FOREST FIGHTS

“Which danger really?” Hamon asked.

Theo looked back at him. “Oh, didn’t I tell you? There is an orc leader, or better, matriarch. It is possessed with demon powers, and we are going to kill it. Well, I will be going to kill it. You’ll stay out of that one.”

Hamon pouted, but Theo wouldn’t budge on that. He had been increasing his magical resistance for this exact purpose. Few things tried to create magical effects on his body in this depth. Most blessings would alter the environment and attack him in a physical way.

The possessed matriarch was peculiar because she created an aura that forced the ones who got too close to suicide. It was done on purpose by the imp to force a zone of no interference for the newcomers. Theo thought he had enough magical resistance, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

The possession was already consuming most of the matriarch’s life, and the barrier she maintained around the forest was much stronger than the aura around herself. Even with all that, what he had right now didn’t seem to be enough. He was trying something new here, there was nothing in his memories about someone killing the possessed monster on the newcomers’ borders, but he needed to do at least this much to change the future.

They all got suppressed by the power of colossus. If he couldn’t challenge what was never defeated, how could he challenge something so beyond comprehension?

For the next day, Theo hogged all the experience from the orc caught and focused his improvement only on his magical resistance. He had been developing his mana capacity and control, but that could wait. He was already level one, and that slowed down the amount of experience he got from each orc.

On the seventh day, Theo set out with Hamon to the orc camp. It was much simpler than even the goblin village. Their numbers were also much fewer. The orc camp was just a few orc-sized huts, a bonfire, and an elevated ground in which sat the possessed matriarch.

“Isn’t it too simple?” Hamon eyed the orc camp as he carried sacs full of powder on his back. “And empty?”

“There are much less orcs than there are goblins.” Theo shrugged. “We killed fifteen of them already, do you think that’s normal? Those aren’t creatures that are used to getting killed by the things in this forest.” There were mostly critters or dangerous plants on this part, aside from the goblins who survived. “Oh, random trivia. Even the orc camp was built by goblins.”

Hamon perked up at that, impressed by the little beasts. They didn’t amount to much in comparison to the orcs, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Help me throw the powder in their direction,” Theo said.

They had collected and stored powder from the popping mushroom, but only from those that caused rage hallucinations. Here was the time to use it. Orcs were a female-led society where the matriarch ruled together with her guardians. When their band was destabilized, the guardians fought the matriarch to decide a new leader to rule them. Since they had been luring and killing the warriors and scouts, the band was in a tight spot. Theo planned on leveraging the rage of the possessed matriarch with the rage induced by the powder on the guardians to bring them down.

He brought enough extra rage sacs in case the wind didn’t cooperate. His worries weren’t needed on that front since soon they heard guttural battle cries and the clang of metals. They watched the battle from afar and kept throwing more powder into the wind.

One of the guardians rushed the matriarch with a sword in hand. The matriarch was only carrying a wooden club, but every time she waved it, the guardian would falter. As the fight went on, cuts began piling up on the matriarch, but it became clear the guardian was no match for it. Both had the same size. However, the dark aura around the matriarch, together with its bulging muscles, showed who was the real leader.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Minutes later, both other guardians joined the fray, disregarding the ongoing fight. Their eyes were bloodshot, and the duel for leadership had become a deathmatch. The loss of the band, the disgusting aura, and an unexplainable rage were enough to turn the tides.

One of the guardians managed to stab the matriarch in the stomach but paid with her life as the fleeting moment she stood still was enough to receive a devastating blow to the head. The other two didn’t last much longer. As they stabbed and slashed the matriarch, their stamina depleted quickly. It was bleeding profusely everywhere, blind, and had lost its left arm, but it was still standing.

As the last of the guardians fell, Theo sighed. “I really hoped I wouldn’t have to join the fray.” He scratched his head. “Damn, why can’t my plans work as I thought without my involvement.”

Theo grabbed an orc sword and went towards the camp. It looked like a two-handed broadsword in his hands, but at least not at the comical level of when Hamon was wielding it. He didn’t wait for the orc matriarch to notice him as he lunged, aiming for its heart. All his moves were empowered by mana manipulation, but even so, it managed to move slightly out of the way preventing a fatal blow.

Theo felt the dark aura trying to seep inside him, but it wasn’t at a dangerous level yet. Yeah, Suri will definitely get a share on this.

The matriarch was bleeding, stabbed and on its wits ends, but no matter how much he stabbed, it wouldn’t go down. Each blow it managed to swing was enough to collapse a nearby building or the ground close by.

He was getting quickly exhausted. His resistances were getting overwhelmed, and he felt his mana depleting fast. The current strategy wasn’t working out, so Theo quickly began focusing on the matriarch knees. When it dropped down, he distanced himself and waited.

The matriarch growled, struggled, and dragged itself to the ground towards Theo. He kept resting and evading it with ease and maintaining distance. Some would say what he was doing was dishonorable, but Theo would say those people were dumb. The best way to kill your enemy was by letting him kill himself.

Soon he rested up and went fighting again. He focused on the elbows this time around as he got impressed by the Matriarch’s resilience. Its body was heavily slashed, cut, and dismembered; it was bleeding like that for an hour and still alive trying to kill him. Theo pitied the monster, he didn’t know if it was its own will who was maintaining it alive or the demon’s possession. After another half an hour, Theo managed to stab it to death by poking holes all over its brain and spine. Even so, he was still in doubt whether it was truly dead or only non-moving. He relaxed only after absorbing a bit of its life force and not feeling any possessive aura.

After a while, Theo motioned for Hamon, who was perched on a tree watching from afar, to come closer. “I think it’s done… Probably.” Theo scratched his head.

“I didn’t know you could do that.” Hamon watched the matriarch corpse.

“What?” Theo asked as he got closer.

“You know. Wait for it to die out.” Hamon poked the corpse.

Theo laughed. “What? Do you think it’s some kind of MMORPG where the monster heals or respawns?”

Hamon flinched. “Errr… maybe?” He scratched his head. “It isn’t, right?” He stepped away from the corpse.

“It isn’t. Hurry up and absorb your share, I left eight experience there for you.” Theo eyed the corpse once again just to be sure.

“What? Why such a huge monster only gives eight experience? What a scam!” Hamon was outraged. “Did you hog it all for yourself?” He eyed Theo suspiciously.

Theo shook his head. “I only took two for myself. As you get stronger, the life force you get is worth less experience.” He sighed. “It would be too easy to get stronger, not that I’m complaining.”

Hamon tried to absorb the matriarch’s life force but, for some reason, couldn’t. “Maybe its soul already passed away?”

Theo frowned. “It seems it doesn’t recognize you having a part in killing it.” The world was quirky that way. No one knew why, but it slowed humanity’s progress immensely since you couldn’t give random corpses to others to power them up.

“What a bummer.” Hamon kicked the matriarch corpse. “Why so?”

“Hell if I know.” Theo shrugged.

Disappointed, Hamon kicked the matriarch corpse once again but quickly perked up as he reminded himself of the guardians’ corpses. “Damn! Four measly experience points per orc. A scam! The world is cheating us!” He threw his arms to the sky and knelt down in theatrical rage.

“At least be thankful the world was kind enough to let you get anything at all from them.” Theo laughed as he absorbed the leftover experience from the matriarch. “Hey. Help me burn it, won’t you? You know… just to be on the safe side.” Even though he confirmed it was dead himself, the matriarch’s resilience made him superstitious.

They walked away after setting the whole camp and all the corpses on fire just to be sure. Hamon also didn’t take chances.