A Completely Ordinary Adventure [2/10]

"Morkoda attack?" Hearing a term he's never heard before, Mikhail was curious as to why everyone seemed so terrified.

Noticing his bewilderment, Ana began to explain, her expression fearful: "It's normal you've never heard of them since they're native to this part of the empire, but in these parts, morkoda's are very dangerous, since they're many in number, but they're ferocious little buggers alone too,"

"Not just ferocious, they're the same size as you but they can tear your arm off any day of the week," Mama-Mikhail continued, her face a mix of spite and contempt, as though she had personally experienced one of their attacks.

Suddenly, banging could be heard from outside the gallery, followed by a cacophony of trumpet-like laughter.

'Morkodas,' Everyone thought simultaneously.

-Crash!-

At that moment, the door of the room was destroyed, and five morkodas walked into the room. Each of them barely taller than Mikhail, yet he felt alarm bells ringing in his head the moment he saw them. The group backed away, taking whatever they could to defend themselves

But the morkodas did nothing, only snickering quietly in response to their futile resistance, before separating to make way for another morkoda. But In contrast to the other morkoda's pale blue skin, as if they hadn't seen the light of day in decades, this one took on a shade of black, furthermore, it was more muscular than the ones behind it, not to mention it's rough leather-like skin and the scary axe on it's back.

"U-uh Ana, what's that thing?!"

"It's called a gorgod, they're the bigger, scarier version of the morkodas. And they're normally the leader of raids groups, but I've never heard of one being black!" She spoke again, barely able to contain her fear.

'Why did it have to come here?!'

Mikhail grumbled in his head, out of all the houses, stores and buildings, why did this big ugly thing come here? But he didn't harp on the subject for long, since he was interrupted by the Gorgod itself. it's deep, monotone voice unsettled Mikhail, but what it said befuddled him further:

<<I'm taking the girl, you kill the rest>>

Mikhail didn't know what to make of it. To him, It was merely a garbled mess of letters strung together... But that didn't mean it was of no significance, since the five morkodas suddenly jumped into action!

As the five morkodas rushed towards their group, Mikhail rushed in between. His arms poised and ready. Looking at the boy, then at each other, the morkodas laughed, seemingly amused by the boy's bravery. Finally one of the morkodas rushed towards Mikhail.

<<Kekeke... Scared prey is best prey!>>

<<This weakling's mine!>>

Mikhail's eyes zoned in on the one running at him. And as it neared him, Mikhail tensed his arms as much as possible before jabbing at his opponent.

-Twak!-

'Yes!' Mikhail thought as his fist connected, sending the morkoda reeling. But got up again and charged at him. Seeing this Mikhail just smiled and said:

"Heh, I can do this all day!"

***

-Thook!-

At first, Mikhail had no trouble fending off his enemy, but as they continued fighting, he started getting tired. Mikhail could feel the fatigue washing over him; each punch that didn't hit it's intended target a waste of energy, and each that did made him feel twangs of pain.

"Oof!"

Of course, it wasn't just him who felt the pinch, even the morkoda felt their fair share of punishment. The problem was: It wasn't alone, since midway through the fight, another morkoda joined.

<<Gaahh!!>>

Finally, the fight progressed to where he was taking more punches than he dished out. Each successful punch would invite three back, each kick an opening for two legs to retaliate. Mikhail had to think fast, or the only one dying would be him.

"Mikhail! Take this!!"

"Hm?"

Catching what she tossed at him, Mikhail was surprised to hold a dagger, it's fine sheen blinding to the eye, and it's sharp 'No decoration' look made it clear to him the knife was practicality over style. Naturally, Mikhail wondered where she had found this but was grateful nonetheless.

Turning to the morkodas, he began to attack once more:

"Thanks! Here comes round two!"

-Slash!-

<<Keurgh!!>>

Slashing at the morkodas, he managed to severely injure one; the same one who attacked him at the beginning of the fight, in fact. However, instead of looking distraught, the other four morkodas simply grinned before looking at the big one.

<<You idiots...>>

Shaking his head, The big 'morkoda' slowly lumbered to Mikhail, not bothering to defend himself at all. Taking advantage of the morkoda's arrogance, Mikhail sprinted at the ogre-like beast and swung his dagger one more.

"No! Don't attack it, Mikhail! That's a gorgod" Ana shouted, but her attempts at warning him were too late, as he was already too close to the gorgod. Looking at the little ant trying to fight, the two-meter tall behemoth contemptuously spoke:

<<Heh, you think that small piece of scrap can hurt me?>>

At that moment, time seemed to slow down for Mikhail, he knew his decision would end up costing the lives of him and his family, and as this realisation dawned on him: the morkoda already had its arm raised; ready to strike at Mikhail.

-Thud!-

"Kuoh!!"

The gorgod's fist struck true, and Mikhail could feel the full force of the blow on his ribs and pelvis. But the pain didn't end there, as he was launched to the side, he crashed into the stone wall, cracking the wall.

-BOOM!-

"Mikhail!! NO!"

As he slid down the wall, he could taste his own sweat and blood on his swollen lips, but more than that; he could taste the fear of what was going to happen. Ratcheting up higher and higher. He could see Ana screaming for him, his mother in tears. Both struggling to escape from the morkodas... Trying to reach for him.

'...Blurry... I can't hear... Ma... Ana...'

Desperately holding on to consciousness, Mikhail saw the gorgod standing next to him, readying the crude axe to separate head from body. Gazing at the boy on his feet, the gorgod began to speak:

<<Impressive... As a fellow warrior, the least I can give you is a quick death, goodbye... little one>>

-Swoosh!-

***