The ughter echoed off the walls again, low and hoarse, like the tunnel had swallowed someone and was digesting them slowly.

  Ha. Ha. Ha.

  Kai tightened his grip on the hilt of the rusted sword. The bde didn’t inspire confidence. It sounded like tired metal, like a mediocre edge.

  But it was metal between him and whatever was enjoying itself.

  Katherine pressed in behind him, so close her breath hit the back of his neck. Her ears were stiff.

  Her tail wouldn’t stop moving, nervous, brushing against his leg from time to time.

  “That’s not… a skeleton,” she murmured.

  “Thanks for the report,” Kai thought. He didn’t say it. Because he didn’t want his voice to crack.

  They stepped down two more stairs.

  The air grew warmer, heavier. It smelled different now. No longer just damp stone and rot. There was something else: rancid sweat… and flesh.

  The ughter stopped abruptly.

  Then, a massive silhouette shifted ahead, in a side corridor they hadn’t noticed before.

  Something rge blocked the blue light of the runes like they were candles.

  Kai raised his sword.

  “Come out,” he said. It wasn’t brave. It was automatic.

  The thing took a step.

  And the light reached it.

  An orc.

  Not the clean “green monster” type from video games. This was a walking wardrobe of scars. Thick, dirty green skin like wet bark.

  Huge arms with bulging veins. A wide jaw with crooked, yellowed tusks. Small, intelligent eyes with something ugly behind them.

  It carried a short axe… and a crude chestpte made of stolen ptes. Rope, nails, and what looked like a broken colr hung from its belt.

  The orc looked at both of them… and smiled.

  Not a happy smile.

  The smile of someone who had just found something useful.

  “Ahhh…” it drawled. “Look what wandered into my home.”

  Katherine shuddered. Kai noticed. And it irritated him, because he couldn’t afford to be irritated right now.

  The orc tilted its head, looking at her.

  “Pretty ears,” it said, as if choosing merchandise. “And you…” Its eyes dropped to Kai, to the old pants, to the rusted sword. “…look like the owner.”

  Kai felt something in the back of his neck. A reflection of his old life: the supervisor, the accusation, the judgment without proof. The world deciding for him again.

  “No,” he thought. “Not here.”

  The screen appeared in his vision at the exact moment the orc took another step, fully entering the corridor.

  [System][Mission: Defeat the Orc][Reward: +132 XP obtained][Current XP: 0/132]

  “Perfect,” Kai thought. “Like I needed you to tell me.”

  The orc tilted its head slightly.

  “What’s wrong?” it said with a slow smile. “You froze?”

  Katherine looked at Kai, confused. She had seen him go still for a fraction of a second.

  Kai stepped forward and gently pushed her back with his forearm, never taking his eyes off the orc.

  “Stay behind me,” he said. His voice came out low.

  Katherine obeyed.

  The orc spun the axe in its hand like a toy.

  “Rex,” it said. “I didn’t come to kill you quickly.” It gestured toward Katherine with its chin. “That one… has value. And you… you could serve as a key.”

  Kai felt a stab in his stomach. Not fear. Cold anger.

  “You talk a lot for someone who bleeds the same,” Kai said.

  The orc raised an eyebrow. Then smiled wider.

  “I like that,” it replied. “The ones who bite… st longer.”

  And it attacked.

  It didn’t run like an animal. It advanced with dirty technique, using its weight. The axe came down diagonally, aimed at Kai’s shoulder.

  Kai moved aside on instinct. The bde hit the wall and sparks flew.

  The sound pierced his ears.

  Kai countered with the sword, aiming for the arm.

  The bde struck the orc’s chestpte.

  Cng.

  The vibration shot up his arm.

  “Shit…”

  The orc didn’t even flinch. It twisted its body and smmed into him with its shoulder.

  Kai crashed into the wall. Stone scraped his back.

  Katherine gasped.

  “Kai!”

  “Stay up,” Kai thought. “Don’t break now.”

  The orc raised the axe again, enjoying it.

  “Your sword sounds like a toy,” it said. “Is that what you used to fight bones?”

  Kai gritted his teeth. His side still hurt, but less. Body Fortification was working. He could feel it in the way the pain didn’t shut him down.

  Kai raised the sword into guard, took a deep breath and said quietly, almost like he was ordering his own body:

  “Body Fortification.”

  There was no fshy spell. Nothing visible appeared. But he felt the adjustment: his torso firmer, air coming in easier, his mind less shaky.

  “Good,” he thought. “Now hold.”

  The orc attacked again, this time with a feint: it raised the axe, but switched into a short elbow strike.

  Kai saw it too te.

  The impact hit his chest.

  Stole the air from his lungs.

  But didn’t drop him.

  Kai stayed on his feet.

  For the first time, the orc frowned.

  “Oh,” it muttered. “You’re tough.”

  Kai took that microsecond and stabbed the sword—not deep—into the softer spot between the ptes near the hip.

  The bde went in slightly.

  The orc grunted, surprised. Its hand went to the handle of Kai’s weapon as if to rip it out.

  Kai let go of the sword in time and jumped back.

  The bde stayed lodged there, crooked, useless… but it had drawn dark blood.

  The orc looked at the blood on its hand. Then at Kai.

  It wasn’t smiling anymore.

  “Now,” it said, and its voice changed. Less mockery. More hunger.

  Katherine was behind him, clenching her fists like she wanted to do something and didn’t know what.

  Kai heard her breathing.

  “Kat,” he said without looking at her, “if it gets close to you… run. Don’t wait for me.”

  “What?” she whispered. “No!”

  “Run,” Kai repeated.

  The orc turned slightly toward Katherine, as if the word had given it an idea.

  Kai saw it.

  And he knew the orc was going to try to push past him to get to her.

  “Then no.”

  Kai moved first.