IDWTBTHQ Chapter 107 - I have the high air

Flapping his wings to keep himself airborne, Blueskin studied with interest the knight rising up to confront him in the sky. That human looked like a classical hero out of a fantasy story due to his equipment, being clad in shiny scale-mail and wielding an oversized weapon —a glaive in this case. Heck, he even wore a cape and was flying! You couldn't really get more hero-y than that.

And that cape was actually one of the things that interested the oni the most. Judging by its conspicuously ethereal appearance, that piece of clothing was almost surely a magic item, and he would bet that it was what allowed the knight to fly... something which made him all the more eager to get his hands on it.

“Nice!”  Blueskin thought with a smirk. “It looks like this time I'm going to get loot in addition to Exp!”

He smiled with amusement at his own gamer joke. Getting roped by Tiny-Sneaky into this expedition was proving to be more worth it than he had expected. When the ogress had crawled back to the camp by herself, having lost all of her subordinates, a lesser leader would have immediately punished her without listening to her excuses, but not Blueskin! The oni was certainly smart enough to listen to her explanation first and after doing so he had decided to not only pardon her, but also lead his personal guard to find and defeat the human knights, who according to Tiny had an very strong aura and would make for perfect prey.

And in the case of the flying warrior, it seemed she had been absolutely right. Even from a distance, the oni could clearly feel the man's aura, which was incredibly strong, more powerful even than those of the Piraca Emperor and the Rantul Matriarch, while still being several leagues below the oni's own current aura. Blueskin couldn't have wished for a better prey: one strong enough to be a worthwhile meal while still weak enough to not pose a serious threat.

And while he kept thinking, the knight finally reached the Blueskin's altitude and stopped, floating about thirty meters away from him. The man easily held his gigantic glaive in one hand as if it was weightless, and stared grimly at his enemy with cold, focused eyes. If he hadn't been so confident about his superiority the oni would have actually felt a little intimidated by such an icy gaze, but he just couldn't imagine himself losing to someone with such an inferior aura.

So, he took this situation in stride and decided to have a bit of fun with the human before killing him. After all, acting the part of the “villain” had always been one of his fantasies.

“Greetings, brave warrior!” He said in what was sure was the human's language —the Gift of Languages sure came in handy in times like these. “So, I assume you have come to stop me?” He smirked. “If so, you are free to try, but...”

“Are you the oni they call the Blue Terror?” The human cut him off in a cold voice, seemingly ignoring what the oni was telling him.

Blueskin frowned in annoyance for a moment at that interruption, but then he made an evil smirk. The knight would soon regret acting so rudely, so there was no need to get worked up over it.

“I see you lack manners.” He commented while clicking his tongue. “Perhaps I should teach you some. I am indeed the one they call the Blue Terror, and I...”

He couldn't finish because the human cut him off once again. Only this time, both literally and metaphorically.

The knight swung his glaive and somehow a blade of pure wind immediately flew away from the tip of it, flying in the air at incommensurable speed and clipping Blueskin's left wing.

“What the...” The oni cried as he started falling.

After a brief moment of surprise, his anger surged like a volcano and he immediately started regenerating his wing.

“Alright, enough words!” He thought. “I'm going to devour that little piece of shi...”

He couldn't finish that thought, as he caught a glimpse of something moving above him. He looked up and saw the flying knight looming over him, swinging his glaive towards his head.

Blueskin tried to dodge and he somehow avoided having his head split in half like a melon, but the slash still cut him deeply at the base of the neck, almost severing his torso in two. Blood splattered in the air as the oni screamed in pain. This wound was the worst he had received in his whole life, and a few months before it would have been more than enough to put him out of commission.

But after the power boost he had received from eating the dragon, that was no longer the case.

Blueskin focused on his regenerative powers and tendrils of red flesh appeared inside of his wound, connecting his two halves and pulling them together before sealing the cut. It would take a few more seconds for the wound to disappear completely but right now it was healed enough to not hamper the oni’s movements, so he didn’t wait and quickly counterattacked by trying to grab the knight, who was hovering just two meters away from him. However, things didn't go as planned, because just as he was about to put his hands on the human he received an incredibly powerful kick to the face, whose strength was enough to send him flying away for a dozen meters. He grunted in pain, but used that brief moment of respite to finish healing his wound and regenerate a new wing, stopping his fall and starting to look around for the knight.

The man was nowhere to be seen.

The oni turned his head left and right in vain, but then, all of a sudden, pain surged from his back, as he felt both his wings being cut off.

He turned his head and saw that the human had somehow circled around him and was now about to cut his head off.

The oni tried to stop the blade with his right arm, but the glaive simply cut through it like a red hot knife through butter and sent the limb flying, though luckily it's trajectory was slightly altered and instead of severing the oni's head it just opened another bloody gash on his chest. He then tried to counter with his left arm, making it longer and growing talon-like nails before sweeping it at his enemy, but the knight effortlessly, flying away from its trajectory like a fly avoiding being swatted, while at the same time swinging his glaive and dealing another wound to the oni’s shoulder.

Blueskin kept falling for a few seconds, unable to focus on regenerating his wings while defending himself from the knight's attacks. He managed to dodge a few hits aimed at his head thanks to luck more than skill, and he also regenerated his arm to better defend himself, but apart from that he did jack shit. The knight was much faster and nimbler than he was in the air, and as much as he tried he couldn’t put a finger on him. Then, all of a sudden, the assault stopped for a brief moment... but before the oni could react in any way he felt an incredibly powerful impact on his back.

Somehow, he managed to realize that he had just crashed into the ground.

Pain flushed all over Blueskin's body as he felt his bones breaking and their shards piercing into his internal organs while all the air in his lungs was forcibly ejected from his mouth together with a spray of blood. The shock also affected his head, leaving him confused and stunned, and a bunch of small lights appeared in front of his eyes, dancing wildly as he laid there motionless.

Still, despite everything, he had survived. His regenerative powers immediately got to work to repair the damage to his body, and he could feel his wounds being quickly healed, though even with his powerful regenerative powers, it’d take a while to fix everything. His spine had been completely shattered by the impact and its shards lodged in his organs would be quite difficult to remove, though he estimated that it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to get back into top shape.

Sadly, he didn't know if he would last that long.

His vision was still quite blurry, but Blueskin saw something dropping from the sky at incredible speed and realized that it was the knight, diving in to deal the coup de grace to his downed enemy. Though he was still too damaged to get back on his feet, the oni still had to dodge and did so by rolling away to his left, barely managing to avoid being beheaded by the blade of the glaive which had dropped like a guillotine. He then kept rolling to put some distance between himself and the human, but the latter didn't let him. The knight swung his blade again, creating a blade of wind which severed one of the oni's legs to make sure he wouldn’t get up, and then started chasing him down, delivering a series of attacks with his blade against his opponent. There was no finesse in this tactic, but it sure as hell was working. The oni was too overwhelmed to even try to defend himself, let alone counterattack, and he felt numerous wounds opening on his body, to the point that not even his amazing regenerative powers were able to keep up.

As the onslaught continued, Blueskin started to panic. He felt as helpless as a piece of meat on a butcher’s table, and he realized that if he did nothing he would soon be killed. The problem was that he didn’t know what to do. He was too busy trying to dodge the human’s attack to even think about retaliating, and he didn’t even have the freedom to look around or try to flee. And finally, to make things even worse, he knew that he was too far from his soldiers for them to help him.

So, his only hope laid in Tiny-Sneaky. While he hadn't given the ogress any specific order besides that of accompanying the expedition, she usually stuck close to him, ready to help whenever her master was in a bind like she had done with the Rantul Matriarch. She wasn’t completely reliable though, as she had bailed on him during his fight against the dragon… but the oni had already made clear to her that if she had done so again he would eat her again, so he didn’t think she would fail him again like that. Or at least he hoped so, because if she didn’t help him right now, he would die.

“Tiny!” He cried desperately. “Help me! For the love of god help me!”

As he shouted those words he saw the knight's glaive flying towards his neck and this time he realized with horror that he wouldn't be able to dodge it.

About thirty meters away Tiny-Sneaky laid on her belly, perfectly concealed within the tall grass of the field. As it was her habit she had followed her boss from the ground, but to be honest it had been by pure chance that she happened to be this close to the spot the oni had fallen to. And to be even more honest, she would have rather been much further away.

Her life in the Caligare Forest had made her develop a certain ability to recognize an opponent she had no chance to defeat and that human knight made that sense tingle like crazy. The only beings that had given her a comparable feeling had been the dragon and Blueskin himself, but not even them had managed to look quite as lethal, because while they were certainly more powerful, almost akin to natural disasters, they lacked the cold, sharp and focused feel of the human. The warrior looked like he had seen countless battles and had survived them all, gathering experience and skill with each victory. The ogress doubted that her favourite tactic of ambushing her prey would work on an opponent like that, while at the same time she had no doubt whatsoever that if the knight found her she would be instantly killed.

This was the reason why she hadn't intervened in the fight so far despite clearly seeing that Blueskin was losing: she just didn't care about his boss' life enough to sacrifice her own for him.

Not anymore, at least.

The ogress grimaced. A year prior, things were different. She was still completely devoted to Blueskin back then, obeying his every order with zeal and trying her best to appease him. That was the reason why she had tried to take on a form he would like when she had evolved into an ogre —despite the fact that such a petite body was unfit for combat and would get her mocked and disrespected by the rest of her kin.

However, the oni’s attitude in the past few months had slowly but surely eroded that devotion, leaving nothing but bitter resentment behind.

Tiny knew perfectly that her boss saw everyone else around him as mere tools —useful ones in some cases but ultimately expendable— but she could have lived with it, if that was all there was to it. After all, she had thought, if she could be really useful to him then he would certainly treat her well regardless of how he viewed her. However, she had been proven wrong: despite having become the best scout of the orc army and having successfully carried out countless important missions, Blueskin only saw her as nothing more than a tool to satiate his lust. He didn’t care at all about her accomplishments, only about her looks, and he constantly belittled her and treated her with condescendence.

And after almost a year of such a treatment, Tiny just had realized that things weren’t going to change no matter what, and that her future at the oni’s side would just involve her being a breeding partner for him.

However, if the oni were to die right now, her future would look much more enticing. As one of the strongest ogres, she could easily take command of a good number of orcs, lead them back to the Caligare Forest and make her own tribe, where she would be the leader. Which was why, when Blueskin started asking for her help, all she could think was good riddance with an evil smile on her face.

A moment later, she stopped smiling when she realized that her body had started moving on its own.

“Uh?” She thought in confusion. “What is happening? What am I doing?”

She tried to stop but she found out she couldn’t. Her body wasn’t responding to her, as if an external force had taken control of it and was making it advance towards the fight in front of her.

She struggled to regain control, but it was in vain. With horror she realized that she had drawn her weapon and was now pointing it at the back of the human knight.

“No no no!” She silently cried in her head. “Stop! I’m going to get killed!”

But it was too late now. She leapt, raising her weapon high to stab the human in the shoulders.

And just as she had feared, the knight somehow managed to sense the impending danger and responded immediately, turning towards the ogress while instinctively swinging his glaive. The slash hit Tiny across the torso, almost bisecting her and sending her flying backwards for a good ten meters. The pain and shock were enough to make her lose consciousness even before she could touch the ground, but she still managed to form one last thought:

“What the fuck?”

Just as he was about to deliver the killing blow, the human knight turned away to defend himself from Tiny's sneak attack. That moment of distraction only lasted a fraction of a second, but it was the occasion that Blueskin had been waiting for and he didn’t let it go to waste.

He immediately launched a mighty blow against the knight, swinging his arm while enlarging it to twice its original size. That sweep hit the human squarely on his right side and sent him flying twenty meters away, where he landed loudly, tumbling on the grass.

Still, that wasn’t enough to put him out of commission.

The knight laid there motionless for only a couple of seconds before getting back up, immediately taking a guard position as he did so. However, his right arm dangled motionless, clearly broken or at least dislocated, and he could only hold his glaive in his left hand.

By contrast, the oni was now in much better shape. He had used those few seconds of pause to get up and fix his own body, repairing the damage he had received to his bones and regenerating his missing limbs. He had even managed to alter his form a bit, assuming a shape more fit for ground combat, increasing his muscle mass and the thickness of his scales while simultaneously atrophying the stumps of his wings back into his body. He had also elongated his arms and had grown vicious talon-like nails on his hands.

This was far from his ultimate ground combat form, but it was all he could do with such a short time at his disposal, and it was certainly better than his pure flying form. Besides, he was confident that it would be enough. After all, the only reason why the knight had pushed him so far was because he had taken him by surprise and was obviously more experienced than he was in aerial combat. But now that he was on the ground and he could make full use of his power, the human wouldn’t stand a chance!

“This is over.” He announced with a predatory smile on his face. “You might have managed to overwhelm me for a while by taking me by surprise, but you lost your chance to kill me! Now, it's my turn to...”

“Oh, shut up you dumb beast!” The knight cut him off once again. “I'm not here to talk with you.” He smiled back with his teeth stained with his own blood and pointed his glaive at the oni. “I'm here to kill you. And I can do that perfectly with just one hand!”

Blueskin blinked, surprised by the reaction of the human.

“You're bluffing.” He replied calmly, though he was starting to feel a bit nervous. “You are wounded while I have already regenerated all the damage you dealt to me! And the power of this form is much greater than the one I had before!  There is just now way for you to...”

And, once again, the knight didn't let him continue. He swung his glaive, launching another blade of wind towards the Blue Terror, but this time the oni simply shielded himself with his overgrown arms and the attack barely scratched his scales.

“See?” The oni gloated. “You can't do anything to me anymo...”

His words were interrupted by a flash of metal aimed at his head. The knight had leapt at incredible speed towards his enemy and was now thrusting his glaive towards his head.

Blueskin tilted his head to the right so that the blade only grazed his cheeks and retaliated with a thrust of his own, trying to drive his talons into the man's chest. But once again, the knight effortlessly dodged the oni's attack, jumping over his arm with a flip and swinging his glaive at the same time, opening another bloody gash on Blueskin's chest.

The Blue Terror roared in pain and tried to hit the human with a swing with his other arm, but the human just jumped over that attack as well and cut him again. Then, instead of landing back to the ground, the human flew behind the oni, delivering a series of slashes on the back of his enemy. Blueskin growled and turned to try and grab the human, but he simply flew higher, out of reach, and countered with a slash that almost cut off one of the oni's hands.

After that, the fight devolved into something akin to a cat chasing a fly. The knight kept himself out of reach, diving only to attack and quickly retreating back into the air immediately after, almost literally dancing around his opponent. Meanwhile Blueskin stood on the ground, avoiding hits to his head while ignoring and regenerating everything else, and tried to catch the man with a counter whenever he got close, though he never managed to lay a finger on him.

However, while none of the fighters had a clear advantage, the oni was slowly growing more and more frustrated. He just couldn’t understand how someone who was objectively weaker than him could not only manage to fight him to a standstill but doing so with a broken arm to boot!

“This is not fair!” He thought with anger. “This is cheating! I should be winning, not him!”

The fight went on for a while, and Blueskin’s fury slowly reached its boiling point. Then, as he was finally about to throw caution to the wind and just try an all out attack to finally shut down that annoying human, the latter stopped attacking and just flew higher, well out of reach, and turned to the north with a worried expression on his face.  The oni also turned that way to see what had caught his opponent’s attention, and immediately saw something moving on the horizon.

Looking better, he realized that it was a group of orcs, most likely some of the raiders that had been roaming the area, who had found the trail of the human civilians and had started chasing after them. If left alone, they would certainly reach their prey in a few minutes.

The human knight expression grew incredibly sour and frustrated as he seemed to realize this. By contrast, Blueskin started smiling, as he saw an opportunity to get out of his current predicament.

“Well, it seems we are at an impasse, human!” He said in a mockingly cheerful tone. “Neither of us can kill the other quickly, but if you do nothing then the civilians you were guarding will be slaughtered. However, if you go rescue them, you'll lose your chance to kill me!” His smile grew larger and more predatory. “And since I'm feeling generous, I'll give you time to think about what option you would rather pick. However, I have to say that in case you decide to keep fighting me, I'll do my best to drag this on as long as I can. This way, you...”

“Oh, shut up!” The human cut him off with an angry snarl. He then gave Blueskin a long, deadly cold stare. “If you have half a brain, you should take this occasion to crawl back to your hole in the forest as fast as you can, because next time we cross paths I'm going to kill you!”

Then, without wasting any more time or words, he flew towards the battle between the orcs and the knights happening not far from them. As soon as he got close, he took a horn from his belt and blew it three times, making three deep notes echo in the air.

The response of the knights was instantaneous. They immediately disengaged from their enemy, putting some distance before following their flying leader to the north, while the orcs were left alone on the field, too battered and confused to do anything.

Blueskin watched them ride away with immense relief. For a moment there he had thought he was a goner, but luckily the flying knight, for all his cheats and power, had proven himself to be a complete moron.

“I guess he was just another brainwashed sheeple!” He thought with derision. “I mean, what kind of idiot would pass up the opportunity to take out the enemy leader just to save a bunch of civilians!?!” He snickered. “Well, good for me! At least I know that I can exploit his weakness now!”

He started to walk away, wanting to be surrounded by his own soldiers in case the knight would come back to finish him off, when he noticed Tiny-Sneaky body, lying motionless on the ground.

“Is she dead?” He asked himself, and walked up to her and gave her a light kick to her side.

The ogress answered with a weak moan, confirming that she was indeed still alive. She was in a really bad shape though, as she had been almost bisected by the knight's glaive, and even with her own regenerative powers there was no telling if she would survive.

For a moment, Blueskin wondered if it was better to just put an end to her suffering and eat her right here and now, so that her aura would nourish his own and her death wouldn't go to waste, but after a moment he decided against it. After all there was a possibility that she could make it, and killing her here and now would mean the loss of the best scout in the army. Even more importantly, the oni would also lose the most physically attractive of his ogre partners, something he really would miss in the future.

Besides, he thought, she had almost died trying to save him, even if she had taken her sweet time to do so. Such gestures needed to be rewarded somehow, if he wanted to maintain the morale and loyalty of his subordinates!

So he just picked her up, throwing her unconscious body on his shoulder and started walking towards the other orcs.