Glory

Orcs.

Xia Lin had only heard about them from the old drunks at the Adventurer's Guild, bragging over their drinks.

Green skin, tusks, worshippers of Gemash, the one-eyed chief god. They were naturally chaotic, fond of plunder and war, and usually appeared in hordes only in the wilderness east of the kingdom or in some godforsaken mountain forest.

An Orc attack on a merchant caravan bound for the provincial capital, deep in the heart of the Aria Kingdom? Something about it stank.

It was like hearing that Ogres had started studying the motions of celestial bodies or that a Cyclops had learned to write sonnets. It made you wonder if something in the world had gone wrong.

But the green-skinned monsters charging toward them, roaring and brandishing bloodied battle-axes, weren't about to give anyone time to study geopolitics or the migration patterns of different races.

The Orc leader in mismatched plate armor joined the battle with his reinforcements, and the tide turned at once.

Seven or eight fresh fighters crashed into the fray like sledgehammers. The caravan's two remaining guards couldn't even put up a decent defense before the horrifying cracks of breaking bones and their screams filled the air. Berserk axe blades hacked them into pieces.

Shamir's face was pale, but professional instinct made her raise her longbow at once. Her cold Killing Intent gathered once more.

"Whoosh!" Another arrow leapt from the bowstring, aimed straight at the Orc leader's eye.

The leader merely snorted in disdain. He didn't even look at the incoming arrow. Instead, he casually scooped up a rock from the ground, his arm muscles bulging as he hurled it like a catapult!

The rock shrieked through the air and overtook the arrow, hurtling straight toward Shamir!

"Look out!" Xia Lin managed only half a shout.

Shamir's pupils shrank. At the last possible moment, she threw herself sideways in a desperate, awkward but effective dodge.

The rock whistled past her scalp. Its powerful gust even snapped the leather tie holding up her high ponytail, and her long black hair spilled down like a waterfall, covering half her horrified face.

She rolled across the ground and took cover behind a wagon. Her chest heaved, and the hand gripping her bow trembled uncontrollably.

What the hell kind of Orc is that?! Xia Lin cursed inwardly, but he dared not stop moving his longsword.

He slipped through the chaotic battlefield like an eel.

The Orc leader was clearly uninterested in a "little fry" like him. Using wagons and corpses for cover, Xia Lin moved like a ghost around behind an Orc who was swinging his axe at Kyle's back.

His longsword slid out without a sound. [Pierce]!

Squish! The tip of the sword slipped precisely through the gap beneath the Orc's arm, where no armor protected him, and twisted viciously.

The Orc's movements seized up. Xia Lin immediately yanked his sword free and retreated, vanishing into the shadow of another wagon without even glancing at the body crumpling to the ground.

That was the third one he'd taken down.

Elsewhere, the Halfling Pip was proving useful too.

She slipped around to Kyle's side like a ghost, her two daggers flashing up and down as she harried another Orc attacking him. She forced it to divide its attention, easing the pressure on Kyle considerably.

"GRAAAH!!!" Kyle's eyes were bloodshot. He knew this couldn't go on. They had to break the stalemate.

He took a deep breath. The muscles in his arms swelled, and he raised the two-handed greatsword high overhead. A heavy aura of power seemed to gather around its blade.

He poured all his strength into a savage downward slash, as if cleaving through mountains and splitting stone! He abandoned all defense and technique, pursuing nothing but sheer power and destruction!

This was the kind of move many Warriors realized as they broke through a bottleneck and neared the threshold of becoming true professionals. They sacrificed precision in exchange for greater killing power.

[Mighty Attack]

"CLANG!!!"

The greatsword slammed into the axe of an Orc who had hurriedly raised it to block. Sparks flew everywhere!

The Orc's battle-axe was knocked from his hands, and the arm gripping it was left with cracked bones. He let out a howl of pain.

The force of Kyle's blow finally caught the Orc leader's attention.

His cold, intelligent eyes settled on Kyle and sized him up, as if assessing an interesting toy.

"Stop!" the Orc leader suddenly growled in halting but intelligible Common.

The Orc Warriors surrounding Kyle, Xia Lin, and the others looked confused, but they immediately stopped attacking and backed away a few steps. They left an open space between them, their eyes fixed viciously on their "prey."

The leader casually dropped the rock in his hand. It hit the ground with a dull thud. Then he pounded his massive fist, clad in an iron knuckle guard, against the ill-fitting plate armor on his chest. It rang out with a series of "clangs."

He pointed at Kyle, baring two rows of yellow tusks. His expression mixed cruelty with admiration. "You. Good. Fight me."

A duel?

Xia Lin froze for a moment, then understood.

It was a tradition ingrained in Orcs. They sometimes granted opponents who showed strength and courage the "honor" of a one-on-one duel.

Of course, such an honor usually ended with one side dying a gruesome death.

"Quick! Get back to the wagons!" Xia Lin whispered to Pip and the injured Sera. At the same time, he grabbed Shamir, who was still shaken, and hurried her toward the wagons behind them.

The merchant Bolin had been so scared he was nearly pissing himself. He poked his head out from under a wagon, his face deathly pale and his voice trembling. "D-don't be afraid! I've already... used a magical beacon to send a distress signal! If we... if we can just buy some time... a nearby patrol or other adventurers will be here soon!"

In the open space, Kyle panted, his hands trembling slightly around the greatsword. But there wasn't a hint of retreat in his eyes. Instead, a fierce resolve burned in them.

He knew this was their only chance of survival.

He didn't waste words. He steadied his breathing, gripped the greatsword in both hands, and launched the first attack!

He didn't use [Mighty Attack] again. Instead, he relied on his greater agility as a human, circling the towering Orc leader at speed. His greatsword slashed again and again like a gale, flashing with cold light as he targeted the joints and gaps left exposed by the Orc leader's plate armor.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A rapid series of metallic impacts rang out.

Kyle's attacks fell like a storm, each strike cunning and vicious.

The Orc leader seemed caught off guard—or perhaps he simply couldn't be bothered to dodge. He casually blocked with his thick arms or the shaft of his axe.

For a time, Kyle actually had the upper hand, pressing the Orc leader back with his attacks.

"Yeah! Just like that! Cut him down!" Pip cheered softly from behind the wagon.

But Xia Lin sensed that something was wrong.

The Orc leader had been blocking the whole time. He even had a few insignificant cuts on his body, yet his steps remained steady, his breathing calm. His cold eyes showed not a trace of panic—only growing impatience.

He was playing around.

Kyle saw it too.

He abandoned the idea of relying on agility to wear the Orc down. Instead, he poured all his strength, all his rage, and all his hope into his next blow!

He ignored the defenses he was leaving wide open and the Orc leader's abyss-cold stare. The muscles in his arms swelled, and veins writhed beneath his skin like earthworms.

He raised his two-handed greatsword high overhead. The blade gave off a faint hum under the overloaded force, and the air seemed to thicken around the power gathering there!

[Mighty Attack]!

With the force of a thunderbolt, the greatsword cut through the air with a heavy whoosh, slamming toward the spot where Gorgash's crooked shoulder guard met his neck!

The Orc leader didn't even move his feet or try to block with his enormous battle-axe.

Just as the greatsword was about to fall, its wind already ruffling a few of the coarse hairs on his forehead, the Orc leader moved.

He merely raised his massive left fist, clad in a rough iron knuckle guard, his arm muscles snapping taut.

Then, against the greatsword's spine—bearing all of Kyle's strength, enough to cleave stone—he drove his fist forward with what looked like casual ease!

When fist met blade, there was no earth-shaking clang of metal that anyone might have expected.

Only a deep, dull thump, like a sledgehammer striking wet mud.

Kyle felt an immense force erupt back through the blade like a volcano! So raw and overbearing was the power that it instantly crushed all the strength he had gathered!

His arms felt as though a battering ram had struck them head-on. His bones groaned under the strain, and he could no longer hold on to his greatsword. It flew from his hands with a clatter, tumbling through the air before embedding itself in the dirt in the distance like a piece of junk.

The momentum of his charge and the force of the counterblow knocked him completely off balance. His chest was left wide open, and his face still held the shock and despair of watching his all-out attack get dispelled so easily.

Too slow. Too weak.

The enormous battle-axe in the Orc leader's other hand swept upward with the speed and precision of a striking viper, utterly at odds with his huge frame!

There was no fancy technique, only power and speed pushed to their absolute limits!

Squelch—!!!

Kyle's expression froze. He looked down in disbelief.

The battle-axe, stained with filth and blood, had cleanly severed his entire upper body from his waist!

Blood, entrails, and shattered bones burst out like ribbons scattering during a festival, splattering across the grass.

Kyle's upper body slid from his lower half, a dazed, pained expression on his face. It hit the ground with a heavy thud and twitched twice before going still.

The Orc leader casually flicked the flesh from his axe blade, leaving Kyle's lower body standing as blood sprayed from it like water from a bizarre fountain.

He turned and swept his cold gaze across Xia Lin and the others, frozen in shock behind the wagon.

Baring his blood-smeared mouth and tusks, he spoke in heavily accented but remarkably clear Common, one word at a time:

"Now that's a [Mighty Attack]."