"In fact, I do have some last words," Martin replied.
"Go to hell," he yelled as he thrust a knife through Charlie's foot and dragged the blade towards himself to rip it open.
The orc let out screams of agony as blood oozed out of the puncture. His arrogance had caused him to act recklessly and he had lowered his guard. Martin wore a satisfied grin as Charlie squirmed in pain.
"At least you felt pain for what you did to Adriana."
Martin was already doomed, so at the very least, he managed to inflict damage on his enemy. Charlie bared his teeth and clenched his jaws as his heart raced rapidly inside of his chest. However, Martin's joy would not be long-lived as his adversary got a hold of himself and lunged towards him. He closed his eyes awaiting his death. The dagger pierced through the air and perforated his chest. Vital fluids gushed out his mouth as he showed his blood-covered smile, as if to tell Charlie that he did not faze him at all.
"It was nice knowing you," he said as he looked in my direction.
Martin's torso slammed into the ground as his eyes stared lifelessly at me. Charlie began kicking his friend's corpse out of desperation. There was nothing that I could do anymore as I was unable to exit this barrier.
"Are you happy now? Do you think that you're in good enough shape to fight me," I yelled.
The orc limped towards me while leaving a trail of blood and stood behind the invisible wall.
"Who said that I'd be fighting you? I wouldn't take such a stupid gamble."
"Instead, you'll starve inside of that room. This barrier will easily last a year," he added.
I grinded my teeth upon hearing his explanation, but I did not show him my frustration. My eyes peered at him like two swords as he moved around taking the three dead orcs' valuables. After five minutes he swiveled to face me and beamed a warm smile.
"Goodbye Jett, it was nice knowing you!" he said as he turned back around and left the room.
The wooden door was slammed shut and I could hear the locking mechanism being activated. I punched the wall several times as soon as left to express my rage and desperation. Before anything else, I sat cross-legged in front of my three friends to mourn them. It was only then that I noticed something miraculous. The airflow was oscillating around Adriana's chest and air was moving through her nostrils. She was still breathing!
I edged closer to the barrier and called out to her several times but she was still unresponsive. I had to get out of here.
'This room cannot be a dead-end. Why would there be traps here otherwise?'
I closed my eyes and tried to focus using the way of the wind; I increased the range and the amount of detail up to their limits. Sweat dripped down my cheeks as my face was scrunched up in pain. There was nothing. There was no sign of any air seeping through any of the cracks. This room was completely sealed. Although my chances were low, I had to try something else.
I surveyed the entire room with a fine-tooth comb. The space was dilapidated and was marked with signs of battle. Deep cuts were left on all of the walls and splatters of dried blood could be found almost everywhere. This was further proof that there was more to this because orcs would not be fighting over nothing. After hours of scrutiny, I had an eureka moment! The walls were lined with pillars, eight to be exact. All except one had ridges running along their entire lengths.
The odd one out had a separation in one of the ridges. Most orcs would simply attribute that defect to damage that occurred during battle, but I could tell that this gap was too perfect. The pillar was directly opposite the door, so I walked closer to it and crouched. It did not look special at all, so I tried the only thing that I could think of and stuck my finger between the gap.
As the sound of gears grinding echoed throughout the room, my face lit up as I knew that I was in the right direction. A small square section of the floor in the middle of the room began rising. Below the lifted surface, there was a weird cube. Lines were drawn all around it, however, they were not in the correct order; I tried twisting the cube and the top swiveled! It seemed to be the orcs' equivalent to a puzzle that I adored playing with Megan when I was still living in the human kingdom, the Rubik's cube.
'I've never been able to solve a Rubik's cube before...'
I sat down and began twisting the different pieces to match the lines. Ten minutes in and I had made no progress at all.
"This is challenging, I have no idea how dad and the others managed to complete this," I murmured to myself.
"I'd rather be at home training with the Jasper," I added.
After a full hour, I had an idea that I wanted to try out. I visualized where the corner pieces should be and tried to match them. Although advancement was slow, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. With each twist, I was closer to completing it. It took me thirty more minutes, but I was finally able to finish the puzzle; however, a new question popped up.
What was I supposed to do with the cube?
As I saw no other possible option, I simply placed the item back where I took it and pushed down on the elevated area. As soon as the floor flattened, the pillar began shaking as it glided to the left, revealing yet another passage.
'How powerful was the orc who created this inheritance?'