"Mr. Max," Helen murmured.

"Stay close to me, baby. I won't let them hurt you. Just trust me."

He felt her nod against his back. He felt her tremble. She trusted him completely, but that didn't mean she wasn't afraid.

He shouldn't have accepted a mission like this, not so soon. There was no point in regret, but he regretted it anyway. It had only been a few days since Helen had lost her mother to the orcs, in one of the most brutal and traumatizing ways possible, because he had drawn her into this. He cared for her. He wanted to protect her with all his heart.

So... why?

Once again, regrets were useless. Max clenched his jaw. A green cascade descended upon them, bearing hundreds of teeth, brandishing steel.

He defended as best he could, back to back. With Helen, he had faced the same number of bastards inside that cave, if not more, but there it had been much easier. Max had had room to maneuver, to deceive his opponents. To run and hide, and only take the battles he was sure he could win.

Here he had none of those luxuries and privileges. It was open field. He could only withstand the waves.

An attack broke through his guard before he could get anywhere. Helen wrapped his body in a shield, like when she fought against the white serpent. That's why the weapon merely bounced off his skin.

If he had breath to spare, he would compliment her on her quick reaction, he thought. But he didn't.

Besides, one of the monsters grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the ground. A hard, dry impact. At that moment, all other thoughts exploded in his head, scattering hopelessly.

He was protected, but his little one wasn't.

Max clenched his teeth even harder. Fighting against these savage beasts, he felt almost like one of them. Max intercepted the mace blow that would have made the little one's head explode: a precise and strong strike, holding the weapon with both hands.

Max broke it into more than twelve pieces and then plunged the sword into its heart, killing it almost instantly.

"Protect yourself," Max said. "I can take the hits. Worry about yourself, please."

Helen said nothing in response, but Max felt the shield vanish. Like a weight being lifted, though minuscule.

"Very good, thank you for listening to me," Max said.

The monsters threw themselves at him again and again. There came a point where numerical superiority became a disadvantage, and they had obviously crossed it. If there weren't so many orcs, ironically, they might have defeated him already. In their bloodthirsty eagerness to fight, they only got in each other's way.

They would have been more effective with significantly reduced numbers. It was almost funny. Well, actually it wasn't funny at all. These were their lives he was talking about. They were hanging by a thread, and all because the bastard leader wasn't there, wasn't where he was supposed to be.

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Max dodged a blow, stepping back. Without meaning to, he dodged the next one as well, jumping over the weapon—that is, a spear. Attacks were coming from all directions.

Max didn't have much experience as a warrior. However, current circumstances forced him to react on instinct. It would be completely impossible to keep up if he had to think through what he was doing step by step.

He could only hand the reins to his instincts and cross his fingers hoping they wouldn't end up crashing.

A deadly dance. Except there was nothing elegant about it. It was a stupid expression. If this resembled anything, it wasn't a dance, but an execution ritual. The Mayans or some such nonsense.

What did he know? Like he said: he had no time to think, only react.

They were retreating, giving ground. Taking down all these bastards would be highly improbable, even with Helen's help. Fortunately, he didn't have to do that.

He just had to find the head of this enormous snake. Where was he? Where the hell could he be?

"I wish I could turn invisible," he thought, barely blocking another blow. What he had seemingly specialized in without realizing it in his old world. However, the experience hadn't served him at all so far in this new one.

"That's life, it takes many turns. Especially if it sees a chance to screw you over."

"We won't kill you very quickly," said one of the orcs, shouting to be heard above the cacophony of the fight. "We'll tear off your arms and legs, but we'll keep you alive with just one eye, so you can see how we split her in half." The orc laughed. "Literally and figuratively."

Max split the orc in question in half. Only literally, nothing figurative here.

Helen released a discharge of water. Like a wave, it pushed all the enemies backward. It unbalanced them: some lost their weapons, some fell. They didn't go very far and it didn't do much in itself, but it provided the opportunity to finish off more than half a dozen before they could get up again. That was something. A lot, actually.

"You think I'm easy prey?" Max shouted. "You have no idea!"

He didn't wait for an answer. Max lifted Helen and started running, while the girl continued shooting using water magic.

His blood was boiling. A strangely large part of him wanted to plant his boots firmly on the ground and not stop. Until all his enemies were in pieces on the ground or he himself had fallen. Whatever happened first.

An irrational part, he didn't have to win the fight against so many. He was here to kill just one.

And apparently he was anywhere else. What he had to do was lose sight of them, be clever and stealthy, and search for him again.

This was about assassination, not a siege full of blind violence. He had to be better if he wanted to survive. If he wanted to give Helen a bright future. Any future at all.

And he wanted to. He already wanted it more than his own future.

It should be an exaggeration. He had known her for only a couple of days, no more. But it wasn't any exaggeration. It was the pure, hard truth.

It wasn't easy. But Max slipped away from the orcs. Returned to the cover of the trees and the undergrowth. The canopy of shadows cast by the leaves. The heat and pressure on them. On both of them.

I wish I could turn invisible, he thought again.

First step achieved.

The next was to figure out where that bastard was. Apparently, after all, that would be the hardest part.

It could be that he had been wrong from the start. That he had underestimated how clever the orcs were.

They had fallen like a meteor on the tent that was, obviously, the leader's. What if the bastard had expected the attackers to think exactly that? What if he was in a tent that looked like it belonged to any ordinary soldier?

The orcs hadn't given up. They were still searching for them. Right now, Helen and Max were hidden in the crown of a tree. It was said that living beings rarely looked up. He hoped that was true.

"What do we do now?" Max asked very quietly. He was always open to good ideas.

"I... don't know. He might be with the main force in the middle of the battlefield. It makes sense that he stayed behind, waiting in the camp, awaiting the spoils. But I don't know. At the same time, orcs like violence..."