Sam stared at Mery, who was kneeling on the ground trembling.
Her hands shook against the dirt, and she would not lift her head to meet anyone's eyes.
"Mery, please do not tell me that you..." Sam's voice cracked as he spoke. "Did you do this? Did you lead us here on purpose?"
Mery looked down at the ground and said nothing. She was utterly defeated. She could not speak, could not move, could not even lift her head. She had failed Edsel, and she knew what the punishment for failure would be.
"Mery! How could you betray us like this?" one of the younger men shouted.
Sam stepped closer to her, his face twisted between confusion and rage.
"Speak! Did you side with that bastard over there? Did you sell us out to him?" He pointed at Les, who was standing calmly among the orcs. "And who are you? What do you want from us?"
Les walked forward slowly with his hands behind his back.
"My, my, my. What should I say to that? Well, I am just some..."
He touched his forehead with his fingers and pressed down. His skin split open like a lid, revealing the wet, pulsing half of his brain beneath. He used one hand to lift the flap of skin while greeting Sam with the other.
"I am the nameless demon….Oops."
He snapped the flap of skin back into place and laughed.
"How embarrassing. The other half of me is somewhere else with my lord right now. I am not quite myself at the moment."
Sam's face went pale.
"What do you want from me? From us? Why are you doing this?"
The old man who had been walking at the front grabbed Mery by the hair and yanked her head back.
"You heard her say Mery, right? This girl must have done something stupid." He shoved her forward towards Les. "Take her. She is your problem now."
The old man turned back to the others and raised his voice. "The rest of you, with me. We are leaving right now."
Les tilted his head and smiled.
"Thank you for the offer, old man. But I do not only need her. I need everyone here. Alive."
Sam froze. The old man stopped walking. The other men looked at each other with wide eyes.
The old man grabbed his shovel and pointed it at the nearest orc.
"I will protect everyone! The rest of you, find a way to escape! Our wives and children need us back at the village!"
He swung the shovel with all his strength and brought it down on an orc's head.
The metal blade hit the creature's skull and bounced back with a dull clang.
The orc did not even flinch. It reached out with one massive hand, grabbed the old man by the chest, and punched him backwards.
The old man flew through the air and crashed into a tree with a sickening crack.
"Well, I suppose they are not going to listen to reason," Les said while shaking his head. "I will have to disappoint my lord on this one. Kill all the men. Leave no one alive."
The orcs charged.
One man tried to run, but an orc caught him by the leg and swung him into a tree.
"Aaah please I beg you!"
His spine snapped on impact, and his body crumpled to the ground. The orc picked him up again and tore his arm off with a wet rip.
Blood sprayed across the forest floor.
Another man swung a farming hoe at an orc's face.
The blade sunk into the creature's cheek, but the orc did not stop. It grabbed the man by the head and crushed his skull like an egg.
Bone and brain matter dripped through its fingers while the man's body twitched.
Sam grabbed a fallen branch and charged at the largest orc.
He drove the sharp end into its stomach, but the wood splintered against its thick hide.
The orc backhanded him across the face, sending him spinning to the ground. Before he could get up, the orc stomped on his leg. The bone snapped with a sound like breaking firewood, and Sam screamed.
"Please! I have children! I have a wife!" Sam begged while crawling backwards.
The orc grabbed him by the ankle and lifted him upside down.
It opened its mouth and bit into his stomach. Sam screamed until his throat gave out, and then he screamed silently while his insides were pulled out of him.
A young man with a torch tried to set an orc on fire.
He threw the flame at its face, and the creature roared in pain.
For a moment, the man smiled. "Hahahah…serve you right…"
Then three orcs descended on him from all sides. They pulled his arms from their sockets and tore his legs off at the knees.
"AAAAAH ITS HURTS…ITS HURTS !"
His screaming stopped when one of them bit through his neck.
Another man dropped to his knees and begged.
"Please, I will do anything. Anything you want. Just let me live!"
An orc grabbed his head and twisted it slowly. The man's neck made grinding sounds as it turned, and his eyes bulged with terror.
The orc kept twisting until the head came off with a final crack.
The crying and screaming filled the forest. Men who had been farmers and hunters moments ago were now scattered across the ground in pieces.
Arms lay separated from bodies. Heads rolled between the roots of trees.
The orcs ate while the men were still alive, pulling flesh from bones before the hearts stopped beating.
Within minutes, the forest fell silent.
Les walked through the carnage with his hands behind his back, stepping over the remains of the villagers.
He stopped in front of Mery, who was still kneeling on the ground with her eyes closed.
"Get up," he said.