The nearby sound of feet slapping against stone presaged the appearance of Kinro. His katana was sheathed, and he held the injured cultist over one of his shoulders. Kinro stood at the top of a large tower about a dozen meters away from me. The tower must have been twenty meters tall, and he must have reached the roof in seconds. Kinro shouted, “We need to get out of here before that thing sees us!”
For a moment, my eyes were locked on the dragon as it flew through the air. The dragon flew low to the ground and opened its pitiless jaws. A high pitched sound like high-pressured gas escaping from a pipe filled the air, and a jet of fire billowed from the dragon’s mouth. The fire burned hotter than anything I could hope to produce, destroying several houses and incinerating dozens of people on the ground.
“Come on!”
Forcefully pulling my eyes away from the carnage, I frantically scanned the ground where I knew the church would be. After a few seconds, I saw the winged staff symbol of Nyx carved into the side of a large granite building. I pointed at the building and shouted, “It’s over there!”
I pushed myself forward with [Gust] and mercifully reached the ground within a few seconds. Kinro matched my arc of travel with little effort despite the extra weight on his shoulder. He effortlessly jumped between the roofs of buildings, frequently crossing ten-meter gaps between buildings with ease. I had heard that martial classes gained physical enhancement independent of their attribute bonuses, but that was the first time I had seen it.
A moment after Kinro landed in the small town square in front of the building, I heard someone shout two words in Dahk, the language of orcs. “Humans, kill!”
“Orcs,” I quietly thanked God that they weren’t more cultists. “It looks like you’ll have a chance to sober up some more.”
Kinro chuckled as he dropped the cultist and unsheathed his katana. “You won’t hold back against these guys, I take it?”
[Blood Enhancement, Lvl. 3]
The blood rune on my hand began to glow and the air around my body began to heat up as I prepared to fight. “Now, why would I do that?” Despite myself, a vicious smile appeared on my face. “They’re vermin, after all.”
The horde of orcs came pouring out of several alleyways on the other side of the town square. All told, there must have been thirty of them, and one of the orcs near the front of the horde was almost double the height of the other orcs.
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As they charged, the words Beltane spoke to me several years before rang in my ears. “Unlike most Talents, [Hellfire] is classified as ‘anti-army.’ It burns at a set temperature, and that temperature doesn’t increase as you gain skill with it. Skill with [Hellfire] allows you to affect a much larger area. The greatest weakness of [Hellfire] is that it’ll never be able to kill high-level enemies, but its greatest strength is its ability to quickly eliminate large numbers of low-level enemies. In a war, [Hellfire] is indispensable.”
Four sparks of Hellfire appeared above my head simultaneously. I took a single breath, and the sparks flared to five times their original size. The moment the first orc stepped within thirty meters of me, the motes of fire shot forward. Four orcs were instantly incinerated, and their corpses were scattered against their nearby companions by the explosive force of expansion.
The explosion did not stop with the deaths of those four orcs, however. I poured mana into the sparks, and a massive conflagration engulfed the horde. Most of the orcs died instantaneously as half of the town square was engulfed in a fire storm. I tried to force the flame upward and away from the nearby houses, but I was unable. Several nearby houses caught on fire as the explosion expanded outward in a sphere formation.
Orcs (26) killed!
DAMAGE DEALT: 49
DAMAGE DEALT: 44
DAMAGE DEALT: 44
LEVEL UP: 23
New HP: 70
New MP: 502
EXPERIENCE AVAILABLE!
I viciously shook my head, and the System information disappeared quickly. The battle was not yet over. Three concerningly vigorous orcs emerged from the smoke created by my attack, charging toward Kinro and me. The largest orc, which seemed completely unphased by my Hellfire, was in the center of the three. I had hoped that my initial attack would at least slow down the stronger orcs.
“See what happens when you don’t hold back?” Kinro said, sauntering unsteadily toward the three charging orcs.
I pointed my staff at my enemies, waiting for my upper core to refill, when Kinro disappeared in a gust of wind. Even though I was looking directly at the orcs when Kinro attacked, I couldn’t make out exactly what he did. It was as if a corridor of air opened up between the swordmaster and the orc to the right of the trio. For an instant, Kinro seemed to occupy the whole space simultaneously. The next instant, however, Kinro stood on the other side of the charging orcs, and a stream of blood flowed from the severed stump of a decapitated orc.
The Orc Chief reacted immediately and with speed that should have been impossible from such a large creature. It swung its heavy iron axe down towards Kinro, and an echo rang out as the swordmaster stopped the axe with his katana.
“Mulciber ignis tormentum!” I shouted, firing a half-power volcano cannon at the smaller orc.
Though it moved with the speed and skill of a C-Tier, the orc was focused on Kinro when I cast the spell. At the last possible second - as the orb of molten rock flew through the air - the orc turned its head toward me.
DAMAGE DEALT: 85
The orc was struck hard in the chest. It fell onto its back, and it didn’t even have enough strength to gurgle as it died.