《Refining the Heavens》Chapter 46: Jim's battle
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George's camp had always kept a surplus supply of wood and metal for the repairs of any broken weapons or structures, which was why even though Kairos and Alan's weapons are rather rare types they are still able to repair it.
Using those supply, they managed to improve the camp's defences. Granted, they exhausted almost all of their reserves in the deed, but at the eleventh hour, they hardly have a choice. Their best creation was a few shoddily made ballistae thanks to the combined efforts of Jim, the self-made Saboteur, and Edward, their Archer and combat engineer. The prior provided his expertise in tinkering around with contraptions. The latter had a basic understanding of siege machines, and more importantly, he is familiar with bows.
Those ballistae fired hallowed tree trunks, packed with bombs and filled with oil. The missile's weight doomed it from travelling far, and they are fated with limited rounds because it exhausted their remaining explosives too quickly. Nevertheless, it was a working design that truly shone when needed.
At this junction, there is no longer a reason to save up. With the Orc King as their opponent, a future might not even come.
The War Beasts that were crossing their handmade bridges were met with unexpectedly fierce resistance. The spear bolt struck them and shattered into tiny pieces. Oil splashed onto the timbers and spread into the moat, and the resulting explosion brought hell on earth. The Orcs hastily jumped into the water to escape, but they soon realised that the place had been turned into a sea of fire.
Blood-curdling bestial screams and death throes accompanied every shot and any remaining bridges crumbled under the high heat.
To create such flames, the oil they used definitely cannot be normal but one made from a flame wyvern.
The chaos that followed caused the Orc King to howl from frustration but the second wave of warriors formed immediately and they rushed into the moat.
Their shoving and struggling pushed them down the watery slopes, and unknowingly many Orcs were impaled by the stakes hidden within the banks.
Their leader’s reaction was instant. The Orc King gave another great cry, and a new bunch of Orcs rushed to the banks, pushing through those in front. They are stronger and larger than the groups before, solely made up of D ranked members who could form a magic barrier around themselves, and they easily destroyed the sharpened stakes.
"It's a wonder how Orcs can communicate with just one sound. Don't you feel their language is seriously more advanced than ours if they can say everything with one syllable?" Alan observed.
Snow replied, "I don't think they are speaking by sound. It is probably by some other way."
When it comes to intelligence and information, she is confident that if she claims to be the second best here, no one will dare to claim the first. Of course, that is of course, excluding George who is no longer in the exam.
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Kairos who is just next to them had been quiet all this while. Her words inspired him to try using his Soul Perception to pick something out. What is it, he does not know, but even a small discovery will surely be helpful to him.
He let his senses permeate the surrounding, enveloping the Orc army that numbered nearly a thousand. At first, there wasn't anything different, but as he increased the soul concentration in the area, he started picking up more information than before. He sensed a previously undetected disturbance in the air and instantly recognised it as circular waves that originate from individual Orcs.
"Mana!" Kairos cried out in surprise, and he turned and looked at his friends, exclaiming, "They are communicating by throwing mana waves into the air!"
"Waves? Like our sound waves but by magic instead? That would explain how they are able to operate like an army! But how did you think of that?"
The studious Snow stared at Kairos with wide eyes. "I had been underestimating him. No wonder he was chosen by the dragon."
He replied her with silence. Of course, he couldn't tell her about his Soul Perception, but even his own team are looking at him curiously.
Even as Soul Force users like him, it is not easy to detect those waves of energies in the air, unless that person is an Orc which is highly sensitive to mana.
"Maybe Kairos is a half-Orc?"
"I'll throw you off this rampart."
"Sorry captain, you're not half-Orc, you're a full Orc. I really didn't mean to look down on how Orc you are"
*AHHHHHHHHHHH~*
*Splash*
Kairos sent Jim flying off the rampart and into the moat with a 720 degrees spin kick.
"Jim~ you better kick some Orc arses or else no dinner for you!"
Jim struggled to get out of the moat when he heard Kairos yelling at him and then he shouted back.
"Boss~ I would feel upset if I hit your family members!"
"Edward shoot him!"
A few gel coated arrows immediately flew into the moat, as though the archer had been long awaiting this moment. Despite Jim’s desperate dodging, one caught him right on his forehead and sent him flying backwards.
Yes, he could sense those arrows coming even a hundred meters away, but to avoid them is a different matter.
They could hear him thrashing in the water from as far as the ramparts. But, the struggle was far longer than expected, and even Kairos started worrying he might drown.
They all breathed out a sigh of relief when Jim resurfaced with a new bump on his head. But he immediately sucked in a deep breath and went right back under.
Although the moat was made deep and swift enough to cause the blue team problems, it allowed the heavyset Orcs to move underwater and avoid the flames.
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When one of the Orcs saw a human boy falling into the water, it had swum over, and to its surprise, the boy was suddenly shot by its own teammates. It gleefully caught him, but immediately was stabbed multiple times and had to let go.
But just when it felt relief that the boy had stopped attacking and went back up to the surface, it saw him swimming back again.
Unlike the fearless Orc war chiefs, it is only a peon, and much weaker than most of its peers. Peons and Grunts do not know of battles, as they are of the lower class among the Orcs. In their bloodstream, they do not boil with battle lust. Instead, their blood is filled with thoughts of boar and deer meat.
Three days ago, this Orc was merely an ordinary Orc serf and did not have much semblance of intellect, but after their Orc King's rebirth, all of the Orcs quickly strengthened to protect and fight for their sovereign.
For those of their race, this is a natural process whenever a King is born, but it didn't change the way they think.
Looking at the boy closing the distance, it panicked, but strength wasn't the only thing their race gained. The arrival of a King also brought about a great improvement in their intelligence. It quickly called help through mana-speak. The magical nature of this medium allowed it communication regardless being submerged in water and the other Orcs quickly ganged up in retaliation.
More thrashing could be seen in the waters near Jim, and this time, even the guys started becoming more worried.
A short moment later, like a shadow fleeting across the waters and Jim appeared on the shore with a flicker. How could mere Peons and Grunts be his match, when he could fight a War Chief unscathed?
Of course, being underwater restricted his speed, and he had to avoid running into groups of D ranked beasts
With another roar from their leader, more Orcs entered the moats or pushed new bridges across the water, planning to overwhelm the humans in one shot.
Very soon, within just a short moment of time, half of the thousand-odd Orcs have joined the attack.
Far above the siege, no one noticed an old man flew down and settled on top of the East hill base's flagpole. It was not that he fell from a higher place nor did he reach there by a powerful jump, but it is a kind of movement that seemingly neglected the effects of gravity. He stood firm despite the pole underneath continued to sway gently in the wind; seemingly unaffected from bearing any weight.
His appearance looked very alike the immortals depicted on the ancient scrolls with long eyebrows that flows all the way down to his shoulders.
"Hmmm, besides that boy with strong sword intent about him, these five young ones are the only ones interesting here.
They seemed to have discovered Immortal Ki. I wonder how did they found their way?
The path of Dao is immense and mysterious indeed," He thought wistfully to himself.
The ballista quickly ran out of ammo, but Edward replaced the weapon with his own arrows. He fired shots after shots with his powerful new martial arts while the rest of the Snowdrifts supported him with their Ki using the northern star array. Each time, he let loose three arrows glowing with bright swirls of light that sped down the ramparts and took out over fifty Orcs.
However, as more and more enemies rushed their camp, the strain started to overwhelm the archer. It was only after four of such shots and defeating nearly two hundred Orcs that everyone in the formation felt drained. And this is the case when he is using a simplified and weakened version of his incantation.
He did not notice yet, but this technique of his is not just a simple martial art.
"We can't hold on. They are sending another wave our way! We will soon be left entirely out of energy and to their mercy," Alan urged Kairos, whose face remained unchanging while taking in all that is happening.
"Alan, help extract Jim," he says.
While the archer was slowing down the Orc advances, Jim guarded the walls with no intention of leaving.
The first wave of Orcs that reached the shore was most Orc captains. After they broke past the stakes, they had overtaken the Orc grunts and peons.
When Jim was Entry F rank, he took down a single Orc captain with little effort, although the fight last over a minute.
Now that he is at Mid F rank, he is already many folds stronger than before. Staring down the brute Orc captains that do not have a single martial ability he was not worried at all.
Granted, he himself does not have any martial techniques either, but fighting techniques that were refined from several life and death battles are not to be underestimated. Just the ability to stare down a superior force without an ounce of fear is an impressive trait for a warrior.
"Come!" he says, his expression different his usual flippant attitude.
In the heat of battle, everyone watching on the rampart felt he was somewhat cool looking.
Then, he added, "let me show off to the girls!"
Fortunately, the ramparts are built to be firm, or else the people falling on it would have crumbled the structure.
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