'Thalas, but I believe not even they are wearing such garments in this day and age anymore.”

After the trolls ripped his clothing and started cooking him over the campfire, Naruto escaped buck naked into the forest. Left with no other choice, he had fashioned some rough clothing and footwear for himself from the pelts of lynxes he had hunted. Compared to the four high elves who were wearing finely crafted leather armour and runecloth robes, he looked like a savage, not that different from the trolls. 

Liadrin slowly walked closer to Naruto and extended her hand, showing him her open palm, trying to make him understand that she did not have any ill intentions. 

‘Kurama, do you sense any negative emotions from her?’ Naruto asked, just to make sure. 

“None whatsoever,” Kyuubi confirmed. 

When Liadrin smiled at him, Naruto felt his worries being washed away, and he took her dainty hand in his. 

Brilliant light appeared in Liadrin's hand, and a feeling of warmth pervaded Naruto’s body, travelling through his chakra pathways and reaching all the way to the Gate of Rest, the 2nd of the 8 Inner Gates, which was located in his brain.

In any other circumstances, Naruto would have freaked out about feeling a foreign power invade his body like that, but something about that light calmed his worries and filled him with a feeling of safety and comfort. Even Kyuubi, who was inside the seal, stopped growling and became quiet. 

“Human boy, can you understand me now?” Liadrin’s voice rang in his mind, and, this time, Naruto understood her. 

 

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AN: I have attached two pics of Lady Liadrin (as a paladin) and 1 pic of Zul'jin, the troll leader.

Until next time!