An ancient blood orc roared as the mighty apex of these lands and Ashley beheaded it. A few seconds of flames burnt its neck to char, ending its regeneration and life. To the sides, Shin landed three quick wisping green punches and the life left his orc’s eyes while Karla ruptured the insides of the third and cracked its head open with a kick.
Jean retrieved the two plants, handing one share to Donny. This was their eighth victory over a trio of ancient blood orcs, enough to gain expertise in killing them. Although most did not come as easy as this. Chariot had decided on a shift system for these battles, of a different order than the nights.
Shin, Ashley, and Karla could handle a trio with ease but they couldn’t just allow their strongest members to deplete their mana in this unforgiving land. Thus, the second shift comprised of everyone else, a necessary split as none of those seven had the speed to keep up with brutal blood orcs efficiently. In a group, they could at least coordinate and overwhelm them in sheer numbers.
“How much time we got?”
“...three hours.” Basem answered the knight.
It was hard to tell the exact time in the basin with the uneven terrain and mountain range blocking the horizon. Fortunately, Basem had an uncanny knack for keeping track of the time and determining the cycle of the day, an expertise he had informed them wasn’t from the system in curse laden crash critique.
“Need at least two to make it back to the cliffs before dark, just to be safe. Two more then call it a day.”
“Or three, just putting that out there.” Yen said.
“Greedy woman.” Basem derided, his choice of words deliberately less colorful.
“The sooner everyone finishes, the sooner we can stop coming here.” She shot back. “Unless you want to be the fodder that gets annihilated to show how dangerous the big bad is to the people that matter.”
“Ain’t a game, Yen.”
“That’s funny, cause there’s numbers on a screen right in front of my face.”
“Yeah, you should see someone about that.”
Half of the party’s eyes jolted to Donny as ten ancient blood orcs lunged towards him. Donny’s own gaze barely had time to shift in their direction as Shin blinked in front and spread a wave of quake blasting the orcs away. The painted neanderthals crashed and slide across the ground and a firebolt exploded in a dome of flame and impact at their center. Some were knocked away but the rest charged again, charred and torn flesh healing rapidly.
Yen flew towards lone blood orc knocked to the side, and two others pursued. But a purple ape palm slapped one into the other and the two orcs faced down Shin. Some of Chariot rushed to claim their own opponents while others met the charge of the orcs that remained.
Mujin shifted around a blood orc’s club with lightning reflexes and flickered his spear, shearing through the side of its neck. But the orc grabbed the spear and the titanic impact of its foot into Mujin’s stomach sent him crashing away. He flipped to his feet, drawing a spare spear as the orc broke his in half with a tight grip.
Mujin braced himself. Greater Dragon Scales had spared him the worst of that hit but with no regeneration to rely on, he could not take them endlessly. He felt the blur of the club descending on his skull before his eyes saw it, and flashed away on reflex. A second lunging strike scoured the air and he shifted away, this time at the orc’s side. The piercing aura of Greater Impale surged forth, boring a hole in the ancient orc’s shoulder as it failed to dodge completely.
Warning shot through Mujin’s mind again and the orc’s foot slammed into his scaled head from its off balance angle. Mujin crashed away yet again, but shifted around another blurring club and returned a greater impale with perfect timing. His spear punctured half the orc’s face off, and a grizzled fist slammed into his gut. Blood and air coughed out as another fist sent him flying away.
The dragoon rose, damaged and dazed as the ancient blood orc bounded before him again, club raised high. Resolved steeled Mujin’s face as he shifted in, parrying the handle of the half swung club off his shoulder as he gripped his spear and thrust. The transparent head of a dragon enveloped his spear with his roar and punctured a giant hole clean through the orc’s torso.
The ancient blood orc staggered on its feet, raising its heavy club above an exhausted Mujin, and slumped to the ground at his side. Mujin with heavy breath glanced at his foe then to the battle raging on and dug his feet in to lunge. An strange ache pulsed out deep from within and he fell to a knee, a pain unlike any he felt before wracking through. Mujin grit his teeth and tried to rise back up from his spear but another pulse sent him writhing on the ground.
Dante, branded in glowing orange runes, slipped and dodged the club of the blood orc he faced, just barely as the brute was faster. He darted to the side and the club swiped through, the illusion of his form dissipated in the air. From the orc’s blindside, he flung half a dozen knives but the monster dodged them all, and charged.
An invisible mine exploded in the orc’s path charring and shaving the surface of his flesh. Not enough to kill, not nearly, but enough for the knives curving back to sink into its back from behind. The orc staggered and pulled the one in the back of its head out just in time for regeneration to save itself.
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It looked around, spotting the fleeing form of the charlatan to the side and one of it’s kin dropping down from the air. It paused, for a moment. The human was cunning, sly. It would not fall for its tricks again. The ancient blood orc burst towards its falling kin that smelled of nothing and swung. The club struck only air as the orc stopped short on a phantom platform, and a giant cannonball cratered the ancient blood orc to paste. Crouching in the air, the form of an orc faded away from Dante, his eyes reveling calmly in the victory he was guaranteed.
Two ancient blood orcs rushed Kamala and a four winged angel descended. Covered nearly head to toe in golden armor and white cloth, it donned a large white sword blazing in golden flames and a shield with the image of a golden wheel. And over its solid helm lined banded rings of eyes. A legendary tier Ophanim, upgraded from her previous erelim, and with her Summon Master trait, its base stats surpassed the brutal foes.
A blood orc lunged and the angel severed it in twine. The second mauled at Kamala’s face but the Ophanim’s head burst in golden blood instead as roots impaled the primitive creature, blooming in thorns as Kamala took to the sky. An aura clad rock slammed into her, trembling the greater protection around her as she crashed back down to the earth, as an eleventh orc charged out of the grass.
Jean rushed forward. His eyes too slow and his speed far too pitiful, but he knew exactly what to do. He felt death falling down on his head and a puppet shattered to splinters in his place. Roots shot up around the orc and harden, ensnaring it in place. And thorns bloomed like swords.
Kamala was smart, incredibly so, and they shared the same trait of Hypercognition. He knew she would figure out his intentions in an instant without the need for words. The thorns skewering the ancient blood orc started to wreathe and it burst out of the roots with a roar.
A club smashed Kamala, and her image faded away revealing another puppet, the real one flying away invisible with the cover of Jean’s conceal. He had hoped to end it just then but that was how luck went. He had taken precautions. Wood spears shot out of the ground, distracting the orc from figuring it out but it was too fast for any to hit.
A burst of needles from his Porcupine type puppets didn’t so much as even slow it down. The orc weathered the unthreatening needles and destroyed the two puppets. It sniffed once and looked up, but darted back as a smokescreen covered the area. It robbed him of his sight as well but Jean didn’t need his normal senses. They weren’t worth much here anyway.
Another puppet broke in his place, filling the smokescreen with a peppery mist, enough to overwhelm the creature’s sense of smell. But not its hearing. Jean switched with another puppet before he could even take a step. Puppet after puppet broke as Jean fled out of the smokescreen. He couldn’t afford to hide with stealth and risk the orc turning its focus back to Kamala. But it was faster and more efficient than he planned.
Jean appeared outside of the smoke and the orc followed, the enveloping black clouds slipping away from the savage figure, barreling towards him.
Jean watched as the club descended on him in slow motion. The puppeteer had no puppets left to switch with, and he couldn’t switch with just anything. There had to be mana, and he had to be connected. Jean thought, and his threads of mana stretched from his fingers all around. The wreathing looping threads wrapped over the land as the club drew nearer and nearer indifferent eyes.
Flesh and blood splattered over the ground, but beneath the club was the corpse of an orc, dead before the blow. A root lance speared through the gore into the orc’s head and it wreathed through its brain before it could move, ending all its thoughts for good. Kamala landed next to Jean silently as the last glimmers of shattering light left his body. They didn’t need words before and they didn’t need them now, both looking out to the rest of the battle.
An ancient blood orc skid across the ground, but jolted up and burst away before as a firebolt exploded just out of range. Yen sucked her teeth. She had hoped to end it with that. Streams of flame and blooming combustions assaulted the painted red orc but none found their mark. Even with Haste and Greater Fly, her speed was too slow, less than half of the orc’s.
Yen dove down lower and the orc took the bait, its club crashing against a hexagonal shield of her Greater Armament faster than her eyes could track. Hold locked the orc midair and a dense stream of fire surged out. The orc roared, and broke free, fleeing the flames as soon as it hit the ground.
Blackened arms crumbled away. The charred orc had barely managed to survive but barely was enough as its body quickly regenerated. It scooped up a rock in one hand and hurled it at her, slamming against her armament. More stones followed in rapid succession, the raw power making each fast enough to find their mark occasionally as Yen swerved through the air.
She cast cinder at it in turn but the glimmering cloud of dust was too slow to catch the wary orc. Yen shot closer and a vortex appeared behind the orc, slowing its movements slightly, but more importantly speeding up the dust. A stone shattered armament and passed through her body of flames but she had won.
Cinder covered the orc’s skin and a sphere of fire erupted around her. Flames spread over the orc and Cinder erupted in a second intense explosion. The orc flailed in a rage but its vigor soon slowed and its burning body crumbled away like char. Yen spared it only a glance to identify before soaring off.
An ancient blood orc battered Donny from every angle, his armor and Golden Body trait the only things keeping him whole, Unfettered and Instant Regeneration the only things keeping him alive. The orc was too fast, four times faster at least and his sheer combat skill could only do so much. He had discarded his buffs of Overpower and Agile to make room for the toughness traits, having a plan in mind that had no need for them, but that wouldn’t come to fruition in this stage. He could become stronger than it if he raged but that might be a bigger liability for the others. So he endured.
An arrow grazed the orc’s face as it slipped its head. The creature glanced around for the source but again found nothing, and returned to the knight before it. Even with a silent barely visible arrow, the orc’s senses were sharp enough to dodge. Donny knew he had to give Basem a clean shot.
Thunderstomp knocked the orc off balance slightly but the flickering motion of Rapid missed its mark again. The orc’s club bashed against the bastion coating Donny’s head and he shifted back from the follow up he knew was coming. This couldn’t continue, he knew that too.
A club slammed against Donny bare, the impact breaking bones and rupturing organs but his feet remained firmly locked to the ground. The orc slipped past the swing of an axe he let loose the same time as the club, and Donny smiled wide, as the image of the axe faded away.
An arrow pierced into the orc’s eye faltering it just enough, and Donny swung, cleaving clean through the orc’s neck with his blood clad axe. He hacked away viciously, drinking in all the blood from the orc until its regeneration finally ceased. But he spared no time more, glancing to the side and bursting off immediately to the brutal scene in sight.