Rip Rip Rip

Seconds passed as I dodged one attack after another from the grey orc in front of me.

It is hell-bent on killing me and using every skill he has in his arsenal and all I am doing is dodge, this is all I could do. I could not counter his attacks, nor I could defend against them.

He is stronger than me. The only thing I have is a movement skill, which is really good, and a balance skill, which stops me from falling when I dodge weirdly.

Without both of them, I would have been dead.

I would be dead. If I did not do something soon. I couldn’t dodge forever. It will kill me sooner or later, but I have nothing. I do not have the required speed and power to kill him.

This one is also not an idiot, like the last one.

The only thing that could save me is help from others, but that will be unlikely to arrive soon. Seeing everyone fighting, even my guards are busy with bandits.

They are the only reason we have a chance in this battle.

If not for them, bandits would have the edge in this battle and it would be us, dying in large numbers than the bandits.

Zela is summoning multiple shields, while Stone is alone, fighting against two of the bandit leaders' lieutenants. As for Jon, he went to the battlements and I really hope he and others will deal with the archers soon.

They are killing our people. Three of the five guards dead have been killed by the archers.

Sup!

I was thinking about the archer when one of the arrows circumvented around the shield and nearly hit me on my head.

Thank God, I was dodging its attack and able to avoid it.

Seeing myself nearly dying at every second, I am cursing that bastard Lancel with everything I have.

If he had just used his little brain, we would have been safely sleeping in our suits.

I defended a few more attacks and dodged two more arrows. The bastard archer had fixed me at their target and now attacking me; most of their attacks had been blocked by shields, but get passed it.

He had a skill that let him circumvent the shield.

Getting hit would be a death knell for me, even if it hit the most harmless part of my body. I will be dead, in less than a second.

A minute passed, and I am surviving, but many have died. Including some archers, if reduced intensity were any proof.

The number of arrows may have reduced considerably, but they are still coming. The one attacking me is just fine; it would have been great if one of our rogues were able to kill them.

Rip!

Another attack cut through me, this time more deeply, right across my stomach.

There are so many such injuries piling on my body. Currently, I am fine, but soon, these injuries will tire me out and it won’t take long. Seeing the speed, these injuries are piling on me.

Sup!

I just thinking that when another arrow came and nearly hit me once again.

At that moment, I realized something bound the arrows. They are coming from the front of me, at the back of the orc. This latest arrow had not only nearly shot me but also the orc.

Unlike me, the orc is not worried about them. He knows these arrows will not harm him.

A couple of seconds passed, and a few more arrows came, and I received an injury on my shoulder. It is light, barely a scratch, but if I hadn’t been wearing light armor under my shirt it would have been, been much bigger.

After the dungeon incident, I brought a hidden armor from Jalrux.

It is thin enough to be not noticeable under the shirt but powerful enough to slow down the attack from the enchanted weapon.

It had saved me many times in this battle and made me wish I could have brought the better one, but Lancel wouldn’t have let me wear that.

He has no armor policy for the advisers; the armor is only for guards. Even his father thinks it is an idiot rule.

Sup!

Another arrow came, and I avoided it while dodging the attack of the orc, which was coming constantly.

‘So, this is the pattern,’ I said to myself.

Ever since I had noticed that thing, I begin to observe and the more I did, the more I noticed the pattern. They are hiding it, but not actively. They had been trained that way.

It is a classic army method; it is simple enough that most archers could learn it, but is difficult for the target to track it.

Old Remus had been taught this by an instructor; dealing with archers had an important lesson in old Remus's training.

Not because every warrior should learn it, but because his brother was a casual archer, and he liked to shoot arrows at old Remus when he was training.

The bastard had picked up archery to bully him.

He lost interest in it after I took over as I stopped practicing, and he picked up different things to bully me, but soon learn the price of that.

A small smile couldn’t help but appear on my face when I remember his screams.

I pushed those memories away and focused on the current state.

I could not dodge forever; I will die eventually. It would be better if I killed him; it would save me from dying, at least temporarily.

I decided to take the risk, but I did not act immediately; I continued to dodge the attack and the arrows, till, I could tell when the arrow was coming.

It had taken a few seconds, and injuries, one of which hurt like hell, but I got what I wanted, and now, I have only a chance to execute it.

He is a bandit, not an idiot. He might understand what I am trying to do after the first attempt, so I have to succeed. My goal is to injure him enough that he couldn’t attack me with rapid attacks.

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If possible, kill him, but that would be hard. Though, I will try my hardest for that.

To be honest, I would have liked a few more minutes to study the archer, but this was an actual battle; I do not have the luxury of time.

Here, I will die if I wait for a few minutes.

He continued to attack me, before finally, I saw the arrow coming and moved left to dodge.

My instinct told me it is much safer to dodge from the right than the left, but I need to move left. Seeing the trajectory, this arrow will curse its path to avoid Zela’s shields, which are always moving to make archers' jobs difficult.

It's a dangerous risk and if I was even faintly wrong about the arrow's trajectory, I am going to pay an enormous price.

A grave injury or death, but what other choice do I have? If I keep fighting as I am, I am going to die, eventually. So, it is better; I die taking a risk, rather than running like a rat.

I moved to the left, using every bit I power I could, and pushed my skill in such a way, it begins to hurt in my head, but I did not care.

Seeing me dodging to the left, a grin appeared as he could divert his attack to the left easily, rather than right, and it did just that.

Its sword came toward me, at a speed faster than I was moving. It will eventually catch up to me and when it does that, there will not be an injury, but death. That sword of it will cut me cleanly from my upper waist.

I am looking at the sword, but I am focused on the arrow, which had avoided the shield, by mere centime, as I had expected it would do and now coming toward me, or rather toward the orc, at a very fast speed.

The orc hadn’t even sensed he was moving into the path of the arrow.

“You can die now, human,” it said when its sword reached very close to me when suddenly, his expression changed.

He finally sensed the arrow behind him, and it was too damn late. Even with his speed, the arrow will hit it and there is nothing it could do with all its power and levels.

Puch!

The arrow hit his thigh and came, and its head came out from the other side, along with a large part of the arrow.

It pierced through the thick thigh of the orc and froze his leg, and seeing he was moving at a very fast speed to match mine, he had gone off balance begins to fall down.

I only looked at it a moment before focusing my all on my dodge, as the sword was still coming toward and it seemed to target my junk.

Rip!

It cut through my thigh, with its tip reaching my bone, before I was able to get away.

Nearly fell, but thanks to Sure Foot, only stumbled.

The injury is serious, seeing it hit the vein, and the pain is blinding, but despite that. I did not stop and instead moved toward the falling orc, which is trying to use his sword to stabilize himself.

Pachak!

He had stabilized himself with the help of his sword. That’s when I appeared behind him and attacked him using Swift Blade and Weighted Strike, pushing them hard as I could.

Channeling all the blinding pain I was feeling.

It had sensed the attack and tried to move, but the arrow had damaged his leg so much that he could not move fast as he needs to.

With his power and skills, he would have been able to defend himself. If he hadn’t

His situation had kind of reminded me of the plant-bone abomination. How they would move after the I cut their legs, even if they had better speed on one leg, than he is right now.

Pachac!

I decapitated it with his head flying in the air before falling to the ground.

I do not like the decapitation, but his chest was protected by thick armor. I don’t know how long it will take me to pierce his chest. The head is a better choice as I was skilled used a small gap below his helmet.

Thud!

I did not wait for his head and body to fall to the ground and instead took out the potion. I drank half in a single gulp while using the other half on the injury to my thigh.

I took out another bottle and spread it over my injuries, not caring about the bloody mess I was making, before drinking the pain potion.

I am feeling pain all over and I don’t want to feel it now. Especially when I will need to move again, and it will hurt like hell.

After I dealt with my condition, I looked around and saw the fighting have intensified further, with many guards and bandits lying on the ground.

The bandit leader and his lieutenants are still fighting, and it is looking bad. Baron Lockridge’s whole body is filled with injuries, while there is barely anything on the bandit leader.

I was looking at the fight when something shocking happened, not far away.

Stone’s sword had cut through the bloodied human lieutenant; he separated him into two, from left shoulder to right waist.

Like he did, with water clones of assassins.

He is giant blood, built as an orc, and has inherited strength from his giant blood ancestors. It gives him enough power to split people into with a normal sword, and he is using an enchanted sword.

I was looking at him, in a wonder when I sensed an arrow coming toward me. It was fast; it appeared beside me in less than a second, when I swung my sword hard and fast, with the power of my skills.

Clang!

A metallic sound rang out, and I repelled the arrow, but I felt a tremendous shock in my arm from the sheer power the arrow had. Numbing my arm for a second.

It is the reason why I had only dodged the attack of the orc, instead of defending with my sword.

The shock of power is too much; I am not strong enough to bear it.