Flames and Steel

Keita was tired both mentally and physically. The dark circles under his eyes were evidence to that. Right now though, all his exhaustion has faded away. He felt rejuvenated somehow.

He stealthily exited the shop and hid behind a building. He didn't want to show the Orcs were he came from just in case. After taking a deep breath, he used Haste and Shroud. There were about twenty Orcs, still looking through the shops. There were no Shamans - the equivalent of an Orc wizard - thankfully so all he needed to do was cut them down and it would be his victory.

He strengthen his resolve and left his hiding place. A few Orcs saw him and let out a cry in Orcish. A few laughed, others drew their weapons and there were some that just kept looting.

Keita rushed the at the closest one. It tried cleaving him in half with it's heavy blade but it was easily dodged.

'Let's test this' he swung his blade to the Orc's arm and cut it in half.

A horrible cry, full of pain rang in the shopping district. The Orcs stopped in their tracks and fear was engraved in them.

Orc's bones were thick, their muscles and skin like stone. For a human to cut an Orc arm, it truly was a feat which could only be achieved through unimaginable strength. But Keita made up for his lack of power with Shroud. The sharpness of his katana was out of this world.

'Truly a good weapon.' he thought. 'And I don't have to worry about it's weak durability with Shroud.

A confident smile - more in the side of creepy actually - was in his face. With a light speed slash, he cut the screaming Orc's head and a fountain of blood sprung from it's neck, bathing Keita in it.

Silence.

The Orcs were frozen by fear but it didn't last. They were battle hardened warriors. They rushed at Keita who responded in kind.

'There are fewer than I thought' he cut an Orc's belly. It knelled and tried to put them back in it's body in a futile effort.

'I can feel about 300 sources of magic power.' he cut another one's neck and blood gushed out.

'At least 100 must be humans so only 200 hundred Orcs. Is this not a Demon and Orcs alliance?' three, four Orcs dropped down as if puppets with no strings.

'If I keep going like this, it shouldn't be a problem' he thought as he made his way through the Orcs, cutting and slicing Orcs in his way.

Before he realized, all the Orcs were dead. He was drenched in blood. His brown hair now a sinister red. Teared Orc body parts, dyed the whole street in blood. A grotesque site.

"The surrounding Orcs are dead!" his yelled. "If anyone wants to retreat, now is your chance. The Southern bridge is still safe and there are some still defending it. I will be leaving this place so don't expect me to come to your rescue again." his clear voice, hopefully reached the shopkeepers. He had no time to confirm. There were others who were in danger.

Keita didn't stay any longer. He did everything he could do considering the circumstances. He ran towards a place with another forty magic power sources. He approached slowly and peaked through a barrel.

There were around fifteen humans fighting the Orcs. They seemed well geared and organized with a first look. Probably members of the Aerch Militia.

"Hmm" he needed to observe for a moment. If they were civilians he was going to help without a second thought. He wanted to see how the battle was going before he made his move.

'They seem to be handling it pretty well...' he thought and decided he wasn't needed here. Before leaving, he caught a glimpse of a few.

A young man, about his age with full plate armor and a tower shield who was fighting two Orcs was standing out. His was almost as tall as an Orc.

'A Defender...' a Defender was a rare class to see in the Militia. Defender's didn't use weapons and specialized in defensive Skills and taking hits. It is difficult to defeat an enemy alone as a Defender but in a team, their Skills were invaluable.

There was also a Cleric, a man with short brown hair and glasses, a blond woman with a bow, a Witch with black robs and a wooden staff and a red haired Swords-woman, locking blades with an Orc.

'They are pretty good' he thought and turned around.

He looked for other sources of magic power and found a lot of them at the Northern bridge. The city only had those two bridges. If one fell, the old veteran was going to get surrounded and his men wiped out. He couldn't let this happen. Not only did he send the humans in the shopping district his way, it seemed that there were many civilians at the Northern bridge. He had to go help them immediately.

He chose the shortest route. He bumped into an Orc heading for the bridge but it didn't notice him. he quickly stabbed it's neck from behind and moved as if nothing happened.

There were another three Orcs ahead. They were walking leisurely through the burning buildings. Something was odd. Keita couldn't see them yet but he was feeling uneasy and he couldn't tell why. The Orcs suddenly stopped.

They were rushing towards him.

'One of them can sense magic power' he realized.

He quickly stepped back and took the dead Orc's axe. It was big and heavy and he had no Skills that augmented his strength. He was on his guard against these three Orcs. He needed a plan.

He waited ten meters around the corner that the Orcs were going to appear from.

He closed his eyes and concentrated in his senses. He could hear, among the burning sounds and the battle, a language that wasn't human. They were Orcs after all.

'Three steps... two... one...' he sensed their distance through their magic power.

"Nghhh" he let out a cry as he threw the giant axe towards them. Just as the first one appeared, the axe buried itself through it's chest.

'Not strong enough' Keita thought as he panted. This ambush took a lot out of him. He still wasn't strong enough to fatally wound an Orc, especially by throwing a heavy axe.

But the axe did hit, and the Orc did go down. It wasn't dead yet, but it's rib cage had an axe sticking to it. It probably wasn't going to get up any time soon, even with the Orc's regeneration.

One of the Orcs approached it's wounded comrade and the other one locked eyes with Keita. It was different.

The Orc glaring him, wore a wolf's pelt on it's shoulders, had steel plates in it's vitals areas and a bears hide over it's trousers.

'So he is the leader... No wonder he has someone who can sense magic power close to him.' he thought as he tried measuring the Orc Chieftain.

The Chieftain, green eyes were locked with Keita. It gave some orders to it's subordinates without looking away. The subordinated protested - or so it seemed - but the Chieftain roared at him, making even Keita flinch.

The subordinate, picked the wounded Orc and after glaring Keita, it said something to the Chieftain and took off at the opposite direction.

'He let the wounded one get away... Was it someone close to him?' Keita thought. Neither of them moved for a while. The Chieftain, was clearly angry. Keita responded to his hostility and blood lust in kind.

His uneasiness grew. He finally pin pointed the reason.

'That axe... How can an Orc possess such powerful magic weapon?' he thought. Was it given to him by Wrath? It was unlikely. Even the Demon Lord couldn't freely give away weapons such as this. This axe, was the same grade of magic weapon as Mα-clayar, his sword in the past. It was a sword like no other, a legendary sword that reduced everything it touched to molten lava. No one could parry his weapon and no armor could defend against it. 'How can an Orc possess something like that?' he questioned.

'No, it doesn't matter' he steeled his resolve once again and took his stance.

"Heaven's Path: Shroud" he yelled.

The Chieftain also screamed something in orcish and the axe produced a brilliant yellow flame. It swung his axe to the ground and a wall of flames appeared, setting ablaze the whole street.

Keita was lost for words. He couldn't imagine that such a weapon would have a long ranged attack. 'This is bad' he thought as the sea of flames was closing in on him.