The tension thickened as the gap between Scorching Wind and the orcs steadily closed.
The monsters sent only their foot soldiers and the Orc General forward first. In the rearguard, the Orc Archer and Orc Mage stood ready with bow and staff, prepared to provide cover fire at a moment's notice. From behind them all, the Orc King—ruler of this settlement—watched the proceedings with a detached, regal composure.
"Mirene, how many of these orcs can your trio handle?" Rei asked. He gripped his Death Scythe, waiting for an opening to charge even as Mirene braced her longsword beside him.
"Let’s see... If we set the high-ranking species aside, the three of us can manage three regular orcs. Even if we're up against five, we can at least hold our ground, if not win outright. But if a high-ranking species joins the mix, things get a bit dicey."
"I see. Then I'll take all the high-ranking ones, including the Orc King. Scorching Wind will handle the five regular orcs."
At Rei's casual declaration that he and his familiar would handle the strongest enemies alone, Mirene turned to him, momentarily forgetting that they were in the middle of a standoff.
"Wait, are you serious? Or better yet—are you actually sane?"
"Don't worry, I’ll manage. Set, your job is the Orc Archer and the Orc Mage. I’m authorizing the use of all your skills. I'll finish off the Orc General first, then I'll move on to the Orc King."
"Guruuu." Set gave a low rumble from the back of its throat, acknowledging the command.
Mirene flinched slightly at the mention of "all skills," but she assumed this was part of the trump card Rei had alluded to earlier. Without further argument, she tightened her grip on her sword and fixed her eyes on the approaching monsters.
"Sulnin, Ekryl, you heard the man! It looks like we only have to worry about five of them."
"Good grief... to think we have to rely on a G-Rank adventurer. I am utterly ashamed of my own inadequacy," Sulnin muttered.
"Sulnin-san, surviving this right now is our top priority," Ekryl added, trying to encourage the veteran mage. He seemed particularly dejected as the eldest of the group, having to leave the heavy lifting to a boy in his mid-teens like Rei.
Rei let a faint smile play across his lips as he readied his Death Scythe.
"Don't let it get to you. If things go according to plan, Set will be able to back you up soon enough... Set, go!"
"Gururuuu!"
At Rei’s signal, Set let out a sharp cry. A mass of water materialized in front of the Gryphon—the Water Ball skill it had acquired from a Water Bear's magic stone.
"What? How can a Gryphon use—"
Sulnin, well-versed in magic and monsters, froze in shock. Set ignored him, launching the Water Ball immediately. The target wasn't the vanguard, but the long-range threats in the rear. Set prioritized the most dangerous one: the Orc Mage.
The Orc Archer had already drawn its bow and fired an arrow to intercept the incoming sphere, but the Water Ball was under Set's direct control. While a normal projectile flying in a straight line might have been shot down, the sphere swerved in mid-air with a sharp curve, evading the arrow entirely. It slammed directly into the Orc Mage’s head, which burst like an overripe melon.
The Orc Mage had intended to use its own magic to block the attack, but a monster that had to chant a spell was no match for Set, who could manipulate magic with a mere thought. The mage collapsed to the dirt, splattering blood and brain matter across the clearing.
Orcs were fundamentally dim-witted creatures, and as such, an Orc Mage capable of wielding magic was held in high regard. Seeing an entity that commanded magic power they could never hope to match be killed so instantly left the ordinary orcs paralyzed with shock—even if the Orc Archer and General managed to keep their heads.
Rei didn't waste the opening. He kicked off the ground and sprinted toward the enemy line, his voice rising in a chant as the distance closed.
"Flame, thou art a serpent. Therefore, incinerate the enemy as I desire."
Fires swirled around the Death Scythe, which doubled as a magic catalyst. Just as he reached the front line, Rei leaped into the air. He activated Sleipnir's Shoes, kicking off the empty air as if it were solid ground to vault over the heads of the five regular orcs. He landed directly in front of the armored Orc General and unleashed a horizontal slash.
"Bumoo!"
The Orc General sensed the danger—a testament to its status as a high-ranking species. It thrust its sword out like a shield to block the strike, but that split-second decision was its undoing. The Death Scythe’s blade didn't even slow down upon impact; it cleaved through the monster's sword as if it weren't there, the tip of the scythe burying itself deep in the General’s flank.
The Orc General's misfortune lay in its ignorance of the Death Scythe’s nature as a magic item. Although Rei swung it with ease, the weapon weighed well over a hundred kilograms. To anyone but its master, it was an immovable slab of metal, but Rei wielded it with terrifying speed, backed by his own outlier physical strength. It was a blow that no orc could ever hope to block.
"Dancing Flame Serpent!"
Rei triggered the spell at the moment of impact. From the tip of the blade embedded in the General’s side, a serpent of pure fire surged into the monster's body, incinerating its internal organs as it coiled through its chest.
"Bumoooooooooo!"
The Orc General let out a raw, guttural shriek—an agonizing sound that echoed through the entire settlement. In its final moments, the monster forgot its mission of secrecy and escape, its only reality being the fire devouring it from within. The serpent tore through its ribs, shoulder, throat, and face, finally reaching the brain. The monster’s flame of life flickered and died.
The sight of their commander being burned alive from the inside out was so gruesome that the remaining orcs were rendered speechless, staring at Rei in horror. Scorching Wind fared no better; all three adventurers were gawking at the scene in a daze.
In that brief moment of stillness, Set flapped its wings and soared into the night sky.
"...Ha! Sulnin, Ekryl, move! We’re taking our share: the five orcs! If a G-Rank like Rei can insta-kill an Orc General, I won't have it said that Scorching Wind can't handle five regulars!"
"Understood! The formation?" Sulnin asked, snapping back to reality.
"The usual! But watch the numbers—prioritize safety. Sulnin, focus on support magic and recovery. Ekryl and I will handle the offense!"
"Right!"
Mirene issued her orders with practiced speed and closed in on an orc that was still reeling from the shock. Sulnin completed a chant, and a pale light enveloped Mirene's longsword.
"Hah!"
Mirene swung. With the added sharpness from Sulnin’s support magic, the blade passed through the first orc’s neck with almost no resistance.
Normally, Mirene would have been confident that the buffed blade could cleave through an orc’s torso—muscular and fatty enough to provide better defense than average armor—but she chose the smaller, more lethal target of the neck to conserve her strength for the rest of the fight.
The orc's head spun away, and its headless body collapsed, spraying blood in a grisly arc.
"That's one!"
"Bumoo!"
The remaining four orcs finally snapped out of their stupor. The two flanking their fallen comrade leveled their spears and lunged at Mirene simultaneously.
"Ekryl!"
"I’m on it!"
Mirene parried the spear on her right with a sharp clang. On her left, Ekryl unleashed a rapid-fire volley of arrows at the second attacker.
"Bumo!?"
The arrows hammered into the orc's chest and arms. While the fat layers prevented the arrowheads from dealing a fatal blow, the shafts protruding from its body physically hindered its movements, stalling its spear thrust. In that split second, several razor-sharp vacuum blades tore through the air.
"Bumoooo!?"
The vacuum blades from Sulnin’s wind magic severed the orc's right arm and left leg, carving deep gashes across its torso as it fell into the dirt.
"Die!" Mirene shouted, pivoting from her parry to bring her sword down on the fallen monster's neck.
"That's two!"
She took a quick glance around. High above, Set was dive-bombing the Orc Archer. The monster desperately fired a stream of arrows at the approaching Gryphon, but they never reached their target.
"Gururuuu!"
Set opened its beak and let out a roar, followed immediately by a blast of fire that illuminated the darkness. The Fire Breath incinerated every arrow in its path—save for the bone arrowheads, which were knocked harmlessly aside by the sheer force of the blast.
"Fire Breath? Between that and the water... what is that Gryphon? A Rare Species?" Sulnin muttered, his eyes wide.
While Scorching Wind and Set dominated their sectors, the duel between Rei and the Orc King began in earnest.
Rei had treated the Orc General like a child, but the Orc King was a different breed of monster. It wielded a massive magic sword—a greatsword by human standards—and it met the Death Scythe head-on with a resounding clash.
"Hah!"
Rei swung upward, his strike met by the Orc King’s blade with a high-pitched metallic shriek.
Ideally, Rei wanted to use downward strikes to capitalize on his weapon's weight, but his height of 165 centimeters made that difficult. The Orc King was even larger than the General, and trying to bring the scythe down on such a tall opponent created too many openings.
The king was a monster that could actually match Rei’s superhuman strength and the weight of his scythe.
Tch, I should have saved the Dancing Flame Serpent for this one instead of the General, Rei thought. No, that wouldn't have worked. The General would have just body-blocked for the king. So, how do I play this? Its weapon is the only thing stopping my strikes. I just need to get rid of it.
"Corrosion."
Rei activated the weapon skill he had gained from the Queen Ant’s magic stone. The skill would gradually rot any metal weapon or armor that clashed with his blade.
The catch was that the effect only applied to the single strike immediately following the skill's activation. If he wanted to break the king's blade, he would have to keep using it.
"Corrosion." Rei swung. The Orc King blocked with its greatsword.
"Corrosion." Rei delivered a reverse diagonal slash. The king parried.
The battle continued for several minutes. Normally, the magic power cost of a weapon skill would have exhausted an adventurer long ago, but Rei was an outlier. He showed no signs of fatigue as he spammed the skill over and over.
He scooped upward, then pivoted into a horizontal flash. When the king evaded, Rei used the momentum to slam the shaft of the scythe toward the monster's throat.
His movements were fluid, graceful—a Scythe Dance that turned the brutal battlefield into a stage.
Ekryl, who had readied an arrow to help if Rei struggled, found herself staring at him, completely entranced by the lethal beauty of his combat style.
"Ekryl!" Mirene’s voice barked, snapping her back to reality. The archer shook her head and refocused on her own targets.
Finally, the moment arrived.
"Corrosion."
The Death Scythe met the greatsword one last time. Under the repeated influence of the skill, the metal of the king's sword had turned a sickly, rusted hue. When Rei’s blade slammed into it with a final, crushing blow, the greatsword snapped cleanly in half.
The Orc King stared silently at the hilt of its shattered blade. It must have realized the sword was failing, but it had no other choice if it wanted to stand against a human with such massive magic power. Perhaps it had only lasted this long because it was a magic item to begin with.
"Bumoooooooo!"
The King let out a roar that shook the very ground. It threw the broken hilt at Rei’s face as a distraction, then lunged forward with a punch backed by strength that dwarfed even the General’s.
"You've got spirit, King. But..."
Rei deflected the flying hilt with the shaft of his scythe and stepped into the Orc King's guard, evading the massive fist. As they crossed paths, the Death Scythe’s blade tore through the monster's midsection.
"Bumooooooooooooooo!"
It was a death rattle of a roar, yet the Orc King refused to fall. Its torso was held together by little more than a strip of skin and pride, but it remained on its feet, staring Rei down. It was the King's Pride.
"...Yeah. I get it."
A king did not die groveling in the dirt. A king’s defeat was only finalized when his head was taken on the field of battle. Sensing the resolution in the monster's aura, Rei approached it.
"Farewell, proud Orc King."
"Bumooooooo!"
Slash!
A flash of light darted through the air—the fastest strike Rei had delivered all night. The Orc King’s head was severed in a single, clean motion.
Almost simultaneously, Set’s eagle claws crushed the Orc Archer’s skull, and Mirene’s blade shattered the head of the final orc. Victory was theirs.