Despite their slow pace, it took the orcs only about six minutes to get back to the place where I had had my first kill. The moment they noticed the body, they changed from bumbling, carefree fools, to lethal warriors, ready for imminent action. I could see them tense up, muscles bulging as they scanned the area. All the while, their tiny ears were twitching, betraying their alertness and, perhaps, a certain degree of nervousness.

The spear-wielding, bigger orc held its weapon at the ready and motioned the other orc to step forward to investigate. With apparent apprehension, the second orc cautiously moved closer and kicked the prone body with its foot, clearly looking for some reaction either from the body or from the surrounding bushes. After a tense moment, in which both orcs were clearly ready to explode into action, the orc bent down, and, with a grunt, flipped the corpse around, revealing the bloody gash across its throat and the mix of piss and dust on its face.

I wasn’t an expert on orc facial features, or on how to read their emotions, but the twitching nose, the downturn of their lips and their narrowed eyes indicated equal measures of disgust and consternation, as they stared at the body. Perhaps they had expected some monster to have killed their comrade or a random act of nature, not the kiss of a cold steel blade through the throat…

Either way, this was my opportunity. Moving as quietly as possible, I stepped out on the road and then rushed toward the back of the spear-wielding orc. At the last moment, the orc somehow noticed me coming and turned sideways, almost negating my attack with one easy move. Luckily, I had aimed for the middle of its back and therefore ended up at least cutting deeply into its side – a painful but not debilitating wound.

The orc grunted in pain and staggered back a step, but then immediately whipped its spear around, aiming for my head.

An aggressive move. And a bad mistake.

The orc had a weapon with a longer reach, and it wasn’t alone. All it really had to do was to keep me occupied for a few seconds, and I would have had to flee.

Its overly powerful attack instead unbalanced it and gave me an opening. I simply ducked under the sweeping headshot, and with that one easy evasion-move managed to keep the orc within reach of my sword and, at the same time, its excellent defensive weapon wildly out of position.

And I didn’t wait for another invitation. I stabbed the tip of my sword under the chin of the orc and pushed hard. For a fraction of a second, I was worried that I was too weak to pierce the orc’s skin, too weak to deal significant damage, just like it almost had been the case with the goblin king and the shadow cat, but then the blade slid forward, straight into the orc’s brain

Just in time too.

The other orc rushed toward me, screaming furiously and swinging its ax in a glittering arc toward my unprotected side. Instead of trying to pull out my sword and attempt to block the heavy ax, a strategy that was bound to fail given my current lack of strength and the difference in weapons, I simply dropped my blade and stepped to the side, just outside the reach of the orc’s weapon.

And while the weapon swooshed past my face, mere inches from dealing a lethal wound, I activated Midnight Skin, turning into a figure of absolute darkness.

Suddenly there was fear in the orc’s eyes - a slight twitch of the eyes, the tense body, and the fact that it was shrinking back a half-step, all indicating its sudden apprehension.

“I’m the dark reaper, the collector of souls, feasting on your fears,” I cackled somewhat melodramatically, delighted by the effect. The Midnight Skin was meant to create some confusion, to momentarily distract the orc, but it felt good to be able to instill terror in these vile creatures. I had managed the same with the goblins, but they were just so pathetic that it felt like a hollow accomplishment. This, however, was a powerful creature, at a guess physically at least three times stronger than me, so it was meaningful.

And intoxicating.

I could live with that kind of persona - a dark shade, prowling the night, picking off orcs, until they’d be sitting in their camp, gibbering in fear.

But either way, fear didn’t mean that the fight was over. Far from it. The orc already had gotten its wits together and readied itself for a powerful backswing. Just like the first orc, it overextended, though, relying too much on its overwhelming force. With a swift motion, I drew my dagger, crouched low, and then lunged forward underneath the swing. I almost didn’t make it, as that moment my leg decided to go wimpy on me, lacking the force to propel me forward. But in the end, I managed to, at least, nick the orc’s leg.

Not a lethal wound, but enough to give me an edge, I hoped.

Right then, I noticed someone approaching from behind the orc. For a moment, I got panicked, thinking that there had been a third orc that I had somehow missed, but then there was a dull thud and the orc staggered as if drunk, before collapsing to the ground, its skull half caved-in.

Wearily, I stepped back, unsure, at first, of who or what had approached and assisted with the fight. As it turned out, it had been a twentysomething-year-old woman, perhaps 5’5”, blonde, short hair, well-toned from the looks of it with a broken baseball bat in her hand.

And she was looking pale. Even sick.

“I… I’m sorry, I…,” was all she managed to say before she rushed off to the bushes to noisily throw up.

Somewhat bemused, I picked up my weapons and briefly searched the bodies of the two orcs for anything valuable. Not that I had high hopes for good loot. And, indeed, there was nothing that made sense to take, unless I wanted to try and put together those disparate pieces of hardboiled leather into an armor that would actually fit me.

And despite my complete lack of armor that was somewhat low on my list of priorities right then – I had no idea how to craft armor and was too weak to lug around much additional weight during a fight. My strength was my stealth ability, not fighting in a melee.

Speaking of melee… that girl had to have some serious muscle to smush in the orc’s skull like that. I was no expert, but it looked to me as if the orcs had really thick bones around their brain that should have provided solid protection. And breaking a baseball bat like that… it wasn’t the skinny part of the bat either that had broken, but the wider top part.

Impatiently, I waited for the gal to get her act together. While I could understand some reaction to the violence, I was a tad surprised that it was bad enough that she had to throw up. By then, I had seen so much death that I kinda had gotten used to it. Sure, there was a difference between doing the deed yourself rather than just watch the end-result as a passive observer. But I had seen what these creatures had done, same as the goblins before and even the elves. None of them had deserved any mercy, and I didn’t really feel bad snuffing them out.

Usually anyway. I had my own demons to fight when it came to cold-blooded killing.

About a minute later, the girl emerged, wiping her chin with the sleeve of her t-shirt.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” she said self-consciously. “The noise of the bat caving in that skull, and the blood… I just, I don’t know. I couldn’t’ handle it.”

“That’s ok,” I responded. “Don’t worry about it.”

In fact, I hardly registered what she was saying. My eyes were glued on her. I hadn’t realized at first how stunning she looked.

“Hello, anyone there?”

“Wh… what?” I hadn’t even realized that there had been an awkward pause and that I had been staring at her, fairly obviously too, I guessed. I mean, what the fuck? The first person I encounter after the dungeon turns out to be a cute woman that even assists me in a fight, perhaps saving my ass, and I just space out staring at her.

So. Fucking. Me.

“I said that I am Sue, and asked what are you doing out here by yourself, attacking gars,” Sue repeated impatiently. “Are you suicidal or just stupid?”

“Aren’t you a bit quick to judge?” I asked, slightly upset. “You are out here as well, and as you can see, I did just fine killing two of these creatures, and I think I would have gotten the last one as well if you hadn’t done it yourself.”

“Sorry, maybe you are right. I shouldn’t have said that. But I saw you sneaking up on those creatures and,” Sue looked up and down my body, “you hardly seem to be able to swing a sword with those skinny arms, so you have no business taking on those brutes, even if you succeeded killing these ones. You have some pretty nifty sneaking skills there. What is that?”

“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence there in my strength. I appreciate it. And that skill is based on black mana. But, not that I want to be rude or anything… I’d rather move away from this spot before a random monster smells the blood and comes here, or other orcs investigate and find us out in the open.”

“Orcs?”

“Yeah, I mean, these guys here. I call them orcs,” I said while moving off into the bushes at the side of the road.

“They are actually gars, not orcs,” Sue said. “And where are you going? Do you have a place somewhere? What is your name anyway? Or should I call you,” she paused for a moment before switching to a deeper voice, “Dark Reaper, the Collector of Souls?”

When she was done with her little spiel, she broke out in a burst of pearling laughter.

I could feel the blood rush to my skin, turning me red like a tomato, I was sure. And for a moment, I almost began to regret meeting another person. It just made life more complicated. Perhaps I had gotten used to just be by myself, the quiet, my own pace, and not having to explain things. And no one making fun of me.

But then I remembered how lonely I had felt these last days. And a bit of ribbing was just part of that sometimes.

With a sigh, I turned around. “Sorry, I’m Daniel.”

“And yeah, that must have sounded a bit cheesy, I guess,” I added with a self-deprecating smile. “Way to rub it in, though.”

“In terms of where I am going… I’m getting off the street so that I’m a bit safer, and I don’t really have a place to go to. Probably I will camp tonight behind some bushes and then later tomorrow head out to Lake Placid. And don’t you want to pick up some better weapon?” I pointedly looked at the ax and spear that the two orcs, gars, whatever, had dropped and the sword next to the first corpse.

“Uhm, maybe?” Sue sheepishly responded. “I don’t really know how to use those weapons. But I guess if I can hit something with a baseball bat, I should be able to hit it with an ax, right?”

I only grunted in response, busy trying to figure out whether it made sense to chase after the other gars right away, or if I should wait for the night. If none of the three gars returned within the next twenty minutes or so, the other gars would surely be alarmed and much more careful. And while Sue’s statement that I looked like a weakling was painful, it wasn’t exactly far from the truth. Without some overpowered ranged attack, I was not going to take on seven gars at once all by myself.

That said…

“So, Sue, what are you doing out here?”

“Me, oh, you know, I’m on one of the training missions!”

I stared at her for a moment. “The what?”

“The training missions.”

I looked at her blankly.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t heard about them… Oh my gosh, really? Under which stone have you been hiding? Everyone knows about them!” Sue said in utter disbelief.

“Well, apparently not,” I grumbled in response. “I wasn’t exactly around much lately.”

Sue looked curiously at me. “So where have you been then? Out here, roughing it in the wilderness? No, that can’t be, you’d be dead all by yourself… some remote house somewhere? A cabin in the woods?”

“I’d be happy to tell you the story of my life later, but for now, I’d say we get a move on. What I wanted to ask you, though… are you alone?”

Sue looked at me with a somewhat weird expression on her face and turned sideways, eyeing the weapons while inching away from me.

Damn. I had done it again.

I raised my hands while stepping back. “Oh, sorry, that… might be interpreted weirdly. I am really harmless.”

Sue’s eyes darted toward the three dead gars on the ground.

“Uhm, like apart from being able to kill things…” my voice petered out as I realized that I was just digging myself an ever-deeper hole. “Look, I’m hunting those gars, which is why I killed those three fuckers. Well, two of them, I guess. I am really not interested in you… I mean, in hurting you. I… shit, so, the point is that I might need help with hunting the rest of the group I’m following. There are seven of them left, and that is probably too much for me without some support. And while I appreciated your help here, I think that a bigger group would be better.”

Sue studied my face for a bit and then suddenly grinned: “You really have a way with words, huh? If you weren’t so weird in so many ways, I’d have run away or smacked you in the face with something heavy a few times already. And those gars… I am not sure about killing them, not that I mind if you do… The point is, though, they are kinda huge and, in fact, there are hundreds of them, not just seven. But, I think I can at least bring you to the others, and maybe someone has some other thoughts…”

She grabbed the ax from the ground, still keeping an eye on me, and then after a brief hesitation, also took the spear and the sword. “Why don’t we go to our camp? Unless you prefer being on your own…?”

Based on her tone, she wasn’t as eager any longer to have me come along.

Great job, Daniel. Way to go.

If it was true that there were hundreds of those creatures out there, then I probably had to drop the idea of going after the gars for now, so getting back to Lake Placid was the new priority. And while going by myself would allow me to sneak more easily, I still had to sleep at some point and only had one pair of eyes… there was some safety in numbers. And I really did miss company, despite me being a bumbling idiot sometimes.

And they might have real food!

That last one clinched it.

I mean, trail mixes are alright, but their taste gets a bit overbearing quickly.

“Sure, lead the way then,” I said, eager to finally start moving.

“If you don’t mind, you go ahead, and I will walk behind you,” Sue responded almost apologetically. “Over there, toward that tall hill. We are camped on the other side, inside a canyon.”

“Ok, no worries. It is good to be cautious,” I responded, forcing a smile. “Like that, I cannot sneak up on you from behind.”

“Uhm,” Sue responded, stepping a bit further away from me.

I rolled my eyes. “Relax, that was just a joke. I am not going to do anything weird.”

I pushed my way through the bushes, changing direction every now and then when prompted by Sue. It took about fifteen minutes to reach the top of the hill, and I was winded.

“Sorry, I need to take a quick break,” I wheezed, plopping my butt down on a log. “This is kind of exhausting.”

“Seriously?” Sue asked in a disbelieving tone, and apparently utterly unaffected by our strenuous hike up the hillside. “How did you ever survive in the wilderness like that? Or did you hide in a trailer somewhere and not move for the last few days, apart from your current suicide mission? You actually kinda look like that, to be honest. All bones and skin.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it the first time already. Skin and bones. No need to harp on it more.”

“I don’t mean to be insulting, but I just… don’t get it,” Sue said, almost apologetically.

“Look, I had a couple of close brushes with death, including an actual death during this last week. That kinda left me a bit more frail than usual.”

“Stop screwing around with me, Daniel, if you don’t wanna tell me that you are a geek or a loner-nerd that had been hiding somewhere, that is fine. No need to try and impress me with some weird stories.”

“Whatever!” I grumbled before forcing myself back on my feet and making my way down the hill on the other side. I could have argued, told her about all my gruesome experiences… but what was the point?

“So, how are things in Lake Placid?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Well, as of a day ago… calm, I guess. Training is going well for most, and there has been progress on setting up some basic fortifications. A few attacks by reaver dogs, scatbears, and a couple of swarms of lucors… but nothing that we, with the occasional help of Chad and his team, couldn’t deal with.”

“Chad?”

“Yeah, you know, the I’tisch League of Cities?”

…

“You don’t know, I take it. Why am I not surprised?” Sue said. “Have you been to Lake Placid at all since the transition?”

“Actually, yes, the first day,” I responded somewhat reluctantly. I wasn’t entirely sure how much information to withhold about myself. With my current appearance, I could probably get away with pretending to be a different person and fool anyone but Annie. Unfortunately, I had already told Sue that my name was Daniel, so it would make it easier for people to draw that connection. And if it did come out that I had been that Daniel, the one previously in a wheelchair, then questions would arise on why I had been lying through my teeth the entire time… not a great way to build trust. And none of these people had done anything wrong to me.

I really only had a beef with the bikers.

And I hadn’t really figured out what to do about them either. I mean, make them pay, obviously. But did that mean that I was going to injure them? Or kill them? And if so, who? All of them? Or just Big Pete and his two henchmen that did the actual deed?

Lots of questions and few answers so far.