Chapter Two - The Portal and The Price

Chapter Two

My entire class had just received the shock of our life (Pun intended) and we were thrown into chaos. My hands scrambled desperately, grabbing at anything within reach, desk fragments, broken pencils, even torn pages from notebooks, as the invisible force dragged me across the classroom floor. It felt like a tornado, made only of lightning, was tugging at every cell in my body. My face was damp from tears, they were a sad reminder of the last words I heard from my sister.

Beside me, Drew’s gaze was a mix of fear and worry. His eyes held something I never knew Drew was capable of feeling, and it was fear. We managed to grab onto a couple of exposed bricks that were still attached to the recently destroyed wall of the classroom. I watched horrified as one of my classmates hectically tried grasping for any way to avoid the change of gravity but it was only met with failure. A look of pure horror came over her face as there was nothing else she hold on to, her body was thrown towards the portal of lightning.

One by one I watched my classmates desperately try and escape the strong field of gravity. There were only three of us left clinging onto whatever hold we could find. Claire, Drew, and I.

Claire’s eyes were still locked onto the body of her best friend. She mumbled something and glanced over at me, we locked eyes for a moment. It looked like she had given up on everything, her pain was written all over her face.

Then she just let go and her body was pulled into the portal.

“Leo! Drew!” screamed Oliver. Since Oliver hadn’t been affected by the catalyzing lightning event, he was not being pulled by the portal. He scrambled to grab hold of Drew and me, but I could feel my grip loosening on the hard brick. Our legs dangled out towards the swirling vortex, if it wasn’t for the terrifying possibility of just dying right now, I probably would’ve felt cool.

“I don’t think I can hold on much longer!” I shouted to Drew, my body hands struggling to hold the weight of my body multiplied by the intense gravity. Drew scoffed as I tried to pull myself down to the ground, but it was futile. Then I sighed.

“Hey well, at least I get to go out with one of my best friends.” I felt like crying right then and there, but Oliver interrupted.

“None of you guys are dying! I don’t know what happened to you two with the lightning and that purple hooded guy who sounded like something from another world. And I may be ordinary, but I will save you. The lightning vortex thingy looks like it is closing in on itself, so just hold on!” He grabbed at our wrists attempting to help us fight the gravity. It was no use, I looked over to Drew, his eyes saddened for a second. A pit formed in my stomach, we weren’t getting out of this, Drew seemed to have the same realization.

"It’s okay Oliver, things will be okay” I smiled at my friend.

"No, you don't get to be the one to tell me that, and I am not ready to be alone in the world again. You have no idea how miserable I was till I found the both of you," Oliver begged, "I'm not going to lose everything, no I won't."

"But..." Drew began, Oliver yelled over his voice.

"No way! You two are too dumb to be left alone, and Drew you can't even tell the difference between a lot of things. Even if I’m ordinary, I’ll come with you." He screamed. Right before I could protest, he ripped both of our hands from the wall and grabbed on tightly to Drew's waist as he and I were finally thrown towards the portal.

“You idiot” I yelled.

“Alright, Mr. Ordinary, welcome to the team.” Drew smiled and together we hit the event horizon of the purple portal of lightning.

"I will allow that, just for today," Oliver said as he closed his eyes the moment we were zapped into the portal.

Electricity tore at my skin, the world around us was dark. It was as if I was being sucked into a black hole. Purple lightning struck the air around us. Oliver let out a screech of fear. I wouldn't doubt he

regretted the decision he had made to follow his friends into the void we were now enveloped in. I

was glad he came though.

We fell through the void; no falling was the wrong word.

We were being dragged. The darkness clawed at my skin, like something alive. Electricity snapped at my nerves, each pulse sending pain straight to my skull. My breath ripped from my lungs, my bones rattling like I was being unmade. Oliver screamed again. I barely heard him.

The thought of being the only person left behind must’ve gnawed at him, and it felt nice knowing he would risk his life for us. I wonder what Rose would be thinking right now, my breath hitched as I thought of my sister's last words. Several minutes had passed in the swirling void until a whirling vortex came into view, and we were thrown through the eye of the storm.

My feet landed hard on the grass, buckling my knees and I grunted in pain. Drew landed beside me but was able to hide his pain, or he was just way stronger than me. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Oliver's face firmly hitting the ground beside us. He let out muffled sounds of agony as he tried to spit out the dirt that had been forcibly implanted into his mouth.

"Soft landing, eh?" Drew smiled while helping Oliver to his feet. I couldn't help but chuckle.

Oliver spat out the remaining dirt, "Okay, I hate portals.”

“Very funny” I smirked.

"What is that sound?" Drew questioned. Oliver and I ignored him, scanning our surroundings.

All around us were rolling hills with lush tall trees scattered here and there. Amongst the green grass, patches of white flowers peppered around the healthy grass, seemingly soaking in the sun. It had been raining in my town for the last two months, so the sun brought back warm memories.

"It's beautiful. I didn't realize how much I missed the sun," I caught myself saying out loud with my arms outstretched praising the light.

"Leo, do you hear that?" Drew firmly said. I snapped out of my daze. It took me a

second to place what the sounds were and where they were coming from. Clashes of metal and roars could be heard echoing over the hill nearest to us. Drew dashed off towards the sound, throwing all caution to the wind.

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"What the hell? Drew!" I yelled, “Great…”.

Oliver and I barreled after him, but Drew was the fast one. His specialty was getting us into trouble, and he was damn good at it. We tried to catch up, but Drew seemed to increase his speed every second.

I crested the hill, and froze. Below, the valley was on fire.

Steel clashed against steel, swords flashing in the light. A line of armored warriors fought desperately against massive, green-skinned creatures, their faces twisted in snarls. Some of the creatures held swords while others that gathered near the rear carried bows made from dark-looking wood.

Obviously, they had some strategic intelligence with the way the monsters positioned themselves. Then we heard a loud roar from one of the creatures close to the human, so loud it caused the earth to shake.

A string of fear tugged at my heart. I had seen something similar to these monsters before in all the video games and light novels I had read. They were orcs, which meant they were basically zombie ogre things. One thing my fantasy novels and games left out when showing these monsters was how utterly disgusting they looked in real life, which was enough to make my stomach churn.

Arrows let out whistles as they flew through the air towards the humans. An orc larger than the rest stepped out to the front and started leading a charge, he brandished a claymore that looked like it could be as tall as me.

"He must be their chief, the Orc leader," I muttered as I stared at the sight before me.

"Orc?" Oliver stammered.

"Form ranks! Follow my lead!" A voice came from someone who I can only assume was the leader of the human group. He wielded a large rectangular wooden shield and a short sword that gleamed as though it was on fire. Sword users ran and formed a line beside and behind him; three people stayed in the back. They didn't seem to have swords and instead of armor, they wore colored robes. Drew, Oliver, and I continued to watch as an all-out battle began directly in front of us.

"May chaos grant me a fraction of its power, Fireball!" One of the women in the back chanted. She extended her left hand, and I couldn't believe what happened next. Unable to control my nerdy excitement, I let out a loud squeal.

"Did you see that? That's magic, they are magicians," I pointed out.

"What the hell is going on!?" Oliver said in complete disbelief. A huge fireball shot out of the

woman's hand and launched itself straight toward a pack of orcs. I’m sure I heard an orc let out a hopeless sigh just before the ball hit its chest, exploding on impact and creating a small crater around the now completely dissolved green monster.

"So strong, cool," marveled Drew. His eyes gleamed with interest, and I returned my eyes to the battlefield, watching as humans and orcs clashed.

"Leo, get down!" Oliver tackled me to the ground. I felt the air come off an arrow as it passed just over beside my face. Planting itself into a lone tree behind us.

I stared in disbelief at Oliver, the small kid had just saved me from a projectile that would have most definitely killed me. He smiled and puffed out his skinny chest.

"I know, I know, I am a hero! Who is ordinary now!" He pumped his fists. I couldn't help but smile at my friend, who knew he had such quick reflexes. I turned towards the battlefield, it seemed like the Orcs had noticed us.

The human commander stood his ground at the front, barking orders over the clashing steel and dying screams. His tattered cape billowed as he parried a wild swing from an orc’s jagged blade, deflecting it just in time to drive his own sword deep into its chest. Around him, soldiers were fighting with all they had, but they were losing ground. The front lines weren’t just holding, they were desperate.

I could see the exhaustion in the way the warriors moved, the hesitation in their strikes. The orcs weren’t slowing down. The lead Orc ran towards the shield leader.

And just like the light novels I read; this was a disadvantageous battle for him. The Orc chief ran so fast and swung his blade to his neck, he dodged backwards. But he was a few seconds late to react, another jagged sword severed his right arm from behind.

The look of surprise never left my face, as the human commander stepped back towards the magicians. I could see him talking, but I didn't hear a thing he said.

I watched in disgust as the front line began to be wiped out. I could feel bloodlust coming off the orcs. The large Orc boss picked up his severed hand and stuffed it in his mouth, smiling as blood dripped from his lips.

Horrified from the scene right in front of me, then his eyes caught mine. I was scared to move, once again I felt this blinding fear. It was so much that I felt I would die if I made a wrong move, I didn't want to die. Oliver pulled me away from the Orc's sight, diving behind the hill.

"We have to leave now," Oliver muttered, obviously scared too.

"Leo, Oliver, we have to go down and help them. They will die. The magic users in the back can't hold off all of them with the front lines being wiped out." Drew reasoned.

I didn't know if it was bravery or plain stupidity, "Are you crazy? Did you see what happened down there? Do you have a death wish, Drew!?" I stammered. Even as the words exited my mouth I felt like a coward. Drew flashed me a dissatisfied look.

"So what then? What are you suggesting?" Drew asked as he pushed me, "Do you want us to run away like some scared kids?"

"Yes, we are kids, and we are scared. I am scared! I don't know what has gotten into you, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. This isn't the kind of trouble we can walk out of without issues, we need to get out of here now."

“They’ll die," Drew said, before I could even respond Drew barreled off to the battlefield, and Oliver just stared at him.

"Argh!" I screamed, "I hate that idiot sometimes," I ran after him as fast as I could, we would probably die before the day ended. And it would all be Drew's fault. I wasn't fast enough to catch up to Drew, I hate that my feet led me after Drew.

We arrived at a bloody scene; soldiers were spitting blood as they attempted to hold off the onslaught of orcs. They gave up on whatever formal sword training they had had and wildly swung their swords in hopes of hitting any target.

Drew was busy helping a soldier to his feet that had been knocked down, so he didn't notice a wild orc that had broken through the front lines running towards him, swinging its weapon wildly.

"Behind you!" I screamed towards my blonde-headed friend.

He whirled around, but it was too late. The orc plunged his crooked blade into Drew's stomach. Much to my surprise and amazement, I watched the sword crumble to pieces like Drew's body was a rock.

The orc snarled, raising its fists. Drew moved faster.

His fist slammed into the monster’s face, the impact cracking like a gunshot. The orc staggered, its eyes rolling back—but it wasn’t dead.

Drew grabbed a fallen sword, his fingers clenching the hilt. For a second, I thought he’d freeze.

Then, he swung. The blade sang through the air, slicing into the orc like paper.

Oliver and I stared in shock as where once stood a complete orc, now stood one without a head.

The entire battlefield stopped for a second to marvel at what had just happened, "How... How did you do that?" Oliver asked

"I don't know, I just swung it," Drew replied, then he turned to me and yelled, "Watch out."

As I tried to move out of the way, Drew closed the distance between us and parried his sword against an Orc, hitting the blade up in the air. The Orc lost its balance due to the force, and Drew slashed the blade against the chest of the Orc as it fell to the ground. The Orc burst into green dust.

I felt goosebumps all over my skin, "I... Thank you," Were the only words I could mutter. Oliver just sat there staring at our friend in amazement.

"How? I mean, how the hell did you do that?" Oliver asked.

“I don't know, but I don't think it's over just yet," Drew said as we followed the direction towards the rest of the Orcs, their eyes settled on us and the dead Orc beneath Drew's feet.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." I whispered as I looked around for something I could use as a weapon.

While Drew's unbelievable act of aggression had momentarily caused the monsters to stutter, the battle quickly began again.

Another orc broke through the front line and was headed towards me. I didn't have time to think. I lunged for a lost weapon rolling as I picked it up. My senses were in overdrive. The orc swung at me, but I was barely out of reach. I felt the blade slice the top layer of my skin, leaving a small cut and a burning sensation on my chest.

Tossing away every hope that I was capable of great durability like Drew, I scrambled to my feet to get away from it. So I did the only logical thing, of course. Throw my blade in hopes that I don't need to get any closer to a revolting monster. Luckily the dagger implanted itself firmly into the Orc's skull.

I’m the greatest.

"Nice throw Leo!" Oliver yelled, pumping his fists up and down as he made his way over to us! His eyes changed from happiness to horror. My brain failed to comprehend his change in mood, so I boasted.

"Drew looks like you aren't the only skilled warrior," I said, winking at him.

"Leo, get down!" Oliver screamed as he pushed me to the side. Once again, the whistle of an arrow whizzed past my face.

I heard the arrow firmly plant with a thud behind me.

"I owe you two times now, Oliver!" I smiled. The adrenaline made me feel more alive than I ever had. I turned towards my savior.

"Leo..." Oliver muttered with tears forming in his eyes.

My heart sank as I saw an arrow firmly planted into his chest, right where his heart should be.