Chapter 25

Invasion

“Quickly capture them!” I look behind me to see a group of orcs were chasing us.

Jeez they look piss, I guess they didn’t take me trying to kill their leader too kindly.

“Max, where the hell are we going?!”

“Just keep going straight, we’re almost out the forest!”

As we were running, I notice a light was beaming through the dark forest in front of us. Since I doubt anyone is crazy to be wandering in the forest at night, the light must be coming from the town. It looks like we made it.

"I got you!” An orc jumps from behind a tree and wildly swings his club at me. I drop to the ground and roll underneath his attack. Before he could recover from his swing, I quickly got back up and impale him in the back with my sword.

“Holy shit that nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“C’mon sis, we need to move!” I look back around to see Max and Aaron were now ahead of me. I yank my sword out the orc’s back and ran towards the light that was shining through the forest.

Relief swept over me when we got out the forest, but that quickly faded away once I saw that the town ahead of us gates were closed.

“Why the hell are the gates closed Max?!”

“I don’t know, maybe the girls from the cave warn the town about the orcs.”

“Wait if the city is on lockdown, does that mean they won’t let us in?” Aaron ask worryingly.

“They’ll let us in, they have to.” Max ran ahead of us and started banging on the gates. “Hey! Open the gates up!!”

Max continue to bang on the gate until a guard finally notice us.

“What the hell are you kids doing out there?”

“Listen, you have to hurry up open the gate, we’re being chase by orcs.”

“What’s going on over there?” Another guardsman walks up to the gate.

“We need to open the gate, these kids are stuck out there and they’re being chase by orcs.”

“You heard the order, these gates stay shut. Besides, these kids might be spies for the orcs.”

“You got to be fucking kidding me.” I reach into my jacket and pull my ID out. “You see this?!” I slam my ID into the gate. “We’re register adventures, now open the damn gate up!”

“You heard her, open the gate. I’ll take full responsibility for whatever happens.”

“Fine, it’s your head.” The second guard reluctantly walks away.

“Just hang on, the gate will be open in a few seconds.”

“Yea? We’ll probably be dead in a few seconds.”

“Sis look!” Following what Aaron was pointing at, I turn around to see a huge group of orcs were standing at the edge of the forest. Strangely, the orcs didn’t charge at us, they just stood at the edge of the forest staring at us.

“Why aren’t they attacking us?” Aaron ask.

“Simple really, they know they’re outnumbered.” The guard point his finger upwards. Confusingly, I look up to see a group of archers were on top of the wall. Seeing that they were at a disadvantage, the orcs walk back into the forest.

“It looks like they’re giving up.” Max lets out a sigh of relief.

“I doubt that." They’re probably regrouping so they can launch a proper assault on the town.

“Alright, the gate is opening, you three hurry up and get in before the orcs return.” The gate made a creaking sound as it slowly lifted off the ground. The three of us quickly crawl underneath the gate before it was fully up.

“Seriously, what were you three doing out there?”

“As I said before we’re adventurers. We were doing a mission for our client here and before we knew it, we were getting chase by a horde of orcs.”

“Aren’t you kids too young to be doing dangerous stuff like this?” The guard lets out a sigh while shaking his head.

“No, were old enough to be adventurers.” Aaron reach into his pocket and pull out his id

“Listen, you kids lucky I was here to open the gate for you, which I wasn’t supposed to do by the way. So why don’t you guys run on home before someone with a higher authority comes and start asking you questions.”

"Will do, thanks for letting us in.” I wave my hand at the guard while leaving.

“Kids these days…” The guard whisper to himself as we walk away.

.

.

“Phew, it’s finally over.” Max lets out a sigh and flops down on a bench. “I lost count of how many times I nearly died today.”

"Yea, there were a lot of close calls, but somehow we made it.” Aaron also lets out a sigh and flops down on the bench. I watch as the two idiots lazily melt on the bench.

I’m not sure if I’m imaging things, but it feels like they got closer. What the hell were they doing when I got capture?

Everyone that was in the area stare at the two kids as they sunk into the bench. I don’t blame them, if I saw a kid that had blood all over his uniform talking to another wielding a weapon about how they nearly died, I would also stare at them with concern.

After comfortably sinking into the bench, the two looks up and stare at me. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the two separated from each other creating small space on the bench. From the looks of it, they want me to sit between them. Ignoring their invitation, I sat down on a bench that directly face them.

“I know it may look like it, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”

“What do you mean by that?” Max ask.

“The reason why there’s so many orcs gathering around is because they plan on taking over this town. They planned on doing it secretly, but since everyone know they’re here now, they’ll probably lunch an attack soon.”

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“Wait that means this area that’s full of innocent people will become a battleground.”

“Yea, that’s pretty much what’s going to happen pretty soon.”

“… I have to warn them.” Max jumps up from the bench and started running.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I’m going to go warn my parents!” Max shouted while he ran. After staring at him for a while, I finally pick myself up from the bench.

“C’mon Aaron, let’s get moving.”

“Where we going?”

“We’re getting the hell out of here.”

“What about the town, are we not going to help?” Aaron gave me the same stupid determined look he had when he went to rescue that girl.

“Seriously, what the hell is with you and trying to protect people you don’t know?”

“But sis, aren’t you the same way? You risk your life to free everyone that was imprison in the cave.”

“You seem to be misunderstanding something. The only reason why I save those girls was so they can distract the orcs, making it easier for me to kill their leader, which didn’t work because you and Max had to interfere, thanks for that by the way. Unlike you, I try to plan my actions out, which I’m hoping you’ll do from now on, because if you keep throwing common sense away and try to save people I could give two shits about, you’re going to get yourself and most importantly me kill, do you understand?”

“….What the heck is that?” Aaron looks up at the sky.

“Don’t try to change the subject.”

“No seriously, what is that?!” Curiosity getting the better of me, I look up at the sky to see a huge object flying towards us at an alarming speed.

“Is that a shooting star?” Everyone in the area gathers around and stare at the approaching object. After staring at the object for a bit, my heart drop once I realize what it was.

“Aaron get down!! It’s a bom-” Before I could finish my sentence, the bomb lands into a nearby building blowing up everything in that vicinity. The shockwave from the explosion knocks me off my feet.

“Shit, the orcs…” I knew they was going to attack soon, but I didn’t think it would be this fast.

I look around to see that everything that was near the bomb was destroy and everything that wasn’t was now on fire.

“Aaron!” I frantically look around the burning area hoping I could find him.  “Aaron!!” Don’t tell me that dumbass got killed by a stupid explosion.

I struggle to pick myself up from the ground, but my legs refuse to move. How pathetic even though I was a good distance away from the explosion I still somehow took damage. My entire body is aching and my ears are ringing from the deafening explosion.

As I kept struggling to get up, I notice someone stuck there hand out in front of me, I look up to see Aaron was standing next to me.

“Jeez, where were you, you didn’t hear me calling you?”

“No, I’m sorry.” I grab on unto his hand and let him pull me up.

“We need to move now.” I try to take a step forward, but end up losing my balance. Aaron quickly stuck his arm out and catches me before I fell back to the ground.

"You ok?”

“I’m fine, just give me a sec.” I took a few deep breath until my strength finally return to my legs. “Alright, let’s go.”

“But these people need our help.”

“Are you serious right now, did you not hear what I just told you?”

“Yea but…”

“But nothing. If we stay here and they launch another bomb then we’re done for.”

“…” Aaron takes a look around him, after taking a good look at the destroy area he closes his eyes and take a deep breath. “Ok, where are we heading?”

Good, he’s actually listening to me for once.

“Where going to find Max, hopefully he knows a way we can sneak out of here.”

As we escape from the burning area, we push our way through tons of people that was running either towards the destruction or away from it. After making it to the hill that led Max’s mansion we took a short break.

“Jeez, this town went to hell huh?”

“….” Aaron quietly watches everyone run in a panic.

Does he really want to help people that bad? I guess he completely inherited James kindness, although if he keeps this up he’ll end up just like him. I still remember the day he left home. At first he never planned on leaving, but the moment he heard that people were in trouble he pack up everything and left. And when he came back he was missing an arm and his personality change probably due to trauma. In the end, I still have no idea what happen to him, all I know is some guy name Alexander was involve.

“C’mon Aaron.” I lightly pat him on the back. “Let’s hurry up and find Max.”

After reaching the top of the hill, I was relieve to see Max’s mansion was intact. I ran through the open gate, but stop once I realize Aaron wasn’t near me. I turn around to see he was standing at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the city.

I nearly yell at him again, but decided against it, since I also wanted to see what shape the city was in. I walk over to the cliff to see that a part of the city was on fire. But I didn’t care about that, I wanted to know if the orcs invaded the city yet. I slowly scan the city until my eyes fell on the gate. And sure enough the orcs destroy it. The guards that was supposed to be protecting the gates were easily getting slaughter by orcs.

“There’s no way we can save this town is there?”

“No I’m afraid not. This town is doomed.”