Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Expected Encounter

Sekrit awakes to the rhythmic crackling of the fire's dancing flame. She heft herself up from the sleeping bag. The moon light is blocked by the cliff, as they camp in a hole under the cliff, causing the surrounding to dim. She feels for the sword and scales, being careful not to wake up Clementine, who sleeps across from her, as she moves the blanket. Then, she pulls her robe on and slips quietly out of her sleeping bag. 

They are camped for the night. The sun has sunk, the moon is out. The stars are shining despite the falling snow. 

She heads for to the center of the campfire with only slight rustling of cloth. A figure is looming up dimly against the light of the flame, the man who always appear in her daily dream. 

"Cannot sleep?" She says as she approaches, seating herself beside him in her plump behind. She leaves very little space between them. His shadow moves, his turns towards her. He is not that good looking but she doesn't know why she is so attached to him. 

"You are not asleep?" His voice is soft and warm. Sekrit puts her palm on her mouth to keep heart from jumping clear out of her bounteous chest.

What to say to him? The words she has imagined speaking vanish in an instant. 

"Two days ago, you and Clementine were...sex..we were still awake.." 

"So you are peeping?"

She has finally managed to speak from her heart but Hiro strucks her down with his remark.

"That's...." She puffs out her cheeks, pursing her red lips. "Hiro, you are the worst."

They are surrounded by dozing girls in their sleeping bags and blankets. Sekrit lets out a  soft breath. In the end, she finds herself with only one choice of conversation topic. 

"So, we didn't see any orc today."

"We are very near." He replies, stirring the fire with a long stick. A piece of firewood splinters, sending up motes of flame. 

"Tonight, they come or tomorrow, we discover them. That's what Kurotsuchi forbade."

Sekrit could say nothing more. The temperature is so cold that her skin feels as it has been stabbed with icicle, the cold spreading out, and causing her to shiver.

She clutches her sword and scales to her ample chest. Coldness presses in from every direction.

The cold wind dance through the leaves and grass with a hushing sound. She feels herself stiffening. 

She looks to the right. The sound of the branches bobbing. She looks to the left. The breeze blowing across the slope. 

A sour smell of earth comes drifting. The fire jumping. The odor of burning wood. She quickly checks her weapons, making sure her armour is fastened.

When he sees that, his face is stiffened. "I'll wake up others."

He shovels every sleeping bag as fast as possible. In response, the sleeping bags start to move.

Kurotsuchi is the first to awaken, rising silently. She crawls out from her piles of blankets, shakes her stiff body, and quickly takes her 'kunai' (small dagger). 

"As expected, they come."

"Come on, wake up." 

The response comes from Ivanna. She gives Clementine something of a kick, to get her out of sleeping bag. With many "Ooh" and "Aah", Clementine yawns, rub eyes and get up.

"Look who is a big girl." Clementine grabs her dirk.

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When she see each of her companion is preparing for battle, Sylvia gets to her feet and draw her rapier.

"Mmf. What's happening?" The youngest member, the sleepy eyed Mirai sits up, still covered in her sleeping bag.

Then the battle begins. Two of the orcs hold axes, and some have clubs, and an orc holds stones; and most of the human are quietly counting the orcs’ number, waiting to counter their attack. Among the women, only Clementine’s fighting style truly suits raiding tactic, which limits their choice of attacking tactics. Providentially, Sekrit's versatility in some way makes up for their attacking deficiency. The two women charge to the enemies. Ivanna in spite of being defense oriented, has to position herself nearer to the assailing duo. Meanwhile, the assassin, Kurotsuchi who specialises in stealth is forced to switch position between Ivanna and the raiding duo. Mirai, due to her inferior close combat ability, is limited to supporting role hard on the heels of the rearguard Sylvia who is not only her safeguard, but cover the rear ground.

Hiro is just beside Mirai. His right hand holds a medium length sword awkwardly and a buckler is locked to his left wrist. He bawls, "Orcs... Three on the left...Three on the right... One in the front.... One at the furthest back!"

Sekrit lingers at the left but Clementine hearing that dashes towards their right side. As the orc in the middle remains stationary, Ivanna stays put with an orc from the left closes in. Contrary to others, this orc is muscular, covering the last of the distance in a single great leap. Its jaw streams filthy saliva while swinging down an axe onto backhanded pound of her buckle. Ivanna suffers shakiness  but quickly closes in within the hugging range of the nearly 2 meters orc. The orc repeatedly hammer down its axe but its power is halved as it fails to perform full swing, enabling her to continuously deflect them. 

The campsite, bathed in the glow of fire, already appears to be surrounded by orcs. Sekrit and Clementine are keeping the orcs at bay with their agility. 

Out of sudden, a stone flies towards Mirai which Hiro blocks it using her buckle but soon two more stones come flying. He somehow blocks one but another lands on his chest mail, causing him falls on his butt. 

"Hiro!" The girls yell worryingly. 

"You, the coward at the furthest. Lightning!"

After Sylvia chants that, a small thunder strikes the stone throwing orc from nowhere. It collapses but she is hindered by 5 minutes downtime before the next magic attack. 

Sekrit has inflicted countless wounds on the  two orcs but those attacks fail to cut through  the thick layer of fat covering the bodies. 

"I am fine. Kurotsuchi, go." Hiro stands on his two feet with Mirai's help while Kurotsuchi dashes to one of Sekrit's foes.

"I am taking up the raiding position. You handle at the back!" Kurotsuchi yells as she goes past Ivanna. 

"You beat. I am not your stepping stool!" Ivanna says that and stabs one the orcs' feets. 

"Aaaarg!" The muscular orc roars and pierces its neck. Blood comes out from that wound but the orc is still swinging his axe. Grasping that its halved swing didn't work, it squats and bear hug her. She barely escapes by rolling to its right side. and slashes it's neck. It roars painfully but it seems the attack was not deep enough.

She slips again to its front range but that orc already learned it's lesson, tries to capture her with its hands. This keeps repeating, and their duel becomes stalemate.

Kurotsuchi digs her both kunai (small dagger) into the back the orc that is chasing after Sekrit. This attack digs deeply touching it's bone. It roars painfully, it's hands scratch its back to reach the girl who is hanging on its back. It moves its body back and forth to drop her but she persistently hold on the kunai.

This enables Sekrit to concentrate on the remaining orc on the left of the campfire. She easily dances away from its onslaughts while raining slashes onto its upper body. 

Suddenly, rocks fly again towards Mirai which she struggles to evade. Hiro again rises, blocking them with his buckle and body. There are new wounds on his neck and arm. 

"Lightning!" Electricity that looks like a sword strikes again the stone throwing orc farthest behind. The second lightning strike seems to kill it for good.

Sekrit, Kurotsuchi, and Ivanna somehow engage in one on one combat, but Clementine has been lacerating three orcs using her superhuman speed but none of of the mutilated orcs become incapacitated, forcing the the fight to prolong. 

"There." Hiro gives cue to two free girls, eyeing to Clementine on their right. Mirai and Sylvia carefully stride towards the right part of the campfire.

The slim Kurotsuchi twists and turn in its large back to avoid the orc's grabbing hands. Discerning its effort is futile, it walks backward. At first, she waits for its next attack but afterwards the reversed walking becomes quicker and she realizes that its aim. Before being sandwiched between the large orc body and a pine tree, she releases the kunai that already dug deep into its neck. She barely rolls to the other side. Its large body crushes against the tree. Kurotsuchi stares at the crumbling tree and the orc roars as its opponent makes narrow escape.

Hiro peers the battleground, and his sight meets blood-curdling vigilance of an stationary orc in the middle. He realizes it is like him, observing the battlefield. Half an hour passed, only an orc has been killed by a lightning magic. The situation looks bleak.

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