A Noise (2)

"I have to come back alive!! »

Under a tide of trees a young man was running at speed, his body looked withered, he had already seeped out all the sweat that his body contained.

From time to time he turned his face away to know the gap that separated him from his pursuers, keeping a considerable distance to prevent them from hitting him, the young man had reached his limit.

In his clan he prided himself on being strong, strong enough to claim the place of patriarch, but when he went outside the hamlet he was just a simple ogre-human.

This race was born from a mixture of ogres and humans but they were not accepted by either ogres or humans, its body was entirely humanoid with the exception of its horn on its forehead.

As ogre blood runs through their veins, they had inherited some of their strengths, those that made them superior to normal humans, but in this cursed forest they were among those at the bottom of the food chain.

-"shit...they're getting closer!!!"

shouted the young man.

His cry was desperate, he was chased by around twenty hungry bats, they were large and monstrous their eyes shone with a scarlet light, these carnivorous abominations, once they have prey in their sights, they don't let go of him once they have finished crushing his bones.

The young man racked his brains, he tried to think of a plan to save him from this situation, his body screamed in pain he cursed himself for having awakened these terrifying creatures in their nest, and he also cursed the Dhakat clan who was waging war on them, he was cornered by all these problems that were surfacing.

He had his two swords in his hands, he was looking for a place where he could shelter, in this immense forest full of creatures a single second of recklessness or bad luck could mean death...

As his eyes wandered he spotted a cave, he headed in the direction of it, the young man was running out of mana his muscles were weakening, he was hungry, he was thirsty, the war had taken everything from him;

Comrades, subordinates, he had failed in his leadership, he had failed as a brother, he did not know how to protect his own, he wanted to die but responsibility prevented him from doing so.

He had to be strong, strong enough to protect what was left of his clan, repair the broken pieces, and to definitively end this bloody war.

When he was in the cave, the young man turned away and faced his pursuers, his two swords in hand he tried to keep control over everything that attacked him from the front.

It only took a moment for his odds to turn against him.

The young man who was preoccupied with what he had in front of him, could not have noticed what was on the ground, it was covered with a pile of leaves as if they had been placed intentionally.

His feet slipped and he fell.

Unable to get up from the bottom of the hole, he desperately tried to move but in vain, until a figure flew over the hole, it came from the bottom of the cave.

The young man laughed at his bad luck, he had more strength for this debate, he closed his eyes and fainted.

***

Cliff was quickly approaching the source of the noise, he sent a large amount of mana into his legs, his speed increased significantly.

He saw a small assembly of flying creatures circling above the hole, looking like they were fighting over prey.

Without waiting Cliff jumped on one first, he concentrated a large amount of mana into the muscles of his arm and split it in two.

Satisfied, he no longer cared about the announcement in his head, he continued the same steps, his eyes bloodshot, he was determined to exterminate his invaders.

He rushed at another, he cut it, but unfortunately the creature dodged the blow,  Cliff strengthened his legs and jumped on the animal he impaled the animal in its throat, he spotted another one rushing at him he used the corpse as support to direct towards him and split his wing, the unbalanced animal uttered a terrifying cry which resonated throughout the cave, Cliff changed the direction of his saber which caused the animal's head to fly.

[You killed a moonbat]

"eh it was a bat??, it was my size damn it!!!"

Cliff complained.

These bats were large and their bodies were powerful, Cliff could not have killed them if he had not strengthened his muscles, moving the mana in his muscles required a lot of concentration.

Cliff cut everything in his path without stopping, he did not want to give them a second of respite to counterattack he strengthened his limbs in order to increase the force of his blows, he cut, he slashed, he performed a dance in the middle of his abominations.

All he had in mind was to kill, kill before the noises did not attract the watches around, Cliff wanted to finish them off quickly.

And after what seemed like an eternity, he cut the last one.

[You killed a moon bat]

When the announcement ended he shook his saber, getting rid of the blood, he had a dark expression on his face, he cut up the corpses and recovered his loot.

Cliff slowly approached the hole, he saw a human form, focused his attention on her torso, she fell and got up again.

" he is still alive !"

He went down, he saw a young man with brown skin, silver hair, his face bruised, under his eyes was decorated with dark circles.

"This unfortunate guy must have suffered a lot to be in this state"

Cliff took him, put his back on him, strengthened his legs, jumped and got out of the hole.