- Oy! Blackie! Your back!

*CLANG*

- Ah- thanks, redhead.

Kenji turns back, just in time to deflect a blow from an Orc. The clashing between his sword and the orc's club makes a ringing sound throughout the field.

- Lumen Terebramus Acuto!

With the chant, a glowing arrow shoots out of Ventia's bow, pierces right through an orc's head.

- Hey, boys, I'm done over here! Fuyuusagi, come here.

After finishing her area, Ventia takes Fuyuusagi away after calling out to the guys, who are still fighting at the front.

Seeing those girls relaxing, Altima feels like his pride is in danger, decides to get more serious and end those orcs' lives.

- GGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR

- Redhead, shut up.

He becomes much more aggressive, dashes forward, and make an overhead swing with his hefty sword, cutting the first orc in two, then a right swing, cut right through another orc's belly, spilling all his intestine outside.

- Such brutish fighting.

Kenji nonchalantly complains about Altima's fighting style, while having no trouble stopping and dodging the blows from two orcs at once.

He suddenly sheathes his sword into the scabbard on his waist and stop moving. Those orcs think he must have given up, right away jumps in to kill him off.

*Flash*

A sound of metal rings up, the orcs stop moving, and suddenly fall on their backs, with blood starting to spill out from their neck.

- Tch, show off.

Altima is carrying the sword on his back, watching Kenji's fight.

- It's called swordsmanship.

Kenji swings his sword, splashing away the blood on his blade, and wipes it clean before he sheathes it back in.

- You really love that sword, huh, Kenji.

Seeing they're done, Ventia and Fuyusagi head over to their spot after getting a good rest.

- It's a fine piece of work, fits my taste, too.

He's extremely into it. Apparently, after seeing a demon girl from the Eastern Country, witnessing her swordsmanship, Kenji was totally hooked.

He even spent a bunch of money for the blacksmith to make a sword for him, design based on the sword of that girl, slim curved single-edged blade.

Since that girl took an interest in him, she decided to teach him a bit about her skills using the sword, and Kenji from then on has been able to develop his own fighting style.

- I know you do. Even more than your Fuyu here?

Ventia feels like teasing him a bit. She slightly pinches Fuyuusagi' cheek, looking at him seriously.

- Heh? Ventia?!

Fuyuusagi blushes, she's surprised from that joke, embarrassed, too.

- Fuyuusagi... she's a different... matter...

Kenji turns away to hide his blushing face. Seeing that, it makes Fuyusagi turns beet red.

- Kenji... you're much softer than I thought.

Altima also joins in the fun, he has a big grin on his face, mocking the guy in front of him.

  - Shut up, redhead. 

- Well, it's nice to see you two still lovey-dovey at this point. When is your wedding going to happen? Next week isn't it? 

Ventia smiles, letting go of Fuyuusagi's cheek.

The little lady is happy whenever she thinks about the wedding. She looks at the gold ring on her left hand, smiles happily.

- It's next week, that's why we're here, it's going to damage my wallet heavily... Anyway, let's take a break before we move on.

RRRROOOOAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!!

- !!!

While everyone was having their ease times, suddenly a loud roar comes out of nowhere.

The roar sounded like it's nearby, so the whole team got up into ready positions.

Thud thud thud thud thud thud thud

Deep inside the cave, a marching sound is echoing out.

- Well shits sound bad, all right. - Altima makes a comment as a bad feeling is welling up inside.

- Al, it's not the time for a joke.

- You think I'm joking, Ventia?

It's not too long until they realize, the marching is not coming only from inside the cave.

- We're surrounded!

Noticing the situation, the red hair warrior reports back to his team. The enemy has finally shown their faces.
Orcs, tons of them...

They cry out, and start advancing from both sides.

Altima swings his sword in madness, bursting out hundreds of flame magic

Ventia chants nonstop, while raining down magic arrows on her enemies

Kenji moves swiftly, cutting down heads after heads in every move.

Fuyuusagi pulls out her best scythes, turning the orcs into dustalongsidee with Joker.

Yet, they wouldn't stop coming.

Hundreds of orcs attacking a 4-person squad, even the bests could only go so far.

Their fatigues start to kick in, as their movements get slower.

At that moment, Kenji yells.

- FUYU! VENTIA! ABOVE!!!

Some of those fat orcs somehow were able to jump high, over the others, and get close to the girls.

Unable to react in time, both of them got knocked out.

- VENTIA!!!

- FUYU!!!

The guys panic as they see those two get kidnapped.

Their rage rises.

Kenji drops his mask, a white skull mask that covers his right eye. Behind the mask is a white, silver eye. He laughs ominously, and goes into a rampage.

While that's happening, the feather on Altima's sword hilt starts to glow. Every swing of his gigantic sword bursts into flame, burning any orc it hits.

The orc army finally stops coming.

They finally retreat, taking the girls with them.

They falls to their knees, with overwhelming despair.

[At Kenji's place]

- Kenji we can't go by ourselves! We will issue a quest!

- How long is that going to take?! You know where they have been taken to?! The orc nest! If they are being kidnapped, they would be taken to the nest! Any adventurer knows that!

- And you think we can go to Orc Nest by ourselves?

- Listen Red Head! The guild knows it's going to be a raid on a damn nest, and it will take days for them to gather troops! I'm not waiting even a day for them to do that!

*Bang bang bang*

Suddenly there's someone banging on the front door.

Kenji opens it up.

It's Ventia.

- Ventia!!

Altima runs out, hold on to her tattered body.

She's covered in wounds, bruises, cuts.

They wrapped her up immediately, while giving her some recovery potions.

- Where's Fuyu...? - Altima asked.

- I was taken to their nest... and were able to escape right at its entrance... but I didn't see Fuyu around...

Kenji tighten his fist, so hard that the sound of his gloves stretching can be heard clearly.

Altima looks over at him, then started speaking.

- We are thinking about issuing an urgent quest at the guild. This guy here, he wants to go there right away...

Ventia also looks at Kenji.

- Yeah... let's issue a quest... Kenji, I know how worried you are, but those orcs at the nest are no joke... the orcs we fought in that cave, they are nowhere near as strong as the ones at the nest.

- ...

- Fuyuusagi wouldn't want you to die for her.

With just that, the conversation ends.

That night, Kenji sneaks out alone.

In his hand is a bracelet, with a blue gem on it.

He holds out a pink crystal, touch the gem with it, and it turns into dusts before disappear completely.

The blue gem shines, showing a blue light pointing toward a direction.

This is thanks to the magic he embedded onto Fuyuusagi's hairclip. The hairclip has tracing magic in it, and with that, Kenji can always find her.

He moves quietly in the night, not disturbing anyone.

Before long, he was standing in front of the Orc Nest.

Based on Ventia, the orcs here are all elites.

So he just need to do something he hasn't done in a long time.

Stealth kill.

In his all black clothes, he moves in, cutting down any orcs he finds.

For armored ones, he skillfully get his weapon into gaps between their helmet and body armor, then slit their throat in silence.

He follows the light, and soon get into a disgusting sight.

A "female ranch".

Girls from different races, elf, human, beastman, even some demons are captured by these orcs.

For no reason other than to bear their babies.

Some girls have huge, round bellies, and some even have baby orcs drinking their milk.

The stench is terrible, and disgusting over all.

Deep in his mind, he somewhat knows Fuyuusagi's fate if she is taken to this place, but he wants to ignore it.

A few orcs are in there, mating.

He moves in quietly, trying not to be distracted by the smell of urine, feces, and semen.

Bloods are spilled as he cuts the orcs' throats, none of them could even make a sound, to call for help.

After all of them in that ranch were dealt with, Kenji started looking around for Fuyusagi. He looks for her, but he wishes not to find her here.

"Seems like she's not in this place... that's good... probably."

As he moves away to another place, a girl grabs his leg.

With any bit of strength left in her, she cries out.

- Please... save us...

Kenji looks at her, and without a word, walks away.

- Hey.

A deep, low voice came up.

At the entrance, an orc shows up.

Only, this one thing is different.

He has much darker skin, much larger, and...

...Fuyuusagi is tied on to his chest as a meat armor.

Kenji's hand shivers.

"No..."

She's worn out, naked, and dirty.

On the belly is a strange red marking.

- Kenji...

She's barely conscious.

- I was wondering why my men's energies keep disappearing. So it was you.

- Ah...

It's done, he's lost his mind.

Slowly, he removes his white skull mask.

The silver eye is shining brighter than ever.

Even his hair, it's slowly turning white from the root.

A curse it is. A curse from one beast he fought long ago.

The distance between two is shortened in a flash, and before long, Kenji were already behind that orc's back.

He cuts off the ropes tying Fuyusagi with this beast, and catch her in his arm, all happened in an instance.

- You ain't bad...

He knows that orc isn't normal, not something like an elite, but even more than that. The best solution right now is only run away with Fuyuusagi in hand.

But life isn't easy.

Back ups have came already, blocking the escape path.

- An eye for an eye. You have killed many men of mine, so you, and that girl, will pay of dearly...

Kenji holds Fuyuusagi in his arms, all he wishes right now is her safety.

FWOOSH

BOOM

From behind, some magics were shot, and hit the big orc in his face.

- Damn bastard, I knew you would sneak out...

It's Altima and Ventia.

- He did a fine job finishing out a bunch of those orcs though.

- You two... how?

- Well, we suspected that you'd do some crazy shits like this, so we came to your place and checked. By the way, sorry about your front door, might need to fix the lock.

Kenji chuckles from that answer.

As they talk, the back ups are wiped out in a minute, leaving only that big orc, who is unharmed after got blasted by magic.

- Yikes! Don't tell me that's the orc king?! - Altima speaks out of surprise as he sees the "boss".

- Unfortunately, it seems so... - Ventia replies.

With nothing left blocking their path, the group turns to escape.

RUMBLE

CRASH

Rocks and wood beams falls down, blocking the path.

- Shit!

- You two okay?!

- We are good, but the path...

- You think you can leave...? Damn bastards...

The orc king have no intention to let them go.

Kenji backs off, and hand over unconscious Fuyuusagi to Ventia.

- Wha-?!

- Ventia, you're the quickest on your feet. I want you to take Fuyuusagi and escape.

- Are you-?!

- Sshh, listen here - Kenji starts lowering his voice - go past him, into the ranch, there will be a roundabout path for you to escape in the back. Most of the orcs have already been eliminated by me earlier, so you'll escape easily...

- But you and Altima?!

At this point, the red hair guy steps in.

- He and I are more than enough to bring the so-called king down, so just GO!

Without any warning, he jumps in and rains fireball down on orc king.

- Good luck.

Kenji follows him up, throwing cuts fast as lighting.

- These boys are such bastards...

Winds gather around Ventia, and she moves swiftly right pass the king.

- YOU ARE NOT TAKING MY SLAVE AWAY.

- Lookie here you little shit.

Right when the king tries to stop Ventia, Altima throws in even more fireball at his eyes.

- Your slave? She's mine, not yours.

Kenji got angry at those words, and cut right pass orc king's heels, pushing him onto the ground.

While that happens, Ventia has already escaped.

- Ventia...?

The little girl wakes up in the Elf's arms, running hastily in the middle of a cold night.

- Fuyu... it's safe now...

- Kenji...

- He'll be back soon, just hang on...

They soon get back into town, at Kenji's place.

The door opens easily, due to the lock being broken by Altima.

Fuyusagi is laid onto a bed in her room, and Ventia immediately checked on her.

- There seems to be no damage or physical trauma other than a few light bruises.. but this marking...

She has never seen a marking like that before...

But there's nothing can be done about it right now, so she can only wipes Fuyusagi clean of dirt.

- They are taking a long time...

She becomes more anxious as time goes by, watching over sleeping Fuyusagi.

But then, a scream breaks the silence.

- GRYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's horrifying, ominous, deadly.

It's coming from the little girl.

- Fuyu!! What's wrong?!!

She doesn't answer, only screams were heard.

Her body bends up, her limbs are stretched out, her whole body is writhing, as if it's in immense pain.

- The marking!

It's glowing on the belly, a belly that seems to be growing bigger and bigger.

- IT HUUUUUURRTTSS!!!!!!!!!!!

There's nothing Ventia can do to help.

"WHAT TO DO?!!!"

Fuyusagi's belly grows bigger, to the point as if it's gonna explode.

Suddenly, something appears at her crotch.

A... head?

As she continue to scream in pain, a baby is crawling out from her womb.

"But... how?! She was captured only for half a day! And she wasn't pregnant earlier!!"

*Splash*

- Urgh... ah...

The baby comes out, and blood were all over the place.

Fuyusagi falls flat on her bed, still trembling from the pain.

- Uuu...

The baby starts moving, making sounds.

Then it cries.

- UUUUWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

For normal cases, Ventia would have tried to soothe the baby, or do something about it.

But that baby, has a grim feeling to it.

It doesn't even look like its "mother".

It looks like... a baby orc...

- Ven...tia... help me... up...

Fuyusagi calls for help, Ventia holds her back and help her sit up.

She looks at the baby crying, on her bed, in the middle of a pool of blood.

It's still connected to her.

So she slowly, pulls out the placenta out of her.

- Urg.... um...!

Then she drags herself over to the baby.

- Fuyu, hold on now! You need rest!

- I'm... good...

She puts her hand onto the baby real gently...

It stops crying.

And then she strangles it.

- You... wretched... demon...!

Her eyes are bloodshot, filled with killing intent.

The baby struggles, grabs on to her arms, scratches her, but she doesn't stop.

After a while, it stops moving completely.

She lets go.

It was then, they can hear the door opening.

- Ventia...

It's Altima's voice.

- Al!

She runs out, looking at Altima, dragging unconscious Kenji on his shoulder, both are tattered and covered in dirt and wounds.

Looking at Altima face, Ventia starts to understand.

It's dead quiet.

- Ventia...? Altima...?

Fuyuusagi is limping out of her room to see what's going on, over her body there is only the blanket.

Ventia turns around, and hug Fuyuusagi tightly.

- Ventia...? What's wrong...?

She looks at Altima, putting Kenji body onto the floor.

- Kenji...

She limps toward him, kneeling next to his body.

- Kenji... it's me... Fuyu...

There's no reply.

- You must be... tired... right?

It's bitter to look at.

- Our wedding is next week...

"So can you wake up?"

- Arh...

Her cries can only become more painful.

She cries

And cries

The tears won't stop.

Guilt is overflowing.

"It's my fault"

"I was a foolish girl"

"Letting myself get caught."

"I'm sorry"

I'm sorry  I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry 
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry 
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry 
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry 
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry 

"There's no happiness in this world after all."

- I'll leave the food here...

Ventia puts down a tray of food on the table next to Fuyusagi.

She looks at the tray with lifeless eyes, giving no response.

It's morning right now.

Outside looks nice today, sunny and bright, but not too hot.

Birds are chirping, they must be enjoying the weather.

"Looks like it's a good day to die today."