I slid across the ground a bit before I was able to dig a hand into the ground to slow me down to a stop.

This was frustrating.

I launched myself off the ground and sprinted towards the orc that hadn’t moved from its spot.

I had all this aura in my chest. I could feel it now more than ever. The pressure was greater than I’d felt in my arms and legs. And yet I couldn’t do anything with it.

I looked at the orc concentrating to see its mana. The pathways were odd. There was only one for each limb, and they all met up in the same point in its chest. They were much thicker than the ones I’d seen in others.

They were all pulsing with activated mana, but I didn’t see any points that I could even try to concentrate on. All there was, was that point that could’ve possibly been its core. I guess I could still destroy the pathways if I tried hard enough.

I’d have to land a hit that actually hurt it first.

Once the distance was closed, and it swung at me, I dodged the blade but caught the arm.

I did my best to hold onto it as hard as I could. It wasn’t a sturdy grip and I tried to grip with my arms as well as my fingers.

If only my aura was like claws it’d help me grip things more.

Then my hands weren’t slipping.

The orc grunted and I felt its other hand grab at my shirt trying to pull me off.

I held on tight and the more it pulled on me, the more I felt its flesh giving way and not my grip.

My shirt and leather armor ripped away completely, and my grip stopped moving.

I took that short second to fully wrap the rest of my body around its arm. With my legs now solidifying my body, even when it started to flap its arm around trying to fling me off, I didn’t go too far.

With my legs were wrapped around its wrist, and I felt the hilt of the glaive graze my feet as he swung his arms.

My hands were gripping its elbow joint and now I could see my fingers deeply imbedded inside of it. I was pretty close in depth already to reaching the pathway.

I willed all the aura in my arms to go to my fingers and concentrate to create needles at the end of each of them.

The captain now shrieked and tried even harder to throw me off.

I pulled my right hand out sinking it into its bicep this time. I needed a bit more stability, so I wasn’t thrown off while I was focused on something else.

I concentrated on the condensing of aura in my left hand and saw the mana flicker before dimming entirely.

Then I felt its forearm go limp and heard a thump. My aura just had to move from my left to my right hand and do the same thing.

The arm fully went limp and now my head was grabbed by the orc. I had to protect it from being crushed. Even with aura surrounding it I felt the pressure of his hand.

I needed more there.

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My grip on its arm weakened considerably. My hands were pulled through its flesh as I was pulled by my head off of his arm.

I hung from my head in his grip, unable to see in front of me.

This wasn’t great, I had to get out of this.

I had to do something to its other arm.

I grabbed onto his hand with mine and used that to pull my legs up and wrap them around his wrist.

All I had on me were the two throwing blades, and Mezu’s. All useless.

I’d done it before, well I’d broken a limb with my hands, but my legs were stronger. I should just be able to squeeze and snap it too. He started to move his arm and I felt his teeth sink into my arm.

I yelled in pain and squeezed with all my might with my legs.

There were a few moments of resistance before I felt my legs hit bone, and then each other in a slippery mess.

I fell through the air only to be stopped by my arm in the orc’s mouth. My body yanked against my shoulder and swung towards his other side.

Why didn’t it just bite all the way through?

I felt it start to rip though and then I slammed into the ground.

Fuck, that was rough.

I got to my feet and saw the orc with a bleeding stub on one arm and a limp arm hanging at its side.

I took a step back and hit its glaive.

I grabbed it just barely managing to lift it up with one arm. I dragged it a bit away and then kicked at the hilt until it snapped. Now it was a bit more manageable.

There was a shudder in the ground, but I didn’t have the time to think about it.

With the new weapon I had, I ran back at the orc. It took a lot more of my aura to cover the blade’s edge but that wouldn’t matter if I couldn’t even swing it.

I didn’t think I put enough force into my swing but I must have had enough aura concentrated because I managed to lodge the blade in its abdomen. I went through its limp arm, and it sat on top of it, blood pouring from that and from around its abdomen.

I dug my feet in the ground and threw all the weight I could into the remainder of the hilt. I felt it inch slightly inwards.

I kept pushing but the orc stumbled away from me. My hand slipped from its grip, and I almost fell flat on my face.

The captain was now a step or two away from me with the blade still lodged in its side.

I went to dash towards him, but my footing destabilized momentarily as another quake rumbled through the earth and I stumbled forward.

The orc though, was able to take a step so its shin came in contact with my side throwing me a couple yards away.

This was so stupid!

I sprinted towards him.

He didn’t have his arms, he had a glaive in his side, why wouldn’t he just die?

I didn’t care if it hurt, or if my foot broke in the process. I threw a kick as hard as I could into the hilt of the glaive. It went another bit in.

The orc took a step back. I jumped up grabbed onto its shoulder with my remaining hand griping as tightly as I could.

Now that I was hanging from the limp oddly cold limb, I planted my feet on the hilt and pushed to swing myself back.

I came back with more force than just a normal push would do and missed the hilt with only one of my feet.

The glaive only moved a tad bit more.

“Fucking hell!”

I swung again. My aura needed to cover the blade through my feet.

Both my feet landed this time, and it went much further.

The orc finally fell to the ground.

I sat down on the ground and panted.

That fucking sucked!

The bastard just bit me since its grip didn’t crush my head.

I stood up and kicked at it wanting to do something to lessen whatever pressure I was feeling in my head.

“It will never cease to amaze me how rough you can fight sometimes.”

The comment from Alcoroth pissed me off more than normal and I threw a punch in his direction.

“That bastard was going to eat me!” I yelled at him.

I went to the orc’s head and threw a kick. My foot lodged in his head completely.

“Damn it!”

It took a bit to get my foot out of its head and it didn’t help that with another quake I fell down to the ground.

“You never got this angry about the Young Master eating you though?”

“This and that are completely different! I give him permission to do that. This bastard just did it because he couldn’t crush my head!? How ridiculous?!”

“Is that why you’re shaking and crying?”

I stopped trying to get my foot out. I felt it now. My whole body was trembling, and my face was covered with tears. Snot was dripping from my nose and each breath I took in was more labored than it had been.

What? Why was I crying?

I tried to wipe away the tears. My heart rate sped up.

I could hear it beating faster now.

It became harder to breathe.

I kept gasping for air. I clutched at my chest trying to breathe.

“Quartz! Calm down!”

I could barely hear him for some reason, he sounded so far away. My vision blackened in and out and I was back on the ground fully.

I couldn’t hear anything properly. I heard Alcoroth’s voice but couldn’t understand what he was saying.

My vision blurred and then the world blackened completely.