Civilization

"Child, are you scared?"

I look away from David and see the ax-orc crouching down, lifting the head of a girl by their hair. He sets the knob of the ax on the ground next to the girl and holds the ax by the shoulder. The girl looks at the orc and trembles at the sight. She slowly opens her mouth and in a low squeaky voice she replies.

"N-n-no, I am not s-s-scared."

"GOOD! Child, who am I?"

"Y-y-you are, Balta the M-Mighty."

"GOOD! You have learned well during the past two days. BUT not well enough. Tell me why you and everyone else tried to run and tell me who\'s plan it was. If you tell me I will let you go to the other humans over there and mine for me. IF you lie. I. Will. Kill. You. So? Speak child."

Her eyes dart around looking at different adults one after the other, trembling as Balta stares at her.

"I-I do not know."

"You don\'t know. You don\'t know? YOU DO NOT KNOW HUH?"

Balta releases the girl, stands up and kicks the ax with his foot making it swing upward before grabbing the handle of the ax with both hands above his head. He stops ax raised and looks at the girl in contempt.

"Then die."

Balta grips the ax tighter and goes to swing his ax down.

"WAIT!"

The blade of the ax stops right on the girl\'s forehead and a slight cut appears. A trickle of blood flows down her blank face and her eyes roll back before she collapses on the ground. A man that was holding a pickax had knocked out two goblins and had yelled at Balta to get his attention.

"Balta. I made the plan to escape. Please stop hurting them."

"So, you are the human who thinks he is smarter than me. Who thinks he can make a ruckus in my territory. Kill him. Whoever kills him I will give them a human toy."

"Ah shit."

The man runs past the goblins near him pushing them away. The only option of escape was towards the bend near David and me.

"Ian, what do we do? We can\'t fight that Balta orc."

"We don\'t need to. David follow me."

The man was fiercely pushing and swinging his pickax at nearby monsters desperately weaving and dodging any attacks from them. Balta smiled at the scene and moved away from the people lying on the ground, slowly walking over a rock bridge towards a cave on the other side of the river. Once Balta entered the cave, there were only two monsters guarding the people while the rest of the monsters were running around trying to catch the slippery man. He had climbed up onto a ledge and was busy hitting any hands that tried to get on top of the ledge.

David and I had snuck around two orc guards. They were holding stone spears and had a very lazy expression as they watch the horde of monsters pushing on top of each other to get to the man. Slowly and quietly we approached the orcs and positioned ourselves to kill them with one strike. I stab both goblin knives into the orc\'s neck one on each side before slicing through the neck as deep as I can. Unable to even squeal the orc bends around, his wide-eyed expression tells it all. At the same time, David smashes the club onto the orc\'s head knocking the orc out. I went over and finished the orc by stabbing a knife through the head.

I look up and see the supposed faces of 3 people, 2 adults and a child. The other child was still unconscious. I spoke softly while keeping an eye on the monsters that were trying to kill the man.

"Are you okay?"

A girl with brunette hair and a curvaceous body spoke up for the rest of the people.

"W-Who are you two?"

"Umm...Just your friendly neighborhood...Orc and goblin killer? We were walking along the river we found this place. I\'m sorry I was not able to save the man that got his head uhh smashed. My name is Ian and the big guy is called David."

"I am Melody, this is Frank and Celine and the girl that is passed out is Lime. Please help Noah, he is the man that\'s being attacked by all the monsters. He tried to help us escape but we ended up being found out by Balta\'s left and right-hand men, Tog and Kog."

"Melody, it will be difficult. Do you see the number of monsters there? Plus the only other people with weapons were already ushered away before Balta commanded the monsters to attack Noah. For now, I want you guys to escape, I\'m sure Noah would want it too."

"I..But..Okay…"

"Thank you, David lead the way for Melody and the others. Go fast and then prepare in case we need to attack them."

"What about you Ian?"

"I got something I need to do."

David kneels down and pulls Lime over his shoulder holding onto her waist and legs. He nods at me and starts to move back towards HavenFall.

"Everyone we need to fast but please be careful. The ground along the way is slippery."

After warning everyone David moves quickly. Celine and Frank follow David but Melody stays behind.

"Let me help you. I can tell you are going to help Noah somehow."

"Are you sure Melody? It might be dangerous."

"I\'ve been through worse and I need to pay back my debt to Noah for at least trying to help."

"Okay then, the plan is to attack the outliers first, any monster that is hanging in the back and kind of isolated we kill if we get noticed though we run. Simple as that, if we end up killing enough we can save Noah but if they notice us and there are too many of them I am running. Whether you can follow me is entirely up to your own fitness. Okay?"

"Okay...Give me that knife."