NEMO: Into The Depths

Chapter 22: What Can Be Worse Than Ogres

The pyre hidden in the shade of the forest blazed as a blob of fat fell into it from above. It spit out a tower of flames into the night sky, singeing the rotating animal carcass above it, a rusty broken claymore embedded through it. It was butchered horribly, strings of sinew and silver adorning the meat, parts of it charred while some still had blood dripping from it.

Snoring echoed through the tiny clearing, stumps of trees ripped in two still littering the grass. Some hulking figures rested upon beds tied together from tree trunks, which still held their bark, no doubt to the displeasure of the two lying upon it. The rest of the camp was busy preparing their, in the lowest sense, food. One cared for the rotisserie, as others stole pieces off of the corpse on the rod, while another slaughtered the next meat for the fire. He tossed what looked to be the hind of a cow into a bucket of similarly sloppy work.

As Alex squinted his eyes, the sight of a pair of arms beneath the mass of muscle confirmed his suspicions. Glancing across the camp, he saw a prison made of the remains of what he could only assume to be the club of ogres' past sustenance. Only one guarded it, who had nodded off as she leaned on the cube of bones, leaving the horrified and frightened humans, and one annoyed elf, without an observer.

Slowly, from behind the cage of bones, he could barely make out a bed of ivy creeping in from the trees, wrapping around the ivory, enough mana flowing through the vines to crack the calcium supports. He could see them lift the entire cage, ensuring that it wouldn't disturb the ogre resting, allowing more to slither beneath the walls of the prison. Making a bed, they gathered beneath the captives' feet, waiting for the command.

He pulled out a bunch of arrows, a couple more than he needed, just in case, holding it in the same grip as his bow, using his free hand to steady himself against the tree trunk. Standing almost horizontal to the bark, one foot pressing against the wood, the other wedged behind it, Alex notched an arrow in preparation for his partner to strike.

If he had blinked, he would have missed the entire ordeal. In an instant, the bed of vines shot upwards, wrapping themselves around the prisoners' mouths, before the ivy swaddled the bewildered beings, stopping their screams and their wriggling before dragging them through the tiny gap. As they slithered back into the trees, the entire cage slammed down, jolting the ogre resting on it awake, who turned around to gauge what had disturbed her.

Why not go down there and sow carnage, instead of cowering in the shade.

The string shot out of his hands as Alex weakened his finger's grip, his hand already moving to grab another as the arrow darted through the air. He had already released another before the first hit the back of the ogre's thick skull, shards of bone embedding into her brain as the steel tipped projectile tore through it and onto the other side. But focusing on the first would've given her tribe a breather, as another ogre collapsed soon after the guard, an arrow embedding itself into the second's eye.

The next recipient was the ogre caring for the food, who lifted the rusty sword from the flame, spinning around to look for the archer hidden in the forest. His mouth opened to scream, raising the meat stick above his head, but nothing came out as two more arrows struck his forehead. The monster fell back onto the campfire, causing another tower of flame to erupt upwards, illuminating the others left. Someone yelled into the forest, trying to scare whoever they thought was firing at them, only to have three more ogres crumple to the ground, an arrow jutting out of each of their heads.

Two were left, the two lying on the bed of trees, waking up in a rage that disguised their panic, spinning on their feet, scampering to pick up weapons to defend themselves. Releasing another arrow, Alex clicked his tongue as his target ducked at the last second, a lucky slip, leaving him with only a single arrow against two.