Chapter 44: No good deed goes unpunished
I now have an editor, so you all shouldn't need to put up with my typos and poor/dyslexic editing skills anymore.
:)
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Ethan's enhanced reflexes gave him time to think, and he used that time just as Serif had drilled into him.
First, threat identification.
Six orcs had ambushed him in the forest leading to orc's camp, all rushing at him. They all towered over him, being as tall as professional basketball players and built like NFL linebackers. One was armed with a longsword, two had axes paired with wooden shields, and the remaining three had wooden clubs with iron bands at the tip. None of the orcs had armor. Their clothes all had a spread-fingered hand painted on their clothes in what looked like red paint. At least he hoped it was paint.
Second, threat assessment.
The longsword wielder: low threat, low defense. The blade couldn't penetrate his armor, and he highly doubted the orc was skilled enough to hit the small gaps between Ethan's armor plates. Further, the comparatively lightweight blade didn't have enough momentum to damage him through the armor like a heavier blunt weapon would. With his vastly superior training, Ethan was pretty sure he could defeat him in a few seconds if it was a one-on-one fight.
The two axe wielders with shields: medium threat, high defense. The axes were heavy enough to pose a danger even through the armor because of blunt force trauma, and would easily lop off a limb if they hit a gap between his armor plates. Their shields would make it significantly harder to attack them too.
The three club wielders: high threat, low defense. Those clubs might be able to break bones with blunt force even through the armor; avoid at all costs. The upside is that they were slower than his sword so defeating them wouldn't be as hard... but there were three of them.
Third, threat priority.
The two axe and shield wielders would take longer to kill because of the shields. The club wielders were high-risk, high reward. The longsword wielder would be relatively easy and fast to defeat, reducing the number of opponents.
The longsword wielder it is.
He pivoted on the balls of his feet to his ten 'O clock, dug his claws into the earth and leapt forward, raising his shield to block the incoming longsword attack as he drew his war sword. The orc's longsword bit slightly into his leather shield, but not much. Ethan angled the shield around a bit to give room to fully draw his large war sword. It cleared the scabbard and he rotated his wrist, keeping the blade above the shield as he cut towards the orc's chest.
The world slowed. The axe blade from the orc who had been in front of him -- but was now beside him -- impacted the back of Ethan's knee, hitting the gap between the armor plates and severing his leg.
Reacting to the warning from his 'dragon-sense', Ethan jerked his leg up as fast as he could, making the axe impact on the back of the greaves instead of his knee. With only a quarter-second warning, it was close.
Very close.
Wham!
The axe bit into his armor slightly, but didn't penetrate. The impact felt like a tank had rolled over his leg, but it still worked and wasn't broken. The impact and his fast leg adjustment made his sword attack on the longsword wielder go wide. His momentum carried him forward though, and he collapsed the shield to roll forward between the longsword wielder and the axe wielder who had attacked him.
He rolled into a standing position and leapt backwards to get some space.
Being a dragon, it was quite a jump.
Still, his chest ached from the earlier arrow hit and his leg was throbbing from the axe hit. They weren't damaged enough to impact his fighting skills though, so he didn't start healing them. He might need the mana for more serious wounds soon.
The six orcs fanned out in front of him.
It took him a moment to realize that they looked more interested in cutting off his escape rather than maneuvering for an attack. The primitive, draconic part of his brain recognized this from before when they had used goblins to rush at him.
Was that their plan now?
He chanced a glance behind him and didn't see anything, but the orcs had managed to surround and ambush him earlier and he had been completely oblivious to their presence, so he wasn't sure that meant anything. He could only think of one way to ensure he wasn't ambushed from the rear.
He leapt into a tree.
The lower branch was about fifteen feet off the ground. It was high but doable, especially with his strength enhancing armor. He sheathed his war sword and then realized that the distance had its downsides against orcs.
They were pulling out their warbows.
He reached down and snatched his dagger from his side, activated it into javelin mode, and threw it at one of the orcs who had a club. The orc had great reflexes and mostly managed to dodge it. Ethan had been aiming for his heart, but it pierced through his shoulder instead. It looked like it had punched through the joint too, which would've shattered the bones that it hadn't cut through.
Then he raised his shield as the other orcs loosed their arrows.
The impact on his shield from five orcish arrows coming from powerful 200+ pound warbows knocked him off balance and out of the tree. He rolled his shield and then twisted in mid-air to land on his feet, thanking his lucky stars that dragons were similar to cats that way and it was almost automatic, like a reflex.
The orcs started forward, and that's when Ethan remembered something.
He had grenades.
He reached into the grenade satchel and grabbed one with his right hand, leaving his sword in its scabbard. The orcs fanned out again and he realized that he wouldn't be able to get more than two, maybe three if he was lucky. Fortunately, two of them were standing together; an axe-and-shield orc next to a club orc.
He activated the grenade, waited three of the five seconds on the fuse to ensure that they didn't try to throw it back at him, then tossed it so it landed between the two of them. The orcs looked confused for a second, then...
BOOM!!!
Ethan had raised his shield just before the grenade had gone off to protect himself as a precaution, so he didn't actually see what happened.
He saw the aftermath though.
The grenade had-- well the two orcs were gone. Not vaporized, but there were bits of them all over the immediate area. The bits were large enough to be recognizable, and there was a red coating over the area that hadn't there had been seconds before.
The eyes of the remaining orcs widened to as large as saucers.
As much as Ethan would've liked to threaten them with another grenade, it was too risky if they tried to throw it back at him. His armor would protect most of him, but there were gaps between the plates and he didn't want to test the shield's strength. Instead, he drew his war sword and collapsed his shield so he could hold the blade in two hands. With only four opponents, one of whom had a disabled arm, he felt much more confident.
"Back off." He said as he moved his sword into a low guard, then raised a hand and summoned his javelin back to his hand, which elicited a cry of pain as it pulled itself out of the injured orc's shoulder. He cocked it back ready to throw, the threat obvious.
The orcs looked at each other and one said something in orcish.
Another replied with something that sounded decidedly disagreeable, but then a third orc spoke with an authoritative tone and gestured towards the camp. Slowly and without turning their backs, the remaining orcs collected their warbows started backing away from him.
Ethan didn't lower his sword.
With their long legs, it didn't take long for them to be far enough away that they were obscured by the trees. They retreated while facing him for a long ways before turning and double-timing it away from him, looking back regularly until they were out of sight.
