The sky is beautiful. Stars decorating every inch of it as no lights from the ground can obstruct this distracting display of wonder, but that’s what it is
Distracting.
I turn my gaze back to the fire still burning in the middle of the town.
5 orcs are sitting around it, making their long shadows dance with every flick of the flame.
I had enough time till sunset to rest up.
My plan? None existent…
Well if silent infiltration and assassination can be called a plan..
13 orcs are awake so killing the other 30 something that should be sleeping will be a piece of cake ‘hopefully’. Then I’ll just have to wing it ‘somehow’.
It’s going to work out somehow right? I try to steel myself for what’s to come, when I can’t help but think of myself for a moment of retrospection.
I was against violence in all its forms and appearances. I never hit somebody in my life, that’s just the kind of human I was. That’s how my parents raised me to be and that’s how people around me saw me as.
I wasn’t perfect, not at all. I had anger issues sure and a beautiful imagination in which the antagonist reached a cruel end every time, but I kept them bottled up and played nice.. I was a pacifist by heart for every intents and purposes.
Right know? I think that’s exactly what happened..I lost it, my heart I mean. When I fought that creature two days ago, yeah it was weak. But I was weaker both physically and mentally.
I’m still one of the weakest existences out there. No denying that.
The all important difference however, is that that I changed or more like had to change my mentality.
I start to reminisce about the sensation of my hand getting a feel for the squishy fruit called brain , how easy my fist was able to rip it into pieces after the protective layer called skull broke.
It fulfilled me.
I’m more now.
I’m whole..
***
The door creaks as I try to open it as slowly as possible before I stop abruptly as I flinch and try to listen for any sounds that could tell me the status of the fat green and smelly creature on the other side of this door.
How do I know when the door isn’t even opened? Fat and green, cause I saw it through the key hole and smelly well because I’m not afflicted by anosmia..
Not wanting to make anymore problematic and awkward I just rip the door open and am relieved that that produced the least sound.
I slowly creep next to the unsuspecting prey after surveying the room and acknowledging that nothing can interfere with our little fun time I casually whip out a huge kitchen knife as my old carving one has become dull after the abuse in the last days and just stab into its soft throat without blinking an eye.
‘hmmm nice~’
I slowly open my eyes that couldn’t help but close because of the sensation only to have piercing yellow eyes startle me.
Out of reflex I roll to the side, which spared me the possible death grip of its arms that are now used to try slowly hefting itself up. I just stare in wonder as I am sure that the neck wound is critical.
It falls back down again with a thud coughing up some blood as I can hear it wheezing through it’s blood clogged gullet choking with every breath it takes. It tries to stop the blood flow by putting pressure on its wound which is visibly receding…
’oh shit…..’
‘Why didn’t I think of this’
Reprimanding myself for forgetting one crucial aspect of orcs..
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
’Their regeneration!’
Quickly finding my hold on the kitchen utensil I jump to find my place next to the creature. I try to rip its hands away from the wounds, but ultimately fail as I additionally did not take its inhuman strength into consideration, which also should not have slipped my mind considering its humongous arms are as big if not bigger than my thigh. Not even adding it’s fantasy boosted strength to the equation. I do the only thing I found myself good at since this all started and start to ruthlessly stab the 12inches of steel at its hands.
At first It’s hard, blood flies everywhere as I repeatedly get stopped by its steel like bones, but I push through until after the 8th stab or so its fingers get severed and I reach the rapidly healing neck wound only to reset the severity.
I see its eyes dim and eye lids slowly close just to have them rip open again in the next second.
‘what should I do I… I….!’
Panic encroaching me I change my previous reverse grip on the handle and start to saw away.
Blood, sinew and flesh covering my hands I work my way down.
Its thrashing and wheezing falling on death ears, I don’t even notice it stopping as I cut through what looks like its windpipe when I finally reach its spine.
I even wanted to call it case closed when I just see its flesh starting to knit together anew.
‘you gotta be shitting me’
After trying to saw through a vertebra with even more vigor only to have its flesh build around the foreign object. I mess its hard work up again as I thrash around in frustration, making an even bigger mess around myself.
Calming myself down I direct my energy to my hands and just lifted the butt of the knife to trash its spine into pieces when I notice its limbs stop twitching and its blood stop spraying through its severed veins.
Falling back onto my behind, my breathing slows to a normal level, when I try to assess the situation.
‘is it dead?...’
..
…
‘no movement’ ‘good’
First things first, no noise indicates that the orcs upstairs have woken up.
Concentrating on my eyesight instead of my hearing I just sweep my gaze through the room noticing the state of it.
I flinch when a blood drop falls onto my cheek. Looking up I just sigh and rethink how I’m supposed to win this if this first kill is any indication of what’s to come. I slowly carve its core out, happy that at least this thing seems to want to liven up my mood.
Not only is it the shiniest of all cores to this point, but it also comes with strange structures aka runes carved into it, which I’ve only seen buds of till now. Stashing it away, I reach a sudden epiphany when I find the Numbingstar / paralyzing plant in my bag…
‘this is supposed to paralyze cells in a localized effect right…’
After searching for another lone victim in one of the many rooms in this house I stumble upon one in what looks like the office and try to kill it swiftly with a poison coated stab to the heart. It seems to be working, but isn’t perfect which is why I give it a few more stabs to widen the wound before stepping back.
I notice that its piercing eyes that opened the second it felt its life dwindling slowly close again. I wait for five more minutes just to be absolutely sure and as I do not notice any signs of life or brain activity I carve its core out, stash it away and start the silent calamity.
About 90 minutes later I come down from my high and try to catch my breath after sitting my ass down and loosening my vice like grip on the red stained knife.
‘so I’ve killed exactly 34 orcs, the majority where sleeping while I had to swiftly dispatch of 5 annoyances lurking about or fucking around…whatever…’ They where awake which made it a little harder but not impossible. The tricky part was not waking the others up by first slicing the vocal cords before restraining the monstrosity by paralyzing important muscles in each appendage, before finally going for the heart. The good thing was that this suburban village only has simple wooden doors as backdoors helping me with swift and silent infiltration. It would be way harder if I had to force my way in through other means.
But the truth is the ugliest part isn’t even over yet, as I have 13 fuckers stationed around the village..
If I’m lucky the most I have to fight at the same time is 4 as the guards stationed at the corner points of the village amount to two per corner and the 5 orcs at the fire will hopefully let me surprise attack at least one before engaging…..
‘This seemed so easy…’
‘Maybe I should just hide in the woods? And make the tire each other out as they have to remain vigilant?...’
‘Actually that sounds like a sound idea! Why didn’t I think of that earlier’ After a quick facepalm and a short rest I grab some preserved food out of the kitchen before tracing my steps back into the houses where I’ve found an axt as well as my and others power banks.
Taking stock of my loot I count 3 power banks (Pauls, mine and somebody else’s), 3 containers to hold plants in, some clothes, some preserved food, some other not noteworthy stuff and 2 additional kitchen knives as well as another premium carving knife stashed away in my new backpacker bag. Not to forget my 34 true rewards in their own personal pocket, but when I tried to refill my water bottle I don’t even get to have a drop as the pumping system isn’t working..
Not letting my mood take a hit I sneak out of the backdoor through which I entered before rushing past a few houses following my former rout before jumping into the tall grass and concealing my retreat by going prone.
After reaching tree line I breath out releasing the tension I held for the past 1 to 2 hours smiling at the feeling of a successful endeavour I roll my shoulders trying to alleviate the stress of carrying 34 cores and miscellaneous stuff on my back.
Not stopping I continue onward following the map on my charging phone to the next water body to get some water both for drinking and washing as I do not only smell of death but look like it if my figure can be used as any indication, seeing as blood is dripping from me every time I move.
Turning my attention back to my phone and the power banks I happily note that I probably have enough battery to last me 7 days if used sparingly and maybe even longer if I only use it when really necessary. Now that I think about it maybe I can find a solar powered charger in a city or something.
‘I’ll add that to my to do list as I wanted to set the closest city as my next destination anyway’
“Now then..”
Treading through the soft damp forest I’m thinking of maybe listening to some good oll music after all these tense days as a reward before going to sleep.
As excited as I am I do not think it’s wise to cultivate or try myself at some poison refining if I’m this tired..
After my business, I ley against the somewhat soft bark of this 6 meter tall fantasy tree Checking the time, its 10 o’clock so after some relaxing Sheeran or Lo-Fang I’ll just get some well deserved shuteye.