2nd Step To Greatness

"You, uruk with white hair! What is your name?" Baranor asked as he eyed the uruk down, as the uruk did the same to him as if they were communicating their wills, even though no words were said. It was clear they could not come to a agreeance and Baranor could not have a insubordinate army plotting a rebellion and so the only natural course of action was to clash to decide who would rule this wandering army, the remnants of loyalist to the dark lord, or a new power who promised infinite possibilities. while also noting that the group that stood in front of him was not under his control. Even so a good majority of the one's not under the influence of the ring didn't step forward and mostly went along with the energy of the crowd. 

"I'll amuse you puny human, It's Ghor'ath your killer!" Ghor'ath said to Baranor in a savage tone

"Hmm, very well.. Ghor'ath, you shall be my first example!" Baranor said as he gripped the handle of his sword and pulled it out of its sheath. Ghor'ath reacted in kind as he pulled his great sword out and smirked at Baranor while scoffing at him, almost as if he was looking down on him for the size of his sword, Baranor looked at the uruk in disbelief and shook his head.

"You are one foolish uruk to compare the strength of a man to the size of his sword" Baranor said 

"Hmph! As if puny human! You carry a small sword because you can not handle the weight of a real sword!" Ghor'ath said as Baranor just looked at him like he was a child and thought to himself 'No wonder this pig thinks he can win, it's because he doesn't have a brain!'

"Enough talk human! Face me and we will decide who the real leader should be!" Ghor'ath said as he smirked at Baranor fully confident he would win

Baranor sighed as he readied his stance to prepare for the advance of this foolish uruk, however before he could fully prepare the uruk rushed at him without giving him a chance to fully respond. Baranor already expecting something like this to happen quickly dodged to the left and swung his sword horizontally, striking the side of the uruk. Ghor'ath looked at the human in front of him with a surprised expression on his face not expecting his speed at all. Fara'mir* looking at the battle snickered to himself as he remembered that Ghor'ath was one of the few who didn't see or experience their new lords power and skill firsthand like he has.

'What a fool' Fara'mir thought to himself 

Ghor'ath grabbed his side, then lifted his hand to see the blood that was flowing out, he looked at Baranor and smirked. 

"You are one quick human!" Ghor'ath said

"Your simply slow in both mind and body" Baranor snarked back

Baranor simply observed the uruk to see what he would do in this situation, unsurprisingly the uruk chose to charge at him once more. Baranor scoffed at this dumb uruk and quickly deflected the blade of the uruk making him slash at the ground, lodging the large blade deep inside the earth, before the uruk could even react properly Baranor made a quick slash to his neck making the uruk let go of the sword and grab his throat seemingly trying to stop the blood from flowing. Baranor could only look at this uruk with pity as he slowly bled out due to the uruks tough nature and exterior, once the uruk laid motionless on the ground whispers of the rebellious group started to fill the air.

"No way! How could a mere human kill a uruk as strong as Ghor'ath!" One said

"It doesn't make any sense!" Another said

'Ironic hearing an uruk speak of sense' Baranor thought to himself as he observed the group of uruk's and orc's lose their motivation to step up to Baranor, seemingly as if they accepted Ghor'ath as the strongest amongst their little group and sent him to be their representative, or sacrifice depending on who you asked. 

"Is their anyone else who wishes to challenge my rule?" Baranor asked as he looked at the small group that gathered and then to the main crowd, seeing no immediate answer he assumed he had quelled the feeling of rebellion in the group.

"Goo-" However before Baranor could continue he was interrupted by one orc who shouted

"Ahh, bugger! Welp who cared about that weak, old, ball of Oxfur crap! and who said we'd have to face him one on one?! I say we all rush at him!" the orc said

The groups spirit of rebellion was lit once more as they eyed Baranor with a new found vigor. Baranor looked confused and was curious if the crowd that was loyal to him would jump in or not, looked at Fara'mir for answers, who in return nooded at him and threw him a thumbs up, almost as if to say 'You got this my liege!'. 'I don't understand the orcish traditions but I'm just going to guess it's something like "accept all challenges to if your da boss" regardless of the number i face' Baranor thought to himself.

"Yeah, yeah! we can all just run at him and whoever kills him first gets to be the new dark lord, hahaha!" One uruk said

"You lot think it's going to be that easy to deal with someone like me? You'd be sorely mistaken" Baranor shouted to the group

The group not really caring or paying attention to what he said started to go wild and became energetic as they started to charge at Baranor. The person in question was looking at the group of about 20 green skins and knew he had to someone isolate fights to be more advantageous for him, as it was a different circumstance compared to before where the observers would only occasionally strike at him, now it would be multiple of them constantly attacking.

'Well since you want to use numbers I might as well as use some too!' Baranor thought as he summoned Talon and a small group of uruks. Talon ran straight to his maser pushing aside those that stood in his way and so did the closest uruks who were commanded to do so. The now challenged Baranor looked like he was in between a small skirmish between a group of dumb orcs and a mosh pit of a number of different species. The 2 groups quickly clashes with Talon using his side to his advantage and knocking over a number of the opposing side, followed up by Baranor going on a small massacre and his uruk's supporting him. It only took about 15 minutes for the fight to be over with and the winner was clear. Baranor stood among the bodies as the uruk's were walking around all the corpses ensuring they were all truly dead.

"AHHHHH" Baranor let out a victorious war cry as he looked at the group of uruk's and orc's as they all started to slam their fist on their chest as a sign of allegiance. 

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-Quest: Start of resistance! (Complete)

-Reward: Realm of Enlightenment (Lvl 1): 10m radius all forces within this land will have their stats increased by 2% and their morale unwavering and heal 1% HP every minute, while all enemies will have their stats decreased by 2% and be inflicted with a burn reducing HP by 1% every minute and are more susceptible to mental attacks and more likely to flee. Will also dominate all beings that are capable of being dominated within this space (10 MP per minute) 

-Secondary Reward: Domination lvl up! 

-Domination (Lvl8): Dominated beings 200/400

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Baranor looked at the new skilled he acquired and instantly decided to use it to dominate a good portion of the orc's and uruk's in the camp to make sure their would be little to no rebellious thoughts gathering in his subordinates minds. Baranor stabbed his sword into the ground and activated Realm of Enlightenment, as he activated it a small circle of blue and white light appeared and started to spread to the edge of the 10 meter radius that was stated. While Baranor was in the circle he could feel himself become rejuvenated and full of energy while his mind was serine, he took a deep breath in and out noticing the condensation from his breath as if it was cold yet he felt the temperature was perfect, not too cold and not too hot. Baranor could see the uruk's and orc's around him that have yet to be dominated accepting it and not struggling as much as normal compared to when he forcefully dominated someone's mind.

Baranor seemingly satisfied with the result plucked his sword from the ground and decided to experiment a bit with this area, first he walked out of it to see if it were to follow him, at first it didn't but Baranor could still feel the connection between him and the circle so this time he willed it to follow him. As if listening to his command it slowly started to shift his way, as Baranor walked around the group of uruk's and orc's dominating the ones left over he started to wonder how would the ability see a enemy. Baranor stopped suddenly and looked toward a random uruk and stepped in front of him, the uruk who was not dominated still held respect toward their new leader and bowed before him.

"Uruk I need something of you. Would you be willing to comply with my demands?" Baranor asked

"Of course my liege!" The uruk responded

"Very well, however I must say this might sting a little." Baranor said as he started to mentally look at the uruk as a enemy. The ability as if reading his mind started to torment the uruk, who started to hear whispers and felt a sudden strong cold attack him, even his vision decreased as if he were in the middle of a snow storm and his skin started to burn due to the cold he even started to feel slightly weaker than normal. The uruk although standing strong, started to feel annoyed and agitated and he started to feel like he was going crazy, when the uruk looked up at his new lord all he could see was a shadowy figure with deep and pale blue eyes staring back.The uruk in turn felt a fear he never felt in his life even though the individual bits and pieces of the ability were minor when they all combined it made a devastating combo that would make enemy start to lose their mind if they couldn't resist it.

"Tell me uruk, what do you see?" Baranor asked

The uruk proceeded to explain everything to his new lord even though all he could see was a mirage of the human before him as if he was blocked by a heavy fog. Once Baranor heard everything he nodded in approval before dominating the uruk and withdrawing his ability. As he continued around the outskirts of the crowd another thought wheeled up in his head. 'I wonder if those under the rings influence can also be considered enemies'. Baranor instantly put it to the test to be met with.... nothing, the uruk was not considered a enemy even if he mentally told himself he was, almost as if the ring could recognize friend and foe without the need of a wearer. 

With the ability experimentation and the max amount of dominating he could do done Baranor decided to shift his focus elsewhere, the living conditions and the quality of gear the uruk's had were despicable and laughable. It was as if they just slapped some sharp stones together with sticks and called them weapons and their housing was nearly just as bad, they set up tents mostly made of animal skin and logs although Baranor thought to himself that they at the very least understood the concept of insulation.

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*Fara'mir- the name of the uruk chief i added the single quotation mark just cause i thought it would fit the story building a bit better aka their language