Chapter 51: Chapter51-Fighting with Orcs
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Orc Warrior
Height: Approximately 7’7"
Weight: Around 460 pounds
Strengths: Monstrous strength, dense musculature, exceptional pain tolerance, and strong battle instincts.
Weaknesses: Slow reflexes, low intelligence, and vulnerable to precise attacks.
Critical Body Parts: Eyes, throat, heart.
Rank: Uncommon Rank Monster.
—
Fuck... so those really were orcs.
Towering, heavily muscled humanoids with greenish-gray skin, protruding tusks, broad jaws, glowing eyes, coarse black hair, and thick, scarred limbs. Everything about them radiated raw strength. They looked far more like beasts than anything human.
I pulled my gaze away from the system window and looked back down.
Eden was now fighting nearly ten Orc Warriors.
Their numbers had been steadily increasing since the battle began.
Even so, they weren’t overwhelming him.
If anything, they were the ones being forced onto the defensive.
Eden moved across the battlefield like a phantom with his sword.
He teleported from one position to another without warning, striking before the orcs could even register where he was.
One moment he was behind them.
The next, he appeared above them.
Then he was beside another orc.
Every teleport was followed by a slash, a stab, or a clean cut.
I could already count four orcs missing an arm.
Three more lay headless on the ground, their green blood spreading across the dirt.
And judging by the grin on Eden’s face...
He was enjoying every second of it.
No.
He was having the time of his life.
Fuck...
It had only been a minute or two, and he’d already killed four-No. Five. Another orc had just dropped.
At this rate, I couldn’t even guess how many more he’d kill over the next ten minutes.
***
Ten minutes later—
"Hey, Eden! Leave a few orcs for me too, alright?!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs, hoping he’d hear me.
I was still floating high above the battlefield.
The scene below had turned into a complete bloodbath.
The ground was drenched in thick, green orc blood, and even from this height, the smell was beginning to reach me.
Orc corpses were scattered everywhere.
There had to be at least forty or fifty bodies covering the battlefield.
Every last one of them was Eden’s work.
Even now, he wasn’t trying to end the fight as quickly as possible.
He was playing with the remaining orcs.
He kept blinking around the battlefield with Teleportation, opening fresh wounds every time he appeared.
He barely gave them a chance to fight back.
Instead, he let them bleed, slowly wearing them down until they finally collapsed from blood loss.
Man...
He was ruthless.
He could have ended every fight with a single clean strike, but instead, he chose to play with them.
Fuck...
What kind of main character was Eden supposed to be?
He didn’t seem morally gray at all, which was surprising considering the author of Parallel World Vigilante had openly said in an interview that morally gray protagonists were his favorite.
He loved them so much that he’d made the protagonist of Parallel World Vigilante one.
But this was his second work.
So what kind of character had he written Eden to be?
Was he actually a genuinely good person?
From everything I’d seen so far, it certainly seemed that way.
While I was busy thinking about all that, I suddenly felt myself descending toward the ground.
Haa...
Finally.
For a moment, I’d started to think he’d forgotten I was still floating up there.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
A few seconds later, my feet touched solid ground.
As soon as I landed, I looked toward Eden.
He was still toying with the injured orcs.
For some reason, every single one of them was focused entirely on him.
There had to be at least twenty orcs surrounding him by now.
"Bro," I called out, "send one of those armless orcs my way, will you? I want to rank up already."
"Yeah, yeah. I’m sending one," Eden replied as he ducked beneath another swing. "But, Michael, don’t think it’s going to be easy. At least fight properly, okay?"
The way he said it, he sounded like he was practically begging me.
Yeah. He wasn’t asking me to win. He was just begging me to actually fight instead of standing there doing nothing.
I pulled both swords from my storage ring and gave him a confident grin.
"Don’t worry. I swear I’ll fight with everything I’ve got."
"Good." He gave a quick nod. "Then I’ll send them to you one at a time."
A heartbeat later, he teleported directly in front of me.
"Oh, and one more thing."
The smile disappeared from his face, replaced by a serious expression.
"I promised I’d help you rank up, but don’t let that make you careless. You might not die, but I still want you to fight like your life depends on it. Got it?"
I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. I got it. Enough with the lecture."
I raised one of my swords and pointed it toward the battlefield.
"Now send me one already."
Eden gave me a quick nod before turning back toward the battlefield.
Every remaining orc was charging straight toward us.
Holy shit. For a split second, genuine panic gripped me as I watched the entire group barreling in our direction.
Then Eden disappeared.
An instant later, he reappeared right in the middle of the horde.
As if on instinct, every orc immediately shifted its focus back to him, acting as though I wasn’t even there.
Fuck...
Maybe orcs only targeted opponents they considered strong.
Since I clearly didn’t fit that description, they couldn’t even be bothered to spare me a glance.
I wasn’t going to lie.
That bruised my ego a little.
Thankfully, I didn’t have time to dwell on it.
The next second, one of the armless orcs suddenly broke away from the group surrounding Eden and came charging straight toward me.
"Urghhh!"
Its roar echoed through the jungle.
The moment I saw it rushing at me, my eyes lit up like a kid who’d just been handed a piece of candy.
Fuck.
Finally.
I didn’t care why it had abandoned Eden and decided to target me.
This was exactly what I’d been waiting for.
Time to farm some essences.
Without hesitation, I activated Telekinesis and mentally commanded both of my swords to strike the orc’s vital points.
The black sword shot toward its eye.
The white sword went straight for its throat.
Just as the blades were about to connect...
The orc suddenly twisted its body to the side.
The black sword skimmed past its face, and the white sword cut through nothing but air.
It had dodged both attacks.
"...What?"
I froze for a brief moment, staring at the charging monster.
It had actually dodged that?
The surprise only lasted a moment.
I immediately redirected both swords, bringing them back in front of the charging orc and aiming for its throat once again.
Then I noticed the distance between us closing much faster than I’d expected.
I changed my plan.
The black sword stayed on course for its throat.
The white sword dipped lower, locking onto its heart instead.
The two blades shot forward at the same time.
Just as before, the orc twisted its body sideways to evade the black sword.
Exactly as I’d expected.
The instant it committed to the dodge, it left itself completely exposed.
The white sword drove straight into its chest, piercing its heart.
Fuck.
Got you.
A fountain of green blood erupted from the wound.
Even then, the orc refused to stop.
"Aughhhhgdh!"
It kept charging toward me, though each step grew slower than the last as blood poured from its chest.
Seeing it still coming, I instinctively took a few steps back.
Finally, only a few meters away, the orc stumbled to a halt.
It stared at me one last time.
Then its massive body crashed to the ground like a falling boulder.
The impact echoed through the jungle.
The sound drew the attention of the other orcs for a brief moment.
A second later, they turned away again and resumed attacking Eden as though nothing had happened.
At that moment, several familiar system notifications appeared before my eyes.
[Congratulations, Host! You have been rewarded with 100 Monster Essences for slaying an Uncommon Rank Monster! The Monster Essences have been added to your Character Profile!]
[Congratulations, Host! You have met the essence requirement to level up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
"Hmm..."
Fuck, yeah.
I dismissed the notifications and immediately opened my character profile.
---
Name: Michael Frostburne
Race: Human
Current Rank: Bronze
Current Level: 12
Title: 0
Progression to Iron Rank: 12% (12/100 levels)
Progression to Level 13: 10% (5/50 essences)
Total Essences: 605/5000
Potential: 0
Attributes:
[Power]: Bronze
[Speed]: Bronze
[Spirit]: Bronze
[Recovery]: Bronze
Free Attribute Points: 8/20
Human Racial Abilities:
Notifications
Quest
Inventory
Skills (2/2)
—
"605, huh?"
That meant I needed 4,400 more essences to reach Iron Rank.
My gaze drifted to the dead orc lying a few meters away.
Hmm...
So I had to kill forty-four more Uncommon Rank monsters to rank up.
I gave a small nod.
Alright.
Let’s do it.
Before that, though, I should check the time.
I raised my left wrist and glanced at my smartwatch.
---
Name: Michael Frostburne
Total Rules Broken: 0
Time: 3:10 PM
Date: 24th February
Year: 2130
---
3:10 p.m.?
So twenty minutes had already passed since we’d entered the dungeon.
Hmm...
At this pace, it would probably take me around three hours to kill forty-four more orcs and reach Iron Rank.
Then again, maybe I was underestimating these orcs.
Or maybe I was overestimating myself.
Either way, there was only one way to find out.
I’d have my answer soon enough.
With that thought in mind, I turned my attention back to Eden.
He was still darting across the battlefield, effortlessly avoiding the orcs’ sword swings while keeping every last one of them focused on him.
"Eden!" I called out. "Send me another one!"
"Got it!"
A moment later, another armless orc peeled away from the group and charged straight toward me.
Though, if I was being honest, "charged" wasn’t the right word.
Without any arms to balance itself, it looked more like it was awkwardly jogging than sprinting.
Even so, it kept coming, jaws spread wide as it roared at the top of its lungs.
I pushed every other thought aside and focused on my two swords, both of them hovering quietly in the air.
Taking a slow, deep breath, I let it out.
"Huu..."
As the tension left my body, my mind grew calm.
I locked my eyes on the approaching orc.
Okay. Let’s do thi-No...
The instant it entered my range, I sent both swords hurtling toward it.
Let’s finish this quickly.
