Chapter 69
No Giggitty
Ken was still amongst the trees of the forest, but he could see his mountain getting ever closer.
The return trip took longer than it should.
It was a grueling task with the lances of pain shooting through his body, and evading anything else popping up on his radar.
“Home sweet home.. “
He placed one battered boot in front of the other.
Flaring his Momentum Sense, more out of habit than anything, saved him.
A blindingly fast something was heading right for his spine.
He jumped to the side with a surge, causing the arrow to take a bite out of his left lat and triceps.
“MOTHERFUCKER!”
He was moving in the direction of the arrow.
All pain forgotten as chi surged through his robust channels.
All sluggishness lost as he flew over the terrain.
He saw red.
The second arrow was easier to dodge, and allowed him to hone in on his assassin.
He laughed as he slapped the third arrow out of the air, slicing a thin line on his palm, as he saw the culprit.
A tall, grey-green humanoid.
Feathers in its braided hair, longbow in hand.
Its dark eyes open wide.
It was starting to draw back for another shot.
In the time it took for it to grunt, an elbow was smashing through a hastily shifted bow.
Wood shattered, and peppered the creature as he leaped back with a roar.
He drew the short sword on his hip, and charged back in.
The brutish creature displayed surprising grace and skill, unleashing a smooth series of strikes.
Momentum chi roaring through his body, Ken leaned back to his left, evading a diagonal slash. A quick hop step back made the backswing whistle the air in front of his stomach.
A twist, and a step, caused the quick thrust to whisk by Ken's hip.
Closing the gap between his left elbow and its face.
It tumbled, dropping its sword, rolling back to his feet.
It started making a barking cry to the sky.
Ken gave him no space.
The echoing shout cut short, as he rolled to his right, evading the flying knee.
“Shut up! You hunt me and now you’re crying!?”
The Orc Like Dude dove away to avoid a kick.
The rolling continued, evading thundering boots, dirt flying into the air.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Ken felt a spike of momentum, almost too late, and turned to see a descending two handed axe.
Another one.
This is pissing me off.
Rage drove him.
He stepped forward into the arc of the descending axe.
The force was insane as he caught the blow on his forearms, shifting it to the side, sending it cleaving into the earth.
The right backhand snapped the shocked face to the side.
It started to jump back to only be jerked to a stop, Ken's left hand snagging the axe haft.
Ken yanked on the weapon thinking to pull the Lumberjack, surprisingly he didn't budge.
As the ‘orc’ started to grin, and pull, Ken went with it.
Springing forward, he delivered a short sharp elbow to its chest.
Something gave slightly under the blow, the orc coughing up a bit of blood, and losing its axe.
Hearing a step, he spun.
He found the other orc, sword back in hand, delivering a lightning fast horizontal slash.
On the back foot, Ken chucked the axe still in his left hand causing it to adapt the swing into parrying the flying weapon away.
Its eyes snapped up in time to see the haymaker crashing in.
Its legs instantly cut out, dropping it to the ground.
Neck plus boot equaled a primal roar behind him.
Ken turned with fire in his eyes, to behold the other Orc, chest heaving with fury.
“Fucking NPC! You tried to kill me! Now you're pissed off!?”
The audacity of these motherfuckers!
Ken was shaking with rage.
He launched like a rocket sled, body creaking, straining, almost breaking.
He met the unarmed orc with a right, which it blocked and countered with a straight.
Ken waxed off, parrying it to the side, countering with a quick palm to the nose.
Its head snapped back, but it delivered a blind kick.
Ken jumped back into a squat, sending the kick whiffing over his head.
Springing up with extreme speed, his right knee met the orc’s face and said:
‘How do you do?’
The response?
‘Bad, thank you for asking.’
‘Caved in’ are the words Ken would use to describe the orc’s prominent facial feature.
Blood sprayed hot across his face.
Ken wiped it with the back of his hand, tasting iron.
The forest was suddenly too quiet.
Shoulders heaving with effort and adrenaline, he looked down at the two corpses.
Fuck this was close.
These guys seemed intelligent and capable..
It's strange..
Something was nagging at the back of his mind, when the sound of a soft exhale startled him.
Ken turned and saw yet another orc.
He was tall and muscular, but with a lean build.
He had a long black ponytail and shaved sides of his head, exposing ears coming to a gentle point.
His face was human looking, just brutish.
Skin mostly gray, with tones of black around his eyes and hands.
You could see the hints of a pair of fangs poking out from his strong bottom jaw.
Simple brown leather armour covered his torso, with fur around his shoulders and neck.
The pants were made with a similar but supple brown leather.
He was taking in the scene, looking at its dead companions.
Each of his hands, resting on a handle of a simple wood club, one on either hip.
The orc’s eyes weren’t filled with rage.
It was grief.
Shock.
Loss.
The smooth movements screaming of practice.
The Boworc’s call for help.
The rage in the Lumberorc’s expression.
The panicked look in Ponytail's face, right now.
Um.. is… he…?
Ponytail’s gaze moved to the bodies of his comrades, glanced at the pocket containing the orb from the Treeman, then locked eyes with Ken.
Ken noted the distinctly human-like eyes looking back at him.
The pain of all his injuries crashed into him, as the bottom of his stomach dropped open.
“Oh.. Fuck.”
