Page 19 of Agor

Clawing at the grass, fallen branches, and tree roots, I pulled myself out of the mud.

Irg’s screams of horror died, followed by the snapping of bones under the monster’s teeth. The terrifying sounds sent me to my feet. I dashed behind the closest tree, collided with something big and dark, and crashed to the ground.

The orc who’d abandoned his buddy Irg to the bog hydra slammed on top of me and grabbed my hair.

“Not so fast, human. A bog hydra has lots of heads, and it likes to feed them all. I’d rather it eats you than me.”

Mud sloshed behind us. The bog smacked and splattered, releasing something thick and heavy—the creature came out after us.

“Let me go!” I screamed, blinded by panic. I’d dropped my knife somewhere, probably in the bog, and now had only my fists to defend myself. But the orc pressed on top of me so heavily, I couldn’t even kick. I tried to punch him, but he grabbed my wrist with his other hand.

“I’ll toss you to—” The last word stuck in his throat, muffled by a sudden groan of pain.

Animal growls sounded behind him. The orc's head jerked sideways, its side smashed in. Blood and gore exploded from his crushed skull. I turned my face away, but the warm blood splashed on my cheek, my hair, and my shoulder.

His body slacked on top of me. Shoving against him with all my might, I climbed backwards from under him.

The familiar river hound had her teeth sunk in the dead orc’s thigh. Her owner stood over her with a bloodied mace in his hands, the golden designs glimmering in his right tusk.

“Agor?”

“Get up!” He grabbed my arm and yanked me up to my feet. “Ata, let go of him.”

The dog unclenched her teeth, leaving a deep, ragged wound in the dead orc’s flesh.

I didn’t know whether to feel glad or concerned about the orc chief’s sudden appearance.

“You promised not to come after me,” I said.

“No. I promised not to send my men after you. And I didn’t. I came on my own, with only Ata to help me track you. It looks like we got here just in time.”

The pale, diamond shaped head of the hydra appeared from behind the tree. Supported on a long, thick neck, it stretched toward the dead body on the ground.

“Wait.” I creeped closer and grabbed the knife from the sheath strapped to the dead orc’s bicep. The heavy leather-wrapped handle of the weapon in my hand gave me an instant boost of reassurance.

“Stay back,” Agor warned me.

The hydra’s nightmarish mouth opened like a funnel full of teeth. Ata growled, backing away from the monster. I raised the heavy knife with both hands, but Agor grabbed my arm.

“Don’t aim for the head!” he shouted, dragging me away.

Another head showed up, rising on its long neck like a thick white snake. I leaped aside, but two more identical creatures blocked my way from behind.

“There's a whole nest of them here!” I moved my knife side to side, choosing a target.

I didn’t understand why Agor had stopped me earlier. Head or neck, what did it matter? It would’ve been one monster less to worry about had I decapitated one already.

Agor raised his mace.

“Not a nest,” he corrected me. “Just one hydra. Nine heads, one body.”

I cringed. “Truly a monster, then.”

The first head dragged Irg’s dead body from the swamp. Most of it was in its mouth already that stretched over his bulk like a pig stomach over stuffing. Another head got busy devouring the second orc’s corpse. Seven more heads swayed on their long necks around us, closing in.

Actions and commands flew through my brain, forming a battle plan.

Cut low, under the jaw.

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