The two orcs who had decided to stay back and let their brother handle the prey could not understand human tongue, but their keen eyes told them all they needed to know. Their brother had fallen, and once the small human with short black hair and pale skin had screamed, the rest of the humans had moved. Even to the orcs, what was unfolding before them was clear, the humans were rushing toward goblin corpses.

The orcs were furious at the death of their comrade, and the fire of hatred burned within their bodies. No matter what, they could not allow the humans to reach the goblins. Though weak, this prey dared to challenge them, so they would show it the consequences of its resistance.

“ROARR!!”

The roar shook the very air within the colosseum, sending a wave of pressure outward that hit Verity like a wall. When he heard it, Verity’s body froze. Invisible chains gripped his heart, and forced his body in place. His pulse quickened, his hair stood on end, and dread like he had never felt before wrapped around him.

[You are under the effect of a skill.]

‘Of course…!!’

It wasn’t only Verity, none of them could move, none besides the orcs. The creatures lunged forward, and the massacre began. The first victim was a middle-aged woman with a bow. She had only just begun taking an arrow out of her quiver to dip it in goblin blood when her head was sliced in half. The second was a young man wearing a suit, his chest caved in with a devastating blow. The third…

‘Move!! Move!! Move!!’ Verity’s mind screamed.

How long did he have until it was his turn? Verity was surprised that the orcs had not approached him and Felicia first, but he was also afraid that they had not done so because they had something more sinister in store for them. They were the reason their friend was dead after all.

His hands trembled, his entire body spasming to free itself from the skill. He ground his teeth, and blood leaked from his nostrils as he tried to undo the restraints put upon him. If he could not move, he would die within the next minute, and so would everyone else present. He had to move, he needed to, they needed him. Not even a day had passed, and Verity had already burdened himself with everyone’s survival, much like a hero would. He was now different from the lazy man who had been fired from his job due to a lack of productivity.

Thankfully, here, not everything rested on Verity’s shoulders. A woman holding a sword had also managed to free her mouth from the restraints before one of the orcs got to her. She was trembling, her face was pale, but her lips could move.

When she had reached level three, she obtained a skill that she did not really understand, and had been too shy to seek answers from the others. She skimmed over the description and dismissed it, disappointed that it was not a combat skill or something that could help her, against goblins at least.

‘Remove most status ailments in an area around you.’ It said.

It made no sense to her, and she still had no idea what a status ailment was, but in this desperate moment, it didn’t matter. The skill was all she had, and if there was even the smallest chance that it could work then…

She inhaled deeply, and cried out defiantly. “[C-Cleanse]!!”

The woman glowed, and with her as the nexus, a wave of energy spread outward. When it hit him, a warm sensation covered Verity, and as if the chains holding him had been broken, he regained control of his body.

‘What a convenient skill…!!’ Verity thought.

He briefly glanced at the woman to see the face of his savior, but did not waste another second. As soon as he was free, he finished the process of covering his sword in the blood of the goblin he had been holding.

Those in the radius of her skill were free now, but it didn’t mean that they had won. The orcs were still upon them, and nullifying their healing factor did not guarantee victory, only that they now stood on equal footing with the orcs. Plus, the orcs could always use the roar again, though Verity did hope that it had some sort of cooldown. In either case, they had to act fast.

“Felicia! Can you stand?!” Verity asked urgently.

Felicia’s body was still shaking from the strike she had just used to finish the first orc, but her determination had not been weakened in the slightest. She leaned on her brittle sword, and painstakingly, she rose to her feet, her legs quivering with effort. “Y-yes! I’m fine!”

Verity got straight to the point. “How many more times can you do that attack?!”

Felicia bit her lip. “... Once, maybe, and even then, I don’t think it’ll be as powerful…”

“That’s fi-”

“[Dash]!”

A large cleaver barely missed Verity as Marco slammed into him, the both of them barely avoiding the strike. The orc snarled, its murderous gaze fixed on Verity.

“GRRR”

‘Me?? Not the woman who freed us!?’ He thought.

Its face twisted with rage, and its intent was clear. The orc would not leave until Verity was dead. Verity’s hands were shaking. He had seen the orc’s strength. They were not opponents one was meant to face head-on. Having it in front of him, its bulging musculature, and the pure lethality exuding from it, Verity doubted he could even follow the arc of its strike with his eye, much less avoid it.

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Still, he raised his sword. If he was going to die anyway, he would at least try to inflict as much damage as he could.

Marco had no intention of letting him face that fate. “Hey, ugly! Over here!” He shouted, waving his arms wildly.

The orc glanced at him, its lips curling in disdain, but it ultimately ignored him. It could kill Marco whenever it wanted. For now, the human with the short black hair had to perish. It raised its cleaver high in the air, and prepared to strike the human down, when it felt a searing pain in its side.

“Don’t you ignore me, damn it!” Marco roared.

The orc growled as it looked down on the goblin sword lodged deep in its side. Was the goblin’s blood making its skin easier to penetrate? The weak human would have never been able to pierce it otherwise, and the orc was certain of that. It would have to report this when it returned to its tribe, if it returned.

“Come on! Lit this guy up!” Marco shouted.

Someone rapidly responded to the command.

“[Piercing arrow]!”

An arrow pierced through the orc’s arm, and it felt a stinging pain at the area of impact. It was clear, the goblin blood’s effect was dire and it would need to find the healers of its tribe soon. Still, its focus had not changed. More arrows were flying toward it, but its eyes were fixated on Verity.

‘If Marco did it, then I should be able to stab it too!’ Verity thought, failing to notice that the orc’s gaze had never left him. Its cleaver, which was still raised high, then fell on Verity, intending to split him in half.

“Verity!” Felicia pushed him out of the way, taking the orc’s strike instead.

“Felicia!!” Verity shouted. She could no longer dodge, and even if her sword had been in a perfect state, it could not block the orc’s cleaver.

That’s why Felicia did neither. She calmed herself, and she used the orc’s power against it. She had never tried this before, but somehow, it felt right. With a fluid motion, she deflected the orc’s cleaver to the right, redirecting its immense power into the ground.

The orc snarled in frustration, launching a flurry of strikes, all its blows aimed at Verity standing behind Felicia. Yet, Felicia stood her ground. Her concentration was out of this world. Whether it came from the left, from the right, from below, or from above, she deflected every single strike with almost inhuman precision.

‘Was she a master swordsman in another life??’ Verity thought in stupor.

It was now the fifth strike that was aimed at Verity that Felicia had deflected. Her blade met each one with unyielding defense. Each arrow, and each other sword that lodged itself within its skin had made the orc grow weaker, but what Felicia was doing was nothing short of spectacular. She seemed untouchable.

‘She might be able to hold it off until the end!’ Verity dared to hope.

Unfortunately, reality came crashing down. Felicia was extraordinary, but she was still only just level four. On the sixth strike, her body, her technique, and even her sword faltered. The blade shattered under the weight of the orc’s cleaver, and Felicia screamed out in pain. Her muscles were spasming, her breathing was erratic, and she could no longer stand.

On the other hand, the orc was littered with wounds, but it was still moving. Marco was just as relentless in his assault from the sides as the orc had been on Felicia, and another person from the rear had been using the [Piercing Arrow] skill to hit its vitals. One through the heart, one through its stomach, and it had avoided the one aimed at its head. Despite it all, the orc had not fallen.

“I huff huff I’m out of arrows!!” Someone shouted from the rear.

Marco exhaled, his breathing coming in short gasps. “Why won’t this guy die damn it!!”

Black blood flowed from every wound in the orc’s body, and leaked from its eyes and mouth. Yet, it was moving. The orc’s knees seemed to be giving out, but they wouldn’t before Verity was dead. It would accomplish its mission no matter the cost, so that its brothers would no longer have to worry about this man.

With a lightning-fast movement, it slammed Marco into the ground, ridding himself of that pest. Then, it raised its cleaver high in the sky, and it gathered every ounce of strength in its body to deliver one last strike at the apex of its abilities.

This time, there would be no one to save the man. No one to push him out of the way, no one to protect him. Even if another arrow pierced its head, nothing would be able to save the man from the orc’s strike.

‘I win… human!’ The orc thought, one final grin curling its lips.

Verity knew this strike was unavoidable. He could feel the aura gathering around the strike of the orc. It was clear. It was going to use a skill, and a powerful one at that, something it had been saving. There wasn’t a single person here who could evade, block, or parry such a strike.

Strangely enough, however, Verity smirked. His hands were trembling, and cold sweat was running down his forehead, but he smirked. Felicia was out of commission, and Marco was unconscious, but still, Verity smirked.

The orc paid it no attention. It could not understand the facial expressions of humans. So, as its final, finishing strike, it brought down its cleaver at the speed of lightning. The [Lightning Strike].

SWOOSH

In the next instant, Verity should have been dead.

[The skill Why Me?! Is being activated.]

Before he was torn to shreds, an otherworldly force took control of his body and Verity moved even faster than the cleaver. His figure blurred and when the cleaver crashed into the ground, his body was a few steps from the zone of impact.

“It worked!! It worked!! It still counts!!!” Verity laughed, hysteria creeping into his voice.

The reason Verity had been smirking was because he expected the skill to activate. It was a gamble, with his life on the line, but he had no other choice. The last blow had been the tenth, and now Verity was sure.

The skill interpreted an unexpected attack to be an attack that he could not see coming’‘, and he had been subjected to exactly nine of those. If the orc’s last attack had been at its previous speed, something that Verity could follow but could still not defend against, then his skill would not have activated. But it had been too fast. Verity knew the attack was coming from above, but he was betting on the orc pouring everything into that strike. He was hoping that it would be something so incredibly fast and powerful that he would not be able to perceive it, and thus not be able to see it coming despite knowing its path.

The smirk was meant to further provoke the orc, though Verity was not sure if that worked as intended.

Regardless, Verity’s gamble paid off.

When its final strike missed, The orc stumbled. It had put everything into this last attack, but the human still lived. The light was beginning to fade from its eyes. The poison had infiltrated too deep. How could a human move so fast? They were supposed to be weak, nothing more than prey, and yet this human easily avoided its greatest attack. How?

It could ponder the question in the afterlife.

The orc let out one last grunt, and fell face-first into the ground, its dark blood creating a puddle under it. The crash of its body echoed on the battlefield and the system spoke in Verity’s mind.

[You have assisted in slaying an enemy.]

[You have reached lv. 5]

[The skill Why Me!? Has reached lv. 2. Your proficiency has increased.]

[You have completed the trial.]