We ventured out, we saw trees…more trees…trees again. Oh look more trees. Ya it was a bit monotonous. About the time I wanted to ask Adien to start shooting fireballs at the trees… just so there was variety. We heard a noise. Erica went into shadow immediately. Keith stepped up in front facing the area the noise came from. I know that we are supposed to be careful. But the suspense was killing me. My mind was jumping back and forth between huge monsters, to rabbits. I couldn’t decide which would be worse. The huge monster we couldn’t fight, or the teeny rabbit that would just waste our time.

A few minutes that felt like hours passed. Erica returned. “Orc's ahead. Its a small group of camps, clearing the forest. Looks like twenty to thirty of them.” We all gathered together. I turned to Erica. “Were they all together? In small groups? Or strung out?” She started drawing in the dirt a layout of the camp. “Three groups of five to six. With about five walking around the group. One big tent, with some inside. But I couldn’t see inside.” I thought for a second than turned back saying. “Were any of them wearing any caster type clothes? Or staves? Any bows?” She thought for a second. “Not that I saw. Just your typical loin cloth with clubs.”

I looked at everyone. “OK we could try grabbing them a group at a time. Or we could have a big brawl. Any preferences?” Uneasy looks passed between the group. Aiden chimed in. “We don’t have any group damaging spells, or abilities. Best to try small groups at a time, until we see how strong these guys are. If they are as weak as the goblins. We can mow them down no problem. But if they are stronger. We don’t want to get swarmed.” A very solid, logical solution. Boring, but logical. We can survive boring.

I turned to the group saying. “OK let’s try to stagger the fights if we can. If anyone gets in trouble kite them back to Keith so he can snag them. Try to spread out. But stay close. If you need a heal tell me. I’ll keep my aura up, so minor wounds will heal over time. If you need a larger dose speak up. I think it would be best to have our range people, target first. To see how long it takes to drop them. Focus on a single target, if they drop grab the closest ones next. If any look to try running towards another group switch to it, and drop it. Understood?” We all nodded. Time to get our game faces on.

I looked to Erica. “Do you want to try attacking with the group? Or pick up any runners?” She thought for a second. “First group i’ll gank any runners, if they drop fast. I’ll help with second group closer.” I nodded. “OK let’s get ready range its on us.” We slowly crept closer. We saw a small group of orcs surrounding a camp fire. They were uniformly of a green skin variety. Long ears, long tusks. Maybe five foot tall on average. A couple had ear rings, a few nose rings. One had a nipple ring. About the only variation besides rings, were scars. All had scars of some kind looking more decorative, than a result of combat. But I didn’t want to assume to much just yet. The more muscle bound orc had the only metal weapon of the group, a club yes. But his had metal studs looking like warts at the end of the clubs head.

I whispered “The big one with the metal studded club is target one. After that shift to the closest one.” I checked to see everyone was ready. “On three, two, …one.”

Aiden, Katie, and I stood up, took aim, and fired. It was a bit over kill. All three attacks converged on the target. His body exploded, about the only thing left were some smoking legs. The suddenness of the attack combined with the, well gruesomeness of the attack. Caused the remaining four orcs to be stunned into inaction. We switched to the closest orc. A repeat of the first attack resulted..eww. The second attack broke their shock. They all turned in our direction screaming out in rage. Keith stepped up banging his sword against his shield. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty…” He was taunting them…without using taunt.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I didn’t know if it would technically work, but they were closing the distance fast. With a ‘snitcht’ sound than a pained gasp. The one on the right lost his footing falling to the ground. Revealing Erica had come out of shadows. She had probably stabbed the orc in the back, or as gamers like to say ganked him. She was now closing in behind the remaining two. Keith jumped forward shield leading. He tried to bowl over both, but one was slightly too far to his right. It slipped past him. To be met by three magical attacks. His body exploded backwards spraying goop bloody bits. All over Keith's face. He spit out what he could.

As he was distracted, and probably half blinded. A club descended behind him. The club hitting Keith in the shoulder. I could see it hurt, but not enough to disable him. Keith swung his shield in the orcs direction scoring a clean hit on the orcs chest. It pushed the monster back. Causing the orc some major pain. It roared raising the club in the air again. As Keith set his feet to block. A ‘snitcht’ sound was heard. The orc had a confused look on its face, as it slowly fell to the ground. There was Erica behind the falling orc, blades bloody. A faint smoke drifting up from the tips.

I reached Keith putting a hand to his shoulder. I let the heal into him. I saw a visible sigh of relief from Keith. He turned saying. “Thanks, that hurt more than I want to admit. But with all that noise we are sure to have alerted the others. On to the next group.” We continued in this way clearing out the camps one at a time. But for some reason none of us were gaining levels.

It felt like the easy levels were over. It was time to work, blech. We were finishing up the last group, before figuring out what was in the tent. When a humongous orc stepped out. He had to be seven feet tall, rippling muscles. He was clad in chain mail armor, but it wasn’t made for him. You could see it was a patch work design. What had us worried was the six foot long great sword in his hands. He twirled it around like it weighted nothing.

“The meat has come to dinner. So much nicer than having to hunt it down.” OK that was a bit over the top even for our group. Keith stepped up. Looked the orc up, and down. He spit to the side saying. “Bring it cupcake!” The rage in the orcs face proved he did not like jokes. He roared running straight for Keith. I knew this first hit was going to be strong, size does matter. I focused on my spell bubble, trying to force it around Keith. It did not want to work. But im stubborn.

I pushed mentally, than pop. A bubble appeared around Keith. I breathed a sigh of relief. Than started tossing holy bolts at the orc as fast as I could. Different spells were sent towards the orc. All hit doing damage, but not for much damage. The orcs sword came down to crush Keith. He raised his shield at an angle. It deflected the sword to come crashing down into the ground.

A flurry of ‘snitcht, snitcht, snitcht’. Sounds showed Erica was trying to turn his back into a sprinkler system of blood. Keith lazily reached out with his sword jabbing his sword right into the orcs neck. At the same time a pillar of light landed on his head. The orcs eyes glazed over, he started toppling to the ground. Keith turned slightly yelling “Timber!!!” As the orc crashed to the ground. We all felt our experience grow. We leveled up a ton. I gained five levels. Ten points to spend. I tossed five into intelligence, two went to wisdom. I than put three into stamina.

I know health is important, but I increased my stamina not for that. But because the long treks through the forest had been tiring. I didn’t want to run out of steam right before a fight. We shared a group cheer than, got to looting.