CHAPTER 31 - Wolf in sheep's clothing
I focus on the fight as the huge beast goes for the offensive. It goes in for a chomp of the bigger orc, who gets his arm caught by its maws and tries to shake it off, but the teeth of the beast are razor sharp and stick harder than steel to its thick skin.
The orc handles the amazing bite power with the help of the boost from his tattoos, tattoos which I don't forget, are one-time use things. I watch as the fight goes on, how every second it passes the tattoos get ever so thinner and faint, both his foes slowly burning through its energy.
It seems like the scales have turned and now the pair have more odds of getting out on top in this 2vs1, but let’s not forget that he only needs one hit, one good hit to a vital part and it's over.
They both know it, even if the beast didn’t show much intelligence before by chasing me, now that both his life and the life of all its underlings are in danger it seems to catch on quickly.
The hedgehog doesn’t let go of the arm for no reason, no matter how hard his foe shakes his arm or pounds it on the head with the other arm. It maintains a strong grip on the arm in its mouth, not letting go.
Meanwhile, the other leader takes the back of their now trapped prey. He swings both his long swords at his back in a cross, leaving only shallow marks that are closer to scratches than actual wounds.
Not giving up, he goes again for a hit, this time aiming for the neck, bringing both blades to cut him down, starting from the right shoulder. The attack somehow goes through, getting a few inches deep on the shoulder.
After the successful attack, he wants to back off to attack from another angle, but both his weapons stay trapped in the shoulder and he finally sees the mocking expressions of his enemy.
“Caught you.” He grins as he flexes his shoulder to not let the weapons come free.
Still with his arm trapped in the beast's mouth, his whole body starts to light up and give a dangerous feeling. Even from this distance, I feel the threatening aura he exudes as all his tattoos start burning faster than before, disintegrating at a speed now visible to the naked eye.
With a mad expression, he uses his free arm to catch the ankle of the other orc leader as he tries to get some distance. He then proceeds to smash it onto the ground with his face against the pavement and then stomp on both his legs, leaving him with no way of escape.
Just before the tattoos on his body completely disappear, he uses his trapped arm to throw the beast binding him against the floor in an amazing show of explosive strength. The beast, now facing the sky after being a victim of the brute, is helpless to the beating he is about to receive.
The orc, now free to move, starts throwing punches at the huge beast who now lies defenseless on the ground. He punches his neck and stomach a couple of times before ending the fight by throwing a blow to its head and caving in his skull, killing the beast at last.
The moment it dies, the rest of the herd seem to sense it and start panicking, all of them going on a rampage and throwing themselves at the first thing they see, not distinguishing friend or foe.
The now victorious orc walks to the other leader while the last of its tattoos dissipates. With the tattoos a lot of strength leaves his body, he stays still for a second to get a few breaths in, nearly falling on his knees before getting back up.
He approaches the disarmed and wounded enemy with caution, cautious to not get tricked by any stunt he may cause when he is at his lowest. He waits a bit, but after a few seconds, it shows that he needs more than a couple of minutes of rest to get back to decent shape.
In the end, he decides to finish off his downed enemy before anything else happens.
Clearly not expecting me.
I appear behind him, jumping straight at him from the rear with both my axes swinging down.
Knowing that I won't deal any damage with my current strength, I use the dull side of the axes to hit as hard as I can the still-stuck blades of the other guy. Bringing them a few more inches deep and dealing some nice damage.
The monster, panicking, turns fast to face me trying to grab my neck with his other arm. He didn’t take that into account though, that I came prepared. The moment he gets a hold of me I am dead, so I throw my right hand at his neck, now imbued with the biggest amount of qi I can get, making it sharper and deadlier than ever.
The guy, probably noticing the strength behind the attack, tries to duck to the side at the last moment, dismissing his attempt to grab my neck.
I land not far from him in one piece, saved by a hair’s breadth of getting a broken neck. He didn’t get out untouched though, he is now gazing at me with the scariest look I’ve ever seen in my life.
Whichever emotions he is feeling right now though, are not my problem. He looks at me menacingly while he cleans the small tray of blood left in his neck with his now only usable arm. The other one now dangling on the side, useless after my strike to the blades.
He is furious, but even more tired. He was already in bad shape due to all the accumulated fatigue that washed over him when his empowerment of the ash tattoos ended. Now, it’s even worse. Forced to keep fighting without catching a break, and losing an arm and nearly his life must be taking a toll on him.
I don’t let him catch a break as I rush again, devoted to not letting him escape. It will be a long time before I am able to fight him on my own, so this is the best possible scenario to get rid of all my actual threats in one go.
I think so as I circle him, looking for my chance to strike. The guy brings his one able arm up with the intention to get both blades off his shoulder, but he pauses halfway, realizing he has no energy to spare, much less stop the bleeding if he were to take them out.
There is already a lot of blood flowing from the wound, and he is already exhausted, I just need to hold my ground for enough time for him to pass out or die from blood loss.
However, I look around, and fair enough, there are a few of the orcs who noticed the situation and are now rushing here. The worst part is that they are from both sides, trying to either save or kill him to win the war.
After all, the losses of the war, the once big army of the weaker and smaller orcs only has around half the amount of their enemy size, definitely not more than 500. It’s not a pretty number to look at knowing their size before the confrontation, but the bigger variant, the stronger ones, took an even worse hit.
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They now have about a hundred or so warriors of which most of them are wounded somewhere. If they were to continue with the battle they would lose for sure, but even if just half of them survived, they would win in the long term. They just need to save their leader, now that there are no more big threats or individuals of his level he will be more than enough to deal with whatever comes their way.
That’s why all the orcs in sight are rushing at me, or rather, rushing to the guy in question, who as drenched in sweat and blood as he is, still stays strong, too much for my liking.
‘I already did even more damage, he can’t have more energy in store, there is no way. I need to finish this off before I lose the chance.’
I have to risk it, I need to deliver one more fatal blow for good measure.
I rush at him in a straight line, trying to get as much speed as I can.
‘Where? Where can I hit to get rid of him?’
‘The heart? His skin is too thick for that… His neck? No, it won’t work again, I would need to use my qi to make my hand shaper and in the process lose a lot of range and be predictable as hell…’
‘To hell with it.’ I speed more, more, and some more. I boost my legs with what little energy I have left and get faster than ever before. The moment I am about to enter his range I feint another attack with my hand, baiting him to go for a block or dodge, I am fine with either.
At first, he doesn’t seem convinced, but the moment I change my stance to aim a little bit lower at the heart, he finally decides to put both his arms up with what little strength he has left.
I go nearly all the way just in case, then I let myself slip right under him at the last moment, and with all my speed I get behind him in no time.
I plant both my feet on the ground and jump with all my strength, holding the handles of both of the blades still stuck on his shoulder. For a second he tenses and I get scared.
‘Does he have enough strength to maintain them in place? No way right?’
Hopefully, my worries were just that, worries. The moment I get a clear grip and pull on them they come off just fine, and with them a lot of blood. His wound, which if not for the blades working as a tourniquet would have been deadly, becomes deadly again now that he can’t keep it from bleeding.
The wound, that more than a slash, seems like a fissure carved into him, can’t stop bleeding and he falls to one knee, seconds after kissing the floor.
‘Finally! Now I need to leave.’
I turn in the direction I came from to use the path I have already planned before to lose any possible pursuers. Only to see why all the orcs have now paused their attacks. It’s not because they lost their will to fight after the death of their leader or anything of the like.
A child, one I am sure I have never seen before and that I could promise wasn’t there before I joined the fight, is looking at me from the middle of the battlefield. All the monsters are frozen, not because they can’t, cause I don’t feel anything blocking my movement, but out of fear.
‘That must be the boy they prisoners from before told me about.’
I start looking for a way out of this, by the information they told me about the kid killing on his own a whole squad of orcs. It should be manageable, but there are more unknown things. They told me too that one of the orcs on the squad who died or they assumed he died had tattoos shining too when he fought against the kid.
If the orc had the tattoos, his strength is probably in between the female one I met when breaking free the prisoners and this guy in front of me. Logic tells me that is more likely the first option, but even then… it’s too dangerous in my current condition.
I am surrounded by a mob of orcs, and even with all the hedgehogs now dead due to their previous rampage, the kid will probably attack if I try to leave. If his attacks are anything similar to what that escaped prisoner told me about, I can't give my back to him, or else I will be killed instantly by some kind of superfast and nearly invisible attack.
With not many options to choose from, thinking about trying to escape or fighting my way out, I choose a third. Knowing that the kid just arrived and probably hasn’t been watching the fight.
I stick both of the blades I just stole in the ground and stand tall with confidence as I look at the newcomer.
“So you finally arrived!”
I pretend that I was waiting for him, not confident at all that he won’t notice, but with not much of a choice. I am tired and my qi is nearly exhausted after all those fights without a break.
‘Let's turn this into the best example of fake it until you make it.’
“I was told you were in charge of a part of the center of the city, is that right?” I answer in my mind so that he understands the moment I sense him connecting with me somehow.
I avoid mentioning too much like his age or whatever other problematic things, just in case, I don't know a thing about him so I can’t risk blurting something not needed and busting my cover.
He looks at my feet and at the corpse of the just-slayed orc warrior, he tries to not show it, but I catch him as he pauses for a second, somehow taken aback but trying not to show it.
‘That tells me enough, probably stronger than the weaker ones like the female one I met in the prison or the one who went out to look for prisoners, but not strong enough to take on the guy I just killed.’
“Who are you? I haven't heard about you?”
‘Huh? That easy to convince? Or is he just pretending to be young? I was expecting an attack on sight kind of approach, but maybe he fell for my ploy? I have no way of knowing, so I follow along.’
“I am the one in charge of this area now, so stand your business or leave.”
I press forward, throwing questions at him to see how he does.
“Are you sure you wanna mess around with me? Who gave you the right to invade my territory?”
He looks at me and asks, half-doubting himself.
“I do not have any orders regarding you or your territory. I just came to eradicate the monsters that have been running rampant these last few days on my father’s accord”
So that’s it, he is strong, but there is even a stronger foe behind him which seems to be his father. Well, it's already late to back off.
“The ones who are responsible for the chaos you are seeking to get rid of are these pests.” I point at all the orcs, with no kind of shame, knowing that I am certainly the cause of most conflicts.
He seems to think about it for a while before answering again.
“So said this place was yours… Do you let me get rid of them before going back to consult our future plans with Father about you?”
“Sure! All yours, I already wasted enough time with them. I will leave them for you to take care of.”
The kid, after getting my permission, explodes with power exuding some kind of killing intent. He starts to levitate, or so it seems before his little wings extend themselves for the whole world to see.
Spiky wings with membranes instead of feathers, similar to a bat. My shock from his wings doesn't last for long though. I knew that for him to be that strong there had to be some kind of catch, and being some kind of humanoid monster sounds like a good explanation.
He gathers around something that’s hard to see in some kind of water drops, but not quite so, I focus some more and I see them leaving the corpses on the floor before making their way to him.
‘Are those beads formed from blood?’
They start to converge all around him and by the time the orcs start running, they are already falling down, headless.
Thin, well-aimed attacks go through all of them like a knife through butter, dispatching all of them in seconds. He goes at it for a while before he kills all of the remaining orcs. He then clears the sweat from his forehead and says goodbye before leaving, probably back to tell his father.
I wait for a few seconds still in the middle of the battlefield looking at the front. Then I look around again for any survivors of the onslaught and after making sure I am the only one…
I run.
“Damn… This time I really went too far with the ‘fake it till you make it’ vibe. I really stirred the hornet’s nest! And a big one at that!”