The one-eyed veteran, seeing that I have finally noticed him, wastes no time in rushing toward me. I don't actually think he was waiting to be noticed by me as much as he wasn't expecting our ambush to be quite so sudden or thorough.

In contrast to his desire to come close to me, however, I would rather not stick around and find out what he plans to do once he catches me: I have no idea what his capabilities are, but frankly now that we're in a fight, he looks quite a lot scarier than grandpa the barely mobile shaman did.

Unfortunately, I’m engaged by a rather normal Orc, who based on previous experience probably has about a 50% chance of knocking me out if he hits me, and if I turn and run, he’ll almost certainly connect with a swing at least once. Though... Screw it.

I grab and activate my Invigoration schematic. Even if he knocks me out, I will probably not die, and I should be able to return to consciousness before the fight is completely over. Not that I could help much… Except for one thing. I close the last 10 meters to reach the “ideal location” we had picked out earlier.

Unsurprisingly, though I try and remain wary and back up in a sane fashion, controlling movement in a battlefield is not practical when you are inferior to the opponent in nearly every regard. Getting where I wanted to go still leads to a nasty gash on my arm, as the Orc I was already engaged with recognized that I was trying to get more distance from One Eye, and followed me closely while sliding around enough to make sure I would either need to back up towards one-eye or take a hit. Another 11 health gone, that fast.

He's not satisfied with having caught me on the run, and tries to lunge at me just as I reach the point I decided to take my stand at; I step into the lunge, pushing the blade down and away to avoid injury. Our tactical situation is not perfect since I am close to passing out, but I managed to buy a few more seconds worth of their attention; and Regina is as lethal as ever, with her arrow boring a hole into the top of the Orcs thick skull. I am pretty sure this one is all the way dead. Awesome.

It is now a 1 versus a 1.5 battle. Me counting as the half, of course. We stand a rather good chance from here, I think. I am far enough away that he’ll take a few more seconds to reach me, and I should be able to keep him busy for a couple more seconds before he knocks me out or kills me.

I would not advise that anyone ignore Regina, and in the time it takes him to reach and defeat me would be more than enough to see most Orcs defeated, and he’ll still need to run all the way around the escarpment to be able to reach her. The elite Orcs we have seen up to now wouldn't stand a chance. Unless this guy is an absolute monster, he should…

Wait. He did not continue running towards me, what is he doing? Oh. He ran up to his unconscious buddies, the ones I just ran away from, and he is… Casting an area heal spell. Well fuck.

The shaman and both orcs that were already knocked out where I had been fighting until a few seconds ago begin to groggily clamber up to their feet. I am not charging back there, that would be suicide even if One Eye wasn't present. One Eye being able to cast a group healing spell at all means he is no joke.

This guy is not a shaman, why is he able to heal when their shaman couldn't? This makes no sense to me, but this is clearly not the situation I wanted to be in. We thought by taking down the Shaman we would be removing their ability to heal. But with One-Eye here, they can heal. Effectively. I have already used my only reliable healing spell, and while it is highly efficient, it is comparatively slow.

Well, my current job is to buy time, so I pull out a potion of healing and chug it. My health jumps from 7 remaining back up to 18, and I then see my health tick up to 19 as I finish quaffing my potion. For a little over a minute, I will continue healing slowly due to having used my invigoration schematic. I hope that this goes unnoticed and I can use it to my advantage somehow, though I do not yet know how.

Regina does not mess around and sends an arrow at One Eye. He does not bother to look; her arrow hits him and… Well, it tries to hit him, but just as it reaches him it fades away. What the hell? This is looking bad. I hope that was a one off or something, because if Regina cannot hurt him, we are well and truly screwed… And I'm not certain, but I think I might know what was protecting him just now, and if it is what I think, none of her other arrows will work either.

One eye approaches but not to engage me, he instead stops at the final fallen orc, the only one that didn't stand back up after his area healing spell. Confirming that the Orc he is investigating is dead, One Eye looks at me, so obviously angry that I swear his remaining eye is starting to glow red, and says “You dared pretend to be one of us. You shall burn slowly for your heresy, foul beast!”

Wow. Calling me a beast aside, that just means he has not yet identified my actual race, what is truly amazing is that someone is actually stopping to talk smack during a fight? That… Is rare. Mostly because it is stupid. While you are running your mouth, they are doing something that will actually hurt you. Also, fighting is exhausting, so you will usually prefer to gasp in a bit more air rather than expel it without good reason.

To clarify, there are some so-called professional fighters who will talk smack while fighting. Some of them will even stop fighting entirely just to be able to shout some unkind things at their opponents. Some of these professional fighters are enormously talented as fighters, too.

What you need to understand, though, is that they are putting on a show, not engaging in a battle for survival. Gladiators, wrestlers, even UFC fighters and so on, they are fighters, but they are also showmen, and their job is to engage the audience.

By contrast, someone who kills people for a living will only engage in theatrics to such an extent as it forwards their ability to end their target... And if they are fighting against other people who are also accustomed to killing people? You're not going to throw them off their game by tossing out some inflammatory remarks.

People like One Eye, who clearly have fought for their life but who still choose to talk smack? They are rare. Very rare. Very few smack talkers survive more than one or two fights, because putting it bluntly they're splitting their attention without benefit. It's not a hobby that's conducive towards survival, and defying the odds to survive that first couple fights doesn't make it suddenly a good idea later.

For the record, if you are going to talk in a fight, you say things to your allies. You might want to update tactics, or give warnings, or something else that progresses your ability to come out ahead. But talking? Your enemy is the last person you should talk with; all you will accomplish is buying them time to do nasty things or give away your own plans.

Unless the contents of the conversation change in a meaningful way there is no point in replying; If all goes well here, he will either be dead or captured. If things go poorly, I will be captured or dead. We're already fighting, a real fight, not some adolescent school crap, so rambling on about how I plan to kill someone is as pointless as trying to interrupt the fight to say that if I have my way the sun will rise tomorrow.

Thank you, One Eye, for providing a weakness before we even get started. I'm going to need every possible advantage I can get here, he's clearly more powerful than anyone else we've fought up to now, but at least there's a weakness to be found in his personality.

The two normal orcs once again close on me and swing their falchions, though neither of them manages to connect. Yes! Move like a butterfly, sting like a bee! Or in my case, move like a pregnant yak, sting like a gnat. Damnit, the ancient Shamans' javelin slammed into my shoulder.

Despite his extremely advanced age and frail (for an Orc) physique, he still hits harder with a Javelin than I can claw someone even on a good day, and I'm back down to 12 health. I do not have any more viable combat options remaining to me, so I focus exclusively on not dying, eyes flicking between opponents, trying to buy as much time for Regina as I can. Regina shows her appreciation for my effort by driving an arrow into the shoulder of the Orc closest to the wall, knocking him out for a second time.

One Eye, who was not far from me after checking the one dead Orc, saunters slowly and confidently towards me, like some sort of a predatory animal from a movie, chanting a spell along the way. I try and identify the spell while keeping my focus on dodging attacks.

Of course, he is giving himself an attack buff. Because I was clearly not concerned enough with the situation as is. My only saving grace is that this guy really likes to play with his food; there's absolutely no call for him to be moving so slowly and exaggerating his actions so much . I think I know how he ended up with a missing eye… Here's to hoping his arrogance is enough to lead us to a repeat of the sort of mistake which cost him that first eye.

The Shaman approaches the general melee but stops at the only dead orc, whom the shaman relieves of his Javelin, and throws it at me. The geriatric Orc has excellent form if I am being honest, if this guy were not ready to fall over and die after a random gust of wind, he would have likely been pretty deadly.

What is his deal, anyhow? Why has he been using weapons instead of spells, and why isn't HE the one doing the healing? Considering where he was located, he should have been a formidable caster, it makes no sense that they would have some weakling in such a vaunted position?

As is, I am able to smoothly sidestep his javelin, before hoping back just outside the reach of the Orc warrior. Regina sends another arrow at One Eye, but he again ignores it, a justified action considering that it again fades just before contact. No, damnit!

This feels like a boss fight, but frankly I can barely tangle with a single regular orc. I can keep them busy, but their strength is just so high that keeping them engaged is about as much as I can hope for. As for keeping One Eye engaged? This psycho is quite literally glowing with power right now. He hasn't started attacking me yet, but I'm pretty sure he'll be able to carve through me without breaking a sweat.

One eye finally closes the last bit of distance between us, standing directly in front of me, but it seems he realized that that I have abandoned offense entirely. Seeing that my hands are empty, despite being within my reach, he casts a healing spell and directs it at the most recently incapacitated orc, trying to bring him back into the fight.

I try and prove that One Eye made a mistake casting within my reach by raking him with a claw, but the only thing that accomplishes is revealing that under his loose-fitting robe he is wearing half plate. Damnit. If it wasn't bad enough already, that half plate is excellent quality. Half plate is already an extravagant piece of equipment, but with it being superior quality as well… That seals it for me.

This guy has too many buffs and too much armor. He's arrogant and stupid, and he absolutely deserves to take a loss. Hubris has no place in battle, and you could build a skyscraper with that much of an ego as a foundation, but his arrogance is not entirely unjustified. He is stronger than us by a significant margin. As he is right now, we are completely incapable of causing him harm.

But… He is arrogant, and he is stupidly taking this fight as a joke. This is a stretch, but if we can take out his helpers and delay him enough, some of his buffs like that attack buff he casted are likely to expire quickly. Without all the magical tomfoolery, maybe we'll be able to hurt him. He'll still be a heavily armored badass healbot, but he has far too much magic active right now for his armor to even come into play in a meaningful fashion.

With the freshly healed Orc groggily standing up, the Shaman takes the Javelin from him and throws it at me, while the other Orc tries to catch me with his Falchion again. Realizing that the Orc currently swinging at me has no way to see behind him I take a large step to the side, leading the falchion to collide with the javelin and spoiling both attacks.

Man, these guys just do not quit. If I were not completely focused on dodging their attacks, I would definitely have dropped by now, these are narrow misses and getting the orc to strike a javelin mid-flight was at least as much luck as skill. The only pieces of good news are that One Eye has been playing around and that I have 3 more health due to my ongoing buff. I am pretty sure I will need it. Especially since I am about to start attacking again, which means I will get knocked out or killed very soon.

“His armor is awesome, but most of his buffs should last less than a minute!” I yell.

She is intelligent and experienced enough to know what I am suggesting. There is a slightly longer than normal delay between arrows. I know why she has not shot yet. She needs to see what One Eye will do. The next few arrows she fires, combined with whether or not I can stay standing long enough, will determine the course of this battle. Our odds are garbage, but if we play it right and are sufficiently lucky, we might yet be able to leverage One Eyes ego to make this a winnable battle.