Episode 94: Orc Extermination (Part 2)
Late at night.
Two dark sorceresses set their plan into motion.
“Noctis, did you bring what I asked for?” Marina inquired.
The bald woman replied confidently, “Of course! How could I forget something you asked for?”
With a clap of Noctis’s hands, several orcs brought over barrels filled with water. Marina opened a vial of poison and poured it into the barrels. The mixture turned into a thick, viscous liquid.
“Wow… that’s fascinating. What is it?” Noctis asked, her voice brimming with pride.
“It’s a poison called ‘Tears of Sefti,’ made primarily from the Moon Dream Herb. Just a whiff can cause hallucinations, headaches, and nausea,” Marina explained.
“There are stronger poisons, but they’d leave traces. ‘Tears of Sefti’ is different. While they’re lost in hallucinations, the orcs can finish them off,” Marina added.
“You’re brilliant, Marina!” Noctis exclaimed.
Marina poured the poison into more barrels and then used dark magic. The liquid inside solidified into hard spheres. Noctis looked on in awe.
“What kind of dark magic is this? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It’s a spell that contaminates the land, poisoning any creatures on it,” Marina replied.
“Wow… the dark magic of the Venom School never ceases to amaze,” Noctis marveled.
“Tell the orcs to throw these spheres over the fortress walls,” Marina instructed.
“Got it! Hey, you lot, pick one up!” Noctis commanded the orcs. But none of them moved, their eyes filled with fear and disgust as they stared at the spheres.
Instinctively, they knew touching those spheres would spell their doom.
“Noctis, the orcs aren’t listening to you,” Marina pointed out.
“They’re just confused! They’re good boys, really. Just give me a moment,” Noctis said, casting a spell on the orcs. Her dark magic seeped into their ears.
The orcs clutched their heads, howling in pain. Moments later, their eyes glazed over.
“Now, pick up a sphere,” Noctis ordered again.
This time, the orcs obeyed, cradling the spheres in their arms. As soon as the spheres touched their skin, it began to blister and rot. The poison was so potent that even contact with the skin was harmful. Yet, the orcs stood there, oblivious.
“Alright, off you go!” Noctis urged, and the orcs started running toward Walnut Fortress.
They crossed the forest and sprinted across the meadow. The world was silent in the late hour.
“Hey, what’s that? Orcs?” a voice called out.
“Orcs at this hour? What’s going on?” another voice responded.
Before the orcs could cross half the meadow, shouts rang out. Knights on horseback were charging toward them.
“Sir Damian was right! The orcs are attempting a night raid!”
“Those muscle-brained fools are trying to be clever!” the knights shouted, charging at the orcs and cutting them down with ease.
The orcs, their minds clouded by dark magic, didn’t even think to resist.
“What is this? Something strange here,” one knight said, examining the spheres the orcs had carried. The spheres remained round and solid.
“What on earth is that smell?” another knight asked.
“It smells sweet, like honey,” a third knight noted.
As they inspected the spheres, the knights suddenly began to groan in pain.
“Ugh, my head… it hurts so much.”
“My stomach… I feel sick…”
“What’s that? A ghost? It’s staring at me!” one knight cried out in panic.
“Calm down, everyone! Sir Damian gave us something for this!” another knight shouted.
The knights pulled small beads from their pockets and swallowed them. Instantly, their symptoms vanished.
“Phew… that’s better.”
“What are these spheres, anyway?”
“Poison, perhaps? The strange smell and our symptoms… it must be poison.”
“Orcs using such a potent poison?” the knights wondered, looking at the spheres in confusion.
“What should we do with these?” one knight asked.
“Sir Damian said to burn anything suspicious,” another replied.
The knights doused the spheres with oil and set them alight using magical tools. The spheres burned quickly, releasing an even sweeter scent.
“All burned. Let’s head back,” one knight said.
“Let’s report to Sir Damian,” another agreed, and they returned to the fortress.
Noctis and Marina watched the flames in the meadow, stunned.
“Ma-Marina… what do we do? The poison… it’s all burning!” Noctis stammered, turning to Marina.
But Marina was too shocked to respond.
“My… my Tears of Sefti! Do you know how many Moon Dream Herbs went into making that? And they just burned it all…?” Marina was so furious she looked ready to foam at the mouth.
“Marina! Calm down! You can’t collapse here!” Noctis urged, managing to prevent a complete meltdown.
“I swear, I’ll catch those bastards and dissolve them in acid!” Marina’s shout echoed through the forest.
Despite her words, Marina didn’t move immediately.
“The knights weren’t affected by the poison. Not only that, but they burned it as soon as they saw it. It means they’re prepared for poison,” Marina mused.
“So, their patrol wasn’t just a coincidence? They might have been expecting us to use poison,” Noctis suggested.
“I agree. It can’t be a coincidence,” Marina replied.
“Then… could they know about you?” Noctis wondered.
“Impossible. How could they know about me?” Marina dismissed the idea. It was pure speculation.
In the Apple Kingdom, only her sister Leona and Alexander Apple knew of their presence.
How could the knights possibly know about Marina?
“Maybe they had a bad experience with poison before… and were prepared. I just had the misfortune of running into them,” Marina concluded.
“Is that it…?” Noctis pondered.
“The current method won’t work. We need a new approach,” Marina decided.
She dug a pit and gathered the poison in one place. The poison was so potent that the surrounding grass and trees withered instantly.
“Marina, what are you planning now?” Noctis asked.
“I’m going to turn the poison into gas and release it,” Marina explained.
The Venom School studied not just the creation of poisons but their application. Turning poison into gas was highly effective.
“Impressive! But why didn’t you do that from the start?” Noctis asked.
”…It requires a lot of poison, which means it’s expensive!” Marina snapped.
“Sorry for asking,” Noctis apologized immediately.
“Wait a moment. I’m going to use dark magic,” Marina said, casting a spell on the poison. The liquid quickly dried and transformed into a fluffy, cotton-like substance.
“Noctis, tell the orcs to take this to the edge of the forest and burn it,” Marina instructed.
It would be best to get as close to the fortress as possible, but that risked detection by the knights. Burning it at the forest’s edge was the safest option.
“Got it! Hey, you lot, hurry and… where did they all go?” Noctis realized the orcs had retreated far away, unwilling to approach.
“Get over here, now!” Noctis commanded.
As a dark sorceress of the Beast School, Noctis had no trouble controlling the orcs. Her magic compelled them to carry the toxic cotton.
The poison was so potent that it began to melt the orcs’ skin. Some even coughed up blood.
“Come on, move it!” Noctis urged, unfazed. The Beast School was about controlling monsters, not caring for them. To a sorceress of the Beast School, monsters were mere pawns.
The orcs carried the toxic cotton and torches to the forest’s edge.
Noctis followed, a gleeful expression on her face.
“When I give the signal, burn the poison. Got it?” Noctis instructed.
Just then, the fortress gates opened, and knights poured out.
”…What? Why are they coming out now?” Noctis was caught off guard as the knights reached the forest.
She quickly hid behind a tree, avoiding detection.
“Sir Damian was right! The orcs are up to something suspicious!”
“Torches and… cotton? Is that cotton?”
“It doesn’t look like ordinary cotton. The orc holding it is having its skin melt off,” the knights observed.
However, hiding the orcs was impossible. The knights attacked the moment they spotted them, and the orcs were helpless against the onslaught.
“You wretched scoundrels… here to ruin everything again!”
Noctis fumed, his frustration boiling over. He longed to rush out and confront the knights himself.
But his sister Leona had been adamant: under no circumstances should their presence be discovered.
“Let them choke on poison!”
Instead, Noctis ordered the orcs to unleash a cloud of toxic dust on the knights.
The orcs crushed the poison capsules in their hands and flung the dust toward their attackers.
“What the—? What’s happening?”
“The orcs are using poison!”
The knights cried out, their voices mingling with the panicked whinnies of their horses as they collapsed, sending their riders tumbling to the ground.
“Ha! Serves you right!” Noctis laughed, reveling in the chaos. But his triumph was short-lived.
“Ugh, that was close.”
To his shock, the knights were already back on their feet. Noctis was bewildered.
“How… how are they fine? They were covered in poison… weren’t they?”
The poison crafted by Marina, a master of toxicology, was supposed to be devastatingly potent. Especially the kind the orcs had used, designed to be dispersed by fire, was meant to be lethal.
Yet here they were, unharmed. How could this be?
“Good thing we applied the oil Sir Damian gave us.”
“I heard the oil from the turquoise snails was excellent at neutralizing poison. Seems it really works.”
The knights, now recovered, swiftly dispatched the remaining orcs. They gathered the leftover poison capsules and buried them before returning to their stronghold.
Only after the knights had left did Noctis emerge, surveying the wreckage with a weary sigh.
”…Marina’s going to be furious.”
And he was right.
“What? All the orcs are dead, and the poison’s buried? What kind of nonsense is this?”
With their second plan in ruins, Marina was livid, practically spitting with rage.
“Ma-Marina, calm down!”
”@%#$#^%%@.”
It took Noctis a long time to finally soothe her anger.
”…This won’t do. We need a completely new approach.”
Once she had calmed down, Marina spoke to Noctis.
“What do you have in mind?”
“They’ll have to come into the forest to hunt the orcs anyway. We’ll dig traps and wait for them.”
The toxicology school wasn’t about direct confrontation. It was about setting traps and ambushing their foes.
“Now that the poison’s been exposed, we can’t let them leave alive. If the church finds out the orcs used deadly poison, they’ll launch an investigation.”
The church’s eyes and ears were everywhere. Even the slightest trace would prompt immediate action.
“Can I call in all our allies?”
“Of course. Bring everyone. We’ll finish them off.”
Marina’s words filled Noctis with glee.
“Really? You won’t change your mind, right? Hehe, I can’t wait. I’ve been working on something special. You’ll be amazed when you see it…”
Just then, a distant cry pierced the air.
-Quaaack!
-Screeeech!
The sound of orcs screaming reached them, and the two rushed outside in alarm.
“We’ve found the orcs! Kill them all!”
“Leave none alive!”
Damian Haxen and his knights were attacking the orc village.
”…What?”
”…Huh?”
The sudden turn of events left Marina and Noctis utterly speechless.