Looking around at the orcs two things immediate cross my mind. First, for whatever reason the experience points aren't calculated until the fight is over so I can't depend on any mid fight boost. Second, they seem to be specifically targeting me. It's almost like they were looking for me. I can only assume it's because of my size. That would make sense if they were a hunting party that just happened to stumble across us. Another possibility is that they are Targeting me now because I just killed one of their kind.
I'm suddenly regretting having neglected my offensive skill in favor of healing aura. If earth manipulation was level 4 or 5, I could probably just have the ground open up and swallow them. As it is though I can only bury a few of them at a time and only up to their chests. They aren't like the short little goblins after all. I think my best option is to focus on one at a time. Not the most efficient strategy but it's kind of the only strategy considering my options.
As several of them begin to charge me it becomes clear that the time for debating is over. I quickly bring up several small spikes to stop their charge. That doesn't work as well as I had hoped. A few of them are still coming and they are now too close to try that move again without hindering my own mobility. Quickly I activate Mirror shield. It's not able to fully absorb the damage but it does manage to absorb most of it. I use my beak and claws to counterattack one of them ending its life.
While I'm doing this the others had time to prepare another attack. Once again mirror shield can't completely absorb the damage but at this moment, I am grateful for mirror shield's secondary effect. I can tell they are feeling it now. Mirror shield's secondary effect is especially hard on enemies like them whose attack is almost double their defense. 20% of the attack power just seems to hit harder when the defense is smaller. The effect does ignore defense, but lower defense generally means fewer hit points. There isn't a direct correlation but that is the general trend.
Turning slightly, I bite the throat of another attacker as he raises his mace for another attack. Meanwhile the others have recovered from having stepped on the spikes I created earlier. Seeing this I turn and start to run while summoning spikes behind me and to my side. My intention is not to run away though. Rather I plan to kite them until I can separate a few of them far enough from the main group to go on the offensive. Luckily, they don't seem to have any ranged abilities. It feels weird to not rely on my defense but with the sheer number of them I doubt I could survive relying on defense alone. The few of them in the direction I'm heading don't seem to have expected me to charge right at them. With mirror shield active I take a few hits while taking out a few of them before being forced to turn around.
Eventually two of them do get separated from the rest. I pretend to be stopping to catch my breath but in reality, I'm waiting for them to attack. Taking advantage of the confusion caused by Mirror shield turning part of their attack against them I quickly counterattack one of them with my beak and claws. After sustaining another hit the other orc is soon dealt with. As the main group starts to catch up, I realize that this strategy isn't working. At least not as well as I need it to. While I can manage to keep them from completely overpowering me with sheer numbers by preventing them from tightening the circle it's just a temporary solution. Simply put while I would be able to deal with most of them this way. I don't have enough health to see this strategy through to the end. I need to come up with another plan that doesn't require me taking damage. Either that or I need to find a way to kill a bunch of them at once. Preferably both.
It's then that I notice they are starting to slow down. Obviously, they are more used to battles of brute strength than prolong periods of chase. Watching them charge after me I'm suddenly struck with an idea. I quickly create a series of ankle high walls in their path followed by sharp spikes for them to land on when they trip. This works surprisingly well. Not all of them are killed but most of them are tripped up and a good portion of those are killed by the spikes that were strategically placed to catch them as they fell. You'd think they would have learned to watch their step after stepping on so many spikes, but I guess they trust their passive regeneration more than they should.
To be fair, short of killing them it is hard for any attack to take them out of the fight for long. Even now the ones who landed on the spikes but weren't killed are being healed at a visible rate. Briefly I wonder if my regeneration skill will ever be as good as their talent. There does seem to be a qualitative difference between skills and talents just comparing the two regeneration abilities. That's fine though. The fact that they trust their regeneration ability so much is something I can definitely use to my advantage. As I continue kiting them, I manage to trip them up a few more times reducing their numbers each time.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Unfortunately, the energy required to use earth manipulation and other skills isn't infinite and It's starting to run out. Although come to think of it I still know surprisingly little about what that energy actually is or where it comes from. I don't have a magic meter or mana pool after all. My best guess is that it comes from my mind. instead of using my own mana I will the mana that already exists around me to do what I want. That would explain why there is such a severe range limit. It would also explain why I fell asleep and slept for who knows how long after letting my energy get too low last time.
Looking at the remaining orcs I notice that their numbers are reduced to the point that I could easily escape if I wanted to. I would be leaving the others to their fate though. Speaking of the others they have managed to take out a few of them by themselves. I was too busy trying not to die to protect them the way I planned too but it appears I didn't need to worry as much as I thought I did. Makes me wonder how long they had been fighting those goblins to end up in the state I found them in. Not that they were able to escape completely unscathed this time. While I'm considering that though the orcs continue to close in cutting off my escape route.
By this point the circle has shrunken to the point that the only option left to me is to stand my ground. That was when the real battle began. With every swing of their weapon I was losing health, even with mirror shield active the entire time. The good news was that as I bit and clawed at anything in range, I was slowly starting to score kills. The fact that I wasn't alone this time also helped. My new companions took advantage of the orcs being relatively slow. As well as the fact that they were specifically targeting me for some reason. Even so by the time there was only a few left my health was dangerously low and I could feel the cracks in my shell. Not that my companions were completely unscathed.
Even with last stand giving my attack a massive boost there was simply to many of them. Sure, I could pretty much kill them in one hit now but that barely seemed put a dent in the number of orcs. Just before the last orc fell, I had accepted my fate. I had the attack power but no longer had the energy. As the orc raised his massive war hammer above his head, I was starting to wonder what my next life would be like or if there was even going to be a next life. Before he could bring the hammer down, literally in this case, I watched as an arrow appeared in his neck. The orc, who was as surprised as I was at the new neck piercing, hesitated briefly before two more arrows found their way to his neck.
As he fell, I looked around to discover that Twitchy was the only one still fighting. Harold's shield arm was busted, he must have been using some kind of skill to ignore the pain. Now that it had apparently expired, he could no longer lift his own shield. Yuna was desperately trying to heal him. Vivi on the other hand was completely drained. In fairness she had been tossing out pretty high level AOE spells, if the frequent explosions I heard were anything to go by. I also discover while looking around, much to my relief, that the orc that just fell was the last of the orcs and we had actually won. It was only a moment later when those familiar blue boxes started to appear one after another.
Defeated Orcs Outnumber Bonus 12 Experience Received
480
I was fighting to remain conscious as I felt the level ups begin to wash over me. Though there seemed to be fewer than I was expecting.
Name Thomas Race Giga Turtle Size 40m Level 16 17/170 Health 13/10,000 Attack 65 Defense 85 speed 65 Skills Active, Water Manipulation Level 2 (0/10) Earth Manipulation Level 2 (0/10) Mirror shield level 2 (0/10) Passive, Regeneration Level 3 (5/10) Healing Aura Level 7 (0/10) Talents Copper Shell, Last Stand, Improved Mental Fortitude, Telepathy
As I faded Off into unconsciousness, I vaguely wondered why there were fewer experience points than I would have thought. I know for a fact that there were more than twelve orcs.