Pieces of Sonder

Once they collected the dropped coins, Infamous Biscuit pried off one of the enchanted lights from the wall. It flickered a bit as its mana stone rattled around the bigger glass structure with runic writing on it.

“Here, this is much brighter than our enchanted light stones,” he said, holding it up.

“Just be careful not to chip any of the runes, or it’s not going to work anymore,” Freya warned.

Heilong picked up her last arrow from the ground, “I wonder what the orcs were doing here. It seemed like they were ready for a fight, but they weren’t expecting us to actually open the door.”

She looked away nonchalantly from Infamous Biscuits accusatory glare.

“Maybe Freya’s high perception helped spot the door,” Heilong continued. “Still, it seemed like they were getting ready for an attack. We should be prepared to get attacked from behind at some point.”

“Well, at least we know how to handle them now,” Infamous Biscuit said.

…

The dark corridor wasn’t so dark with the newly acquired enchanted light. Freya could actually see a good 10 meters in front of them. She kept alert for other doors. Infamous Biscuit and Heilong took turns watching their backs. 

“How are long tunnels like this practical?” Infamous Biscuit complained. “Do orcs enjoy walking a lot? How-”

“Shhh!”

Freya put up her hand for silence. K13 had paused and had his hand cupped to his ear.

“Something is approaching,” K13 whispered.

Listening closely, Freya strained to hear anything. Infamous Biscuit and Heilong seemed similarly confused.

Then, clunk, clunk.

Heavy footsteps. And a lot of them.

“Turn off the light!” Freya furiously whispered.

“How?” Infamous Biscuit whispered back, fumbling with the light.

“Just take out the mana stone.”

After some frantic fumbling, the corridor went pitch black.

Clunk, Clunk, Clunk,

“At least we have the element of surprise,” Freya whispered to them.

“Nice,” Heilong said. Freya could almost hear the smirk in her voice.

Light appeared ahead. There must have been a turn up ahead since it suddenly got bright. Still, it was not enough for them to be seen yet.

Waiting until the light got closer, Freya strained her eyes, trying to see the approaching orcs. The shadowy shapes merged and separated continuously as they walked.

“Six,” Heilong whispered.

“K13 get ready,” Infamous Biscuit murmured.

After some rustling movements, K13 whispered, “I’ll use my Hunter’s Horn.”

Freya shied away from the light as it began to touch them. Beside her, she heard Heilong notch an arrow. As they came closer into view Freya read the text box above the largest orc:

[High Orc Commander]

[Lvl 15] [600/600]

Infamous Biscuit tapped K13’s shoulder, the berserker blew the Hunter’s Horn, drawing all but one far orc’s attention.

“Heilong use your mark on the big guy,” Infamous Biscuit instructed. “Don’t worry about the one that didn’t aggro. The tunnel’s so narrow-”

The un-aggroed orc turned and ran. 

“Ugh,” Heilong groaned as she shot her Mark into the orc commander. “It’s probably going to bring backup.”

“Then let’s take care of these quickly,” Freya said. She pounded her fists together and coursed her qi through her body.

She landed her Shockwave on the orc commander. Unlike the other orcs, it didn’t stumble as much, but it was still affected by it. Punching and kicking right after her Shockwave and Heilong’s Mark moved its HP bar down past 50%. But soon, the effects of the skills wore off.

Heilong launched a qi arrow, hitting the commander in the neck. Freya tried her Sweeping Kick, but the orc didn’t budge. Grinding down the orc’s health, she only briefly paused to let K13 get some hits in to keep its aggro. During this time, she used her Implosion skill on another orc to keep it out of commission.

Punch! Punch!

Freya vaguely felt some pain shooting up her arms, but the orc commander’s health was almost gone.

Jab! PUNCH!

Poof!

Out of breath, Freya watched the orc commander disintegrate. Then she ran to help K13, who was surrounded by the other orcs. Her legs felt heavy, but she pushed on. She checked her Shockwave skill cooldown timer but also noticed something else.

[Freya Evenkey]

[Lvl 15 Martial Artist]

[280/350 HP] [130/130]

Putting the dots together, Freya looked down at her hands. They were a bloody mess. Punching metal armor had ripped her knuckles apart. She suddenly felt a little sick looking at them.

“Self-Healing,” she said aloud.

They healed a little bit, but she decided not to examine them too closely.  She channeled her Shockwave skill through her right leg and kicked the orc with the most health. Infamous Biscuit and Heilong had taken out one orc and were about to kill another. 

For the rest of the fight, Freya tried to use more kicks than punches. However, it was too tempting not to land some punches after K13 broke off a part of an orc’s chest armor.

Finally, the last orc turned to smoke. 

“Great work!” Infamous Biscuit said. He picked up the orc’s enchanted light device one of them dropped earlier. 

Freya turned away from the light slightly and quietly used her Self-Heal again. Her hands were still a mess. Despite a nearly full health bar, her knuckles were still scabbed and swollen.

“Oh, nice!” Heilong exclaimed. “That commander dropped a vitality potion.”

[Medium Vitality Potion]

[Item Class: Rare]

[Once consumed drinker’s vitality will increase by 25% for one hour]

“Vitality determines your health points, right?” Freya asked, still shielding her hands away from view.

“Yep, your total HP and how easily you can lose points,” Infamous Biscuit answered. He stared at her suspiciously.

After a silent staredown, Freya finally sheepishly revealed her hands, “Can you give me a heal?”

“Jeez,” he said, examining her hands before he healed her. “How could you even fight with them so bad?”

Freya shrugged, “I don’t know, it doesn’t really hurt that much. Fighting just takes over my mind, I guess.”

Infamous Biscuit sighed.

“Maybe you should have chosen the berserker class,” Heilong said, looking over Freya’s shoulder.

Freya shook her head and smiled, “No, I like punching.”

Heilong laughed. Freya thought she even saw K13 chuckle. 

CRASH!

They all looked ahead. 

Nothing appeared, but then a slow dust cloud drifted towards them.