15 - Orc 1

Arrows criss cross the jungle, as the men take aim at the orcs, and that one giant orc.

How did it get to this point?

Well. Sara left the village and started scouting, into the neighbouring nation’s territory (boundary laws in this time and age is rather loose, and people movement between nations is normal), and eventually bumped into a small group of orcs. At first, she did not engage, and merely continued her recon mission, and she soon spots a bigger band of orcs, about 60 of them.

The bigger band is actually under attack, from the army of the neighbouring friendly nation, and they have an army of about 100 men.

They manage to scatter and kill quite a lot of the orcs, but some are now fleeing towards our village.

So, Sara ran ahead to warn us, and we then moved to intercept the fleeing orcs.

Its relatively easy, to be honest. They are already wounded, and are being chased by an enemy force behind them. So all we had to do is hide, and cut them off as they approach us.

And this worked, for a while.

Until we bumped into the giant fleeing orc.

Large, green, angry, and flings a massive rock club, its ability to smack through stuff is ridiculous.

Its so big, we just did not dare to approach anywhere near its rampaging path, so we shot arrow after arrow after it.

But this exposed our positions, and the rest of the men had to retreat, else the rest of the orcs would attack.

So here we are, in a retreat-and-fire kind of maneuver, dodge that giant orc.

The giant orc smashes a tree.

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Arrows just bounce off its skin. Seriously.

“Prince. We can’t run forever, I am going to engage it.” Adam shouts, changing to a sword. A few men rally around him.

“Uh, wait?” I try to look around, he’s right, we are running out of forest. Any further it will be the village, and that's not good. Too much collateral damage.

“Anne!” I shout, who’s running ahead of me. She turns, stops.

“Yes?”

“We are going to fight.”

“Ah.”

“Turn on that skill of yours!” I had previously ask her to turn it off, just so I know what my true un-skilled strength is.

She nods, blushes and the passive ability [Prince in Shining Armor] kicks in.

Then, I too activate my skill, [The Power of Love], which creates an aura around me, and somehow, boosts the strength of all the men, including Adam and Sara.

The giant orc charges at Adam, and he prepares for it, his hand on the sword, his grip sweaty.

[Grand Slash].

His sword glows yellow, and he cuts the giant orc. And the giant orc’s body is instantly severed in half. The rest of the orcs, now panic, and tries to run the other direction.

Adam, the rest of them give chase, and a while later, chased or killed the rest of them.

Ah. Easy! I like that. Maybe its just a warmup for me.

“Hmmm…” Adam walks over, looking quite satisfied. “What's that ability you used back there?”

“Ah.. its a passive boost thing…”

“Not bad. I felt much stronger when you used it.”

Somehow I felt kind of embarrassed, when Adam actually praised me. So I end up rubbing my own head a bit. “Ah… it was nothing much.”

“I think it’ll be useful someday.”

“Yeah. It will be.” I mean, that's what a passive support boost is for, right?

After some cleanup and checking the orcs for any loot, I found a few rather interesting bones and items on the giant orc. Ah. At this point, it seems I get full rights to the allocation of any collected loot. Benefits of being the prince, I suppose, if my siblings were here it would be a conflict.

War Gauntlet, Male Only, +4% affection, Yellow. Boosts attack.

2 x Bones of a basilisk, gift crafting material, (Yellow, Blue, Green, Red, White), Affection depends on end product.

4 x Drake Teeth, Gift crafting material, Yellow and green. Affection depends on end product

Small emerald. Green, +4% affection to green. Can be further processed. Affection boost is higher when set in jewelry.

Small aquamarine, Blue +4% affection to Blue. Can be further processed. Affection boost is higher when set in jewelry

Ooh nice.

“Adam, you can have the gauntlet.” Well, he’s been eyeing it for some time, so when I said it, he flashed a bg smile.

“You sure? You don’t want it for yourself?”

“Nah. I’ll have the bones, teeth and the gems. The men can split the rest of the loot.”

There’s also a some basic armor, some loose metal chains that the orcs carry, some rough axes and clubs, so that goes to the rest of them.

“It’s still kinda scary seeing a monster die like that.” Anne recounts the battle, shaking her head. “But if this is the future, I need to toughen up.” She smacks herself.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I will be. Just… need some time to get used to it.”

I pat her on the shoulder. “Yeah. You’re tough, right?”

She gives me a huge smile. “Yes.”