Unfold

Chapter 6: Ten Years After( Continuation)

It was a night like any others. A moon, half revealed to the eyes that looked at it, covered partially by the dense clouds floating in the dark sky above. Most have returned home, and most have lit up the torches outside their homes. The streets were dark, dimly lit and quiet, empty without the usual crowds that used to gather there after the rising of the Sun. There were the homeless and drunken men lying by the sides as knights cladded in their armours walked past them, chatting along the way when suddenly a light so bright shone out at them from behind. ‘What the- ‘ They turned and their nightmare was there.

It wasn’t the rays of the Sun nor was it a descending angel. It was worse than those. A horde of ogres stomping their ways, with the front line carrying the torches, towards them. The two humans stood in bewilderment, fear channelled throughout their bodies as they immediately ran off. ‘We got to ring the bell!’ said one of them. The other nodded. They weren’t even a few feet away from where they stood moments ago when two arrows flew through their chests. ‘s**t…’ They dropped dead onto the ground. Above the roofs close to the two bodies were three ogres glaring with their fingers around a bow each.

‘These insects are weak.’ One said in a voice muffled by the cloth around its mouth. ‘I could have beaten them down myself.’

‘Brother, even you would run out of arrows sooner or later, wouldn’t you?’ It laughed.

‘Heh. Who needs these sticks to deal with them? I only need my fis- ‘ The ogre paused and staggered a little before falling to its knees then completely on the tiles, and slid down the roof.

‘BROTHE- ‘ Its eyes widened at the stinging pain it felt lingering in its body. And, he too crashed to the ground below, meeting its death. The ogres at the ground who had just reached the scene found the two dead ogres and immediately raised their weapons. Their eyes scanned the surrounding cautiously until one of them noticed a small shoot at its feet. The green plant seemed to be moving slightly despite having no wind. It crouched down and reached its hand out at the shoot…

‘GAAAHHHHHHH!!’ Screams penetrated the dead silence of the night in the backlines. The previous ogre turned and looked over its shoulder. And, its face turned white. A bunch of ogres were sent into the air with a swing of the giant plant’s vines that grew out of nowhere. Unnoticed by him, in an instant, the shoot beneath him shot up in size and slammed into its chin before pushing it away. Half conscious, it pulled its head up to its chest and looked at the growing plant in terror. The shoot was now no longer the small, infant plant it was and continued to grow at an amazing speed until it was over the height of the houses when its tip split and bloomed into a five-petals flower.

‘WHAT FALLACY IS THIS?!’ A voice rose above the others amongst the disorganised creatures. Some desperately threw their axes upon the plant’s stem, some tried to escape but were blocked by another giant plant growing in their ways and some begged for mercy but was, as expected, got swung at by the vines. Another asked, ‘How did they appear?’

And, there, came the sound of clapping closing in from behind the ogres. They turned and looked over their shoulders, noticing the figure enveloped in the shadows casted by the torches. The figure remained incognito and halted in its steps. ‘It appears to me that I, alone, could handle the lots of you. Heh. Best to give this one- sided battle its deserved finale with- ‘ He put out his right hand and with a click of his fingers, countless numbers of vines sprouted out from the ground underneath the ogres. ‘A swift death.’

And, those were the last words the ogres heard. And they were also words the ogres did not expect to hear in this battle.

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A portion of the walls encircling the palace blew up under the watchful glare of the moon. Knights marched out of the massive building that stood at the end of the capital town, fending off and slashing down the invading ogres with their blades and arrows. ‘DIEEEE!’ The club fell down on the knight’s head, crashing the helmet along with his head underneath it. The clash between the knights and the ogres was a fierce one, with no one to spare. It was a battle with blood of both clans spilled on Earth… ‘Just like the past.’ The green creature said, eyes gazing at the palace they were heading towards to take over. ‘Tonight, we win.’

Back at the town entrance, where about a hundred of ogres were massacred in mere minutes, the knight stepped on an ogre’s face, looking over his shoulder at the bright light emitted by the flames over at the palace’s entrance. He stepped harder on it, saying, ‘You beasts have brains, it seems. But, you know what?’ There was a slight pause, as he looked down at the half-dead ogre and put on a smile. ‘I am not the only knight who can fight the wild.’

Above the battlefield, a pair of massive glimmering eyes appeared from behind the clouds. The ground shook violently as the giant made its way towards the opposing force, the ogres. ‘W-what is that?’ One asked.

‘No way in hell can that rumour be true…’ Another said.

And, an ogre said, ‘If it’s true then, we have no chance against the humans at all!’

Turning around the walls, the giant was finally revealed to the small beings near its feet. It bore the looks of a human, from its head down to its toes, but one look was more than enough to see that, that was the only similarity which could link both the humans and the giant together. It breathed out heavily and grumbled loudly before looking down at the terrified ogres. But the eldest ogre there, the one mentioned previously, noticed the immediate difference between the reality they were facing and the tales that were passed down the generations. This, was not a titan.

But, almost instantly too, it pushed away the thought for now as that would not help its clan in winning against the inhumane- sized being. They needed a new plan, it thought. They needed-

To retreat.

Standing, watching from the top of the wall, was another knight with ranking unlike the rest who fought down there. He watched through the gaps in his helmet as lives were lost in the fight. In his head however, he wasn’t thinking of the battle at all. There were pictures in motion, rotated and looked at from every angle. Details of the pictures were analysed and kept in a small recess of his brain. Some were taken out and put to use. Like the one before him now.

‘Retreat or be crushed.’ He mumbled and the giant copied his words in a much rougher voice. Hesitantly, the elder ogre shouted his command, ‘WITHDRAW!’ and the horde of ogres cautiously turned back and stomped off to where they came from. It was amidst that mess when a cloaked being cut through lines of ogres towards the opposite direction: The palace. Some spared time to try catching a look of the mysterious- looking person walking among them but most ignored. Until… the clanking sound of steels hitting the ground turned their heads around. Something happened during that few seconds their eyes weren’t on the knights. Something that could only be explained by the knives the cloaked person was holding in each hand.

And so, the giant roared.