“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

My hand penetrated the orc’s flesh in a gruesome fashion. Strangely enough, no blood came out because it was being absorbed by my [Dimension Ripper]. I pulled my hand out, with the orc’s still beating heart clutched in my left hand. As soon as my hand came out, blood spurted from the cavity in the orc’s chest and sprayed all over the place.

I reflexively gagged. [Dimension ripper] was definitely not a joke. This was the power of a mythical item.

You have slain an orc.

You have gained experience.

The orc has dropped an [Orcish Halberd]

You have earned 80 silver.

The last orc grunted in surprise, but quickly regained its composure. It lumbered towards me with its mace in hand.

“Restrain.”

Before the whip could fully coil around the orc, it broke free with its swinging arm.

I casted a ranged thunderbolt just to stun it momentarily, before it could escape from [Restrain]. I activated [Heart Ripper] and plunged my left hand into the orc’s chest, ripping out its heart.

You have slain an orc.

You have leveled up.

You have earned 80 silver.

Mana: 15/422

Shit, almost out of mana.

The cooldown on my mana potion was only halfway through. More orcs and goblins were making their way into the town square.

Eric walked up beside me, fully healed. He placed his hand on my shoulder.

“This should help you, friend.”

My body glowed as Eric applied several buffs on me.

Your physical resistance has increased by 30.

Your magic resistance has increased by 30.

Your vitality has increased by 30.

“Thank you, Eric.”

Actually, the buffs didn’t do too much for me. I was already used to fighting while taking minimal damage, and a direct hit for an orc was still probably going to two shot me.

“Do you have any buffs that restore mana?”

Eric looked at me quizzically.

“I don’t. Paladin buffs are defensive in nature.”

“I see.”

In the front, the blacksmith wielding the massive hammer took a brutal hit in the back from an orcish scythe sword. He collapsed, coughing up blood.

“No! Edward!”

Eric was visibly distraught seeing the blacksmith fall.

The orc wielding the orcish scythe sword was several heads taller than the other orcs, and had large red horns. The name in red above the orc’s name was unmistakable. [Orc Commander].

“Edward was like an uncle to me. You’ll pay for this!”

Eric charged forward wildly, with a tight grip on his greatsword. The Orc Commander grunted out some orders to a few orcs, who raised their weapons at Eric.

The battlefield was strewn with fresh corpses and bloody combatants struggling for their lives. More than half of the players were killed by now, and high level NPCs were falling one by one.

The elite guards and several players were currently engaged against a [Hobgoblin Shaman] and a retinue of goblins and orcs guarding the shaman.

Players and low level NPCs were getting bulldozed by the orcish onslaught. Goblins were able to sneak in attacks with their spears that normally wouldn’t be possible without an orc frontline.

It was hard to tell which side would eventually prevail, because I couldn’t see an end to the horde pressing into the town square.

“Fall back, Lord Eric!”

Eric’s personal archers were raining arrows down on the orcs attacking their lord. The Orc Commander was approaching Eric.

“Summon cat.”

Meat Shield appeared by my side.

“You shouldn’t summon me now~ I was about to give a goblin a taste of his own intestines~”

“We have to help Eric. Try to distract the [Orc Commander]. He’s the big one over there.”

“I see~”

Meat Shield blinked out of existence and reappeared in front of the Orc Commander’s face. After an initial surprise, the Orc Commander swatted Meat Shield away with a powerful sweep of his hand. His hand connected with her ribcage, and I could only hope that it wasn't broken.

It was my first time seeing Meat Shield get hit. Her health immediately went down to critical as she slid on the dirt from the impact. She was unconscious, and the only reassuring sign of life coming from her tiny body was her chest rising and falling as she took short, pained breaths.

The Orc Commander raised his scythe sword and swung down at Meat Shield.

“No!”

My love whip shot across the ground and yanked Meat Shield by the tail away from the scythe sword’s impact. Lifting my hand, I telekinetically directed love whip to place Meat Shield’s limp body in a small basket away from the fighting.

“Incoming!”

A massive goblin ballista arrow soared above the battlefield and pierced an archer standing on the inner city wall, leaving a fist sized hole in his chest. This chaotic fight was only getting more hellish by the minute.

“Raaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

The Orc Commander bellowed a [War Cry] into the air, buffing the attack and defense of all orcs within aura range. I groaned. Unbuffed orcs were hard enough to deal with. On the other side, the Hobgoblin Shaman was beginning to push back Mountain's elite guards.

Civilians armed with only a broom or a pan tried to defend themselves from the orcs, only to be cut down with ease by the powerful physicality of the orcs.

Eric managed to dispatch one of the orcs, but the second tackled him to the ground and was wrestling him.

From the inner city, a magically enhanced voice thundered through the ravaged outer city. It sounded like an elderly man, magnified to a thunderous volume.

“Good citizens of Mountain, please find your way to the temple. The city is lost. I am preparing to cast [Mass Teleport].”

An NPC shouted.

“That’s Sage Svent’s voice!”

“Where’s the temple?”

“It’s in the inner city.”

The sage was right. I looked at the state of the battlefield. Only a quarter of the players were still left standing, and over half of the city’s level 80 guards were dead. The strength of the orcs in combination with the sheer numbers of the goblins alone were enough to take the city, and there were still the [Orc Commander] and [Hobgoblin Shaman] left standing. Each of them was immeasurably stronger than their minions.

A woman holding a child was skewered by a goblin, and the town’s bar patrons lay dead on the ground nearby. Nearly all low level NPCs that hadn’t made it to the inner city yet were killed.

The defenders were fighting while retreating into the city. I drew my whip and lashed at the orc that was suffocating Eric. The whip connected with a crack, but the orc didn’t let go of his grip. The orc knew that Eric was close to death, and wanted to finish him.

I chugged a [Medium mana potion] and dove onto the orc.

[Thunderbolt]

[Heart Ripper]

You have slain an orc.

You have gained experience.

You have earned 80 silver.

With the orc’s bloody innards in my left hand, I offered my right hand to Eric.

“It’s time to go.”

Eric dragged me down and started to wrestle with me. His eyes were wild. It was clear he didn’t realize he was just saved, as he rolled on the ground with me, trying to get a choke hold on my neck.

“Hey! Snap out of it!”

I smacked him in the face.

Eric blinked, then looked at me, sanity returning to his eyes.

“Oh, it’s you Spoon.”

There was a nasty gash in Eric’s left leg which meant he couldn’t walk. I lent him my shoulder and began to retreat into the inner city. We didn’t make it far. An orc was closing in on me, and I had no choice but to drop Eric and run.

Right before the orc could finish Eric off.

“Restrain.”

My whip wrapped around the wounded paladin’s arm and pulled him. The ground grinded against his body as he was dragged along, leaving some nasty scrapes, but it was better that than dead.

The defenders were all on full retreat now, as the Orc Commander killed a guard with each heavy swing of his scythe sword.

“Summon cat.”

An unconscious Meat Shield appeared in the air in front of me, and I caught the black cat in my arms. I tucked her in like an American football and ran for the inner city. I shoved and elbowed my way through the crowd into the inner city and began following the mob towards the temple.

“Lord Eric!”

Several of Eric’s retainers watched in horror as their lord floated through the air, carried by what looked like a levitating black rope. There was no time to explain to them what was happening.