Chapter Thirty Four

F I E L D T R I P : ALL ABOARD THE FREIGHT TRAIN

Osiris casually strolled at the back of the line, eyes looking around in interest.

The gear they were given was simple training gear and basic field weapons. Osiris was a bit uncomfortable in the extra gear, but it wasn’t so bad as to alter his movements. He just hated the textures.

Most wore coats over their gear, bodies layered up to take on the unforgiving winds. To the back of their camp laid a frozen tundra. To the front a snow blown taiga forest. Haldir kept to his side and stayed quiet the whole way there.

Osiris could now see why his father chose him.

It wasn’t long before they made it to the forest edge and into a small little pocket clearing right inside the treeline.

Osiris saw the biggest bitch he has ever seen.

He was green, a dark green with bulging veins all over its body. His gear was leather and metal, with fur lining his clothing and poking out of the edges. His hair was long, thin, like trailer park trash. Oily and greasy. The same could be said about his beard.

His nose was wide and stubby, with long pointed ears and bone earrings.

One of his tusks was cracked, and a scar over that side’s white eye was pink. He was bound in thick mana ropes that circled its entire body, giving him a soft glow in the thick forest underbrush. Osiris was shocked too when he realized how fucking tall the trees were.

Osiris was so enamored in the beast that he nearly missed the bell walking up to the platoon’s right. His entire gut dropped. Osiris looked again at the beast, eyes scanning for wounds, weaknesses.

Sarge really did mean it when he said they captured it.

Deep gashes that were refusing to heal bleed dark green blood down his chest, arms, legs, and hands. He looked to be in pain, but when his eyes saw them they were filled with the darkest hate he has ever seen.

There was no aura around the orc. Osiris looked for mana. He was the mana.

“Fuck.”

Some of the soldiers around him looked at him oddly.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

He forgot his fucking claws at camp. It was his rest day. The lesson from that old man returned. He fucking hated that he was right.

“Learn to fight with and without my ass. Fuck. Birth by fire.”

Osiris jumped in place.

People were really looking at him now.

Osiris forced his mana to settle when the man arrived with Haldir in tow.

“Everyone, this is First Sergeant John Witts. He is a Sergeant that works closely with the Guilds in order to navigate this war. We will be seeing a lot of him.”

No the fuck we wont.

Osiris looked for it. He found it. A tiny ball with a key pulsing with tentacles hiding in its center. Osiris looked at the orc. At the base of the elbow there was something square and flat, like a plate. It had a fucking glowing keyhole in the middle. Osiris found that little glowing ball in the man’s front pocket peaking ever so slightly from the seams.

The bell looked down upon him.

He began to sweat.

The men kept talking about the bell and Osiris was getting fidgety. The man noticed.

“It seems one of the cadets is itching to try.”

His eyes closed when he smiled.

The people that weren’t looking at him before were looking at him now. It was.. Actually he was quite used to it.

“Try what.”

Haldir’s eyebrows pinched.

He could have sworn he saw the boy looking at them attentively nearly the entire time while looking at the orc, back and forth like a broken latch.

“We are going to have everyone try cutting the orc.”

Osiris watched a shadow cast over his eyes. It was quite dramatic.

“I’d rather not.”

“But you looked so interested before.”

That’s because you’re a fucking bell.

Osiris bit his tongue.

On one hand he could easily sacrifice another to take the first hit, but on the other hand he could try it and see what happens. His mana purred at the idea.

“Do I just go up and hit it?”

“Try cutting it first.”

Osiris walked around and went past the men.

The eye in the sky smiled down upon him.

There was a bit of chatter, but everyone quieted as he approached the body. Osiris looked up. He could run laps across the orc’s skin from how big the asshole was.

“They really chose a big one.”

Osiris whispered.

It was daunting to think he could survive this.

The orc made eye contact and smiled. Face contorting into a seedy grin. The boy plunged the knife into its skin and ripped. It.. barely scratched the beast. Osiris could see it healing before it could even bleed.

He looked at the other wounds and wondered how the fuck those happend.

He did it again, harder.

He managed to get the tiniest drop of blood.

Progress.

It probably helped that the orc was already wounded, but he will take this blessing in disguise.

“Look at that! Now try to hit it with some mana.”

Osiris readied his kick and then saw the little white key of light shoot into the silver plate. He didn’t even see the hit coming.

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The trees were as hard as rocks.

Osiris felt his lungs empty out and compress in, squeezing him for everything he was worth. Then a second wave of power hit, pushing him further into the dark brown wood and slamming his head back, blacking him out for ten seconds.

.

..

.

.

..

.

..

There were screams when he woke up.

Osiris felt his head spin as he tried to sit up. He felt like throwing up. He slid further down the tree. Head on the roots. He could smell the color green.

His mind was racing, blood was pumping, eyes were shaking. He felt like his bones were rattling.

Osiris had.. hoped this place would be different.

“Welcome back kids!”

The room was dark. Osiris sat on a plastic shopping box, copyrighted logo and all. His eyes were glued to the telly, burning as he could not look away nor blink.

Socotra was back.

“Isn’t it funny how the past always repeats itself.”

The boy, Adam, ran from a giant fish with teeth.

“Over and over the same story plays and plays and plays and plays and plays-”

The television glitched. Socotra was crying. The image returned.

“I know you thought it would be different but its-”

“Not. It’s not different.”

Osiris laughed, loud and boisterous.

Hakim thought the boy was dead until he heard the little fucker laugh.

“Sergeant what do we do?!”

His soldiers were surrounding him in a scattered mess.

“Retreat to base!”

There was no way they could survive this if they stayed. Haldir and Hakim looked for the First Sergeant. He was gone.

Someone grunted as they ran into a forcefield.

They were canned in.

“Fuck.”

The orc had already taken one eighth of his troops. They all came for training. This was supposed to be a guaranteed secure catch. He reviewed it himself.

Hakim frowned.

“Listen up! Scatter and defend! Me and Haldir will try to buy enough time for backup!”

He hoped that’s where the first sergeant ran off to. The fucking coward.

“It’s not different, that’s the joke.”

Osiris wiped away his laughter tears.

“God I’m an idiot.”

The screams continued to play.

“And here I thought I’d only have to worry about one enemy.”

Osiris pushed a palm into his eye.

He should know he will never be free until he burns that kingdom to the fucking ground.

The boy sat up like an undead. He was heaving steam into the air while holding a perverted grin. Vep watched the boy flop his body forward, steady himself on his feet, then take off at a speed his eyes could not follow.

Hakim hissed as he saw the crazy Prince run head first into the active combat area.

“Your kid is fucking crazy, Haldir.”

“What?”

Haldir then saw him in the fray. He had a grin on his face. He was dodging and rolling, not even caring or watching for his fellow men.

Osiris ran his hands along the weapons of fallen soldiers, collecting as many as he could carry. The variety was like picking cotton on a field.

Using a blind spot the boy ran up behind the orc, using his distracted head, and slammed the first weapon into his ankle. Osiris jumped and dodged the kick, using his free hand to hop his way up his calf and aiming another weapon to lodge in his knee.

The orc flicked the knife from his knee before aiming a wide swing angled his way.

Osiris dodged and felt the air from his blow sweep up and through his clothes, ruffling them wildly as he jumped to the ground and moved.

He needed to be faster.

Osiris ran through the bodies, not caring if they fell or moved from his way. He was only worried about surviving and if they wanted to stand around and die they can be his guests. Osiris saw a hit he could not dodge. He ran ahead of it, saw a shield, and forced him and the soldier to turn and take it.

“Brace yourself!”

The soldier could only do what was told, eyes streaming tears down his dirty face. They took the hit. They actually…The soldier could feel his teeth vibrate.

But they survived.

Osiris left the man to grit his teeth as he laughed and ran around the orc’s side.

“Missed me! Ha!”

Haldir nor Hakim could risk moving closer. They both realized everyone was in the way.

“Retreat to the wall! I repeat, retreat to the wall! Get out of there!”

The bodies moved but not fast enough. He was now down to half his men.

“MOVE IT!”

Haldir watched the Prince fill the joints of the orc with the weapons littering the floor. No matter the weapon, he was grabbing it and jamming it right into key movement areas on the orcs body. Due to the orc’s own wounds he was having trouble keeping up as the boy relentlessly went after him.

“HA! Missed me again!”

Osiris cackled as he dodged another blow. Soldiers carried others as they all tried to rush to the wall. The Prince finally took a hit.

The orc threw him up and high into the bark of a spruce tree. He used the pressure to flip until his feet braced for the hit. The tree groaned.

Osiris’s face gave Haldir chills.

“My turn.”

The boy said in a sing-song voice.

Like a fire demon the child ping balled off the trees, using them to build up pressure before he began to stomp the weapons further into the orc’s joints.

Faster.

The orc tried to fight him, but his small body was running laps around him, even managing to dodge his inner arm as the orc tried to trap him between.

“Too slow.”

Osiris giggled as the orc’s face pinched.

Osiris pushed his grin further.

“More.”

Osiris’s speed kept steady as he added and cemented more weapons into the orc’s flesh. No one could do anything but watch the boy stomp the orc out. There was nothing they could do. Hakim and Haldir had a responsibility for the whole of the unit. Prince or not, they could not risk their lives for him. Well Hakim can’t. He looked at Haldir who was stuck watching with the rest of them. He assumed Haldir realized he too would get in the way if he went.

The kid kept it up until every single one of the orc’s joints could not move. Not even a flinch was possible after Osiris severed their connection from the body.

The boy then used the orc’s own hair to hold him in place as he shoved his foot right into the orc's eye.

The being screamed and flailed.

More and more the kid kept stomping, even when it was clear the orc was dead.

Sleuck.

Osiris felt alive.

“Holy shit that felt amazing!”

He lifted his head back and ran a hand through his blood stained hair, sculpting it back with blood.

“Is that it?”

Osiris stumbled across the orc’s chest, cheeks flushed red, eyes blown. He was running off of a mana high.

“I still have a minute or two left in me.”

The boy’s face looked mad.

For a second Hakim feared that he would come for them. The boy suddenly moved and flashed across the room behind them, aiming a kick straight towards their scouts’ faces.

Back up has arrived.

The troll caught the foot.

Osiris twisted and aimed a foot up to his jaw.

The troll knocked him out cold with a swift chop to his neck. Haldir and Hakim both walked up to the troll to apologize.

“Feisty little one.” The troll looked at the orc corpse. “Seems we had little to worry about.”

“Did the First Sergeant get you?”

“First Sergeant, that little rat? No, we felt the orc’s mana before the barrier went up. We came as soon as we felt it.”

“Thank you.”

Hakim looked at Haldir as he took the boy from the troll with shaken hands.

“You shouldn’t worry too much. The boy’s mana was almost out. He only had a minute left in him.”

Hakim looked at the corpse behind them.

The boy did that in two minutes and twenty four seconds, and he still had a minute left in him.

The troll became curious about the human’s pale face, but it wasn’t his place.

The boy groaned.

He was already waking up.

“Let’s head back to base.” The troll held a tusk. “I have a feeling something else is going to happen today.”