Buttopia
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Chapter 64: Orcish Combat
🕑 Added 2024-12-29 00:37:16 +0000 UTCI stood up with a smile as all around me as shouts and screams in a language I could now entirely understand hit my ears. The yells about the strangers who had just appeared and my apparent strength spread across the collected orcs. It did not, though, stop them from immediately attacking us all. Corey made quick work of the orc in front of me while I recalled gravity reversal into the nearest group of raging orcs. At the same time, two blasts of lightning connected with several more orcs, and I spotted Cecile’s hoe having transformed back into the sickle, easily slashing through another handful.
In less than a minute, they were all dead, and there was barely a wound on any of us. Had I really been so worried about this fight for nothing? I know Earth had supposedly been a low-level Arena prize, but were these orcs even really capable of taking over the planet? We humans had a lot of weapons, and I could easily imagine an event like this being the long-desired cry to unify us against a common enemy. This just didn’t add up.
“Sanquar, how was this so easy?” I asked in my confusion.
“That was just a scouting party. They probably shouldn’t have even engaged you or me, but they thought they saw an easy prize, and now we have proven them extraordinarily wrong in their conclusions. The real fight will be with the one who won this planet. They are in charge of this invasion, and hopefully, now he’s coming directly for us,” Sanquar answered. There it was; I knew this had been too easy.
“How long do we have until the big boss gets here then, and just how dangerous is he?” I asked. He had to be scary enough to have caused a worldwide panic, and from what I had seen in my mana backlash-induced dream, some of the orcs under him had to be pretty powerful in their own right. How strong did you need to be to be able to handle an anti-tank round? There was no way I was strong enough to survive a hit from a real explosive yet, especially not some like a nuke, but I also couldn’t imagine the military using them on occupied cities. Truth be told I had no real idea of how this invasion was happening outside my own very small corner of the world.
“He’s coming right now now. Can you not sense him?” Sanquar asked. No, I couldn’t. Though now that I thought about it, I had felt something with the simulator enemies. Was there a way to detect cores that I just hadn’t learned about? It seemed my knowledge gaps would never end, even now.
“Timon, get the bus away from here!” I yelled. There was no sense in him dying with us if it could be avoided. Despite the visible damage from the crash, The bus returned to life and quickly disappeared down the dirt road that connected my house to an eventual highway.
“What the hell is that?” Cecile yelled out, pointing at the sky. I looked up and saw what he was talking about. It looked like a giant sword flying through the sky toward us. I squinted, trying to make out what exactly it was. There was something riding on it. Shit, that had to be the guy in charge.
“Scatter!” Elicec yelled. He was entirely right. We needed to be out of their direct sight. I dashed for the cover of the trees, hoping that would be enough, glancing a look back just as a sword the size of a car landed in the clearing where we had left the bodies of the recently slain orcs.
“So there is someone on this damned planet capable of fight. Show yourself!” the hulking figure of an orc said as it stepped off the sword. Which immediately shrank in size and floated to his hand the moment he was off of it. I had zero intention of listening to his demand, and based on the lack of responses neither did anyone anyone else. Instead, I focused on the chat window in my head.
I felt the mana drain from our connection drastically increase as Corey prepared for his attack. The orc suddenly turned around. Had he sensed Corey? Well, that would help with the plan, and in theory, there was no way he could kill the dungeon core in one strike anyway.
“I smell you, you coward; show yourself and fight me!” the orc roared into the trees.
“I will oblige your request,” Corey stated loudly as the mallet rapidly flew from the woods and took a hard swing at the orc. The orc took the hit hard into its shoulder and countered with his own swing. It wasn’t so devastating as to trigger the redirection mana skill. That boded well for us. I recalled gravity reversal and targeted the orc. Just as I hoped, he launched skyward.
“Elicec, blast him!” I screamed out, not knowing where the brothers were. He must have heard me as I saw both an icicle and a bolt of lightning hit the orc in quick succession. Moments later, the orc crashed back into the Earth, loudly laughing.
“Yes, finally, entertainment!” he screamed as he stood back up. Was this man insane? His sword began to glow a bright blue before again striking Corey. This time I did feel the pain through our connection. My shield managed to hold, but barely. As Cecile moved into direct combat with the orc, I worked to switch off my aether orb in favor of both life and fire. I really needed to find a way to speed up these circuit switches if we were going to be in fights like this.
“Earth, lend us your strength!” Elicec yelled. I hadn’t heard him use an actual incantation in a while, but considering the ground rose and pulled the orc partially down into it, it had certainly seemed like the correct move. I capitalized on the moment and launched several fireballs directly at his head. Even as his hair burnt away and some of his flesh melted, his insane laughter continued unabated. Right as Cecile’s sickle swung for his skull, he managed to rip himself free from the bindings of the Earth and caught the blade in his teeth. Lifting the twinogs over his head by the strength in his just jaw and neck, he tossed them to the side, his manic laughter returning.
“Hey, over here!” I yelled at the orc, hitting him with more fireballs, trying to shift his focus to give the twinogs the time needed to regain their feet. Plus, I was the one with the shield orb, which meant I had the best chance of surviving a direct blow. The orc turned towards me and roared. I only saw him take a single step before he was in front of me, his sword coming down into my shield. It held, and I retaliated with several point-blank fireballs at the same moment Corey came in behind, hitting the raging orc directly in his skull and letting loose the built-up damage pool as he did so. Despite the loud crack from his skull, the orc didn’t fall. His laughter faltered.
“Dave duck!” Cecile yelled as a sickle sliced through the air directly where my head had been. It bit deep into the orcs' flesh. I reached my hands up from where I had ducked and pushed out several more rapid-fire fireballs into him again. My mana pool had dripped below a quarter full. I doubted the brothers were doing much better with theirs. Despite my worry, three icicles appeared in the air above the orc and descended, stabbing downward, shattering as they drove into his skull. The last one had the added force of a mallet strike behind it.
Still, despite all our attacks, the orc raised his sword above his head for another swing, but this time, Cecile came in again with his scythe and caught the orc under his arm. Both arm and sword dropped to the ground. Finally, the laughing vanished entirely.
“Hit him with everything you have left!” Elicec screamed. I didn’t disagree at all with his order, but I had very little left to give. I reached my hand as close as I could to the orc’s stomach and blasted fireballs until I wasn’t able to anymore. I felt both the lightning bolts as they hit home and the force of Corey’s strikes until my lack of mana caused the dungeon core to fall out of the sky. Cecile claimed the last blow, his scythe separating the orc’s head from its shoulders moments before the twinogs joined Corey and me on the ground.
I hadn’t pushed anything to the point of mana backlash, but the exhaustion was nearly overwhelming. I forced myself to pull some cheese from my System storage and managed to get it down. Somehow, physically, we had barely been scratched, but it had taken nearly everything we had to put the orc leader down. I heard a vehicle approaching from the driveway. The feeling of a soft furry form on my chest confirmed my hopes. Timon and Chip had returned.
“Dave, where did you find such an amazing companion? I feel my own mana surging as I am around this creature,” Sanquar said, looking down at me.
Berserkers are a common class choice for those who prefer a path of rage. The class can be extremely effective in a fight, especially in pushing your body well beyond what should have already killed you. The biggest weakness of the class is in its inability to easily change tactics once a fight is going against you. This is why the berserkers who go the furthest almost always have a second class or an emotional mana orb ready to shut down their rage when needed.
Classes Volume 1 by Zolinjar
