(Morcster Chef Book 2) - Chapter 57 (Patreon)

The walls of the house shuddered again. Cracks spiderwebbed through them and dust rained down from the ceiling. Arek coughed as some of it got into his lungs. He waved his hand in the air to try to clear it.

Luckily, Vint had gotten the same treatment. A wyrm burst through the wall, but Arek killed the creature before it could even snap at him. The house rumbled again. The dust had started to fall in such thick sheets that it was nearly a smokescreen.

The green light enveloping Arek flickered, dimming slightly. He blinked as he felt the strange rage that had been controlling him for the past few minutes fade away as his normal battle rage return.

“It’s based on sight,” Arek realized. “Vint, stay in the dust! We don’t have to fight as long as we can’t see each other!”

“I’ve gathered. Don’t get me wrong. We will be fighting. I have no plans of giving up an increase in power, but now isn’t the time. I’m heading eastward. Don’t follow me.”

There was another crash as something destroyed the wall on the other side of the room. The house let out a groan. Arek turned and sprinted the other way, putting yet another hole in the poor wall as he slammed through it and into the horde of wyrms.

Behind him, the house finally lost its struggle. It collapsed to the ground in a cloud of dust and smoke, burying several of the overly eager wyrms that had tried to get inside.

Arek leapt off the back of one of the silver scaled monsters, stabbing it in the back of the neck as he used it to jump onto another roof and pull himself up. He dashed along the rooftops towards the large glowing dome at the center of the city, the screams and roars of the horde hot at his tail.

As he grew closer to the rest of the resistance, the horde seemed to thin out. Monsters were still everywhere, but there were more corpses than there were living enemies. Among the dead creatures, Arek spotted several guards. He tried not to look too closely as he ran.

Of course, he doubted victory would be this easy. The monsters had gotten bogged down in the outskirts of the city and were busy fighting both the guards and each other, but they’d eventually press forward as they ran out of things to attack.

A shadow in the corner of his eye was the only warning Arek got as a wyvern swooped down above him. It’s claws raked against his armor, tearing through it and leaving several weeping wounds on the orc’s back.

The force of the blow threw Arek forward, tossing him off the building. He lost his grip on the guandao and hit the ground in a roll, rising back up to his feet and spinning with a snarl on his face. The wyvern let out a victorious screech from the air above him and circled around to make another dive.

Arek’s weapon leapt back into his hand as the monster dropped towards him. Its eyes widened and it extended its wings, trying to pull away, but it was moving too fast. Arek’s muscles bunched as he reared back and hurled the guandao through the air like a javelin.

It punched through the wyvern’s shoulder and buried itself deep into the creature’s chest. Arek dodged to the side as it slammed into the ground, its piteous cry ending abruptly on impact. The guandao ripped itself free of the creature’s chest and flew back into Arek’s hands.

He grimaced at the hot lines of pain in his back, then broke back into a jog. Waiting around alone was a good way to get swarmed by the wyrms. A man screamed from somewhere to Arek’s right. The orc paused, then turned and ran towards the sound, raising his weapon.

A large semicircle of wyrms several monsters thick had formed around several guards that had been backed against a dead end. Three of them stood defensively over a fourth, who had been propped up against the wall. The guard sat in a pool of blood, their arms hanging limply at their side.

Several of the creatures lied dead at their feet, and more had been piled up in an alley beside them. The guards had clearly been doing well until they got surrounded.

One of the wyrms snaked forward, snapping at the nearest guard. He slammed his sword into the creature’s head, forcing it back but failing to break its armor.

Arek’s guandao rectified the situation as it sprouted from the creature’s head. The wyrm collapsed to the ground as the weapon flew back to the orc, who let out a loud roar and charged towards the monsters.

Several of them turned towards him, but the rest were too focused on what looked to be an easy meal before them. It didn’t make any real difference, but it certainly made everything a little easier for Arek.

He adjusted his grip on the guandao, holding it by the lower part of the hilt with both of his hands and swinging it in wide arcs like was cutting weeds. The crackling blade tore through the wyrms like nothing was there.

Arek spun the weapon in a deadly dance of blood and magic as he carved through the monsters. His armor crackled and sparked as a few of the wyrms managed to land strikes on him, but he was like an unstoppable wall of fury and death.

The blood pumped in Arek’s ears with every strike, like a war march that only he could hear. Within minutes, the ring of monsters laid dead at his feet.

“Come on,” Arek growled, ignoring their shocked expressions. “They’re coming. We can’t stand around. Can your friend move?”

One of the guards knelt beside their wounded comrade. The man shook his head weakly.

“Lost too much blood,” he wheezed. “Just go.”

Arek’s consciousness pressed against the battle rage, forcing it down. The red light in his eyes faded slightly.

“We won’t be having that,” Arek said, his voice less gruff than it had been a moment ago. He strode forward and lifted the wounded man over his shoulder. “We don’t have bodies to spare. Let’s get moving.”