Chapter 64 - Released

- Day 21 into Day 22 -

Ogres who aren’t Ogres, Part 1

As Emily and Sybil begin firing off a flurry of swarming little lights, shot high through the soft-falling specks of drizzle that had started to fall from the heavens only moments ago, they flickered wildly, illuminating the sky around them all the way down to the ground below. Like tiny little flares they slowly began to stream down and into the gully to show off a sight that had every hair on my entire body standing on end.

“What the hells...”, Katherine says, her voice barely a whisper.

We all knew from Risk’s initial words that the orcs would have overwhelming numbers going in. It was the reason we chose to do this here after all, but I honestly didn’t expect to see so many so quickly. And it looks like they’ve already completely surrounded us.

As Emily and Sybil fire volley after volley of lumistones further and further down into the gully, the sheer task ahead of us becomes clear to everyone.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to finish my meal here Risk.”

“Er, yeah. That’s--”

“Well over a thousand”, Bella cuts Risk off with a count, “You should do that thing, shock and four.”

“Think you mean ‘Shock and awe’. And that’s actually a sound idea. Risk, we should brace the attack here first, let the numbers funnel in and then I’ll hit them hard… It’s your show though.”

“I take it you have a spell in mind?”

“Yeah, but I won’t spoil the surprise”, I don my gear and take up position behind Risk, “I’ll support the three of your positions as best I can--”

An arrow slings wildly past me from behind, hitting the first visible orc squarely between the eyes.

“Whoa!”, I spin round to see Emily with a smile on her face, clearly happy she had hit her mark, “You know you were this fucking close to hitting me there Emily! This close!”

“S-sorry Master!”

“Well… You did hit your mark. Still, more care please!”

“Here they come Aburi!”, Bella yells.

I turn back around to see she’s right. There’s no obvious tactic to their approach, but they aren’t coming in single file either. The gully is only wide enough for about five or six of them to share a broad line, but they’re just charging up towards us in twos, threes and fours at the moment.

“Look, I’m getting goosebumps! HA, this is going to be awesome!”

Alright Bella, settle down, yeah?

As the first ‘wave’ arrives, Sybil and Emily let loose a volley of arrows in quick succession. Nailing into all three of the orcs and seemingly killing all three outright. Emily has clearly been practising as her accuracy tonight is uncanny.

The second ‘wave’ consists of only two, but are followed right behind by three more that are pretty much on top of these two. Yet another four are practically on those three’s heels and so on and so forth.

Like waves crashing into a cliff, the orcs charge in at us in quick succession, they squeal and hork with rusted iron axes held high above them, charging ever onwards towards us without pause.

Bella and Katharine give each other just a single nod before charging forward towards the oncoming tide.

Katharine unleashes a deep [Quick Slash] at lightning pace to the furthest right orcs neck, slightly catching the middle orc in the next wave behind it as she does. A deep crimson bloodmist spews out and onto her face as she proceeds through it to cut down two more orcs in swift succession.

At the same time, but with a different approach, Bella threw her massive me-sized sword over her right back shoulder with one hand. With a smile, she eyed up the orc charging at her before unleashing a [Charge] to hurtle herself in on its left side, literally cleaving the orc in two. No sooner had her giant two-handed broadsword cleaved into the orc, did she activate [Reverse Slash] to pull the blade back up inversely to divorce the next orc directly behind of its torso. The super-human display of sheer force didn’t stop though as Bella immediately pivoted on her back leg like some professional baseball player to swing full force through the three more orcs in the middle lane as well.

Having just seen eleven of your buddies brutally murdered, you’d think the remaining orcs might have paused for thought, but no. They kept up the charge, seemingly without a care as another volley from Sybil and Emily ploughed right into them. One orc took an arrow to an eye, another to the chest, another to the throat. One bolt, one kill. I was in awe at the pair, timing their shots together in perfect sync to deal devastating impacts on the enemy ranks.

Risk, who had looked a bit bored just watching Katherine, Bella and the rest going at it full throttle to tear the suicidal orcs into pieces, finally decided it was his turn to get involved. With no enemies close to him, I admit to getting curious as I watch him lower himself into a wide stance.

I didn’t have to pounder what he was planning for long though, as he suddenly shouted “[Engage]” before activating a [Flash] step, taking him straight into the middle of the approaching orcs. As he reappears amongst the fifth or sixth waves, all the orcs that lay his shimmering path combusted to spray thick streams of blood up and into the night sky.

It was a spectacle to behold. The lumistones Emily and Sybil had laid out before the battle began had originally given off a bright light with a pale blue glow. This wasn’t the case anymore though, with most having turned a more pale-crimson colour. As more and more orc bloodletting took place, the mixture of pale red stained stones to blue increased, causing a sort of kaleidoscope of liquid colour. When coupled with the odd bright white flash crashing through the sky from streaking lightning, the whole scene before my eyes seem almost cinematic. I couldn’t take my eyes off Bella and Katharine as they ripped through all that stand in their way to the backdrop of torturous, haunting squeals that came with each swing of their blades.

‘This is insane… There really doesn’t look to be anything for me to do though.’

I feel myself chuckle at the notion. Sure the orcs have numbers but this is pathetic. Even without the terrain advantage, this would be easy… The orcs seem to be averaging around level 26, so I guess that does explain why this does seem too easy for everyone. Our levels average much higher after all. But the orcs don’t seem to care as they just keep coming up from the gully despite the bodies piling up…

Well, if this continues on for much longer, we’ll have a defensive wall of orc corpses I guess… Which will actually hamper our ability to keep this slaughter going. Ah. I should probably go do something to clear them, right?

I open the menu system to scroll through my spells, looking for the most fitting spell in my arsenal.

There’s one, but at the same time, it’s a little overkill? For corpse clearing, I mean… Ah, screw it. Everyone else is having fun.

“Everyone,” I shout out as loud as I can before moving towards the corpses, “you’re gonna want to be behind me for a minute. I’m going to remove the corpses from the field before they become an issue.”

Risk, Bella and Katharine wasted no time complying as they can see a bright red mana circle forming up behind me and me readying myself.

[Hellfire]

HP: 5440 / 5440 MP: 30,279 / 31,279 ST: 3626 / 3626

The heat rises into the back of my throat, forcing its way out and into a roar that squeals at a pitch far higher than anything the pigmen would ever be capable of, screeching and whaling forth.

"BUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNN"

The searing flames whip and weave with every slight motion of my head, covering and engulfing everything in sight. The immense heat and blinding light both terrify and amaze me, just like the last time I performed this spell. It's incredible, mesmerising and terrifying, all at the same time.

As the spell ends, my eyes adjust and leave me to witness the spells devastating effects. All that remains is pools of molten rock, magma flowing downward and off the edges of the path up to us. All the corpses, and several waves of the encroaching orcs had all been cleared from the gully.

“A-are they mental?”, I hear Katharine call out as the orcs gunt.

Despite the display, the remaining orcs chose to continue their charged, resuming their advance as if totally unfazed by the display… Only to begin to melt the moment their hooves entered the glowing molten magma.

“Something's forcing them to advance without fear”, Risk spits while shaking his head. He then points to the distance, “You heard it right? That deep roar was different from the rest. It must be commanding them forward--”

“Yeah, but to keep advancing after witnessing that?”, Katharine retorts, ”That’s not sane. Fear or loyalty wouldn’t inspire that sort of fanaticism!”

“Does it matter?”, Bella laughs, “We came here to kill them all anyway!”

I feel myself nodding with a shrug. It’s a fair point.

“She’s--”

The heavens interrupted me, having decided that this was the moment truly best to open up in earnest. As if raising up to the monumental performance we were giving, it unleashed a torrential downpour of grand and epic spectacle. A downpour the likes of which I had never witnessed before in my two life times. And as if in direct competition, the wind ferociously whipped up too and howled out around us, swirling down and through the gully below.

“I told you Risk!”, I shout as loud as I can, trying to be heard. With the crashing water hammering the ground, screaming winds wailing around us, and thunderous roars of the lightning railing through the skies; I wasn’t heard. Not conditions you ever what to be in, yet alone fight under.

A smile crept across my face; This is a truly worthy backdrop. I feel like I’m in a movie.

The molten rock that had formed after my nightmarish spell rapidly cooled under the intense weather, giving the orcs ample platform to resume their assault on us without concern.

“Emily, Sybil, fire up more lumistones!”

“Wha!?”, Emily asks; or rather mimes.

“LU-MI-STON-ES, FI-RE!” I shout and mouth the words as widely and loud as possible. Seems the pair understood and began littering the field anew with more stones. Risk, Bella and Katharine didn’t wait for them though, letting themselves lose with renewed vigour straight into the oncoming horde.

A spear let loose from Risk hurtles into three; sharp, precise cuts from Katharine slices into two; hefty blows reverberate out over and between the deafening weather as Bella forges through six more with raw power.

...I guess I should follow their example and throw some [Void Lance]’s, right? I don’t really have much else to do. Other than getting soaked...

The battle continued on in a similar fashion long into the night. The heavy, oddly warm rain didn’t let up at all throughout the night. My previous expectation of the gully becoming a rapid torrent that pushed thick and heavy mudded-water downward through the ravine and into the advancing orcs did become a reality.

When I predicted this, I had expected the orcs to be sane as the waterlogged uphill conditions make advancing more treacherous than fighting us after all as we hold the high ground. Any reasonable commander would have retreated until the weather let up, renewing their attack once more under better conditions. But obviously, as they are somehow entirely devoid of sense and suicidal, this didn’t happen. Instead, we found ourselves forced to continue fighting in the sludgy gully, turned riverbed. Fighting against both a powerful current and endless waves of moronic orcs! It became so draining that we had no choice but to rotate ourselves out, leaving just two people to brace the horde while the rest of us rested around a small fire under the tent to regain some of our strength back. Unfortunately, Sybil and Emily ran out of arrows hours ago or we would have all rested and left it to them from the ridge of the gully but as that’s not possible, Sybil has been joining us in the rotation while Emily helps however she can.

“It’ll be dawn soon”, Bella mumbles, sat on a rock under the tent while hunched over her sword. Her previous cavalier attitude for the situation now completely removed, “At least we’ll see how many are left when the sun rises.”

“True. Though I get the feeling we haven’t scratched the surface--”

“Don’t say that Aburi!”, Katharine shouts out as she tags Risk into rotation and collapses down beside me, “The rains starting to let up, the sun will be up soon, and all the orcs will be dead!”

Katharine somehow still seems optimistic.

“Until we see the one inspiring these guys Katharine, it won’t end that easily.”

“Bella’s right”, I say while nodding, “Until the boss shows itself, this will continue for some time yet.”

I hand out another round of stamina tonics. We’d drunken so many of these that they littered the ground around us.

“I wonder how many we’ve killed?”, Katharine mutters, taking the tonic as Emily leans in to hand her a water pouch and rag to clean her blade.

It’s a good question. AE, I assume you’ve kept count?

[** Eight-thousand and six **] [** Eight-thousand and ten **]

Risk and Sybil seem not to be lacking vigour then… How much EXP is that?

[** 1733 average per kill **] [** EXP tonic, times four, enhanced essence absorption in effect **] [** Difficulty penalty incurred, averaging point-zero-one **] [** Over-absorption penalty, averaging three-point-one **] [** Estimation, 179,113 EXP obtained**]

...Per person?

[** Correct **]

You mentioned over-absorption, is that dangerous?

[** Negative **] [** Not conducive, recommend rest **]

I feel myself chuckle. No shit, AE. No shit.

“What’s got you chuckling?”, Bella asks as she observes me chuckling for seemingly no reason.

“The number we’ve killed. At last count it was over eight-thousand”, I reply, slightly disappointed it wasn’t over nine.

“S-seriously?”, Emily sits between Bella and I as she asks.

“Yeah. It felt like a lot because it really was a lot, and Katharine must be right. There can’t be many more. We’ve killed a scores of them--”

As the words fall out of my mouth, I couldn’t help but gasp. As if begin lead by a conductor, the rain stops and the sun slowly breaks up from the ground to rise behind me and illuminate Sybil and Risk’s backs in an orange crimson.

It wasn’t the sight of their continued glorious onslaught that caused me to stop mid-sentence and gasp though.

“Hah. You’re kidding me”, Bella stands, losing her sword to have it clang off the rock she had been sat on as it falls to the floor, “That’s… You’re all seeing this too, right? My eyes aren’t playing tricks? That’s real..right?”

If her eyes and mine are seeing the same, then yeah, it’s real alright. The whole mountain is surrounded by orcs. In the gully, down to the forest, out to the river, surrounding the overhang and visible as far off as we can see--

“H-how many of them are there?!”, Katharine shrieks out at the sight of them all. Her voice quivers as she visibly shakes.

...AE?

[** Calculating **] [** Estimation **] [** Two-hundred and thirty-three thousand **]

Risk said they ‘outnumber’ and ‘swarm’, but this? I…

Well, I think it’s time to leave. Yep. Screw the boss. We only came for the EXP anyway. Would have been nice to have taken its head, but I’m not greedy. We could be fighting here for a month and not kill half of them.

I head towards Risk and Sybil, placing myself in the middle of everyone and start casting [Mass Warp] to take us to Gillia.

Or... at least, I attempt to? AE, what’s going on?

[** Spell failure **]

I can see that, why?

[** Territory restriction in effect **] [** Undisputed ruler of the region has disabled tunnelling **]

T-that’s possible?

[** Correct **]

Have… I don't know why I'm asking this as I already know the answer, but have you been aware of this the entire time?

[** Correct **]

And you didn’t think it was information the other ‘you’ needed to know?

[** Threat to survival, trivial **]

So, and let me just make sure I’ve got this right yeah, because ‘you’ believed I could slug my way through and kill all two-hundred thousand--

[** Two-hundred and thirty-three thousand **]

..Yes. All those orcs that currently lay before me here. You decided that it wasn’t worth mentioning that the spell I most commonly use had been disabled? That I would just go; ‘Ha, oh well?’

…

Did you expect me to genocide the entire orc race, is that it?

…

Oh my god! What the hell is wrong with you?! And with me, I’m arguing with myself! Again! For feck sake AE. If you had a neck, I’d wring it!

“Aburi, I think we should probably think about leaving”, Risk calls out, “That’s too many to fight even if we hold an overwhelming advantage on this ridge.”

Ya think!? What the hell am I meant to say to that? Bella and Risk have enough experience to keep it together if I told them the truth, but the moment Emily and Katharine find out we're trapped, they're going to freak out!

“Aburi?”, Risk calls again.

I don’t have a choice, I’ll have to lie and trust he’ll understand later!

“No. If this were Aslogia, we’d have nowhere to run to right now. We have to keep fighting until we can fight no more! I’ll not let any of you back down until your lives are actually in danger. You’re in command here, Risk, as you wanted. So command us through this. Bella, Katharine, Emily. Come on, on your feet! Come on, up!”

Risk gives me a look of suspicion for a moment, before nodding as I force a fake smile to cross my face. I’m not sure if he could tell something was wrong, but went about barking orders to Bella and Katharine to rejoin the frontlines.

I think that smile may have sold it?