We knew it was coming, we had prepared for it, but we still faltered. For a few moments it felt as if I had a heavy backpack on my shoulders. Even after my strength increased, I felt no difference from last time. I used my spear for support and my knees trembled. Noah buckled on one leg and leaned on the wall for support. Then it was gone.

The sky was slowly painted red, bathing us in its red hue. A roar came from the distance. It was bestial, savage, but there was something else there. I didn’t know how to put it in words, but something else besides mindless fury.

“This one is gonna be hard, mate.” Noah shuffled a little behind. I didn’t say anything. I had to concentrate now.

We first heard their roars, like battle cries, then came the stomping of feet, too many to count. I stared at the end of the alleyway with expecting eyes, whatever this fucking place was going to throw at me, I wouldn’t let it intimidate me. I remember the boss, how it made me feel, and I dug deep into that fury. I used it to drown any inkling of fear or hesitation. There would be none today. I was furious.

The first of the creatures turned the bend of the alleyway and came for us. They roared and flailed their arms. They were tall, some of them taller than me, but their skin and bone frames were less intimidating. Their mouth had long protruding tusks, they roared and spittle flew as they charged at us madly.

They crashed against the barricade and part of it fell due to their sheer size. Most of them got stuck, chest bared but lower body stuck on the pile of furniture. The ones behind tried to climb, but I was already on them. I ignored the ones stuck between the furniture and the press of bodies and stabbed one that was almost done climbing his brethren. My spear easily pierced its skin, I barely felt any resistance. It entered under his collarbone, I missed his neck. It didn’t matter, blood started flowing and the creature clawed at its wound. It fumbled, making it harder for others to climb. I drove my spear in it again, this time I hit the neck. I twisted and pulled for good measure.

[You have slain an Anemic Orc.]

The system popped up the information, but I only glanced at it, I was too focused on killing. I stabbed another through the ribcage. Slashed one across the abdomen, his innards fell. I stabbed in the shoulder. In the face. In the neck. Collarbone. Chest. Abdomen. Mouth. Miss. Shoulder. Stomach. Heart. Chest. Chest. Eye. Neck. Miss. Abdomen.

I felt numb, as if my mind had entered into some sort of automatic fighting state where I didn’t have to think, only act. Act and react. The spear gave me an unfair advantage, I could stab and slash them from a distance where their arms had no chance to reach me. I would eventually have to take a step back as they crawled on top of their dead to reach me. But their advance was slow, too slow. They often lost balance without proper footing, only to fall prey to the wavy blade of my spear. The messages kept popping and I kept stabbing.

[You have slain an Anemic Orc.]

[You have acquired the skill Spear Fighting (Initiate).]

[You have slain an Anemic Orc.]

...

Noah tapped me on the back and I stabbed an orc who had fallen on his face after climbing, straight through the nape. It was time to retreat to the other barrier. With the amount of distance I already kept between me and the creatures, I didn’t need to do anything special. I stabbed one more in the face and turned to go over the next barricade. Noah was already on the other side, waiting for me. I made my way through the improvised ramp with two long steps. I jumped to the other side and Noah pulled our impromptu bridge. One of the orcs tried to reach it, but lost his footing and fell face first on the pavement. He soon disappeared under the oncoming throng of his brethren.

“Mate, go easy. You don’t want to repeat what happened last time.”

“I am fine. This is much easier than the sledgehammer. It’s almost comical.”

We exchanged a brief glance, but soon the creatures were upon the barricade again. They managed to push the upper part, but got stuck again. Their brethren crawled on top of the ones stuck and I stabbed. I realized that Noah was just standing behind me, his assistance had not been needed since the fight started. The creatures didn’t even have a chance of getting their footing before they were stabbed or cut, even if I missed, it was too easy for me to recover. And I was missing a lot less since the battle started.

The orcs kept coming and I kept making a bloody mess out of them. I wasn’t even trying to deal a finishing blow, I knew that giving them just enough damage would be enough to make sure their brethren did the rest as they trampled the wounded. I left them clutching at their spilled innards, holding their hanging jaws, clawing at their gushing necks or outright dead.

Noah tapped on my back and we crossed the last barricade. No dizziness, no weakness, nothing. I was fine, a bit winded, but fine. I could keep this going for a long time. My arms felt pumped, but not sore or tired. This weapon was really amazing.

A shout came from behind us, a different shout. We could hear the battle happening behind us, shouting, battle cries and the clashing of weapons, but when someone shouted something and everyone repeated, it tended to get our attention.

“RETREAT!”

“RETREAT INSIDE THE BUILDING!”

Noah looked at me and a dreadful realization struck us. If we didn’t retreat soon, we would be sandwiched in the alley. The orcs in front of us crashed against the barricade. One of them managed to go over it this time. He tumbled over a very low section of it, and others started to move through it. Like a dam that had a broken section, they would soon flood us. I stabbed it in the neck, it squirmed on the floor. I raised my spear and cut across the abdomen of the next one. It fell on top of its dying brethren. But more were coming, and I had to give them space. I couldn’t turn and run with the way things were going.

“Go back! I will hold them as I retreat.”

“Are you crazy? Let’s go you dumbarse, they are already retreating!”

“Just fucking go! GO!”

I felt his hesitation even without looking at him. But Noah was still recovering and if I had to run, he would only slow me down. I didn’t need him to hold this alleyway.

“Don't die on me, you dickhead.”

I heard Noah’s voice moving. Now, I had to figure out a way to not get surrounded. I took a glance behind my back to assess the situation. I saw a mass of people converging on the front of the building. I still couldn’t see the fighting, which means I had time. I kept making short work of the advancing orcs, but it seemed there was no end to them. I was almost out of the alleyway, when I heard frantic screams behind my back. Two of the orcs advanced on me, trying to flank me. I couldn’t look back. I side stepped a lunge and stabbed it on the side. The other ran at me, claws out. I used my spear and shoved the stabbed orc at the running one. They crashed into each other and slammed on the wall. I pulled my spear and made a nasty hole on one of them. I tried to stab the other, but more of them rushed at me. Another side step and a clean slash on its neck, almost decapitating the orc. I retread and killed them. The shouts behind me were starting to fade, hopefully they had the situation under control. I didn’t have the luxury to look behind me.

I killed another one with a quick neck stab and kicked the one charging from behind it. It fell back and slammed onto another two rushing at me, they lost balance and made a tangle of flailing orcs. It wouldn’t hold them for long, but it bought me enough time to look at my surroundings. I was at the mouth of the alleyway when I looked around me and I felt the pit of my stomach falling.

Johann’s side had been completely overrun. John’s side too, but at least they had managed to kill a decent number of orcs during the retreat. What fucked me was the fact that they were holding the orcs at the entrance of the building, and I was completely isolated.

The orcs behind me were too focused on rushing the building that they didn’t pay attention to the alleyway. But now that I was out of it, some of the ones that were making their way over the barricades were coming at me. The ones in the alleyway were also recovered, they stumbled their way out of it, eyes red with fury staring at me.

I felt… angry. So deeply furious that there was no space for fear. I was furious at the orcs, furious at the group, furious at the emissary, furious at myself. I charged. I ran straight into the orcs coming from Johann’s side of the barricade. I was going to make it over that barricade, cut across the throng of creatures and breach this encirclement. I shoulder tackled the first one. It clawed at me, trying to tear my flesh, but the jacket held. I planted my feet firmly on the ground and the creature slammed into the next one. They fumbled and fell. Another orc tripped on top of the two. I kept one of the buildings to my right, but the creatures rushed at me from the front and my exposed left.

The ones in the front were fumbling on the fallen ones, but the ones from the left charged at me with reckless abandon. I killed them and stepped forward. I would have to find a way with the growing tangled mess of orcs. They were some five meters away from me. I killed another one rushing from the left when I followed a crazy instinct. I had no time to think and no better idea. I held my spear with both hands and with long and large steps I sprinted towards the tangled mess. Like an Olympic athlete, I tried to jump over the orcs.

One of the orcs was just standing up when I passed overhead. It managed to grab me on the arm and I spun mid air. It wasn’t strong enough to keep hold of me, but it was enough to make me lose any chance of a proper landing. I tumbled and hoped that I wouldn’t end up impaled by my own weapon. I didn’t. But I had crashed onto an oncoming orc who had just crossed the barricade.

I didn’t have much time, so I pushed its light frame aside and rolled towards the building on my right. As soon as I did, another orc fell where I was. I used the building as leverage and quickly stood up. I had my back to the building wall. I looked at the windows, but they had all been reinforced. I was stuck. Too many orcs were coming at me and if I tried to crawl the barricade now I was going to be caught, for sure. It was a stupid idea to begin with.

‘Fuck this!’

I heard some commotion coming from the other side of the barricade, but I didn’t have time to pay attention to it. I was too busy fighting the rushing orcs. I counted five coming at me, but there were more that were starting to realize that I was easier prey than the ones in the building.

‘Easy prey, huh?’

The thought of being looked down by these malnourished, starving, skinny motherfuckers was making me even more pissed. I stabbed, slashed and kicked them. I gave up on being close to the barrier and did my best to move around and not be surrounded. They charged at me with reckless abandon, but they wanted to bite and claw at me. They didn’t think of grappling or tackling me. Usually focusing on somewhere they wanted to bite, it made it easier for me to move around them. Still, fatigue was starting to catch up to me and my wounds were pilling on. The jacket was in tatters, and streaks of blood marred it. I felt numb, too angry to care about the wounds.

[Your dodge skill has upgraded from (Beginner) to (Proficient).]

It suddenly became a lot easier to dodge their mindless charges. I could somehow sense where they were going to come, and I started to side step and move around them with much more precision. I felt a rush inside my brain, similar to the tingling when I had upgraded strength, but more… ethereal.

At some point I had unconsciously made my way between our building and the large one that flanked it on the left. It was a large space, but nothing could come from my back. The orcs didn’t try to maneuver around me, they just kept charging. But I could see that their numbers were thinning. Most of them focused on the main building, with me sort of out of the way.

I don’t know for how long I had been fighting, I didn’t dare look at the sky clock. My arms felt heavy, my movements were becoming sluggish and the wounds I gave the orcs were becoming shallower. I could see some of the fuckers standing up after a while and coming back at me while bleeding. My back hit something and I knew I was fucked. More than a dozen of them were rushing at me and I had no place to retreat or maneuver anymore. I tried moving sideways, towards where the building met the barrier. It didn’t work. Without anything else to distract them, they closed in on me from all directions.

I held one of them on the tip of my spear while I swung it around wildly, but my arms were exhausted, I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt the dizziness taking over and my legs faltered. I kneeled. The butt of the spear was firmly planted on the floor while a flailing and screaming orc stared at me, skewered. Others came from the side and started biting me on the arms. I raised my left arm and protected my face, but I could feel as their teeth sank into my flesh and warm blood mixed with their thick saliva on my skin. I tried to make myself small, I could tell the others were climbing and trying to reach me somehow.

‘Is that how I die? Devoured alive by these fucking orcs?’

I felt the weight of their press of bodies increase.

‘No! I won’t fucking die like this!’

I tried to push against them, but I didn’t have enough strength left in me.

‘Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuck!’

I felt as one of them made a gnarly gash on my side, blood flowed.

‘I WON’T FUCKING DIE LIKE THIS!’

I summoned the strength I didn’t have, and managed to push one of them away from me, but another took its place, grabbing my extended arm. I felt a crunch. Pain jolted on me, my left hand was crushed under its bite. I screamed, but not much came out. My mind started to lose coherence as the blood loss and the exhaustion impaired me. I felt a chunk of my thigh being ripped off. The pain was muted between the sensory overload and my fading consciousness. I fought the fog, but there was nothing else I could do. I refused to accept death, but here I was, incapable of changing what was happening.