“Fuck off if you don’t wanna die. You might be an ogre, but we can still kill you all the same. Now get out of here before--”

Before Lorkh could finish his rant, Grahl had already charged at him. Lorkh thought that he would have time to easily counter and chop this stupid ogre’s legs off. However, the reality was vastly different from his expectations.

Grahl arrived in front of Lorkh within the blink of an eye, using a combination of mana strengthening as well as reinforcement, Grahl’s speed had reached a frightening level. Grahlgar’s hand reached out in an attempt to grab and strangle Lorkh. He could hardly react in time, but react he did. Although Lorkh was a scumbag, he was still an elite warrior. He had fallen for the trap of those twins, thus provoking his fury even further. But in a true fight, with life on the line, Lorkh had confidence in his skills. Lorkh channeled mana through the meridians in his leg, using it to propel himself backward. Now that he had been forced away from the twins, the little spirits who followed Grahl surrounded Bronze and Silver, combining their magic to create a barrier of mana around them. They could sense that even though Grahl had gone berserk, he hadn’t forgotten the reason he had gone berserk! These little spirits would help Grahl so that he could fight! Fight without worry of hurting those he desired to protect.

Lorkh glanced at his fellow warriors and without further instruction, moved to surround Grahl. Grahlgar was enraged, but he was somehow able to cast a glance at Bronze and Silver and mutter the words,

“I! Will! Protect!”

Bronze and Silver, who had temporarily been saved, did not wear any expressions of happiness. Silver bit her lip as she looked at Grahl, but she soon broke her gaze away and moved over to Bronze to stabilize his condition with nature magic. While she still held some lingering fear at almost being raped, she was far more concerned about Bronze’s condition. After draping her tattered clothes over her shoulders, Silver began to heal Bronze with the only healing magic she knew, Regrowth.

“Bronze...you big dummy...look at what’s happened to you.”

“Shilfer...Aym...shorry.”

“Shh. Just rest for now.”

“Buh...Grahl..ish…”

“Worry about yourself, idiot!”

Her tears cascaded like raging waterfalls. No matter where she looked at Bronze, she would cringe. Lorkh had taken his time and made sure to torture Bronze slowly and painfully, without doing so fatally. It was truly a skill that he had honed with practice. Silver’s hands were trembling with a mixture of sorrow and rage. As she looked out of the transparent barrier that the little spirits had erected, she whispered,

“I’m sorry Grahl...but I hope that you kill them all...”

After the little spirits had surrounded the twins in a barrier, the orcs launched an assault against Grahlgar. The three of them, one wielding an axe, the other two bastard swords, all chopped down at Grahl simultaneously. Instinctively, Grahl used his skill to reinforce the air resistance on their weapons, then weaved out of their way. That slight delay was enough to allow Grahl enough time to grasp an opening and exploit it. At the same moment that he skillfully avoided their onslaught, he reached out and grabbed one of the orcs by the head. With a vicious grasp, Grahlgar’s enormous strength crushed the orc’s skull like a watermelon. While still holding firm onto the mangled head of the orc, he swung the dead orc as if it were a warhammer! He was using the dead orc as a weapon!

The other two orcs were horrified and so was Lorkh. However, Lorkh knew that if he fell back now, he would only be slaughtered with the others. He had to join forces with the last two orcs to kill this damned ogre, or he would be the one to die! Lorkh ignored every fiber of his being that was screaming for him to flee and charged at Grahl with astonishing speed. The two remaining orcs, one with a bastard sword, the other an axe, could only steel themselves as well. If they turned their backs, it meant instant death!

They all lacked the talent for spellcraft, but their skills with mana strengthening and martial arts was enough to make up for that deficiency. Lorkh aimed to chop off Grahl’s left arm, while one orc went for his right arm and the last went for Grahl’s torso. The three orcs worked with great coordination, trapping Grahl and leaving him with no place to flee.

Grahlgar was in a berserk state at the moment, so while he couldn’t think clearly, his instincts were at its sharpest. Once again, Grahl reinforced the air resistance around him, then the gravity. While these changes were slight and only for a fraction of a second, it was enough to alter the trajectory as well as taper some of the force in their attacks. Before their blows could land, Grahl didn’t bother reinforcing his flesh and only focused on reinforcing his bones. Their weapons easily sliced through Grahl’s flesh, but they were stopped and even chipped, when they came into contact with Grahl’s bones.

Grahlgar then flexed his muscles, strengthening them with mana and using them to clamp down on the weapons that were embedded into his skin. When the orcs tried to pull their weapons from Grahl’s sturdy flesh, they were startled to find that Grahl’s muscles were actually gripping their weapons with tremendous force! Grahl had traded flesh to break bone! Grahlgar then brandished the dead orc like a club and knocked the three orcs away, leaving their weapons still buried in his arms and chest. Then, Grahl gave a low shout and the weapons shot out from his body as if they were thrown. Grahl had just briefly externalized his mana through his pores to force out the weapons and use them against his opponents like projectiles.

Lorkh and the other two, who had been knocked away by their comrade being used as a bludgeon, were still in mid-air as this was happening. Lorkh was skilled enough in his mana control to externalize some of his mana to shift his direction, but the other two were not so lucky. The orc who wielded the bastard sword was pierced directly through the chest with his own weapon. The orc who wielded the axe, had his right leg cleaved off under the same circumstances. One was killed, the other was wounded badly enough to be easily finished off.

The odds were looking grim. At this time, Lorkh wanted to run. This was a freakish little ogre. While ogres were born with superior physiques, a group of four seasoned orc warriors should have been more than enough to kill a fledgling ogre. Yet the battle was already over practically the instant after it started. Lorkh felt something that he had never felt before...Regret. Thinking back on it, the little shit had said something like,

‘If you touch one hair on Silver’s head, you’ll regret it.’

It hadn’t been that long ago that he arrogantly replied that he never had a single regret in his life. Now, that statement was no longer true. He regretted not simply killing these stupid goblins earlier. No, he actually regretted chasing them at all. What was pride, what was shame? Especially in the face of death, such things seem so trivial.

But the very instant after he felt that tinge of regret, he felt an even deeper rage. Lorkh had done as he pleased for his entire life. He never bent or bowed. He was a proud orc who took pleasures in the spoils of war and battle. When had it ever been his turn to regret?! The lamentations of his enemies’ women were his music! The blood of his enemies, his wine! The battlefield, his stage! Who would dare to steal his show, so long as he drew breath?! Thinking such thoughts, Lorkh was filled with power. His muscles enlarged and his height increased, making him about the same size as Grahlgar. Lorkh retrieved his weapon, then jumped straight back into the fray.

Lorkh was burning his life force to fight against Grahl. In the face of imminent death, he decided to just burn his own life force away and drag this little bastard down to hell with him! The orc whose leg had been chopped off, did the same and with his axe as a crutch, he propelled himself towards Grahlgar. The orc had the intent to land a deep wound on Grahl at the cost of his own life! Even if he could not kill the little ogre, he would still be able to give Lorkh a chance!

In response, Grahl released the orc he used as a weapon, hurling it towards the charging orc. Without hesitation, he sliced his dead comrade in twain, then continued advancing towards Grahlgar. The wounded orc attacked from the left and Lorkh from the right. Their speed couldn’t compare to before and even with his buffs, Grahlgar found it difficult to keep defending himself from their onslaughts. The wounded one would strike wherever he felt Grahl was weakest. Then, Grahl would be forced to defend, leaving himself vulnerable to Lorkh’s attacks. Without any magic to assist him, Grahl was simply using his skills to strengthen his body and face their weapons with naught but his flesh and bone. Thankfully, Grahl’s bones were extremely sturdy, so he used his forearms, fists and elbows to block and deflect their attacks. While he was holding his own, Grahl’s wounds steadily became more grievous. However, thanks to his sturdy bones, Grahl was able to severely damage his enemies weapons. Their axes were chipped and battered and even with mana strengthening, seemed as if they’d fall apart.

If the four orcs had attacked like this from the beginning, with the resolve to die, then they surely could have killed Grahl without any casualties. They would have been heavily wounded, but it would have been feasible. Now, the only hope they had of victory, was a pyrrhic one. The wounded orc burned all of his life force and all of his mana, placing it into one last attack. He stuck to Grahl like a maggot to bone, then unleashed his final strike. The orc’s body visibly withered, leaving him with nothing but a dried out corpse. However, while his body had withered, the strength of his attack was enough to warp the fabric of space and appear almost instantly in front of Grahlgar.

To his left, Lorkh was doing the same. He burned the entirety of his life force and mana, for one last strike. However, at the moment that it looked as though he was going to attack Grahlgar, Lorkh pivoted on the ball of his foot and rushed back towards the goblin twins, a manic smile plastered on his face.

“Haha! I might not be able to kill you, but I can kill those fucking goblins!”

Grahlgar’s eyes grew wide and he instantly bolted towards the twins to protect them. In the process, he left his back completely exposed. The powerful chop that the other orc used at the cost of his life, penetrated deep into Grahl’s torso. The axe cleaved through his muscle and bone, but could not fully slice through. The large axe was embedded deep into Grahl’s shoulder, close to his carotid artery. Grahlgar’s vision grew faint for a brief moment, but he powered through it! Those two were his friends! Precious friends! While they hadn’t known one another for very long, Grahlgar already viewed them like family. The little spirits as well, they had been with him for as long as he could remember. They were also like his own family. And if you wanted to kill Grahlgar’s family, you had to step over his body first!

Lorkh’s madness led him to completely ignore Grahlgar and focus entirely upon slaying the twins. The axe, containing every ounce of his power, crashed into the barrier made by the little spirits. The barrier instantly warped and cracked under the tremendous force of this blow. However, the little spirits glowed brightly, using the entirety of their own energy, to reinforce the barrier.

“No! Grahl! Little ones!”

At this moment, Bronze and Silver didn’t care at all about being saved. They didn’t want to be saved if it meant everyone else’s sacrifice. Grahlgar was a gentle child, he shouldn’t have even been in this situation in the first place. But because of them, he had already bloodied his hands and lost the innocence a child should have.

“Grahl...jush...leaf...dun...worry.”

“Little ones too, just leave!”

But the little ones shone brighter and brighter, yet at the same time, their presence was becoming thinner and thinner. As the power of Lorkh’s strike continued to hammer into the barrier, the little spirits finally exhausted the last of their power, effectively destroying themselves in the process. However, the barrier resonated with even greater strength and shoved Lorkh away by deflecting the power back toward him. Lorkh was stunned, but he soon gave a resigned smile. As he managed to regain his footing, he mumbled,

“Looks like the win is yours, you little shit.”

And at the instant that those words left his mouth, Grahlgar appeared right in front of him and crushed Lorkh’s head right between his hands. Bits of brain matter, blood and shattered skull fragments splattered over Grahlgar. By the end of the battle, all the orcs had died and Grahlgar had managed to protect the twins. But the cost,

“Little ones…”

“Lytul...shpirits…”

The twins’ eyes were moist as they watched the barrier shimmer then fade away. All that was left of the little spirits were fragments of mana that scattered in the wind. Grahlgar’s berserk state had ended and as he saw the little spirits destroy themselves to save the twins, he felt a piece of his heart breaking into tiny pieces.

Grahlgar looked at his hands, covered in blood and brains, then looked towards the defeated orcs behind him...Grahl had killed them, killed them all, but he couldn’t remember it. He just remembered the desire, the uncontrollable urge, to kill them all. That violent instinct, although he had managed to fight it, made him reckless. Due to that recklessness, he had endangered the twins and even forced the spirits to sacrifice themselves to save them.

Grahlgar didn’t say anything. The tears just flowed forth from his eyes like river rapids. He approached Bronze and Silver and with a smiling face uglier than crying he said,

“I’m sorry I was so late.”

Grahl’s lips were trembling and in his heart, he felt a pain far greater than any of the wounds he sustained. The moment was certainly bittersweet. While Grahlgar was able to save Bronze and Silver, the little spirits that had always played with him were now gone forever.

“No Grahl, we’re sorry, because of us--”

“Silver, Bronze...the little spirits sacrificed themselves because you were their friends. Please don’t be sorry, this is what they wanted. If it were me, I would definitely do the same in their place.”

Grahl spoke with a smile, but he couldn’t stop his tears from flowing.

“Grahl...little ones...thank you.”

Bronze nodded in agreement to Silver’s words. He truly couldn’t be anymore grateful to them than he was at this moment. Grahl and the little spirits had saved them from fates more tragic than death. At that moment, Bronze had pledged his life to Grahl. Silver did as well. This gentle ogre had killed violently, sustained great injuries and even lost loved ones, all for the sake of saving them. How much pain must he be in right now? While Grahl was devastated at the loss of the little spirits, Bronze and Silver were also sure that Grahlgar was afraid, afraid of himself. They saw a fear in Grahl’s eyes when he looked back and saw the things that he did in his anger.

Grahlgar tried to hide all these emotions under a smile, simply because he felt that this was what he should do. In his eyes, a hero should ease the pain in others’ hearts with their smile. But little did he know that his pained smile, hurt Bronze and Silver more than his face full of tears. For them, who he had hardly known for even three days, how much had he sacrificed? How much was he trying to hide away with that smile of his? Just as Silver was about to reach out and say something, they heard the sound of many footfalls. Since the sound wasn’t as heavy as an orcs, Bronze and Silver realized that it must have been the other goblins finally arriving. Grahlgar managed to finally stifle the flow of tears, after hearing approaching footsteps. While he could tell that the others were goblins, he still remained wary of them, so he had to bury his sorrow and regain his vigilance.

“Grahl, you should leave. If the other goblins see you, it might get you in trouble.”

“Un, Grahl shuh leaf.”

“No. I’m not leaving without you two. I’m taking you back to get healed.”

“Buh Grahl--”

“Grahl, it’s alright. It looks bad, but Bronze won’t die from this. So long as we can get him back to the burrows, the shaman can heal him. He has the greatest magic skill of the entire tribe. If he can’t heal Bronze, then I’ll ask for you to take him to the lake spirit. Now please, leave.”

“No! I’m not leaving until I know that you guys are safe. I don’t care if the other goblins want to take me prisoner, that’s fine. As long as I can see that you guys made it home safe, I don’t care. The little spirits wanted to keep you safe till their very last moments. I feel the same. So please, don’t ask me to leave again…”

Bronze and Silver couldn’t find it in themselves to say anything else. Grahl’s resolve was already that strong and they knew that it was pointless to try and convince him otherwise. While it frustrated them, it also made their hearts feel very warm. No one else acted like this for them except Rust.

“Okay Grahl...we’ll be in your care.”

“Of course.”

As they finished their conversation, the goblins soon surrounded them. Of course, they weren’t hostile to Bronze and Silver, but they were certainly cautious of this battered ogre. It may have been wounded, but in their eyes, it was still a threat.

“What are you doing?! Grahl is the one that saved us!”

At that time, a voice broke out, mediating between both sides.

“Wait! This guy wasn’t one of the attackers! Also, all the ones that chased after us are already dead. It must have been this ogre who killed them. If you think about it, doesn’t that mean he was wounded while defending our kin? You all still have the gall to point weapons at him?! Don’t shame our goblin race!”

The voice belonged to none other than Stick. As soon as the vine dragging him lost power, he hurriedly gathered as many other hunting parties as he could find in a bid to rescue the twins. However, it had still taken some time to gather everyone and by the time that he had gotten back, he saw the brutal scene before him. Stick had hunted many times before, so he was no stranger to gore. Yet, seeing the bodies of the orcs made Stick’s blood run cold. However, the death of these orcs meant that someone had defended Bronze and Silver. In his mind, the only person that could have done so would have been this ogre. If anyone pointed their weapons at this person who fought tooth and nail to save a member of their race, wouldn’t they all be the shame of their ancestors?

Hearing the words of their fellow goblin, the others lowered their weapons. In reality, even though Grahl was wounded, it still wouldn’t be too difficult to kill this amount of goblins, if they decided to attack him. Of course, so long as they didn’t try to hurt Bronze or Silver, it was fine. Grahlgar was standing in front of Silver, blocking her from the other goblins’ line of sight.

“Do you guys have extra clothes?"

“They wouldn’t fit you.”

“....They aren’t for me. Do you have them, or not?”

Grahlgar’s tone sounded impatient. Perhaps it was an aftereffect of going berserk, but Grahl definitely seemed much edgier compared to his usual self. Even covered in wounds, with a giant axe cleaving through his upper torso, the goblins were intimidated by his presence. In fear one of the goblins hurriedly gave him a set of clothes. Grahl turned around and handed this new set of clothes to Silver. Then, like an immovable wall, he stood with his back turned toward her so that she could quickly slip on the new attire. After that was done, Silver stepped out from behind Grahl’s back, bowing her head with a slight blush. While she had gone through such a traumatic situation, it was still embarrassing having to hide behind Grahl and put on clothes as the other goblins stood right there.

“Can you guys carry Bronze back? The village shouldn’t be more than a few miles away.”

“It looks bad, are you sure that he can be moved?”

“I used as much mana as I could spare to stop the bleeding and mend a few bones. He will be okay as long as he isn’t treated roughly.”

As she said that, Silver asked the others for a few herbs and chewed them in her mouth for a few moments. She began to feel a numbing sensation spread throughout her jaws and at that point she stopped chewing. Silver then moved over to Bronze and removed the chewed herbs from her mouth, then placed them into Bronze’s. Bronze was barely able to swallow the chewed herbs, but moments after he did, his entire body began to feel numb. The pain that had been constantly assailing him had been dulled by Silver’s quick thinking.

The other goblins combined their efforts for the magic, Ensnare. Rather than wrapping around a target, the goblins used their teamwork to quickly weave a pseudo-stretcher out of the magic vines. The goblins moved Bronze over as gently as possible, then hoisted up the stretcher between them and began to head out. Grahl wanted to carry Bronze at first, but instead, he felt that it would be a better idea for him to remain on guard. Grahlgar realized that even injured, he was still the one with the highest combat potential out of all of them. Besides, he also doubted that the goblins would even trust him to carry Bronze. He was still an ogre and therefore, could not be trusted right away. This was only common sense.

Silver looked apologetically at Grahlgar. Even after all that he had done for them, after what he’d lost, he was still being doubted. It made her angry, but she could tell that Grahl didn’t want her to say anything that might cause tension in their group. Once again, he was doing it for their sake. The twins could only sigh as they felt that their debt to Grahl was only growing. As much as they wanted to say something on his behalf, the little ogre endured in silence as they marched on to the burrows.

Within the little ogre’s eyes, the memories of all the times that he played with those little spirits, flashed before him. With every step he took further away from the scene of battle, the more he realized the impact. The little spirits who he had spent night and day with, who listened to all his problems….were gone forever. In the wake of their absence, Grahlgar could only stifle the tears that wished to flow without end.