That asshole orc is dead

Mozû is no more. I would like to tell you he died a death befitting his orc supervillain status, or that my revenge has given me some measure of peace. Neither of those things are true. The truth is that the final moments of Mozû the Blight have disgraced us both. This is how it went down…

After the original post detailing my humiliating struggles with the over-buffed orc captain, I got plenty of advice from other Shadow of War players on how to turn the tables. Many suggested enlisting a drake (not the rapping kind) to roast Mozû from above, while others shamefully proposed finding a way to knock him off a cliff. A developer at Monolith who wrote much of the orc dialogue even DM'd me on Twitter with some cockamamie plan involving poisonous spiders exploding from a bonfire. 

I figured he was probably on Mozû's payroll and ignored that idea.

The plan takes shape

Two nights ago, Mozû ambushed and defeated me again, despite the fact I was wearing a poison-resistant cloak in a bid to mitigate the effect of his bombs. This victory raised his level to 33, and made me ditch my policy of only fighting Mozû mano-a-orco. The answer to beating an asshole bully is to find a bigger group assholes, and so I began a recruitment drive. I hunted and dominated the most powerful orcs I could find, in particular looking for those with poisoned weapons in order to exploit Mozû's only significant weakness.

Last night I felt ready. Thanks to some time in the fighting pits, my motley crue of greenskinned scum ranged from level 22 to 26. Individually, nowhere near as strong as Mozû, but together? We had a chance. I queued up the Nemesis mission as usual, but this time issued kill commands to my three best orcs.

• Narûg the Reaper: My highest level orc, with a nasty trick up his sleeve.
• Snafû King-Slayer: Missing one arm but wields a poison axe with the other. 
• Kûga the Obvious: Mounted on a caragor, which can't hurt for crowd control.  

I also assigned Ishmoz of the Spiders to be my bodyguard, who I could summon just before the battle, partly because he attacks with poison weapons, but mainly because the dude wears a hood of cobwebs and I figured Mozû might not be about that life. This particular mission was designated a supply raid, and I arrive to find Narûg confronting Mozû and his crew. I am immediately struck by an inadvertent piece of planning genius on my part. Narûg has the Decoys perk, so is always accompanied by three doppelgangers to confuse the enemy. Sure enough these help tie up Mozû's retinue perfectly. 

We all wade in and holy shit Mozû is immediately coated in gloopy green poison. In fact, pretty much everyone is poisoned, but the key thing is Mozû is already at half health. I join the fray and land a few lusty blows. In the chaos a grog barrel explodes, taking out a couple of Narûg's body doubles, but I ignore the inferno and keep swinging. This is it. Mozû is finally on his knees. He makes a little speech about how I've got my revenge at last, up comes the finish him button prompt, and… I whiff.

In my excitement to take some of those swanky Ansel screenshots, I accidentally switched from controller to keyboard and mouse. Mozû makes his exit. An on-screen icon tells me he's now about 2,000 ft away, so I set off in pursuit. When I arrive I realize my mistake. My bodyguard is on cooldown and I haven't set up my other orc ambushers either. I make a decent fist of the fight, getting Mozû down to about a third before his poison bombs do their deadly work. And now he's level 34.

This defeat actually doesn't feel too bad because I know I can correct those mistakes. More importantly, I know know he can beaten. Excited, I set up another Nemesis mission with the same team, this time letting Snafû take point to really ram the advantage home. The mission generated is a duel, and the bad news for Mozu is that we will most certainly not be observing Queensbury Rules. In fact it's more like a scene from Oz. My guys jam Mozû against a wall and set about shanking him. His health is shredded in seconds. I sprint over trying to get the final blow, but am still a few feet away when the slo-mo kicks in.
"Snafû King-Slayer killed Mozû the Blight." It's over. He's gone.

The orcs go back into their idle animations and start to disperse. Mozû's lies on the ground, the legendary sword he dropped floating over his now inert body. Instantly I feel like this was a huge mistake. Mozû's death should have been more spectacular. I needed to hear him spit out some final words before I made like a deranged sushi chef on his limbs. I already know that the rest of my playthrough will be robbed of the electric tension I felt when taking every step in Mordor, knowing that the big sack of shit could put in an appearance at any time.

But just as I'm almost overwhelmed by unexpected melancholy for my dead tormentor, I remember Mozû's speech from that first failed kill prompt. "You might think you've beaten me, ranger, but wait until you meet my brother." Of course! Mozû has the Blood Brother perk. That means that somewhere out there his sibling is plotting revenge, and it's bound to be terrible. 

I pray with all my heart that his brother is called Bozû, and that I meet him soon.