CHAPTER 3 - Learning the ropes II

I always thought that I wouldn’t get to make use of my perfect physical awareness or expertise in the few disciplines I got to know about before the apocalypse, but I guess you really don't know what the future holds for you.

I decide to rest for a while after my fight with my first victim on my way back. I was so focused on the monster in front of me that I got carried away and now I need a bit of time to calm down and recover. I am fit,yeah, Actually I would even take it up a notch and say I have a genius physique nearly on par with my brain. Good genetics I would say. However, the sessions of the martials arts I practiced were never this intense. ‘I guess nothing is as good as the real deal.’

I analyze my battle against the rat and decide that if I really focus and take care of their movements I could win against a few of them on my own unharmed even if I didn't use any weapons or the environment like I did before against the group I faced on that alley. In my last fight I just used all the three things I am better at when it comes to fighting. I defended myself and dodged everything with the help of my jiu-jitsu notions and predicted my enemy's attack while blocking them with my advantage of range and strength. I used my good performance at taekwondo kicks too to stop the monster swings before he could even finish them and making him lose balance. That's probably what made the little guy feel being toyed with.

When I was learning those two things as a way to defend myself and stay active a few years ago, I had the brilliant idea and insight that maybe just in case, I wanted something less appropriate for a kid my age at the time. I decided that I was already good enough at what I was doing and I needed more firepower per se to end any fight I started before anything could go wrong so I took on learning muay thai. Kicks, punches, throws of various kinds, submissions, grapplings… you name it you have it, each one dead deadlier than the one before. Maybe that was only my opinion, but for me it was enough to push me to learn it.

It wasn’t easy to find a good teacher to get to know how to do it the correct way, but damn it was worth it. The poor thing I toyed just a little bit before must be thankful it passed of exhaustion cause if not the guy would have been in for a ride of testing all my techniques. Not that it matters though, there is no shortage of ‘training dummies’ in the nearby area to practice a little bit more before going back into the city. I need to get use to fighting in all kinds of situations from now on, it's not like I will always be able to decide when to fight.

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Ten minutes of rest after my fight and analysis of it I start looking for my new test subject. I see one more of those little creatures just a few meters away from the road and I start repeating the process. Sneaking, baiting and playing! I mean… fighting!

“Buff, there really is no end to these guys.”

Twelve monsters after I start hunting these guys I get tired again and feel forced to take more than the little breaks I was taking in between. I am very pleased with the result honestly, not only did I manage to little by little carve myself a way to go through and get back to my place, but I also got better at fighting against a real opponent. I was already good before, but I did need some experience to get the hang of it when your enemy really wants to kill you at any chance it gets.

I decide to keep up fighting the monsters that I still end up bumping into while advancing, but I already decide it will be better if I continue to make progress till my goal, home! Man if I would like to have a nice and warm shower right now. Don’t get me wrong, I love this kind of thing, I am now free to do my thing to the best of my capabilities like I couldn’t before. I even enjoy fighting and I would say that my attraction to it is increasing over time. However, I know that all amenities we had been taken for ‘free’ before will now be harder to come by and probably impossible to retake if we don’t actually put our minds to it. While taking a hot shower may be in fact one of the viables ones, I still don’t feel like missing out on my chance today just in case.

Let's keep up with the pace and get home as fast as I can… * Clang!*

I hear a loud sound to my right where I see a small stone still rolling on the ground after probably bouncing off on one of the metal doors of the car. I take it as a warning call and my body paired with my quick reflexes manage to react in the nick of time for the second one that's already coming straight to my back. I quickly dodge it and take cover just in case more stones follow, but it seems it was only a distraction as I hear loud steps behind me and I find myself surrounded already. I still decide to swap my focus on to the guys coming from my back while I stand with my back against the car to try and avoid hits from those long range attacks.

I get chills all over my body when I gaze into the newcomers.’No way!’ I curse to myself as I see references between the four monsters rushing at me and the one I saw at the supermarket riding that huge wolf.

I stupidly thought I would be fighting rats again seeing that they were the usual sight here too. Oh boy, how wrong I was! I determine it’s a good time to test the durability of the makeshift weapon I still hadn’t used even once since I set off. I hold the metal rod and try to devise a strategy on how to survive the charge of the first guy in front of me which is already close enough to force me to either choose to defend his charge or try to dodge. I am definitely sure that if I dare take that attack with all the strength it carries I will be done for, so, I roll to the side, still behind the car.

I regret not having a weapon able to slash instead of blunt attacks as I try to make him crash with a strong swing to the backside of the kneecap. Hopefully it works and the monster trips onto the car, smashing both doors, windows and bending the connection between one another. ‘Scary.’

I feel relieved by the fact that these guys aren’t at the same level of the other guy I saw before, yet it doesn’t make it any easier for me as the remaining ones are getting to me too and I am running out of options.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

‘I am surrounded not only by melee enemies but there are at least two monsters performing ranged attacks. I gaze upon my surroundings to see if I can get any advantage just like that time in the alley, but I can’t see anything useful nearby. Having not much of an option, I opt to fight these guys in close combat, which is what I am best at while I use them as shields from ranged attacks and try to make them hit each other.’Time to shine.’

I use all kinds of martial arts and improvise to the best of my capabilities just to make some space in between me and the group of monsters, let's call them orcs, cause they really seem like that. Tall enough to surpass the 2 meter mark each of them and with an equivalent bulky physique that makes them seem like they were born just for a hostile environment. Out of my four enemies at close range there is one holding a bone sword, it is so big that I can’t help but wonder what animal or monsters it comes from. The other two wield both an ax and a kind of mace that honestly feel too small for him. The last one is either stuck on the car or stunned by the hit as I am still fighting only three of them.

The fight is taking place at a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, there's nothing more than a few cars and a stone wall quite high on one side that is probably used to fence a private property. I am sure that I won’t be able to kill them, even less with the weapons I have right now at my disposal, so I decide that my best shot is to make a run for it.

I dodge a swing of the guy with the big bone sword that to my surprise seems to be mindful of not making wide attacks as not to hit his companions. I manage to roll to the side and dodge the attack of the guy with the ax while rolling between the legs of the one with the sword. The monster reacts faster than I thought it would and it swings the sword at me from below in a diagonal motion from the spot it’s last attack has landed. I see the thing coming at me while scraping the floor so fast that I barely manage to sidestep it on time so as to not get sliced in half. Having somehow survived the onslaught and having the last guy that tried to kill in the way of his friends I run as fast as I can to the exit of the parking lot.

*SWOOSH*

I hear a strong wind sound behind me and I turn to sound just in time to see the small mace that the last guy was holding flying at me with an outstanding speed. The mace is coming at me so fast that all I can do is try and parry it to the side while trying to not take the brunt of the impact and let it slide past me. I try just that and bring my weapon to my chest in an angle that will make the opposing force slide for sure while I take the least damage I can.

*clanggg!*

The thing carries so much strength when the head of the mace hits my weapon that I find myself sliding for a few meters as the pressure it exerts on the weapon bends it and then continues into my chest. I feel myself out of breath as it hits and try my best to not lose consciousness. I push the hammer with all my might trying to make it slide past me as I had planned. I finally manage to get out of the way of the hammer after I use enough strength and push ME out of the way of the weapon, yeah, that's right. I couldn’t even change the path of flight of the thing one bit and I had to resort to moving myself out of the way with the help of the attack.

In the end I find myself outclassed, I had crashed into a car while pushing myself against the hammer and I find it hard just to breathe now. I am sure the hit on my chest didn't do much damage as I avoided most of the pressure using the metal pipe, however now it is completely bent and useless. I push myself up to get to running again, but the nearest guy is already close to me while preparing to swing his sword again. ‘All of that and the only thing I get out of it is leaving the hammer guy unarmed.’

Change of plans and my next objective is the wall, well, more like the other side of it. I know now that these guys are super strong, more than I could ever imagine, which makes me realize that if the other guy at the supermarket really was that much stronger I am only alive right now cause he didn’t feel like moving at all chasing me. Anyways, I take a second to breathe and bait the sword guy to swing at my current location, all while I focus all I can to move the second he starts swinging. ‘Now!’

I use all the momentum I get from my body to rush in the car I was eyeing and run, I saw that the other monsters that were fighting me before at close range are behind this guy so they won’t be able to attack me in any way before I get to the car. I reach it, but I know the ranged guys who were throwing me rocks before will probably try it again whenever they get the chance. This time however, I am ready for them, which is a huge help for predicting their attacks. I jump on top of the trunk of the car and then onto the ceiling of it, but just as I was about to continue I stop abruptly.

*swishhh*

A stone as big as the ones thrown before passes just in front of me while making a loud sound as it slices the air in its wake. ‘Gotcha.’ I knew they would try it again. They even put a whole lot more strength behind this throw, which makes me have a new feeling of dread as I know there is another one probably coming the same way. I don’t dare to play the same game for the second time so I dash for the wall.

I jump and grab the top of it and push myself over it as fast as I can, just in time to hear a loud crash behind me on top of the wall as I begin falling. However, I focus on landing, which I do without a hitch. Seeing that this plot of land is somewhat of a garden and is free of threats I use the time I just bought myself to get as far as I can for now from here. I even manage to hear a few sounds of smaller stones raining down on the garden, I dismiss it as the probably broken parts of the last projectile I escaped. ‘Not turning back anymore.’

I run, run , and run…. and run some more.

I try my hardest to avoid the rats I find in my escape route, but not that much. I hadn’t seen any of those guys throwing things as the monsters I just escaped and even if they did I don’t care. I don’t pay them any mind as I run like a maniac through the streets alerting a lot of rats in the process but leaving them in the dust a few moments after.

After what seems like a long time I feel myself forced to stop as I am tired as hell. I have no idea if the orcs are even trying to chase after me, but I am definitely not waiting idle for them.

No idea if they have any of those wolves like the one the other guy was riding though. I mislead the few rats that are following me into an alley and confront them there before I run out of gas. They are ten, more than they ones I killed the other time in a similar alley as this one, but this time I was prepared, I have gotten a lot better and I have a sharp knife with me.

I get to nearly the other end of the alley and throw a few things in my way in to make time for me to take a breather. I assured myself that there are no monsters in the other side of the alley and turn to face this wretched things.

“Come at me you bastards!”