The brutal sounds of fists crashing unto faces and bodies reverberated time and time as the brawl between the slaves proceeded.
A dozen of bodies lay flat and unconscious on the floor, their bodies thrashed, others bruised and mangled.
Mothom stood in the middle of the unconscious bodies, his breathing ragged but filled with pure determination and unwavering stamina, his physique more pronounced but also suffered a lot of pummel wounds. Even after a while of fighting a horde of slaves that opposed his views he remained standing, seemingly unfazed by the whole ordeal.
"Is that all? Come on now, you need to do better than that if you ever want to have a slim chance of taking over my spot in our group."
The challengers remained silent, catching their breaths and wiping away their own sweat and blood.
Then a figure that is unnaturally bigger amongst the crowd loomed over the figures of the challengers.
"It's a pain in the eyes to see all of you fail to take down a little one. Allow me to settle this fight with my fists." a unusually smaller orc said, as he clashed both his fist together.
Mothom who's attention was focused on a mob turned his eyes towards the giant that towered over everyone else. Hearing what the orc said Mothom simply grinned.
"Aha is that so, you're an orc, so you better not get yourself on the losing side of this fight, otherwise you'll become an even bigger disgrace to your race that does nothing but fight and slaughter, if you ever lost to a dwarf that got all their strength from simply mining and forging weapons. Give me all you got, because as you can see, I will never make it a cakewalk, cross me and I'll pulverize your pride and bones just the same to these guys." Mothom spoke with no doubts towards his own words and without even showing a hint of worry in his tone, he is completely confident yet not complacent.
The orc with an irked look in his face, set aside the slaves that were on his way and stood tall against Mothom.
"You overestimate yourself Mothom, you are strong, but nowhere near as strong as I am." the orc uttered.
"Is that so? Why don't you take a swing first then." Mothom provoked
The two stared each other down, and the slaves watched in dark anticipation.
Then all hell broke loose.
The orc took a swing first, engaging in an extremely close melee.
Mothom quickly anticipated the strike and dodged to his side while deflecting the forceful punch of the giant, effectively giving him some space to deliver a fatal counter-blow, an opportunity that he knows will cease to exist in a momentary second.
Throwing a direct counter that's directed to the orc's solar plexus, Mothom moved in a fluidly swift motion.
"Mmm not so fast." the orc uttered as he tilted his torso to the right and caught Mothom's hand, gripping his hand and swinging him around like a ragdoll.
Mothom unable to do anything, steeled his entire body and put his other hand up to guard, as he was helplessly being swung around he is simultaneously looking for the right opportunity to both break out of the orc's hold and to be able to deliver a retaliation.
Pummeled, Mothom patiently waited, and waited, and waited.
Alright that should be right.
As Mothom got swung again, he tensed his entire body and poured all of his strength into his gripped arm as he hit the surface of the ground, pulling all of the orc's weight with just the use of this one hand; his other hand was used as a leverage between him and the surface, and his feet which were practically glued to the ground got pushed deeper into the surface as he continued his tug of war with the orc.
"What the fuck?!" the orc exclaimed loudly as he struggled to pull his own weight back, wondering how strong the old dwarf has to be to be able to execute such a maneuver.
"Surprised? It's not over yet, watch this." Mothom spoke in a playful manner, preparing to act his next move.
In a matter of seconds, the orc's face has been brought next to Mothom's face. Mothom then took the opportunity to place himself behind the orc and put him in an escapable neck clench, freeing his gripped hand in the process of doing so as he left the orc with no other choice but to abandon it and pour its focus into battling the chokehold.
Barely breathing the orc struggled, contemplating on what to do.
Mothom on the otherhand grinned with a bloodied smile smeared all over his face.
"What are you gonna do now orc? Tell me, what are you gonna do now?!"
The orc, whose body is shaking from the intense chokehold, mustered all of its strength into just grasping Mothom's adamantine arms, barely breathing in a ragged fashion.
After caressing Mothom's arms weakly, the orc spasmed and then jumped with his back facing the ground, which of course also included Mothom himself.
Oh fuck
Mothom still having his firm grasp on the orc's neck had no choice but to harden his entire body to brace for impact.
And then, a loud crash resonated in the vicinity and smokes of dust particles filled the air, concealing the aftermath of the fight between the orc and Mothom.
Grumbles of words and questions replaced the utter silence.
"Who do you think won that?" a slave asked
"Are you a moron of course it's Mothom, that guy is unstoppable." another slave answered
"Nah this time though I doubt it, sure he had that orc in a chokehold but the last action of that orc was disastrous even for someone as hardened as Mothom." a skeptical slave shared.
"Yeah, but still, it's always a bad thing to doubt Mothom, he have been bringing us together for years now." a slave replied
"True, I think it's best if he turned out to be okay after that, I don't want him to die after everything he's done for this group"
The noises settled as the dust particles dissipated.
There he was, still holding the chokehold that he executed firmly without any hint of letting go, his body beaten and dirtied by the earth, Mothom took a slow and deep breath before letting go of the now unconscious orc.
He stood tall, well sort of, despite the brutal wounds that he have suffered, the slaves watched in both awe, and displeasure seeing that the man still didn't go down even after that precarious brawl.
He stood, being the strongest in the group of slaves, and now they have finally recalled why no one dared to question his authority before.
Mothom then took a glance towards the slaves, and then towards the children.
"Well what are you guys waiting for? Eat up-" before he could finish his words, he was cut off by a very powerful tremor that didn't only shake the cave, but the entire nation of Auroealis as well.
"What the fuck's happening?" a slave frantically asked.
Mothom stayed composed amid the quaking of the earth.
"All of you, get down, those who have strong physiques be the cover for the children, protect them at all costs from the falling debris. Children stay under the stronger slaves, do not move even a single muscle until I say so-" as he said that the quaking simply stopped.
Surprised he tried to feel the earth, only to be met with a cold feeling in his spine that made his entire existence shudder at just the feeling, he then slowly felt an unfamiliar dread holding his heart in a painful grasp in a matter of seconds.
Mothom understood, that there was an otherworldly presence that have re-entered the mortal plain, an existence so immensely powerful he couldn't quite grasp the entirety of its power, and it was on its way to where they all currently stood, he knew at that very moment that there was no escape, and only their demise awaited them.
"We are all dead." Mothom spoke in a somber tone.
Then in an instance, every single one of the slaves understood what Mothom was saying, as an unfamiliar silhouette revealed itself in the dark reaches of the cave, marching towards them in an uncanny pace.
From the distance they could vaguely hear what the being was saying, but as he drew nearer, what he said became clearer, his approaching presence filled every slave with pure petrification, so much so that anyone was reluctant to move even a fiber of their muscles.
"There you guys are, I've been looking everywhere for all of you." the being uttered with a gentle demeanor.
Mothom stood still, seemingly unshaken, in the inside doubtful and hopeless, he does not know what to do at all, and so he simply mustered all the courage in his being, and shakenly let out a shout, hoping even in such a despairing moment for his peers to be able to escape.
"ALL OF YOU RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"