Chương 46: Lost in the Slaughter

My head flicks down, dodging an arrow from behind that strikes the orc in front of me. I dash, carving a trench in the orc's chest with the two-handed axe. It falls, and I drop my shortsword, grabbing another large axe out of its grip. With two of the four-foot weapons, I spin and cut. Blood flows like water, splattering against the walls, ground and other orcs. Eventually, a larger orc shows up wielding a massive pair of gauntlets. The crowd of orcs parted a path between us.

I throw myself forward without a single thought, mind narrowed on movement. It jabs forward, sending a faint outline of grey energy at me. Danger sense warns me, and my body jerks to the side unnaturally, continuing to rush at the orc. It watches the movement with fear in its eyes, sending two more jabs. Again, I move with jerks, slipping around the ethereal energy with mechanical efficiency. I don't lose any speed from dodging the attacks, moving with an inevitability towards the boss of the area.

Horror spreads across its face as I close in. It swings both arms down directly in my path. My legs whip in front of my body, grinding my momentum to a halt. The armored hands crush cobblestone as I stand perfectly still in front of them. My arm flicks forward and buries the axe several inches into the orc's neck. I pull it back as the orc swings at me again. My waist sends my torso bending back as the giant green arm flies over me. From the awkward angle, my body twists.

A second swing from the other axe digs deep into the orc's ankle. Blood streams down the orc's neck. It falls to one knee, sending hooks and jabs at me, but none of them meets a target. My muscles expand and contract in slams, causing my body to adopt twitching movements. I jump as another jab travels below my feet. While crouching on its arm, both of my weapons spread out to the sides. They slam together in synchronisation, meeting on opposite sides of the orc's neck.

Seamlessly, they slide over each other and exit on the other side. After a second of delay, the orc's head slides back. It falls and hits the ground with a meaty thump. Another level-up hits me, placing breath in my lungs and stealing the pain from my shoulders. My head snaps to the left, facing a crowd of orcs crammed in the street. They flinch at the movement and take a step backwards. Again, my legs collapse and slam open as I fall. I launch like a bullet towards them.

My axes swing, removing limbs and heads, disembowelling orcs on repeat. Exertion digs deep into my arms, legs and waist. Before I know it, another level-up hits me, sending renewed power in my body and larger breaths into my lungs. I cough out blood as it splatters into my mouth. My hand comes up to wipe blood from my eye, but only smears more. Thoughts jumble more and more, turning from a blur into emptiness. My arms and legs burn, the pain beginning to force its way through the command.

One swing removes a swordsman's head. The momentum continues, removing another's leg at the thigh. My other axe comes down and crushes its ribcage. Danger sense sends my body to the side, but a spear moves too fast and carves a new wound in my leg. I twist and leap, bringing the head of the axe down into the orc's collarbone. My body bends back at the hips to avoid the mace flying over my chest. Minutes burn deeper and deeper into all of my muscles.

The pain relieves itself as another level-up courses through my veins and allows me to barely dodge another strike. Time loses its meaning as I bend, jerk, flick, cut and kill. I long ago stopped trying to keep up with the control skill. I give in to the command as my body is reduced to a machine designed to never stop. The world slowly comes into focus. My head snaps left, right, then behind. There are no enemies. This story originates from Royal Road.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Streets between cabins are littered with bodies. My eye flickers, checking every nook and cranny, even looking up to the roofs. Adrenaline moves in a flood through my veins. I frantically look for the next enemy, flipping on my feet multiple times. The thumps of my heart slam in my ears. I'm missing the next swing of a sword. The next spear is about to puncture my heart. Eye wide, I jerk my body and twist around to kill the spearman.

My eye darts around, searching. There's no one there. Muscles burn, exertion searing into them like hot iron. Breaths tear their way in and out, begging for a little more air. Slowly, my mind calms down. Rational thoughts return as the adrenaline peters out. I take a single step before my legs give out. Thankfully, I'm able to turn and land on my back, instead of my face. My eye closes as I focus on breathing. I blacked out for a second there, but I'm still standing.

"Kevin, don't feel pain." I wait a few seconds, but nothing changes. Oh, this is bad. The blue screen expands above my head. [Health: 1070(587)] [Mana: 730(531)] [Stamina: 1145(17)] I stare uncomprehendingly at the numbers. What the heck happened here? According to my will, the screen explodes with words, a scroll bar quickly appearing and shrinking. [You have slain Orc lv. 14 x226] [You have slain (II) Powerful Orc lv. 20] [Partial experience granted x454] My eye bulges.

"What the fuck?" I mutter, a smile pulling itself onto my face.

"What the act- ack." With painful coughs, I spit out blood and suffering. Two hundred. The smile grows into a tooth-filled grin I killed two hundred orcs.

"Hahaha!" With bloody teeth, laughter bursts from my throat and echoes over the sea of corpses. Raw joy shakes my chest painfully for minutes on end. By myself. I killed them alone. Covered from head to toe in blood, I laugh. As the elation dies down, so does my eyelid. Exhaustion builds equally alongside the fading adrenaline. I lift my arm to scroll down, but it doesn't move. Ah, I'm sure I got them all. The world fades to darkness as I welcome myself into slumber. Reality comes back to me, crusting off my eye.

This time, it isn't remnants of tears, but of dried blood. Bone-deep aches saturate every inch of my body.

"Kevin, don't feel pain," I murmur. I exhale deeply as relief comes within the second. Lying on the stone, I enjoy the moment of respite. I put my arm under myself to get up, but the weakness I feel is incredible. Reluctantly, I let myself fall back to the ground and invoke another round of healing. The control over my mana rises every time I move it. It feels like I've perfected the movement, but the next session always shows more inefficiencies.

Where the mana catches on the indent of my arm, where it collides with itself and disrupts the flow. Many of these things pile up. They're small enough that they don't make much of a difference in the overall flow. Even so, they bug me. With not much else to do, I even out the flow and correct them as they pop up. When my eye opens, the moderate hunger that went unnoticed upon waking up expands into something monstrous. My head flicks, the aroma of delicious meat entering my nose.

Instinct once again takes over, forcing my unresponsive limbs forward. Weakened arms are still more than enough to drag my body against the cobblestone. Finally, I reach the closest corpse, an orc with its head removed. Increased strength shows itself in my teeth as they easily glide through its flesh. Starting at the bicep, I rip and pull chunks of meat off with nothing but the jerks of my neck. The cold and renewed blood spills from the wounds and flows down my chin.

Every bite lets more of the coppery liquid flow over my taste buds, making me more eager to continue. When the shoulder to the wrist is nothing more than bone, I flip over and let out a belch. At least I'm getting my protein. With a chuckle, I force my arms under me and push to my feet with a groan. The greater sightline allows me to see the carnage I've caused. Green corpses are strewn across the streets in every direction, sometimes piled on one another. Dried blood clings to the edges of the cabins in splatters.

The red liquid flows like water, joining in lakes that exist in the small divots between stones. I expect the sight to disgust me or make me nauseous. Instead, my mouth starts watering. Appalled, I wipe the slobber from my mouth. What the hell is wrong with me? The wipe doesn't do much, only replacing the saliva with more blood. My gaze pulls down. There's not a single spot on my body that isn't painted red. Several metal plates on my pants are sheared off, with some injuries visible beneath them.

I'm sure there are more, but the blood blocks everything that isn't easy to spot. Large gaps of leather are missing from my chestplate, and I assume there are more wounds underneath those spots. Strangely enough, the only places that are untouched are my hands and the forearms leading up to them. Makes sense, they're pretty easy to move out of the way. Still a bit out of it, I groggily turn my head and look for the gate. Jumping the wall is too much for my body in this state.

I could stay and order myself back to sleep, but I don't want to waste any more time than I have already. The system screen responds to my dilemma. [4. 64 cycles until next phase]"Damn", I mutter. I should still be able to make it to the castle before the phase ends. With careful and weak steps, I move around the edge of the wall. After a couple of minutes, I finally spot the gate. Despite the larger size of the settlement, the gate is identical to all of the others with wooden walls.

I grunt as I lift the plank of wood holding the doors shut. Pulling the door open, I take a single step out before I stop. I walk to the nearest cabin and kick the door in, finding it empty of orcs. Two straw mattresses and a single wooden chest sit inside. After opening it, I exit and move to the next cabin. A sly smile appears on my face. No way I'm leaving without my goodies.