Chapter 256: A bloody battle

Only a few minutes went by before the last of the four orcs that suddenly decided to lash out onto each other instead of attacking the escaping humans, have fallen to the ground with a hilt of a dagger sticking out of its nape.

Once the victor of the four-man melee has been decided, Scarlet immediately sprung to action and threw his dagger with deadly precision, ending the visibly battered and bruised victor's life. 

Sarah, who has been using her innate ability constantly, making sure that all four combatants continued to battle to the bitter end, suddenly heaved a loud sigh and plopped down to the ground. She was heavily perspiring, she spent most of her energy and stamina in the process of making sure that none of the escaped slaves would be subjected to any danger.

Seeing the state this purple-haired girl was in, Scarlet rushed to her aid with a face full of worry.

"Are you okay? Do you need any help?" She asked visible concern in her voice. Although she still couldn't understand the nature of this girl's powers fully, she at the very least saw that it was an incredibly powerful one, although as it turns out, it was very tiring to keep it up. Still, it was quite an achievement to handle four fearsome, seasoned, and brutal warriors such as these orcs and come out of it completely unscathed. 

Unable to respond due to her spent state, Sarah could only raise her hands, stopping the girl in its track and signaling her that she was fine. 

"I… *huff* *huff* I am… *huff* fine! I just *huff* need to rest *huff* a bit. Check up on Naybeah, she could *huff* still be in danger!" Between the heavy huffing, Sarah forced the words out, worried about the tall blonde woman. Despite not knowing the situation at the back, she was fairly certain that she was also forced to defend against an ambush of at least of a similar size if not more.

Reminded of the fact that the amazon had to handle a group of a similar size in the back all by her lonesome, and without the aid of any sorcery, Scarlet jumped up and rushed back to the crowd without saying a word. Not that she needed to, the fear and worry that settled on her face upon hearing her words, told everything Sarah wanted to know. 

As the red-haired princess figure vanished amidst the heavily shaking crowd of civilians, Sarah took one more big breath of air and tried to stand up. Her attempt sadly met with failure, as even with the aid of her hands, she was unable to push her body up. She had no strength in her arms nor her legs. She could only look towards the back with worry visible on her perspiring face.

Only by the time she was more than halfway through did Scarlet realize that her borrowed weapon, the dagger she received from Sarah was still etched deeply in the now-dead orcs nape. Cursing her own stupidity for forgetting to take it back, she could only clench her hand into fists and hope that nothing bad had happened whilst she was at the front wasting time. 

Soon, the sound of battle, weapons colliding against each other, and huffed grunts reached her ears. This eased some of her worries and calmed her agitated heart by a great deal. Hoping that the proud female warrior wasn't on her last stand, Scarlet increased her speed even further as she zapped through the crowd dexterously.

A few moments later, as she arrived a pretty gruesome sight greeted her. Two of the four initial orcs were already dead, lying in the ground in their own pool of blood with mutilated bodies. The two still standing ones were bruised, with multiple deep cuts covering that dark brown colored skins, their thick, dark blood gushing out from them, rapidly draining their waning vitalities.

Their opponent, Naybeah, the blonde amazon wasn't in any better shape either. She was covered in multiple cuts, some of them looking pretty deep and serious. Her only garment, the piece of fur fabric that covered her generous-looking breasts were completely destroyed, causing her mammaries to sway unrestrained against the wind. 

Despite her state, her eyes were almost completely bloodshot, and she had the same crazed grin stretched wide on her face that she had when she jumped into battle a few minutes ago. She seemed to be just as energetic, if not even more than how she was at the start, completely ignoring the damage she had already received. 

Just as Scarlet was rushing towards one of the dead orcs to take his weapon and assist the woman, Naybeah released a fierce bellowing battle cry and jumped forward once more swinging her bloodied battle axe vertically against the orc towards her left. 

The orc raised his weapon in an attempt to block to incoming strike, whilst his friend swung his own weapon vertically aiming at the woman's navel. 

Seeing she had no time to waste, Scarlet, leaving the way too heavy weapon on the ground, rushed forward, charging at the swinging orc, focusing on kicking him down to the ground, or at the very least kicking him far enough from Naybeah.

Meanwhile, Naybeah's powerful, battle-crazed strike clashed with a loud explosive sound against the opponent's crude two-hander. However, the weapon only provided just a momentary relief. Just as her attack was thwarted by her opponent, leaving his chest completely undefended, Naybeah raised her right leg and gave a powerful kick at his chest, whilst also launching herself forward.

The kick, added with the blonde amazon's bodyweight proved too much for the orc warrior to withstand, especially in his already spent and weary state. He was launched off his feet and flew almost half a meter back before crashing down on the ground, followed by the amazon closely behind.

Her action of jumping forward caused the orc on the left to just barely miss his intended target and merely hit the woman's side with the handle, which caused no visible pain to the crazed warrioress. At the same time, Scarlet arrived behind him, hitting him with a powerful kick at the back of his right knee. The sudden surprise attack seemed to have caught the orc off guard, his right leg immediately buckled under the pressure, causing the orc to fall on the ground on his knees.

Before the orc had any chance to react, Scarlet's right leg was already flying towards the orc's temple. 

However, her opponent wasn't a rookie, this wasn't his first life or death experience. Although he was caught completely off guard just a moment ago, the orc wasn't going to let this new opponent get a second hit in that easily. With a rapid swing of his body, he leaned forward, almost kissing the ground with the momentum he carried, evading the incoming attack by just a hair's breadth.

The missed attack didn't phase Scarlet too much, knowing that the enemy was now aware of her presence, she jumped a step back, looking at her opponent in a battle-ready freestyle boxing stance. After all, unlike the others she wasn't professionally trained, everything she learned, was through her own gruesome experience. 

Still, with only this knowledge and her will to survive and be reunited with the only one that mattered in her family, she managed to overcome every hurdle, beat every opponent, survive every ordeal she was subjected to. She wasn't someone who should be looked down upon.

While she was busy 'handling' her opponent, Naybeah was almost done with hers. After the orc crashed against the ground with a loud thud, she has fallen on top of him. With a wide grin on her face, she decisively struck down with her weapon, not giving the opponent any chance to recover from his momentary dizzy state, crushing his head into many pieces.

The exploding head gave yet another gruesome cover of blood and brain matter almost serving as a protecting layer of thick sticky, liquid substance.

With the third enemy now being dealt with, Naybeah, without showing any signs of fatigue, jumped back up and turned towards the fourth, and the only orc still alive. 

As she turned around, she released another powerful battle cry, and whilst raising her weapon above her head, she charged towards the only standing opponent who was currently busy handling the red-haired tigress' rapid blows.

Hearing the bellowing cry of the enemy, the orc responded with its own one. As he roared at the sky, his muscles visually bulged, and contorted, revealing the wide protruding veins over his dark brown skin. The white in his eyes turned into dark red. 

Suddenly, his body began to radiate with a faint, colorless glow. The nearby Scarlet could feel a strange, choking, heavy aura, oozing out from him. 

Puzzled by this sudden change, she jumped back several steps, increasing the distance between them, and while returning to her previous opening battle-stance, she watched as the orc transformed into something else.

"This…" She looked at her opponent with a somber expression. This battle was far from being decided as it turned out...

***

Please read the author's note just below! Thank you!