CHAPTER 25 - Just do it yourself! II

Diary of an Unknown - Strugglers of those forced by fate

When the first wave of the invasion began there was a lot of chaos. Everyone was surviving as best as they could, betraying their our and fighting for scraps that were left. Some people though, were better off than others, be it by luck, location, or wits.

However, one thing that is true is that after the mayhem of the first wave settled a bit, all the humans that survived started asking themselves how to survive on their own, as they knew it wasn’t the end. They thought about how to be able to get their reign over their home planet again from the grasp of the invaders.

A lot of these people, having rekindled their fire for conquest and strength more than anything, started delving into all kinds of things to get stronger. The invaders have come to slaughter them, but with them, opportunities came too.

Some tried to capture some of them to experiment with their sources of strength. Others bribed a few of the smaller groups of our enemies, be it with information or items, but there were some groups that tried to go even one step further, betraying their own race and planet by joining forces with our foes.

Groups of these traitorous individuals arose for a while, each one known for their own specific traits which they got from their allied groups.

Some allied with older beings from the other side with the intention of getting their hands into the arcane knowledge after getting a glimpse of their might, while some just went for easier powers to understand. Strengthening rituals or enchantments to help them mitigate the advance of the raw power of their enemies were some of them.

Those humans who chose to ally with the enemy were pursued by their own kind, making them flee from one place to another and leaving destruction in their wake.

Humans across the world wasted their precious time to prepare for the still ongoing war in useless scuffles between themselves or chasing greatness, but not all was lost, for there were a few ones who did prepare.

Special groups of talented people that were forced by the circumstances to fight and rise over the enemy forces, getting a semblance of the power that those who betrayed humanity were chasing for so long.

Fight after fight, those people who held in their hands the fate of the planet were risking their lives in a harsh environment, each one with its own beliefs and ideals, but all of them chasing power.

The power to change their fate.

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I look at the hole in the wall with dread, thinking how dead I would have been if that had hit me instead.

I run to her to deal some damage while she is still stuck in the rubble, this time empty-handed. I know that the other two armed guys are chasing after me, so I inject some qi into my fist as I plant it on the monster's back, trying to hit the spine and hopefully deal some internal damage to slow her down.

I need to leave the spot after delivering the hit as the orc wielding the dual axes jumps at me with both of them raised.

I roll to the side and avoid that attack, but only for the one with the blunt weapon that resembles a maul appears in sight, swinging it my way.

I have no time to dodge and blocking it means pure madness, so I jump and grab the handle with both hands and plant both feet on it, then I use the strength behind the attack to let myself be thrown into the air, definitely a risky move.

Hopefully, they don’t throw anything at me or try to wait for me on the floor to smash me again.

Lucky me, they don’t, so I land perfectly and prepare for the next attack. Bringing out my knives again.

I take a look at where I left both of the two wounded monsters to see that my strategy paid off. The one with the spear in its chest is hardly breathing even after taking it out of him, and going by how pale he looks the spear purple gleant is probably poisonous.

He will probably die on his own, no need to focus on him, but the female one does get back on its feet. She is indeed hurt, she tumbles a bit now and then, but she still shows a crazy expression at me, probably not a fan of my way of fighting.

She rushes violently at me even while nearly tripping a couple of times, both the other orcs in tow.

I think about trying to retrieve the spear after knowing its properties, but I end up choosing not to, it’s too far away and I don’t want to show these guys my back that long.

I duck under the first of the enraged orcs and can already see the second one rushing at me from the other side. It doesn't reach me though, as I swipe right with my left leg at a foot’s level, making her kiss the floor and allowing me to push forward.

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Both other orcs get taken by surprise, not expecting me to push their way as I stomp on the back of the already wounded orc and I use it as a stepping stone for my counterattack, predicting the trajectory of the one wielding the axes and going for a hit on the face.

Or so he thought, the moment he tries to block the attack with both arms raised I change the path of my hit, making it hit the jaw instead. The monster fights against the numbness delivered and tries to not get stunt or fall unconscious.

It manages to stay conscious, but not for long. I use him as a shield from the other guy as I bring my knife to ist neck, making it hostage.

I notice the last guy having doubts on what to do so I make sure that his buddies are not waking up anytime soon. I look in the direction of the poisoned one from before to see its pale corpse, already gone.

Then I look the other way, seeing that I did a pretty neat job on the orc’s spine that now lays motionless on the ground not so far from us.

“That leaves us with only you and me! You tell me why you are doing this!” I shout at the last guy.

“Why have you all invaded our planet? Don't you dare play dumb with me, I already know you can communicate!” I try to force an answer from the guy as he keeps staring at me motionless.

I know they are able to talk somehow, at least the leader of the other orcs did, I remember him asking my name after deeming me dead.

‘Is it some kind of secret? Maybe a forbidden thing to tell us about their ability to communicate and make rational choices?’

Whichever the case, this can’t go on for long. I got a hostage that will regain consciousness any time soon, and by that point, I am sure as hell that I won’t be able to contain him merely with my strength.

“You better start talking or else I will kill this guy too.”

“...”

The silence continues and it irritates me. My patience is already running low, knowing full well the risk I am incurring just by having this try of conversation with the guy, yet I can’t bring myself to quit halfway through.

I reinforce my knife with qi again and sink it a bit onto the orc's neck, just enough to make him bleed but not enough to wake him up by the pain.

“Last chance! What’s your goal or purpose! You got 10 seconds!” I try to press on in a last attempt to get something out of the guy.

*Grunt*

“10…”

silence

“9… 8…7…”

silence

“6… 5…” Well, I tried.

I don't waste more time on this and slit the throat of my hostage with my knife trying to get a reaction.

Reaction, which I get, I get a shocked and enraged expression from the guy, who doesn’t remain idle for much and charges at me. I wait for him to get close and when he is in range I kick the corpse of its companion at him.

The orc surprised catches it instinctively and is about to push it to the floor when I appear on top of them, with both of his friends' axes in hand swinging downward. The orc blocks my first strike with its weapon, but I intentionally hold my left arm a bit so that I can now deliver the blow somewhere else.

I sink the ax on its neck, trying to get rid of him in one fell swoop, and that I do. The high-quality ax is already paying dividends as it gets halfway through its body in its cleaving arc, showing how good of a weapon it really is.

The last monster, now clearly dead, drops to the floor on top of his teammate.

I am not a fan of underhanded methods, but it is what it is, if I were able to win just fine I would have any need for them.

In the end, everything worked just fine. I won the fight and didn’t end up wounded either, I got a few scratches all over my body and my ribs may be hurting, yet the moment I focus my qi in those places the pain starts to disappear and a burning sensation kicks in.

The burning sensation helps me heal at a faster rate and I am sure that in a couple of hours, I will be as good as new, even my sore ribs will be brand new.

As I get to rest I sheath both my new axes on my back in a kind of awkward disposition, my sheath not being prepared to host axes instead of swords.

I get some sleep after securing a safe place to rest, needing to get back to my peak after a lot of hours of staying awake and fighting.

I am sure that I will find more groups of monsters on my trip, so I better be prepared.

I already tried to establish a conversation with these monsters after days of wanting to, yet with no result. I am sure they can understand me or at least know my intentions, yet they make no effort to get the message through.

I suspect that the ability to talk may be only a thing reserved to the strongest of their kind, using some kind of unknown way to pass on the message, but I still can’t get over it.

I will decipher what is happening at some point, even with them playing hard to get. I will get what I want, like it or not.

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After four hours of resting

I wake up and the first thing I do is jump to my feet.

I turn my face both ways to look out for any dangers, but there is none in sight.

‘Guess I did need some sleep.’

I thought that two hours of sleep would suffice to get back in the game with how strong my body is now, but it seems that while my body is stronger, I still need to get my hours of sleep to replenish my energy.

Well, four hours of sleep seems like a crazy improvement in effectiveness nevertheless.

The good part though, I am healed up to my peak condition, so I am good to go, and that's what I am planning on doing for a while so I leave again to explore. Searching for my family.