Zensuon: Crystal Age

If You're Going to End Something, End it with a Bang

Where we see the end result of the conflict for all groups, for better or ill

Her body fell forward onto the side. The Death Knight caught the crystal at her back and slowly pulled it alongside her backpack.

"Put it on you," Tobias stated, and the Death Knight did without reproach.

"Good, now that we're done with that, we can go ahead an-" Tobias stopped. A red substance fell from the side of his lip. He coughed, and more of it came down.

"What's... going on?" Tobias asked, looking down. Mica looked up. The Death Knight looked.

All of them saw a bolt from a crossbow piercing Tobias' heart.

Over at the other end of the trunk, was a group of victorious pale elf soldiers.

"Magic... armour," Tobias said in disbelief.

Unfortunately for Tobias, he did not know that the pale elves were some of the greatest experts in creating magical equipment. What would be the point of equipping the orcs with so much magical gear, and not give their elite unit their best-crafted equipment?

Tobias, however, only knew that the crystal was here, thanks to Mica's direction. He thought it'd be easy. Get in, get out. No problem, right? Yes.

"This wasn't supposed to go this way." The white-robed mage that was Tobias said, stumbling back, and falling off of the immensely tall tree.

Following him, the Death Knight fell with a thud. Though he fell only onto the treetop itself instead of all the way down. It didn't matter, he was already dead beforehand.

Mica stood, his hands shaking, his head moving back and forth between the fallen Death Knight to the falling Tobias, a rush of an unknown emotion taking over him.

Was it anger? Relief? Joy? The adrenaline from realising this is a do-or-die situation?

Oh no, it was the bolt sticking out of his arm, and the immense pain.

"rrrAAHHHHH! FUCK!" Mica cursed out into the woods, as he pulled out the bolt. He wasted no time thinking. He wasn't going to die here, no matter what. He ran, and ran, and each bolt that came was far enough that the swirl of air he put around him knocked it out of any vital spots it was aimed for. Riddled with pain and adrenaline, he eventually got out of range.

And what did he do then?

He kept running.

***

Nuraka was not aware of the situation. Gurog was. One-Eye was. That is what happens when your main concern is always looking forward, you fail to take a look around and appreciate the carnage. That is, that while the large magic beams have stopped decimating them at the moment, most of the orcs were carnaged.

While orcs don't dwell on death, they don't actively seek it. Like all things: they want for survival. The only exception to the rule was war.

When an orc is gathered around a large number of his peers, something triggers in him that drives him to destroy the closest non-orc thing in his proximity.

This is why while singular orcs are tolerated, usually as battle slaves. A large number of them are not.

In this sense, even if Nuraka was aware he was currently running into a slaughterhouse, with the entirety of the elven armies coming down on him. He would be unable to physically resist, at least according to lead orcologists.