The High Roll

Sebastian Doukes

A coin flip was all that was needed to change the tides. It was a small victory that sparked a chain reaction in the air, the shifting and tampering of fate for a small yet pivotal moment. I put my life on this coin flip. A game of chance. A fifty-fifty. 

Einar reached out to the Orc's axe, grabbed it, and smoothly pulled it out of his belt. And slamming the blade in between the Orc's jaw. Blood spurted from his mouth as he emitted a gurgling sound. He fell to the ground with a sickening thud, as my face was tainted with his ichor.

"I…What did I just…" Einar's voice quivered from the realization of what he just done.

I took a gamble that he'd help me with this. Even if it went against everything he stood for. And it worked! It fucking worked! I grabbed the key from the orc's body and quickly unlocked my chains, then Einar's and Albrecht's, "Knew it would work!"

"Hey! What's going on in there?!" A voice shouted from outside. Albrecht acted fast, shutting the Prison cart doors and holding them shut.

"Nothing-!" Albrecht tried to mimic the Orc's voice, "Just chopped the 'ell outta one!"

"Then why isn't anyone screaming?!" They banged on the door, "What the hell's happening in there?!"

Einar fell back to the wall, holding his stomach and groaning, "Oi! Einar! Pull yourself together! Can't have you throwing up now!" I shouted at him, as I looted the orc's body.

He didn't reply, just sat there, groaning and mumbling something. But as I turned to the other prisoners, Luna was coiled over, holding her stomach just like Einar. And even Albrecht as he held the door shut.

"Hey! Toss us the key!" One of her friends shouted. I did as they asked, as they used it to unlock Luna's chains and cuffs. Yet she still held her stomach in agony, "Woah woah! Luna! What's happening?!"

"My…stomach…" She groaned. Her friends tossed the others the key and let them unlock their chains. While they dealt with Luna. Albrecht barely managed to hold the doors closed as he was kneeling on the ground, his head hung low while something rumbled from somewhere.

I have to do it again. Go for another gamble. I closed my eye, focusing on a simple coin in the middle of a dark room. One single coin flip. To shift the tides of our situation once more.

"Heads!"

PLINK!

TICK!

"Yes!"

I didn't get another second to celebrate my victory before the door was kicked open. Sending Albrecht tumbling back before remaining in a fetal position, "Ugh…" The guards quickly entered the cart, their weapons drawn and poised for the kill.

"The fuck-?!" One of them spotted the orc's body lying on the ground, "Which one of you did this…?!"

"Uh…" Didn't I win the coin flip?! It should be in my favor! Or maybe…this IS what's supposed to happen. I won't be harmed, but someone else would. That's why I won.

"You…You did it, didn't you?!" The elf pointed at me, his axe glistening in the light behind them as he unsheathed it. Welp maybe not.

"Woah woah… Calm down buddy-"

"Bastard!"

In a second, he lunged at me, raising his axe high, ready to draw blood from my untouched body. I couldn't react in time, but someone else did, "Sebastian-!" Einar's voice echoed through the cart.

THWACK

My eyes widened immediately, as Einar pushed me away from the attack. But the axe still managed to find its mark. Lodging its blade in the cavity between his cheekbone and jaw. Just like what he did to the orc. Severing through his cheekbone, as his lower jaw dropped to his collarbone.

"Wha…" My body froze in place, my mind scrambling to even process what just happened to him. But the realization truly struck me when Einar's body dropped to the ground, "No…"

"Einar…?" Albrecht finally saw what happened to him. Something changed in him. I could see it. His eyes were a different shade than usual. An amber-yellow color glowed in his sockets as his mouth dropped. A small black mist emanated from his jaw.

The guards lunged towards those who escaped their chains, grabbing Luna and her friends and throwing them to the ground. Chaos erupted within the cart. As one went for Helena, Albrecht, and even going for me. Tackling me and pushing a dagger by my neck.

"Akh-! Let…go!"

"No no no…You tried, boy…" The orc that held me at knifepoint muttered, "You are not escaping us…"

No matter how much I struggled, I couldn't release his grip on my head, as he slowly pushed my head harder against the ground. The pressure slowly built up on my forehead as I tried to hold my scream back. Guess I should have gone for a higher-risk gamble. This wasn't…it. I'm gonna die here. Am I?

CREAAAAAK

A shadow loomed over the orc that pinned me down, he stopped pushing my head to the ground and turned behind him. There stood what I initially thought was a zombie. The way he rose from the floor, his back arched, his chest pointing up to the sky. Blood dripped down his face as his jaw slowly retracted to his face.

The axe lodged into his face slowly sank deeper into his head. A sickening crack echoed through the cart as his jaw bones readjusted back to place. His eyes lit up in a pale white color amongst the darkness of the visage. At first, I didn't recognize him, but his golden hair confirmed my suspicion.

"Einar…?"

He raised his hand, and it twisted and cracked unnaturally. Accompanied by the sound of flesh slapping and sliding on muscle and tendons. The Horrid echo of his body bending and shifting. His blood vessels detached from his hands and attached themselves to something unnatural.

His arm was nothing but a horrid mix of long razor-sharp appendages that extended from the right side of his face. A sleek black metallic sheen of the blade mixed in with the coarse uneven bone that protruded from his appendages. The slithering meat of flesh moved across his body, as he released a deep exhale.

I noticed that the body of the deceased Orc was gone alongside the axe lodged in their face. My questions of where it went were answered when I witnessed a pale green hand twitching in his stomach. His shirt had been ripped open, an enormous maw inhabited his abdomen. With sharp teeth and tusks, it chewed away at the Orc's hand, before swallowing it whole.

"What. The. Fuck?"

"HRAAAKH!"

A blur blitzed past us, the Orc's grip on my head loosened up as his upper body slid off from his legs, falling to the side as his mortified face met mine, "Ah-! Jesus H. Christ!" I pushed away the legs that hovered above me. The intestines of his corpse spilled out on the ground nearby. 

A gag escaped my lips as I rolled to my stomach, my body hunching over before my stomach clenched itself, and all of the previous food I ate a few hours ago came hurling out of my mouth. A pile of green vomit lay on the ground, as I tried to avoid touching it.

Pulling my head up, I watched as Einar grabbed one of the guards with both hands and dragged them outside, before throwing them away. Pouncing on him before he could react. I turned away as the sound of flesh being ripped open reverberated behind me.

But there were still three more guards in the cart. They had jumped out of the way just in time to avoid Einar's grasp. But that wasn't the end of it all. Albrecht twitched suddenly before a sudden burst of white fog blinded the guard on top of him. Before blinding the whole chaos-ridden cart in its grasp.

I managed to crawl out of the prison cart, landing on the harsh cobblestone pavement, before something whizzed out of the cart. A guard was pinned on the ground a few feet away from me by something.

It was Albrecht himself. His hand and the sides of his face were embedded with black teardrop-shaped scales. The fog was being released from his mouth, as the flesh around his cheek retracted, large razor-sharp fangs protruded from his gums in the area where his cheek retracted.

He corked his head back, letting the guard scream in horror before he lunged down, chewing away at his metal plate and sinking into his flesh. Albrecht tore the chest plate away, before raising his right hand, his fingers covered with rough black talons. And jamming it into the guard's bleeding chest.

"AHHHHH-!"

"Holy fuck-!"

"KRAAAKH-!"

Another object jumped out of the cart yet again. Landing only three feet away from me she mounted on top of an orc. It was Luna this time. Bearing almost the exact same appearance as Albrecht. Except this time, her teardrop scales and talon flesh were a dark shade of blue.

She spared no mercy against the poor guard, as she tore into him, ripping out his organs and crushing them, all with a face of pure ecstasy and madness tainting her.

A short distance away from Einar approached the leader. The same man who lodged his axe on the unfortunate guy some time ago. He stopped his horse in its spot. Watching as his guards were being torn apart by Einar, Albrecht, and Luna. And a few more were thrown out of the cart and finished off by some of the adults. They finally fought back huh?

"What the blazes…?!" He turned his horse around, As Einar turned to him, holding a bloody piece of his victim. Albrecht and Luna turned to the leader as well, I could only imagine what he was feeling right now.

However, I was not letting him escape. I can't exactly fight, but I can do some tampering from a distance. No. Scratch that coin. I'm doing this tabletop-style. A twenty-sided die. A d20. And I'm going to roll for something. The death of that man, and the survival…of not only us. I could already guess that all over this…world. There are other humans going through this as well. I don't know how many of us are in here, but whatever it is, I will roll for the death of that man, and the survival of our species all together.

"Nat twenty!!!"

CLACK!

RATTLE RATTLE!

TING TING TING!

"Good enough baby!"

The man's horse stood on its hind leg, bucking over the leader off his back as it ran away. Leaving his owner alone, "You stupid horse-! I should've killed you, you damned…" He turned around, as Einar hovered above him. A flash of terror overtook his face, as he tried to raise his axe against him. Lunging it forward, only to miss Einar entirely, as his stomach maw opened, before catching his hand within it, "GAH!!!"

Einar simply bit his hand off, a twisted smile corrupted his face as his pale eyes narrowed at his squirming victim. His hand twisted and changed into three razor-sharp talons. As he pounced on the leader, Luna and Albrecht had joined him, by his side.

I turned away, the screaming of the terrified elf echoing through the forest as I focused my attention somewhere else, the other human captives. A few were outside, finishing off the guards before turning to me, "What's good boys."

"Heya kid." A man, no older than fifty stood straight, rubbing his back, "You really took a gamble with this. Didn't you?"

"Guess you could say that." I chuckled, the gears in my head slowly shifting again, "Hmm…How many are there now?"

"A few…died. Mostly the friends of the white-haired girl." A lady in scrubs answered as she appeared out of the cart, "I'm sorry…"

"That's..unfortunate." I shook my head, "But how many are still left?"

"Maybe about twenty-four or so." She answered.

"But what will we do now?" A young man spoke, maybe in his early twenties or so, donning a formal outfit, "We killed these guys, but we have nowhere else to go…"

"I'll manage that." I answered his questions, "I'm willing to bet we'll find somewhere good to stay. I'll lead you all."

Most of the people in front of me exchanged looks with each other, "Who said you're going to be the leader."

My mouth spoke for itself, "It's simple really. While you all were sulking about it, I devised a plan. It didn't come with its risk and…casualties. But look at the brighter side of things. We lived, didn't we? That's good enough. Unlike you, I'll take the initiative to grab any opportunity.

"If you don't want to follow me, that's fine. I'll do this with the people that will. Those with senior jackets in there know what I could do. You just gotta trust their words for it, and hey! Maybe even see it for yourself!

"The one who should guide these people is worthless unless he takes risks. And I dangle on that line like a fucking tight-rope. I got this, boys and girls. And if you don't then that's too bad."

That seemed to convince them, "Fine…You better not let anyone die here. There's already a few dead inside."

"Then take 'em out, Bury them here. Quickly." I pointed to the three behind me, "I don't know their capabilities. But something tells me we'll be fucked if we stay here any longer."

"Understood." The old man stepped into the cart, "I just hope that young mind of yours could compete against us."

"Oh trust me, old man. It definitely can."

Only when I'm fueled by fucking lunacy, It can. And right now, I'm high on it.