Carnage

"Come on lady, I'm here." I'm currently helping old Mrs. Meredith around an obstacle in the middle of this bushy driveway.

"Thank you boy, you are very kind and have a lot of patience to help an old lady like me." Meredith looks at me smiling, showing many wrinkles on her face, an indelible sign of her old age.

"Okay, after all, she's always treated me well and given away a lot of her delicious bread. When we get to the Marquis's town, I hope you'll give me the opportunity to taste her bread again." Even if I preferred to be part of the fighters.

"Hahaha if these old bones will let me, I'll do it without problems, my boy." After clearing the last hurdle, I let Mrs. Meredith go, having a woman assist her.

"I hope nothing happens on the journey we have taken." The city of the Marquis is not around the corner. 'I have heard that the marquis is a just and upright man, it is also thanks to him that Baron Endrick is his home, they never met a bad end after becoming a simple family of barons.'

"Darion, you're doing a great job helping people in need." A voice reaches me from behind, I turn around and see Baroness Linda approaching. "I've seen you assist many seniors in this traverse, thanks to you this walk won't slow down much." The Baroness starts walking beside me.

"Thank you for your words, Baroness, but what I'm doing is nothing ... it's not really helping the elderly that I want to contribute." I'm happy with the Baroness's words, but I want to fight, not be an assistant.

"I understand what you mean, but we can help those most in need in many other ways, even without holding a weapon. Don't give up and I'm sure that sooner or later you will be able to grant your wish." The Baroness strokes my head, brushing my hair away.

"Baroness, I owe a lot to you and to the Baron... without him at this hour I wouldn't be here and most probably I wouldn't have lived so long." I try to express my gratitude to the Baroness.

"Don't force yourself Darion, both Endrick and I know how grateful you are. But know one thing, Endrick didn't welcome you into our family because he felt sorry for you, but because you reminded him of the past." I stare at the baroness hearing this statement "after all you know that Endrick's mother died giving birth to him, while instead the previous baron died in the service of the king, he was only six years old when it happened. Only thanks to Josh, who managed to educate him and raise him, that Endrick was able to establish himself as head of the House of Duschin." I only knew a part of the Baron's initial story, it's incredible that he had to take over the reins of the house at such a young age.

"I see...but baroness, what happened to the Duschin house? I know he once held the rank of earl, what prompted the king to demote you to baron?" I was curious to know the history of the Baron's house, no one ever wanted to tell me about it.

"Mmhh I guess this is neither the place nor the time to say this, Darion, but I promise you one day I will, okay?" The Baroness smiled at me, trying to persuade me, which she succeeded.

"As you wish, Baroness." Instinctively my eyes rest on Gilberta at the end of the row of our group, the Baroness notices this and giggles.

"Honey, if you ask me, she doesn't hate you…she's just developed a pretty tough temper. This happening has happened since she discovered her talent about her, she is determined to bring our family back to her former glory. If it can make you feel better, you're not the only one she has distanced herself from, but also from many others dear to her." The Baroness bows her head a little, approaches my ear and whispers to me. "You have moved away from me too, his mother."

"Thank you for these words, Baroness, you don't know how important it is to me, it reassures me a lot." I am a little relieved by this revelation, and smile to see the childish frown on the Baroness's face.

The Baroness takes me on this walk and we engage in a series of small discussions. 'I don't know why, but for a few minutes I've been feeling something bad, an unpleasant sensation caressing my skin.'

"Baroness...I think someone is following us." I interrupt our current discussion and whisper my premonition to the Baroness.

"You too? I feel something too, let's go to Aldo's." We try to overcome the crowd of people, we want to quickly reach Aldo who is at the head of the line, to warn him of our hypothesis.

"Ahhhh!" but meanwhile a shout is heard from the side of the line. 'Oh no.' I recognize that voice, it was the woman who accompanied the elderly Meredith.

We approach the scream and the scene is not the best. The woman was slumped to the ground, an arrow lodged in her back. Mrs. Meredith had fallen to the ground, no longer having a foothold.

*hiss*

Among the bushes on the sides of the path, the sound of someone moving is heard and Aldo is instinctively running towards the source of the sound, but he doesn't have time when a big man 2 meters tall comes out holding a sword in one hand and charged him to Aldo.

"Orks? No, it's impossible!" One of the townspeople exclaims in amazement at this, and all the surrounding people panic. Many more orks start to come out of the bushes, they ambushed us.

"Don't panic!" Aldo yells at him as he cuts off the ork's head, immediately starting to face the next one. "Remember what we said at the beginning, stick together."

'Aldo can't deal with all these orks, after all he's only in the 23rd grade.' I see Jeff and Gilberta supporting Aldo. Jeff is only in 15th grade, if he fights an ork alone, he'll go to hell, while Gilberta is in 20th grade, but they're still orks, meaning unpredictable. "Baroness, stay behind me, her safety is a priority." I can't fight, but at least I can protect the Baroness.

"No, Darion, help the citizens, I can do it." I see the Baroness draw two daggers from under her long skirt, around her juicy thighs she had two belts, where she had drawn her weapons. "I'll help Aldo deal with these savages." As she wades into the fray, I see him rub his finger quickly, a red bead on his silver ring, which immediately gives off a small red glow.

'Even the Baroness knows how to fight, really I can't do anything?' nearby I see an ork stabbing a man with a spear, impaling him in the air. Another Ork smashes an old man's head in with his huge hammer.

A carnage rages around me, the poor citizens were at the mercy of these orks. Linda, Aldo, Jeff and Gilberta could not match the number of these savages. 'Even if I don't have Astra, I can still fight.' I see the sword left on the ground by the first dead Ork, I get ready to pick it up and immediately throw myself against an Ork that was about to kill a couple of children.

I reach the ork and cut off his leg, taking him by surprise. He collapses to the ground because he can no longer walk and, taking advantage of the fact that he has lowered himself, I cut off his head cleanly. 'Are Orks that easy to cut?' strangely, I don't find much resistance cutting through this orcks muscles and bones.

"Guys, be wel-" Behind me comes a blow to the head, knocking me unconscious.