Nati

It saw a human for the first time in this world.

And before I knew it, we fought. Hana disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving a cloud of dust behind. They borrowed a spear from the hunters and rushed into action. Some orcs ran to back them up, but nowhere near fast enough. The best they could achieve was retrieving the orc girl, which I hadn't noticed before.

She lay on top of the small hill.

Her clothing was all black and smoked, she looked young but worn out and badly injured. Charlotte and the adults shielded the children, quickly backing off with them. I wasn't here long enough for such an instinct to kick in, my legs rooted in place, and I couldn't help but watch. This duel was quite the sight.

The human did not carry weapons and wasn't dressed for battle either. She wore long, flowing gray robes, her blonde hair flying in the wind. When she was stationary, at least. But most of the time, she moved faster than my sharp cat vision could keep up.

It was a deadly dance, as much as I could tell. The motions were minimalistic but dangerous, perfectly calculated, and flawlessly executed to flow from one movement to another. She seemed weightless and so fast that sometimes all I saw was her afterimage or the dust that was kicked up.

Hana relentlessly attacked her with a spear, jabbing with both ends of the weapon, and they fought like a whirlwind. Their movements looked less elegant, but there was a tremendous amount of force behind every one of them. Yet the human deflected most of their attacks with bare hands, and even if a thrust hit the mark, she remained unfazed.

Her arms would often glow up with a strange light, she must have used magic to strengthen her body or speed it up, but I understood little of how the all-powerful mana worked in this world.

"Save me, Hank... Help me... I was wrong..." The orc girl mumbled, half unconscious. Two hunters gently set her down next to me and did not waste time treating her, dashing as fast as they could, trying to catch up with the enemy. It didn't seem likely that they would.

"Hah, finally a worthy opponent!" The human yelled, backing away from the orcs quickly. Whenever her fist connected with the tip of the spear, I heard a metallic clang. "How lucky for her, that you were nearby."

Hana did not respond. They bled from multiple scars, even though I didn't see them getting injured. I could not follow the woman's movements at all. What I saw was when Hana almost got smashed by lightning. A sharp flash struck from the human's palm, but the bolt missed the orc at the very last moment. The spear worked as a lightning rod but shattered the tip into a million pieces.

Molten metal rained down on all of us, and I almost missed as the orc girl's hand dropped. I felt a strange breeze on my skin and had to assume, she altered the lightning's path. Whoever she was, at least she tried to help us, and it seemed we needed all the help too.

The spear no longer had a tip, and the hunters lagged too far to be of use. Hana would not let up the offensive, attacking with flurry after flurry using the weapon as a staff. It was terrifying to watch, someone that large should not have been able to move that fast.

It did not last long though, as the woman broke the spear with her bare hands. She was stronger, even if she did not look like it, yet she fell back faster than the hunters could gain on them. I heard a whimper close to me, but I was too taken in by the fight for it to register.

I did feel it when she touched my legs though. The orc's hand was cold, freezing my feet to the ground. Well, it was already rooted in there anyway. She did not seem malicious, and I wasn't in pain, but a sudden cold washed over me, similar to when we entered the old capital a few days ago. It would be an understatement to say, I hated it.

Her eyes begged me so I couldn't pull away, like a puppy tearing up when they see me eat. I didn't know the orcs had such abilities, but she reminded me of Mabel. I could not understand what she mumbled, but I saw some strange images appearing in my head.

She broadcasted them telepathically.

I saw the sun, light hitting a mirror, being focused on a single point, then redirected. It set that woman on fire, and I deduced that she wanted me to build a primitive beam weapon to join in the fight. But there was no time for that, I had no mirrors on me, and didn't know if they were even invented yet. Besides, there were better methods than to play with children's toys...

Like an actual, military-grade laser.

I remembered watching videos about them in my previous life. It was the new craze: high-tech, expensive to make but cheap to use in combat. The military needed some new methods to defend against drones, and firing million-dollar missiles at things that were barely worth a few bucks was untenable. They needed a fast and accurate weapon with low operating costs.

They went deep into the specifics and gave a detailed explanation of how they worked in theory. Massive capacitor banks fed their currents into high-performance laser diodes, the lights were focused into a single beam with multiple mirrors, and their output power was so high, that the laser would burn through anything on contact.

They used infrared, invisible to human eyes, but the beam was devastating. It could melt plastic or even armor plates, and firing it was cheaper than the targets it was to engage.

I had no idea why I started daydreaming about this while they dueled. I thought it might be over, but when I looked up, time as I perceived it almost stopped, and Hana was about to lose.

I wanted to help if there was something I could do for them. But I was no fighter and only a ranged weapon would have worked from that distance anyway. The tribe had no bows or javelins, and since we were out to trade, we traveled lightly too. But there had to be a way, I felt strongly about this, seeing Hana beaten up.

The orc girl kept sending those thoughts into my brain, including equations, wavelength charts, and parameters for things I could not comprehend. But I calculated something, and my fingers moved on their own. The images changed fast, if I blinked, I missed half of it.

Luckily, one can't blink inside the mind.

I raised my hands to my eyes and shaped my fingers as if I held a lens. I didn't understand why but with all those thoughts flooding my mind and the images repeating, this was the thing I had to do. I felt like my eyes burned and wanted to blink, but I was too focused on that woman.

Suddenly the heat disappeared, and tears blurred my vision. I was left shaking from the cold, unsure of what happened, if anything at all. I rubbed my eyes and wiped tears away before I saw anything, and there was a small but ugly hole in that woman's left shoulder.

Right, where I stared earlier.

She screamed, trying to disengage while her clothes caught on fire. Hana did not miss this chance and kept attacking with bare hands, even if it looked like they were on their last legs too. I had to take notes, never piss them off. Their match was now completely one-sided.

But this did not last long. Something like a huge cannonball hit Hana from the side, sending the orc flying across the field. It looked like a statue of a winged monster or a bat, made of granite. Before I took a better look, the woman climbed on its back, and the creature flew off with her.

Hana was badly injured, but the enemy finally retreated. Her clothes still burned somehow, and it took me a minute to realize I fired a laser at her. From those images I saw in my mind, I built a weapon inside my head, and fired a beam through my eyes. I felt that this is what happened.

I looked down at the orc girl, but she passed out. Her hand no longer touched me, and my body's heat slowly returned. What did she do to me? Did I use magic? Or did she somehow use my shell to cast it herself? I had so many questions.

In any case, I stared at my hand mesmerized. The orcs tended to the wounded and regrouped. That flying stone creature was already beyond the horizon, but the hunters refused to let their guards down until we returned to the village. Only their leader was left behind to examine the field of battle, the kids and the rest were unharmed.

We set out to trade for leather but gained an extra orc. Hana and the girl were out cold and Charlotte took them directly to the tribe's shaman. I wasn't allowed to go, feeling like I would never meet that man now. Maybe the chieftain was wary of me because of what I did.

But then, that spell should have been completely invisible. Even I did not realize it, but military-grade lasers were infrared. She couldn't see, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell.

At least until I knew what happened, and needed to confirm it with the stranger first. A bit later Charlotte returned looking as calm as usual.

"That went well. It was quite the beatdown." She reported, almost as if this was an everyday occurrence. "They will survive, just a few burns and broken bones. The shaman took care of them."

The orcs cheered, and it was the hunter's turn to give a report.

"There was already a big battle before we got there. I saw two withered corpses and a dead wyvern." Their leader started. "There were probably more combatants, but they got away. I found lots of blood everywhere, mostly acidic green from the flying beasts. The ground was torn up too, but I'll go back and skin the wyvern before somebody else finds it."

"She must have been here with the Twelve Champions. We don't know who they fought, but she escaped badly injured." Charlotte concluded in the end. "Once Omerta wakes up, she will answer a few questions. We'll keep the loot but don't touch the meat, that beast is poisonous."

"How do you know her name?" I asked confused. When I saw her, she was in no shape to talk and I did not recognize her either.

"Well... It has been some time, sure." The chieftain answered. "But I won't easily forget Hana's annoying little sister..."