Due to the heavy weight of their armour and weapons, slowing down didn’t come with a stop button. Only two rows of the Goblins had made it in time, while the fifteen Orcs had fanned out in the bustle so as not to become collateral. It was a perfect fanned out target, Kaden thought, licking his lips.
Being dumb as they were, just mere grunts, they tried to help each other get up and pull the first rows out of the mud, never even suspecting a trap. The humanoid creature made a dash for the woods upon seeing the epic failure of the band. It ran fast but gracefully, each step was quick and efficient.
"Shit! That idiot will run into the village group if he keeps on running that way! I’m going to try and stop it!" Laney yelled, running down a large branch. Meanwhile, Kaden was trying to figure out what would be the most efficient way to move forward. The area of effect for [Flood] was far smaller than [Frozen Land], but it would most likely knock out anything it hit.
"Ahh fuck it. Whatever, just go with something that's a known quantity." He chose [Frozen Land], but was shy a few meters.
"Alright then, the red area is just a meter further," Kaden said to himself as he walked on a thinner branch towards its end. It swayed and drooped lower and lower the further he got. "Yes, I got you now!" he said to himself as his palm centered on the Orcs and the few remaining Goblins.
[Flood]
A tidal wave appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the creatures, knocking them over. The ground turned into mud instantly, with the group barely hurt. Only a few Goblins had died. Cursing under his breath, Kaden put up his hand again, not even knowing why he had cast [Flood] in the first place.
"Oh shit!" he exclaimed as an arrow narrowly passed his head, and cast his second spell. [Frozen Land].
The wet soil was perfect as the ice would be thicker, and the explosion bigger. Every single drop of water turned into ice, growing the usually impressive spell into something far deadlier.
Panic spread out among the enemy war-band as they finally seemed to get it through their thick skulls that this was a trap, but it was little too late. Ice climbed up their legs and torso, freezing them solid. The group of Orcs that had been hit with the [Flood] spell was worse off than the rest, as they had been soaked through. Not that it mattered in the end. When the explosion rocked the clearing, everything died in its wake.
"You will die for your insolence!" roared the larger Orc, a single breath after his troops had died an inglorious death.
Debuff received. Vengeful cry: Speed / defense lowered by twenty percent for five minutes.
"Fuck you!" Kaden yelled back and released an [Ice Orb], followed by a [Magic Bolt] into the war-band’s leader. The first spell got deflected by his shield and slammed into another Orc’s head, killing it instantly. Another arrow flew past him, as a third strafed his leg, drawing blood.
You have inflicted 512 damage to Orc.
For a moment, he lost balance and was about to fall, but caught himself only because of Laney’s buffs. His health was at 451, thanks again to Laney’s buff, which also negated the debuff as they were almost equal in bonus.
"Shoot him!" bellowed the leader as two more arrows passed him. With one hand, he held himself steady as he raised his other for one more skill.
[Frozen Land]
A renewed miniature ice age sprung up from the ground and entombed the rest of the band, narrowly missing the leader for a second time as he jumped out of reach. The mini-boss, as Kaden had come to think of him, was surprisingly agile. The Orcs screamed out in pain as the ice killed them one after the other, sending shards and icicles flying in all directions.
The mini-boss stood there atop the hill, his shield raised up. Multiple pieces of ice hung off it, as not even one of them had penetrated his defenses.
"The hell? You weren’t supposed to stay alive after that second spell!" Kaden provoked. He had no idea why those words came out of his mouth, but he felt like insulting the big brute.
"Runts! All of you! Don’t you see he is alone? How dare you die against a mere animal like him!" The leader was out of his mind, white foam frothing out of his mouth, eyes turned red.
"Come down and fight like a real Orc! Coward!" he bellowed in fury. With a fluent motion, he unsheathed the large sword at his waist and gripped it in both hands. A moment later, he swirled around and flung it at Kaden, who had been hanging by one hand. In that moment, instead of thinking how to get rid of the Orc, he decided to check him out just like the Slime Lord.
"Oh shit! Oh no!" Kaden cried as his life flashed in front of him: high school, work and meeting Laney. "I don’t want to die!" he cried. On instinct, as a few times before, his hand reached out towards his chest and cast [Frozen Armor].
At that moment, he knew that the skill was far more than it seemed, it was a mechanism of self-preservation. Something nagged at his mind, making him think this wouldn't work much longer, but for this one time it would surely have to be enough.
A second later, he slammed into the ground with bone-shattering force. He just lay there, his eyes glazed over and pupils white. It felt like every single bone had been broken within him, as his body wouldn’t move. His chest rose and fell slowly, meaning he was still alive with the health bar unchanged, but the damage to his body was far worse in this case.
The Orc strode towards him, a short axe in his right hand and the towering shield in his left. He loomed over Kaden as an avenging angel, or a god of death. Two tusks protruded smack from inside of his cheeks, devoid of all bodily hair. Rippling muscles gleaned in the sun as they tensed for a blow.
"Stupid human, did you actually think that I, Hrafgar, would be defeated by the likes of you?" The Orc laughed madly before he started snorting like a pig. He walked slowly toward Kaden, bristling his axe in hand. When he stood over his prey, the axe raised high up in the sky.
A loud screech pierced the air as a massive shadow appeared around them. The Orc looked up and frowned, not too distraught by the presence of the big bird. Without any more warning, the bird shot out towards Hrafgar, its talons outstretched. The bird’s nails were easily ten centimetres long and sharp as razors, which dug into the shield and ripped it apart.
Hrafgar slashed at the bird, but missed. With a backhand, the blunt side of his axe connected with the black bird’s chest, sending it crashing down. The Orc turned towards the bird, his back exposed towards Kaden, who grinned as he put up his right hand.
[Ice Orb]
You have inflicted 1124 damage to Hrafgar. Critical hit!
You have inflicted Frostbite to Hrafgar.
The spell hit the Orc in the back, burrowing itself a few centimetres deep into its skin and exploded into tiny fragments. Hrafgar howled out in pain as the blast propelled him to his face. Enraged, he prodded himself up and turned towards Kaden again, slowly stumbling forwards. [Magic Bolt], slammed into his chest, barely doing any damage, except for stopping the band leader for a few seconds. Just as the cooldown ceased, another [Ice Orb] slammed into his left shoulder.
You have inflicted 574 damage to Hrafgar.
You have inflicted Slow to Hrafgar.
The immediate damage was great, dropping his health bar by a whopping seventeen percent. By now, he was dangerously in the yellow orange zone.
The Orc fell to his side, clutching at the expanding ice. With unbridled rage, he ripped off the frozen and damaged arm. With no time to spare, the Orc came forward. Kaden couldn’t take it anymore as the pain was too great and fell unconscious. Hrafgar howled again, and clenched his hand around the small battle axe as he loomed again over the smaller human. Each breath he took was slower and shallower than the last.
The axe raised into the air and seemed to hang there for a very long time, it seemed as if the Orc had spaced out for a moment. Shaking his head, he focused again and let out a weak battle cry as the axe embedded itself into Kaden’s chest.
"No!" Laney cried out as she failed to stop the Orc. Her full sprint had brought her closer to the creature and Kaden, but not close e
nough. Now she knew how hopeless she was in this world. She couldn’t even save someone she came to love in a strange way.
SWOOSH
An arrow struck the Orc just as she stopped running, it pierced the left eye socket and came out through the other side. A second arrow followed, embedding itself into the second eye socket. Hrafgar fell over onto his back without even so much as a groan.
Laney fell onto her knees and ripped the axe out of Kaden’s unmoving body. A hand touched her shoulder gently and withdrew momentarily. She didn’t seem to notice at first, as she cradled Kaden in her arms.
"I won’t do you any harm," spoke a soft, female voice. Opening her eyes, she turned around towards the voice. Her mouth dropped open in awe as she was even more dumbstruck than by seeing Goblins and Orcs.
A muscular-looking woman stood in front of her, almost naked. All she wore were some leaves bound together with vines over her chest and waist, swirling between her legs. Her body tone was almost brown, with slightly elongated nails sprouting from her fingers. Her feet had only four digits, as did her hands.
As Laney’s eyes finally found her way up to the woman’s head, the shock was even greater. Two hazel eyes looked back at her. A smile painted on the woman’s face, with two large rabbit ears pointing up from the woman’s head, partially covered with dense, hip long hair. The woman was shorter than Laney, coming to about one meter sixty.
"You two look rather strange," said the woman. Laney was left speechless and just stood there, her mouth agape. For a moment, she forgot about Kaden. Renewed tears fell onto his face, just as the same hand touched her shoulder for the second time. She flinched and gave the other woman a nasty look.
"Take it easy. Just look at him," the woman said, pointing a finger at Kaden’s head. "The red bar is still there." Laney had no idea why she had missed the bar, but her joy couldn’t be described as his chest started moving up and down slowly.
[Spirit Infusion]
You have gained 37 Health Power.
A black aura enveloped her and Kaden as the woman spoke two words. Her body relieved itself from pain and tension as a new message appeared before her.
[Buff received: Spirit Infusion. Skill description: Infuses target with spirit magic, improving regeneration and resilience, relieving pain for thirty minutes.]
Within mere moments, Laney felt as if she was in heaven. Any fatigue she had was gone, any pain dulled or relieved. The few health points she had lost while jumping off the tree were already recovered. She looked at the bunny woman in disbelief. A healing spell, she thought to herself, and what was with the name of that skill?
"This really sucked," Kaden murmured, his health bar rising one health point at a time.
"How?" she asked with a weak voice, hugging him again. He grinned like a little boy and winked once, but cried out as she pressed too much into him.
"Wow now, turn it down a notch, will you?" he chuckled as she let go of him. "I cast [Frozen Armour] just before hitting the ground. Between the impact and the axe strike, enough time passed for a stack to build up," Kaden said, shivering. The frost layer around his body was dissipating slower than before, but nonetheless it had been the thing to save his life.
"That thing really comes in handy, but why didn’t you come to? Maybe it had to do with the severity of the damage, or how often you cast it? Like every time you cast it, the effects are worse and it lasts longer than before," Laney commented with a worried expression on her face. She was ecstatic that he had survived, but this meant that there was no real safe card if his life-saving buff would end up harming him.
"Something needs to change. I'm just no good at close range fighting," Kaden said as he got up and looked at the leader’s corpse. He spat once for good measure before turning his head towards Laney and the new arrival. With a smile, he went on. "Thank you for saving my life." The woman chuckled in return, making a strange gesture with her hand.
"Say, what is your name anyway?" Laney asked, turning her head slightly to look up at the woman. She was really curious now that the moment of panic had passed. With a smile plastered to her face, the woman replied.
"My name is Eliana and I’m a Leparian. Thank you for saving my life, sincerely." She smiled, as if what she just said was the most normal thing to say. Both Kaden and Laney were over the shock that she wasn’t human, but to put it so casually was strange, to say the least. But what could actually be categorized as strange in this new world? There were monsters, fallen angels, gods, massive slime monsters and now bunny women.
"My name is Laney and this is Kaden," Laney replied happily. "And how do we even understand what you are saying?"
"Why, it's very simple. No matter where you are from, everyone understands each other here in this world. Even the monsters we fight, whatever they say, we can understand them. Also, what race are you two? You both look very similar, but so very different," Eliana asked, putting the bow around her neck and letting it dangle over her shoulder.
"Wow," Kaden replied without any thought. "I never would have thought in my whole life that someone would ask me what race I was."
"We are Human,’ Laney replied in his stead. ‘Though I'm actually a fallen Angel, not Human.’
"Very well," Eliana replied. "It's a pleasure meeting the two of you, Kaden human and umm, Laney fallen angel?"
"It's a long story; we will get to it one day." Eliana understood on an emotional level the need to keep it a secret without having to be told.
"I understand. How about we scavenge through the dead and see if there is something we can use?" Her movements were that of a cat, graceful and deadly at the same time as she moved towards the dead. Her small tail wiggled playfully as she walked. One of Kaden’s eyebrows rose up as if deliberating what to do, to laugh or whistle.
"You know how they say. If you can’t beat them, join them," Kaden commented as he got up slowly, the pain still ever present, though dulled by the buff received.
Searching the corpses had been awful and tedious. Body parts were everywhere, blood and gore made the already slippery ground even worse. More than once did one of them stop to throw up, but half an hour later, they had managed to scavenge up some useful things.
The most prized item they had found was a small bag, no larger than half a metre in diameter, weighing in at about a kilogram. The interesting thing was that it seemed to have infinite space within and held everything organized. Everything that was of interest lay on a heap one moment, and some minutes later it was organized within the bag.
Not really wanting to linger around, they buffed up once more and climbed up from the same tree where they had been resting when Kaden stopped halfway.
"Where is the bird?" he asked no one in particular.
"Huh? Where is who?" Laney asked, looking down at him.
"The bird. Where did it go? The one that helped us I mean." They all looked around but couldn’t find the creature. It was as if it had evaporated into thin air.
A short while later, as they sat up high in the tree, Eliana came up with an idea to clip smaller branches and make some type of shelter, at which she was a self-proclaimed master. Taking one of the Goblin’s small axes, she proceeded to cut and bend. Within another hour, they were hidden from the outer world and any predator looking for prey would have to come within reaching distance to see them.
While Eliana had been setting up their shelter, Kaden and Laney had laid out all of their combined possessions on the branches and sorted everything by type, and made a list on what looked like a very thin notebook and a quill.
There was an assortment of weapons. There were short swords, axes, throwing spears and bows, armor-like shields, leather and metal armour. Besides the weapons and armours, there were some interesting things like the bag, notepads, a quill, food packages that contained meat, bread and a sort of cheese, a lot of rope, metal bars and a various assortment of tools and gems. The most interesting tools however, included the hammer and anvil, pliers, bellows and everything needed to
smith stuff.
"To me, it seemed like these troops were going to reinforce the ones in the village and start building it up again. With these smithing items, they could make anything from small tools to weapons," Kaden said after they were done.
"And if they hadn’t been taken care off, we would have had a much larger problem on our hands, like two war-bands instead of one," Laney replied.
SCREECH
The loud screeching noise made their blood run cold. What if this wasn’t the same bird, but something else instead?
All three grabbed a weapon and tensed up as another screech came from outside of the shelter. Eliana drew her bow, and put three arrows between her teeth and notched one. Laney held a spear out while Kaden held a sword and shield, even though he wasn’t meant to use the close range weapons.
SCREECH
Taking a deep breath, Kaden stepped out from behind the bush and found himself face-to-face with the same bird, sharp-feathered with a red tinge. Its large, beady eyes looked straight into his, as if it read his soul. Then, as if it was nothing, the bird became nothing larger than a hawk and perched itself on Kaden’s shoulder. Its nails dug in deep, drawing blood. With an uneasy feeling in his gut, he turned around and fainted. The bird darted off in an unknown direction as he lost his consciousness and dropped face first.
"What the hell?" Laney landed her eyes on the bird. Something withheld her from throwing the spear, to her better judgement.
‘They have bonded," Eliana said, as if answering an unasked question. "He will wake up sooner or later. I think."
Laney frowned at her words, not quite knowing what to make of them. "Maybe we should put everything back into the bag and rest until he has come to?" she suggested. Eliana nodded with her typical smile, and put her bow and arrow away.
"Your constant smile is creeping me out. And just how do you know that they have bonded, or whatever? Do you know more about this world than we do?" Laney demanded, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed on Eliana.
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