Chapter 68: Red Orcs 2
Deep in the humid, heavily wooded area of the Great Forest, a heavy tension hung in the air.
’What to do now? Red Orcs are impossible to deal with,’ Zena thought, sweating as he looked at the two massive Red Orcs completely surrounding them.
"Hey, why are we even running away? Ain’t these the Orcs you were talking about when you said you knew a spot?" Ian asked, glancing over at his tense companion.
"I wanted green Orcs, not red! These ones are different and are a pain to deal with," Zena whispered frantically. "You see, their skin is really hard to penetrate with Aura and mana. You can basically say anything Mages use is useless to them, and Aura users too. That’s why I was saying they are a pain. And to make matters worse, the monsters have intelligence." Zena groaned, feeling a sharp headache coming on.
"Then should we make a break for it?" Ian suggested, looking toward a direction deep in the forest.
"No, that would be worse. There is nothing that is more dangerous than rushing into an unknown territo—"
Before Zena could finish speaking, the younger Red Orc suddenly rushed at them, swinging its heavy, rusty sword.
Ian and Zena immediately dashed in opposite directions while the smaller Red Orc violently slashed the empty space right between them. The heavy blade struck the ground, kicking up a thick cloud of dust and debris. The bigger Orc just stood there by the boulder, silently scanning them.
"So—the only thing is to fight them, right? Then can you take on the big one while I take the smaller one?" Ian called out, dropping into a fighting stance.
"I think you don’t really understand the situation we are really in," Zena warned. "Red Orcs are one of the monsters on top of the food chain in these forests. Think of them like Knight level in our kingdom," he explained from the side while Ian was busy dodging the heavy assault of the younger Red Orc.
"But I have never seen a Knight before, so I don’t exactly know how strong they are! Ain’t there like two of them only in the kingdom!!" Ian yelled, still dodging backward. Every time the Red Orc missed, its heavy sword smashed into the dirt, sending massive clouds of dust making it hard to see.
"That’s exactly my point! We don’t usually meet them, so they are that powerful!" Zena shouted back, watching anxiously from the sidelines.
"Then why are you not moving to help me?! Can’t you see I’m just dodging here?!" Ian screamed over the loud crashing sounds of the sword.
"Well, I’m not as physically strong as you yet, and I can only get faster and stronger if I circulate my Aura! And it only takes about 10 minutes to maintain that since I just broke through," Zena explained defensively.
’Tsk, since he is basically useless I will have to deal with this guy myself. But this Orc’s speed... it is keeping up with me and I am using my full strength and everything I got just to dodge. If it is that strong, what about the big guy over there?’ Ian thought. He looked through the flying dust at the older Red Orc, which was casually leaning against a big tree and staring intently at something up in another tree.
Ian followed the eyes of the Orc where it was staring, but there was seemingly nothing there.
...
"Hey, since yesterday I have noticed that you don’t really care about your cousin," Sarah murmured. She was standing high up in the tree, holding both her hands out as blue magic pixels leaked from her palms to maintain her spell.
"What makes you say that? I believe I’m pretty nice in my own way," Isaac replied calmly, sitting down on a thick branch.
"You are sitting down at a time like this? Don’t you see that they are in danger?" she scolded. Her concentration wavered, causing the stealth spell she was using to fluctuate.
"Calm down, you will get us caught here. Look, that Red Orc is already looking at us, I bet it suspects that we are here," Isaac pointed out. "And besides, he wanted a challenge that could give him a good fight so God gave him one, and no one will interfere in that fight, not even your brother."
"Why do you say that no one will interfere?" Sarah asked curiously.
"Well, you see, these Red Orcs are like us today. That old one brought the young one for a certain tradition. It’s like a coming of age ceremony kind of thing. When a Red Orc reaches a certain age, they go out to find a warrior that brings them a thrill to a fight, and they fight to the death. The winner must drink the blood of their opponent to honor them," Isaac explained, watching Ian, who just kept on dodging through the thick dust below. "And if by chance Ian wins this fight, that big guy will let us go and will not even hurt us. Its only mission is to stop anyone from interfering."
"You know a lot about this. Are you into Orcs or something?" Sarah raised an eyebrow.
"Nah, it’s not like that at all. Let’s just say I didn’t have friends as a kid and could soothe my boredom with reading books," Isaac shrugged, staring at the fight with his dull eyes.
"That’s so sad and lonely," she murmured. "I guess this is the reason why your charisma skill is of the lowest." She said with smirk.
"What!"
Suddenly, a piercing scream echoed through the woods.
"Creaaakkkkkkk!!!!"
The smaller Red Orc screamed, pointing its rusty blade at Ian with a violently angry look. Then it suddenly increased its speed, its eyes glowing with a terrifying red light.
"Ian, look out!!!" Zena shouted.
BOOM!!! But it was too late. Ian was punched directly in the left arm that he tried to block with, and he was sent flying with such force that he crashed into a tree, breaking it into two. Dust and heavy splinters rained down everywhere.
"Hah, he is starting to piss it off with all that dodging he was doing," Isaac noted.
"You should send the information I just told you about to those guys below, because if Zena interrupts even a bit, he will be killed by the big guy." Isaac advised, standing up on the branch.
"But if I send a message, the shield would be..."
"It doesn’t matter now, because he already knew we are here. I just need you to send the information I told you to them," Isaac insisted.
Sarah nodded, dropping her shield and starting to write in the air with glowing blue mana.
"What are you doing? Don’t you have some kind of mental skill that lets you communicate with people?" Isaac questioned.
"If I remember correctly, Knights are the only ones who have that skill, not Mages," Sarah shot back defensively.
"Woowww. For people who shoot fireballs with their fingers, using this crude way of communicating isn’t this just plain laziness?" Isaac teased.
"...." Sarah didn’t know how to respond to that and only kept quiet, focusing on her writing.
"When you are done, make a 10-second delay... no, that’s too much, make a 5-second delay and use your invisibility spell or levitation spell as long as you get out of here fast," Isaac ordered sharply, instantly jumping down to a lower branch.
"But why?!"
"Just trust me!!"
...
"Cough... cough," Ian gagged, coughing blood into the dirt. ’Ahhh, this really hurts,’ he thought while struggling to stand up through the settling dust. "I thought I was a bit stronger than this Orc, that is why I was so relaxed. But that punch... what the hell was that?!" he groaned. As he stood up, he looked down and saw his arm bent completely the wrong way.
’To think, my arm would be broken from that punch. My bones that even an Aura axe couldn’t cut through.’ While standing there amidst the broken wood, he grabbed his twisted forearm and forcefully jerked it back into place.
CRACK! SNAP!
A sickening sound of grinding bone echoed loudly in the clearing as the joint realigned.
"Aaaah... dammit," Ian hissed through gritted teeth.
As he was doing it, a floating ball of light suddenly appeared from a tree branch above and shot towards Ian and Zena.
Zena was hit by the light first. But before the message could hit Ian, the large Red Orc suddenly blurred and appeared right in front of him! The magic message violently hit the older Orc’s chest instead.
"Creeaaaakkkkkkk!!!!" It started to scream loudly in the forest, enraged by the magical interference.
’Guess they really cherish their tradition. Not even a mana message can be sent, and he is protecting both Ian and that Orc. I guess he really is safe for now,’ Isaac thought while sitting safely in another tree.
Suddenly, the big Red Orc’s eyes became blood-red, and it started scanning the canopy for the one who made the magic, but it couldn’t see her. Sniffing the air wildly, it suddenly bent down and picked up a massive boulder from the ground.
....
’I don’t really understand why he told me to run away so fast,’ Sarah thought while using her levitation spell on herself, flying high above the forest trees.
Then she suddenly turned her head to check back. She saw something looking like a falling star coming at her with full speed!
’What the hell is that? Is that a rock!’ She thought panicking, she suddenly deactivated her spell and allowed gravity to take control. She started falling to the ground just as the massive rock flew right past her head, violently snapping branches in its path!
"Gravon kor, vethris kera. Torath ishil..." she started chanting quickly as the wind whipped past her ears, and mana started to gather around her. "Levitate," she commanded.
She safely started floating up again.
"Huh..."
The moment she started floating up, a second massive boulder flew right through the empty space just below her boots. ’If I had activated Levitate a single second later huh, I would have died. Just like that. This is really dangerous.’
"My heart is beating so fast right now, I almost died there," she gasped, looking back wildly to see if there was anything else coming her way.
"Creaaakkkkkkk!!!!"
She heard a piercing scream. Even though she had flown away a bit, she felt the sheer pressure of this shout and her hands started shaking slightly.
’That asshole knew this would happen. Thats why he was saying to leave early and fast. What if I died?!’