Orcs

The blood spurting from the gnome's throat and the dull thud of his body hitting the ground were like a boulder dropped into a still lake, making everyone's nerves snap taut.

"Ambush!"

The first to react was Marcus, the guard captain, a seasoned veteran.

He abruptly drew the longsword at his waist and raised his Kite Shield before him. With a deafening roar, he stepped forward and slammed his shield into the foremost enemy with a Shield Bash, knocking him off balance.

The enemy tumbled to the ground, giving everyone a chance to see the attackers before chaos erupted.

The first to publish this book across the web was

Its skin was a murky green, like the rotting mud of a swamp, rough and tough, and covered in grime and old scars. Two thick, yellowed fangs jutted upward from its lower jaw beneath its wide mouth, making it look especially monstrous.

An Orc? Orcs!?

"Form a circle! Iron Shell formation!" Marcus shouted, clearly a battle-hardened veteran.

The four guards quickly closed ranks with Kyle, the greatsword wielder, whose expression was just as grim. Together, they formed an arcing line of shields and bodies facing the enemy.

The merchant Bolin shrieked and scrambled beneath a wagon.

Almost at the same moment, savage, ferocious war cries erupted from the woods and bushes at the edge of the grassland!

"Waaagh!!!"

A dozen or more hulking green-skinned figures, their fangs bared, surged out like a tide.

They wore crude armor cobbled together from leather and scraps of iron, and swung heavy one- or two-handed axes whose blades were stained with dark, dried blood.

A few shorter Orcs nocked arrows, while others drew short javelins from their backs.

"Shamir! Take out the ranged attackers first!" Xia Lin shouted.

The female archer was already ready, her longbow steady as a rock in her hands.

Her breathing was measured, her gaze keen. Almost as soon as Xia Lin finished speaking, her bowstring thrummed repeatedly as she unleashed the ranger's signature crowd-clearing Rapid Shot Volley.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Four arrows carved precise paths through the air as if guided by sight, striking the vital spots of four Orc archers or javelin throwers positioned in different directions.

The Orcs' pathetic ranged attack was utterly dismantled, no more than child's play before the veteran archer Aila.

But the frontal clash was already unavoidable!

Like a dozen charging bulls, the Orc Warriors roared as they crashed into the guards' shield wall!

Clang! Thud! Crack!

The fierce clash of metal and wood, the dull crunch of bones crushed by blunt weapons, and the sound of blades biting into flesh all rang out at once! The tremendous impact sent the entire line shuddering.

A guard's shield was cleaved apart by a great axe, and the blade buried itself deep in his chest.

"For Aeria!" Captain Marcus roared. He led from the front, wielding his sword with steady skill. He used his shield to block attacks, then seized openings to land a precise Block and Riposte, wounding the Orcs.

Kyle bellowed and swung his two-handed greatsword. The heavy blade swept forward with unstoppable force in a mighty Momentum Slash!

He drove back the two Orcs in front of him, and sheared the axe-wielding arm off one of them. Green blood gushed like a fountain.

But the barbs on another Orc's axe also slashed his arm. The flesh beneath his chainmail was torn open, and he was clearly fighting through the pain.

The Halfling Pip had already vanished from the front line with Shadow Stealth.

Amid the chaos, Orcs occasionally let out short cries and fell, clutching their lower backs or necks. Pip's elusive Backstab had struck again.

Xia Lin didn't try to meet the incredibly strong Orc Warriors head-on.

Like the craftiest hunter, he darted along the edges of the battlefield.

An Orc was forced back by Kyle and stumbled as he tried to regain his balance.

Xia Lin appeared like a specter behind its flank. With a flick of his wrist, he thrust his longsword forward like a striking viper—Pierce! The blade slipped precisely through a gap where the armor plates joined on the side of its neck.

The tip sank in, bringing a gush of scalding green blood.

The Orc stiffened. Xia Lin withdrew his sword without hesitation, didn't even look at it as it fell, and immediately turned toward his next target.

The leather armor inlaid with scales from a Chosen of God gave him great confidence. Several attacks that grazed him simply bounced off.

The battle was slowly tipping in their favor.

Aila had completely suppressed the enemy's ranged attacks, while Pip's ambushes kept the Orcs on edge. Kyle and the guards were under immense pressure, and they had suffered casualties—another guard had fallen—but they were barely holding the line.

Xia Lin's efficient hit-and-run attacks were steadily reducing the enemy's numbers, too.

Only seven or eight Orcs were still standing, and every one of them was wounded.

Victory seemed within reach.

An Orc pinned down by Captain Marcus's shield, a deep gash across its chest, let out a low growl like a trapped beast.

Its breathing grew ragged. Blood quickly flooded its eyes, its skin turned an unnatural dark red, and its muscles swelled visibly, veins bulging like writhing dragons.

"Watch out! The Orc's Blood Frenzy!" Kyle shouted a warning when he saw it.

The enraged Orc exploded with terrifying strength. It grabbed the edge of Marcus's shield and ripped it aside, then slammed its head into Marcus's face. Blood burst from Marcus's mouth and nose, and he flew backward like a broken sack, his fate unknown.

The frenzied Orc didn't stop. Its blood-red eyes locked onto Kyle, who was closest, and it charged at him with a roar, moving far faster than before!

Kyle's expression changed, and he hurriedly raised his greatsword to block.

Sera, the masked woman who had stood silently at the back, finally moved.

She raised the hands she had kept hidden beneath her sleeves. The air around them seemed to freeze for an instant as an unsettling shadowy aura gathered in her palms, emitting a low hum.

She didn't chant. She only uttered a single, cold, hoarse word: "Eldritch Blast!"

A beam of pure purple-black energy, like a spear forged from condensed shadow, silently sliced through the air and struck the frenzied Orc in its exposed chest!

Thwup!

The beam easily pierced the Orc's tough skin and muscle, leaving behind a terrifying hole with charred edges that smoked.

The frenzied Orc's charge halted abruptly. The bloodlust drained from its eyes like a receding tide, and its massive body crashed to the ground, lifeless.

The movement of Sera's spell caused her hood to slip backward, revealing most of her face.

She was clearly not human! Her skin was pale purple, short black horns curved like a goat's at her temples, and her eyes burned with dark red flames.

Her appearance was exactly like that of the devils from the bards' tales.

This mysterious woman was a spellcaster connected to the powers of hell.

Before the others could fully recover from the succession of shocking events, Kyle was about to call on everyone to finish off the last few Orcs, whose morale had already collapsed.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two sharp whistles came from deep in the woods behind them!

Xia Lin felt a gust of wind skim past his scalp. Then he heard a dull thud and the dreadful sound of bones shattering.

He spun around. Captain Marcus, who had just been struggling to get back up, no longer had a head. Blood gushed from his neck like a broken fountain. His body swayed, then fell for good.

A fist-sized stone, smeared with red and white matter, rolled to a stop beside him.

Almost at the same moment, another stone whistled through the air and smashed into Sera's arm. She had just finished casting and hadn't yet managed to hide herself again.

Crack!

The sound of breaking bone was unmistakable! Sera let out a muffled groan and staggered. Her arm dangled at an unnatural angle, clearly broken.

"What?!" The others were horrified. They stopped in their tracks and warily looked toward the direction the stones had come from.

A figure slowly emerged from the shadows of the woods.

He was even taller than all the Orcs they had seen before, nearly two and a half meters tall, like a giant.

He wore several heavy pieces of plate armor, clearly taken apart from human knights and completely ill-fitting. A massive breastplate barely covered his chest, and a shoulder guard was crookedly strapped to one shoulder. Perhaps a few metal faulds were strapped to the outsides of his thighs, but that was all. Most of his limbs were still bare, covered in green skin crisscrossed with savage scars.

His gaze was cold and intelligent, entirely unlike the usual Orc's bloodthirsty frenzy.

Behind him followed seven or eight Orcs carrying assorted weapons, silent and grim. They were clearly reinforcements.

The Orc chief in plate armor casually tossed an angular stone in one huge hand fitted with an iron knuckle-duster. His gaze swept over the corpse of his companion, killed by the Eldritch Blast, then shifted contemptuously to Sera clutching her broken arm. In a coarse voice, heavily accented and full of disdain, he muttered in Orcish:

"Grash'ka Urk...(What kind of magic is that...)"