Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

more civilized than the mountain ogres. He could feel layers of history in this place now. His own empire had crumbled eons before, far enough back in the past for the great stone monuments to collapse into dust.

These ruins had then been inhabited by a seemingly simple but hard-working people, with modest but comfortable homes and possessions. Now, they in turn had been slaughtered, possibly by the mountain ogres or by any number of other barbaric tribes—or even monsters.

There was no sign of weapons in the hut. Perhaps these people hadn’t even been able to defend themselves. Ben’s blood boiled at the thought, the idea of them being helplessly slaughtered making him even more determined to exact some brutal justice.

Slowly and carefully, Ben moved over to the window, Melody following close behind. He laid the scimitar on the ground in front of him within easy reach. They crouched under the windowsill and raised themselves up just enough to see over the sill into the clearing beyond.

Eight hulking mountain ogres sat on stones like the ones from the ruins, around the fire, their forms made even larger by the light of the flickering flames against the darkness behind them. Ben felt like Bilbo Baggins, observing the giant figures of the mountain ogres around their campfire—except he wouldn’t be doing any burgling tonight.

Each one of the ogres would have passed for a giant back on Earth. Although they were sitting down, they all had to be at least seven feet tall. Every one of them had a lot of meat on his bones, and it was mostly muscle.

They were very hairy, for humanoids at least, with a thick covering over every visible patch of skin, including most of their faces. Several of them had dyed patterns in the hair of their faces and arms, mostly garish looking skulls and monster faces.

One of the figures was much larger than the others. His shoulders were broader, his arms thicker, his forehead larger and more pronounced, making his whole visage more imposing. He sat on a larger stone than the others, directly opposite the hut where Melody and Ben were hiding.

The others sat a slight distance apart from the larger mountain ogre. From the way they looked at him as they spoke, seemingly for approval, it was clear that his status was higher than theirs. Most of the time, they only received grunts in reply from him.

The lead barbarian—the alpha—wore a necklace of sharp teeth, teeth that seemed longer than was possible for a wolf or a bear. What sort of monster might he have killed to acquire those?

A spear rested on the ground beside the stone the alpha was sitting upon, though it resembled more a young tree trunk—which it possibly was. It was nearly half a foot in diameter, with a stone the size of a regular man’s head bound to the end of it, scraped into a sharpened point. The chipped stone surface glowed a ruddy red in the firelight. From the wear on the stone, the spear had likely seen plenty of use.

The other mountain ogres wore no jewelry. Aside from a couple who carried scimitars, they had no weapons. Ben figured there mustn’t have been enough weapons to go around for everyone—a small bit of good news among lots of bad.

As they conversed, Ben observed that two of the comparatively skinnier mountain ogres were speaking more often than the others, and with higher pitched tones. Without understanding them, it was hard to be sure, but Ben got the distinct impression that they were irritated about something. Their heavy-set faces glared in the direction of the big man in the middle periodically. One or the other would snap out a sharp exclamation, only to cringe defensively as the alpha would thunder back a single syllable response.

That seemed like a situation ripe for exploitation. A smile came to Ben’s lips as he wondered if he could take advantage of it.

Something else Ben had noticed as he looked around the clearing was that the nymphs were no longer to be seen. He cast a glance at the bones on the table and wondered if they had once belonged to the nymphs.

“The bones are too old,” Melody whispered, and she must have caught his gaze and read his mind. “And look—the meat on them is rotting. They cannot belong to the nymphs.”

Ben nodded in agreement. Melody was right. That had been his first suspicion, but she confirmed it. Whoever those bones had belonged to had been killed days before, if not longer, and it had only been a few hours ago that he had seen the three nymphs alive.

They must have been moved into one of the huts. Rage filled Ben at the idea of them being fondled by some drunken mountain ogre. He didn’t have much time to lose.

The next course of action for him was simple—create enough of a ruckus in the clearing that any ogres hiding in the huts were forced to emerge. After that, hope that he could cause enough confusion for them to turn on each other through his use of Drain.

Ben turned to face Melody, crouched beside him, her face faintly illuminated by the glow coming through the window.

“Ready?” he whispered.

She nodded, clutching her wand in her right hand.

He didn’t want Melody to attack with lightning straight away, that would be impossible to miss. If he was careful while using his Drain spell, the ogres wouldn’t notice them until it was too late.

But he trusted that Melody wouldn’t do anything rash either.

“Wait for my signal.”

She nodded in response.

He dropped into a comfortable position on one knee, his head high enough to see out the window, his hands raised above the sill. Then he focused on the magic inside him and directed it toward his hands.

This time, he didn’t pick a single target. He allowed his magic to disperse, revealing the strands of each mountain ogre in the circle. The green of physical strength predominated. Emotional energy was only