Chapter 3

"We were too late." The captain of Diamond Company summed up to the other captains who had just pulled their horses up next to his.

The scar-faced Captain squinted as he surveyed the vibrant green valley that was surrounding the freshly ruined town. Signs of warfare were plain to see in all directions. Smoke billowed from the town, the gates were smashed, broken bodies and weapons were scattered about too.

"You're not going to escape me this time Helgrath!" The scar-faced Captain griped still hungering for revenge. "Mustang Company, move on." He snarled to his men, and he started toward the burning town. As he did so, he heard the other captains talking behind his back. Yet he paid them no mind.

"What is that warmonger think he's doing?" Asked the captain from Hawk Company.

"He's probably going into town to search for survivors or any trace of the orcs. He's always been obsessed with hunting down the orcs ever since he got that scar." The Diamond Company captain replied while rubbing his forehead.

"Seems like a waste of time to me." Hawk Company's captain complained turning his horse back toward the way they had come. "Hawk Company, fall back to base." Then he and his men plodded slowly back to the town.

"Humph, fool. If you had more experience you would have known that the orcs would still be nearby celebrating their victory. Even this crazed, scar faced captain knows that." The Diamond Company captain mumbled silently to himself. "Men." He called out, "Follow Mustang Company. Search for survivors."

The two companies slowly headed into the ruined town. Blackened buildings were still smoldering and crumbled from time to time as they made their way through the towns' streets. As they headed for the fort that was once erected on the other side of town, the body count began to rise.

At first it was mainly soldiers, but as they went further into the city they saw farmers, the elderly, women and children scattered among the fallen soldiers. The streets were no longer visible under the streams of dried blood, ash and rising smoke.

Nothing moved, not a sound could be heard, save for the muffled sounds of the horse's hooves and crackle of embers. It was starting to seem from the gory evidence beneath them, the attack happened so swiftly that no one might have made it to the safety of the fort.

The scar-faced Captain fervently searched for any sign of the orcs. But so far there were no survivors of either species. Just empty lifeless streets of death and destruction.

"This can't happen again! That orc can't escape from me forever." The scar-faced Captain mused to himself angrily.

He gripped the rains harder till his knuckles whitened. Some of his men noticed and shied their horses back a bit. They knew better then to get in their Captain's way when he was in a bad mood.

After searching most of the desolate town and surrounding farmland the two companies arrived at the shattered gate of the fort. The fort used to be nothing more than a large wooden walled outpost to serve as a resting point for the military as they traveled through the area. So it was not well suited to act as a real fortress. A few soldiers dismounted and pushed a portion of the gate aside to allow the horses to enter. The two companies quickly moved inside and discovered the horrendous tragedy within.

It looked as if a flood had washed in through the gate and washed nearly every once living to the far side of the fort. Here every body; human, horse, farm animal, and even orc was now piled up against the far wall of the fort. The piled bodies were stacked so heavily and compressed that a small stream of blood was still flowing from it. The wind blew gently knocking over a basket starting some of the men frozen in shock.

"Dismount!" The scar-faced Captain grunted as he slid off his horse.

Most of his men did as commanded but a few acted as if they were too sick to move. Most of the troops, however, began searching for survivors but just as they found in the town, no luck.

Then one of the men from Diamond Company shouted that he found a survivor. The two captains rushed over to where the survivor was. The survivor was found to be wedged behind a troff and had hidden himself under a bail of hay.

It was a town solider, bleeding badly from a hole in his chest. He coughed up some blood and then spoke weakly to the captains who had only just arrived, "They… wiped us out… and headed east…"

"Good work soldier. You're going to be fine now," The scar-faced Captain said reassuringly to the man. Then calling urgently to his men, he ordered, "Get some bandages and medicine quickly."

The two captains left some men behind to continue searching and care for the wounded man. Their new objective was for the two companies to head at top speed eastward to hunt down the orcs.

To the east was the mountain range that divided the northern most portion of the kingdom. Due to the mountains size many merchants and military personnel had to travel south around this range to get to the rest of the kingdom. This mountain protrusion made it easy for orcs and other monsters to travel from the north down south to raid the humans for food and plunder. Especially since the mountains held a vast cave system that had never been explored by the humans.

The orcs path was not hard to follow. Thanks to their large numbers, the path they had created through the deep green woodlands was quite visible. If the captain hadn't been so absorbed in his revenge, he would have noticed how beautiful this area was.

In no time they caught up with the orca small army. The orcs had only gone a few miles from the town. They were camped in a valley between two small wooded hills. A stream ran right through the center of the two hills and had created a small ravine making it a good location to weather a storm. Yet in a fight, they would've been at a disadvantage.

"I found you, scum, at last!" The scar-faced Captain thought smiling blood thirstily. He noticed this tactical disadvantage right away.

"I will take my men and attack their left flank coming down the hill and you attack the same way from the right." The captain from Diamond Company ordered swinging his horse into the direction of the hills.

"Agreed." The scar-faced Captain growled pulling his sword from its sheath. He then rode off toward the right side of valley with his company coming closely in tow.

Soon both forces were in position and were ready to engage. Without warning the left side of the valley erupted as Diamond Company gave their war cry and charged the orcs.

"Let's crush them. Charge!" The scar-faced Captain yelled spurring his horse to charge down the hill.

The pounding sounds of horse's hooves mixed with the screams of the charging army caused the orc army to panic, entirely unprepared by this surprise attack. Both Calvary companies crashed into the orc camp, slaying any orc they came across before they could take up a defensive position.

The captain's anger fueled his attacks and the orcs fell, like wheat before the sickle, upon his blade. He was in such blood lust that he started to laugh aloud as he fought. His men were almost as afraid of him as the orcs were. They had never seen him in such a state, but they too were seeing victory was not far off.

At the center of the camp, the orcs were rallying as a large orc was bellowing out commands to the orcs running around in panic. The Captain was too far away to hear the orc but the ragged flag he stood under was definitely the Deifier's.

"That must be him." The scar-faced Captain surmised. Turning to his troops he yelled with sword raised hight, "Charge the center and slay Helgrath. Let's get our revenge!"

They charged the center of the camp mowing down the enemy forces. Weapons clashed, men and orcs screamed, horses whinnied, and blood flowed. Mustang Company was overwhelming the enemy and had all but destroyed them. Then they reached the center of the camp.

To their horror, all of the orcs there had already been slain. Diamond Company had beaten them there! Diamond Company's captain stood up from one knee and turned to face his men and Mustang Company, and with a shout of triumph, he held up the head of the orc's leader….