New Encounter

"I have had enough of that shit, Cisca. I have no intention of 'getting Faye's heart' or whatever. Stop lumping me with the common herd who only think with their groin, alright? I have bigger things to worry about," I say.

"There's nothing bigger than love, Kris. If you don't understand that, it will never happen to you. You might own everything from the east to the west, but if you have no one to come home to, nothing under the sun will be your home."

"And you are saying what? Huh? That's I am no better than a normal person because I'm single?"

"Wow, Kris. Growing up without love has really made you despise it, huh?"

Why the hell is she bringing that up?

"Listen, Cisca," I say, "love is a weakness, and that's that. It has nothing to do with my personal feelings, that's just a fact. I don't want to hear another word come out of your mouth if it has no actual value."

"Jeez, someone hasn't had a good morning," Cisca says.

Great, now my mood has been ruined. Who does she think I am to need such pathetic concepts like love and care from another person? I don't need to rely on anybody.

I hear chuckles and laughter coming from the cabin behind me. What in the world are they up to?

The sun is close to the horizon now. What a slow day. All I've done was just sit here and watch the road. Better transportation needs to be the top priority.

In the distance ahead between the trees, I see a blurry mass blocking the road.

"What is that…" I mutter to myself while squinting my eyes, trying to see better.

"I can do a zoom-in if you want," Cisca says.

"Sure."

Cisca presses a button on her keyboard, and another video feed appears below hers. It's a telescopic view of my vision.

Convenient, yet a strange thing to get used to.

I now have a clearer look at what's in front of us. It's a horde of the same creatures I encountered in the forest before I reached Alventyr, the green ogres. There are over a dozen of them, just loitering on the dirt road.

"Oh, it's those gorillas again," Cisca says.

"Sure, gorillas."

As we get closer to the horde, I notice that they are not all the same size. A group of the similar ones from before crowd around this bigger one. It's about twice the size as the others, and it looks to be holding a part of a pine trunk in its hand.

I turn around to the window and inform the giggling girls and Lohikaarmi. "Hey, I see something ahead."

"What is it?" Astra asks.

"Take a look."

Astra stands up on her seat and sticks her head out the window. She raises her hand above her eyes to block out the afternoon sun and gaze into the distance.

We are getting close now. Some of the small ogres are starting to notice us. I say small, but they are still much bigger than us.

"Ooh, it looks like we've got an Ogre General on our hands," Astra says.

"An ogre what?" I ask.

"An ogre general," Astra says and looks at me.

"What is that?"

"You know how when a human with unwashed sin dies, they become ogres?"

"No? I think that's what you were going to tell me before."

"Well, now you know, but, they don't all get reincarnated the same. Humans with stronger sins become reincarnated with stronger evil. The Church ranks them like this. Simple ogres, those are the small ones over there. Ogre soldiers. Ogre generals, that's that big one. Ogre Commanders, and Ogre Kings."

Cisca is once again noting stuff down.

"So, you are telling me that there are two more species of Ogres bigger than that one?" I ask.

"Much bigger."

Oh, I'd rather not think about that right now.

"How do we deal with them? I ask.

"You can just ask Lohikaarmi to burn them to a crisp," Astra says.

"Any way that doesn't involve revealing her as the Inferno Dragon?"

"I guess you can fight them yourself. If you defeated the Dragon Queen, I am sure they will be a piece of cake."

"Alright. Let me take care of them, then."

"Well, good luck."

"Don't need it."

Astra goes back into the cabin, and we continue heading toward the horde. We are about the width of a soccer field away now.

"Kris," Cisca says, "you defeated the dragon with my grenade launcher. You only have one shot left, remember?"

"It's fine, I never intended on using it in the first place. I don't want Faye to know that I am from another world yet. I am sure the Exosuit and my super strength should be enough."

"Suit yourself. It's not like anything I say will change your mind."

"You're damn right about that," I say and tug on the reins to slow the horse down.

All the ogres have noticed me, now. They've turned toward me and are staring at me with wide red eyes. Their mouths are drooling. That big one's got fangs coming from its bottom lip, too. Horrendous creatures. So this is what hell looks like in Eden? Well, I sure don't want to end up like them. Maybe I will be a little bit nicer to Astra.

"What's going on?" Faye asks.

"Kris's got something to take care of real quick," Astra says.

"Oh, alright."

The carriage stops a few ten meters ahead of the horde, and I jump down from the coach seat. I reach into my belt to take out the multi-tool. That shouldn't raise any suspicion from Faye. It's not that unrealistic in this world. I can just say it's something I invented if she asks.

The closest tool to a weapon is the ax, so I flip that up.

Close-quarter combat is not my specialty. In fact, any kind of combat is not my specialty. Marksman is the only kind I practice, and it was as a sport, but the Exosuit should give me enough of an edge.

The Ogre General is livid. It's breathing through its mouth while shooting daggers out of its eyes. There is no intelligence behind there, but the hatred and rage are real. It raises its hand and points at me. The other ogres react to the signal and begin charging toward me, screeching.

As the first one gets close enough, I leap forward and raise the ax above my head. With all the force in my arm, I swing it down at the green ogre.

KTCH!

My strike is met with no resistance. The blade of the ax slices through the ogre's bone like it's fabric.