CHALLENGE

Stunned

This was the reaction that every ogre in the village was having, in all of their life living here in the village. Nothing of this sort had happened to them, they were so surprised that they didn't know how to react.

But as monsters, their first instinct was to attack the human, that was always the rules monster followed, if they thought that the enemy was weak then they would attack first and ask questions later

This was built in their DNA, so that's what they did, an ogre who looked like the elder of the village suddenly came forward.

He was more muscular than any ogre Hale had seen before, and he was also the oldest-looking one as he had a white beard that reached his chest and his face was full of freckles.

The ogre also had black tattoos running up and down his back and his forearms. The ogres surrounding them started to make a circle around them like those in street fights.

Because that's what was happening, the rest of the onlooker's ogres started cheering for the muscular ogre.

Although Hale wasn't fluent in their language he could still understand what they were saying

"Go Doja!, Kick his ass," said a female-looking ogre.

"You bet I will, keep the bed warm for me after I return", the old ogre spoke as he lecherously looked at the female ogre

Seeing that look, the female ogre couldn't help but look away as she tried to keep a smile from forming on her lips

"Tsk, this old man he should act his age and drop dead, stealing all the women as usual"

Some of the onlookers started cursing the old ogre instead of the human who had entered the village, this was because they weren't even a single bit worried about the old man who had come to challenge Hale.

The old man quickly raised his left arm and held it towards the crowd of people, Hale was surprised by this, he didn't have a single clue as to why the old ogre was doing such a thing, but his answer quickly showed itself as a 4-foot long battle-ax was thrown from the crowd towards the old monster.

Hale quickly understood the meaning behind the ogre's action as he was calling someone to throw him his weapon.

Now with the battle axe in hand, the ogre looked even more menacing than before. "Well then human, would you like to have a nice match with me?"

Doja spoke as he got himself in a battle posture, with his left hand holding the axe and the right hand in a chop gesture towards Hale.

Hale was surprised by this but decided to play along with the monster as he himself wanted to know how strong the ogre was.

"I'm game, but let me ask you something, are you the strongest one here?".

Stunned!

This was the reaction of the entire village, time itself seems to have frozen after the words had left Hale's mouth.

Because the human was speaking in the language of the monsters which shouldn't be possible, no human had been able to do such a feat

Doja, the one who had challenged Hale himself was surprised but he quickly recovered from the shock as he spoke in a serious tone.

" Who are you? How do you know our language?"

Doja found it hard to believe that just a random human knew how to speak in monster tongue.

Such a feat was only possible by Dragons or something similar to them.

"I'm just a passerby, I don't want any trouble, I just want to know how to get out of this damned cave"

Hale clearly stated his intentions for visiting their village, He just wanted a way out.

After hearing what Hale had to say, the villagers had an alarmed expression on their faces.

Hale quickly noticed the change and started having a bad premonition about the whole thing

<Do these monsters don't know the exit as well?>

These were Hale's initial thoughts but he quickly pushed them to the back of his mind. He decided to be optimistic about the situation and started looking at the Doja for the answer

Doja sensed his gaze as he decided to lower his axe

"And why should I? We have a free meal in front of us so why should we let it escape?"

Doja quickly swung his axe which he had lowered just a moment ago, it wasn't that he was helping the human, but it was so because the human would let his guard down.

Seeing the axe closing in Hale didn't react or moved. All the monsters of the village thought the same thing

'We got him!'

They all thought that the human just didn't realize what was happening, but in fact, Hale himself was surprised, because the speed of the axe was very slow.

It felt like the axe was moving in slow motion, but clearly it wasn't, Hale quickly back stepped to avoid the axe

Doja as well as everyone present was surprised because they didn't expect that last course of action from Hale

"Quite slow, just as expected from a guy so big"

Hale mocked Doja for his size, which in turn infuriated the ogre.

"Shut up!" Doja shouted as he quickly did a 360 spin and thrust the axe with all his might.

He had never been this humiliated in his entire life so he wanted to get back at Hale and reclaim his reputation

Hale again side stepped and this time he went on the offensive as he slid under the arm of Doja, his blind spot and threw out a punch at his abdomen

Upon impact Doja had the air squeezed out of his lungs as he fell on his knees gasping for breath.

He was covered in sweat as he looked at the human

Shock and fear could be seen in his eyes as he tried to make heads or tales of the situation at the moment

"Is this your best?"

Hale declared to the entire village in a mocking tone