“...Did Gorza just lose to an archer?”
“ander, I think we have a more important issue, the wall–”
“Yeah, yeah, the wall exploded. It was about time; I was starting to get bored.”
“Sir?”
At the head of an orc warband, two demonic figures stood with their gazes fixed otling dust of a rge explosion. One was a small, winged creature with a barbed tail; the other a tall, slender figure with unnaturally long arms hanging at its sides. Both bore curved horns sprouting from their foreheads and smooth, violet skin that seemed to absorb the dawn twilight. Had Max been able to see them, he would have instantly reised them – beings of the ‘imp’ and ‘demon’ races, unmistakable in their sinister appearance.
The demon rubbed its horns and spoke again, “I just ’t believe he couldn’t even take on one f*g archer. Seriously, how useless you be?... Does it run in the family genes or something?”
“Sir, the men–” The imp tried to speak.
“How did such a fat f*ck get knocked off the wall with only a few arrows anyways? That’s the more important question. Even if archers pose no threat to me, it’s very strange.”
“The men–”
“Yes, yes, order the men, I know, I know. ’t I just take a moment to enjoy the sery? The humans will all die either way, Metus. You don’t o nag me.”
“...”
“Hopefully there’s a– Hm? Who’s that?”
A human wearing white armour emerged from the dust at the exploded gate, gazing around the pound until log eyes with the demon.
“ander, sir, acc to our ihat is the prince of the Eleutherian Kingdom. He has received advanced pace training, and our estimates pce him at level 7th. He is a renowned nuisan the region, so Vist Ta has pced a bounty on his head of five million taes.”
“Ha... Hahaha! Look at that prirolling in, full of fidehat is how a real man acts! You know what? In honour of his bravery, I will keep his body intad eat only half of his ans.”
The demon drew swords holstered on both sides of its body and began strolling toward the spicuous prince, bumping its dark chestpte iement.
“Sir!” The imp flew behind him to catch up. “Please, your ands first!”
“ht. All forces, attack the enemy!”
Metus felt ed. Was this ander not a bit too cavalier? Hopefully the enemy side would perform poorly...
...
Tak!
Somewhere nearby, an arrow burst out the back of an orc’s head, with the particles dispersing to reveal a red-headed archer. The archer shot an arrow every sed, bsting orcs off the wall in various dires with strong, knockback-empowered attacks.
Tak! Tak! Tak!
A long line of orcs ran toward the archer but found themselves falling like dominoes uhe onsught of arrows. Evee this, the archer seemed troubled.
‘They’re getting closer.’
Max grimaced as he gnced behind him. The se of wall he gate had been blown to smithereens, leaving behind a wide chasm. Unfortunately, the dder he’d used to climb up here had been knocked over i, so he now had no path to retreat with his legs intact. Additionally, he’d lost some health from that explosion just now – he really didn’t want to test how much HP he had remaining.
‘Ugh? Yech!’
An orc reached close enough for Max to smell its foul odour. Holding his breath, Max shot an arrow into its stomach, killing it instantly. He didn’t o catch its spear, which he quickly spun around in his hand and unched ahead to create a triple orc skewer.
‘e to think of it, my stats should be strohan level 3ht now... What if I try some melee bat?’
Max stepped back as an orc swung a heavy axe at his head. Having thrown its full weight into the attack, it stumbled past him and cleaved through the tops of the palisade stakes. Max swiftly drove an arrow into its neck before moving to dodge again.
A spearhead sailed past Max’s torso. Shifting his weight onto his back foot, he pivoted into a spin, turning and whipping his right leg around in a powerful arc.
Crack!
The kick ected with an orc’s jaw, sending it toppling over the side of the battlements.
—Aim hacks don’t do that...
—Huh, so now we’re in Mortal Kombat
—WTF HE KNOWS MARTIAL ARTS TOO?
—This is insane
—No wonder mom calls me a failure...
Max seized the falling orc’s spear and jabbed at the remaining enemies in a half-thrust, making them instinctively recoil. Smiling at his successful feint, Max dropped the spear and repced it with a pair of arrows, resuming his shooting session.
Ta-tak!
Because his level kept increasing throughout the battle, his strength attribute had also gone up, meaning he could pull the b back faster than before.
Ta-tak!
Max particurly enjoyed shooting double-arrow shots, as he could kill two orcs with a single draw. Although he could shoot even more - 3, 4 or even 5 arrows, the accuracy oor and he would risk losing his speed bonus.
Ta-tak!
Nog the wo arrows at strange angles, Max released a diverging shot to strike down two of the st three orcs, which had been running abreast of each other.
“Grahh!”
The final orc roared in anger and prepared to throw a hatchet, but Max already expected this and kicked up the pre-positioned spear at his feet, sending it flying into its stomach.
“Kurgh!”
An arrow swiftly followed to finish it off. Not wasting any time, Max then used his [Arrow Retrieval] skill to collect his arrows bad ied the battlements for loot.
“Wow, the loot drops are really terrible in this g-”
Whistle!
Hearing a sound from behind, Max jerked to the side as an arrow shot past his leg.
“Sonofa- Could you not?”
Max swivelled around and took aim. Across the rubble from the destroyed gate, an orc archer s him before taking an arrow to the forehead.
“...Should probably check the battle situation before I try looting, shouldn’t I?”
Max surveyed his surroundings. The battle here was now in full swing, with the Eleutherian army having poured into the pound through the breached gate to battle the orc warriors. There were more orcs than expected - over a thousand - fighting on fairly even terms with the human soldiers. With the occasional sighting of fluorest hair, it seemed that some pyers were also rejoining the battle
Max’s eyes caught sight of some dazzling white armour not far away. ‘My prince!’
Virtus was engaged in a high-level fight with a violet-skinned monster of red eyes and nky arms, which Max immediately reised as a demon. It used two swords aed a purple, fmelike essence from its body, which Max could dis even from the wall.
“An enemy with aura? That’s problematic...”
In HoL, ‘aura’ e of physical enha magic used by higher-levelled enemies. It worked simir to an active skill and gave the demon one or multiple special abilities in exge for tinuous mana ption.
“A troublesome enemy for Virtus... Should I try to help?”
Max shot some orcs while he pted. Drawing the ire of a strong enemy like a demon at his current strength could spell instah if he didn’t approach things carefully.
Right as he thought this, he noticed a shiny-headed swordsman approag the demon from behind, clear in his i.
“L-Lemon, no!!” Max cried. “Don’t do it, Lemon friend!”
—Lol has no fiden him
—R.I.P. Lemonade
—Quick! Rehe Lemon-aid!
The demon wore a chestpte, which, unlike a cuirass, only provided frontal prote ahe back exposed, tempting Lemoo attag. Only, he didn’t know just how strong an aura-wielding demon was.
Max nocked an arroositiohe bow for an intercepting shot, h his aim between Lemonade and the demon. Notig a twitch of suspiovement from the demon, he immediately loosed the arrow.
The demon turo Lemoh a malicious grin, apparently having been aware of his presence. Without hesitation, it shed out, its unnaturally long arm whipping forward in a blur of metal. Just as Lemonade’s death seemed certain, the sword arm abruptly pulled back, splitting the air in front of Lemonade’s h a sharp burst of wind.
At the same time, an arrow shot past the demon’s face with a thundering noise, only barely avoiding its pupils, which stricted in arm. Jerking its head toward the battlements, it locked eyes with Max, now keenly aware of his presehe pyful grin vanished, repced by a wary expression as it closely scrutinised Max, cheg that no more attacks were ing.
“Wha–? It dodged?!” Max gaped in disbelief.
‘That arrow was aimed at the middle of its head, travelling three times the speed of sound; It should be impossible to dodge!’
Expeg Lemoo be attacked again, Max lined up a sed shot, but it turned out to be unnecessary as the demon tio observe him without sparing Lemonade a gnce. In fact, it kept staring at Max right up until Virtus came swinging at it from behind.
‘Did it see me aiming? I don’t think so... Uhe vision es are different to the previous game... then, was it the aura ability?’
Max mused over the issue.
“...!”
Shattering his thoughts, a fsh of movemeered Max’s peripheral vision. Reflexively jumping back to evade, His starter tunic was torn as a spear hurtled past. ‘Ahh! No zoning out!’
Searg the battlements for the thrower, he found a tall orc standing only a short distance away. The orc had a light bleed above its eyebrow and several red-stained arrow holes in its clothing.
[High Orc: ‘Gorza’, Level: 52, Threat Level: Perilous (BOSS)]
It also looked extremely angry.
“Oh sh*t.”
