Out for Blood

[Gridish]

A roar of cheers force their way through the several training facilities surrounding the Ring of Blood as one of the two rampaging ogres meets the ground with his body. A high pitched Goblin voice cuts through the crowd's cheering "AAAND THE FAT ONE IS DOWN! THE OTHER FAT ONE WINS!" followed up by cheering and cackles. Two of the Ring's guards grab an arm each of the defeated ogre and drag him away. Silently watching in the crowd is Gridish, arms folded, his face covered by his wolf mask and the hood over said wolf mask. He's not watching the fight however. His gaze is fixated on the goblin, the troll, and the ogre that over watches the duels from his throne. "20 minute break before the next fight commences! Get your food and beverages over there for a... 'fair' price!" The goblin yells over the chanting crowd, mainly consisting of ogres. The crowd leaves the outer rims of the ring shortly after the goblin's announcement, and so does the Ogre sitting on the throne. The Ogre gestures Gridish to follow before the ogre takes his leave.


"So Gridish…" the ogre says as both Gridish and him enter a run down building, " I assume you performed the assaults on the places I suggested? Did you find your friends?" The ogre asks as he peers at Gridish with a small grin. Gridish stares at the ogre, arms folded and hands made into fists "Yer intell was outdated." The orc answers in an angered tone. "There was no sign of any Horde members at the mine and the ogres at the other place...-" Gridish pauses and sighs. "The others had already perished..." The Ogre's smirk widens and chuckles. "That's my fault for you and your orc friends being too slow?" The ogre lets out a humored snort before taking a bite of a cooked talbuk leg. Gridish snaps at the humored tone of the ogre and growls to him. "If ye didn't make me fight so many of yer feckin fights and actually had given me the intel on time they'd still be alive." The ogre stops eating from the Talbuk leg and peers at Gridish. "So what do you want from me now greeny?" Asks the ogre as he's still chewing the meat in his mouth. "A proposal…" Gridish says as the crowd starts returning to the outer rims of the ring. The ogre stares at Gridish, waiting for what Gridish has to propose. "I know ye also have members of the Horde as yer prisoners, with the sole purpose of watchin them fight to the death in the ring. I want ye to let them go. Right now." Silence engulfs the room before the ogre starts laughing maniacally, spitting out some meat chunks and nearly choking on a few more. "You must be insane?!" The ogre shouts, laughing and coughing. "No way in hell that I'll just let them go... But I might just let them go if you fight one last time..?" The ogre looks at Gridish questioningly, but with a huge smirk on his face. Another moment of silence roams the room before Gridish nods, accepting the challenge.


Chants, cheers and roars come from the crowd as the goblin yells above the rest, hyping the next fight. “IT WILL BE BLOODY!” The goblin yells, followed up by cheers. “IT WILL BE BRUTAL!” yells the goblin again, followed up by cheers. “AAAAND IT WILL BE GRUSOME!” and yet again more cheers come from the crowd while Mogor, the ogre leading the event, takes his seat on his throne, over watching the duel ring. As the Ogre takes his seat, the goblin nods and looks at the crowd with a huge grin on his face “Ladies and Ogrelings!!!! Next up on the schedule is Br-“ Mogor interrupts the goblin before he can finish his sentence. “Today we have a special performance.” Mogor starts. “Over the past few weeks we’ve had a newcomer amongst us… A newcomer that isn’t from this time… A green skin going by the name of Gridish. Today he has come to prove himself once again, after failing to rescue the members of his so called Horde. Undefeated in this ring so far. Thirteen kills on his name within this ring alone. Gridish, enter the Ring of Blood!” Mogor shouts, extending his arm in the direction of Gridish, waving him over to enter the ring. With that introduction, Gridish slowly makes his way to the center of the ring, keeping his sight on Mogor. “And now for his opponent.” Mogor pauses, a wide grin appearing on his face. The crowd growing impatient, shouting and yelling for the name of Gridish’s opponent. “Three time champion of the Ogre Brawl Tournament.-”The crowd starts cheering and shouting, knowing well enough what’s about to follow. “- Also known as master of the mallet. You all know him as Uirag!”  Cackling, cheering and chanting erupts from the drunken crowd as Uirag makes his way to the ring. A muscular ogre wearing a helmet and carrying a mallet in each hand. Chains being dragged across the floor that attach the mallets to their respected side’s leather bracers. Uirag takes his place in the ring, opposite of Gridish. “Ready to get destroyed, orc?” Uirag asks Gridish, a bit muffled due to his helmet. Gridish growls and grumbles “Drop dead.” and repositions himself to a battle stance, his staff crossing his body in front of him in a defensive manner, his knees bent slightly, ready to jolt in any direction if needed, but his eyes on Uirag. “Now for the rul-“ Gridish swiftly interrupts Mogor “Shut up, we know the rules. Fight till one can’t fight anymore.” Silence hits the crowd for a brief moment as Gridish gets snarky with Mogor, but swiftly pick up the cheering as they love the attitude. “Very well then!” Mogor shouts. “Then without wasting your time any further… Let the fight begin!”


Without hesitation Uirag tosses his left mallet in Gridish’s direction. Gridish blinks to the side, avoiding the mallet. The mallet falls to the ground, hitting nothing before getting pulled back by the chain it’s attached to. The crowd continues to cheer and cackle as they the fight commences. The two opponents stare each other in the eyes. A game of cat and mouse appears to be forming in the early stages of the fight. Each opponent waiting for the other to strike. Before too long, Uirag’s patience depletes and sends his mallet flying towards Gridish. Yet again Gridish avoids getting hit rather easily with his displacement spell, only this time he tries to strike back. Gridish appears to the side of the Ogre. Gridish lifts his staff into the air and rams the heavy head of his staff into the side of the Ogre. It looked like time slowed down as the staff impacted the side of the ogre, as nothing seemed to be happening. Uirag locks his sight onto gridish, turns his entire body around in a, for an ogre, swift motion and lands his leg in Gridish’s ribs. The smaller orc gets knocked off his feet and lands on the outer rim of the ring. The crowd goes wild as the ogre makes a small victory pose for the crowd while Gridish gasps for air and tries to get to his feet. He takes the short opportunity to get his bearings and clear his mind. “An opponent that claims victory before the battle is over.” Gridish thinks to himself as he picks his staff back up, Uirag is too busy claiming victory to notice that Gridish had gotten to his feet again.


“This was too easy… Greeny smushed!” Uirag said, still flexing and posing for the crowd. “He fly!” He cackled some more and made some hand gestures. The crowd laughed and imitated the hand gestures. Suddenly the laughter, flexing and hand gestures faded. Uirag slowly reached for his stomach just to find an icy cold trail of blood covering his belly. Silence strikes the crowd at the beat of a heart, staring at Uirag’s wound. Uirag gasps a bit for air, panting and heaving as his legs buckle and he lands on his knees, his hands still at his stomach. By this time, Gridish had closed the gap and grabs one of the chains that the mallet is attached to and wraps it around Uirag’s neck. The Ogre is too stunned to defend himself. The only thing that can be heard are the choking sounds of Uirag and his cracking neck bones as Gridish tightens the grip of the chain. A scary silence strikes the Ring of Blood as the slow death of the Ogre persists. After a full minute the ogre’s body gives in and the ogre drops dead and Gridish loosens his grip on the chain.


Gridish slowly turns his sight to Mogor and spits in his direction. “Let the prisoners go.” Before Mogor could answer Gridish, Gridish casts an ice lance towards Mogor, the ice lance barely missing the Ogre and slams straight into the throne. “The next one won’t miss.” The crowd is stunned by the development of this last battle, some staring at Uirag wondering if he’s really dead, others staring at the orc challenging Mogor. Mogor looks at Gridish with a serious face before bursting out in laughter. “You want those prisoners?!?! Here are your prisoners!” Mogor gestures towards a group of ogres in the distance. As the group nears the ring, two ring guards get to each side of Gridish. Gridish silently watches the group of ogres near the ring, ignoring the two guards at his side. The entire Ring of Blood waits in silence for the ogres to arrive. The only sounds that can be heard is the sound of the winds of Nagrand blowing through the branches of the trees. Once the ogres come to a stop, it is clear they are each carrying a bag each. A bloodied bag. “Show him” Mogor dictates. As Mogor commands it, the ogres drop the bags on the ground, revealing the missing members of the Horde, brutally murdered. Gridish stares at the bodies in silence, stunned, and enraged. The guards surrounding him grabbing him by his arms. “Greeny. You are never to return to this place. If my guards even catch a scent of you… you’re dead. Got it?!” Mogor shouts while he cackles maniacally and gestures the guards to take Gridish away.


At the boundaries of the Ring of Blood, the two guards toss Gridish onto the ground. “You heard him. Now go away.” One of the guards said, the other backing him up with a nod. Gridish gets to his feet, looks at the guards and folds his arms. “Any of ye know the meanin of a pack?” The two guards look at each other questioningly, then look back at Gridish and shake their heads. “We’re never alone.” Gridish smirks and lets out a loud whistle with his lips. The two guards look around them. Nothing happens. The two ogres look at Gridish and start laughing at him. “Now sod off so we can continue watching the matches greeny.” One of the guards says. The guard receives the silent death stare from Gridish. “NOW!” The guard said, grabbing his blade, ready to strike Gridish. The small orc stays motionless in front of the two ogres.  “Fine! Then I’ll take your he-“ Before the ogre could finish his sentence, Gridish’s worg slams into the ogre’s back, pushing the ogre off his feet and flat onto his stomach. As the ogre lays helplessly on the ground, Gridish’s worg bites into the ogre’s back, severing his spine and killing the ogre without hesitation. The other guard shortly follows with an ice lance to his heart. Gridish slowly pets his worg as a grin appears on his face. “Good boy” Gridish says in a soothing voice. He leans for the ogre’s blade and starts severing their heads from their bodies. “Come on boy… Let’s go home..” Gridish says softly as he puts the heads in a cloth bag.


For those that wander around Riverside Post will find two pikes. At the end of each pike is the head of one of the Ogre guards. A note hangs from the pikes as well “In memory of the fallen members of the Horde that have embarked on the journey to the Dreanor we thought we knew.”