Meanwhile, as Nogryl ran through the burning forest, through thick smoke and flames, he could hear the crackling of wood and the falling of trees, and he could see the beasts chasing after the group of men, letting out menacing growls that echoed through the night. They did not seem to notice him from all the smoke and the blinding fire's light.

  "I must find her,“ he thought as he continued deep into the dark forest, following the tracks towards the ur'glun den. He walked through the woodland, and the tracks seemed to disappear in the darkness, but each time they disappeared, he would find them again and continue on his quest. Every sound kept him on edge—a rustling of bush, a howl of a bird, even the leap of a frog through the dry leaves—but he went on, and nothing came out of the darkness. As he came closer to the mountain, sneaking through the dark woods, he heard a quick sound of steps and the rattling of iron.

  "Come out! Show yourself! Don't be afraid of the open battle!“ He yelled into the dark and awaited with his sword ready, but nobody replied. After a while, he continued following the tracks, and suddenly two stones in front of a narrow passage appeared in front of him, leading into a deep cave.

  The tracks led there, so it must be it. He thought and took a hefty dry stick from the forest floor and thorn a piece of cloth from his cape and soaked it in his lantern's oil. He walked deep into the cave with his sword and his improvised torch as the light of the moon disappeared behind him.

  In the cave, he found a wide cavern, a room with barely lit torches. It looked like it was a dwelling place for the ur'gruns, who were now out and chasing the men.

  "She must be here somewhere.“ He thought and continued searching through the cave. As he walked through the cave, he heard a raspy voice speaking from the darkness:

  "Nogryl...“ He turned around and saw no one.

  "I can hear your armor from miles away." Nogryl approached a nearby wall and clenched a sword in his fist.

  "Clink, clink, clink! The plates say.“ The goblin voice grew louder and echoed through the cavern, making it hard to find out from where it was coming. Suddenly he could hear something move on the floor, and he turned around with his torch. All that he saw was a stone rolling through the dry hay that laid the floor in the cave. Nogryl knew better than to be a sitting duck, awaiting in the dark to be slain, so he lit the hay with his torch and threw all the flammable things he could find, from tanning racks to dried animal bones, broken spear handles and logs used as a table, the tools with wooden handles, and other things from the den. As the fire grew larger, it's light lit the entire cave, and a form of a hooded ur'glun in dark leather armor was seen standing on a large stone with his bow drawn. The beast hissed, and the arrow was shot towards Nogrly's exposed head, but he dodged it in a single swift movement. When he turned around, the beast was no longer there.

  After a couple of seconds, he saw Nal'zuk run deeper into the bowels of the earth through a thin tunnel that led to the underground. Without a moment to waste, he chased after him. The thin tunnel was filled with human and animal bones and skulls. It smelled of rot and decay. After a while, he found himself in another large cavern, but this time it was lit with multiple torches. He could see multiple women chained with crude iron chains to an iron collar around their necks, barely covered and filthy, and some of them pregnant. Among them was a young woman who disappeared recently. They were on the other end of the cavern, about fifty meters away. Nogryl saw them and rushed to save them, but from the darkness he could hear a voice say,

  "Not so fast!“. This time, it was not a raspy ur'glun voice. The voice was harsh yet feminine-sounding. It was Nuula. She had a bandage around her waist, and it was soaked in dark blood. She stood in the middle of the cavern, with no intention to hide. She could easily face him in open combat and win. Suddenly, from the dark emtpy space around the cavern, a dark figure of Nal'zuk appeared beside her. Nogryl knew that if he was to fight, he'd have two enemies to face.

  He slowly walked towards them, and they slowly walked towards him; There wasn't even a slightest bit of fear in him as he was preparing to face his demise and offer his final sacrifice to his cause, to die for mankind as a hero.

  Yet the silence and the sound of their steps were broken by the sound of the rattling and clashing iron, clinking and echoing through the cavern.

  "Both of them are in front of me; what could this sound be?“ he thought, but his enemies seemed to be equally surprised as he was. But instead of overthinking, he charged at them with a loud roar, leaving no moment for his foes to think.

  Nal'zuk shot an arrow at him, but it simply bounced off his armor, and Nuula prepared to face him in close combat. She parried his swing with her blades and kicked him in the abdomen as Nal'zuk followed up with a cut to his ribs that glanced off his armor, but the human recovered quickly, bashing the ur'glun with a torch. The beast roared and it's face was soaked in burning lantern oil.

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  Nogryl swung his sword towards Nuula that quickly dodged the swing. He followed up with another swing towards her, but she dashed towards him under his blade, avoiding the blow as she landed a cut to his leg.

  The man took a kneel as the ur'glun, angry with half of his face scorched, swung both of his blades towards his head to end his life, but Nogryl dodged both of them, dashing backwards and bashing Nuula with his shoulder and interrupting her potentially life-ending swing. Nogryl seemed to have much more luck than brain, and his physical strength allowed him to wear armor so thick that the common blows could rarely pierce it, which made him hard to deal with. His sword was extremely heavy and sharp, making it an ideal weapon to pierce the steel, and his skill at wielding it was outstanding, which turned the human hero into a truly formidable foe.

  He quickly stood up with an upward cut that the gorugolm parried with her blade before she landed a cut across his chest that left the man bleeding. He was clearly losing, but he did not intend to die without a fight. A sound of the iron creeking echoed through the cavern, followed by the sound of a blade being drawn. The skirmish suddenly stopped as the fighters took a moment to examine what produced those mysterious sounds, but the silence prevailed, followed by another screetch of iron and rattling of chains.

  Nogryl quickly dashed at distracted Nal'zuk and toppled him to the floor, grabbing his throat with iron gauntlets in an attempt to choke him, but Nuula quickly interrupted him with a kick to his head, and the man fell flat on the floor. And as they fought in the cavern, a figure of a cloaked man appeared standing on a nearby stone elevation. He held two swords crossed on his chest, and he was wearing Nogryl's helmet. Nal'zuk and Nuula were both confused, as the small army bearing swords and torches from the walls appeared behind the figure.

  "You've taken down the impostor,“ the deep voice said as the released women stood behind him with swords in their hands.

  "This must be the real Nogryl! And not this pea-brain filth!“ Nal'zuk yelled with his raspy voice.

  "His voice seems too pretentious to me,“ Nuula answered before she sheathed her swords and quickly dashed into the darkness. There were simply too many to fight. Following her example, Nal'zuk growled in anger before he started running too. His furstration was obvious, but he had no other choice. The group helped Nogryl stand up as the figure still stood upon the elevation, and suddenly an arrow flew through the darkness and lodged itself in it's shoulder, but the mysterious man did not even move, as the blood started pouring down his body and soaking his cloak.

  After a while, Nogryl was awakened by the morning light shining through curtains. He was laying in a bed, and the place seemed familiar. It was the ?Sleeping Boar“ tavern. On a bed across the room there was Henry, covered in bandages and shaking in cold, for he lost too much blood.

  "Is it your first time you wake up somewhere you haven't laid?“ Nogryl asked and laughed, but his laugh was suddenly interrupted by the pain of the many wounds that covered his body.

  "I've witnessed something strange,“ he added, coughing through pain, and he explained the sighting of the mysterious cloaked figure that released the prisoners. But young Henry just smiled and said,

  "When the rest of the men retreated, I saw you going straight into the fire, without regard to your own life; all you had in mind was to save the girl. It was then that I understood what it means to be a hero. It is truly about the risk you take; you can never tell if you lived as a hero until the moment when you are ready to die a hero, and you'll know it in the moment when you are ready to give your life for your cause. Many will say that you have only one life to give and that such opportunity needs to be used with great caution, but many more will die of old age, never taking the opportunity to give their life a greater meaning. The life should be given at any opportunity when it benefits the cause, for anything you value enough to sacrifice for, because who knows when the next opportunity may arise."

  Nogryl laughed with joy and said,Well, boy, it seems that we are more alike than I I thought." But Henry continued:

  "When I followed you into the fire, I realized that we won't stop until we accomplish our goal, so I thought we better have something to arm the prisoners with. I collected the swords of the fallen comrades, and that's when I saw your helmet. I thought taking it would be a great distraction, because then they will have two Nogryls to take care of. One of the dying warriors who sacrificed his life to save mine in battle against the chieftain handed me his sword willingly. After witnessing my deeds, he told me that I am the bravest soldier he ever met, before passing away.“

  "And are you?" Nogryl asked.

  "Well, I guess it's just the wine, but we'll surely find out." Both of the men laughed, and Nogryl asked,

  "So the sound that we have heard is the sound of the swords clashing against each other as you carried them?"

  "Indeed,“ Henry replied.