Tales of the Trio: Unbroken

Chapter Fourteen

All the bones were mostly cut through, not enough for them to collapse on themselves but weak enough for Maximus to push through them. Lela scooted away and Maximus sat beside the cut bones, ready to jump through them. The four of them were quietly talking, the other tough orc from the table came over to them and grabbed Pun Pun so he could perform again. Pun Pun began to do acrobatic tricks, he did a few flips forward towards the table of higher ranked orcs, he then purposely flipped their table over on top the orcs trying to make it look like he did it on accident, most of the orcs in the room ran towards him. While they were distracted Maximus broke through the cage and the trio crawled out of the cage and began to run towards the front doors, one of the orcs who was still over by the doors turned when he heard running, it tried to stop them but Maximus barreled into it making them both fall to the ground. Dominic was still magic drained from the dampeners but managed to give Maximus a small burst of air to help him up quicker, they continued going, another orc came at them, Lela said "I got this one." She ran and slid between the orcs legs slicing open its inner thigh making it fall to it's knees, she spun around and stabbed it in the head. They made it to the front door when four arrows were fired at them one landing to the right and left of their legs, and the ones landing over their heads but vertically above the bottom two arrows, the arrows had a net tied to them. So when the arrows went into the door the net followed and pressed the trio into the door trapping them. Lela was struggling to cut the net, by the time she did the orcs were surrounding them, the three turned and had their backs to the door ready to fight to the death.

Dominic gulped and said "Magic isn't ready." regardless Maximus got in a fight pose, Lela readied the dagger and Dominic put his fist up. The orcs held their weapons pointed at the trio, if they wanted they could just slowly move forward and impale them that way but instead they just stood there. The orcs began to slowly move away forming a path for the orc with the crazy looking armor, designs imprinted into his armor, six horns forged into his helmet sticking out, crazy right? The two tough orcs flanking behind him and the orc with the skull mask along with the elf behind those two orcs forming a 'V' kind of like ducks when they fly together. The five of them making their way to the trio, the orc with crazy armor had reached the trio and laughed "You think you can kill my soldiers, while failing to escape and you think you're strong enough to fight back? You're pathetic little humans! Kill me and my soldiers will let you go." The trio looked at each other and then nodded their heads and rushed at the orc. He side stepped and dropped Dominic with one punch, Maximus tried to punch the orc a few times but the orc blocked them with his arms, Lela flanked the orc and went to stab him but he kicked Dominic up into her knocking her down. Maximus got a solid punch into the orc but he then turned and head butted Maximus causing Maximus to be knocked unconscious right away. Dominic was trying to get his breath back after the kick, Lela slowly stood back up and started to re-engage the orc. She faked a stab to the left and as the orc went to block it she tossed the dagger up and caught it with her right hand and jammed it into the orcs side, the orc grabbed both her arms and lifted her up by them and laughed. "Tie them up and have them kneeling with the entertainer." With that said he dropped Lela, pulled the dagger out and knocked her unconscious with it's handle, the orc dropped the dagger and walked away towards the table he was originally sitting at, the four who were following him returned to the table with him. The other orcs knocked Dominic out while he was standing back up.

When they were all awake, the trio and Pun Pun were on their knees with their arms tied behind their back, honestly their heads were pounding with pain from the hits. The orcs were gathered around them, waiting for something to happen. The orc who had just beaten them finally rose from the table and faced the trio as well as the crowd, the two tough orcs rose and stood on either side of him, the elf and orc with skull mask remained in their seats. The orc began to walk back and forth while he spoke "These pitiful humans thought they could escape the mighty Stakûga and his army!" He walked a little closer to the trio and Pun Pun "These humans beside this fool" he kicked Pun Pun over "killed your brothers in that trial by combat siege that was supposed to prove your brothers worth and now we have their killers!" The orcs cheered, the orc spoke again now walking back and forth in front of the trio "These weaklings killed them, were then captured by Mâku and his elf companion! While being prisoners they killed another brother using this fool as a distraction, sacrificing their own for a cowardly escape. What should we do with them?" The orcs were shouting "Kill them! Kill them! kill them!" The orc walked over to Pun Pun, dragged him where the crowd and the trio could see him clearly, he made Pun Pun sit on his knees again, grabbed the hair on top of his head and tilted his head back, the orc pulled out a knife with his other hand and slit Pun Pun's throat, blood spilling out and spraying, a small amount was able to spray onto the trio's lap before the orc let go of Pun Pun, his body fell over as blood still continued to pour out of his neck and the orcs were cheering in excitement. The orc shouted "Should we do the same with these three? Or should we make it long and painful?" The orcs shouted their agreement with the long and painful death, the orc began saying "I am the mighty Stakûga! I've been looking for you, and now you're here. You humans thought you could face me? Thought you could beat me? You're pathetic!" He walked forward "I got a surprise for you guys. I captured another one of your comrades. Bring the traitor in." He beckoned over some orcs who were dragging Yagak over, and dropped the orc beside Pun Pun's body. "You thought you could have a lowly traitorous orc in my ranks! You're even more dumb than I thought!" Yagak laughed "You think Yagak came alone without help?" Stakûga looked at Yagak "What did you say? Secure the area, now!"

The orcs began to shuffle around, grabbing their weapons and checking around and a big group of them headed out the front doors and it was only seconds later you could hear the sounds of fighting, it was hard to tell what was happening from the inside especially now that the door shut again. Stakûga signaled the other orcs around them got ready to fight if the attackers got inside. Stakûga and the four who have been beside him pulled out their weapons and waited. Many minutes have passed when the fighting busted through the front doors and continued, the orcs charged at whoever they were fighting, Stakûga sent the two large orcs beside him to go help. Mâku and Erendil were anxious to jump into the fighting but waited with Stakûga who clearly wanted to fight as well but wouldn't leave the trio out of his sight. Yagak secretly had a knife with him and had cut himself free, he dropped the knife and picked up a discarded mug and threw it at Stakûga before he jumped up and started running away. Stakûga turned and shouted "Elf shoot his leg" Erendil turned and lazily shot a precise shot into Yagak's leg making him fall. The two orcs and elf walked over to Yagak and Stakûga asked "What was your plan little orc?" While Yagak was speaking a lot of nonsense Lela rolled to where the knife was, she managed to pick it up, and cut her arms free while she was cutting Maximus and Dominic free, Erendil and Mâku simultaneously turned around and Mâku said "Your prisoners are escaping." Stakûga turned his head and saw them he growled in frustration and looked back at Yagak and slashed Yagak across the face with one of his hand axes. The trio looked at the three in front of them, an orc who single handily beat them while they were armed and had magic, an elf who had done the same but is also a great shot, and a orc general with dual hand axes, an army of orcs behind them fighting whoever. Stakûga laughed and asked "What do you guys plan on accomplishing? I beat you guys without weapons, now I'm using my weapons and got two people who've beat you beside me. A person and a orc died to save you but you're still going to die anyways. How do you feel?" Lela looked at Maximus and Dominic "This guy is annoying, can we kill him already?" Dominic said "Sure, let's do it." Stakûga, Mâku, and Erendil started laughing, during this Lela threw the knife straight at Stakûga's face, before it hit him Erendil shot the knife knocking it away. Stakûga didn't even blink and said "Now you have no weapons." He started walking towards the trio then stopped walking completely when he saw what was happening behind them.

The many orcs behind them were being killed, Mâku looked over and said "I told you to bring your skilled underlings, you know your actual army not these new ones that you're trying to enlist." Stakûga growled and said "I don't listen to you, even if you're Lüga's go to problem solver, besides the skilled warriors of my army were needed for the siege at the castle and I needed more orcs to expand my army especially after the failures at the trial siege these ones prevented." Erendil chimed in "We need to go, your new orcs are dying and we're about to face whoever is killing them, which we'll be outnumbered." Stakûga growlingly agreed and the three of them ran out a secret door out the backside. The trio turned around and watched the rest of the battle unfold as all the orcs were slain, a small band of about thirty soldiers walked over to them with their weapons being put away. They were all in front of the trio now, but one stepped forward and took off their helmet, it was Wesley! Maximus smiled and said "Your timing was great, almost anyways." Wesley asked "Why? What happened?" Maximus stepped to the side and pointed to Pun Pun and Yagak. Wesley sighed and said "I see, that is unfortunate, but you three are okay and that's what matters. I apologize that they died, Yagak was supposed to wait until we were ready. However there will be a lot more casualties in the very soon future." Maximus questioningly asked "What do you mean?" Wesley looked down as he said "The castle has been taken." The trio were shocked and Dominic said mostly to himself "So that's what the orc meant."