“Who are those morons calling me stupid?!”
“Oh man, seriously. They look like trash! They need to get hit hard just to wake up!”
“Look at that guy sniffling, it’s making me want to throw up.”
While the still-alive Helen and her crew were engaged in a fierce verbal battle with the Orcs, I climbed up the canyon wall like a spider and moved above the mob that was crashing in.
[Adhesion]
As soon as I settled on the wall, the fight began. For the Orcs, it was a simple case of not wasting time.
About 250 of them. It seemed around 50 had strayed from the initially pursuing 300, likely fallen behind due to our attacks.
‘There he is. At least he stands out.’
In the center of their formation, a reddish Orc High-Rank Warrior stood on a small hill, gazing at the battlefield.
‘Ugh, what a poser. He was just a lowly soldier under the Orc Legion Commander.’
Even though it’s said that position creates a person, knowing his rank left me unimpressed.
I approached him stealthily and began to spread [Contaminated Breath].
“Huh?!”
After a moment, he quickly realized he had been poisoned and struggled to break free from the haze, but he was already surrounded tightly by his brethren at the front and back.
He must’ve known that a reckless move in the crowd could trigger a collapse in their ranks. With his hand over his mouth, he looked around for me.
“You filthy, cunning humans! Come out and duel me!!”
“Yeah, right.”
Instead, I poured my magical power into spreading the Contaminated Breath toward our line. The narrow canyon allowed it to circulate quickly.
And then…
-Ice Field!!
Noh Ha-yoon’s magic heralded the beginning of serious combat. As the Orcs’ lower bodies were frozen and their movements slowed, I threw bombs at them.
KABOOM!!!
While my bombs alone struggled to penetrate their tough hides, the combination with the ice made it easy to blow off parts of their bodies.
In front of our group, a Rock Barrier continuously blocked half of the passage.
The Orcs who came over to break through were desperately held at bay by Bae Joo-ah, the Lizard Squad, and the Helen combo.
We could handle them one-on-one, but with two or three coming at us, we could manage a group lynch.
Though the Orcs seemed like they could get past, they couldn’t surpass our defensive line.
KABOOM!!
Our combination of magic and bombs was slowly depleting their forces, and about 15 minutes passed.
As at least 70 Orcs had lost a leg due to the freezing and bomb attack, the Orc commander, unable to endure the sight, began pushing his frontline Orcs aside to move forward.
Every time he took a step, the Orcs ahead were shoved over and trampled. Injuries mounted from that alone.
“Ugh… I won’t let you die easily!!”
This was possibly the first time the elite warrior was witnessing his troops collapse without even fighting. Anger rose to his head, and he began to lose his mind.
Whew—
KABOOM!!
As the bombs dwindled, the Orc High-Rank Warrior seized one of the remaining legged Orcs and hurled it towards our front lines.
Yeon-hee and Bae Joo-ah jumped back to avoid the soaring Orc.
SPLAT!!
As the Orc landed, its neck twisted grotesquely, making Bae Joo-ah gulp.
Whew— Whew—
And then, the injured Orcs kept flying through the air.
Once around 30 Orcs piled up in our line, they created a cushion effect, and the subsequent injured Orcs that fell didn’t suffer any serious damage.
“YARA! I’ll kill you, humans! I’ll have my revenge for this leg!”
On hopping with one leg, the Orc, whose limb had been torn, swung an axe at our party members.
‘Looks like he threw it out of frustration, but that had some effect…’
“Damn it!! What do we do about them!”
“Target their legs! If we knock them down, they’re nothing!”
“It’s easy to say, but we can’t knock them down!”
Phew— SPLAT!
“Ugh!”
Fortunately, Yeon-hee was managing to keep the infiltrating enemies at bay with her arrows, and the Iron Beetle’s aggro was somehow holding off against being encircled front and back.
‘If we just hold on a bit longer…’
It felt like watching a heavy fog envelop the dawn as [Contaminated Breath] visibly filled the canyon. But our party’s safety was severely threatened, and I could no longer afford to hang on the wall.
“AHHH! Let go of me! Are you not letting go?! SAVE ME!! PLEASE! AHAAAAAA!!”
‘…It’s almost over; damn it!’
Hearing Bae Joo-ah’s screams, I dashed to our formation. Upon arrival, I found her surrounded by Orc warriors, having her clothes ripped apart.
Whatever got her into that situation was likely due to being targeted first.
‘No dirty hands on her, you bastards!’
KABOOM!!
“YAHHH!!”
Dropping down while in stealth, I threw all the remaining bombs, then stabbed the Orc on top of Bae Joo-ah right in the neck with my dagger.
THWOOOP—!
The weakened body of the Orc was easily pierced as it was poisoned and drained of health.
BLOOOOOD!!
As the thick blood of the Orcs rained down, I was already running back to our party members while holding Bae Joo-ah.
“Ah… Il-wol!”
“Are you okay, Joo-ah?”
“AHHHH! Boohoo…”
“You’re fine! We’re here now! Sorry! I couldn’t help you when the tide suddenly hit.”
“Ugh, you all are dead now! Our skeletons are ridiculously strong!”
Once I joined them, at least we had a breather, but our party’s condition was utter misery. Their health and magic were already drained, and the relentless roaring of the Orcs wore down our mental strength.
“Boohoo… Thank you for the clothes, hee-”
Bae Joo-ah was shedding tears, taking a robe from Yeon-hee, while removing her glasses. She had managed to take them off before the worse happened, but her face was puffy.
Maybe they were holding back against us since they had a purpose; her injuries weren’t severe for someone who had just been beaten up, but the situation was still panic-inducing.
However, Bae Joo-ah stood back up and readied her staff against the Orcs, who were licking their tongues.
‘Huh… Perhaps the thing I underestimated in this battle was Bae Joo-ah’s capacity.’
While making more bombs, I counted the remaining Orcs.
‘About 150 left. One of them is a High-Rank Warrior…’
It was incontrovertibly a desperate situation, but I believed there would definitely be a chance if we could just hold on a bit longer. I held on to that hope.
CRUMBLE—
The Rock Barrier Bae Joo-ah had conjured completely collapsed in the canyon’s concave shape, pushing us back until we were nearly crushed against the cliff.
Then, over the fallen rock barrier, a monstrous figure emerged.
“That monster… Let’s just all fight together! At this rate, it’s do or die!”
“We can’t do that, Jin-kyung! If we all fight, we’ll get crushed… We must duel like we did before to buy time…”
“Who’s gonna fight that monster?! Damn it!”
As Jin-kyung shouted, everyone’s eyes shifted to me. But soon after, they shook their heads in dissent.
They probably recalled how I barely defeated the Spearman Orc, soon concluding it was an impossible battle.
Death.
That word began to etch itself into their minds.
It wouldn’t even be a comfortable death. The Orcs, being humanoid monsters, wouldn’t straight-up kill us.
After satisfying their desires, the men would turn to cannibalism, and the women would be used as breeding tools. Conveniently, all of our party members were female, so before dying, Bae Joo-ah would experience everything she almost did.
Trembling—
“Boohoo… let’s, let’s just kill ourselves…”
It’s said that seeing humans in despair invigorates the Orcs even more. Despite desperately trying to keep my composure, my head spun, my vision blurred, and my body trembled uncontrollably.
Yeon-hee, holding onto my hand, was no different.
Quake—
“Il-wol… sniff… sorry… boo… the [Brown Summoning Scroll] takes too long…”
‘Time… I see.’
Thinking about it, the regular summoning scrolls also took some time initially, but they’ve since quickened and become almost instantaneous.
Now trying to summon this newly acquired brown scroll would require reciting a spell while looking at the scroll, consuming a fair amount of time.
In the middle of a chaotic battle, there’s no way one could waste a few minutes just reciting chants. If I tried summoning it during a break, they would’ve caught up and eaten me.
Ultimately, even after hitting my limit, I failed to stop them, and she looked crestfallen, her red eyes filled with regret.
‘Hmm…’
Yeon-hee, Noh Ha-yoon, and Bae Joo-ah all completely depleted their magic. The effect of the lake water had also been used three times already.
Once magic hits the bottom, the recovery rate sharply decreases.
At least Yeon-hee had an orb, so if given some time, she’d recover quickly.
The Helen duo seemed to be struggling just to stand, leaning against the wall while staring at their weapons. What they were thinking was painfully obvious.
‘I need to step up before they do anything foolish.’
Right now, I was the only one who could fight without being affected by stamina. The stage I designed had to be finished by me.
‘If it comes to it, I’ll have to take the risk and change jobs…’
-WOOOAAAAA!! Commander!!
-WOO! WOO! WOO! WOO!
-THUD! THUD! THUD!
The Orcs, anticipating the blood festival about to commence, were screaming like they were losing their minds in the forest. In sync, the Orc High-Rank Warrior raised his axe high and rallied them.
‘Thanks, you bastards.’
What I needed right now was absolutely time. Wasting a few dozen seconds like that was incredibly appreciative.
Clank—Clank—
I gently squeezed Yeon-hee’s hand and stepped forward. Slowly feeling her fingers slip from my grip, I walked toward the Orc High-Rank Warrior.
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