Re: I must complete all my Missions-Chapter 25: Meeting the Ogres

Dimm bent over to observe the marks on the damp soil. He narrowed his eyes and moved his fingers over the pressed shape on the forest floor.

"Large. Deep. Uneven strides," Dimm muttered, and looked up at Minxx, gesturing toward the prints.

"Any idea whose footprints are these?" he asked.

Minxx stepped forward, kneeling beside him with a sharp gaze. For a moment, she didn't speak until after she had traced the grooves carefully, feeling the pattern.

"They look like that of the Ogres," she finally answered. "Judging by the spread...at least three. Maybe more."

"Then, it means they crossed this path," Dimm assumed.

As Dimm said this, Khobba instinctively reached for the weapons sheathed beside her foot. She looked around for something suspicious but found none. Then, Dimm's voice instructed them to begin to move.

"They moved westward," Dimm said, pointing at the line the prints carved through the underbrush.

"Since they went that way, we should follow up," Dimm said simply, standing upright and dusting his hands.

The trio moved quietly deeper into the bush, following the route provided by the footprints of these ogres. Minxx stood in front this time, placing her elf ears in a sharp and tuned position to the rustling of leaves.

Dimm moved in the middle, while Khobba remained at the rear, always checking behind them for any movement of a sort.

It wasn't long before the trio approached a large expanse of land, more like a spacious arena where duels could take place. It was at this point that the footprints have also veered off.

The air around them grew tense, unusually. The trees grew thicker and taller, unlike the average-height ones they came across.

Dimm paused. "Something's... odd."

Just then, arrows whizzed passed his ears, landing stuck in the trees in his front. He looked by his side and saw that Khobba also ducked in an attempt to evade a similar attack.

"We've been ambushed," Dimm muttered, his sword appearing in his hand shimmering with a bright glow. He held onto the hilt of his sword tightly, stancing himself like a swordsman in preparation for what was coming.

Khobba on her part summoned two balls of purple lights in her palm, allowing its glow to flicker from the effect of the cool breeze against it. While Minxx stood firm, focusing her gaze intensely behind her. Pacing at a spot in a clockwise motion.

At the same time, shrieks, heavy thuds, and bone-crushing roars echoed as figures leaped from the trees, circling the trio at the spot where they stood. Instinctively, the trio came together, resting their backs behind each other's.

"Have some elves decided to turn against us?" Dimm asked Minxx resting behind his back in a hushed tone.

"These are not elves... they are ogres," Minxx replied.

"I mean, they look very much like elves," Dimm said and turned his focus back to the figures in front.

The figures possessed ashen grey skin, with wild eyes that spoke of hunger to kill. Their eyes protruded forward, pointed, exactly like that of the elves except that it was not as long.

'Ogres?'

Dimm's thought was disoriented by the first attack from the Ogres, which caused them to separate from each other.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

The Ogres separated themselves into three groups, each consisting of three members, facing either Dimm, Khobba, or Minxx.

One of the Ogres against Dimm swung the massive clubs it held through the air, splitting the large stone on the ground as Dimm was quick to dodge its attack.

He twisted sideways, slashing his sword against the approaching ogre and tearing through its forearm.

Minxx spun beside him, as she created ripples of stone from the ground, sending them to the Ogres who were against her.

Khobba let out a wild cry, hurling herself to a rear position as she continued firing balls of purple lights to the Ogres facing her. One of the Ogres has torn through, nearer to her as she sent a blow to its jaw in a brutal arc.

Once again, they were together behind each other, fighting together this time. They fought with synced reflexes, in the protection of themselves, and made significant movements that countered that of the attacking ogres.

Minutes—or maybe just moments—passed in the blur of battle. Finally, the last ogre hit the ground with a heavy thud, its body twitching before it lay still.

The trio had successfully shoved these ogres off, injuring a few among them, while they gathered together. The injured ones among them clinging to their wounds in pain.

Silence returned. Labored breathing filled the space.

Dimm pulled himself up, wiping off the blood that splashed on his cheek when he sliced an ogre's arm, his eyes scanning the creature that had reformed their group a distance apart.

Three of these Ogres came forward. Unlike the others, they were unscathed. Simply put, they weren't involved in the fight with the others. This made Dimm sense that these three might be the leaders.

In the front was a broad-shouldered male ogre, with a big sword with large-sized claws resting on its shoulder. Then, beside walked two female ogres. The one by the left was tall, why the latter struggled the same height as Minxx.

Dimm bluffed, attempting to walk forward not until something glinted in the grass beside his left foot. He bent over and picked it up.

It was an earring.

An earring, small in size with an intricate loop of silver woven with strands of moss. The earring was far too delicate for something so brutish, more like it belonged to a kind creature.

Dimm stared at the piece a moment longer before exhaling and scratching his head. His gaze, swept across the ears of the two feminine ogres to check whose earring was missing.

"If this was to be a chess game," Dimm muttered. "It must have been fun playing it all along with you."

"...Maybe," Dimm added, turning the earring over in his palm, "what if I built this chess."

He flicked the earring into the air, as the owner of the object caught it in mid-air, fixing it back to its supposed position.

Minxx looked at him curiously, her expression unreadable.

"And what was that statement supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Hmm... Maybe because we are about to see the aftermath of some moves," Dimm replied and faced the Ogres.