Dreamweaver Chapter 9

 

 

 

Several of Yamamoto Sensei’s judo people had all formed teams and started rushing the make shift log ladders by the window. There was a big trampling of feet as a whole slew of people were getting ready to go over there.

“Go! Go! Go!” We heard them yell as about fifty students ran to the huge window sills that lined that whole wall. It was a really bad situation. That wall of windows was too big for even that many people to effectively cover. I could hear the panic and strain in their voices as they were hustling to hang onto every piece of ground that we had. And they were also running into each other and trying not to trip over each other.

We had to stay watching the pig-men at the barricade in front of us though so they didn’t take advantage of the openings created by the split defense. So we couldn’t take our eyes of the battle in front of us while we heard students screaming for help behind us.

“The logs are so heavy!”

“Hurry!”

“Oh shit! They are coming up!” someone screamed. The others are screaming in horror too.

“No! I want to see my mom again!”

“Pigfokkers must die!” This fellow sounded especially psychotic.

“I-I can’t budge it! Help me push the logs!” This voice was full of despair.

“Hurry!”

“We need more people! Each log needs like five people to push out the window hurry!” someone said, while straining so hard at pushing that their voice was affected.

There was a tumult of all kinds of shouting behind us as Akira and I hacked at three orcs that were trying to climb down the barricade towards us. The first spear hit went in one of their arm, so he couldn’t try to parry us or strike at us. Then as he squealed in pain I jumped as high as I could to chop deep into its smelly round shoulders.

“Wait a minute. These ones are bigger somehow,” Yumi complained, with her eyebrows in a furious look as she stared at them.

“Eh? Are you sure?” Akira said.

“I think she’s right.”

“Be careful!” Asakura behind us said.

“Hey you should take Rina and go to the roof,” I said to her.

She’s ignoring me. Why does she want to be out here? Does she think it’s her duty somehow?

“No! We’ll kill these just like their brethren,” Akira shouted back. He took another swipe but missed.

“No, they really are bigger! Look at their stomachs. These are half again as wide and a few inches taller,” she retorted as we missed a few swings and had to evade an orc attack. Normally the orcs had such a bad time trying to keep their balance on top of the mess of desk legs that trying to hit us would make them lose their balance and hurt themselves. But these were craftier than the others and somehow stronger still.

“Are these like…the lieutenants or something?” Yumi wondered aloud.

“Probably,” Kenji said dourly.

“They should have a leadership structure. So your thinking is good Yumi,” I said.

“What?” said Akira.

“Oh, she’s right,” I breathed out hard, missing an orc swing by a hair’s breadth. Then I swung back hacking its arm in the bicep while it squealed and bled all over the place. I also noticed orcs cry real tears when they are in pain. But unlike the movies and cartoons their bodies don’t evaporate or fade into nothing. They just stink like a bitch. The idea that a monster can cry is surprising but it doesn’t make them less murderous or violent.

The maimed orcs ended up being stepping stones for their brethren coming after them and now our team was really in a pinch because the barricade was full of orc bodies. Plus the orc bodies were softer and easier to walk on now by their comrades instead of the desk parts. They even finish off their own teammates who are terribly wounded rather than rescue them.

“Ah hell, too many bodies,” someone said.

“Shit. They are moving up the stairs faster,” I said. We renewed our fury and began to be more aggressive at the pigs. Sometimes we’d miss and there would be a clanging sound when my axe hit desk legs. Akira also had to pull back his spear quickly after each attack so the stronger orcs couldn’t try to rip it from his hands. They would also sometimes watch for when he’d strike and then I’d have to scare them and distract to setup an opening for him.

“If we don’t stop this soon, we’re going to be over run,” Yumi cried out in despair.

I tried to stop glancing back at Asakura Sensei and Rina huddled together. Both of them looked pretty vulnerable. Why didn’t they go up to the roof? Were they scared of being away from protection?

Again Akira speared one, this time in the thigh and I followed up using his opening to do a terrible maiming blow in whatever parts I could reach. Another orc was trampled to death by his brethren. Ironically they’d ended up finishing off the last three for us by crushing them to death, climbing over them.

Kenji and Yuta were using their home made pipe spears viciously. They were on the same line as us, but they didn’t have an effective spear point on their pipes so they ended up bludgeoning the orcs to death half the time. In a way it was much crueler and more painful because they had to get like ten to twenty hits all over before their orc targets collapsed.

“Yes!” We got a new spear!” they said in unison, as they captured a sturdy orc spear. The spears the orcs made were really good I had to admit, but not all their weapons were. I was also curious about the lack of real metal weapons, or processed ore.

Was that unique to the orcs, or to every culture or people in this world?

“Yeah, but which one of us gets to use it?” Yuta finally realized.

“So, we just kill another and then we’ll both have one?” Kenji answered.

Behind us, just then we heard a cheer go up.

“Woohoo! That’s three logs down, just fifteen more to go!”

“So slow... At this rate, they’ll be inside soon,” someone screamed.

“Hustle you guys! Our lives depend on it!” someone else screamed in fury.

Still, we kept attacking.

“I’m…so ….tired,” Yumi said hoarsely, and panting heavily.

“Sorry Yumi,” I said back. I was lucky she’d actually held on this many hours of fighting. I’d forgotten to check how long we’d been there, but I’m sure it was quite a while.

We were lucky the barricade also prevented the orcs from using spears effectively, because they’d end up getting tangled up in the mess. But it didn’t mean that some of them didn’t try. So they had to mostly use shorter daggers, hand axes, some long knives carved from obsidian, and something that looked like short swords made from similarly salvaged materials. Those shorter weapons they could still sometimes attack us if we got in reach or try to parry our blows. They’d also use the shorter reached weapons to try to buy time for the fellows in back of them to try to move up, so we had to take them out as soon as they got within reach.

“I think they are out of arrows,” one of the judo kids near us cheered happily like we’d just won the battle. He was next to Kenji and Yuta with his shield partner.

“Yippee!” his shield buddy screamed.

People started cheering in false hope. Because that’s what it turned out to be. “Woohoo!” They stopped and gave each other rather loud high fives, thinking they were safe. Then suddenly the orcs that had been hiding their bows littered both of them with black arrows. In ten seconds, both of them had five arrows, then six, then about eight each, while they gasped for air but couldn’t hold it in, since their lungs were punctured.

“Wow they can actually aim even though they are animals?” some girl said in surprise.

It also surprised me how fast the orc archers could react.

The two dead kids collapsed on top of each other and were still in the sleep of death’s embrace.

“Killed by being stupid,” Akira spit on the ground in disgust as he’d seen it.

“You’re not safe,” Kenji started to say, but it was too late.

“Ah, damn. We lost two more,” I grumbled, as I took another swing at some orcs.

“At least they won’t have to fight anymore,” Yuta said.

Yuta is a weird guy huh? Shouldn’t he pity the defenders more than the fallen?

“How is that good?” Kenji drawled, clearly annoyed.

“Yumi, don’t let me get shot please,” I pleaded.

“I won’t. Rina, would never forgive me,” she said back.

“Hey switch sides with us, it’s not fair that you guys get the safe side,” one of the judo kids said to us, from where they were now trying to avoid the big red blood puddles. They were near where the other two got killed and were bitter about it.

“There isn’t a safe side. Those guys got killed for being stupid,” Yumi shouted back. “If you want a good spot, you have to make your spot turn into a death field! Make them afraid of you, that’s the only ‘safe’ way!”

Wow, Yumi was scary when she’s mad…she was bristling with fury at the judo kid. He gave up on trying forcing his way to our spot, but his team members still are delusional in thinking they could muscle their way into our spot.

“Yeah, you want me to come over there and beat you to death? Then I’ll get your spot, bitch,” the judo team member said.

“Hey, lay off my shield maiden. Also just be more fierce and make them fear you. Fighting your own people will make them attack you more thinking that you are open,” I said dourly. Then I swung at an orc who was trying to hang back just out of reach of both me and Akira.

“It doesn’t matter where you fight from. There isn’t a safe spot,” Yuta said.

“We don’t have time to fight among ourselves. Just kill orcs, that’s the only protection there is!” Akira shouted with finality.

The two judo kids started fighting again, and were deflecting a few orc arrows, but they were still glaring at us sometimes.

“I don’t trust them,” I whispered, as Akira and I kept fighting.

“They don’t realize, we’re only killing more from teamwork and distraction duos with baiting and luring while the other sneaks a hit in. Use the spear to disable, and then finish with the axe,” Akira toned. Just as he said that we’d killed another orc, using the very same method. This one was tusked, but not all of them had tusks. Often their heads were shaved and they’d have Mohawk haircuts to try to look fierce. I also noticed the orcs would have tattoos all over their heads, and shoulders, and back.

“You think they believe they’re more powerful with the tattoos? It’s weird that the tattoo guys are harder. Why is that?” Yumi asked.

“They probably think so, but the only effect would be fear from their brutality, I think,” I responded. Even though I said that, there isn’t a logical explanation.

“Hurry, they’re putting the logs back in place!” someone said behind us. I heard the commotion behind us of orc ladders being put back up in the windows, breaking glass again, and the cries of despair as the students disappointment grew.

Ah that’s right those guys were trying to keep the pig orc ladders down. I’d been distracted by what was in front of me but somehow it’d worked out so far.

“Aw man, we just threw those ones down. How’d they get them back up?”

“Sounds like they are having a tough time behind us,” someone said.

“Yeah, just don’t count on them running out of arrows, like those other yahoos.”

This time there were four orcs trying to rush down the barricade towards us again from the stairwell area. We chopped one with a spear thrust from his left, and then I punched the axe through his shoulder while the pig screamed and collapsed. It was screaming in pain so hard it fainted and then we finished it off. But then they came down so fast that Yuta and Kenji were forced to defend the next two each while the judo kids finally managed to finish theirs off.

“Oh damn they are getting smarter and more aggressive,” someone yelled. They were trying to rush the barrier now, and I’d never seen this many get through at once. I didn’t think it had been possible, but somehow they’d made more space to get through.

“Just fight back harder,” one kid said thrusting his pipe into a fifth orc’s eye.

But then we were surprised when an orc rolled down the orc bodies to evade our blockade and then punched his sword through the neck of one of our school mates before he’d even stopped rolling at the bottom. Somehow his fat had cushioned himself from the sharpness of the debris of stacked tables and chairs, which normally should have made someone wounded or feel pretty awful.

“Oh, shit! That one was fast!” someone screamed.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about that,” we heard Asakura Sensei say in the back.

“What? There’s a fast type?!” another said.

“Is there a fast type? What the heck?” I heard Miss Asakura exclaim.

“How the fudge is there a fast type allowed?! That’s cheating!” another kid said.

The fast orc proceed to dispatch two more students quickly before we could even react. It was then I noticed he had gold rings in each ear, and studded wooden pegs in his lips as some kind of war ornaments, and some kind of salvaged metal plate covering part of his chest.

“Boss!” I yelled out to identify it.

“Hey, wait a second. This one is a leader of some kind,” Yuta finally noticed, as he tried to study it out.

“He is?!” Kenji wondered. He’d been about to try to run forward but now stopped, and was unsure what to do.

“A boss? What?” Yumi exclaimed in shock. Her hand was covering her mouth, she was so surprised.

“Yeah, he’s also like two feet taller than we are,” Akira complained realizing he was looking up and not level. “Damn!”

“Damn he’s big. How many more are like that?” Yumi exclaimed in shock. She was now behind the desk cover hunkered down with only her two eyes and the top of her head sticking up and out.

We continued to cut down two more orcs who tried to follow the leader down. They met quick ends by the spear and axe combo. But while we were doing that, two more judo kids died under the boss orc. The fast orc had viciously cut one in the stomach and ripped out the kid’s intestines. Then he used the very same intestines to strangle the second kid with a monstrously strong grip, while both of them gasped and were paralyzed in pain and its death grip. In just a few seconds they were twitching and having seizures from the shock.

“Th-that’s not right,” I tried to reason.

“Holy shit!” Kenji exclaimed, nearly dropping his weapon.

“The Judo club is going to be extinct at this rate,” Yuta said sadly.

“Forget the club, that thing is a killing machine,” he responded back.

“Nah, they are like cockroaches. Doesn’t every school have overly cocky assholes that want to do martial arts? No matter how many you smash there’s always still too many,” Kenji said, smashing another orc with a hammer right in the face. I had to admit, seeing it out of the corner of my eye…let’s just say a construction hammer is a terrible way to die. Kenji kept smashing the orc in the head over and over even though it was dead.

“I think its dead,” Yuriko said. “Now help us with the others.”

“Hey Akira, the gold in that guy’s ears is our first salvageable money in this world,” I realized suddenly.

“Holy crap! You’re right! Hey you guys! Whoever kills the boss is going to be rich!” someone yelled enthusiastically.

“Shit!”

“I want some!”

“Mine!”

“We’ll be rich!”

“Shiny, shiny gold! The precious is here!”

“Gold?! Fuck yeah!”

“Looks like we underestimated the greed for money,” Yumi said, with a smirk.

“Somehow it sounds like our school is full of delinquents,” I heard Miss Asakura in the back muttering.

A dog pile of students all rushed at the boss orc. There were like ten or twelve of our people that rushed him. They wanted that gold, and they wanted it fast. They kept trying to hack at it, gouge, throw bricks, and stab at it.

There were even so many kids attacking it that it was forced to parry and block the blows for awhile. Using its weapon, it swung up and then around, then kicked out with its heavy legs and muscled stubby feet viciously. Its defense was terribly strong. The force of its kick made small whirls in the air.

“What terrible defense!” Yumi whispered.

But Kenji and I with our people were stuck trying to keep other orcs from joining the boss orc by sliding down the barricade and couldn’t help yet. We were pressed hard by the sudden charge of so many orcs trying to get in that we almost lost control. Our kill counts were getting higher, but the danger level was way above what it had been before and we felt we were just acting out of desperation. We could only sneak glances over there, and hope we’d be able to get there soon.

For a long thirty seconds the kids kept trying to circle around it and stab at its eyes but it just roared at them louder in response. None of their attacks was getting through.

Then it finally swung its sword down so hard that a student’s hands were mangled when he tried to parry its swing, with bloody bones hanging out, but the hands hadn’t quite been severed and instead the skin and bones were mangled horrifically. The screaming didn’t stop for a full minute as the mangled student fell to the ground, until the orc kicked out smashing his head after it parried several other attacks. Then it grabbed him and swung him around like a club beating off the other students with his body by swinging him like a chain from his legs.

In less than a minute ten students were dead and another four maimed and retreating. Then he began jumping up and down stomping on the dead, making sure they were really dead and not faking it. He’d crushed the morale of the entire third floor in that series of attacks. Right now he was our biggest threat. It was also unhurt, and unchallenged with what it saw as a gold mine of breeding females cowering on the other side of the room.

“If we don’t stop that thing, there isn’t going to be anything left,” Akira said turning towards it.

It was right then, that I heard a terrible scream of fear. I recognized that voice only too well. It was Rina’s voice. The boss orc was running straight at her on the other side of the room. She and Asakura Sensei were cowering in fear there, while it was staring at them with its slavering jaws, having singled them both out as some of the best targets to steal and pillage.