CHAPTER 18 - Chase

'Damn me and my luck!' I curse as I run for my life.

I did my best to get out of their ambush for it to be useless. The second I left behind what I suppose are the underlings of the guy wielding the double-swords, I look back to see him there again. 

'Huh?'

*Crash* 

The moment I see him behind I dodge to the left and duck his thrust leaving one of his swords to pass by and pierce through a car that was in the way like if it was butter.

'Shit, how the hell I am supposed to run from that.' I curse as I come up with something to get out of this alive. 

The orc chases closely, shortening our distance ever so slightly and using each one of those chances to slash or thrust at me. I try my best, I drift between cars, go into shops and even blocks of flats, not caring about anything more and just rushing forward.

In one of my stunts I nearly get impaled by one of his long swords as he catches up to me in mid air as I jump from the first floor of a building onto the nearest light pole. I fortunately use mine to parry it and avoid dying, yet I get pushed back and miss the pole, forcing me to land badly against a trash can on the street. 

That's when I finally decide that it can go on no more. The only thing I am achieving is to deplete my qi which is my one and only trump card I have against him. I am already a couple of hundred meters away from where the chase started so I should have some time before his underlings get here. I get up from the ground and turn facing him with my sword raised, making my decision clear.

My foe dashes at me and blocks both my sides with a double slash with both of his swords. I have no choice but to crouch to avoid it. I use the closeness that he achieves with his attacks to try and deliver a pierce attack with my sword to his exposed chest.

He probably predicted it though as he just swings down both his hands, using the handles to redirect my attack onto the floor, making me lose my footing as I follow along. His following attack being a direct hit with his knee on my stomach that sends me flying a few meters.

*Cough* *Cough* 

*Bleargh* 

I can't help but to vomit all the contents of my stomach on the floor, coupled with a worrying amount of blood. Never in my life have I been hit so hard anywhere, it felt like my soul was leaving my body as I got knocked back. 

I try my best to get back on my feet, yet I nearly stumble due to all the pain on my stomach. I only get back on my feet to see the orc walking slowly at me with scorn in his face. I can nearly feel him having fun laughing at me while he gets closer. 

Not ready to leave this world just yet I run to the closest car I can see. The guy seems to let me go, seemingly unaware of what I am trying to do. 

The moment I reach for the door of the car in front of me however, I see him standing on the other side of the vehicle with an even wider grin on his face. 'Fuck, I really underestimated this guy. He was just playing with me. He could have killed me whenever he wanted."

I gather whatever strength I still have on me to jump and avoid getting hit by the car he kicks at me as I curse my own lack of strength to fight. "Arghhh!" Each time I move I feel my insides hurting more and more, but I can't stop or I'll die.

The monster grabs my right leg with one hand and throws me like a toy against one of the few stores that still have untouched glass panels, breaking them in the process and forcing me to use a bit more of my qi to defend my back and head. Even then, I feel a lot of stings all over my body made by the shards and broken bits of the panel that fly around as I crash on the counter. 

I barely hang to dear life as I feel him approaching me again. I can only get up again little by little with the help of the broken counter to see his face again, distorted. In all this time I have never seen a monster display such a level of emotions or intelligence, not to mention strenght.

I can't even lift a finger as he signals one of his followers to give him his spear. 

'Huh. I hadn't even realized they already caught up with us.' I think with nearly closed eyes.

'Guess this is it.' 

I am about to slide back down to the ground as I feel something weird yet familiar get close to me. It enters my body right through my head and get to my brain making me even lose even more focus due to the foreign thing invading my mind.

"Your name warrior."

I look back at him and show him the middle finger, he has been playing around with me and I don't like that at all.

"Then die, next time think twice before killing our kind."

He gathers strength to throw the spear at me with enough force to pierce through metal, and he throws it right at my chest where my heart is.

*Swoosh* 

The spear flies at an amazing speed and I can't do anything as it closes in on me and hits me on the chest. I get pushed all the way to the back of the store, destroying the counter, the furniture and only stopping at the wall. I can't even register the pain as I go unconscious as I see the monsters retreat to wherever they came from as my vision starts to blur. 'Damn'. 

"..."

*rubble*

"..."

My whole body hurts…

*tap* *tap* *tap* 

I slowly open my eyes as I heard the raindrops fall not far from me.

"Arghh '' I feel my chest burning where the spear hit me, and I can't help but notice the taste of blood on my throat. I really outdone myself this time around, and there couldn't have been a better time.

I had been experimenting with my qi last time, trying to make it reinforce all kinds of items instead of my body. I came to the conclusion thinking that if my body couldn't withstand the pressure I would need something else to withstand it for me.

Thankfully I kept on me as armor inside my clothes one of the thin metal sheets that we used when building the shooting range on the base. At that moment where the orc threw the spear not only did I feel like I did a lot better when handling the energy on my body, but I too managed to somehow pour all of the qi I had been saving on the whole fight onto that little area where the spear hit.

It hit like a truck, it sure did, but the thin metal plate coupled with my body and both being boosted to their peak with all my might were just enough to fake my death.

'I couldn't see any other choice really, that guy was just that strong. Even now after I leveled up my control over qi another notch and knowing that I am able to infuse it onto inanimate objects I don't feel confident to last more than a few hits.'

"There are some real monsters roaming around…" I can't help but whisper as I try to get out of the rubble with my worn body as best as I can.

Now that I think about it, all those monsters that I have seen that gave some sort of a strong energy like the minotaur or the orc riding the wolf at the supermarket hadn't shown a thing. They could be a little over average or on a whole different level for all I know. 

'It really was dumb of me to judge monsters by their appearance, even though I was trying not to, it seems like I still messed up along the way.' Now however, I should be able to know the strength of each monster by the scale of the energy they emit, at least this last one that handed my ass to me was emitting quite a lot of energy from its body.

*rattle* *rattle*

I finally get out from below the remains of all the furniture with my battered body, I am barely holding up my own body as I stumble to the store front, carefully looking around for any threats nearby.

Right now any monster is enough to send me to the afterlife and I have no means to contact the people at the base, I will need to get to a working car by myself. I drag my body from car to car, looking for one that works and has enough gas to get me back . 

After some minutes that feel like hours I find a van that meets both conditions, and beggars can't be choosers. 

I arrive where the roads forks and I should take the sand path. Some part of me wanted to avoid coming back to base before I was healed to some degree, but I finally decide to not delve too much on it.

The moment they see me, the squad that is in charge of the section leaves their hiding spot to check on me, but the moment the leader sees my pitiful state he lets me through, no question asked. 

I arrive at the base a few minutes later and after delivering the news to the guards at the front I go directly to my bed, not wanting to deal with the fatigue and pain anymore. Me surviving there was a miracle and I don't plan on testing my luck like that any time soon. 

*thud* 

I drop on top of the bed and the moment I hit the pillow I am gone.

Jake

"What? He is finally back?" 

"Yes sir, but he looked like he barely made it out alive." The moment I hear that I relax to some extent. 

We thought we had lost our trump card already. I am not sure what type of problem Leo ran into out there, but at least he got back in one piece and that's already hard enough.

"Send someone trustworthy to take care of him till he wakes up." I send the guard that came with the new with new order while I try to imagine what could possibly have happened. "Tell the person you send to tell him to come and see me when he wakes up if he is alright."

'I have already seen him get out alive from an ambush, I can not imagine what it takes to put him in that state. Maybe he overestimated his capabilities? He doesn't come as that type of person, but we should be careful.'

'It can be even more dangerous to have someone on your side without a clear head on their shoulder than a strong enemy.' I will have someone keep an eye on him for a while just in case to assess the situation.

Anyhow, he is alive, for now that is all that matters.