Chapter 44: Use your head

Chapter 44: Use your head

Arwin charged the door. In general, charging an orc was the act of either a madman or someone so strong that the orc posed absolutely no threat to them. But, in this instance, he was neither.

I need to make sure they don’t make it out of the doorway. There are going to be at least two orcs coming out, and I can’t fend them off if they gang up on me. Routing them at the door is my only option.

Arwin reached the doorway an instant before the orcs could emerge and thrust his hammer forward like a spear. The orc before him snarled and dodged out of the way, pressing its body to the wall to keep from getting struck. As soon as he got a good look at the monster, the Mesh identified it.

[Swamp Orc – Journeyman 1]

In the darkness behind the orc, Arwin could make out a pair of glowing green eyes and the rough form of another orc.

That’s the shaman. It’ll stay out of the fight and try to whittle me down with magic while buffing up its warrior. I can’t let this drag on for long. I’m not going to win a battle of attrition.

Almost as if on cue, the Mesh shimmered forth once more.

[Swamp Orc Shaman – Journeyman 2]

Behind him, Arwin heard Rodrick let out a battle cry. There was a loud thump, presumably the snake as it entered the fight with him, but Arwin didn’t have the liberty to turn and see how their fight was unfolding.

The orc before him lunged, thrusting its rusty sword for his chest. Arwin batted the blow away with the hilt of his hammer and drove his foot into the orc’s stomach, using [Scourge] to give himself enough strength to throw it back several feet.

His magical energy reserves weren’t as high as he would have liked, but it wasn’t like the orcs were going to sit around and wait for him to recover. The light in the orc’s eyes turned even brighter and it let out a furious roar, charging Arwin like a mad bull.

He drove his hammer forward, but this time, the monster didn’t even bother dodging it. It thrust its sword forward, taking the hammer blow to the shoulder and striking Arwin in the chest with its own weapon.

If it hadn’t been for his armor, the blow would have gone straight through his heart. Instead, it rang off the scales and caught on the furrows already present in Arwin’s armor, only leaving a superficial cut on his chest.

In turn, Arwin’s blow demolished the monster’s left shoulder. Bone and blood splattered across the floor, but the orc didn’t even notice. It thrust its blade again and again, having gotten close enough to Arwin that his hammer was nowhere near as effective.

He grit his teeth as the sword carved into his armor. He tried to shove the orc back, but it managed to dodge out of the way. Its sword rang off his greaves, giving them some kinetic energy, but Arwin wasn’t going to be able to get much use out of it if –

The orc’s sword slammed into his armor again. Heat swirled in Arwin’s chest, and a whip of fire lashed out, striking the monster in the eyes. It screamed, more in fury than pain, and Arwin took the brief reprieve to use a [Scourge] empowered kick to throw the orc back.

His chest stung something furious and blood dripped down his front, but none of the cuts he’d taken were fatal. His armor had held up against most of the monster’s attacks, but it wasn’t going to last forever.

A loud hiss rang out behind Arwin, followed by the clash of metal on scale and a slew of curses. In the brief instant that Arwin was distracted, the shaman sent a bolt of green light into the back of the orc he was fighting.

The wound on its shoulder stopped bleeding. It hadn’t been healed, but it wouldn’t be dying from blood loss anytime soon. Roaring, the orc charged Arwin again. The light in its eyes burned even brighter than it had before.

I can’t keep trading blows like this. The shaman is going to keep picking this bastard back up until it’s using the corpse like a puppet. I need to blow through and kill the real threat.

Instead of trying to fend the orc’s blows off, Arwin threw caution to the wind. He drove his shoulder into the monster, slamming it into the wall. He caught a sword to the side in the process, but it rang off his armor and failed to find purchase in his skin.

“Your whole body is a tool,” Arwin said. He touched the damage to his armor, then frowned. It had taken quite the beating from the fight. It didn’t feel like the magic within it was about to falter, but if he went through another fight that was as brutal as this one had been, there was a good chance it would be too ripped up to be repairable.

At least I got a pretty nice achievement out of this. I’ve got more than enough scales to repair the damage I took back at home. If I can just gather some new material to work with, then I can consider this a huge success.

Lillia dug through her pockets and pulled out a black napkin, tossing it down to Arwin. He caught it with a hand and wiped the blood off his face, giving her an appreciative nod.

“Thanks. This is probably going to stain, though.”

“That’s fine. I always use it to clean up blood. Butchering animals is messy.”

Arwin looked at the napkin, then shrugged. It wasn’t going to be any less dirty than he already was, so he wiped the rest of his face off. He gave himself another few seconds to recover before standing back up. He handed the napkin back to Lillia, who took it between two fingers.

“Should we go deeper?” Reya asked. “If the next room is even harder than this one...”

“It could be difficult. My armor is pretty cut up,” Arwin said. He walked over to the snake and knelt beside it, examining the monster’s body. He pulled at one of the scales, bending it until it snapped.

Not nearly as strong as the Forest Lizard scales. This thing must have been much more reliant on its stealth abilities. Not particularly useful for my forging, but it’s a good thing Lillia spotted it.

Arwin pulled the monster’s head up, holding it by one of the fangs to study the inside of its mouth. The fangs were large, so he snapped them off and stuck them into a pocket. He wasn’t sure if he could use them, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep them around.

He then knelt by the dead orc and ruffled through its belongings. Aside from the cleaver, there really wasn’t anything of real use on it. The first orc in the hallway was similarly useless, its sword far too rusted to be of use, but the shaman was different.

Arwin hadn’t had a chance to see it during the fight, but the monster had been holding a wooden wand of some sort. There was a glittering purple gemstone tied to its top. Arwin wasn’t sure what it did – if it did anything at all, as the Mesh didn’t identify it. Either way, he ripped the gem free of the staff and tucked it into a pocket. At the very least, it would probably sell for a little.

He returned to the room with the others in it. “Nothing too useful yet.”

“I did get a good amount of energy from killing the snake,” Rodrick put in. Reya nodded. “I did too, even though I only helped a bit.”

“Any achievements?”

Both of them shook their heads.

“Then it’s up to you lot,” Arwin said. “I’d be willing to push forward for one more room. We haven’t really gotten much out of this yet. If I rest for a few more minutes, I should be able to handle another fight without much trouble. I’d like to try to get more out of the dungeon on our first run.”

“I’m not keen on cooking orc, and the snake is kind of stringy,” Lillia said. “I’d like to go further as well, but I’m not really doing much fighting right now, so it’s up to you.”

“I haven’t been hurt yet, so I’m good to go deeper,” Reya said.

“Same here,” Rodrick said, and Anna nodded in agreement.

“Then it’s settled,” Arwin said. “We go deeper.”