Thunderous thudding like a powerful beating heart as well as deep roaring resounded from the other end of the bridge. All five youths at the same time received a notification through the symbol on their hands straight into their vision.
[Level 4 - The Horde]
[Endless waves of resilient orcs. The true terror of these savages, defend the orb at all cost!]
Once again, they were reminded of the main task they had to do. Protect the orb from any hostile forces threatening its destruction, not stopping the enemy from crossing the bridge.
The smarter and more insightful acolytes would have guessed it the moment they had arrived in this bridge. There were two sides to the bridge, but only one side had been flooding out enemies, it meant the other side would also start pushing out enemies eventually.
Unfortunately, Emery and his friends hadn't considered this at first, so they had dedicated all their attention to one side of the bridge, where the virtual enemies were coming out of, failing to make any preparations on the other side. Their minds had been too occupied with defending against the coming orcs with their limited members to worry about anything else. And now that another group of orcs came from the other side of the bridge they were all shocked.
Klea, standing near the orb, far from the defensive line the three youths had made, became worried at the nearing orcs that seemed no less than the ones they were facing on the front. She said, "So, what's the plan guys?"
While still fighting in line formation, Julian glanced at the incoming orcs behind him and said, "Dammit! This is impossible. It's hard enough to keep this line as it is, but being flanked from behind… this is gonna be extremely hard!"
"Barbarian! Can you and Emery hold this side just the two of you while I make my way there?"
"Fuck! If you can defend the other side by yourself, of course I can take care of this side t—"
An orc's club threw Thrax back rolling on the bridge. Spitting out blood, he smashed the ground with the face of his shield as he looked red in rage. It really looked like he wanted to rush back in again, but after noticing how his protective vest had lost all its reserved power, he just let out a shout to express his current feeling.
A bluish light though suddenly covered him and some wounds on his face started disappearing. It was Klea using her water elemental spell [Soothing Mist] to heal him from the back.
"This is not about you against me, Barbarian! Stop being a complete idiot right now!" roared Julian to the Thrax, who was still pounding the ground now with the back end of his spear. He then kept switching his attention at the back and at the front. Apparently, he wasn't sure if he could defend the back side by himself.
"I'll defend the other side," said Emery out of nowhere after pulling out his sword that slit the throat of the orc he was facing. Julian, however, didn't reply as he simply glanced at Emery and looked hesitant once more. Not waiting for anyone's approval though, Emery quickly finished off one of the downed orcs and hurried toward the other side of the bridge, where the orcs were about 150 meters away.
"Chumo! Help out Emery," shouted Julian. As Emery ran past Chumo, the two gave a knowing nod. Chumo didn't turn around and let out another [Dark Missile] piercing into the eye socket of the orc that was about to hit Thrax once again.
Emery stopped within a twenty-meter distance before the orcs in a span of less than a minute. Not far away from him there were six tall ugly orcs standing shoulder to shoulder with their weapons raised high. He knew each of these savage creatures were comparable to him in physical strength even in their virtual forms; his advantage regarding skills and weaponry alone wouldn't be sufficient to face half a dozen orcs at the same time.
So, deciding that it was now time to put out all the stops, Emery raised both his swords, casted [Darkness Infusion] and a dark flame-like glow appeared at the tip of the swords and soon covered both swords completely! The aura then got pulled back, making the tier 2 sword glow black, before the aura became extremely thin. As for the sword he had received from Magus Xion, its dark body became even darker as if it looked almost like a shadow! The sword dark body became even darker, as if it was absorbing all the light in its surroundings!
Now that the six orcs were only a few steps before him, Emery roared as he used one of his hidden abilities!
[Fey bloodline activated]
[Battle power has increased by 10]
[Battle power 44]
Emery's whole body contracted as his face, neck, chest, hands and legs became hairy! Then, the black tattoos creeped their way up from his chest like snakes, covering every part of his body. He gave a rough snarl, as he could feel himself being full of murderous intent once again. The blood in his vein was running amok and the only thing that felt like could calm him down was the desire to kill the threats in front of him.
Klea, Chumo, Thrax and Julian all turned their attention towards Emery. At first they thought a new type of enemy had arrived to help the orcs. But after they saw the half-human figure was wielding two swords and was facing the orcs, they all started to understand. They couldn't believe that Emery was hiding such a secret! They had never known of this. It was so surprising Julian almost got hit by the orc in front of him if it weren't for Chumo, who seemed to have recovered first and shot a dark arrow.
"Whaaatt?" all four of them said underneath their breaths, gaping in awe. Emery could hear that due to his enhanced senses in this form. Then they froze again the moment Emery started showing his prowess.
The ground on Emery's feet issued small cracks, as he kicked off showing a speed that passed the orcs by a couple of levels. Although he knew he was still lacking in comparison to their physical strength, Emery remembered that it wasn't due to the difference in physical strength that he had first won against an actual orc. It was his speed increasing the weight behind his attack!
Before using the spells, the tier three Reunite sword could only cut and stab through orcs' thick skin, now, infused with the proper usage of the [Dark Infusion] spell, it could cut through two orcs' heads at the same time! Adding that to his increased strength and speed, he started to see the orcs more like prey rather than threats.
Emery twisted his body mid-air, using the body of the orc behind the first wave as his stepping wall, and shot himself back toward the first wave of orcs, managing to slice off their legs at the same time. The orcs fell face-flat on the ground without even understanding exactly what had happened.
There were only two orcs remaining on the first row and he repeated his pattern of jumping with great speed and decapitating! Heads started to roll and cut limbs flew everywhere! If this wasn't a virtual battle and the spurting blood from the enemies also disappeared after they dissipated into particles of light, Emery would surely have been bathing in the orcs' blood too!.
All of Emery's actions happened only in a span of a few seconds! So, his friends who were watching the scene looked as if they were watching a dream unfold before them. Then, as one of the orcs before Emery let out a deafening roar, they were pulled out of the dream-like state and their shock changed pace immediately into awe and excitement! The person whom they had once thought as the weakest link in the team was actually culling the ugly creatures so fast as if these orcs were just grains being harvested! The four youths' all came to a conclusion to themselves that they couldn't let him take all the glory! So, everyone's morale burned!
Julian and Thrax let out a battle cry, deciding not to hold back anymore! Their weapons let out great tongues of flame! They had both also decided to use their [Fire Infusion] spells before charging with weapons high just like Emery!
The two rivals became a bit reckless for they were showing a bit more openings, however, whenever they were in danger or some of the orcs passed through the defensive line of Thrax and Julian, Chumo's [Dark Missile] as well as Klea's [Wind Sphere] with the occasional [Chain Lighting] sent the orcs to their demise!
The group now then become preoccupied fighting with their all against these endless waves of orcs flooding out the two stone gates. They didn't have a moment to spare the exploding orbs from their neighboring bridges as well as the notification about the number of teams decreasing.
[73 teams remaining]
[72 teams remaining]
From 100 teams a few minutes earlier to under 80 teams, the number had dropped so fast since level 4 had come. But when it reached the 60s, the decrease started to slow down and seemed to stop.