2.16 Men's Rights: Sacrifices

Thokk checked if Master Stonebottom was still breathing. "Wake up, Master Stonebottom!" he yelled and started pushing the dwarf's chest. "Thomas fighting alone. We should help him. Wake up! Wake up!" When the compressions did not work, he began pummeling the dwarf's sternum with his large hands.

This did the trick.

After the third powerful strike, Master Stonebottom coughed violently and spit out some water. It took him a few more seconds to open his eyes. He seemed a bit lost at first, but realization gradually dawned on him as he took in his surroundings. He gave Thokk a sheepish smile and slowly sat up, while pushing the orc's hands away from his chest.

"You alright Master Stonebottom. You safe! You safe!" Thokk shouted with joy.

"Yes... yes... cough... I... cough... I am alright, lad. Just stop beating me up. Where's that damn water thing?"

"It over there." Thokk pointed at the creature which was nervously trying to gather up any remaining liquid from around the burning table.

Master Stonebottom gave it a disgusted glare and looked up at the orc. "You did good...cough... good," he said. "Now go back and keep the kids safe."

"What about you?"

"Don't mind me. I am alright... cough... I have a very important meeting with a very crazy mage." Master Stonebottom stood up with some effort and a little help from Thokk, and then he ran towards his war clubs.

Thomas and Valdek were still battling the sewer mage without much success. He was very slippery and far too dangerous for Thomas to go on a full offensive, and Valdek was getting tired of constantly casting the shield spell. Unlike our unlikely heroes, the mage showed no signs of slowing down, despite casting spells of a far greater complexity than the dark elf. But, undaunted by the odds against them, Thomas had once again managed to close in on his enemy under Valdek's now increasingly feeble protection and was about to land a powerful strike when the mage teleported again to the center of the room.

If the inhabitant of the sewers was hoping for any respite, he was sorely mistaken, for a war club hurled from the dwarf's hand struck him right in the chest. The mage was pushed back quite some distance before the blow knocked him to the ground.

"Crazy bugger. Stay down!" Master Stonebottom snarled. "Or you'll have more of where that came from."

The sewer mage clutched his chest and let out a howl of pain. "I'LL KILL YOU. I'LL KILL YOU ALL," he screamed and pointed his staff at two other large containers. One was filled with clear liquid like the previous one, and the other larger container was full of some green fluid.

Master Stonebottom and Thomas immediately saw what was happening. The dwarf threw his remaining war club at the mage, but it missed its mark and crashed into a chair. Thomas ran at the knocked-down sewer dweller to stop him from bringing out more of his experiments. But it was too late. The glass containers cracked, and the fluids spilled out. The larger green one tried to immediately gobble up the smaller clear liquid, but it faced some resistance from its victim. The other liquid monster, the one that Thokk had fought, seemed to sense its brethren in the room and crawled towards them.

"I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU ALL," the unhinged mage shouted. "You are all going to fail my course. F's FOR EVERYONE. You won't get my research. Wasted, wasted. YEARS OF EXPERIMENTS SPOILED AND WASTED. Where will I get the funding?"

Thomas was about to reach him again and land a hit when they all heard a small voice from the direction of the tunnel that Thokk was supposed to be guarding.

"Dad, what's going on?"

Esmeralda was standing at the tunnel entrance. "We heard a lot of loud noises," she said. "Are you guys alright? Wait, who is that?"

The crazy mage pointed his staff at the child.

"ESMERALDA, RUN," Thomas screamed and ran to his daughter.

"Another thief!" the mage yelled and shot a large spike of ice at the little girl.

The Men's Rights Group watched in horror as the ice dagger flew towards Esmeralda, who was frozen in shock and stood rooted in place.

Just as the ice crystal was about to strike the child, Thokk jumped in its path and went down with a scream.

"Uncle Thokk!" Esmeralda cried out.

Thomas forgot all about the sewer mage and ran to his daughter and Thokk.

Master Stonebottom was aghast, but he had enough presence of mind to not indulge in his grief while the mage remained at large. "Valdek, we... we need to keep the mage occupied," he told his protégé.

There was no response from the dark elf.

"Valdek?" When Master Stonebottom turned to Valdek, he found the junior banker crying and staring dumbfoundedly at the orc's body.

"VALDEK! Snap out of it!" the dwarf yelled. "You need to get it together. The mage is still alive. If we don't do something, he'll kill us all."

Valdek blankly looked at his boss, his face showing no comprehension.

"Shield, Valdek! Cover me with the shield."

The crying dark elf silently nodded.

While all this was going on, the sewer mage had managed to get back on his feet, leaning on his staff. But when he tried to lift it up to cast another spell, the dwarf was upon him. Master Stonebottom punched the mage in the stomach and kicked his weapon away. The sewer lord cried out in pain and scrambled for his stick, but the dwarf denied him that opportunity.

Master Stonebottom picked up the war club that had previously injured the mage and tried to end the fight with a blow to the enemy's nether regions.

Thankfully for the sewer dweller, and any children he definitely was not going to have, he once again teleported away and saved himself from a brutal and ignoble death.

The dwarf grabbed the staff and ran screaming at the mage with his war club held high in the other hand.

The mage tried his ice dagger spell, but the mass of daggers was nearly half of what it used to be.

Master Stonebottom was easily able to dodge the ones that bypassed Valdek's weak barrier.

The sewer mage teleported away again when the dwarf reached him, but his teleporting distance also seemed to have been reduced.

Master Stonebottom and Valdek repeated their strategy and kept the mage occupied. This time around, the game of cat and mouse proved much easier, as without the staff, even the fireballs seemed smaller and much slower.

While the Academy abandoner was thus occupied, Thomas reached the orc's body. It was lying face down, and Esmeralda was kneeling and crying before it.

Thomas gently stroked his daughter's head. "Esmeralda, Esmeralda, honey, go to the other chamber," he said.

"Dad... Uncle Thokk..."

"Uncle Thokk is... fine. He is just unconscious, just like the Great Mage. I'll wake him up. You need to leave. You and Bertie, you two, you two... you need to wake up the Great Mage."

"Uncle Thokk is okay?"

"Yes, yes. He is fine. He is going to be fine. You need to leave, sweetie. Please... leave. Go, go and wake up the Great Mage."

"How do I wake him up?"

"I... I don't know. Get some water. Throw it in his face. Leave now, and don't let Bertie come in."

"Okay," Esmeralda whimpered and ran away to the other chamber, tears still dripping down her cheeks.

When his daughter had left, Thomas cradled the orc's body in his arms and wept over his lost friend. "I am sorry. I am sorry," he said. "I am so sorry, Thokk. I am sorry you ended up like this because of me."

The orc's body suddenly shuddered and let out a loud cough.

A very surprised Thomas turned him around.

Thokk's eyes were open, and he was bleeding profusely, but the spell had missed all the vital organs and had struck his left hand.

"Thokk, Thokk, my boy, you are alive!" Thomas cried out. When he had confirmed that it was indeed a non-lethal wound and the orc was going to live, he laughed like a maniac. "Thank the gods. Thank the gods. Oh, bless you. Bless you. I thought you were gone."

"Thomas..." Thokk lifted his hand and grabbed the veteran's shoulder. "Thomas... I die," he said.

"You are not dying, Thokk. You are not dying. You are just losing some blood." Thomas tore off a piece of his shirt that was not yet dirty. "Here, let me tie it with something."

"No, listen... Thomas. Listen... I happy I know you, Master Stonebottom, Valdek, and Great Mage. You all true friend."

"I am happy that I know you too, you crazy orc." Thomas began wrapping the makeshift bandage around the bleeding wound. "You saved my daughter's life. Thank you, thank you so much. I'll never forget it. I am forever in your debt."

"It nothing." The orc shook his head. "I finally earn glory." A small smile graced his lips. "Thomas... I want you, my friend, my brother, to tell my Naru I love her."

"You can tell her yourself once we get out of here."

"No... no, you listen. This my final wish. Tell Naru, I die to be with her. Tell Naru, I meet her in the Great Grassland beyond the sky."

"You are not dying, Thokk!"

"And tell Bulguk, he big donkey. Tell him, I hate him. I hate his beard. I hate his walking stick. I hate his dumb face. Tell him I curse at him from above and haunt him till he die."

The orc flinched when Thomas tied the first knot of his bandage. "It's not perfect, but it should stop you from bleeding to death for a while," the veteran said.

But Thokk was not done with his deathbed confessions. "Tell my younger brother, Brock, I leave him my turtle business. Tell him not catch young females. And my father, Bork, tell him not drink too much. Tell my mother, Shani, I love her. Tell her I steal her favorite chicken when I twelve and eat with friend. Tell her I sorry. Tell Ulguk, I cheat him out of money at cards. Tell him I not sorry. Because it funny." The orc chuckled. "And tell Great Mage, tell him, I make him proud. Tell him I die hero by saving—"

Thokk did not get to finish his confession, for a violent explosion rocked the entire room. It came from the area where the three fluid monsters were fighting and trying to consume each other. The green one had now completely devoured its siblings and had substantially increased in size. But its translucent insides were in considerable flux as the liquid within it seemed to be constantly shifting, combining, and changing colors. Violent tremors rocked its body when it tried to move, and little explosions frequently erupted from its surface. The first explosion, resulting from the violent combination of the creatures, had set fire to two more tables containing a variety of volatile chemicals.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched this new horror.

"Yes, yes, yes. Die, die, die, all of you! Kill them all. Kill them all!" the crazy mage shouted at his abomination.

When the fire reached the chemicals, there was another round of explosions, and more of the nearby furniture was set aflame.

The creature started waddling towards the center of the room.

The sewer mage, elated by the impending doom of his enemies, shouted, "SHOW THEM, SHOW THEM WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO CRITICIZE MY PAPERS. PEER REVIEW THIS, BITCHES!"

"Thomas, what the hell do we do?" Master Stonebottom yelled out.

Thomas looked dazed. "I... I don't know. Valdek, Valdek, yes... Valdek, make a shield!"

"Valdek, my boy, get to Thomas and Thokk. Make a shield over them. I'll join you guys once I finish off the mage."

"I can't, Master Stonebottom."

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"I can't do any more spells. I can barely move."

"Thomas, he can barely move."

"Then run! Run into one of the tunnels."

Before anyone could run anywhere, the creature had reached the center of the room. It vibrated for a few seconds and compressed itself while large, spike-like green crystals materialized all over its body.

"Run, run!" Thomas yelled while still cradling the wounded Thokk in his arms.

"I AM THE GREATEST MAGE ALIVE!" the unhinged one screamed. "TAKE THAT, PENELOPE!"

Master Stonebottom dropped his weapons and ran towards a rooted Valdek to push him into one of the other tunnels and save his life.

The creature let out a terrifying groan, and its arm-length crystal spikes were blasted into the entire room with explosive force.

While everyone's attention had been diverted by the green monster, the mage had used that opportunity to reacquire his staff. He was now squatting down and covering himself with a completely opaque and perfectly spherical, pure white magical shield.

The dwarf managed to reach Valdek and pushed him down to save him from a spike that was only a few seconds away from impaling him. While Valdek was saved, Master Stonebottom was now caught in the line of fire.

Thomas saw a spike heading his way. And instead of running away and leaving an injured Thokk to his fate, the veteran covered the young orc with his body and awaited his death.