"Of course, do you want to fight before or after the message?" Chronos said.
"HA, you're awfully gutsy thinking you'll still be in a condition to deliver the message after the fight. Let's hear it first, then we can fight." Chief Kalharn said.
As they walked through the camp Chronos took note that most of them lived in tents or huts and many of them had flags from different tribes flying above them.
Since this was where the big boss of the plains lived it seemed that most tribes kept a small group of their people here to run messages back and forth.
The ones closest to the walls however all bore the same flag of a mace crushing a skull beneath it.
They were the Bonecrusher tribe that guarded this battle site preventing the undead from swarming out of it.
"The tears from history are back but now they create black beasts from anything that wanders inside without the protection of a god. Earl Malric thinks that undead type black beasts would appear if a tear formed inside one of the haunted locations, but it looks like you've got everything under control here." Chronos reported as they walked.
Chief Kalharn rubbed his chin. "So that's what my boys saw. The Earl's right, a couple weeks ago a site protected by the Speargut tribe started spitting out black skeletons. We thought it was just a new type of skeleton and sent some of my tribe to fight them, but a scout returned saying that more and more of them kept popping up without end.
Now we orcs are all up for a good fight but fighting the same enemy over and over again is boring. You beat it once then you beat it the same way again, there's no variety." he complained.
Chronos nodded. Fighting the same enemy again wasn't bad as it helped refine your fighting style but there was a limit to how often you could fight the same enemy and not be bored.
"The good news is that we know how to stop it, but you need the help of a priest or a priestess. Once they cast a long-lasting blessing on your men, they can enter the tear, locate its core and purify it. When the core is purified everything goes back to normal and the black skeletons will stop coming out. But it usually takes two or three days to locate and purify the core."
Chief Kalharn nodded, "Is that how it's done nowadays? The storytellers still warn us about the dangers of the tear and how nothing comes out of them. I didn't expect we'd need to go inside to stop it, now we just need to find where the tear is."
"If it's the site of an old fort it might be underground. Those tears can show up anywhere there's an opening." Chronos said as a combat ring came into view.
"I'll have the Speargut tribe start looking for it but first it's time for that fight you promised me. And you even brought a priestess to put you back together afterwards. So thoughtful," he said with a big smile.
"I just hope your own priests are half as good as she is or she'll need to help out when they're patching you up later," Chronos chuckled.
Entering the ring Chronos took his position across from him while an elderly orc acted as a referee off to the side.
Lyla and Sariah were already placing bets on who would win at a betting pool a bartender had set up in front of a large communal tent.
While Gregory having given up on stopping Chronos picked up a hamburger and took his seat to the side of the ring. Orcs really knew how to make the best fast food since they were always on the move.
Taking out Echoforge Chronos prepared to fight Chief Kalharn who was wielding his own war hammer.
"Ready?" The elderly orc asked.
They both nodded.
"Begin"
Both of them rushed at each other slamming their hammers together and causing a resounding DONG! Which knocked Chronos back but only caused the Chief to spin his hammer dispersing the extra power.
"This is going to be good. I can learn so much from him." Crossed Chronos's mind when he saw what Chief Kalharn had done.
Chronos had trained with many weapons, but he had never specialized in hammers and had only started training with them a year before he ran away from home. This made his use of the hammer fairly simple.
Even though Uncle Braur had trained him every day Chronos had still spent far more time mastering swords and spears with his parents. This made him regard Echoforge as a secondary weapon instead of one of his main weapons.
But whenever he saw the Initiate next to his weapons master job it annoyed him. That was why he had decided to master more of his weapons, and he had the faint inkling that something important would happen when he reached five weapons at the master rank.
He was currently at three.
Chronos deflected another blow and was forced to step back again. The Chief was much stronger than he was and he couldn't disperse the force of Chief Kalharn's hammer blows properly.
He didn't know how Chief Kalharn was doing it yet but somehow, he was increasing the force of his blows despite using the same amount of aura that Chronos was.
As the fight went on, he watched what Chief Kalharn was doing more carefully and, after ten minutes, finally had an insight into what was going on. But to test it he would need to take a direct blow.
"Gregory's definitely going to scold me afterthis," he thought.
Lowering Echoforge he took the blow on his upper arm twisting to the side to disperse the force of the blow when a second blow hit him before he could disperse the first.
Chief Kalharn hadn't swung his hammer again, that was still firmly pressed against Chronos's upper arm, the second blow had come from inside the hammer itself!
Chronos was sent flying as the audience cheered for Chief Kalharn but he landed safely and shook his arm to remove the numbness. A look of realization on his face.
Rather than try to get a follow up strike Chief Kalharn lowered his hammer some.
"Looks like you've discovered something. Want to share?"
He held his arms out exposing his chest for Chronos to strike.
Chronos smiled, "I'm not sure if I can do it right but I accept your offer."
With that he wrapped his hammer in aura, charged, and struck Chief Kalharn in the chest.