Wyatt continued to scan the forest for orcs, expecting an attack at any moment. But nothing stirred in the forest, and he turned his attention back to the little girl. The thought of escorting her through the monster-infested woods filled him with dread.
“We’re taking her back to her parents,” Saeko said firmly. “I don’t care if she’s an NPC. We’re not leaving her alone in the wilderness.”
“Someone else will come along and help her back to her village,” Wyatt said. “I’m not putting my life on the line for a blasted escort quest.”
“I’m with Wyatt,” Augie said. “Those kinds of quests are the worst.”
“What in the world are escort quests?” Saeko said, the annoyance growing in her voice. “Just because you know what they are doesn’t mean everyone else does.”
“They’re generally from role-playing games,” Wyatt explained. “You have to escort an NPC to a location to get a reward. But the problem is that they’re usually agonizingly slow and you have to face wave attacks on the way there.”
Saeko crossed her arms. “I don’t care if we have to fight through 1000 orcs. I’m not leaving her behind.”
Alea, the little girl, starting to sniffle and scrubbed at her dirt-streaked eyes. “Please don’t leave me in the woods, mister.”
Wyatt sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The girl might be an NPC, but she was certainly tugging at his heartstrings. Still, Saeko was right—they should probably help Alea—though he was focused on the potential rewards the quest would provide. “We’ll try to find her parents, but if it’s gets too dangerous, then we’re going to abandon the quest.”
“Bloody hell,” Augie sighed. “I’m probably going to regret it, but count me in. I wanted to test out my monk stuff, anyway.”
Wyatt squatted in front of the girl so he could look her directly in the eyes. “Do you know where your parents went?”
“They always said to meet them at Loch Draven if anything ever happened to the village.” She sniffled again before she continued. “It’s the lake near the ridge.”
“Loch Draven,” Wyatt repeated, rising to his feet. “If it’s the body of water I saw, it shouldn’t be too far from here.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing an escort quest,” Augie muttered. “I must have been punched in the head too many times.”
“Tell me about it,” Wyatt replied. “But maybe this will help us to unlock the village.”
“I’ll look after her,” Mabel said as she walked over and offered her hand to Alea. The girl immediately brightened and placed her small hand into Mabel’s.
“Best you stay back anyway,” Augie said. “Let the grownups do the fighting.”
“Dad, I’m almost fourteen…” she trailed off as her father shot her a glare.
Wyatt checked the stone axe on his belt before he nocked an arrow. He suddenly wished he’d crafted more arrows before setting out. When he glanced over at Saeko, she nodded with a determined look on her face. At least this time he wouldn’t be fighting the orcs alone—or whatever else the trials decided to throw at them.
“Let’s head out, Alea,” Wyatt said. “We’ll watch over you on the path to the Loch.”
“Great!” she exclaimed, a brilliant smile lighting up her face. “I can’t wait to see my parents again. Do you want to go the long route? There are lots of nice flowers on the path that way. Or would you like to go straight there?”
“This is going to take long enough without going on the scenic route,” Wyatt said. “Take us right to where your parents told you to meet them.”
Alea nodded and set out at a snail’s pace. True to form for an escort quest, she stopped to examine every blossom, every butterfly, and gushed over the furry animals that scampered across their path.
Wyatt managed to take down a squirrel with his bow when Alea wasn’t looking, and he furtively hung it from his belt before continuing. At least they would have something to cook for lunch today. But he avoided all the plants and rocks that his Outdoor Survival skill kept urging him to take, knowing that the escort quest would take long enough without him stopping as well.
Alea paused to pluck a yellow flower and then held it up to her nose to sniff it. “Don’t you love flowers? In the summer, my mother makes me wreaths to wear.” She looked up at Mabel. “Maybe she’ll make one for you, too.”
“That would be nice,” Mabel said, smiling. “I can’t wait to meet your mother.”
“Could you bloody hurry it along, little girl?” Augie barked. “I could have walked to Saturn in the time it’s taken you to move twenty paces.”
Mabel shot Augie a glare, and the big man clamped his mouth shut.
Wyatt said nothing, his eyes constantly watching the forest. If he had judged the distance correctly, they were almost halfway to the lake already. But nothing had attacked them yet. Either it was going to be a major battle at the end of the quest, or they were about to be assailed at any second.
A pig-like squeal from the forest made him grimace at being proven right. He raised his bow and motioned for the others to ready themselves. No one spoke as the cries emerged from all sides. The orcs had them surrounded.
Wyatt gazed uneasily at the forest, watching for any sign of movement. The woods sounded alive with orcs, but he couldn’t see any.
“Where are the bastards?” Augie muttered. “Get out here and fight like a man. Or an like an orc!”
As if on cue, a green-skin creature crashed through the dense brush and charged in their direction. Wyatt swung around and loosed an arrow at the attacking orc; the missile tore through its throat in a spray of blood. It let out a gurgle before crashing to the ground, where it twitched pathetically.
Alea started to scream and latched onto Mabel’s arm as orcish warriors burst out of the forest all around them. Mabel managed to drag the girl behind her back as the others hastily set up a defensive line around them.
Wyatt selected Fire on the bow, and his next arrow ignited the orc before it struck. The creature flailed around madly as it lurched into the forest, its squeals growing shriller as it was engulfed in flames. For his next shot, he decided to try the Air element. When he loosed, the arrow launched like a projectile from a rail gun. The missile blew a massive hole in his target’s chest before tearing through another orc standing behind it.
Stolen novel; please report.
Wyatt raised his brow in surprise at the devastation the Air arrow had caused. It created an immense amount of momentum behind the missile when launched. Before he could dwell on it any further, more orcs poured out of the forest.
Maddened squeals filled the air as the orcs crashed into their line. Wyatt continued to loose arrows, using the Air option on the bow, each missile blowing apart nearby orcs. Each shot sent limbs, heads, and chunks of flesh flying, but did little to slow the stream of attackers. The orcs came on, heedless of their own horrific losses.
Beside him, Saeko was almost immediately in trouble, her knife a poor match against the orc’s long reach. But Augie fared much better, wading into the attacking creatures, and felling them with powerful blows from his fists. His hands shone with a strange light, and each strike did a shocking amount of damage to the orcs.
Wyatt found himself in the thick of battle, and he dropped his bow as the two orcs charged at him. He drew his axe and slammed it down in the middle of his attacker’s forehead. The stone head of the weapon smashed the skull to pulp and dark blood squirted out onto his arm. He pulled back and swung the axe into the other orc’s face, sending it spinning to the ground.
He glanced back at Mabel and yelled out a warning as two orcs broke cover and rushed at the girls. But
Mabel calmly raised her hand and lightning crashed into the creatures. The orcs jerked and twitched before they dropped to the ground, dark smoke rising from their blackened bodies.
Wyatt raised his eyebrow at seeing the powerful spell, but more orcs crashing out of the forest made him tear his gaze away. He moved closer to Saeko and Augie, and they held the line as wave after wave of orcs assaulted them.
Saeko stabbed an orc in the gut, but it shrugged off the wound and roared with anger; the creature battered her with its club and drove her back.
Wyatt smashed his axe down on an orc’s shoulder, the sharp edge ripping open a terrible wound. The hairs on his arms stood up as Mabel fired more bolts of lightning into the group of orcs massing behind them. A few paces away, Augie drove his elbow into an orc's face, the creature’s oversized nose smashing flat in a spray of blood. But more warriors rushed at the big man, buffeting him with fists and clubs.
Wyatt watched Saeko go down, and then Augie as orcs piled on top of the big man. The flow of orcs streaming out of the forest wasn’t slowing.
They were going to be completely overrun within seconds.
I must insist you focus solely on slaying the orcs, Lars said urgently. I believe you are close to obtaining a new title, which should shift the battle in your favour.
“What do you mean? I need a bit more information than that,” he whispered urgently under his breath. He knew he shouldn’t be speaking to Lars when real eyeballs might be watching him, but hopefully, anything he said would be lost in the din of battle.
While I have gained limited access to the system, I believe the title will grant you significant improvements to your physical body. Moreover, I suspect it will apply retroactively to the current kerfuffle.
Wyatt swung his axe like a baseball at the back of an orc that had unhinged its jaws in an attempt to swallow Saeko. The axe head bit deeply into the green flesh, and his second blow severed the creatures’s spine. As the orc collapsed, he reached down and offered Saeko his hand. With a grunt, he dragged her to her feet.
Her hair was matted with blood, and she swayed slightly with unfocused eyes. But she still had her knives, and when an orc charged, she hurled a stone dagger at the creature and brought it down.
“Help Augie,” he grunted to Saeko, moving to cover Mabel and Alea. Strangely, the orcs didn’t seem to bother attacking the girls. Maybe they were only programmed to attack the NPC once the entire group had been defeated.
“How many more do I need to kill, Lars?” he whispered quietly. There were far too many orcs to have any hope of victory, and the system had likely expected a much larger group to try to escort Alea to her parents.
I believe that should satisfy the requirements, Lars said, as one of the injured orcs keeled over.
The moment Lars spoke, Wyatt felt a surge of power through his body that made him gasp. It almost felt like he was vibrating, and he needed to do something to expend the energy before it tore him apart. Without thinking, he charged into the crowd of milling orcs.
His weapon tore through the creatures like they were made out of paper. His axe cleaved the closest orc in half. When an orc raised its arm to swing a club at him, he easily hacked off its limb. His follow up swing beheaded the creature.
Every moment he fought, the energy in him continued to swell, until it almost felt like a madness consumed him. His eyes went wide like a lunatic’s and sweat beaded on his forehead as he cleaved through everything that crossed his path. Every fibre of his being was absorbed with slaughtering orcs. None of them would leave here alive.
Another rush of energy overflowed his body as a title appeared in his vision:
New Title: Daelin’s Legacy
First Contestant to Slay 20 Orcs
The only good orc is a dead orc. While fighting orcs, your strength and stamina will increase by 20% per kill to a maximum of 200%.
There were orcs to kill, and he barely took the time to read it. He felt his strength swelling with every moment that passed.
A second notification appeared in his vision.
Melee Weapons skill increase: Rank 2
Congratulations. You’ve successfully learned how to swing a stone axe. Not that it will help you survive against the monsters you’re facing.
Wyatt angrily dismissed it. He didn’t have time to read in the midst of a battle.
Wyatt sliced through every orc in his path, a pile of mutilated corpses growing around his feet. Finally, when he raised his bloody axe again and searched for his next target, he realized there weren’t any orcs within reach. What few remained were fleeing into the forest, while bodies lay scattered around the path.
When he turned to see the others standing behind him, Augie gave him an impressed nod, while Saeko and the girl stared at him with wide eyes. Almost like the tide going out, the power drained from his limbs, and he sagged to his knees.
As the edge of his vision darkened, it took all his focus to stop himself from passing out. He barely had the strength to stagger to his feet, and he felt as weak as a newborn. At the sight of him collapsing, Saeko rushed over to help him.
“How… did you do that?” she asked. “It was like you went berserk or something.”
With a quick glance over at his prompt, he muttered, “I received a new title that gave me additional stats when fighting orcs.”
Well done, Lars said, sounding self satisfied. If you continue to follow my sage advice, I believe you shall reach the heights of popularity in this contest.
Wyatt wanted to ask Lars how he knew about the title, but he didn’t want to take any additional risks by speaking to the hitchhiker in his mind. If they were discovered, he had no doubt he would be summarily eliminated from the games. And he still needed to bring down the OSC before he died.
“Are you ready to go?” Alea asked, brightly, skipping forward. It was as if she’d already forgotten the carnage surrounding them.
“Sit your butt down, girlie,” Augie grumbled. He reached up and touched a rapidly swelling eye. “I’m not going anywhere until I can see straight again.”
“But I really want to see my parents.” Alea screwed up her face like she was going to cry.
Wyatt sank down to the ground and rested his arms on his knees. “We’ll take you after we have a moment to rest.”
Alea ignored him and skipped down the road before she stopped to pick another flower.
“She’s going to keep going, isn’t she?” Saeko asked, shaking her head in disbelief.
Wyatt could only nod wearily. “This is why I hate escort quests.” He rose to his feet with a sigh and limped after the little girl. While they were all in rough shape, they had to continue the escort quest if they didn’t want to fail it.
“Do you think there will be more orcs?” Saeko asked, drawing another knife from her belt. “Because I don’t know if I’m up for much more fighting.”
“I’d imagine so,” he replied, absently. “There are usually a few waves in escort quests.”
She touched her injured forehead again. “What if we restrain Alea until we’re ready?”
The moment she spoke, text flashed in Wyatt’s vision
Interfering with the progress of Alea will result in the immediate failure of the quest.
He could see from the annoyance on Saeko’s face that she’d received the same message.
Saeko rolled her eyes. “What if we just abandon the quest?”
“No way are we quitting,” Augie cut in. “Not after I just had the piss knocked out of me. I owe the orcs some payback.”
“If we fail the quest, we could lose our one chance to gain access to the village,” Wyatt said. “And if that’s where the merchant is located, it could seriously cripple our ability to advance.”
“Just great,” Saeko said. “But I’m not dying for the girl. If things go bad. I’ll snatch her and then we’ll retreat.”
Wyatt nodded his agreement as he continued to hobble after Alea with the others. As he heard orc squeals in the distance, his only thought was how much he hated escort quests.