CHAPTER 116: THE PIT OF BLOOD AND IRON

The oppressive heat of the Shattered Steppes gave way to the acrid stench of roasting boars, wet fur, and unrefined iron as Caius stepped through the spiked timber gates of Red-Tooth Encampment.

The war-camp was a sprawling labyrinth of hide tents, iron blacksmith forge-fires, and wooden fighting rings, home to over three hundred mercenaries, scavengers, and warriors of the border clans. Huge, green-skinned Orcs clad in mismatched steel scrap roared over gambling games, while massive dire-wolves gnawed on bone piles tied to heavy iron posts.

Caius pulled the hood of his frayed traveler's cloak lower, masking his pale complexion and dark-purple eyes. His Eye of the Loom remained quietly active, mapping every vantage point, crossbow tower, and heavy weapon within a three-hundred-yard radius.

Despite his disguise, a human walking alone through an Orc border camp was like throwing fresh meat into a den of starved drakes.

"Look what dragged itself past the border pillars!" a hulking Orc warrior roared, slamming a notched battleaxe onto a wooden table.

Laughter erupted from a nearby drinking pit as four broad-shouldered Orc mercenaries stood up, their tusks gleaming with yellow grease. The lead Orc, a scarred brute standing seven feet tall with spiked shoulder guards, stepped directly into Caius’s path, blocking the narrow thoroughfare.

"A scrawny surface runt," the brute sneered, leaning down until his foul breath washed over Caius’s hood. "You're lost, little bird. This ain't the soft human cities of the West. Pay the toll, or we carve you into wolf food."

Caius stopped, his hands resting naturally inside his cloak pockets. He didn't look up, nor did he draw his twin ivory swords.

"I'm not here for trouble," Caius said, his voice dropping into a low, icy calm that carried over the ambient noise of the camp. "I'm looking for information on the Iron-Skull Clan. Specifically, Warlord Krag'gath."

The war-camp fell into a sudden, tense quiet. The surrounding Orcs stopped their shouting, turning toward the hooded human with expressions ranging from disbelief to raw, nervous tension.

The lead brute’s laughter died in his throat, replaced by a dark scowl. "You dare speak his name out loud? The One-Eyed Butcher?"

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Caius’s pale eyes flickered beneath his hood. One-Eyed.

Two and a half years ago, during the fall of Castle Precipice, Caius was only fourteen when he watched his father beheaded. Driven by raw, unrefined rage, he had drawn his warbow and released an arrow charged with dark mana, his very first time tapping into that power without any training. The dark energy had struck Krag'gath square in the eye, embedding a dark spatial curse into the socket before Sereth dragged Caius away into the Abyss. The shamanic magic couldn't cleanse it, leaving a rotting, unhealing wound that turned Krag'gath's fierce title into a bitter insult whispered in dark corners. Caius kept that truth locked deep behind his eyes; no one here needed to know who he was just yet.

The lead Orc stepped closer, grabbing Caius by the shoulder with a massive, green-skinned hand. "Warlord Krag'gath has had scouts searching the borderlands for two and a half years, offering a mountain of gold for the boy named Macrae, the son of the lord he slew, the brat who blinded his eye. Asking about Krag'gath marks you as a dead man."

CRACK!

Before the Orc could finish his sentence, Caius’s left hand shot out like a striking viper. He grabbed the brute’s thick thumb and twisted it backward with a sharp, localized pulse of spatial pressure.

The Orc let out a guttural roar of pain as he dropped to one knee, his thumb snapped entirely out of joint.

Before the surrounding warriors could draw their weapons, Caius moved. He stepped inside the brute’s guard, his palm striking the Orc’s solar plexus with a dark-purple spark of lightning kinetic shock. The brute flew backward ten feet, crashing through a heavy wooden weapons rack and collapsing unconscious into the dust.

The remaining three Orcs froze, their hands gripping the hilts of their greatswords, their eyes wide as they stared at the hooded stranger who hadn't even drawn a blade.

Caius slowly dusted off his sleeve, his pale eyes glowing like cold embers beneath his hood.

"I'll ask once more," Caius said smoothly, stepping over the broken timber. "Where is Krag'gath?"

From the shadows of a large central tent made of mammoth hide, an old, gray-bearded Orc shaman wearing a necklace of dire-wolf skulls stepped forward, leaning heavily on a carved wooden staff.

"Hold your blades, fools," the Shaman grunted, his sharp yellow eyes scanning the subtle spatial static swirling around Caius's feet. He looked at Caius with a mixture of caution and deep intrigue. "You carry dangerous magic, traveler. Krag'gath rests at the Crag of the Skull-Throne, three days north past the Iron-Spine Canyon. He grips his giant waraxe night and day, his ruined eye burning with a dark curse that won't let the flesh heal."

Caius absorbed the location without a word, revealing nothing of his identity or intent.

Before the old Shaman or any of the surrounding Orcs could process what was happening, Caius's figure blurred. A faint whisper of dark-purple lightning crackled in the dust, and his silhouette dissolved into spatial distortion.

By the time the breeze settled, the spot where the hooded human had been standing was completely empty.

He had vanished into the shadows of the badlands, leaving behind only an unconscious brute and a silent, unsettled war-camp.

REVENGE ARC BEGINS