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Chapter 43: Ugly

Arwin moved carefully, not wanting to get his feet caught on the thick vines on the ground. One misstep would be more than enough to give the orc an advantage that he had absolutely no desire to hand over.

He bared his own teeth in challenge and beat a fist against the armor on his chest, drawing the orc’s attention to him. From what he remembered, orcs were incredibly competent in physical combat, but they weren’t hard to trick.

As long as I can keep its attention on me, we should be able to handle this without too much trouble. I just have to make sure I don’t take a blow to the head and die before Anna can patch up any damage I take.

The orc, fed up with waiting for an attack, charged. Its powerful muscles propelled the humanoid beast forward, closing the distance between it and Arwin in just a few steps. It reared back, bringing the cleaver down for the nape of Arwin’s neck for what would have been a killing blow.

Arwin spun his hammer, knocking the cleaver to the side with a grunt. He’d planned to convert the momentum of the deflection into a counterattack, but the orc was strong. All the force he’d put into the attack was absorbed, leaving nothing to press forward with.

The orc, having a considerably nimbler weapon than Arwin, recovered first. It brought the cleaver back toward his neck with brutal speed. He leaned back, letting the blow whistle by harmlessly, and then drove his knee into the orc.

It was like striking a brick wall. Arwin cursed, and his greaves tingled as a small portion of kinetic energy was stored within them. His attack had done so little that it had actually counted as an attack against Arwin.

Or is that just physics? If I hit something really hard, isn’t that the same as it hitting me just as hard? The force has to go somewhere. Interesting thought.

If the orc could have read Arwin’s thoughts, perhaps it would have been impressed with his budding career as a physicist. Unfortunately for him, it was entirely incapable of both mathematical calculations and mind reading, so it was forced to settle for a scream and a lunge.

Arwin’s foot caught on one of the many vines littered across the ground and he twisted as he fell, bringing his hammer around to keep the orc from instantly pouncing on him. He hit the ground with a grunt and rolled to the side without waiting.

A loud screech rang out as the monster’s cleaver scraped against his armor, leaving a furrow through the scales. Heat swirled in Arwin’s chest and a lash of molten flame arced out from the armor, striking the orc across the face before it could react.

It screamed in pain and stumbled back, dropping the cleaver. Rodrick took that moment to act. He burst into motion from where he’d been standing at the sidelines, thrusting his sword forward without a sound.

Even still, the orc managed to notice him coming. It twisted at the last second, bringing its heart out of Rodrick’s path. The sword bit deep into the monster’s side and sent blood splattering across the damp floor.

Rodrick nearly tripped over his own feet at the lack of resistance his blade met. He’d been planning to run the monster through, not leave a nasty cut on its side. Even as he recovered, the orc lunged for his neck, reaching out with rancid, jagged claws.

A flash of blue light enveloped the monster. It slowed, and Rodrick ducked out of the way. Arwin surged forward, bringing his hammer for the orc’s side just as the blue energy wore off.

In an impressive display of acrobatics, the orc vaulted backward. It grabbed onto a vine hanging from the ceiling and swung itself even further, landing on the other side of the room. It pressed a hand to the bloody furrow in its side, then bared its teeth and let out a roar.

Dull red energy ignited behind its eyes and the orc’s posture shifted. It flexed its claws, hissing as it swayed from foot to foot. Arwin grimaced in distaste.

“Shit.”

“What the hell is it doing?” Rodrick asked. “Nobody told me the damn things could glow!”

“Orcs often have a berserker state that gets triggered when they’re in a really intense fight or when their shaman triggers it intentionally,” Arwin said. “Be careful. Back up and let me handle this.”

“What? But I thought–”

“Have you ever fought a rampaging orc?”

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“No.”

“Then back up,” Arwin said, advancing to make sure he kept the monster’s attention. Not every orc had the bloodline that let them rampage without the aid of a shaman, and he’d been hoping to get lucky.

Evidently, that had been a poor idea. In concept, a rampaging orc shouldn’t have actually been that much more dangerous than a normal one. They didn’t get stronger or faster – in fact, they didn’t change their physical abilities at all.

Instead, they completely lost their ability to feel pain. Their bodies basically forgot that they were living, breathing creatures and transformed into weapons hellbent on killing their target.

“Don’t do anything dumb,” Lillia warned. “You know what–”

“I know,” Arwin said briskly. Lillia did likely know more than he did, but she’d been hiding her powers from Anna and Rodrick. He didn’t blame her, but it meant she couldn’t do anything in the fight. If he wanted to make it out from this fight with his armor in one piece, he was going to need his full concentration.

The orc roared and sprinted toward Arwin, its arms extended to rip him to shreds. Arwin empowered his legs and bounded to the side, swinging his hammer at the monster as he passed. It didn’t even bother trying to dodge, and a loud crunch rang out as the weapon impacted the orc’s shoulder.

It lurched toward Arwin, slashing with its claws and nearly catching him while he backed up and readied his hammer again. Arwin swung the weapon once more, this time empowering it with [Scourge].

A keening wail filled the air as the hammer hurtled through the air and slammed straight into the center of the orc’s chest, sending a spray of blood and bone up into the air with a sickening crunch.

The force of Arwin’s blow sent it tumbling across the ground. It bounced twice, then slammed into the wall. Blood pouring from the massive crater in the orc’s chest, it clambered to its feet and swayed toward him, apparently unaware that it should have been dead twice over.

Annoying bastards.

The orc burst into motion, and Arwin matched the attack with his hammer. As the weapon neared the orc’s head, it twitched to the side and just barely managed to avoid it. In the same motion, it lunged to bite at Arwin’s neck.

He used [Scourge] to empower his leg as he brought his leg up, driving his knee straight into the orc’s chin. It snapped back with enough force to shatter the teeth in its mouth. Not finished, Arwin brought his bare fist down on the monster’s head, pouring in all the power [Scourge] would let him.

In a scene vaguely reminiscent of a very gorey whack-a-mole, the orc’s head crumpled. Blood and gore seeped out of its face as it careened, still managing to rake its jagged claws across Arwin’s chest as it collapsed.

His armor absorbed the blow, keeping it from penetrating, but Arwin earned four thick new furrows in his armor for his troubles. Even when the orc’s body hit the ground, Arwin didn’t hesitate.

He brought his hammer down once more, driving it straight into the monster’s back. Its body flailed, then fell still. Arwin took a step back, breathing heavily as blood dripped from the end of his hammer.

“There,” Arwin said, pausing to swallow and catch his breath. “I got it.”

“Holy shit,” Reya said. “I knew you could fight, but I didn’t know you could fight.”

“What’s that meant to mean?” Arwin asked. “I fought the Wyrm.”

“We ran from the Wyrm,” Rodrick corrected, regarding Arwin in a new light. “That was brutal. Have you fought orcs before? You ripped that thing apart.”

“On occasion,” Arwin said. He saw the look in Lillia’s eye and grimaced. He knew what she was thinking, even if she wasn’t saying it.

She’s seen me do that to a whole lot more than just an orc.

“So the room is safe, now?” Reya asked. “Can we look around and see if there’s anything good?”

“There almost certainly is,” Arwin replied, kneeling to pick up the fallen cleaver. It had two rough initials carved into it, a V and an A overlaid on top of each other. They probably belonged to the original owner of the cleaver, before it had landed in the grasp of the mindless creature laying at Arwin’s feet. “Don’t get too excited yet, though. Take things slow. This room is pretty hard to see in, so there could be doors leading to other parts of the dungeon.”

“Do monsters actually travel between the rooms? I always thought they kind of just… sat there,” Reya said.

Arwin looked at Reya, blinking in surprise. “Why would they do that? They want to get deeper and closer to the source of Mesh that lured them here in the first place, so they rarely come back out of the dungeon into the worse rooms – but rarely doesn’t mean they won’t.”

“That was a good save, by the way,” Rodrick said. “If Reya hadn’t slowed that orc down, I’d have taken a nasty hit. I didn’t think the darn thing would be so aware when it was actively fighting you.”

“That’s why I told you to go for crippling blows, not finishing ones,” Arwin said. “Harder to correct when you’re throwing your whole weight behind an attack. Now, lets–”

“Hush!” Lillia hissed, slipping forward and clapping a hand over Arwin’s mouth. His eyes widened and he had to stop himself from throwing her arm away instinctively. The expression on her face was serious enough to kill any questions that Arwin had.

They all went silent; eyes darting around the room to try and find what Lillia had spotted. It took Arwin a few more seconds than he would have liked, but he finally managed to locate what had drawn Lillia’s attention.

The vines near the far left wall were… off. Their tone was just slightly different to the other vines covering the ground, and they were more tightly knit than they were in other areas. They weren’t just vines – it was the coiled body of a large snake. The Mesh didn’t appear to identify the monster, so it had to have some form of stealth or concealment skill.

The snake must have been at least three feet wide and eighteen feet long. It hadn’t attacked yet, but it was ever-so-slowly making its way toward them.

No sooner than Arwin had spotted the monster did he hear a grunt from down a hall at the room behind it – a grunt that sounded suspiciously like an orc.

“More orcs coming,” Arwin whispered, tightening his grip on his hammer. “I knew it. They’re rarely alone. The others must have gone deeper into the dungeon. Get ready to fight. Rodrick, do you see the snake?”

“Barely.”

“That’s your job. Keep it off the backline. I’ll hold the orcs off until you can back me up. Don’t let the snake get behind me, or I’m dead.”

Dull red eyes appeared in the darkness of the doorway and Arwin suppressed a curse. The orc was already in a rampaging state – but it wasn’t running around like an idiot, which meant only one thing.

There was an orc shaman.

This might get ugly.