In retrospect, alerting the Orcs that we knew that they were there may not have been the best tactic, because now instead of slowly and silently infiltrating the village; they gave up on stealth, exploding into a screaming sea of black bodies that launched themselves forward.

The archer woman was barking orders and across the village I could see figures that had been running to aid this part of the wall, change course to intercept the Orcs who were running wild in the eastern part.

“Get to the village hall, its safer there” the order jarred me away from the scene.

“I can help-“

“They’ve stopped using their [Camouflage] Skill, so unless you have a combat Class, get to the village hall, you’ve already helped” her slitted pale green eyes calmly impressed that order onto me and I bit my tongue, partly frustrated and relieved that I was supposed to run.

Ignoring the clamour of voices and steel on steel behind me, I jumped off the scaffolding; landing on the hard packed earth and took off running down the street barefoot. Looking up at people with weapons running in the opposite direction, I had to flatten myself against a shop wall as not to be run over by the crowd. Faces pinched in anger and fear, the group charged forwards and I could see a teenager struggling to put on his bracers but running towards the wall nonetheless.

Digging my claws into my palms I watched them, it suddenly became very real that these people were risking their lives to defend the village and if they fell, I would probably die too. Aron would die, Jak and even stupid Carston. Breathing rapidly through my open mouth, my chest heaved, tears stung my eyes; I couldn’t do anything.

Frustrated I kicked the wall and looked down the street. A flicker of red appeared at an alley entrance before fading into orange. Inhaling sharply a sliver of fear spiked in me as I looked back the way I had come; figures swathed in light green were busy yelling and pushing to prevent Orcs from breaching the wall.

Swallowing I looked at the innocuous orange mist hanging in mid air in front of the alley. Feeling exposed and vulnerable on the now empty street, I slowly reached out to sink my claws into the shop wall, flicking a look back, I quickly burst into motion, heart racing as I pulled myself onto the roof before spinning around and flattening myself on the roof to survey the street.

The scene hadn’t changed and I strained my ears to hear past the uproar of battle from the wall, but if it weren’t for the orange blob in the air, nothing would have given me any indication that an Orc had been there.

Breathing slowing down I looked around, debating heading back to alert the Lizardfolk archer, when to my horror I saw Carston and his group came out of an alley on my left, running across the street, heading right for the alley with the orange entrance. They stupidly seemed to be heading for the eastern part of the village where Orcs had already made it over the wall and were fighting in the streets.

Mouth dry I tried screaming at them but no sound came out and I coughed, scrambling off the roof, falling to the floor ungainly, twisting my ankle I screamed hoarsly as I ran after them but the sound was lost or they ignored me as they entered the alley.

Hobbling I managed to half sprint, reaching the orange spot, which promptly disappeared as I looked into the alley.

Carston was halfway through the alley, his group behind him, grinning full of false bravado holding daggers and swords. Near the centre of the alley was a barrel the group was passing by and standing next to it I could see a red outline against the wall. My throat constricted as I looked at it loom over the unaware group, the red moved and suddenly my throat worked “CARSTON” I screeched, pointing desperately.

The ginger head turned just as the red blurred and came down on the blonde boy behind him. Liquid red sprayed out as an axe buried itself halfway into a blonde skull. The now visible Orc hefted it's axe, lifting the limp body with it before it slipped off the axe with a sickening slurp and crashed to the floor, dead eyes staring up unseeing.

It was tall, with dark skin and folded pointy ears with crude tattoos marking it's narrow face and bare arms. Leather armour covered its torso and legs, mismatched fur boots and a claw necklace completed the outfit.

The boy behind the dead blond cried out falling on his butt, scrambling back as the blood pooled close to him. A dark haired girl threw a dagger that bounced off the Orc’s leather armour, and it turned to grin at her. Breath hitching at the sight of the amber eyes lazily flowing over the frozen group I met its intelligent gaze before Carston attacked with a angry yell, sword swinging forward. Too slow. I could see that the Orc would dodge before it happened. It sidestepped as Carston’s swing went wide, almost in an after thought it brought the back of it’s axe down on Carston’s right arm, the heft shattering his forearm as he screamed out dropping his sword, somehow barely managing to throw himself out of the way of the next axe swing which would have crushed his ribcage.

Leaning against the wall clutching his arm he glared up at the Orc who seemed unfazed. With a shout, the girl who’d throw the dagger valiantly ran forward with her mace and the other 2, excluding the boy sitting on the floor, all charged the Orc together.

The girl threw the first swing; the Orc didn’t even bother to block as it lifted its axe, but her mace seemed to accelerate mid swing, crashing into the Orc’s side making it take step to the left with an ‘oof’ leaving its lips. Surprise and anger crossed its face before it snarled, lashing out with the axe in a diagonal strike which the girl ducked under but the boy coming up on her right barely dove out of the way of.

Scrambling backwards, the girl attempted to block a swing but the force of the hit lifted her off the ground and threw her, head cracking against the wall, but unsteadily she staying on her feet. Before the Orc could follow up, a shorter girl and lanky boy simultaneously stabbed into the Orc’s arm and side with their spears. A tiny trickle of blood appeared where the boy stabbed the Orc’s bare arm, but otherwise completely failed to penetrate it's skin.

The Orc turned to look down at the pair and grinned, rubbing its red tongue against a tooth. The boy stepped back, dropping his spear as his trousers quickly darkened. Frozen as the axe descended on him, the girl next to him shoved him out of the way, the axe catching her in the shoulder. A bloodcurdling scream ripping out of her as the axe buried itself halfway into her shoulder, snapping her collar bone, scapular and first ribs. Tearing the axe free, she dropped to the ground crying and gasping, holding her shoulder while the boy sat there frozen where she’d pushed him.

They couldn’t win. The Orc’s overwhelming power was too much for a bunch of kids. The red aura around it seemed to grow as I watched helplessly. It wasn’t even a matter of winning now; it was a matter of getting them out of this alive.

The Orc raised his axe to finish the crying girl when Carston leapt on its back from behind, using his right elbow to hold on, the forearm dangling uselessly at an odd angle, he attempted to stab at the Orc’s neck with a short dagger. The first strike glanced off the leather armour as he missed and then the Orc spun, throwing Carston over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground with enough force to knock the air out of him as he retched on the ground gasping for breath.

The mace girl threw a last desperate hit onto the Orc’s thigh, mace accelerating again in the last second, preventing the Orc from dodging completely. Clipping its leg, she tried to bring her mace around to block the incoming axe but the axe snapped the mace in 2.

She stumbled back, dropping the mace stump as blood drained from her face; she was the last one standing. The Orc took its time looking around as it advanced on her as a pebble struck it in the side of the head. It paused and narrowed its golden eyes at me. I stood there shocked, my hand outstretched from where I’d thrown the pebble.

Well in for penny in for a pound. ”Hey ugly, no wonder the Orc girls don’t like you, you can only fight children because you’d lose against a real warrior” not the best insult, but he clearly understood me. His lips curled back, exposing his long canines as he snarled at me.

“You must be a coward if you’re here hiding and attacking children instead of fighting where the real tough Orc warriors are fighting” his ears seemed to furl back as his snarl became more of hiss and his eyes seemed to glow with an inner fire. Maybe I’d hit a nerve, I grinned at him, lifting my head and driving the point home “Coward”

My stomach dropped as he charged forwards with more speed than I’d expected, and I leapt up sinking my claws into the wall, franticaly scaling the wall faster than I ever had before. I heard the whistle of the axe moving through the air and the thud of it impacting the wall just by my tail before I heaved myself onto the roof.

I glanced over the edge to see his large dark frame rapidly following me up, white teeth gleaming as he snarled. His axe tucked into his belt and golden eyes burning.

Back peddling quickly, I ran to the other side of the chimney, he was almost on the roof, when I leapt across the alley, landing half on the wall, half on the roof and scrambled up. When I turned the Orc was standing on the roof on the other side of the alley. I paled; he’d gotten up much faster than expected.

He tilted his head, a smirk spreading on his face, he knew he was faster than me and I had nowhere to run. I swallowed thickly backing up slightly; he seemed larger now, and his strength too overwhelming, even the kids with combat classes could barely scratch his skin. Tears welled up as frustration and fear coiled inside me; there was nothing I could do when faced with strength like that.

In a spray of gore, the Orc’s head exploded, blood and skull fragments rained down as an arrow tore through his head, hardly slowing down before it knocked a good chunk of brick and mortar into the air coming to a stop in the chimney. The Orc’s body stood there for a second before slowly toppling over to collapse on the roof. It lay still as blood sprayed from torn arteries and then slowed to a dribble, pooling along the roof and draining into the pipes. I almost didn’t believe it until the red aura around him disappeared as he faded into blue to match the surroundings. He had seemed so strong, so unkillable, it didn’t seem real that he’d died from one shot.

I sank to my knees and promptly sat down, adrenaline rush leaving me in one fell swoop. I hadn’t been sure if the Lizardfolk [Guard] or even any of the archers would see us on the roof, but it had been my only hope. There was no way we would have won against the Orc in any scenario, so the only way to win was to get help from someone who could beat him.

A notification appeared in front of me but I waved it away in favour of throwing up. I knelt there, pieces of partly digested sandwich and bile spewing out as my head spun. Retching a few more times, I wiped my mouth and sat back shakily.

Crawling to the edge of the roof not trusting my legs I looked over the edge at the bloody display below. Mace-girl was trying to help the crying girl up and Carston was slapping one of the two boys sitting on the floor trying to get them to stand up.

“He’s dead,” I croaked out, Carston looked up drawing his dagger in his left hand, terror but grim determination in his eyes.

“The Orc is dead, archer killed him,” I said a bit loader this time. The mace-girl looked up at me as Carston lowered his dagger hesitantly.

My eyes were drawn to the dead blonde kid, he lay where he had fallen at the start, mouth open and eyes staring up blindly, he’d never even seen the Orc coming. I didn’t even know his name and now he was dead, the axe had caught him just to the right of a small cowlick on his forehead. Retching, I heaved up any remains of stomach acid I had left, throat burning from the sensation as tears gathered in my eyes.

Ignoring the other kids, I rolled over to lay on my back, closing my eyes, trying to settle my stomach, swallowing heavily, shuddering as my hands shook. I tried taking deep breaths and eventually I felt like I could stand up again without a bowl malfunction. I rolled to the edge of the roof and unsteadily climbed down a look slower than before. My hands hadn’t stopped shaking.

On the ground, the worst off was the crying girl, who seemed to have lost a significant amount of blood and was loosing consciousness. The boy she’d pushed out of the way was now crying and repeatedly apologising to her saying it was his fault she got hurt. The mace-girl was ignoring him and trying to bandage the girl with torn strips of clothing to stop the bleeding with little success.

“We need to get her to the infirmary” Carston said weakly but with conviction as he stood swaying, cradling his arm. Honestly I was impressed he was standing after being thrown around by the Orc. The other boy who’d been frozen on the floor the whole time seemed to finally come too and stood up nervously. He hadn’t been injured in the slightest but also hadn’t taken part in the fight, though no one was addressing that.

“You need to go to the infirmary too,” I said looking at Carston, he looked ready to collapse for all his bravado.

“We’re all going to the infirmary” mace-girl stood up, half dragging the crying girl up with her “I’ll take Jen, Karek, help Carston and Heret stop whimpering, you can help me with Jen” she turned to look at me “You’re coming with us?” I nodded “Then keep look out”

I was pretty sure I only got look out duty because she didn’t know me enough to help them, but I was glad. I could do that, I’d keep [Battle sense] on until we were safe, I’d rather die of Skill strain than have an Orc creep up on me. The idea that one could be standing next to me without me knowing was terrifying.

We set off at a sluggish pace down the empty street, the distant noise of fighting kept us moving but we were silent. I wasn’t sure of the way but the others seemed to know exactly where we were going. Carston was leaning on Karek, the uninjured guy while Mace-girl followed behind with Jen slung between her and Heret who was still blubbering a bit.

I scanned the streets and alleys but luckily nothing red or orange showed up though Jen left a trail of red dots and was now being dragged more than walking on her own.

Turning a corner, I could see a more people in the street, rushing back and forwards to a large building, while others cried out in pain. I tried not to look too closely at those with gruesome injuries, my stomach beginning to feel queasy again. When we entered the buidling a man ran forwards to greet us, immediately rushing to Jen, he gave her shoulder a quick once over before tying a red cloth around her other arm. He sent mace-girl and Heret to carry her to a row of other people with red tags as he moved onto Carston who was given a yellow tag and told to wait with the other people in yellow.

I stood around awkwardly. I wasn’t really injured; a twisted ankle was a shameless thing to complain about when there were people holding their own intestines in, but I didn’t know where else to go so I walked up to a woman who was bandaging a leg and asked if there was anything I could do to help. I spent the next few hours running around, carrying water and bandages, helping lift people and situating them in beds.

It all turned into a blur as I tried not to concentrate on the bloody carnage around me and followed simple orders to run errands around the infirmary. Soon, there wasn’t enough space and I helped set up tents outside to house extra people while they waited for the attention of the few healers. There was very strict and were carefully policy of administering healing potions to those who’s situations they deemed desperate enough to warrant some of the dwindling supply, but not so desperate that it was doubtful they’d make it. It seemed cruel at first, but considering the number of patients and the lack of healing potions, it made sense to prioritise.

I don’t really remember most of what happened there, I just kept going until the man who’d first greeted us, told me to go lie down in the village hall. It was only a few buildings down and I walked there, not really seeing anything. A woman there sent me to where I think a bunch of other kids were sitting and I sat down next to them, leaning against the wall and closing my eyes.

“Sasha, Sasha” a hand was shaking me and blearily I turned to look up at Aron’s teary face “Sasha” he burst into tears and hugged me, feeling the wetness on my own face I realised I was crying too and I started sobbing for real hugging Aron back. Snot leaking from my nostrils I bawled my heart out.

Eventually we both calmed down and I felt a wet nose nudge my head, I looked to the side, not even jumping when I saw Bandu’s large head next to me. She was sitting there looking down at us with those bloodshot eyes, a new shallow wound in her side, which she turned to lick occasionally.

“I was so worried about you” suddenly guilt gnawed at me when I realised I hadn’t thought about Aron. I’d been so caught up with the wall and then the Orc and the blonde boy who’d died, his dead fish eyes staring-

I turned and retched, only a few drops of bile coming up, my stomach was empty but I couldn’t stop dry heaving as acid came up. Aron rubbed my back and when I turned back he held up a wet rag awkwardly “You-, you have blood on your face”

I flashed back to Dante’s arm being eviscerated by that arrow as his hot blood splashed on me. He’d saved my life, if he hadn’t pushed me down then, I’d be dead right now.

Aron carefully dabbed at my face, trying to wipe away the blood and I let him, not moving staring at the ceiling. The paint was chipping at the walls, maybe from water damage.

“All done” he said pulling back “I-“ he hesitated “I know the blacksmith is near the wall so I thought you might have-“ he broke off “I’m just so glad you’re ok” tears started pricking his eyes again as he wiped at them with his palms.

I felt tears gathering in my eyes again as I looked into his hazel eyes, ears sticking out adorably from his tousled brown hair “I’m so glad you’re ok too, I don't know what I'd do if something had happened to you” I said honestly.