Eritance - Chapter 26

The orc chieftain staggered and took a step. The lord had a triumphant look in his eyes. He said, “there are two things that I care about, money and my daughter. You threatened both today, and this is the consequence”. However, the orc chieftain still had energy to spare. It was a deep wound to be sure, but a wound like this wouldn’t kill him. He turned around and backhanded the lord. This sent him flying into another wall and he coughed blood again.

The orc chieftain was still holding me in one hand, but I could breathe now and had more time to think. As he turned his attention back to me I noticed the knife that was sticking out of his arm. I grabbed the long knife and pulled it out of his arm. I then immediately shoved it through the orc chieftain’s throat. His eyes widened with surprise as he grabbed his throat and tried to hold the blood in. He dropped me and slowly stepped backwards. As he did this he tripped and fell. The orc chieftain had died.

Just as the orc chieftain died I noticed that the last guard had stabbed the remaining orc through. The guard collapsed from exhaustion as the orc thrashed around on the ground with its dying breaths.

I felt a surge of power rushing into me. “Ross, what are my stats?” I asked.

Orin Strength 3 (2) Stamina 2.5 (0.3) Speed 2.5 (0.3)

This was incredible, at the end of it all, my stats had almost maxed out. I also had the bonus from the jerkin I was wearing. I really felt incredible at the moment. Although, I couldn’t do much jumping for joy, as my body hurt too much. I slowly staggered over to Ciara to see if she was still alive. She hadn’t moved at all. I put my head to her chest, but I couldn’t hear her heart beat. She was dead.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it all. I didn’t know her incredibly well, but I thought that we had become a lot closer over these past few weeks. Maybe we weren’t friends, but the difference of despising her then and being able to now laugh with her is not a small difference.

I felt like I really was alone again now. I didn’t have anyone that I knew anymore, not with the village burning around me. Maybe I was destined to have a lonesome life I thought. However, just as those thoughts were running through my mind, I felt her chest move a little. She was breathing! It was just very shallow.

I became overjoyed at this discovery. I wasn’t alone anymore. Someone from the same place as me would still survive. Someone that might be my friend one day was still alive. I heard coughing and turned around to where the lord had been. He still wasn’t dead. I thought for sure normal people wouldn’t be able to take hits from the orc chieftain, but he had survived two heavy blows. I went over to him to try to help him, but he said “don’tmy time is doneit’s a pity though. there was so much more wealth to make.”. “The village is done foreven though the chieftain is dead there are still so many orcs and goblins outside, not to mention the fire spreading out of control. you have to take my daughter and get out of here”.

His comment about the money really put me off. I guess, at the end of it all, the lord still mainly just loved money, but at least he cared about his daughter too. He told me about a secret tunnel that runs from the mansion’s basement all the way to the forest. From there we would be able to leave the village unnoticed by the remaining attackers.

After explaining how to get out, the lord stiffened and breathed his last breath. I wasn’t sure how Ciara would react to her father’s death, but we had to go. I staggered over to her again and picked her up. In the current state I was in, she felt very heavy, even with the enhanced strength.

As I slowly carried her out of the hall, the last guard said, “wait. let me come too”. He slowly got up with a lot of effort and started following me. I was really surprised though. It was Simon!

“How did you survive back then?” I asked him. “Back thenI was one of the ones that had been knocked down by the other orcsthey beat me badly, I almost died. but after you ran away with the lord’s daughter they only fought to get rid of the rest of the guards and chased after you too.”.

I was amazed that he was alive. Apparently, he had been stumbled upon by some traveling merchants that brought him back to Hallen. He rested for the past several weeks and had only just returned to basic guard duties a few days ago.

The two of us slowly walked down to the basement and found the entrance to the escape tunnel. It was dark and musty, apparently not many ever used it. Inside there were packs of food and water that was ready. It seemed the lord was one who planned things out well. We grabbed three backpacks of supplies and followed the tunnel out and into the woods.

From there, we decided that the best course of action would be to head back to Rhine. After all, the other villages were far away, and they were much smaller than Rhine was. There wouldn’t be as many opportunities there for work and to survive. We were now all people without a village, our lives would become much harder from here on out.

We walked well into the night, until we were too tired to keep going. We made camp and didn’t dare start a fire for fear of being discovered. We instead got out some dried meat and water to eat and drink. After we had done this, Ciara woke up.