Chapter 43 - Runflee

While the drama between Kadin and his apprentice played out, a couple of miles ahead of them, Xzavier found himself in a position he had never thought he would find himself; on his armor motorcycle fleeing for his dear life in the opposite direction of the orc leader. with Adalia behind him, clutching him tightly, holding on for her dear life.

The armor motorcycle tore through the rocky terrain at an insane speed. The aggressive engine roared as Xzavier forced it through the unfriendly layout. The loudness of the aggressive motorcycle drowned out the persistent screams of the blond girl seated behind him. And behind the two of them, was a dozens of feet gigantic orc raging towards them.

As Xzavier ran for his dear life on the , mentally he played out the sequence of events that had brought him to this point. All the way back to the beginning, he recalled each and every difficulty he had encountered since he came to this realm. The initial confusion, the sleepless nights, the language barrier, the hostility and alienation he had endured. He recalled them all.

As he remembered all the obstacles he overcame, Xzavier knew that no matter what, somehow, he was going to come out of this alive and victorious.

Behind the fleeing duo, the enormous chief was brandishing an equally massive axe that only him could wield. He swung it in the direction of the unfortunate duo. The gigantic orc leader lifted up his wicked axe above his head and brought it down with a ferocious swing. Xzavier was an excellent driver. But he was an even more powerful drifter.

"Xzavier quick! He's bringing it down on us from the east! Hurry!!" Adalia yelled!

Prior to their flight, Xzavier had already informed her the role she was to play. Her role was very vital to their escape. As Xzavier had no way of looking behind him and maintaining the course he had chartered, he depended heavily on Adalia to keep an eye out for any impending attack. So whenever Adalia caught on to the sudden change in attack, she would alert Xzavier who would then work his magic as top level drifter.

It was tough work, Adalia had to constantly watch both their backs while going close to a hundred miles per hour on a motorcycle running through a ridiculously unstable terrain. Not to mention the terror that was hot on their heels behind them. With no helmet on, and with the wind rushing violently past them, there was a whole lot of things that could go wrong.

As he expertly played between the brake and the accelerator while maintaining a dangerous speed, Xzavier weaved in and out of several attacks. Narrowly missing the extra large blade of the orc leader who was still somehow getting bigger!

The massive blade swished through the air, cutting and slicing up large trees and deep rooted vegetation like it was cabbage. Bits and pieces of these collateral damage flew about, almost blinding Xzavier and Adalia. On one occasion, just as Xzavier was about to navigate a dangerous curve, a large branch that was roughly the size of a canoe bore down on them out of nowhere. It only narrowly missed them due to the Xzavier's dexterity with the motorcycle.

Anywhere the massive axe landed, deep ditches formed immediately. The chief orc was relentless. Like a hellhound after a soul doomed to hell, he chased after them with a diabolic relentlessness. Swinging his axe, slashing and cutting up trees, roots and shrubs, just to get at Xzavier for the destruction he had wroth in his camp. Every swing of his axe was fueled by vengeful anger. The chief orc's determination not to let them go shower just how vindictive he was.

Everywhere his axe landed, the chief orc left in his wake a trail blaze of destruction and chaos. The only advantage Xzavier had, paradoxically, was also his own disadvantage. The blackness of the night in a way made it hard for them to be spotted by the rage of the chief orc. But unfortunately, the blackness was also a problem for Xzavier.

He knew that he very well couldn't use the headlights of the motorcycle to make his way around. To do that would be very foolish indeed. For it would serve as a pointer for the chief orc to spot them out and swat them like flies.

Adalia on the other hand was scared brainless. She locked her hands so tight around Xzavier, her embrace on many occasions threatened to crush his lungs.

It irked Xzavier that he was on the defensive side. He knew that there was nothing worse than fleeing from an enemy that was hell bent on killing him. Earlier on, when he had first noticed the abominable rate at which the chief orc had been swelling in size, Xzavier launched an all out assault with his RPG. Xzavier could never forget how the orc had blocked and deflected a rocket with his massive ace! It was an astonishing feat! If Xzavier hadn't been on the opposing side of this battle, he knew that he would have been impressed.

"What's up with that axe anyway?! How did it also grow in size to fit the chief orc's size?!"

This had been Xzavier's exact thoughts as he watched the abomination unfold. The Gatling which had proven to be an excellent source of destruction had somehow proven ineffective in the face of this terrifying entity. Its bullets didn't even as much as graze the chief orc. That had been the beginning of the end for Xzavier. Those were the biggest and the most lethal weapons in his arsenal. And yet, they had been as ineffective as a toothpick on a tiger's skin.

On his battle armor motorcycle, cruising in and around the rocky terrain of the unstable hill, they finally approached the region where Xzavier had prudently planted and concealed the landmine. In spite of the poor visibility, Adalia's eyes widened when she recognized the area where Xzavier was confidently riding into.

"Xzavier…!!!" she cried.

"Watch out!! This is the area you set that trap!!!"

Even above the rage of the armor motorcycle, Xzavier still heard the apprehensive shriek of the young woman on his back. But Xzavier wasn't one to do things without good reason. Of course he had already planned it all out. He wasn't just blindly charging around. As he sped up, he balanced the Gatling between the handles of the armor motorcycle and released a round of violent shots.

Adalia was even more confused. She had never been able to follow Xzavier's train of thought before. This time, it seemed like he was just randomly shooting into an empty space of no significance. But as she observed closely, she discovered that this wasn't a coincidence at all.

The closer she looked, the more convinced she was that Xzavier's genius was definitely up to something. His Gatling was targeting a single tree. It's bullets ripped through the base, completely rupturing its stem. Before long, the trunk collapsed and formed a triangular slope with the ground. This had inadvertently created a makeshift bridge that was half suspended in the air on the opposite side.

With the part of the tree trunk actively touching the ground, Xzavier sped up his motorcycle and blasted off like a rocket into an unknown location. In one brief movement, Xzavier had managed to escape the mine field he had created by himself. But that wasn't the entirety of the plan.

The true motive behind Xzavier's ridiculously dangerous maneuver was to bait the unsuspecting chief orc into following them. Sure enough, true to his plan. The orc leader, still livid with fury, charged into the area which housed the buried mine. There was no way the orc could have known that there was danger lurking in that section. Its size had driven it to believe that it was invincible and couldn't possibly be subject to any form of attack.

But unfortunately, he was about to be the scapegoat that would suffer the consequences of Xzavier's quick thinking and pro-activeness. As soon as the chief's extra large right leg entered the section, it's inhuman weight triggered the explosion.

The explosion rocked the sector, sending shockwaves across the region. Of course the chief orc wasn't without his own form of defensive magic, but the explosion was as sudden as if was destructive. The toes of the foot which had stepped on the mine were the first casualty of the destruction.

The chief orc bellowed like a raging bull on a rampage. All of its toes on its right foot were obliterated by the explosion. Its roar thundered across the horizon, filling every heart with fear. The orc was enraged. It wasn't just the pain, it was the mere fact that orcs were oddly protective of the integrity of their bodies. As he roared, it sounded more like an angry roar than a roar of someone in pain. More determined than ever he limped on in pain, more annoyed than ever at the two puny little humans who had succeeded in making him a cripple.