James Macdonald gave a big smile and tapped Alex’s back a few times. “Thank you! With you around, this Quest won’t be as dangerous as I thought! Maybe we have a chance of surviving this with our pockets full of Magical Orbs and gold coins, after all!”
“Talking about Magical Orbs, I just want four. Two for me and two for Okami. You can have the others and divide them with everyone.”
“Sure, but you deserve more than that, considering that it was your plan and straightforward leadership that granted us an easy victory!”
Alex became worried and tried to excuse himself. “I am sorry, Mister James! It was tactless of me to order everyone around without even remembering that you are the Leader of this Party!”
“No harm was done. Your plan was excellent, and you didn’t even doubt what to do. I had to trust your orders because seeing that group of Monsters made my head go blank and I couldn’t think properly. I am a little ashamed of myself, actually, I thought I was better prepared for this type of things.”
“Mister James, I doubt anyone could think properly in that situation! Harpies screeching, Giant Orcs throwing rocks… Yeah, dangerous stuff indeed!”
While walking side by side with Alex towards the dead Orcs, James Macdonald answered, “Even with all that, you were able to think properly in this situation. You puzzle me, Mister Alex Brim. Over and over, you show proof of why everyone at the Guild has complete trust in you and your skills. I feel like a fool for not believing when everyone said you were the best Adventurer in the guild. No wonder you work as a Hero for Hire!”
Alex made a slight smile while piercing the chest of a Giant Orc with his sword to remove the Magical Orb from the top of his heart. “I had to do some crazy things to get my reputation. I only lost one man during a Quest, and I made sure that never happened again by going a little overboard when facing Monsters. That man died because I was too careful, and nowadays, I use over-the-top Spells to kill even a little Goblin. Either that or I throw daggers or arrows from a distance to not let them approach. If I have to face a monster head-on, it has to be because of a unique circumstance, such as when Mister Gabriel Dawson was made hostage on our last quest. By the way, we can take with us a few juicy thighs from these Orcs. I like to eat this meat. The Harpies, not so much. Their meat tastes like rotten, but the feathers of their wings are very good for making arrows or throwing daggers.”
James Macdonald crouched, and he pulled the sharp feather at the end of the wing of the nearest Harpy. “You mean this one? I thought your throwing daggers looked weird. You mean you made them out of feathers like these?”
“Yes. They are a little hard to pull off. You have to use a lot of strength to lose them while moving the feather to the sides at the interconnection with the wing. The rest of the feathers are easier to remove, but you need to be careful not to damage them and choose the best ones because they are worth more. The damaged ones can still be used to make arrows. Even the claws on their toes are useful because they make good and strong tips for arrows.”
James Macdonald smiled while using his sword to slice the toes of the Harpy. He grabbed the claws, still with the toe attached, and asked, “You are very knowledgeable about the uses for Monster body parts. What do you do to remove the toe from the claw?”
“Normally, I cook them in boiling water. The flesh becomes tender, and it’s then just a matter of pulling the claw. I don’t recommend eating the meat from the toe, it doesn’t taste good. I already tried it, and I puked immediately, even after using a lot of seasoning on the meat!”
James Macdonald laughed and went to the next Harpy. While the others were occupied with removing the Magic Orbs from the dead bodies all around, Alex was taking his fourth Orb when Okami approached him, carrying two Orc thighs. “Alex, I think we won’t need to hunt for a while, but can you ask your friend’s people to smoke this meat and all the other pieces that we have already gathered?”
“I can ask them to do that. What about the Orbs? All done?”
Okami signalled with her head in Anika’s direction, who was cleaning an Orb on a piece of cloth. “I think that was the last one. Grab a few thighs and let’s put them on the horses, okay?”
Alex asked while taking from the floor two Orc thighs, “I pity the horses for having to carry us and all this meat. You can’t call more deer or boars to use as carrying mules?”
Okami looked around at the empty prairie. “I could. Warn me if you see any. In the meantime, the horses will have to do it. Come on, you wanted to arrive early to meet your friend, right?”
As Alex walked beside her, and as he was tying the meat to his horse, James Macdonald arrived with two bags full of Harpy’s feathers. “Mister Alex, I think I got the best feathers on these bags, and Bethany is tying to her horse bags with Harpies’ claws and a bag of damaged feathers. It seems like everyone either has two bags of claws and feathers or Orc meat. What do we do with the pile of dead bodies? Shouldn’t we bury them?”
Alex faced Okami. “Care to do the honours?”
Okami pointed her open palm to the pile of bodies of Orcs and Harpies, and with Kagu-tsuchi’s help, she shot a big fireball that started a huge fire to vaporise the bodies. She then mounted her deer while frowning. “Better if we get out of here before the wind changes direction and the smell reaches us. It will take forever to get rid of the stinky smell from our clothes.”
They all mounted the horses and made them trot to the main road again, but then, Alex halted his horse when he heard a warning whisper from Shinatobe and jumped to the ground while shouting, “Everyone get ready! Something is coming!”
They looked back, and on the left side of the burning pile of corpses, almost twenty metres in the air, a dark Magical Void appeared. They all looked at it in terror, and as Alex was piercing the ground with his spear and tying the reins of his horse, the others quickly dismounted.
Without even looking back, Alex shouted, “Get ready to run! I will hold them off and follow you after taking care of them! Okami, with me!”
James Macdonald tried to argue, but Alex looked at him with an expressionless face. “I wasn’t asking, Mister James! You have a Quest to do, and my job is to protect you and your Party. Get ready to run on my signal. I want to see what is coming from there and decide what Spell I must use!”
Alex stared at the Void again and waited. After some seconds, two Orc bodies came down, struggling with each other in a deadly fight. One was slender and, oddly, with long hair tied in a long braid, and the other was a large and muscular Orc.
He saw the small one holding the left wrist of the big Orc and piercing his right eye with a short sword. As the big Orc put both hands over his face and screamed in pain, the smaller Orc went to his back and, after slicing the throat of the big Orc, braced for landing, using the bigger Orc as a cushion.
When it hit the ground, the smaller Orc rolled on the floor and stopped with his body crouched, two small swords in his hands, looking at the Void.
Alex saw the slender Orc looking back at him, and he seemed confused. The Orc took a quick look around without getting up from his crouched position and stared at the Void again. Alex gathered Magic in his hands, but before he could begin mumbling a Spell, the slender Orc looked back at him and made a low growl, pointing both swords at the Void.
He frowned, surprised by that weird reaction, and it was then that it hit him. That Orc was indeed different from all the others he had ever seen. It was not only smaller, but it also had a small round nose, smaller tusks, and clothes made of fur covering the middle of his chest and more clothes covering his waist.
Alex noticed the muscular thighs, not as large as the usual Orcs, but still with enough muscle to inspire jealousy in most Humans. It was a female. The first female Orc that Alex saw or even heard about. Not even his father ever saw a female Orc, and that one not only acted differently from every Orc that arrived at Azurath, but she also looked as if she was waiting for something that was about to come from the Magical Void.
He quickly grabbed his shield and sword from the saddle of his black stallion and faced the Magical Void again. Then, a group of five Giant Orcs came down, hitting the ground with a loud bang that lifted a bunch of soil, hiding them in a cloud of dust. The female Orc made a loud growl and got a bunch of growls back from the group of Orcs. Alex frowned and saw the female Orc looking at him and pointing both swords to her front with a scared look on her face, as if she was asking for help.
Alex slowly nodded, still a little confused, and as he was about to take one step forward, Okami placed one hand on his right shoulder and asked, “What are you going to do, Alex? Let them fight amongst themselves. We just need to kill the ones that survive.”
“Yeah… Normally I would agree with you, but she asked for help. You know me, I can’t refuse if someone asks for my help, even if it’s a female Orc. Besides, I am also curious. She seems smarter than most Orcs. Maybe I can find something about where they came from. Stay here and make sure none of them go past me. I will be right back.”
Okami bit her lower lip and nodded, and Alex ran ahead, placing himself two metres to the left of the female Orc. He made a slight smile at her and was received with a big smile that showed a line of white teeth. She then looked ahead again and squeezed the hilts of her swords.
A loud growl came from the cloud of dust, and the group of Giant Orcs run out of it at full speed, armed with wooden clubs that they were carrying as they fell from the Magical Void. The female Orc made a low growl as if she was telling Alex to wait, and when the Orcs were at a mere three meters, she made a loud growl and jumped ahead, straight to the Orc that was right in front of her.
Alex jumped at her signal and landed his shield on the face of one Orc while piercing the chest of another with his sword. While Alex was taking the sword out and swinging it around to slash another Orc and gathering his Magic, he saw the female Orc taking both swords from the chest of the Orc she killed, throwing a fireball with her open right palm, and grabbing the sword again to slash another Orc, while the fireball roasted to death the last Orc.
Alex blinked a few times, surprised to see an Orc using Fire Magic with such accuracy, and saw the female raising both swords to the air and growling in victory.
While Alex was still staring at her without knowing what to think about what had just happened, he saw the female using one sword to open the chest of the nearest dead Orc and remove the Magical Orb from the top of his heart. She pointed at the two Orcs that Alex killed and at his sword, as if telling him to do the same.
While Alex quickly opened the chests of the two Orcs, the female did the same to the other two. She held the three Magical Orbs in her hands and mumbled something. Alex saw a Water Bubble appearing that surrounded her hands, and she used the water to clean the Orbs. While he was using the fur loincloth from an Orc to clear his Magical Orbs, Alex noticed the female had a necklace of Orbs, and she was now tying a string on the three new Orbs and placing them on her necklace as well. The female Orc put both swords on the sheaths at her waist and faced Alex with a puzzled look. She pointed around and made two long growls.
Alex nodded and said, “Yes, this is a different World. I don’t know from where you came, but you are now here, and I don’t know how to send you back. “Normally, I just kill every monster that comes from the Voids. I don’t worry about sending them back.”