CHAPTER 24 - Just do it yourself! I
I am done.
I am done with playing it safe and roaming around without assessing the real problem that’s been running through my mind.
¿The base?
No
¿The new friends and companions I made?
No
¿Monsters?
No either.
The only problem that I have is not knowing how my family really is, and that's gonna stop right here. I am leaving right now to look into it, and I am not coming back till I find them.
I won’t be able to rely on the people at base. So what? Just do it yourself!
I pack all the things I will be needing, which aren’t many. In fact, right now, I don't even have my long-sword to bring with me, so I just take the knives, a few rations of food and a makeshift spear that I will be borrowing from James workshop.
I leave him a note telling him to save the things I ordered and everything he needs to know. I could leave a message to another one of the leaders of the base to let them know in advance of my departure, but it would be useless.
I am not going to change my stance on this, and they would only make it more cumbersome and tiring so I might as well leave without a warning.
They are wrong if they think I need them more than I need James and his apprentice.
“Hey, you come out!” I speak loudly enough for the person that is chasing me to know, but not to alert the people sleeping in the nearby houses.
The person in charge of tailing me doesn’t seem to want to come out and I am about to leave before she shows up.
‘Did I know where she was? No, obviously no, yet I was sure they had someone keeping an eye on me 24/7 so it wasn’t difficult to figure it out.’
“You tell Jordan, James or whoever you have as a boss that they are forbidden to follow me.”
She’s about to retort, but I already wasted too much time so I just go on.
“I will be leaving to take care of some matters, I will come back, no idea when though.”
“Just pass on the word that I either die or come back. No use in saying more, see ya.” I declare as I start running to the wall and jump over the tall wooden barricade with clearly better control now over my strength.
I keep on sprinting through the forest until I get to the main road, a couple of hundred meters after the checkpoint on the entrance of the sand path. No idea whatsoever if they even tried to send someone after me, not that it matters at this point.
Even with the small backpack on my back and the weapons strapped to my body, I keep running with ease. Showing just how much better my body really is already in comparison to the average one.
The moon shines brightly on the sky, making it the perfect night to go around at this hour. I don’t stop running till I get to the city itself, where I just decrease the speed a little bit and instead keep myself undercover as much as I can as I advance.
I am aware that the night is scarier than the day when it comes to exploring and even more knowing full well that there are probably some monster species that I am unaware of.
However, I start with the search, hoping that this time it will be the last one.
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Hours pass, and I haven’t seen a soul.
At first, I thought it may be that the monsters were just sleeping in whatever place they might call home, yet now I have to degress.
After treading for a few hours, I have yet to see any kind of clue or sighting of any of them. No trails, no corpses, no dens or packs of sleeping animals or monsters, not even a single living thing is out here like me.
That though, only makes it creepier. I am sure they are somewhere, hiding. I have not tried to look for them, I am just out here running around as stealthy as I can be looking into any building or place that seems suspicious.
I can understand a low amount of beasts and monsters roaming in the night, but the absence of even a speck of their presence alerts me that there is some kind of threat that I am unaware of.
It’s been a while since I have slept in the perimeter of the city or close enough to notice it, but even now I can’t see any signs of something out of the ordinary so I just push forward, just a lot more careful of anything weird in the surroundings.
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A couple of hours pass by and I keep the pace. I am not much as running as I am sneaking around every corner with haste. Still no hint about what’s going on though.
At this point there is still an hour or so till the sun starts poking through the horizon so I relax a bit, if there was something at this point that I should be scared of at night, I probably lucked out this time.
I watch as my assumption was right, hours go by and I start to progressively see more and more monsters of all kinds on the streets. Whatever was scaring them off is now no more.
I avoid getting in the way of any groups of monsters that I see to not tire myself and waste time fighting. I do focus on the equipment that some of the orcs I go by have on them, keeping an eye out for any useful equipment they may have.
I am in dire need of a high-quality weapon, I wouldn’t think twice if I could get my hands on a good enough shield.
However I need to plan it, if I am to fight a group of orcs I need to have a weapon up to the task, and while my actual spear it’s not that bad, it is subpar at best. Definitely not a weapon I would use on my own accord to go against a group of orcs, even more of the stronger ones.
Time flies by and I have lunch before going back to it. I keep up with my schedule, at this speed I will be able to make a full circle around the city in 3 days. It’s not the best as I have no idea where to search, but I need to start somewhere.
If I get lucky I may find a clue or two before I finish up with the full circle.
At noon I catch sight of my new weapon, two in fact. I spy on a group of 6 orcs of the stronger variant and make out what seems to be the pair of axes with the best quality I have ever seen.
I do not doubt my skills, but it's gonna be a hard fight. I have already fought against bigger groups of the weaker orcs and even against those two armored panthers, but this is a whole different scenario.
I am stronger, yet I do not have a strong enough weapon to face them head-on nor do I have the chance to have a 1vs1 fight against each one. It's only me versus them.
I choose which one of them all should I take first to steal its weapon from with a surprise attack, yet it’s hard to choose. I doubt between two of them, one that wields a fine spear with a purple gleant dot in its pointy head and the other one with his dual wielding axes.
In the end, I decide on killing the one with the spear first. It’s the only one with a medium to long range attack as all the others ones either hold a blunt weapon or are directly bare handed.
The first thing I do is to quietly position myself at the blind spot of my initial target, the spear guy. I ponder if I should start by throwing the spear or a knife to kill the guy, but I end up choosing a knife.
A spear might seem like the best choice, but taking into account my spear-throwing skills I prefer to play it safe and instead use a knife that I am sure to hit. Obviously, with their thick hide a normal knife won’t suffice.
I imbue the knife with qi till I feel it leak the weapon. I hold it with my right hand, which right now, is impregnated with a high density of it too and wait.
I wait for the perfect moment, for the moment he moves as little as it may be and then throw it. It flies through the air at an amazing speed that even surprises me, getting soon enough to the monster and passing through him, leaving a gaping hole in the nape area.
The monsters start to look around the moment they feel they are under attack. By the time the nearest one wants to give a roar of warning, letting them know of my position I am already behind him.
I try to slit its throat with my knife, but this time I lack speed in comparison to my attack before and the guy manages to dodge it.
He then swings the club he is holding at my head and I barely have time to block it. What I do have time to, is to think about is a counterattack, so even if it is painful I set apart the need to scream and hold onto the club with my left arm.
The monster ends up holding to it and in the process giving me free space to work with, and I for sure do.
I deliver a strong blow with my right fist to his neck, where their windpipe is located, just the same as us human beings. I know that because I memorize every single vital spot of the monsters I examine, and while this variant of orcs is a little bit bigger, the rest probably remains the same.
I deal such a strong blow that I break the organ apart with the attack and make him die amidst coughs. ‘Now onto the next one.’
It all goes according to plan, but I already used a lot of my strength to deliver such fatal strikes and I can’t be wasteful anymore from now on. I start by solving the problem with my damage output by grabbing the spear of my first victim, getting an advantage over them too with the long range of it.
I make sure that none of them rushed at me and prepare to deal with the 4 monsters that remain.
‘Now the hard part starts.’
Two of them rush at me, one from the left and another from the right while the other two come at me in a straight line, weapons raised. One of them being the owner of the pair of axes and the other one the last one holding a blunt weapon.
The two on my sides dash at me at the same time to try and mislead my attention from the other one, clearly looking for a close fight that will make me drop my weapon. However, I won’t fall for that, I am not losing my only advantage right now that easily.
I raise my spear and point its shining purple end at the orc on my right. I feint a charge at him, making him raise both arms in an attempt to catch the spear on its way to him, but the thrust never comes.
Instead of thrusting the spear at him, I opt for throwing it over him while I slide on the floor on his right and slash the respective calf as I go with one of my knives.
Once the guy is on the floor by the attack, I propel myself at the falling spear and pierce at his back, making him stumble forward with the spear still imbued in its back.
I am about to twist the spear while it is still inside, yet I only feel a punch to my ribs on my right as I discover that the other bare-handed fighter, the only female of their group, has already caught up with us.
I can’t react at all as I get knocked back with enough strength to split in half any other human being, barely hanging on with my empowered body as I fly and crash on the nearest wall.
My head feels cloudy after being smashed on the wall, but fortunately, I get back on the game soon enough to duck a punch to the face.
A punch that doesn’t stop on the wall and breaks through to the other side, along with the orc’s body that can’t stop herself from falling with the rubble and smashes right through it.
Just like that I get a sore ribcage and lose most of my remaining qi, leaving me to deal with her and the rest while running on fumes, but I know that I am better than this, and I will prove it.