Hatred, Raven And Cookie

The tip of Laena's sword whistled a little, leaving a thin trail of light behind it before cutting away an unfortunate orc's leg, making it fall on his back. The axe of the other one moved again to stop her from finishing the amputated being on the ground. The elf jumped back gracefully, easily avoiding the hit but she knew how bad the situation was.

She only had a few seconds before at least three others enemies would be on her. She also had to protect Evelyn who was currently wheezing because every vein in her body felt like molten iron. Furthermore, Laena could feel that her stamina and mana reserves were running low. Steeling her resolve, she decided to go all or nothing and charged the seemingly chief of the orcs.

-"You bitch ! I will murder you and break the little fiend hiding behind !"- Howled the green humanoid while raising his axe above his head. Using all his muscles, he brought his weapon down on the foolish little swordswoman but soon heard something weird. The little elf had hit his mighty axe with her small and thin blade, breaking one of the two.

What had surprised the orc was that it was his weapon which broke, wounding her with the sharp iron shrapnel it produced but leaving him unprotected. An instant later, his brain had been pierced and cooked to perfection.

Taking a step back to avoid the falling corpse, Laena tightened her grip on her sword as her arms were shaking. She had small cuts on her cheeks and a deep one on her left arm while every movement she did brought her in a world of pain. Looking down, she saw a metallic fragment glowing through her leather armor and understood that it was probably stabbed in her stomach.

Evelyn was currently fighting against her body, trying to appease the molten metal in her veins while looking at the orcs closing in on her wounded friend. One of them threw a punch at the elf, forcing her to dodge and quickly impale him. Another one simply grabbed her long hairs, catching her unaware and threw her on the ground. The last one raised his leg, ready to blow the girl's head up like a watermelon but was stopped when he felt shivers rise along his spine.

By throwing Laena on the ground head first, they had managed to stun her. What they didn't expect was that they would break the hairpin she had by doing this. The shadows under her body turned pitch black while an eerie croaking came from it. An instant later, two three meters long wings as dark as the night came out of it and gently covered the young elf.

Evelyn was watching the scene, her mouth wide open. Those wings gave her the same feeling as her teacher did and she recognized him in it. She also recognized his wrath when she heard an angry caw and saw one wing swing around, cutting the orcs in half. Unfortunately for them, this was the extend of the spell and the raven's feathery figure faded in the darkness again.

'I'm sorry young mistress, I can only do this much right now. I hope that I will serve you again in the future.' A gentle and quiet voice said in Laena's mind. She did not understood where it came from nor wanted to think about it any longer.

'Come ooon ! Get up !' She roared in her mind, trying to move her battered body. Some blood was tickling on her face because of a wound on the top of her head. She had felt those fluffy feathers around her and heard the orcs fall. However, she was also hearing the other ones that were gingerly coming toward her. Pushing weakly on her arms, she finally raised herself and saw Evelyn smiling at her.

The young girl was also hardly standing and looked paler than a sheet of paper. However, her sickly look was broken by the storm dancing in her eyes. Fighting will was glowing in those irises, animating the calm sea and turning it into raging waters. A ferocious smile was standing proudly on her bloodied lips and soon it appeared on Laena's ones too.

The four remaining orcs looked at them with caution. They really wanted to kill those two weak woman but felt that something was wrong with them. The dark magic they showed and the aura that emanated from them weren't things that they had seen often. Their race didn't know what retreat meant but they still knew what fear was. And for sure they were feeling it when they saw the gaze of the two women falling on them.

-"T-they are only two feeble human females ! Let's get them and avenge our brothers guys !"- An orc roared, starting to charge toward Laena. A few seconds later, the other three follow him and picked their pace.

Taking a sharp breath, the elf rose her weapon and took her stance, crouching a little while pointing her blade toward her foes. Behind her she heard Evelyn start to cough uncontrollably and couldn't help but grin at her determination. Knowing what she was trying to do, Laena also focused herself and brought as much of her fire mana in her blade, making it turn bright white.

'More, I want more heat !' She thought, pouring everything she could in the weapon but she felt that it was already full and as hot as possible. Then, another idea popped in her head.

'What if I use my sword to release a bolt of heat?' Since the orc was still a dozen meters from her, she tried and lunged like she always did but in the air and while agitating her weapon's mana as much as possible. Her eyes opened wide when she saw that she did it and so did the orcs.

Their brother who let the charge now had a burning hole of a fist's size in the middle of his torso. Stumbling a little, his charge ended miserably when he fell on the ground and wheezed while feeling his life leaving him. Lena also had a few troubles to stand up as she suddenly felt quite light headed.

'Well, this cost more mana than expected.' She mumbled internally while feeling the effects of the mana deficiency. An air ripple flew by her and she heard Evelyn say weakly before fainting:

"I did all I could, it's on you now..."

"Don't worry, I got this." Laena replied, turning back toward the two remaining orcs. They seemed horrified as another of their brothers fell because of something they didn't see. At first, he was fine. Then, his intestines spilled out and so did his blood. In an instant, he had died because of an invisible cut.

-"D-Don't come you demon !"- One of the remaining orcs screamed when he saw the elf run toward him with a resolved expression on her face. An instant later, his head was flying because he froze in fear and didn't protect himself. The other one had a little bit of surviving instinct and tried to punch Laena in the face, forcing her to crouch before stabbing him through his ribs.

Seeing his pained face, she released a sadistic grin and jumped back to avoid his other fist. With a graceful movement she severed his arm as he retracted it too late. Bleeding a lot, the orc tried a last attack but missed her because of his blurry sight. An instant later he had joined his brothers in the afterlife as a sword went through his eye and brain.

Resting on her weapon's hilt a little, Laena took a break and looked around. The bonfire was still burning and was lightening the glaze around her. She was covered in blood and so was the rest of the place as many dismembered bodies laid around. Evelyn was unconscious and bleeding a little but she was still breathing for now.

Painfully carrying her companion, the elf made her way toward the place where they left their backpacks and took out a few bottles. Those were healing potions, alchemical items that enhanced the healing process of the wounds and accelerated the blood production. She drank one, wincing at its bad taste and slowly made the young girl which rested on her laps drink one too. After that she gingerly removed the iron shard that was stuck into her and applied some bandages on her wounds.

A few dozen minutes later, her friend woke up and muttered : "Did we win..?"

"Yes, we did." Laena gently replied while patting Evelyn. The small human tried to get up, grimacing in pain and the elf followed her. Together, they weakly made their way back to the camp and checked one hut after the other. There were a few orcs sleeping alongside their victims which got their lives brutally ended but the main thing that froze the girl's blood was what happened to the captive women.

Some were dead, half eaten. Some had dead eyes, probably having given up on their lives. The saddest ones were those who still wanted to fight but understood what happened to them and how much their lives had been ruined. They were probably bearing orc children and would have a mental scar for the rest of their lives. Unsurprisingly, many were happy that woman came to save them.

Unsurprisingly to Laena, many asked to die painlessly. Evelyn tried to convince them to go on but her friend stopped her after some times. She asked to be sure :

"Is this your own choice? There is no going back after this, please think about it carefully."

They all accepted their fate and thanked her before going into the afterlife with a quick sword strike. The young girl cried while seeing so many lives being broken and her hatred for the orcs grew stronger again.

The sun was rising while the duo was guiding a group of women on the road. In the end, only four out of the fifteen captives wanted to go back to rebuild their lives. Their trip was shortened when a caravan of merchants offered gallantly to give them a ride.

The duo had been mainly silent during their road as they were both tired physically and mentally. This had been a fighting and human experience they would not forget soon and they had both agreed to give their teacher a piece of their mind after he sent them on such a terrible mission. After having slept a little, the driver of the carriage announced them that they had arrived at Dragard and let them out.

The former captives also went on their way but promised to their savior to see them in the adventurer's guild the next day. The city was quite dark as the sun had set for quite a while but the girls still noticed that something was different with the atmosphere. Before, everybody looked busy or energetic. Now, they all had a stressed and fearful look and the streets were nearly empty.

They both felt that something was off and they approached a guard patrol that was coming by. Since they were both covered in blood the soldiers panicked a little but the duo raised their hand peacefully and asked :

"What is happening in here? We are adventurers coming back from a mission by the way."

"Ah, excuse us. There is a rumor that an entity called the Phantom Reaper started to make people disappear in this city. The whole Daberon household has disappeared in one night and their house has been sacked for example. This added to the number of missing people rising up has scared the whole city quite a lot. Our objective is to catch the culprit or at least find out what's happening." The guards explained, giving a maximum of information so maybe those adventurers would help them if a quest about it appeared.

"Oh... Thank you for the information sirs. Good luck !" Laena said, saluting them before going to the inn. After dragging her body upstairs and opening her room's door she made a small jump and scared Evelyn who was still thinking about the whole situation behind her.

"Welcome back young students." Jack told them while smiling, a plate of hot tea and biscuits in the hands.