I pretended to ponder for a long time before reluctantly accepting his proposal.
I needed time to recover my magic power, but that idiot’s ridiculously thick armor was slowly regaining its original form.
‘Recovering durability on its own… That’s Artifact-level Armor.’
I couldn’t afford to give him more time.
This was the moment when I had the upper hand.
While I monitored the pulse of danger, there was currently nothing more dangerous than this guy within a 35km radius.
‘I might struggle to win, but I have to buy time somehow.’
The power difference was clear, but you never know until you actually fight.
As the battle dragged on, my health recovery speed would increase thanks to [Blessing of Pitp], and I had the ‘Silver Shaquiras’ attached to ‘Castle’… I was confident in a long battle.
Boom-! Boom-!
A massive vibration shook my body as if I were about to be lifted into the air.
‘Ugh… what is this, a dinosaur?’
He didn’t seem that different in physique from other orcs, yet the ground shook with every step he took.
Then flames started to rise from his crimson body.
The energy he exuded was far stronger than I had sensed earlier.
‘…This is bad. That energy feels similar to what I experienced when I transformed into a Berserker.’
Back when I was much weaker, I remembered how I reached [Berserker] status with ‘Ran’s help and turned the S-rank combat power Escalon into a bloody mess in an instant.
But this guy in front of me seemed to barely graze the level of Berserker.
Whoosh───
His figure disappeared from my view, and I instinctively used [Blink] to evade his attack.
Whooooosh───
Boommm───!!
An overwhelming destructive force created a massive crater in the ground.
I widened the distance by hundreds of meters in an instant, my heart racing as if I had no heart at all.
‘Wow… If I hadn’t used Blink, I would have been ground to dust? I thought I was watching Liu Xiao-Wo’s movements.’
The insane speed and destructive power reminded me of the strongest fighter in China. Surely, he possessed the strength befitting an Orc Battle Commander.
– Kuhaahahaha!!
He didn’t give me a moment’s rest as he charged at me again.
An orc trying to engage me purely with physical strength, with no tricks or special skills whatsoever.
[Chain of Flame]
– Are you using that childish trick again!!
I unleashed my bindings, but he simply stretched out his arm and screamed, breaking them all.
‘If he can break fire traps that easily, then the green traps won’t work either; this is problematic.’
[Window of Darkness]
– Summoning random weapons from the space connected to ‘Window of Darkness’.
I jumped up into the air to create some distance and activated the skill to summon a weapon from another dimension.
I had a strong intuition that fighting head-on wouldn’t bode well.
‘Please let it be something good, something good!’
There might come a time when I have to clash head-on, but I wanted to drain a bit more of his stamina first.
I thought if I could just summon an Artifact-level bow like the one I used before the great Escalon fight, it would be a massive help!
With a desperate heart, I drew the weapon that had been summoned from the space and checked the information on the dagger, silently celebrating.
=====
Last Fang of Divine Beast Tiarios
– Attack Power: 1,269
– Durability: 490/15,000
– Magic Power: 1,500
– Enhancement Count: 13/15
– Special Ability: Agility increases in proportion to maximum magic power.
=====
I hit the jackpot.
In the early days of acquiring this skill, I only summoned trash, but this time, it was incredible.
‘Huh?! Have you ever seen such a crazy weapon? Four times the attack power of the great sword I’m using? Durability of 15,000?!’
It was an elegantly simple dagger infused with a brilliant green energy.
Its length was just under 30cm, sleek and easy to handle. As soon as I grabbed the handle, it molded perfectly to my hand—it was definitely an ancient artifact.
It was a pity that its durability was running low, but gaining a temporary increase of 1,500 in magic power plus agility was something I couldn’t complain about.
‘I don’t know what kind of being Tiarios was, but he must have been something incredible. The craftsmanship of the blacksmith who infused such ferocious energy is also remarkable.’
Whoooosh──
As the dagger entwined around my hand, intricate magical circuits filled my body and I felt myself becoming lighter, almost like a feather.
‘Haha, this is truly awesome!!’
Whooosh-!
At that moment, a massive battle axe swung by ‘Krabe’ came flying toward me.
Swoooosh!!
I effortlessly deflected it with ‘Last Fang of Divine Beast Tiarios’ and widened the distance again. Wait, can this guy fly too?
There was a semi-transparent wing attached to his shoulder.
Is that also an artifact?
‘Well, if he’s a Battle Commander, it’s not surprising for him to have a means of flying. But still, it caught me off guard! Damn guy.’
Seeing him freely maneuvering in the sky, I realized that one of the advantages I thought I had was now gone.
Clang clang clang!!
Swooooosh───!
Dodging his attacks while countering again and again, I felt myself tiring out.
‘Phew— I haven’t even traded blows yet, and I’m already exhausted. I can’t find an opening to attack.’
The relentless assaults characteristic of orcs were beginning to fog my mind, overwhelming both my body and spirit. The closer we fought, the more I felt myself succumbing to his momentum.
‘They gave me a similar vibe; I felt that way with ‘Por’ in the hidden dungeon.’
Do the top-tier orcs possess some special power?
– Fight like a warrior!!
– Fight like a warrior!!
– Uuuuuuuh!!
‘Shut up, you bunch of idiots! How dare you block my way.’
Now, there were well over a dozen orcs screaming for my blood.
The fact that they were also using [Battle Roar] to buff their strength only multiplied the pressure I felt beyond my imagination.
In fact, Krabe’s body twitched in response to the orc horde’s roar. Damn dog, you said you wanted an honorable battle, but you’re just relying on a strength buff.
‘At least I pulled off a legendary artifact from [Window of Darkness], but I have no idea how long I can keep this up.’
Without the dagger’s special ability, I wouldn’t have been able to fend off his attacks so comfortably.
“Hehehe… You’re quite the trickster, aren’t you?”
‘Whether it’s tricks or not, I’ll find out soon enough.’
Bang──!!
The battle resumed.
Between our exchanges, he threw in Thunderhorns, fireballs, roots of bones, and a tail laced with paralysis poison, attacking me in a variety of ways.
His forehead scrunched up every time he took a hit from my new skills; it was clear he had never faced an opponent with so many different abilities before.
[Curse of the Stone Golem]
“Ugh!! Damn bug, stop pricking my nerves!”
As his pinky turned to stone, Krabe’s face flushed red.
[Land of Dreadful Chaos]
“Ugh…! Poison, huh!!”
I was also slowly stacking up on poison.
Krabe kept calling me cowardly, but hey, how else am I supposed to beat you physically?
‘At least the poison keeps stacking—’
He easily brushed off my bindings, but it seemed he had no specific resistance to petrification and poison.
But then.
– Uuuuuuuuu!!!
With a roar louder than ever, Krabe released a surging energy in every direction.
‘What, what is happening?!’
Surprisingly, at that moment, all the statuses I had inflicted on him, including poison, paralysis, and petrification, vanished completely.
‘Wow— Where on earth did that insane cheat come from?! After all that building up, it just vanished?!’
Is it willpower or fighting spirit? Some arbitrary concept like that? It was utterly infuriating.
‘I don’t know, but let’s give it another try. If this doesn’t work, then I’m out of options.’
This time, I combined the corrupted green bindings to keep him in check.
Whoosh──
As Ent vines wrapped around him, he writhed violently.
“Ugh!!”
This time, he couldn’t shake off the bindings immediately, briefly getting caught.
‘It’s possible to bind him as long as I keep on attacking. There is an opening.’
But soon, with another roar, he ripped apart the Ent vines. Still, this time, the poison effect didn’t wear off.
‘He has a short cooldown for breaking bindings. But I guess he can’t remove statuses endlessly.’
Just confirming that I could limit his movement for a little while wasn’t too bad of a yield.
Tap—
Suddenly, I felt the gazes of Yeon-hee and the hunters behind me.
– Il-wol…!
– Hang in there!!
– Please… please let me come back alive.
My fellow comrades and hunters who still couldn’t properly move.
It wouldn’t be good to fight here.
‘Ugh, how did we get so close to home? Follow me this way.’
I moved away from the direction of our home to create more distance.
If I open too much distance, when the cheering orcs rush at Yeon-hee, I won’t be able to react in time, so I had to maintain a suitable distance.
Thud thud thud thud!
Fortunately, Krabe charged straight at me without being distracted.
He could have explored different attack routes by now, but stubbornly continued down his path.
‘Huh?!’
However, the charging orc suddenly began to spin like a top, wildly swinging his battle axe.
Sharp blades of energized magic, infused with raging energy, began raining down toward where I stood.
There was no place for me to dodge amidst the densely scattered blades.
‘Hey, what the hell!’
It was clearly a near-cheat skill.
Each and every blade was laced with magic and boasted destructive power that far surpassed that of [Blade of Water].
After frantically blocking, dodging, and using [Arcane Deflection] to reflect, I suddenly lost track of his position and was forced to activate [Blink] to escape.
I had already used all my Blink charges for today.
Whoooosh───!!
By a hair’s breadth, a heavy gust swept past me from behind.
Crack—zzzt—
Where his axe had passed, the air itself seemed to tear apart.
‘裂隙 in space?!’
As I gazed in horror at the long crack, a chill ran down my spine.
That monstrous bastard… he has the ability to tear through space?!
– Hehehe… I don’t know what this is, but it feels fantastic!! I’ve gained a new skill. Hahaha!!
Seeing him grinning with glee made it seem like he had accidentally succeeded…
‘That bastard didn’t learn it from someone like me… he just swung wildly until he instinctively grasped it… how insane.’
It turned out the saying about a fighting race wasn’t for nothing.
A race born with an innate talent for combat.
The complete opposite of me.
“Hehehe…”
The orc grinned at me, as if he realized something, and muttered.
“Ability to surpass space… astonishing, but there must be limitations. Hehehe…”
‘Bingo. He’s smarter than he looks.’
I regretted using all my Blink charges when I was surprised by the ‘White Dragon’s’ attack. I should have just taken a few hits instead, even if it meant returning late.
‘Phew… fighting one-on-one is really overwhelming.’
Is it a matter of man’s pride? Orcs surely have a knack for prodding at that.
When a monster is hollering for an honorable fight, this sophisticated intellect can’t help but respond to it.
‘Forget pride; if I die, it’s all over. I’ll use every ability available.’
I had no idea what would happen during the time it took for me to die and be resurrected. If I died, it would put me in a real predicament.
Tap tap—
A charred corpse, resembling an orc barbeque, lay at my feet.
I kicked it.
“Don’t disrespect the body of a warrior!!”
As I touched his fallen comrade, he let out a furious roar.
If he got so riled up just from me poking a dead body, what kind of reaction would he have if his beloved subordinates revived and bore ill will towards him?
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