Moonlight Blue

Devil child. Every orc knew about the infamy of the Devil child. It was their nightmare and the stories told about it sent shivers to each orc that listened. It was said that the Devil child once decimated an orc village housing thirty orcs and five High orcs. But that’s not where the stories ended. It is said the Devil child kept on annihilating orc strongholds, housing hundreds of orcs.

Olock was one of orcs who didn’t believe in the legend. He was a very powerful High orc and the leader of his village. He was well respected amongst his fellow orcs and feared by his enemies. However, even with his strength he never stood a chance against the Devil child.

Yes, it turned out the legend about the Devil child was true. Even to this day, Olock remembers the soulless sapphire eyes that glowed even with the sun at its peak. Despite his small stature, every step he took exuded a pressure of a giant of legends. He wore clothes made from animal skin and held one thin sword. A sword that would undoubtingly break if it made contact with an orc’s tough skin.

However, that wasn’t the case. The sword sliced and slashed at the few orcs in front like it was cutting through butter. Olock wasn’t so lucky too. As a respected warrior, he didn’t sit from the back in the hopes of his followers to protect him. No, he fought in the frontlines. He received a deadly blow diagonally across his chest leaving him down for the count.

As his vision blurred from loss of blood, he could still see the devil child slaughtering any orc in his sight. The woman, the children and even the old. Even his family fell from his onslaught.

He came too after an hour, hearing the Devil child’s voice.

“Damn it. Why do I keep on forgetting that I’m alone. Extracting over hundreds of orc’s cores and materials is pain. If only I had learned magic instead of focusing so much time on mana training.”

Olock could hear as his knife decimated his fallen comrades. Even after killing them, you are also scavenging on their lifeless bodies. That’s unforgivable. But Olock couldn’t do anything. He had no strength left in him. Even if he had the strength, he wouldn’t be able to defeat the Devil child.

A small growl escaped the Devil child’s stomach.

“Killing orcs hungers a person, huh. I guess I’ll go hunt something to eat and come back.”

The Devil child disappeared without even making a sound. Sensing that the Devil child was gone, Olock mustered all his strength to stand up, which he finally did. That’s when he saw the true horror. The village that once brimmed with life looked like a wasteland. The houses were flattened, and bodies lay everywhere. It was unbelievable that one person had done this. He walked as he held his acing wound to his house.

There, he saw his wives’ bodies and his kids. Tears welled up in his eyes as he pushed his body to live the village. A few kilometres away sitting on a tree, the Devil child looked at the orc leaving the village he had decimated.

“One survived huh. It seems I might be getting sloppy. Should I kill him?”

He asked himself before chewing on a thigh of a boar he had hunted. He decided to turn his back away from the orc.

“I guess it’s his own luck. Besides, surviving in that current state will be difficult.”

But Olock did survive. With anger fuelling him, he trained himself for years wanting to reach the level of the Devil child. And after so many years, he believed he had reached his level. Now it was payback time.

***

Noah disappears from where he is standing, appearing behind Olock. He shoots two arrows at the same time. A red aura envelopes the High orc berserker, rendering the fast moving arrows ineffective. A smirk spreads on Olock’s face as he charges at Noah, his speed explosive, appearing in front of Noah within seconds.

Unfaced by the High orc berserker’s speed, Noah appears on the branch of a tree, bow drew. The arrow is released, contacting Olock’s face. The attack is ineffective.

“Human. Like. Bug.”

Noah observes the red aura enveloping the High orc berserker.

The monster’s use of bloodlust like mana is incredible. But just like mana, when you cover your entire body with it, there are certain parts that are weaker due to ones focus on defending a specific area. So that means…

With that thought in his mind, Noah disappears from the branch appearing under the towering giant, bow drawn. An arrow hits Olock directly under his chin, leaving a bruise.

Stunned by the attack, Olock is seconds late with his counterattack, leaving a giant crater on the ground. Appearing behind him, Noah shoots another arrow at the back of his head. Olock reacts by swinging his giant fist meeting only the air.

Noah shoots another arrow from another tree branch, hitting Olock straight at his cheek. Before he could look at Noah, readying a follow up attack, Noah had disappeared leaving only the falling leaves.

Frustration is apparent on Olock’s face. For some reason, he can’t keep up with this human. Every time he made a move, his foe was one step ahead. It was like he was seeing his moves before doing them.

Like a blur, Noah appears and disappears all around Olock, shooting arrow after arrow. The arrows are connecting at all sides, rendering Olock unable to maintain his bloodlust defence to its full power all over his body.

The only thing he could do is crouch and cover his head with his hands and maintain his bloodlust shield for as long as he could.

When it comes to the village guards, Noah is second only to Marco when it comes to speed. Marco is considered the fastest thanks to his lightning magic which boosts his speed to another level. Noah only incorporates mana techniques to boost his speed which means if it wasn’t for Marco’s magic, he would be the fastest.

Frustrated by the trees acting against him, Olock takes a huge breath, before roaring sending a shockwave that is strong enough to decimate the nearby trees. However, his plan worked all too well as Noah fell hard on the ground, his ears bloodied.

Even Olock is confused. Noah screams loud from the excruciating pain, his hands covering his ears.

Noah has an innate ability he named super senses. All his five senses are heightened to their extreme, allowing him to hear sounds kilometres away or lets him see even the tiniest movement of an enemy’s muscles. It was difficult to control his senses even at a young age which forced him to wear headphones like instruments and sunglasses.

At a certain age, he was able to control his ability, making him an excellent hunter which helped him feed his village. Even when his village faced a monster wave, decimating everything, each and every person wasn’t hurt thanks to him already sensed their approach. Luckily, they were taken in by Lockwood village and Noah like all the guards was personally trained by Allen.

It is also thanks to this ability that he was able to find Kiarra.

Noah stands up from the ground, his face showered with beads of sweat. Even his vision is blurry. Olock is impressed by his opponent will power since he could tell that he was suffering from excruciating pain. Noah’s ears are oozing with blood like a fountain.

Noah draws his bow and aims at Olock who just grins.

“Your. Attacks. No. Damage.”

Noah couldn’t hear him. The only thing he could hear is the throbbing sound, beating in his ears like war drums. He calms his racing heart and focusses on his next attack. Mana condenses on the arrowless bow spiralling to form a bow. The arrow is unstable at first, flickering like lights but after a few seconds it stabilizes. Olock looks at the last effort of his foe and acknowledges his attack. He is going to take the attack head on and not dodge. A way to acknowledge his opponent’s final attack.

Noah’s mouth opens, muttering the name of the attack.

“Divine archery, level one. Thunder piecing arrow.”

Like a streak of lighting, the mana arrow hit Olock on his gut sending him flying at a row of trees, crushing in each one. Even if Olock wanted to dodge that attack, it would have been impossible as the only time he realised that the arrow was fired was when he felt an intense pain at his gut.

Luckily he focused his bloodlust at his gut, protecting himself from that lethal attack. Olock stands up from the ground, blood escaping his mouth like a waterfall. His stomach wounded, blood dripping from it.

As he looks at his foe, he sees him frozen in place. His arm still extended forward holding the bow and his other arm drawn back. Veins are bulging all over his body even his face as the whites of his eyes are blood red.

“I-I guess I’m still far from reaching his level,” says Noah, blood spurting out of his mouth before collapsing to the ground, unconscious.

Bloodlust radiates from Olock as he realises, he would be dead if he didn’t use his bloodlust. Not only that, his foe wasn’t even the Devil child and yet he received this much damage. After he had thought he could defeat the Devil child, he meets an opponent of this level, that is not even the Devil child.

He didn’t want to accept it. As he is about to charge at him, a figure is there, holding the fallen foe over his shoulder.

“You did well, Noah.”

Olock recognized the figure almost immediately. The figure has ocean blue eyes. Even though his stature is much taller than the Devil child, which it should considering the years that passed, his hair instead of snow white, is sky blue.

“DEVIL CHILD!”

Olock roars as he charges at the ‘Devil child’ focusing all of his bloodlust on his fist. He throws the punch with everything he has. The ground shatters from the force generated and the nearby trees are blown away by the shockwave of the punch. A thick cloud of dust erupts obscuring the entire scene. As the dust begins to settle, Olock’s giant arm is shaking violently as his attack was blocked with one hand.

“How?”

“A monster that speaks. That’s something you don’t see every day.” The voice is tranquil, like the gentle waves of the ocean.

Michael lowers his hand and turns his back from Olock, unbothered. However, Olock is left frozen in place, unable to move.

“Why? Why. Not. Kill. Me?” asks Olock frustrated.

Michael stops and looks him in the eyes. His gaze so cold, you could swear his eyes could freeze anyone who looks at them.

“That’s because you’re already dead.”

White lines start to slowly appear everywhere on Olock’s body. One outlined itself on his neck while others crossed each other all over his body like a puzzle. Before he could even think when his foe must have drawn his sword, his body collapsed into a pile of flesh too grotesque to describe.