It seed that the whole knife act was just a show, a test. But sothing still didn't sit right.
Why did she care to see my reaction in particular? As far as she knew, I was a nobody. Just soone who wandered into the wrong camp.
And yet, it felt like the ga had already started.
Was she sohow already aware that I was the faction leader?
"He speaks." The orc that had taken credit for capturing inford her.
She nodded knowingly as if he was reaffirming what she'd already surmised. She clicked her tongue like a chiding mother.
"This wasn't how I hoped to et you, Layton."
I cocked my head, eyes narrowing. "If we haven't t—how do you know my na?"
My eyes fell to Xander.
The pregnant orc cackled, spittle flying.
"It wasn't the boy who told —my sources are my own. I also know your little tricks. You're not as special as you think." She waved the dagger. "This dagger is enchanted with sothing called a debuff. It's used for people just like you—or your friends."
I cocked my head. My heels were already digging into the dirt, ready to explode in a mont's notice. But that revelation was troubling. With a background in gaming I had an idea of the concept, but I didn't know if it would be the sa chanics or not.
"A debuff? That seems pretty convenient."
If I was right—and that knife really could act as a debuff—my shields weren't going to do Xander or Sadie any good at all. Debuff's were used to counteract any type of buffing spell, even cancelling them out if they were active, oftentis leaving them on a cool down before the spells could be recast.
"Convenient or not, it's true. I'm sure you can feel that can't you?"
I shifted my stance, glancing sideways, very aware I was surrounded by hundreds of powerful looking ard red orc's. But it wasn't their numbers that had on edge.
"What I feel is that you're holding a knife to a mber of my faction's throat. What else is there to feel?"
She cocked her head, lips curling into a smile that didn't quite et her eyes.
"A Judge who doesn't even know his greatest gift?"
My jaw worked. Not only was this orc aware of my na, and skills—she also knew about my class. Did we have a spy in our faction?
"You really don't know about your echo? You must have felt it before, the urge to trust certain people more than others?"
She studied , her beady eyes sharp and calculating. Then she burst into a hoarse deep throated laugh, that was more a croak.
"I'm not seeing much humor. You've created a dangerous situation for everyone here. We could've t civilly."
The tremors of her laughing fit slowed and she wiped tears from her eyes.
"A civil discussion was never our fate." She wheezed.
"Why? You have an informant don't you? I'm always more than fair with the factions who join us, why start with threats?
This was a full blown hostage situation.
Xander hunched forward, a tear dropped from his face landing softly in the dirt. I started doing so calculations in my head—I was very confident I would outclass her in speed. But that wasn't the question. The real question would be if I could get to her before her knife could get to Xander's throat.
He had my shield covering him, but then there was the question of whether that knife really had a debuff or not. She could very well be lying….but sohow it didn't feel like she was.
Either way, I wasn't ready to gamble on it just yet. There were just too many variables—my foot could slip on launch, she could have a defense ability, any number of her subordinates could interfere with unknown class skills or spells.
No, it was just too risky. For now, I'd be patient.
"Oh yes, the kind and just Layton! We'd just join right up and everyone would live in perfect harmony." She spat to the side. "You think I can't feel your presence weeding its way into my brain?"
I furrowed my brows. How did she know so much about ? In the back of my mind I ran through the nas of my faction mbers who might work against and know what she did. It was a short list.
Nearly everyone if not everyone had heard of my skills, that wasn't a huge surprise—but my class?
"So what? Everyone has a presence, is it so wrong that I want to avoid fighting?"
From what Enora told , my presence made her feel like being genuine and trusting. Personally it didn't seem all that bad. So why did this Orc woman hate it so much?
"Oh stop with that! You want to fight, you just don't want to feel bad when you kill. You'll get over that soon enough. You haven't even glimpsed what true power looks like." Her voice lowered. "I've seen real power…and you can't gain it from another's shadow. Your faction will learn that soon enough."
Such a sour view on reality.
I continued cycling nas through my mind on who might've been our leak when I realized sothing.
She didn't deny that she knew I preferred to et civilly. And not only that but she was aware of my skills and class.
That's when it hit .
"That knife. It wasn't ant for Xander, was it?"
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She glanced and the dagger, then chuckled.
"What difference does that make now? Maybe our whole army is equipped with such weapons?"
Her avoidance of the question told what I needed to know. If she knew about , she likely also knew my habits. What had she said before? This wasn't when she hoped to et?
My pulse sped up. She was planning to assassinate when I ca offering peace. If it wasn't for Sadie and Xander following , I would've walked right into her trap. Their foolishness might've saved my life...
My nails dug into my palms.
"You're nothing but an assassin." The words ca out cold and hard. "And now what? Your plans are ruined, kill him and your leverage is gone."
She shrugged, moving the knife inches from Xanders throat. Then she gestured towards the orc standing near Sadie. He grabbed her by the hair and tossed her to her knees next to her boyfriend. She squealed when her balance failed and she flopped in the dirt. The orc pulled her back up, again using her dark brown hair.
"Be careful!" I shouted, reaching out a hand. In response, the orc booted her forward again—hard. She face planted with a soft groan.
I took a step forward on impulse.
"That's enough." The woman hissed, pressing the dagger into the skin on Xander's exposed neck.
The blade bit, and blood began to bead.
I froze, and raised my hands, eyes fixed on Xander's throat. My fingers twitched. Every part of wanted to act, but I fought the urge.
The blood dripping from Xander's throat was evidence that there was no bluff about the knife's attributes.
Eye's wide I tested a theory. I cast a healing spell on Xander along with a shield. As expected, neither were effective. Just like in a ga, the debuff not only negated my shields, but there was a cooldown period where buffs could not be used either.
That ant, if Xanders throat was cut with that weapon…there was no saving him.
She didn't say a word, allowing the threat to settle heavy in my gut.
"Ok, Ok." I conceded, focusing on controlling my breathing. It was a trendous effort to remain calm. "You've created a losing scenario. Do you really want to live on a knife's edge?"
"That's what this universe is. You'd be wise to learn that, you might feel like the biggest right now—but I promise you, you're not."
"Then let's get on with this, you have —so what do you want?"
"I have no interest in discussing what I want." Her voice was low. "For now, let's focus on what you want."
"That's easy. I want you to release my friends so we can speak on even terms."
"Even terms don't exist." She guffawed. "You act as if you didn't co here ready to hold a knife to our throat."
I opened my mouth ready to defend myself when it hit . That was exactly what I had planned to do. Maybe not in the sa way, but not much different. In fact, every faction—outside of the human ones—had the sa threat looming over their head if they chose not to comply.
Join or die.
My stomach turned as I studied her.
Was I really the sa? I saw the fear, the uncertainty, painted all over Sadie and Xander. Was that the sa fear the Guildian's had? Was that the sa fear the Dark Elves had?
Of course it was.
And I weaponized it.
Sothing deep within , battle with my inner turmoil. It told that there was more to this woman's world view. It wasn't just black and white.
But I couldn't grasp why.
I shook my head.
"Just tell what you need to do."
***
My pace was fast—though not nearly my top speed.
The demands from the orc woman were simple. Clear the faction that claid the quarry.
Overall the task itself seed doable. I'd cleared entire factions before—albeit with the help of Mischief. Goblins had infested the quarry and the orcs weren't confident in their ability to clear the space, I didn't get an explanation of why though.
I had until morning to get it done. Twilight had already started to bleed across the sky. If I varied from the directives, I was promised in no uncertain terms that one of the prisoners would be executed.
If I wanted to avoid the loss of a faction mber, I had to massacre an entire faction.
I wasn't alone on this mission either. Corg had been sent to join , he lumbered behind , seeming crushing into every single tree we'd passed. The oaf couldn't be much bigger than Durkil, but he moved as nimbly as a forklift.
He wasn't built for speed, which suited just fine. I needed ti to think.
My mind kept drifting to who the informant in our faction might be. Creeping doubts about allies who I assud were faithful made my heart ache. So forcing that question to the side for now, I focused my energy on how I could go about freeing Sadie and Xander.
What I really needed was more information. A tree rattled violently behind , so I slowed my pace even further, allowing Corg to draw nearer until we were running parallel.
He looked like a warthog with tusks jutting two inches from his bottom lip. My initial assessnt about him being a lumbering brute wasn't exactly true. Yes—he did bruise his way through obstacles—but it didn't seem clumsy. It seed intentional, like he was angry running through the trees and smashing the forest helped him vent.
In fact, he barely even seed aware I was watching him.
"Why did you let that other guy take your credit for capturing before?" I had to shout to be heard over the sound of his stomping.
Whether Corg heard or not, I couldn't really tell, he just kept stomping through.
"You found , but you let that other guy take all the credit. Didn't that bother you?"
More crashing.
"I know if my faction didn't respect , I'd be bothered…"
My words trailed off, Corg stopped in his tracks and rounded on . His club was stowed in a dinsional bag but his empty hands balled into fists. I had to crane my neck to look at him.
There was fire in his eyes but he didn't speak.
"I was just curious why you didn't stand up for yourself." I shrugged.
"Credit?" Corg grunted. His voice was deep and gravely. "You don't think I know you gave yourself up?"
I studied him. Honestly? No, I didn't think he noticed that.
He scoffed.
"You should hurry, Aggard will know if you don't."
"Aggard?" I prodded.
"Our Matriarch." His eyes glead. "We should continue."
"What do you an she will know? You make it seem as if she can see us now?"
I looked around—there wasn't a person in sight besides Corg and myself. Were we being tailed? What would the point of that be if Corg was here to keep an eye on ?
"We need to continue." And with that he simply began to run again, but sothing was off.
He wasn't "angry running" anymore.
***
Corg was a steel vault the rest of our trip. Occasionally, I made attempts at small talk hoping to learn just a bit more about Aggard—each attempt was t with silence.
So I stopped trying and we ran in silence.
Why had he said that Aggard would know? Did the orcs have so kind of hive mind? Or even more likely, there were orcs like Mischief or Nick, adept at stealth that were always watching. Was it possible they could move through our territory unseen?
No they couldn't, Jared had purchased an upgrade that highlighted enemies on our map in red. I wasn't naive enough to trust it completely, but it seed unlikely.
Plus, it wouldn't account for the other details that Aggard knew about . Sothing else was at play that I didn't completely understand. I couldn't rely on old reasoning though—not with mana in the world.
Surprised, I realized that I recognized the landscape.
The hill in the distance was the sa hill that had hidden the zombie horde we slaughtered. My nose wrinkled, rembering my experint with healing wave. We weren't far from where they had shriveled into puddles of yellow goop in reaction to my spell.
That ant that the quarry was just over the next rise.
"Why are you stopping?" Corg's voice rumbled from behind .
"The quarry is just over this hill." I pointed with my head. "It's nearly night, are you ready to explain what we're getting into?"
"No point explaining." He grunted. "Better to just show you."
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