The taste of another blade.

CRITICAL! -21 HP

The first swing bit down into John’s shoulder from above, shoving in past his skin so deeply that he could see the serrated, grey tip of the sword sticking out from the front of his torso into his line of sight. For a moment, a part of his mind felt like it had clicked off as the thought that something inside of his body felt wrong passed through his head, and then panic set in. The urge to scream bubbled up in his throat, his arms twitched as if he was going to raise them to try and pull the weapon out... and then Gamer's Mind kicked in. He blinked as his eyes locked onto the weapon before it was drawn back out of him, but there was no hole or slash on his body left for the tribe to see. There wasn't even a small gap in the skin. All that John and the Orcs found was a line of Crimson red that marked the area where he had been attacked, a line that failed to bleed, just like the line that the tribe had seen when he had teleported back to his kingdom after Otrov had stabbed him with one of her daggers.

The man who had cut John cried out before the Gamer had fully turned back around to him. Seeing John get wounded without even spilling a drop of blood seemed like more than enough to shock the Orc into seeing the truth. Everything that Mub had said was true. Everything that the Orcs had been gossiping about when it came to the human seemed true. It wasn't until John cast Infused Strike a couple of times that the rest of the tribe began to move away from him as well.

The power of John's magic manifested around his hands in a searing hiss. The normal glowing light that usually appeared beneath John's skin was nowhere to be found this time. Where once there would have been pulsing light illuminating the veins and bones in his hands as he used his powers, this time there was only smoke and fire. Glowing orange wisps of flames engulfed John's hands, licking higher and higher up harmlessly along his own skin while he simply reacted to the attack that had been made against him. John turned, shouting all the while, and without even thinking about it, punched the first Orc who had hit him in the center of his chest.

32 Damage!

"GET BACK!" His fist exploded against the Orc's torso with a bright, hot flash that illuminated the whole encampment. The posse that had been in the process of attacking him froze as they watched their ally take the hit... and then stared at him in shock as the Orc was launched off his feet like so many of John's enemies had done to him. The Orc flew away from John like something larger than him had thrown it until it had crashed and fell into one of the nearby tents. A loud groan echoed from inside of it almost immediately, signifying that the Orc was still alive and... likely conscious, but he did not bother to get up again. "GET THE FUCK BACK!"

The whole time John didn't stop shouting at the Orc pack. He said the same thing over and over with... varying degrees of intensity, until he had **** the weaponized group away from himself and then still kept saying it, like he was stuck on repeat. The thought that he was about to get stuck in another situation where he had to kill or be killed again dashed into his thoughts... and then stayed there until he at least started to see that some of them were dropping their weapons. His hostile attitude lessened only slightly when some of the Orcs tried to mimic what he did earlier by raising their hands defensively. They stopped trying to attack him and, at his orders, begun to back away.

"Enough of this..." The next time someone spoke something other than a threat, the words came from Dullong. He knelt down to the ground, his rumbling voice silenced all others for a moment so he could steal the tribe's attention... and then he picked up the very sword that John had been cut with. Not a single drop of blood covered the blade. The Orc stared at it briefly as John turned in his fighting stance so he was facing the other Alpha and watched as Dullong stood back up to his full height. Standing all the way up, Dullong was at least a foot taller than John was. He was still huge and intimidating, at least in John's eyes, but he didn't try to move closer to the Gamer. He carried the sword around John... until he reached the tent that John had punched the first Orc into and, without warning, thrust the blade inside with a horrible crunching and squelching sound. The man who had refused to get back up after John had punched him let out a single, horrible, squeaky attempt at a growl for a couple of seconds before he went silent. Dullong held the blade there, stabbed into the person who had failed him, and then twisted it sharply inside its original owner when the warrior stopped making any noise. "Coward," he spat at the Orc and then simply left the blade there, sticking up through the hide of the tent as it began to soak and thicken with blood.

A few of the other members of the tribe cried out as Dullong finished off the man that John had already taken out of the fight, and then the Orc turned to John again. He grimaced as the wailing of the warrior's loved ones reached his ears, but a sharp hiss from one of Dullong's pack members silenced them.

"You are a coward too, pink-skin," he spat at John again, like he was trying to return the insult that John had given him the last time they had met... but John didn't take it this time. He turned to look at the crying family members of the Orc that Dullong had just killed... and then at the twitching body lying in the tent and immediately thought of Grace. He thought of Michel, and the same brutality he had seen at the Blond giant's hands... and then he was charging at Dullong.

The rest of the Alpha's pack didn't get the chance to save their leader. As soon as John was moving, he began shoving the Orc to the outskirts of town, physically throwing the Orc backwards with explosion after explosion until they were at least clear of the encampment. John didn't even bother watching the pop-ups or his Mana as he attacked the other Alpha. He just kept hitting him. At most, John only barely registered the slightest of stings when Dullong tried to retaliate with his own attacks against the Gamer. Wherever the Alpha hit him, John was sure that he would develop a bruise there... but he didn't care. He just kept going until, finally, Mub was the one who caught up to him, being one of the faster and stronger members of the tribe, and pulled John back before the Gamer had hit him too many times.

Honestly, when Mub stopped him, John thought that he had not hit Dullong enough to see him beaten yet. He thought that as soon as he stopped, he would find himself at the end of another blade again, but... Mub had advised him properly with the branding so that John's slaves didn't get branded in his place, and that one instant turned out to be enough to at least make the Gamer listen. He froze on the edge of the city, his hands still burning, sizzling and watched as Dullong, with all of his height, struggled to get back up to his feet after throwing punches with the Gamer. He managed it, but only for a second before the Orc staggered and dropped back to his knees, growling and glaring at John.

"You-" He was silenced when John grabbed him again, and whatever defiant utterance the Orc had been about to make was drowned by the searing noise that John's hands made when he wrapped his fingers around Dullong's throat. He dragged the Orc out past the edge of town, uncaring about whatever 'branding' of his own he was leaving on the Orc's neck, and then threw him out into the ash and mud with all of the points that he had accumulated in strength over the past few week.

"You are no longer welcome here," John snapped and only barely heard the gasps of the members of the tribe that had followed them to that point.

"Y-you..." Dullong barely managed more than a whisper as he clutched at his throat. Thin lines of smoke trailed from the blackened hand print that had been left across Dullong's neck. "You can't-"

"This is my village, Dullong." He didn't care to let the Orc speak, though he doubted that Dullong would despise the fact that John had interrupted him. The Gamer felt like it would have hurt like hell to try and talk after being burned liked that. "This is my prize. I can decide to do whatever I want with it." There was a sharp snarl as John finished speaking, and without completely turning away from Dullong, John turned to look at Mub as his own pack member glared at him. He barely remembered giving the village over to Mub before he tried to turn back to the Alpha and stopped himself. His chest was still heaving as he realized that he needed to catch his breath after charging at Dullong like that. His packmate kept his glare on John as he walked up to the Orc, waiting and watching silently to see what the Gamer did until the fire on John's hands was finally snuffed out.

"I can do whatever I want with it... like give it to the first member of my pack," he said finally, and with his hands safe again, he patted his raider on the shoulder. A low hum of surprise passed through the crowd as Mub finally smiled at him again, and then the noise was followed up a hoarse, strained laugh. Dullong looked up from the spot where he was still kneeling on the ground and giggled weakly as he stared at Mub.

"So I can take it then?" Dullong chuckled, staring at Mub still.

"You're more than welcome to challenge me for it," Mub growled back at the still smoking form of an Alpha, but John shook his head. He stepped between the two of them to stop the fight before it had started again and glared down at Dullong.

"No, he can't challenge you. He's not proven." All heads turned to look at John at that... so he explained. "He's not welcome in the village, so he can't keep up with the tribe. He has to leave." The Orcs just stared at him until Dullong laughed again.

"Do you mean to keep me out?" Dullong shook his head, and with another chuckle, he began to try and stand again. "You beat no one." The Orc immediately collapsed back down to his knees. "You know how these challenges end, human, and you can't do it. You have no collar... and no guts." Both John and Mub merely blinked at Dullong. The Orc was challenging him to kill him.

"Didn't you tell me that you just killed someone the other day?" Mub glanced at John, and the Gamer nodded reluctantly at him.

"Yeah... but that was my friend. This guy is just an asshole. I would hope that this one is easier." Even as he made the joke, John could still feel his stomach turning. At the very least, winning the challenge meant that John would get all of Dullong's belongings. It seemed like the only good thing that John could find about the situation... and it surprised him to learn that he could even find one in his situation. It should have made him sick just to think that he could find a positive side to his situation... but it didn't. He turned back to Dullong with a grimace and watched as the Orc's eyes widened when his fist ignited again with an Infused Strike. "Very well..." he muttered and began his approach to victory.

He didn't even register the bruises on his body anymore. The hits that Dullong had dealt to him in their brief battle were numb from the adrenaline now. He stalked closer to Dullong until he managed to grab the Orc with his burning fist again, searing the mark of his hand across the Alpha's face, and reared his other arm back to finally give the camp some peace and quiet. Surprisingly though, the Orc cried out.

In front of the whole camp, Dullong begged for him to stop, stunning John enough to make him freeze. The Orc asked for mercy, with a fearful but angry nod of his head... and then admitted defeat. The world felt like it went silent as John's fiery hands were gradually extinguished once more and they all stared at the Orc as he pulled out of the Gamer's grasp... and fell to ground. He spread out across the dirt almost... almost like prey, John realized, like he was trying to give John a sign of submission, but something stopped John from being the predator. He wasn't sure what it was, it could have been thoughts about Michel or just some sense of morals that his mother had given him growing up, but he didn't kill the Orc. Even though he reminded him of Frank, the man who had bullied John for almost his entire life, Michel, the friend who had betrayed him, and the person who had shot Grace.

Instead, he did give him mercy... on one condition. He had to release everything he owned. Every ****, every pack member, every item. They would all get their own freedom if they wanted it or go to John, and it wasn't a request. Dullong survived by being **** to agree to his conditions, and then it was done. John walked away from the fight... unsure of whether or not he felt sad or glad on how the whole event played out. He didn't kill Dullong, or rather, he didn't kill another person at least.

"I guess he is a coward," Mub muttered as they walked away.

"Yeah..." John agreed under a soft breath and then glanced back over his shoulder at the beaten Orc as he tried again and again to **** himself back up to his feet. "I just can't tell if that makes him more dangerous or less, though."

"Urga told me that you wanted to talk to me?" John said finally when they made it back to his encampment. Mub glanced at him from the side as the Gamer addressed him, but the Orc's attention seemed to rest mostly with touching and feeling every brick and plank of wood that they passed. Every piece of it in the village was his, and now Mub was silently relishing the moment, as if that might hide his own enjoyment from his Alpha. He was happy for the Orc in a way, but at the same time, John felt more than a little saddened by how the deal had turned out in the end. He wasn't sure how much power he gave away by saying that it belonged to Mub now, but even still, he felt like he had been tricked into a bad deal. Eldham, the other village he had taken, had had nothing in it. It was actually barren. The deal he had made in the hopes of earning himself another village had left the Gamer with no more than a simple plot of land.

"I wanted to be sure to ride with you," Mub answered back as John finally looked past the two of them. He noticed immediately that there was still one thing happening that had been going on since he had started attacking Dullong. The tribe was still following him around. "You're still going for the Burning Pass, right?" Another hum of surprise passed through the crowd of Orcs around them, and John watched as the whole tribe seemed to shift closer to the two of them.

"What the fuck?" he said and stopped mid-step, aiming his hand out at the wave of people that began to rush towards them. "Back up!" he snapped, and Mub chuckled. With a light touch, his pack member pushed John's hand back down from the tribe before they started to feel threatened and nodded his head in the direction of the group.

"They want to hear it too and are keen to follow... like a pack," the Orc explained and watched as John turned to look at the group following after the two of them. It seemed like almost the entire tribe was trying to listen to their conversation.

"They all want to go to the Burning Pass?" he asked, and Mub nodded. His throat suddenly felt very dry. That was more people than he thought would want to follow him to the next place after what had happened in Eldham. He had lost a member of his pack, and yet they were still following him. "Why?" A small smile curled across Mub's lips.

"They want to go North. We're sick of hiding from Elves. There is nothing but rot and **** south of the Burning Pass. Glory is North," Mub said. John didn't know what to say to that. After a moment, the Orc nudged him towards the group of people and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well?"

"... Uh... Yeah. I still want to go to the Burning pass." At the very least, that meant that he could try to claim some more villages to make up for the one he had given away. The Tribe still stared at him expectantly. "Gather your things, I guess? We will be leaving soon." At that, the silence that had fallen over the tribe was immediately forgotten, and the general hum of business and arguing that usually filled the encampment quickly restarted. After a couple of minutes passed with John still standing there, watching the tribe disperse without any clothing on him still, Mub grunted at him to get them moving again and made the Gamer remember another problem that he wanted to try and address before they left town. Thankfully, Mub seemed like the perfect person to ask about that. "Hey, is there a way to bring all of the people who gave me a shitty tribute to my tent? I'd like to fix that. That **** you sent to my tent the other day was supposed to make a list for me so I could go confront them before I gave you the village but I never got it."

"Yes, you did," Mub grunted and patted another decaying stone wall. It crumbled slightly under his touch and the Orc frowned at the weak structure. "She took it to your tent." John blinked, and an unbidden burst of anger rose up in his chest.

"Which one?!" he snapped, his annoyance turning him to take a harsh tone for a moment, while the Orc turned to grin at him. Mub either didn't notice John's attitude or he just didn't care. "I apparently have more tents than I thought I did!"

"Eventful week?" Mub asked almost playfully.

"You have no idea." John answered, and the Orc chuckled. The Gamer took a moment to try and calm down before he began to try and tell Mub about some of the stuff that had been going on with him. "I literally woke only a few minutes ago to find a Gnome, or I think it was a Gnome at least, trying to play 'Flight of the Bumblebees' on my meat-flute." John smiled almost immediately after he finished his joke. He was already proud of it, it helped to cheer up his mood, and expected the Orc to laugh for a moment before he turned and found Mub staring at him with a confused look on his face. A couple silent seconds passed before John realized that the Orc probably wouldn't know a song from another world and nearly scolded himself for making the mistake. He opened his mouth to try and explain the joke to him before the Orc interrupted him.

"A... 'floot' is a human instrument, right?" he said, and John buried his face into his hands... and then eventually nodded. "Oh..." there was a long pause as the two of them stood there like that before Mub asked him another question. "How does one make a 'floot' out of meat? Would you not eat it?"

"No! No, Mub, a 'meat-flute' is like a term for your dick. I woke up with a Gnome playing with my dick!" John said finally and waved his hands around in broad, exaggerated motions as he tried to explain it. There was a long moment as Mub lifted his hands up like he was raising a flute to his lips for a moment, processed the explanation that John gave him, and then nodded as he finally understood.

"Ohhh...." The Orc grunted, and then a wicked smile curled across his lips. "Nice."