Chapter 20: Fighting Bandits

Hearing Lester’s warning, I gripped the rapier even more tightly.

For half a minute, nothing happened before we finally began to hear the heavy steps, and with each second, they became louder and louder, till a minute later when a big orc rode out of the forest and stopped in front of us.

I saw the orc, the first real orc since I came to this world.

It was big, over two meters tall, with grey skin and a muscly body that would put even the biggest bodybuilder on the earth to shame; with a big head to match the body with sharp teeth, especially those long fangs that threatened to burst out of its mouth.

It came riding on irvar, the green rhino monster with a very sharp horn.

It had not come alone; one by one, many orcs came behind it, riding on the irvar’s. Soon their number reached twenty-six before they stopped.

They have a third of our numbers, but it might not be their real numbers; some may be hiding in the forest, and we will have to be very careful in dealing with them.

Nobody spokes, neither humans nor the orcs; we both looked at each other.

“Humans, hand over all your goods, and we will leave peacefully; resist, and there will be bodies,” said the first orc finally in a booming, heavily accented voice.

Lester opened his mouth to speak, but before he could let out even a word, Edwin spoke up from the protective circle.

“I am the noble of the great Harsoth Empire, and I will not give you filthy orcs even a single penny,” shouted Edwin to the shock of all people.

“Idiot!” I cursed him as I looked at the Orc leader, whose face now had a smile, as without saying anything, more orcs began to come out of the forest.

Seeing that, confidence finally disappeared from Edwin’s face, and fear appeared.

“Since you have declined my peaceful offer, now there will only be blood,” it said and looked directly into Lester’s eyes.

“Attack!”

It shouted loudly, and over fifty orcs charged toward us, shouting and roaring, with heavy weapons in their hands.

My whole body shook seeing their charge, and I cursed that idiot; how could he be so dumb? He asked for everything, but that does not mean we have to give him everything.

We can negotiate, and most bandits accept it and leave after they get sufficient good.

My father had told me this hundreds of times; I don’t know, maybe he missed teaching Edwin that otherwise, he wouldn’t have acted such idiotically.

Sup Sup Sup

The orcs had run over a few meters when the mages hiding revealed themselves, and spells began to rain down on the orcs.

From fireballs to acid spray, there is even lightning bolt and stone shot, and it is not just mages that attacked, but the eight archers also begin to lose the arrows rapidly.

The orcs looked surprised by the barrage but did not stop; their skills roared, and they came charging with even greater fury while the spells and arrows rained down on them.

The orcs, to my surprise, were quite good, they moved their weapons and defended, but still, many hit them and their monsters.

Monsters collapsed; those whose monsters had collapsed jumped and came running, while those monsters whose rider had collapsed also came charging in a fury.

Seven seconds later, they clashed; Lester clashed against the leader of the Orcs, and others joined in, with archers and spellcasters reinforcing them from behind.

I have many times imagined the magical battles, but what is happening in front of me is a hundred times greater than my imagination and horrifying.

In just a few seconds, a couple of orcs got injured and died. Humans did not remain unscathed either; many of them had gotten injured.

The house’s forces are good, very good; they are working in perfect synch, attacking the orcs with spells and sniping them with arrows.

Seeing the humans holding the orcs back, I couldn’t help but feel relieved.

“Don’t let your guard down, Mister Silver; the orcs are not easy to handle,” said Jonah as if sensing me relaxing.

A moment after he sensed it, I felt the sudden change in the orcs; the redness appeared in their eyes, and they became more aggressive.

“Shaman,” said Jonah; immediately, I understood what was happening. There is a shaman in the orcs who uses this rage skill.

Hun!

I began to hear the loud steps, and my expression couldn’t help but change further; the shaman was already bad, and now more orcs were coming, making things even worse.

A few seconds later, a group of nine orcs came out of the forest and joined the group of fifty; it immediately increased their power, and it didn’t take some of them long to break the lines of humans and come inside.

A horror couldn’t help but dawn on my face seeing a group of orcs coming inside and running toward whoever was holding the weapons.

The biggest group went toward the protective circle, while a few went toward lone guards, and the two came toward us.

I unconsciously took a step, pushing my back against the carriages while my guards moved toward the two approaching orcs.

“Die, humans!” said the orc with one eye and went for Jonah, while the other one had gone for dan. They swung their huge axes, and Johan and Dan attacked with their sabers.

Looking at the way they have moved, they seemed to have plenty of experience in fighting against the orcs, which is what their resume had said. I am truly glad I did not believe a word of those bastards and hired my own guards for my safety.

It is the wisest decision I’ve ever made.

I watched their battles, which were very fast, but I am not having too much of a problem understanding them.

It is likely because of the old Remus; he was gifted with the sword, been practicing since he could hold it. At ten, he killed his first monster, and by the time of his death at fifteen, he had killed over fifty monsters, a record very few could achieve, in the whole empire.

Since I took over my body, I rarely practiced the sword and done only as an exercise, but his experiences and memories always help me understand the fights, despite never holding a sword before coming to this world.

Their fight had gotten intense within a minute. They begin to use one skill after another; it is a brutal fight where a single mistake could make them lose their life.

Watching it, I did not fail to notice there were no spells and arrows coming toward orcs fighting against my guards.

They were going everywhere, even toward the guards protecting the servants, but not at my guards.

It dawned on me how bad my decision was to come here, and I promised myself that I would never let my guard down when I was in the company of the family.

A minute passed when four more orcs broke through the line, and to my horror, I saw two orcs coming toward me; one was big, while the other one is small.

A deep horror couldn’t help but fill my heart, and I felt frozen in panic; I wanted to move my body but couldn’t; it had frozen up.

It did not take long for the orcs to come near me and were coming at me when Dan suddenly moved; he left Jonah to handle both orcs while moving toward the new orcs, seeing that a toothy laugh appeared on the big orc’s face.

It begins to fight against Dan, and within a few seconds, it has become clear that the new orc is much better than the two orcs fighting against Jonah, seeing how Dan’s fighting style changed to the defensive from the offensive.

He is quite good at it, defending well despite Orc using one powerful skill after another, some of them so fast that I could not see them properly.

Not to mention the little Orc, who is acting as a nuisance, but Dan is handling it well.

Nearly a minute passed when the big orc barked something at the little orc, and he stopped and, to my horror, turned and began to walk toward me.

It didn’t take it long to reach me.

“Nice sword; it will fetch a good price,” he said in a heavily accented voice and swung his black saber toward me, intending to hack me into two.

I watched in horror as I felt my end coming closer and closer while I remained frozen in fear.

Even in this panicked state, I have become acutely aware of how there are no arrows and spells coming toward me. If they wanted to help me, they could have, at least now, shot a few arrows and spells when the orc had launched his killing attack.

Every notion I had that someone might help me had disappeared; it was absolutely clear that they had been ordered not to help me, even when I was about to be killed.

As I realized it, clarity formed in my mind, and I found myself moving, not just moving, but swinging the rapier with the familiarity and intent, that only existed in my memories.

Clang!

My rapier clashed against his saber, and I received a shock so high that I nearly threw away my sword, but I bore it as I unconsciously did a subtle movement that helped me divert the force of the attack.

“So, the little human could defend,” he said mockingly while I also took a good look at the orc with eyes that hadn’t been clouded in fear and panic.

The orc is one of the smaller orcs that attacked, but it is still bigger than me; it is slightly taller and has double muscles.

“Let’s see how long you survive,” it said.

“[Rapid Slashes],” he said, and saber came at me again, but this time at a much faster speed.

He had used his skill, scaring the hell out of me, but this time, I did not panic; instead leaned into the memories and let my instinct guide me.

I moved left and avoided its saber by mere inches, surprising both him and myself before attacking it swiftly with my rapier.

My attack was quick, but it was faster as it quickly moved its saber to defend before attacking me again with his skill.

Clang!

I used the force it pushed me back and defended against the attack; this time, the shock was even greater, but I diverted it without being shaken.

“You are good,” said the orc and came at me again.

I am also surprised by how I am defending against it; this is an orc, who already possesses greater physical strength than us, not to mention, he had the class and skills. I am sure a few attribute points in strength and vitality, which increase not only physical strength but dexterity.

Still, despite all the advantages, I have not got killed yet or even injured.

It seemed like I had underestimated old Remus’s skills too much; he was called combat genius by all the instructors and even had readied to take the test for the imperial knight, which he would have passed, according to his instructor.

But all that praise had gone over his head and fought a monster above his level, which ended him.

Clang!

Once again, my sword clashed against the orc’s saber; my body was moving on its own to deal with the orc’s every attack if they had memories of their own, and they had.

The muscle memories that had imprinted with more than a decade of training.

Clang Clang Clang

My rapier continued to clash against its saber, and the more we clashed, the easier it seemed to have become for me.

Though I clearly understood that given my disadvantages, it would be hard for me to do anything to the orc, much less kill it.

The only reason I even fought was because of the immense training of old Remus and his mind, which seemed to be made for fighting.

“[Haze Strike]”

It shouted suddenly, and its saber became hazy; it became very hard to track its movements as it came at me

This skill is really good, one only receives such skills after level 10 or above, but it had received before that.

As for it being level 10 or above, I did not even think about that, as I would be lying dead if it had been at that level.

I calmed the panic in my heart and focused hard while letting my instinct guide me; old Remus had an amazing fighting instinct, which is the reason why he was able to kill so many monsters before even reaching level five.

Rip!

I moved to dodge but felt a rippling sensation and pain in my shoulder; it was a saber that cut through my sleeve, but it was not the only thing the saber had cut.

It had cut across my shoulder, leaving a gash that was a few inches long and a centimeter deep, giving me quite a pain, but I did not even look at it as all my focus was on the orc.

I took a step forward, and now, my rapier was moving toward me fast, with its eyes wide in surprise.

Orc moved fast, and I had changed the direction of the Rapier with a flick of my wrist, which lessened its speed, but it was still able to reach it.

Slash!

It touched the armor covering the orc’s stomach, and the moment it did, the runes appeared on the blade, and it cut through the armor and its stomach, leaving behind a gash across its gray skin that was at least five inches long and a centimeter deep.

“Enchanted Weapon,” it said as it retreated out of range of my sword; I could see the fear in its eyes, but there was also greed that was blazing brighter.

Earlier it might be guessed it is a special weapon, but now it knows it is enchanted and would fetch quite a price.

“That blade will be mine,” it said and came at me, and I also believed in instinct that had saved my life a moment ago.

Clang Clang Clang

Our weapons clashed, but that did not stop us for even a moment as we attacked each other again; this time, I dodged the attack, too, before attacking again, making our weapons clash again.

As I had fought against it, I felt like I was dancing with death; while I might have been able to give it a cut, but that only becomes it had underestimated me, now it is not.

It is extremely careful, not giving me even the slightest chance to cut him.

I am also feeling quite a pain in my left hand, which is bleeding; while the bleeding is not much, it will create trouble if we fight for a long.

Slash!

Another minute had passed when its saber cut me again, this time on my waist, and the cut was long but not deep.

Though, it hurt like hell and going to make the battle even harder for me.

Clang!

“You will not live long, human,” it said and attacked, and a second later, our weapons clashed, giving me sharp pain across my waist as the force reached the wound.

Phewwwwww!

The pain did not stop me, and I attacked it but stopped when a sharp whistle rang through the forest, which stopped all those fighting.

“Retreat!”

Shouted the leading Orc, who had his whole-body bleeding; a moment later, the orcs began to retreat, and we did not stop them.

The spells stopped, and so did the arrows as the Orcs began to retreat; nobody stopped them; this time, my brother also stayed silent as he watched them leave, with fear written all over his face.

“Pray to your gods, human, that we never meet again because the next time we meet, I will kill you,” he said with a laugh and retreated with big Orc, who was fighting against Dan.

I watched as the last orcs disappeared through the trees and took a step back till my back touched the carriage and closed my eyes for a moment.

When I opened my eyes a second later, I heard the sound, which made my eyes go wide instantly.

[Class Obtained: Warrior]

[Skill Gained: Quick Steps]

[Skill Gained: Consecutive Strikes]

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