The trio flew into action. Camila madly dashed ahead, holding the greatsword to the side as she ran. Ty and Allen followed close behind, both struggling to keep up with the berserker’s speed. Ty was injured and running low on energy, which made him slower. Then Allen had to worry about staying hidden to keep his Assassinate bonus.

This was the basic strategy they had decided on earlier. It obviously wouldn’t make sense for Ty or Allen to move in first and dominate the enemy’s attention. Still, there was an element of danger for the woman to move in before the Defender.

Of course, that was exactly the way she liked it.

Contrarily, Allen was much more comfortable out of sight. It was barely the middle of the day, but the smoke from the burning debris littering the camp was more than enough for him to stay hidden at the edge of sight. Ty just needed to move in behind Camila and be there to tank hits and hold back the enemy.

It didn’t take long for the group to come across another wave of a few more ogres. The green monsters immediately spotted Camila and went into a frenzy. They lifted their weapons or fists, eyes filled with rage and mouths foaming from stress. There were seven in total, all of the basic Brute and Brawler varieties. Camila wasted no thoughts on charging at the incoming enemies with her War Cry skill. She screamed at them and whipped her new claymore into a thrusting guard as she ran.

The stampeding ogres were practically falling over themselves by the time Camila reached them. She jumped forward and thrusted at the first ogre, a feint. The monster brought its club down at her, but the Berserker had already abandoned her attack to dodge backwards.

The club bluntly hit the earth, and then its meaty green hands were smashed apart by Camila’s claymore. The woman followed through with her attack and slashed at the ogre’s face. It roared in anger, but the monster’s brethren inevitably trampled over it from behind, fueled by their blind charge.

Camila had already moved on to the second ogre to her right, a Brawler. She dodged two of its heavy punches, parried another with her claymore, then took the last to her shoulder so she could get in close for a thrust. The rusty blade sunk deep into the ogre’s belly, spilling blood as it was ripped out again.

Eyes bloodshot, the Ogre Brawler abandoned any sense of self preservation and lunged at Camila with a powerful, yet telegraphed punch. Camila dodged out of its reach but found herself backed into another ogre. It reached out to grab her as the Brawler rewound its punch, life draining quickly from its eyes.

There third ogre couldn’t manage to get its arms around Camila before two tusks gored through its neck and destroyed its throat. It gurgled in vain before falling to a knee. Camila Dark Souls rolled away as the Brawler punched its fatally wounded kin in the chest, cracking ribs and ending its life.

Allen narrowed his eyes. He tore his tusks out of the dead ogre and jumped away as the body was shoved aside by yet another green monster. He quickly retreated behind a pile of smoldering crates to stay hidden.

Camila was moving back towards Ty, bringing four ogres with her. Allen finished off both the unconscious, trampled over ogre and the half dead Brawler with a tusk to the neck each. Then he turned back to the remaining four.

They were smashing up against Ty’s shield as Camila screamed at them, occasionally hopping around to swipe at their exposed ankles with her sword. A smile cracked its way onto Allen’s face as he found all four ogres facing away from him.

“It’s almost too easy,” he thought as he darted at their backs. “If only I could do more damage.”

Ty leapt backwards to evade a heavy blow from a club. The four ogres, two Brutes and two Brawlers, charged after him. They pushed at each other, thoughtlessly attacking the shield head on or getting cut if they tried to circle around.

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Allen sprinted up to the leftmost ogre and repeated his tried and true double neck stab. The monster’s muffled scream of pain was interrupted as Allen quickly wrenched out his tusks and punched its knees out with Surge of Pain. The monster toppled over, eyes rolling back in its head and blood gushing from its neck as it convulsed. One last punch with Surge of Pain to its destroyed throat ended it.

Allen quickly circled around behind the ogres, his tusks in hand. In their frenzied state, they probably still hadn’t noticed his presence yet. At least, that’s what he felt.

“Dang, these things are going to spoil me at this rate.” Allen chuckled a little. “I can just walk up right behind them and knife them through the jugular. That’s level twenty fodder I guess.”

The three remaining ogres pushed against Ty’s tower shield all at once, forcing him back. Camila ducked around the Defender and stabbed out at the nearest monster. Her blade traveled swiftly into the ogre’s crotch, sending it staggering back with a high-pitched scream.

Allen wasted no time ending its misery with two tusks to the neck.

Then there were two more Ogre Brutes, both furiously smashing at Ty’s shield in an attempt to get at Camila. The Berserker nimbly stuck out at them before darting back behind her teammate for safety.

Allen pulled his tusks out of the dead monster and flicked the globs of sticky green blood off them. He quickly looked around to keep an eye on his surroundings; an angry roar seized his attention.

It was close, coming from the center of the camp, and different than the others. It was a forceful roar, deeper and louder.

Allen’s eyes sharpened as a wave of fire from the burning tent next to him swelled, then shot out at him. The surge of flames rushed over the trio but wafted harmlessly around the two ogres. Allen quickly sidestepped the flames and fell into a roll but was unable to avoid them completely. He hissed as his back and left shoulder were seared bare from under his hoodie.

Camila was unable to dodge the same way. The burst of fire washed over her, melting her skin on one side of her face, and setting her clothes and hair on fire. Ty instinctively moved his shield to face the flames and blocked most of the damage, though doing so left him open to the ogres.

Thankfully, the attack lasted for only a moment. Allen jumped to his feet and rushed to his teammates. An ogre raised its club, but Allen buried one of his tusks in its armpit as he darted passed. The ogre roared and fumbled its club, its arm shaking with pain.

The fire swelled again, growing hot enough to feel from a few paces away. The furious roars of ogres quickly followed.

Allen clenched his teeth when he found Camila and quickly patted down the fire clinging to her clothes and hair. She was passed out and severely burnt. He looked up at Ty, then down the path. Another wave of nearly two dozen ogres were rushing them from that direction.

Ty body slammed the Ogre Brute that was still attacking him. “We need to get the fuck out of here!” he shouted.

“Tactical retreat! Get Camila!” Allen yelled back.

Ty turned around and bounded over to the unconscious Berserker. He quickly scooped her up and threw her over his shoulders, wincing as his broken shoulder took the weight.

Allen shouted at the Ogre Brute he had wounded. Without his Assassination bonus, he was only playing the diversion. The monster had already ripped the tusk out of its body and was about to charge along with the other Brute when five more ogres crashed through the flaming tent behind it. Then the fire parted and an ogre dressed in rags stepped through the smoldering remains of the crude structures.

Ogre Pyrokinetic

Ogre – Monster – Level 31

“Definitely time to leave,” Allen told himself.

Christopher seemed to agree because Allen vividly felt the pull on his mana go straight upwards, signaling a retreat.

Allen looked down the path in the other direction just in time to see an over sized ogre crash though yet another dilapidated tent. It shook with anger before letting out a roar strong enough to feel through the air. Its rage filled eyes promptly locked on to Allen and Ty before it started off in a sprint, dragging a minifridge-sized morning star behind it.

It was maybe ten seconds away. Allen focused on getting its nametag, the knowledge would be important.

Ogre Chieftain

Ogre – Monster – Level 38

“So that’s our power ceiling I guess,” Allen thought. “To the fields then.”

Ty held up his shield and ducked behind it as another wave of fire struck him. The he and Allen sprinted away as fast as they could, following Christopher’s pull as it led them out of the encampment. Ty was breathing hard with Camila on his back, but there were no other options. Allen simply didn’t have the strength to carry her.

He could only run and not look back.