It was already past midnight, and the surroundings were dark. There were neither stars nor moon in the sky to give light to the land. The torches that burned around the Stronghold were the only light source inside the Orc Encampment.
Orobak stood in the center of the stronghold. The bodies of his warriors still lay on the ground around him.
Since Lux and his partymates weren’t the ones that had fought them, their bodies didn’t disappear and turn into particles of light. This gave Orobak the opportunity to use their corpses to strengthen himself, and get an edge over Barca.
Lux knew that Orobak wouldn’t leave the Stronghold because the Orc chieftain couldn’t lose his advantage. Since that was the case, the Half-Elf had no other choice but to… annoy the sh*t out of the Orc Chieftain!
Arrows rained from the sky from outside of the Stronghold, which forced the Orc Chieftain to use his weapons to block it.
It was at this moment when the whistling sound of the wind reached Orobak’s ears, and he immediately turned around to use his great sword to block the arrow that was aimed at his side. The force of the arrow made the Orc Chieftain take a few steps back, which made him frown.
“It’s you again,” Orobak glared at Ishtar, who was currently riding standing on top of Pazuzu’s Tower Shield, while the latter hovered in the air.
The Skeleton Hunter had taken her shield stance and was firing arrow after arrow. Poison Arrow, Piercing Arrows, Knockback Arrows, Frostfire Arrows, Stun Arrows—all kinds of arrows in Ishtar’s arsenal were all fired in the Orc Chieftain’s direction without fail.
Aside from Ishtar, the Skeleton Grand Archers were also firing arrows, but they didn’t care whether they hit Orobak or not because they couldn’t see him.
The Orc Archers were doing the same. Lux had ordered them to just “shoot their arrows inside the Stronghold, without caring if they hit anything or not. Although the order was weird, the Orc Archers obeyed Lux.
When Morgazar first heard of it, he even scratched his head, confused with the plan that Lux had thought up. Since he specifically told the Half-Elf that they would not assist him in fighting against Orobak, the latter only told them that he didn’t need their help to attack the Orc Chieftain.
What Lux ordered them to do was this. Just shoot inside the stronghold. It didn’t matter where the arrows landed, all they had to do was make sure it landed inside the Orc Stronghold.
It was a weird order, but since they weren’t directly attacking Orobak, Morgazar thought that the order was valid.
And so, a rain of arrows that didn’t seem to have any designated target fell randomly inside the Stronghold, making it look like it was under siege.
While Orobak was dealing with Ishtar’s and the rain of arrows that were falling above his head, he noticed several Skeleton Fighters, as well as the Skeleton Rider he fought a few hours ago, stabbing the bodies of the Orcs that had fallen.
Lux had tasked his minions to steal any Beast Cores that they could find, while Orobak was under siege by his enemies.
Eiko had also sneakily infiltrated the Orc Stronghold from the rear when the siege started.
She then summoned her Skeleton Fighters, and Skeleton Grand Archers, and gave them specific roles.
The Skeleton Fighters were to gather Beast Cores, while the Skeleton Grand Archers were to aim at Orobak using their poison arrows in order to whittle away his health.
Naturally, the Orc Chieftain didn’t stand idly and threw any weapon that he could find at the Skeleton Grand Archers that were aiming at him from a distance, killing them instantly.
“Ei! Ei! Ei!” Eiko continuously re-summoned the Skeletons that were destroyed, until her mana was almost depleted.
Orobak was annoyed by the hit and run tactics that were being used against him, and roared in anger. He had finally understood that Ishtar, and the rain of arrows that were falling above his head were merely distractions.
However, he realized it a bit late.
Diablo and his subordinates had already collected dozens of Beast Cores from the corpses along the outskirts of the Stronghold. Surprisingly, each time they took a Beast Core from the bodies of the Orcs, they would turn into particles of light, their bodies, along with their blood, disappearing completely.
This was an unexpected discovery that made Lux extremely happy.
‘Perhaps this is a loophole in the dungeon that would help the challengers cope with Orobak’s unreasonable advantage.’ New ᴏᴠʟ ᴄhapters are published on novl(ꜰ)ire.et
That was what Lux thought after the first Orc Warrior disappeared after the Beast Core was taken out of its body.
After finding out that the opposing side’s main goal was to only make him passively defend from ranged attacks, Orobak roared in anger and charged towards Diablo and the Skeleton Fighters.
Naturally, Diablo and the others made a run for it, while Eiko’s Skeleton Fighters, who were in the rear, sped up their Beast Core collection, while the Orc was chasing their comrades.
This was a pincer attack that Lux had devised in order to steal power right out from under Orobak’s nose.
Now that Orobak had changed his strategy, Ishtar was able to land a few hits on the Orc’s body since he had decided to just focus on killing the thieving Skeletons first, instead of worrying about the Orc Hunter that was shooting at him from the sky.
The game of cat and mouse continued until more than half of the orcs inside the stronghold had vanished completely, making Orobak unable to think of what to do next.
“Weaklings!” Orobak shouted when he exited the Stronghold and saw Lux, as well as Barca, standing hundreds of meters away from him, surrounded by torch lights.
It was as if they were making sure that the Orc Chieftain spotted them no matter what, and their plan had worked just as they envisioned.
“Do you dare to fight me in a duel?!” Orobak roared in challenge.
“Hell no!” Lux shouted in reply. “If you want to fight, come here!”
“I’ll kill you!”
“Come at me, bro!”
Lux spread his arms wide and taunted Orobak, who was glaring in his direction.
The Orc Chieftain took out a small throwing knife and hurled it towards the Half-Elf with all the strength it could muster. Unfortunately, Barca just casually deflected it to the side, and sneered at his adversary.
Although Orobak was currently stronger than him, a throwing axe didn’t pose a threat to him.
“Barca, you coward!” Orobak roared. “Fight me!”
“If you want to fight, come!” Barca pointed his greatsword at his opponent. “I am here! Fight me!”
Orobak fought an internal struggle inside his head. If he fought Barca outside the Stronghold, his advantage would diminish making his strength almost at par with him. Even though he knew that he was stronger than the Half-Orc, he was now alone without any warriors under his command.
‘I just need to defeat him, and the other Orcs will once again swear their allegiance to me,’ Orobak thought as he looked back inside the stronghold where the Skeleton Fighters were still busy looting the bodies of his subordinates, making them fade into particles of light.
‘The effect of the armor lasts for half an hour. If I can kill him before then, it is my win!’ Orobak no longer hesitated as he ran towards Barca who had readied himself in a fighting stance.
Orobak’s eyes turned bloodshot as he thought about all of his subordinates who had died due to the Half-Orc’s Rebellion. He had no intention of sparing Barca’s life, and would do the same to the Half-Elf who was in cahoots with him.
However, when he was only a dozen meters away from the duo, the ground under his feet gave way and Orobak found himself falling into a muddy pit that Lux had prepared for him beforehand.
“You call us weaklings, right?” Lux asked with a sneer. “Well, sorry for being a weakling. I will now teach you how weaklings fight.”