While his father was busy speaking with the other clan heads and warriors, Drak was observing around him, he was checking out the other orc children who would be his competition, plus he was trying to find a promising child who he could try to make his lackey or subordinate.
It didn't take long before the universe answered Drak's call, right as he finished his thought, four orc children, two boys and two girls, walked up to him.
The tallest of the four was a boy who looked to be around the same height as Drak maybe a little taller, which was an achievement in its own right, considering that Drak is taller by an average of 10cm compared to the other children.
As he walked over towards Drak the tall kid had a dumb expression of childish joy plastered on his face.
Walking behind him was another boy who resembled the first one, while the first boy had a relatively bulky appearance, the second boy had a slimmer more compact body, but he wasn't scrawny at all like most orc children, he had developed muscles that form naturally over time.
The girl to his immediate right had a savage air to her, she was only 1 year old and yet still had some scars forming around her arms, and yet, despite her barbaric demeanor, she still looked relatively human like all of the other orcs.
Aside from their humanish looks, the orcs still had pointy ears, bulkier bodies, and who could forget the signature bottom tusks, but these orcs only had tusks that were maybe a couple of inches in length so they didn't look outrageously big.
to the right of the barbarian girl, was another girl who had unnaturally colored hair which was silver-white, along with that unusual feature the girl also had light blue eyes and what seemed to be white tattoos or markings, two lines under each eye and more designs across her arms.
Drak had to do a double take because of the pattern of the tattoos on her arms, he looked at them and then back to his arms and realized that they were similar, he also noticed a few more marks appeared on his arms, and to his surprise, they were runes that help the flow of mana!
The only explanation that could be given was after his "awakening" to his new but old power, these runes formed on his body, but how and why was a mystery.
But the fact still stands that this girl has runic tattoos as he is calling them now, that is similar to his, Drak could only guess that her element is most likely ice due to the silver-white of her hair and tattoos being associated with ice.
But that also begs the question, why doesn't he have purple hair and eyes?
Drak has dark brown, borderline black hair, with eyes the color of golden amber. As far as he knows, dark hair is common among orcs and his eye color is probably a genetic mutation that one of his ancestors had, considering that he didn't get weird looks for the color he had to assume someone in the past had the same eye color as him.
Noticing the group was gaining ground, Drak shoved those thoughts to the back of his head for further use.
"Hi! you're Drak son of Grak the head of the Dire Wolf Clan right?" asked one of the boys enthusiastically
"Uh, yeah that's me, who are you four?" asked Drak, a little taken aback at the directness of the kid
"Sigh, I'm sorry about my brother, he tends to get overly excited when meeting another kid our age whos also a stronger warrior."
"Let me introduce myself and those three over there, my name is Warek, the loud idiot is my twin brother, Larek, we are from a minor sub-clan(like a cadet branch to a noble house in medieval Europe).
"The girl who looks like she can eat you is Recik, next to her is her sister Ansek, they are the daughters of the head of the Stone Spear Clan, a major Clan who was the 4th ruler of the tribe but got deposed," said Warek, the semi nerdy orc child
"Hello you four, as you know, I am Drak son of Grak, head of the Dire Wolf Clan, so, how can I help you?" asked Drak
"We were wondering if you wanted to be our friend, but don't worry ill prove my strength first!" said Larek while flexing his child muscles
'Muscle head.' thought Drak
'hmm, is this a sign from the gods? Might as well take advantage of it and raise these four to be followers of mine, at least they seem to have potential, especially that savage girl over there.'
...
"Everyone, I'm sure you already know of his strength after his display against my brother's son, this is Drak, my firstborn!"
It would seem that Grak and his warrior buddies had finished talking.
"Hello, I am Drak," said Drak
"Haha, that fight although between two younglings, was quite amazing Drak!"
"The way you beat that brat into submission was perfect!" boomed an elderly orc who had a sturdy-looking stone spear in hand, something you don't see very much, which means this man is most likely a powerful warrior
"Grandpa!" said Ansek joyfully
"Oh! Granddaughters, I didn't see you there, what are you two doing here?" said the old orc as he hugged both Ansek and Recik
"Grandpa, I thought you said their dad was the head of the Clan, wouldn't he be the clan head instead of his son?" asked a confused Drak
"Son, let me introduce to you the previous clan head of the Stone Spear Clan, Yongrik, he abdicated from the seat of clan head just a few years ago due to getting up there in years, he is already 45 after all," said Grak with respect in his voice
The reason that Yongrik was considered old at 45 among the orcs, was due to how most orcs don't live passed the age of 30 much less 40.
The ironic thing is, that the mortality rate of orcs is sky high, while in comparison, their true life span can last a little over two centuries, but due to constant fighting and wars, the populace of orcs drops like flies.
But that's mostly for the tribes like Drak's who mostly have regular orcs, with a decent amount of orc fighters (second tier/first evolution of orcs) sprinkled in there, and with an even smaller number going past the 3rd tier and the rare occasion of an orc reaching the 4th tier or third evolution like Yongrik has.
The main reason why Drak's clan is so weak is due to the raids by the empire to the west, that's right, turns out that the human nation that constantly raids the tribes in and around the valley is actually a powerful empire, and to make matters worse, they are a holy empire, led by their emperor who is also the head of their faith, the Solimar Empire named after their god Solimar, the God of Light, go figure.
Thankfully, the whole continent that they reside on isn't hostile towards orcs, due to the semi-civility of the orcs of this world, they are seen as second class, and in the best cases, outsiders in the kingdoms east of the valley.
As for the north, it was split between total disdain and light contempt.
The majority of people in the north are dwarves and a few human nations, all of the northern nations are a mix of humans and dwarves but there is a dwarven majority.
While the dwarves do not totally hate orcs, it really depends from kingdom to kingdom on their policy towards orcs.
Some just don't care about orcs' status as semi-sentient and still classify them as monsters like in the age of chaos.
Drak doesn't know much about the Age of Chaos, but from the bits he's overheard, it seems that back then, orcs were the definition of tribal, cruel, brutes.
It has only been a little over a millennium since orcs gained sentience that was comparable to humans.
For the thousands of years before, orcs were nothing more than big green monsters who r*ped, pillaged, murdered, and ravaged the nations of the humans and dwarves, as well as the elves who have since moved to another continent on mass, with only a few secluded communities staying behind.
Back to the topic of tribe strength, from what he's heard, most orcs and even some goblin and ogre tribes down south are powerful enough to compare to a sizable human kingdom, hence the title, Monster Kings.
These individuals lead exceptionally powerful tribes turned kingdoms that have an average of 2nd evolution/ 3rd tier soldiers.
While he doesn't know about the goblin and ogre kingdoms, Drak has heard that this continent used to be inhabited by only monsters, until 10,000 or so years ago, when the main three races migrated here, namely the humans, elves, and dwarves, while the beastmen stayed on their continent.
Apparently back then in the Monster Golden age, the continent had three overlords, the High Orcs, a now extinct superior species from the devolved orcs that exist now, and the High Goblins who have since disappeared from the continent but remain alive in small numbers around the world, their descendant being the goblins and hobgoblins, and lastly, the giants, who devolved the worst out of the trio, with their descendant being the ogres, cyclops, and yetis.
"hey."
"Hey."
"HEY!" yelled Grak
"huh, sorry I was out of it again wasn't I?" said Drak while rubbing the back of his head
"Yes, you were, now, as I was saying, Larek here challenged you to a wooden weapons fight, do you want to accept?" asked Grak
"Hmm, sure why not, but don't blame me if I embarrass you." said Drak nonchalantly
"Ha! I can't wait, bring it on shaman warrior!" said Larek excitedly
Drak looked towards his father for an explanation of what a shaman warrior was.
"Haha, a shaman warrior is a rare warrior who can harness magic arts and is still powerful without them, when a shaman warrior incorporates magic arts with their fight style, they become almost invincible among the orcs, and even among some shamans.
"Oh, I see, that's a pretty cool title I guess, when was the last time our tribe had a shaman warrior?" asked Drak
"Hmm, that would be all the way back around 200 years ago," said Grak with an uncertain tone
...
The stage had been set, Drak and Larek were both in the ring made by spectators, they both held a wooden weapon in their hands.
Larek held two wooden short axes in his hands, the length of which was 76cm long.
Drak held a wooden short sword which was a total of 44cm long, 36cm being the blade, and 8 the handle.
both of them got into a fighting position as the referee, a random instructor, roared for the start of the battle.
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