I was running for all that I was worth, and I was hearing the shouts of the orcs behind me. For whatever reason, they hadn’t brought with them any of the small guys. It was only the five, or at least I thought five, following me. They weren’t trying to communicate with me, only roaring in anger.

My standard was losing power even as I was at a full sprint back to the stone cube trees. I knew the vines close by were trying to slow them down as I was seeing them move in front of me, and I could hear the occasional fall from behind, but I wasn’t turning to see.

Blink butted into my fear with a cheerful voice. “Mage deads. Hunts biggers now.”

I responded as I was jumping over a relatively large vine. “I did less than a hundred to the big guy and I am out of my stone spheres.”

That little bit of distraction was enough that I missed my next footfall, and I went face-first into the moss of the ground. As I went down, my hand came off my standard, and my dome vanished. I heard from behind me the sound of wood striking metal and then a roar of rage. I snagged up the standard and started to run again.

As I got my feet under me, I hazarded a glance back. The orc with the maul had slammed it into the one next to him. I guessed that when the dome dropped, he whiffed his swing since there was nothing to hit.

Orc Warrior

HP 270/420

Weight 270 lbs

Armor rating 22

Weapon

Steel sword

There wasn’t much fairness in this fight right now. One swing of the maul, and it was 150 points of damage. The nice thing was they were the lead two orcs, and now my standard wasn’t being damaged right away. Also, my glance had shown me that the lead guy was limping, so while I hadn’t done much damage, I had managed to slow him down.

I was running full out now with no weaving back and forth. The spear guy was without his spear, and the mage was dead. I just needed to get them someplace that could fight back for me. I was hoping to finish them before I got to the thicket, but if I didn’t, then I would try to get them to follow me into the dungeon.

After another few seconds, the stone air turned back on to block another swing. Then, there was a crack, and the dome was gone. It hadn’t even lasted long enough for me to kill one orc or get back. I was in trouble, and I knew it.

I jumped to my right and headed right into the vines. They shouldn’t attack me, but I never checked to see if that was the case. The orcs behind me charged right in. Then the fun started.

Almost as soon as I was in the range of the vines, they were grabbing the orcs, and my lead started to extend. They were shouting in pain and anger behind me. I looked back to see the one who had been hurt already being yanked to the ground. The one with the maul wasn’t too far behind them.

I hadn’t been around for any of the kills from the vines. I had seen some bodies and knew that they could be fast, but I hadn’t known that they could hold down such a big opponent.

The wounded orc had all but given up by this point. But the one with the maul was swinging it and backing up. He was escaping. The one that had the spear to start with and their leader were both standing outside the vines watching what was happening.

I wanted the armor and the other equipment that the dying orc had, but I wasn’t about to move closer. I started to head down the vine row towards the stone cube trees. The three orcs kept following me but wouldn’t come into the vines. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to make it all the way home in the vines, but I could get them in range of the trees.

I kept up my run, hoping that they wouldn’t pick up the change in my mood. I went from being scared that I was going to die to figuring out how I could fight. I wasn’t going to be able to go toe to toe with them, but if I could pen them down and attack for long enough, we should be good.

I sent through the bond, “Okay so one of them died to the vines and I have the other three following me. They aren’t coming into the vines and the vines aren’t attacking me. I am trying to get them down to the stone cube trees.”

Blink responded back, “Escape cuts off. Tunnel closes. On ways”

There were three trees that could hit the vine walls. So as I got close to them, I started to speed up. I went into a full sprint. The orcs did as I wanted, and they picked up speed, thinking that I was escaping.

I passed all three trees, and the first orc was past the second before the first cube hit. My stone spheres might not have done much HP damage, but they did seem to mess up things inside. The same was true with the cubes. The first guy, who was the one with the big maul, got hit with two cubes. One from the front and one from the back. A cubic foot of stone moving 25 miles per hour, while not enough to kill one of these guys, was enough to put him on the ground.

The third stone cube took the already slightly wounded leader from the back. It shoved him into Weaponless, who, while tripped, didn’t fall. Which was happy for me because round two of the cubes came in, and all three smashed into Wooden Maul. Wooden Maul pulled himself back up with blood streaking his gray face red.

I dropped the spear and standard and stepped forward, placing the Totem of Conflict on the ground. It wasn’t the best place to use it, but everything I could do would be helpful. The totem started to bellow out, its poisonous smoke blocking our visibility.

I dropped back just a hair and pulled out my short bow, and knocked an arrow. I might not be able to do much to these guys, but I had leveled much of my equipment, so my ice arrows would spread and freeze. While they weren’t as powerful as pausing someone, they lasted much longer. Which, in this case, was what I needed.

I stepped around the poison steam to see the three orcs attacking one of the trees. Their backs were to me, and so I took advantage of shooting. Weaponless was the first to be hit then I got my second arrow to land on the leader. My third arrow took Wooden Maul. They weren’t covered in ice like what a game would have shown, but they were moving, and I could tell they were taking cold damage.

It was then that Blink once again showed up, teaching me why she was so good at killing things that had a heartbeat. She appeared in her lizard girl form, dual-wielding her crossbows. The first bolt went into the left eye of the leader, which caused him to scream. The second bolt went into his mouth.

They auto-cocked for her as she ran behind the Stone cube tree they were attacking. When she came back to the front, she put one bolt in each of Wooden Maul’s eyes. Then she dropped her crossbows and went in on him. As she passed behind him to take out his knees, her kill was stolen when a stone cube slapped him in the face, finishing pushing the bolts into his brain.

Next, she rolled at Weaponless and pulled both daggers. As she came out of the roll, she jumped and drove her left dagger into the joint between the legs where only leather was. It slid in and up to the hilt as she placed her right foot on his knee. She pushed off and grabbed his right arm with her left and hosted herself right up his slow-moving body.

She was now eye level and slid her dagger right into his right eye. She didn’t have the force to slam it into his brain nor the speed to keep going up. She went invisible for just a moment before she yanked out the dagger from between his legs.

Weaponless was now truly so as blood poured through the hole. Wide-eyed Blink vanished again, only to reappear behind him, sliding her dagger through the space between his Achilles tendon and Fibula. When she yanked it out, he went to the ground. I took a quick look at him.

Orc Warrior

HP 70/375

Weight 250 lbs

Armor rating 22

I fired a second arrow at the leader as he tried to pull the bolt from his throat. It was one of the most gruesome things I had seen, and since coming to this world, I had seen a lot. His hand was half down, mouth trying to get a grip on the bolt when his arm was hit with another stone cube. I heard his shoulder break as his hand pushed the bolt through. I watched the front half pierce through the back of his helmet. He fell back in pain, and I watched him as he started to try to pull his arm out.

Blooded Orc Warrior

HP 220/570

Weight 370 lbs

Armor rating 30

With all our damage, he still showed almost as many HP as I had with all my equipment. So I fired my last arrow at him to slow him down more. I had a few daggers left, but my distance attacks were almost all out. So I drew my sword and dashed out.

Blink had reminded me that you attack vitals, not well-armored spots. The leader was choking on his own fist, which, while it might end up killing him, wasn’t what was going to. I slid my blade between his chin and breastplate and threw all my weight into it. My sword blade slid in then I yanked it out to see the blood pumping out.

Then to my dismay, I saw the golden glow of healing as the bolt came all the way through his neck. He rolled to his right and yanked his arm out of his mouth, and roared. His roar was all the more fearsome because of the blood that came out his mouth with it and the rattle of blood in the lungs.

As he turned toward me, I saw that his left hand was missing a few of its fingers. In addition, his hand had a few teeth embedded in it. The warrior bent down in a fluid motion and snatched up his axe, and charged.

I had only put a few feet between him and me when I saw him getting up. So I didn’t have much room to think of what to do, so I bolted to my right, heading right toward my totem. But unfortunately, I felt the blade of the axe cut through my right calf, and I went down. I tucked into a roll and cleared my totem, and found myself back in the vines near the spear.

I dropped my short sword and snagged up the spear just in time to use it as a pike. I set the butt of the spear and pulled the tip up just in time to catch the orc. The head of the spear went into the orc as I was still lifting it, and it slid right under the chest plate. His force sent me stumbling back, and I tripped and fell. His body lifted off the ground using the spear as a vault driving the spear in.

Blooded Orc Warrior

HP 175/570

Weight 370 lbs

Armor rating 30

There was no way this fight was right. This guy just wasn’t dying, and I needed him to now. He reached forward and tried to rip the spear out. When that didn’t work, he cut through it with one swing. His bloodshot eyes were locked right on me.

Which meant that he didn’t see his end coming. Blink drove both of her knives into his lower back. One blade went into the kidney, and one into the spleen. The vines were in range now and had grabbed him by the legs as all three trees shot their stone cubes. As he fell forward, he grimaced and threw his axe at me.

The blade flew through the air, and I knew that it was going to hit me. I raised my left arm to try to take the hit to my shield only to have the axe glance off, and the flat of the blade slammed into my face.

* * *