Chapter Forty-Six: Deaths Left And Right

The world grew stale, turning gray. Time came to a stop, a boulder meters away from hitting Jasmine. Her expression was tinted with surprise, as fear manifested throughout her entire being. The hunk of rock was several times her size and would easily crush her, if it made contact. But it was too late for Jasmine to dodge the attack. So instead she opted for the next best thing, defending herself.

Within the course of a second, a purple ward manifested around her fragile body. Her brown hair stood up, puffed from the amount of energy radiating from within. Her eyes were blood red, the shade of blue long gone. Before the boulder could even hit her, she was already experiencing tremendous pain.

Before anything else could happen, the rock reached its destination. The sound of something cracking resounded through the area and then a dull explosion transpired. A calamitous shockwave reverted through the slope the village resided in, making soldiers fall off the wall due to the heavy gust.

Chunks from the rock fell like debris, covering the sight of Jasmine falling. Her collision to the ground made the earth cave in, making a human sized hole, which milliseconds later was covered with tons of stone and dirt.

Underneath the pile of rubble, Jasmine's breath was strained. Her hyperventilation caused by the impact from the stone, quickly consumed the small amount of oxygen inside the hole, inevitably suffocating Jasmine. Despite all this, Jasmine was awake. The pain from the rock had overpowered the pain she experienced from creating the purple ward. Her eyes had returned to their original blue color, but the red shade remained. The veins in her eyes had turned bright red and corrupted the rest of her eye, giving her a red shade.

The pain was overbearing and it quickly broke Jasmine's mind, yet she somehow moved, perhaps out of instinct. She pushed off the heavy ruble and made a break for the surface, hoping to feel the light of day once more and to vigorously gulp down oxygen again. She climbed and climbed, seconds feeling like eternity because of the pain and lack of air.

After what felt like a whole lifetime, Jasmine's hand pierced the surface and the golden sunlight gleaned on her white, pale skin, filled with goosebumps. What followed was a long, greedily devouring the fresh air.

"Jasmine, watch out!" she heard, despite the ringing in her ear. It was Harold's voice, her uncle was warning her. The brief interruption to her peace brought her back to reality, as she realized what was approaching her. Without an ounce of hesitation Jasmine leaped away, putting her remaining metal power into escaping.

The pile of rubble was destroyed even further, turning into dust as a golden ax fell on it. Standing next to the rubble was the behemoth of an orc. It grunted in annoyance and decided to follow Jasmine.

"Fly no run, fight!" it said, its deep, raspy voice echoing throughout the battlefield. Hearing the monster, Harold loaded an arrow and shot it at the orc. Seeing the incoming stick, the orc grabbed it mid air and snapped it into several pieces by clenching its fist.

"Pesky little thing!" the orc said and grabbed a nearby tree, that somehow survived the disaster known as orcs. Throwing the tree like a spear; it shot through the air, but before it could hit Harold he jumped, while releasing another arrow at the orc. Below him, the wall was fractured, as the tree destroyed the whole region, completely decimating some houses and killing some of the patrolling foot soldiers, who were protecting the village.

Harold landed with grace on what remained of his side of the wall and observed the situation for a second, taking a breath and jumping down.

"I'll be fighting that thing, keep firing at the orcs, follow Jantyr's command, if our lord says something, we do it!" Harold said and left. Leaving to help Jasmine fight against the orc.

Meanwhile Lenart started shifting back and forth, before hurriedly sitting up and clenching his head in pain. "What the.. why does it hurt so much?" he complained aloud, before understanding what kind of situation he was in. Without wasting another second, he stood up and checked the situation. But what he saw wasn't exactly good news.

Hundreds of falken laid dead on the ground, while hundreds more were injured, while fighting on. Others had deserted and ran away, leaving their comrades to die. While others had simply started fighting amongst each other. Even those who had stayed to fight were still losing. They teamed up against an orc, working together to kill them. Several fights like that were happening all over the place, yet every battle was a fight between life and death. Several falken fell with each orc. There was no victory, or glory, simply death and despair.

Yet he couldn't even help them, the biggest problem was the nine meters tall orc, walking around, killing and hunting Jasmine.

"When did that thing appear?" Lenart said aloud, not expecting an answer, "About two minutes after you passed out!" Jantyr answered him, his voice strained, filled with pain.

"How many have died?" Lenart asked.

"Four-hundred-thirty-three, several people died from being burried alive inside the village, others died from flying trees and stone. While some just fell fighting against the orcs! The stunt you pulled was needless Lenart, why did you risk it." Jantyr berated.

"How would I know an orc of such status would appear out of nowhere, huh, I'm not a fortune teller, aren't you the one calling me brawn no brain all the time?" Lenart said, and started preparing to join again. He grabbed his spear and covered it with lightning, then himself, next thing he was ready, but before- launching he asked one last question.

"By the way Jantyr, just a question, when did Jasmine become a tier one?"

(AN: sorry for the late chapter, thursday was a math test and today a national test in english, so I didn't have time to write a chapter, my bad :(, but here you have what's rightfully yours, so hope you enjoyed it :) )