Chapter 610 - Biting Off More Than They Can Chew

Eldrian was keenly aware that what he was doing was quite dumb, however, he wanted to test himself. Attacking from afar with magic would surely be smarter, or even better, using a cannon to blast the orc warriors' hiding spot. 

Unfortunately, thanks to the fact that the two had not run into any troubles thus far, they had slowly gotten overconfident. Assuming an orc warrior to be similar to the normal orcs. 

Where the orcs were akin to unwilling undead, the warrior was more like a true higher undead in power level. The two, unfortunately, were not aware of this. And they were going to learn it the hard way.

As Eldrian ran around the corner, the sky appeared even more ominous as it turned to a dark red as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Thunder cracking in the distance.

A good way away, Silver shivered as chilled ran up her spine. She didn't believe in fate or anything, but seeing the sky she felt like something bad was coming.

This group of orcs Eldrian wanted to face was a group of Tier 5's, hiding in the cover of the alleyways to avoid being attacked by the magic towers. And they were a total of thirteen, including the orc warrior.

They had been preparing to attack the nearest magic tower. Their assault would start a few hours into the night.

Rushing out from the corner, Eldrian charged the first orc and attacked without mercy. The cover of darkness allowed him to slip past their detection until it was too late.

Slicing the closest orc's neck, nearly beheading it, Eldrian delivered a vicious backward thrust to another who had reacted and was charging him. 

Neither died from his first attacks, as is expected from Tier 5 orcs. Having known this would happen, Eldrian pulled out his spear and thrust the front end into the first's heart and then cut the other's neck with the back blade. His attacks almost appeared like a graceful dance, the blood filling the air ruined that mood though. 

As the two orcs fell to the ground, the rest of the orcs roared in anger. Rushing towards Eldrian, their eyes seemed to turn red in rage. One of the orcs was shockingly fast, far faster Eldrian had through he would be, nearly catching Eldrian unable to protect himself. 

The orc warrior slashed with his greatsword before any other orc even reached Eldrian. Eldrian just barely managed to block the attack, shocked greatly by not just its spreed, but also its strength. In an instant, Eldrian realized he had screwed up.

The blow sent him nearly tumbling over one of the two dead orcs. He just barely managed to keep his balance and sent a quick weak icicle towards the orc to try and give himself some space. Aimed at its eye.

The orc did not care, it took the icicle without flinching. It shattered weakly, failing to even draw blood as his greatsword bore down on Eldrian. 

Eldrian realized he couldn't block it. Even if his stance wasn't ruined, the orc was far stronger. He would be crushed if he tried. Instead, using the force of the attack he launched himself away from this orc.

The force however was far more than he had expected, nearly causing him to blackout as his head crashed into a nearby wall. Causing a web of cracks to form from the impact. 

'My god- He's strong...' Looking up through the blood, Eldrian quickly gathered the information he had been lacking. And it was shocking. 

[Vrigka- Orc Warrior (Veteran) {Follower of Kugbu}, Tier 5, Level 31]

[HP: 2292]

[Stamina: 2486/3008]

[Mana: 12/308]

[Attack: 548 (61)]

[Attributes - Constitution: 573 | Strength: (898) 642 | Agility: (561) 401 | Spirit: 205 | Intelligence: 165]

'Ceph, I need you to keep this bastard company.' Eldrian quickly sent the message as he dived to the side to avoid the following strike. However, that opened him to the attacks of the other orcs who were now also on him. 

Forced into a corner, Eldrian activated {Shield} to buy himself some time. The orcs' attacks still hurt, the force of the impact knocking out Eldrian's breath repeatedly and beating him black and blue. But the damage it did was negligible, each hit only caused him to lose ten or so HP.

Yet, each hit also sent Eldrian flying and crashing into another attack or a nearby wall. Not giving him any time to recover and rapidly draining his mana.

'Jesus, orc warriors are a true step up from the normal ones.' Eldrian mumbled as he took out a mana crystal, not having the time to use {Nova}, Eldrian instead imagined the strongest and simplest fire rune he knew.

Throwing this into the orcs while using Kyma's shockwave to buy himself some distance, Eldrian also activated {Turtle}, the ability of Chelona. Boosting his protection even more.

This saved his life as a thrust from the orc warrior caused him to throw up blood. If not for the {Turtle}, Eldrian would have surely been skewered just now. The blow caused cracks to web between the claw marks left from the attack of the ghoul (when Eldrian had fought in the siege). 

How he wished he had tested if he could save {Nova} in Berdevo now (his Pauldron, capable of storing a single spell up to Tier 4).

As he was sent flying from the attack, the mana crystal exploded as Eldrian lost focus of the rune. However, it was lacking. The rune upon activation only barely managed to break the crystal's structure. And instead of it exploding out in a burst of glorious fire, it was slowly leaking. 

The fire spread, engulfing the orcs but doing little to no damage. 

Still, they jumped away from it. Trusting in Vrigka who stayed and charged, wanting to end this before the magic tower was alerted. However, his attack aimed at Eldrian's neck was blocked by one of Ceph's daggers.

Shockingly, Ceph was blown away by the attack. He managed to recover far quicker than Eldrian; however, the difference in strength was quite clear. 

'He's strong!' Ceph was shocked that he couldn't simply throw the orcs to the side like when facing others. 

'He's an orc warrior, the difference is even greater than I calculated for.' Eldrian replied, quickly healing his injuries and getting out of the flames which were draining his mana as it assault the membrane of protection provided by Shield. 

'Be careful, his strength is a good 300 above your-' Realizing that Ceph might not be able to make sense of the numbers and their meanings, Eldrian changed his tone. 'He's almost twice as strong as you, but he is a bit slower...'

'Also, I think he has some spell or skill-boosting his strength and speed, it should fall off after some time. So stall.'

While sending the information happened near-instantly, Ceph and the orc had already exchanged two more blows. Ceph gained around the same information from it as from Eldrian's explanation. 

While Eldrian really wanted to help Ceph, the other orcs were charging them. Having realized that their boss had not finished the job and was actually still fighting, they ignored the flames and rushed forward. 

AN: Hello everyone, I would just like to thank everyone who has purchased the privilege and is supporting me through it. Thank you all so much!