CHAPTER 29 - I’m sorry II

“Fuck off!” I scream that in my head, and as her expression shows, in hers as well, and charge at her before she gets her bearings back.

She doesn’t stay too much time taken aback and counterattacks my charge with an attack of her own, piercing at me with her humongous spear.

I duck to the side and as she redirects the back end of the spear at me I parry it away from me with a strong stomp with my right leg and crash it into the ground to make time.

She stops resisting the pull, probably thinking that I was going to follow up with another attack at her uncovered side. She lets the spear hit the ground and raises both arms up to later swing both down in a strong blow that I need to get away from.

However, attacking her not exposed side wasn’t my plan at all, first I want to get rid of the other orcs to diminish the number of attacks I will be subjected to. After she drops her spear, I spin away from her arms reach as I get both my axes to behead the nearest orc, which isn’t fast enough to move out of the way.

I get in her range again and try to employ all I know about foot techniques to keep up the offensive while not letting myself get hit. Every time I enter her range and she attacks and I leave it again just as fast as I entered it to not get hit.

That goes on for a few exchanges and I dodge or parry not only hers, but the others orcs attacks too. I let her keep attacking till she gets used to my strategy, and then, when she comes in close quarters for a follow-up of my feint with the range of her attack, I get closer to her instead of farther, taking her by surprise and leaving me free reign to deliver a blow to her belly, which I do.

I imbue my hand with all the qi I can in that short amount of time and shape it as best as I can to try and form some kind of sharp edge over my extended hand, transforming it into a deadly weapon at close range.

This move is something I came up with while reinforcing my weapons with qi as it follows the same principle, and this seems like the perfect scenario to test out just how overpowered this technique is.

*Grhh*

The orc only lets out a low roar or grunt as she focuses on tensing her abs so as to not get impaled by my incoming attack. Not happy with that, her tattoos all over her body start lighting up at the same moment giving some kind of eerie vibe as the ash of them starts to burn and float into the air and disintegrate.

My hand hits her chest with a lot more strength than I expected, but the moment it clashes against its skin, a dazzling metallic sheen seems to take over her skin and helps her resist the attack's piercing power as it lets out a loud metallic screech as if it were a clash of swords.

I start to get concerned by the amount of resistance I find when my power starts to diminish and my hand starts slipping down all the way to the side.

This is probably one of the strongest if not the strongest of all the attacks I have at my disposal right now. If I lose this chance to deliver a fatal blow to her now, I am sure the rest of the fight is not going to be a beautiful sight, so I won’t stop.

I keep pouring all my energy into my hand and sharpen it as I try to redirect the attack back onto her belly now, looking for a weak spot in her defense. She brings both her arms to try to throw my arm to the side, but I stay strong and keep pushing, bringing her with me as I charge and making her crash into the wall behind.

I take the moment of respite as she gets stunned by the crash to bring my arm back and stab with it again, but this time I aim at her jaw.

The attack hits home again, delivering tremendous damage to her as it tries to pierce her skin which is still trying to take the brunt of the attack.

This time, however, the tattoos of her jaw that were dazzling just a few seconds ago with strength, start to flicker, showing that is not an infinite source of power.

I pour my all into finishing the job and finally, I get to pierce her skin, delivering a fatal blow to her head and killing her on the spot. Probably due to the attack's power sending ripples of power into her brain.

Whichever the reason, she is dead, and with her died the fighting spirit of the rest of the orcs near me, which I take on after some trouble due to my fatigue from the previous move. After finishing them all, I take my time to look at her tattoos, tattoos that are there no more.

They started disintegrating into the air as soon as she started to use their strength as if she burned through the ash that composed them. I am damn sure now though, that the leader of these orcs may have an actual chance of winning against the beast I brought with that kind of power, so I get back to my task before their war ends, just in case.

Sadly, I am forced to leave behind the body of the female orc I just killed, and with it, the little chance I had to get something out of her use of the tattoo’s power.

However, the moment I think about that while on my way to what seems to be the prison of the base, a huge storm starts forming in the sky and comes to life not much later, giving me chills down my spine.

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From a clear and bland sky, we get to a raging storm the size of no other, sending loud thunderclaps all over the city and maybe the whole region. I look up at it for clues, but far from getting answers, the most I get is a couple of lighting bolts flashing in front of me and the start of a torrential rain.

My first thought is about its similarities to the storm that happened before. The one that sucked everything inside its eye and that the monsters protected near the start of their invasion.

Unfortunately, with no more information and being on a tight schedule, I chose to make my way to the next building where the prisoners should be and then get the heck out of here, before it's too late.

I reach the entrance of the building and open it just fine, there don’t seem to be any traps, and thankfully no guards either, cause I am now running low on qi and my hand is still recovering from all the stress it went through in the last fight.

I pass a few rooms and then get to a place that has some metal and wooden poles or rods vertically stuck in between the ceiling and the floor to kind of end up making a prison cell. Most of them are devoid of prisoners whatsoever.

Out of the twenty or so makeshift prison cells, about 3 have someone or something inside.

The first one of them has a creature that resembles a dog, but bigger and clearly mutated by the energies that came with the invasion, making it a lot more dangerous and deadly, and all that just going by the appearance and size of the wolf-life creature.

I ignore that cell and focus on the last two which hold humans. I take some time to see if I know any of them, but with no luck. I do not lose hope and ask the prisoners.

“Were there any other prisoners before here with you?” I ask the small group of people that lay on the floor, definitely not in good condition at all.

“Are you here to get us out of here?” One of them asks me.

“Yes, but I don't have much time, I need you to tell me if there were any other humans captured before in here.”

“Yes, there were, but it doesn’t matter anymore, they are now dead and we will be soon too.” One of them answers with a sad and scared demeanor.

“Even if you know that now, it is already late, we will die the second the monsters get back cause there is no key to break us out of here, and the other prisoners are probably dead already.”

After hearing him I look around for clues, and sure enough, all these prison cells don’t have anything similar to a lock.

“What method did the monsters use to get you out of the cells?”

“They just bend the bars with the help of a metal pole. It has no use though, they already struggled to bend them with the help of it when they came up to bring most prisoners with them, so you won’t be able to get us out of here.” Another of the prisoners who sounds tired of it all answers me, one who probably gave up a lot of time before I came.

“Do you know where they took the other prisoners?” I don’t let him go back to sleep or mop around and keep asking to get his attention.

“The monsters gave them all to a short guy who was all covered in a cloak, it didn't happen that long ago, probably this morning, now leave before they come back and capture you too.”

I check the surroundings in search of the metal pole they talk about, but I don't find it, so I will have to use another method. I don't have much, but I have some qi in store that keeps recovering.

“Get away from the bars and in one side of the cell!” I shout to get their attention, not wasting time, already getting into a stance and powering my right leg.

Some of them don’t move out of the way and only complain about all the noise, only until I shout again at the guys who did move to get them too out of the way. They listen to me, dragging the ones still laid on the floor to the side and leaving half the cell free of people for me to try my idea.

I use my right leg to kick in one of the bars of the cell, not moving it all the way, but pushing it nearly half a meter from its original position and creating a screeching sound as both ends of it force their way out of the ceiling and floor.

All the prisoners jump in fright at the loud sound and move more to the side to hug the wall even closer as I get ready to throw another kick at the same bar.

I deliver the second kick to the bar, it finally gets unstuck and then gets knocked back onto the wall making a high-pitched sound as it collides and falls to the ground. I do the same with the other prison cell to help the remaining prisoners and prepare to leave.

I don't forget to ask, just in case, for the direction that the cloaked guy might have taken.

“By any chance, do you know where that cloaked guy that came before took the other prisoners too? Or any other bit of information?”

I see all of them shake their heads in unison.

“Okay, thanks for the info, now you better run from here before anything happens.” I let them know which way to escape, and let them know about the base. Where Jake and the rest should still be working on, is too.

At this point I kind of doubt they will think of me as a member anymore, but I have things that take priority, I am now as close as I can get to finding where they may be taking all prisoners.

I am about to leave the base when one last survivor of the ones I just rescued comes to me.

“Hey… I don't know if it will be useful to you, but the guy who came to… move the prisoners somewhere else… He was holding onto a long rod in one hand and a glass ball in the other.”

‘Wait, what? No, it can’t be, they said he or she was short.’

“Just one thing, are you sure that guy was short?” I try to make sure, and the man assures me with a nod.

‘Fuck, there is no way.’ I try to recall the moment in my head to see if everything matches, but I can’t think of another explanation. At that moment I was far away so I couldn’t discern the height of the individual inside or if there was anything like a glass ball due to all the ash and rubble flying around, but it matches the description.

It is not the best description for sure, but it is the most I can get, and I am going to clear my doubts right now, while the storm still rages on.

Not losing any time, I get to running again, a thing that unfortunately is now a common thing.

This time, however, I have a clear goal. I am going to the eye of the storm, just as the other time I did, but this time I am not leaving without answers.