You could not defeat the Brotherhood. They were pure of mind and body. They trained from childhood—the sooner the better; who wouldn’t want their children chosen by the purest of warriors? The parents had seen quite a lot of travelling entertainers break quite a lot of boards. Many of them realized that this was not exactly the point, but it was more useful than not being able to shatter bricks with your heel, right?
They meditated less than many. If you simply spar a great deal, you may get injured, but you will often learn to ‘act without thinking’, in appropriate ways in battle. Combat was their meditation.
They never kicked the air when they might strike a target. They could tell where an opponent was with their eyes closed. Their minds had the total calm of experienced martial artists who had gone past pain, past fear, past negativity.
They were the only Human warriors still standing.
This was because many, many Orcs wanted to fight with them.
Okay, not true. Many Orcs were ALREADY fighting with them. Their daily sparring matches grew more and more collaborative and more like classes, and there began to be a few more apologies for the occasional actual injury.
Of COURSE they were waiting for orders to destroy each other.
Eventually.
In the meantime, the Very Clever Sophists had come with siege engines. Great vast wheeled devices capable of destroying any walls.
Well, many walls.
Certainly any PRACTICAL walls.
Maybe not thirty feet of obsidian, but what maniac would do THAT?
There was an entire—if you’ll excuse the expression—army of Gnomes deconstructing the siege engines and (sorry!) the stupid humans using them.
An entire troupe of White Priests of the Gods of Ligh were groaning slowly, as if their souls resisted being turned into undead puppets in the hands of the Dark Lord.
Or if they were used to sleeping late and didn’t want to get out of bed, to be honest.
The Forces of Light were very powerful.
And very stupid.
And very dead.
~Jeff Mach
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