The forest thinned as the rocky cliffs and jagged paths of Ironspire Hold came into view. The faint scent of metal and dust wafted through the air as Red's party approached a ridge overlooking the old mining area. It was quiet, eerily so. No birdsong. No rustling wind. Just the low hum of danger sitting heavy on the ground.
Red: This is the place,
Red said flatly, eyes scanning the terrain. The ruins of a once-active mining operation stretched across the hillside, collapsed wooden shafts, rusted ore carts, and a deep pit that yawned into darkness.
They had been walking since morning. Everyone looked a little tired, a little sore, and more than a little eager to rest.
Red motioned to a flat patch of grass near a line of trees.
Red: We'll set camp here. I want to investigate inside the mine alone first.
Selena blinked. "Alone? Are you sure?"
Red nodded. "I don't want anyone getting caught in a trap or ambush. I'll be back soon."
"But..." Hina began, worry flickering in her eyes.
"I'll be back," Red repeated, his voice calm but firm.
Red: Just stay here. Don't go anywhere.
With that, he turned and vanished into the shadowed entrance of the mine, his black coat blending into the dark.
As soon as he was gone, the silence cracked like glass.
Selena plopped down beside a log. "Haaaah… finally. He really thinks we're helpless, huh?"
"He's just worried," Hina murmured, sitting down gently and opening her satchel to check her potions.
Yuzu and Rika dropped their packs, stretching like lazy cats.
Yuzu: We've been walking foreverrrr~
"My legs feel like pudding," Rika groaned, rubbing her calves.
Lio, ever the optimist, tried to get a fire going.
Lio: Let's rest while we can. Who knows what's waiting around here."
The mood lightened quickly. Laughter returned. Jokes started flying, mostly at Lio's expense.
"Why did you bring three hairbrushes, Lio?" Yuzu asked, digging through his bag.
"I have sisters!" he shouted defensively.
"You are a sister," Rika teased.
Selena was grinning ear to ear, even if her eyes kept darting toward the mine's entrance, hoping to see Red emerge.
"You know," she said, poking at the fire with a stick, "I wouldn't mind being attacked right now."
Hina gasped. "Don't say that!"
Selena: I mean…Red would come running back, save me dramatically, and maybe, I don't know, cradle me in his arms."
"Ughhh," Lio muttered. "We're all gonna die."
But they didn't know it would happen so fast.
The first sound was a crunch, distant, heavy.
Then the shriek of birds flying from the trees.
Then a guttural snarl.
Selena stood up first, eyes wide.
Selena: What was that…?
Lio's hand flew to his sword.
Lio: That sounded big.
"Wait," Hina said, her voice trembling. "That's..."
The answer came as a tree to their right exploded, torn apart by a massive green-skinned brute. An orc, snarling and foaming, smashed through the forest edge with a rusted cleaver in hand. Behind it, more shadows followed. Dozens.
One. Two. Ten. Twenty. Thirty.
All armed.
All hungry for blood.
"GET READY!" Selena screamed.
The party scrambled. Lio barely had time to draw his sword before an orc swung a hammer the size of a small cart at him. He blocked, but the force sent him flying backward into a boulder. His body hit with a sickening crunch, and he fell, unmoving.
"LIO!!" Hina shrieked.
Yuzu chanted fast, lightning sparking in her palms. "Lightning-!"
An orc hurled a javelin straight through her shoulder before she could finish. She crumpled with a cry, magic fizzling out.
"YUZU!" Rika screamed, loosing three arrows in rapid succession, hitting an orc in the chest, arm, and neck.
Another orc grabbed her from behind and slammed her headfirst into the dirt. She gasped and went still, blood pooling beneath her.
Selena was already dancing between blades, her daggers moving in deadly arcs. She cut down one orc, then another, leaping into the air and stabbing down like a falling shadow. But they were too many.
A brute with a jagged axe swung from behind, Selena turned just in time to avoid a decapitation, but the blade carved deep across her chest. She screamed, staggered, and fell against a tree, clutching her bleeding torso.
Selena: I-I won't die here…" she hissed, her vision blurring.
Hina was the last one standing.
She had her healing staff gripped in shaking hands, trying to reach Lio, then Yuzu, but the orcs were surrounding her now. She turned to run
A sword pierced her stomach.
She stared, wide-eyed, at the blade, then at the grinning orc holding it.
The world tilted sideways as she fell.
The camp was in ruin. Blood soaked the grass. The fire had been trampled. The air stank of iron and rage.
Thirty orcs remained, some injured, all angry.
And then
The sound of footsteps.
Soft.
Slow.
Deliberate.
A black figure stepped out of the woods at the edge of the camp. Red.
He stood completely still as he looked around.
At Lio, unconscious and bleeding by the boulder.
At Rika and Yuzu, broken and battered on the ground.
At Hina, her lifeblood staining her white robe red.
At Selena, slumped against a tree, gasping and wheezing.
The orcs turned to him, some laughing, others growling, thinking another piece of prey had wandered into the slaughter.
But they didn't see Red.
They saw a man who had stopped breathing.
His shoulders tensed.
His hand reached slowly for the sword on his back.
His eyes, once calm and quiet, burned now. They burned with something none of the orcs had seen before.
Not fury.
Not revenge.
Something colder.
Sharper.
Lethal.
He took one step forward.
And the laughter stopped.
The air grew heavy.
The very ground seemed to hum beneath his boots.
Selena, barely conscious, cracked one eye open and whispered, "R…Red…"
Hina's vision was fading. But she saw him. Saw the shape of the man who had saved her once. Who had promised nothing and yet given everything.
Hina: Red… don't… die…"
Red didn't speak.
Didn't blink.
He looked at the orcs, thirty of them.
And he decided:
They were already dead.
To be continued…