“I still can’t believe you managed to learn how to repress your aura in only one try…” the cat-girl Ryn said to me while holding her head in her hands.
I smiled wryly and tried to cheer her up, “Don’t compare yourself to me. I’m highly abnormal in many ways.”
Ryn lowered her eyelids, “I’ve realized that. Not only using the ancient art of transmutation but doing it without chants… Haaa….”
“Master is amazing after all.” Flysa said with certainty.
Currently we were sitting in their camp which was an hour away from my old home. I’m going to miss that place… Ryn and Alice were teaching me to repress my aura, and Flysa was struggling to copy. Apparently aura is the excess mana that is leaked out of living things after their bodies reached full capacity, and I had a ton of it. So much that even the two boys Michael and Hyls could sense it.
Ryn and Alice, being mages, were overwhelmed by the amount of mana I had streaming off of me; which apparently was the largest aura they had ever sensed for more than a moment, and only vaguely I got the comparison that I might have as much as the grandmaster of the academy they graduated from.
I kindof want to meet him… Well no matter. Perking the ears on my left head I picked up the sounds of Michael barreling through the forest along with the sound of several heavy runners behind him. Soon enough orc roars became hearable by the rest of the group.
Ryn and Hyls faces hardened and quickly grabbed their weapons, a wand and sword respectively. Meanwhile Alice calmly stood up with a small smile on her wolven face and dusted herself off.
Flysa merely stood up and brought Appoloin to bear, facing the direction of the orcs. Picking up my spear I leisurely stood behind Ryn and his group, motioning for Flysa to do the same before turning to Hyls, “looks like Michael brought back company.”
He nodded. “Looks like it. Considering the amount of roars we might not be able to do this safely.”
I tilted my head, “Then do you want me and Flysa to thin them out?”
He looked at me for a moment before nodding with a sigh. “Don’t push yourself.”
I nodded and turned to the forest just as Michael burst into the clearing, several dents on his armor as he bolted towards us, “Run! It’s an Eli-”
Me and flysa bolted past him, the ground trembling in our wake. The first orc to jump into the clearing was cut down by Flysa’s Appoloin, the next three were crushed and flung to the side by the mace end of Raphael. I flicked my ears and grasped the number of orcs, twelve left. The ones we just killed were probably the faster of the bunch. One of the remaining ones is larger than the rest if I go by the vibrations.
“O-Oi! What the hell!” Michael shouted in confusion as he desperately tried to get his bearings after we rushed past him.
“There seems to be eleven normal orcs and one larger one, how many do you want us to leave for you guys?” I asked, looking back over my shoulder with my right head and ignoring Michael.
Hyls’ face cramped slightly, “Leave three of them, we won’t be able to take more than that. Also if you could get rid of the bigger one…”
““Got it.”” I said and dashed into the woods, followed by Flysa. The other orcs spotted us and charged with raised weapons. The one in the front was larger and darker skinned than all the others, not to mention wielded a rustead greatsword as large as me. I decided to get rid of the big one first, and shot a kinetic bullet through his brain. The rest stopped in surprise as their commander dropped dead with no head.
Bad move. Flysa instantly covered the distance and swung Appoloin in a wide arc, mowing three orcs down in a single swing. An instant later four more dropped dead, two by my spear and the two by kinetic pulses that destroyed their insides.
The last three hesitantly looked at us, then decided to charge recklessly. Happy that they made it easy for us we led them back to the others.
Bursting into the clearing we found them all ready and jumped over their heads. The orcs recklessly charged in, at this point I don’t know if it is stupidity or courage. Maybe both.
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Stepping back I let the four adventurers take charge of the situation. Michael and Hyls took the front as tanks, while Ryn started chanting a magic aria and Alice seemed to fade slightly before moving off to the orcs side.
I blinked in surprise as a faint magic wave pulsed from Hyls and Michael, and even more so when the orcs gained a gleam in their eyes and headed straight towards them, not even noticing their companion falling down with a knife in his neck, courtesy of Alice. I guess the spell is similar to a taunt? Watching them barely holding back the blows of the two orcs was curious. Are they really that strong?
Just as I was contemplating Ryn finished her chant, and four spears of fire shot out of the tip of her wand and impaled the two orcs, finishing them off. *ting~
You have defeated a level 65 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Medium)
You have defeated a level 62 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Large)
You have defeated a level 61 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Large)
You have defeated a level 61 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Medium)
You have defeated a level 69 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Large)
You have defeated a level 67 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Medium)
You have defeated a level 63 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Large)
You have defeated a level 69 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Large)
You have defeated a level 57 Gren Orcus (Adult) (Large)
You have defeated a level 44 Greater Gren Orcus (Adult) (Large)
You have defeated a level 27 Greater Gren Orcus (Adult) (Medium)
You have defeated a level 15 High Gren Orcus (Adult) (Large)
You have leveled up 37 times!
Raphael has leveled up 32 times!
Flysa has leveled up 38 times!
Appoloin has leveled up 36 times!
Hyls Stonebrook has leveled up!
Michael Furosis has leveled up!
Alice has leveled up!
Ryn has leveled up!
Raphael has gained a new ability: [Soul Seal]!
Appoloin has gained a new ability: [Energy Wave]!
Sighing the four of them relaxed, lowering their guards. I glanced at the notification window; so it automatically considered them party members? Shrugging I walked up to them, “What should we do with the corpses in the woods?” I asked.
Hyl turned to me while stretching his arm, “Take the tusks, you can turn them in for subjugation rewards.”
I nodded and went into the woods with Flysa, returning a couple minutes later with twenty six tusks, six of which were different then the rest; two black tusks and four serrated.
“Ah, those are the tusks from a high orc and greater orcs respectively.” Ryn answered before pausing and shaking her head. “Honestly you guys are near S-rank to be able to kill them like that.”
““S-rank?”” I asked with both heads tilted, is it like in all those novels?
“Ah, I guess you wouldn’t know.” Ryn continued, “There are eleven ranks in the adventurer’s guild; the normal ranks start with G and go up to A, from then on it is S, SA, SS, and finally X. G is a bit lower than what a normal human would be able to do, F is the average. E is considered just underneath the level of a soldier, while D is a full-fledged adventurer. C, which is what we are at, is skilled. B and A are powerful but still within the realm of normalcy. Anything higher than that is considered abnormal.” She paused and pondered for a bit; “For example, S rank would be on the level of fighting a lesser drake. X would be on the level of fighting an actual dragon, and there are only two registered X ranks in the world.”
“Registered?” I raised an eyebrow.
Ryn shrugged, “There could be more, hidden in countries and such. They’re considered as strong as natural disasters at that point, so its natural countries try and rope them in. The only one I know of that is not registered would be the grand archmage of Revelulus academy, Zach Ulosiv.”
Umu… So I would be at S-rank… I wonder what other enemies will be like. Or where I could fight a drake.
Since they defeated enough orcs to fill the quota (which is really only one orc) we started heading back towards the city where they lived. We would be there in three days if everything went well.