Closet Monster

 It was impossible to describe.
 A mass of tentacles, shadows, fur, and scales.
 It did not move so much as writhe. It did not walk so much as flow. A monster, through and through.
 And one with a target.
 A man.
 A single, unsuspecting man.
 Who thought he was safe, in the confines of his own room.
 Which is why his back was to the closet.
 The gaping, yawning maw of void that was his closet.
 The realm where monsters l

 Befriending the Wolf Rider

 Hm.
 That was definitely a loud sound, from his room.
 
 So.
 The smart thing to do was to back off and maybe call the police or something.
 The stupid thing to do was to grab a thick walking stick, hold it like a club, and go investigate.
 And thus Ben found himself doing the stupid thing. Apparently he was hoping this would work like it did on TV or something. Oh well, he was here now - hopefully whomever was robbing h

 Impromptu Ambassador


 And the door opened.
 Image sighed - even as his soldiers gasped and recoiled. There was no reason for the hyenas to march into his throne room when they had a meeting room - specifically designed by the hyena - for meetings of any sort.
 Which meant this was just a show of power.
 Which why.
 Why was this necessary?! It wasn't like the bats could give more supplication to the hyena than they were already. Which reminded Image, he had to

 Waiting on a Second


 "Hey Brian, did - whoa what?!"

 Since well.
 It was easy to overlook that Brian was even there given the giant greenskinned monster sitting there behind him. Arms literally wrapped around Brian.
 Did he. Did he call the police? Actually there wasn't really a point - the police wouldn't come if there was an orc there.

 "Oh, uh, h - hey, uh, Ricardo." Brian gave a bit of a nervous swallow. "I, uh. Forgot you were coming over."

 

Beneath Relevance


 Held in the air by his collar.
 Here would come the slam against the cave wall. Crap, actually this part of the cave was slanted a little - had to maneuver himself just a touch so he wasn't impaled on an outcropping or something.
 There was the slam.

 Actually that slam wasn't all that strong.
 ...that wasn't quite fair. It was strong enough that the entire cave system shook a little bit, which was expected at the weight of an orc slamming anot

 Pianzi's Great Luck

 The door opened.
 Welp.
 Wuzhi steeled himself. "Hello, Pianzi. Need some more rope?"

 "Good morning, Wuz-zy! And yep, you nailed it in one! My last rope got split while I was doing some rock climbing!"

 Okay what. The horse lowered the cloth he'd been folding - yes that was in fact Pianzi. The big brown bear, who was actually much less threatening of a combatant than he looked.

 "...Wuz-zy?"

 "You got any of the good rope

Potentially Unsolvable


 Hm.
 He was nearing camp.

 Those two traps were very noticeable, though. Clearly useless as traps themselves, since there wasn't a lot of value to a trap that everyone could see coming. Unless maybe some warrior or Ancha was running too quickly to pay attention, but then they'd probably run into a tree in there.

 The point was probably the additional traps around the initial one - those were better hidden. But the false traps being there mean

 Searching for Territory

 Hm.

 This was the hardest part of being a lone Nidoking. No territory, no respect. And every sound you heard could be a challenge, a fight. Possibly your final fight - yes, he was stronger than basically every pokemon around, but that didn't mean he couldn't lose.

 Would this be it?
 Would this be that day?

 ...no.
 This was a small pokemon. A Vivillon, with a broken wing.
 Yep.

 "O - oh Arceus - I'm so s - sorry

 Just Two Orcs

 What did it mean that winning a spar meant next to nothing?

 Moha looked at the orc he'd taken down. When he was younger, he'd have eagerly pounced on him, gulped him down, made a huge show of it.
 When he was younger, he had hope.
 Felt like an eternity ago.

 He left the circle, even as the other orcs cheered. None of this had any relevance; of -course he'd win. He was the only one who was trying.
 It was pathetic.
 And hollow.

~~~

 Combination - Time to Focus

 And... warmth.
 
 The warmth was nice. He was a little dizzy, but relaxing was a good step. Take a second, get your bearings, then you can react more competently.

 He pinched himself.
 Yes, it hurt.
 And that caused the next person next to him to move.
 Hm.

 He was lying on a pillow. The pillow was familiar; it was his. No blanket, though, and the bed was made of stone or something.
 Also, he was naked.
&nb

 Challenging the Clan
 
 Wha...

 The red orc looked around. "Nubek! Nubek, what stupid trick is this, ya pig?"

 Since now he was in a... forest, or something? He was in a field a moment ago, talking with Nubek and Chief Feijin.

 And, as everything tended to.
 This pissed him off.

 "NUBEK!" He shouted, at nobody. "I bet this is YOUR fault!"

 Nobody responded, as for once there was nobody anywhere near Egar. Who growled - so he didn't have h

 Rat Rescue

 Hm.
 It was definitely this way. He... definitely wasn't as good at tracking as his friend, but he was good enough to recognize his friend. Unless maybe there was running water, he never did know how Kulak would be able to get past that, yeesh.

 When he had to pause.
 Since there was an axe pointed at his throat.

 "I'm talking to you, rat. Gerrouta here, yer lucky I didn't just clip your head off."

 Kvittka.
 Could only smile.

 "

 Behemoths

 "And here you have it. Another city that the Behemoth has taken."

 There was a bit of silence. Since, while human and beastman alike had been barraged by this creature, this malevolent unsolvable creature... none of the others had. None of the others had seen a ghost town, completely devoid of life - but clearly which had life in it not too long before.

 The gatorfolk put one hand to his head. "...wow. So it's... just like that?"

 "We were in direct

 From One Mage to Another

 A gentle, timid, knock on the door.

 Honestly, it was a bit refreshing. Vid'ma hadn't had someone just... come knock on his door in, wow. Decades? Longer?

 A little bit of magic let him know - a small beastman. Also one who had talent for arcane magic, which meant it could theoretically be threatening even though its magic power was significantly lower than Vid'ma's.

 But!
 Honestly, it was a polite knock. An archmage could acc

 Dreamwalking

 He felt it before it actually appeared.
 Dreamwalking.
 Apparently literally every school and style of magic could trivially detect it. divination sure, that was literally its job. But transmutation could track the manipulations. Evocation, the energy. Divine magic? Clerical, Druidic, Shugenja? Even psionics? Incarnum? Basically, if it was magical in some way, you would never be ambushed by someone dreamwalking.

 Dev was, absolutely, ambushed b

 External Challenge

 "Hm."

 Okay yes, of course Two would have noticed Wilhelm walk up. The orc's hearing was basically legendary, above and beyond even most orcs.

 But it was still startling! Wilhelm had been really quiet!

 "One of these days, T-man, I'm gonna sneak up on you, I swear it. "

 "Heh. Too bad for me, then. You always follow through on your oaths."

 The halfling sat down on the rock Two was adjacent to - looking up at the clouds the orc

 Doing Some Experimentation

 "Hm. Readings are still inconclusive. The overall chance of the expected elements is still high, but narrowing it down is proving challenging."

 It was very nice that his lunch was apparently willing to announce his presence by talking constantly to, presumably, himself?
 Vek gave a grin.
 Delicious looking panther. Even was wearing boxers, which would be so good to spit out. Only decision was, did he fuck the panther on the way down

 The Defender of Vaston

 "Then we're gonna be the first!"

 Dennis swept his hands to one side. "Sure, 'nobody ever steals from Vaston'. Think of how many morons say crap like that to keep people like us out! Mark, you're the eyes, did you do your search?"

 "Yep." Mark had clearly been napping. Mark was always napping.

 "And?"

 "Not a single guard among the humans." Mark gave a yawn. "Blacksmith can fight."

 "So we avoid him, or swarm him. No wall

 An Empty Fursuit

 "You should go!"

 Lucent rubbed his hands together. "But why?"

 "Because you're a furry! So go, have a good time!"

 "Easy for you to say. You like being around a bunch of people."

 "Lucent - you have tickets. You don't have work. You have free transportation to and from the event!"

 "My bus pass ended a few days ago so I could - "

 "I'm talking about me, ya goober! I'm offering to give you a ride! Well, at least a ride the

 Commercials
 "Man. You look /exhausted/."

 The orc started. Wow, he was so tired he wasn't keeping an ear out.

 "Nono, you're fine."

 "But. Is - is game time. New - new switch game."

 "Really, it's fine. Honestly, since I suddenly picked up a night class I should be focusing on my homework anyway; you clearly need the rest more than I do. Especially since it's only until tomorrow."

 Hesitation.
 The human chuckled. "Really, Pom. Relax, it's

 At the Orc Tournament

 He.
 He parried the attack.

 Every orc there was calling out - a veritable cacophony of voices. Some cheers, some remarks of disbelief. And now a number of them were swarming Fuerte, clapping him on the back and making various levels of requests and demands on being taught how. How did anyone parry that, the attack's entire purpose is that it was unparryable.

 Which kind of left Brawn just kinda abandoned there. Granted, he was definitely

 
 Transportation Competition


 "We have to /hurry/ if we're going to catch them!"

 The badger could only give an exhale. "If they've already gone on deliveries, we can either ask them when they return or call them."

 That gave him an exasperated look. "Phil - Phil. Buddy. Why is it no matter how many times I explain this, you don't seem to understand? Do you not realize what the stakes are here?!"

 Steve fanned himself a bit; given how hot it was, that was

 
 Ripple of Payment

 "Did they get the river?"

 The silence was plenty of response. He shifted his tail; terrific. Now their backs were against the wall in the most literal sense. No escape route. Had to hope they wouldn't get the mountain, too.

 "We can keep them funneled if we focus on this ravine. Remember, when you're hurt - pull back. Healing is our main advantage here, let's not waste that. How's the wall coming?"

 "Sl - slowly, sir!"

 "We fo

 The Lion Commander

 "They're going to counterattack. As soon as they do, we need to be there - where is the mage squad?"

 Which was said even /as/ the beasts delivered their charge. Which caused the wolf to freeze up - as it was an identical charge that had killed his pack.

 Not 'killed several members of his pack', although it did that too. No, the charge had fundamentally damaged what his pack /was/. An enemy you couldn’t fight, since it struck at concepts

 Heart of the Inventor

 "Is this another of your gadgets?"
 
 The mole sighed, raising his visor and turning to his sister. "Yeah. Is everyone making fun of me again?"
 
 "Yes. Don't you dare clam up on me, though - you know I always support you and you were very helpful with your water clock, even though that wasn't the intent." The other mole set a mug down near the first, who smiled.

 "I do appreciate that, although I'd be happier if any of my inventi

 Slime Captor

 <<Heads up, people!>>

 The voice in everyone's heads cut through the haze - as yet more magic rained down. Yes, Zolt was able to react with something resembling speed, but the bat's magical shields were imperfect and this was an example of the imperfection.

 That hurt.
 Fortunately, before Bieski could suggest it, Zolt was focused on repairing the damage. Crap, Krawata was down - no wait, the elf wasn't completely unconscious, just stagge

 Incidental Unity


 Finally.
 It had taken him so long to get here. When you read stories about people who succeed on their grande with an e quests, they really understated how good it felt to finally be standing at the finish line.
 He had finished the sacrifice.
 And now it was just a talk with the goddess. But he took an extra few moments to... just relax. Breathe.

 "Welcome, my child."

 She was every bit as beautiful as the stories said. He placed

 An Acceptable Imprisonment

 A pair of briefs.
 Just lying there, in the street. Klot put one hand to his chin.
 "...huh."

 The lengthy tail on his shoulder shifted, as did the beastman who it belonged to. "Aren't, uh. Aren't those orcish, Klot?"

 "Yeah."

 "Do you think someone stole them and - "
 
 "No. This guy lost a fight. Hm."

 "Someone beat up an orc here? Geez - tell me this isn't where you smell my sphere."

 "Unfortunate

 Bed Monster

 "Moooooom!"

 The response look was firm but not judgmental. "I mean it, young man. If you want a portable music player, this is why we give you an allowance."

 "But it's not for meeeee, it's for the Monster!"

 "You did say that, but my response still stands."

 "Awwww."

 The boy walked away, as the mother kept her face level until he was properly gone, in which she could not contain her laughter. Her husband stepped in, placing one hand

 Hiring the Bodyguard

 Very few people were willing to just march into an orc camp unannounced. Humans ruled their cities, with orcs generally willing to cooperate with human law... until you get near their camp. From there, anything that happens to you is absolutely your fault. There were numerous stories about delivery drivers, mail delivery, anything that goes to an orc camp requires extra effort to ensure the human in question is not, at the very least, eaten whole.
 So t

 The Orcish Shrine

 "Wh... what are you doing?"

 Honestly, Shackle had to sigh a little. As while it was amusing, this was literally the seventh time he'd answered that question in the past half hour.

 And every one of those questions came while he was in the middle of a fight. Tail shifted behind himself as he moved around - no, flowed around. Moving like he was a river, afterimages showing swings he had just completed.
 Admittedly, most people couldn't really fi

 Orc vs. the Powered Suit

 "Are you really sure, big guy?"

 Came from the suit of armour with a dull echo. The orc responded by slamming one fist into the palm of his other hand.

 "Yep!"

 More hesitation, as he looked around - lots of people were on the station, but only two of them in this particular room right now. "I'm pretty sure this will tear off your arm. We can't fix that, you know."

 "It shouldn't. I'm real tough!"

 "Last time it also ripped

 What is Gym

 Huh.
 Okay, Suvan had to admit, wandering around an orc camp was a moronic thing to do for longer than you had to. The orcs were, uh, 'friendly', but orcs lived extremely different lives than humans did. He'd been personally slammed by an orc before - thankfully he knew a thing or two about fighting and was able to roll with both of them.

 It helped that neither was an intentional attack.

 But he always found himself lingering all the same. And wel

 The Second CEO

 The door opened, entertainingly quietly.
 Almost gingerly, in stepped a titanic wall of muscle, wearing a snappy navy business suit with a simple looking black tie that had a single white stripe on it. His dress shoes almost shone against the expensive floor.
 Gently, he shut the door.

 Well.

 "...orc? Are you lost?"

 "No." Came the cheerful response.

 "This is my personal office. Not only are you clearly not a client, I don't

 Music Soothes

 Another. Another failure.
 Tashviq would be nice about it. She was always nice about it. But he'd screwed up - again. Not the first time, not the second time.

 "It's okay, Shkast." She said, in that sweet voice she always used. And immediately went to - oh geez Zakhmi was hurt. And hurt bad! Fortunately not killed.

 And all because Shkast couldn't keep a wall standing for a few minutes. The easiest job in the city, and he kept screwing it up.

 A mild interruption

 The sun was rising, again.
 Which meant this marked over a full day that Nrek and Cy had been fighting. Literally trying to beat each other's heads in from before sunrise to after the following sunrise.

 And they were still going at it.
 Right now they were in the river. Granted, it was the orcs who called it a river and this was proof that they were idiots since it was at best a stream. Both Nrek and Cy could stand in it easy, although the w

 Orc Landlord

 Hm.
 New smell.

 Qat was in downtime. You needed to stick to downtimes, otherwise you wouldn't grow.
 No matter how much he felt like he should be back out there.
 Back on the front lines.
 But no. No, he had to focus on enjoying himself there.

 Still, you didn't remove the warrior entirely. New smell could be a threat - Qat made sure his weapon was in easy reach. Smelled small. Fearful - good.
 Opened the door.
 
&nbsp

 The Arrival of Freedom

 Smashed with a rifle butt.
 
 There was no reason for that. Between their tech and arm strength, everyone here was being extremely compliant and couldn't have done anything else even if they'd wanted to. Nobody there could handle a minotaur in a fight. Why the force?

 Of course, nobody would complain who didn't have a death wish. Alan stayed down, and cowered.

 "You are behind on your builds."

 No they weren't.
 He didn't

 The Scope Expands

 How.... would he even get into that?

 Dip had to just stare. He'd seen traps before, yes, but this one was something else. At first, he'd thought it was a rope trap - the type you'd use to keep food away from animals, or to tie up someone by a foot. Which wasn't really the best choice in the best of times, as it required you to be nearby which increased the chances that they'd run into you before the trap, or not step in the perfect position.

 Gra

 Leverage Your Strength

 All you could smell was blood.
 All you could feel was pain.

 Pushed himself to his feet so you -
 - you did no such thing.
 legs wouldn't move.
 Too much pain.

 But your arms were still strong.
 Pulled your away from under your brother.
 Kuzma was a much better spearsman than you.
 Was.
 Now Kuzma was dead.

 Crawled, and kept crawling.
 There was Klym. There was no better scout.
 Was.
&nbs

 Through the Pass

 "Finally. How long do we have before the miasma comes back?"

 Major Toricht was in a bad mood, and that meant all his men were scrambling to keep out of his way. In this case the unlucky soldier with the readings tried to move at doublespeed, which resulted in him making an error, which forced him to slow down - all while the major was glaring at him with increasing fury.

 "Th - three hours, sir!"

 "Christ, this area is a problem. Okay then, gi

 Impromptu Vacation

 "Uh, Smedt?"

 This was always the kind of sequence that Smedt was worried about. Edward was a fantastic human - was okay with orcs wanting to fight and needing to fuck, and didn't snap at most mistakes. Honestly, Edward was his friend, and he appreciated that.

 But it was always absolutely terrifying for a grunt to get an order from the human host at a time when they absolutely can not fulfill it. This was one of those situations.

 The door w

 Reward

 "Well well, Zwil. What have we here?"

 The wolf's eyes shot open at that statement.
 To find himself in a... closet, or something? A very, very small room.
 Seated on a bench.
 With two massive orcs next to him.
 Both orcs nearly naked. In jockstraps. Jockstraps that hid nearly nothing. Both complete with bulges. He could see one of their cocks.
 Pinning him in place.

 "Looks like a wolf who needs to get off, Mel. Look at how hard

 Mental Devour

 "Hm. So you're my partner?"

 The ratman curled his tail a bit, crossing his arms instead of responding to the orc, who gave a smirk as he continued, "Well, first things first. I won't kill you. Got rules, y'know?"

 "...huh. I did not expect /that/." The rat uncrossed his arms. "Okay. Thank you."

 "Name's Toz. I'm an orc, and I've got some /needs/." The orc readjusted his boxers, licking his tusks. "And now I've got you to help solve this.

 Internet Troll

 "Ha! What kind of a n00b are you, loser?"

 The response back was confused more than anything else. "I am not new to the game at all, I have been playing the game for almost a year now, and the game has not been out very much longer than that."

 "Well, you play like my grandmother!"

 More confusion. "Your grandmother plays Call of Evil 3? I wish any of my brothers played. Are you saying she plays well or poorly?"

 Oh.
 This was an orc

 Slave Fight

 He rarely came here.
 Since there wasn't much point. You didn't come to this part of the station unless you were a beastman looking for sex, and wanted to buy whatever the military'd captured lately.

 Mano had seen enough sexy elven babes to last him a lifetime, back when he was in said military.
 The other guys had loved him, since he wasn't interested and thus never took his turn or his quantity. Meant they got more.
 Heh.
 Good times, thou

 Rivals

 Slammed into the dirt.
 And a foot stomped on his chest, keeping him there.
 
 Really, at this point he was sunk. He knew it, his attacker knew it, and grrr did it piss him off. Next his attacker would go down and cement the pin, and they both knew it.

 He raised one arm, entirely to show that he could still in fact do that.
 But didn't resist. Just accepted that he was about to be pinned, which he was. Grabbed and held do the ground.

 Thi

 Purposed Kidnapping

 Slowly, Sam's eyes opened.
 Wha?

 His head throbbed a little, but he also legitimately didn't remember how he'd ended up here. Or where 'here' was - a relatively small room. Massive bed. Single window, with metal bars over it - also apparently it was night. He was in his underwear.
 ...well no, he was in someone else's underwear, as these were briefs and he never wore briefs.

 Notably, there was no door to the room. And honestly, very

 The Lost Bicycle

 "Please - please! Excuse me, sir?"

 But the child was ignored, plowed past at best. His arms shook a bit as he turned to the next police officer. "Ex - excuse me, ma'am?"

 "I'm busy, kid." The officer shoved past him a little more forcefully. "Go to the front desk."

 "But I did and nobody - " The kid started, before trailing off as he was clearly being ignored. Tears streamed down his face as he tried to put on a brave face. "Um, s - sir?

 Fur standing on edge.
 It always did, when there was this much magic around - and this valley was just nutty with it. Yes, he had some 'magic' of his own - but he knew better than to directly try to contest this much going on at once.

 Took a moment to take a scent.
 No bears.
 At least, not /right here/.
 He sighed. Right, his pack was pretty much doomed. One chance, and it was a long shot.
 He hurried forward.

 Hm.
 That was a lot - a lot - o