Eritance - Chapter 24

I again felt a surge of power. I was getting better at sensing the power flowing into me. I was ecstatic! I almost suggested we go and kill all the orcs and goblins, but I knew it would be suicide to even try. Curious as to how much power I could absorb from an orc, I had Ross show me my stats.

Orin Strength 2.6 (2) Stamina 2.0 (0.3) Speed 2.0 (0.3)

I was shocked! My stats had gone up so high. It seemed that orcs made the best hunting materials! However, just as I thought that, Ross butted in and said “don’t get too excited you idiot. Did you forget the other goblins you’ve been killin as you’ve crawled around in the backstreets here?”.

Oh right. I forgot to ask Ross to tell me about the gain I got from the orc alone. This gain was simply the total of what I had got. Still, I was happy at my progress so far. It seemed that I would have to make sure that I can always join a battlefield with beasts on it, they were a golden opportunity for me to get stronger faster.

With these orcs out of the way we had a straight shot to the mansion. We ran quickly, although I held back my running speed so that Ciara could keep up and ran through the already open mansion doors.

The mansion interior was wrecked. The tables were smashed, vases and other decorations littered the floor in pieces and bodies could be seen laying there. The smell of death and blood was very thick. The bodies mainly belonged to guards and servants, but the lord couldn’t be seen anywhere.

We heard metal clashing and the grunting of humans and orcs coming from the dining hall. We quickly ran through and saw the lord with the remaining guards trying to fight against the orc chieftain and two orcs. There were only three guards with the lord at this point, and more corpses could be seen littering the floor.

These corpses however, comprised a mixture of both orcs, guards, and house servants. The lord and his guards seemed tired and were being pressed back into a corner. It didn’t seem like they would be able to hold out much longer against the tireless onslaught from the orc chieftain’s attack.

The lord’s forces and the orc chieftain’s forces were too busy in the struggle of the battle to notice us standing there, so we quickly ran in to launch a surprise attack. We had seen the orc chieftain in battle once already, so we knew how strong he was. We also knew about his special ability to strengthen the other orcs and give them a boost in strength, so we knew that that the only chance we had for success would be to kill the two orcs beside him and surround him with us and the lord’s forces.

Once we started running over I noticed a heavy cast-iron pot that had been knocked over. It seemed like it contained a soup that had spilled all over the floor. I quickly grabbed the pot and felt that it was indeed very heavy and durable.

We quickly approached the orc chieftain’s forces from behind and were noticed by the lord’s forces. One of the guards couldn’t help but gasp out in surprise at reinforcements, thus alerting the orcs. They turned around quickly to face us, but it was already too late. With a mighty force I jumped into the air and slammed the cast iron pot on top of the head of one of the orcs with all my strength. I hit him so hard with it that it left a large dent in the pot both where it had hit his head and where I had been holding onto it after gripping it so tightly.

The unlucky orc instantly crumpled to the ground. Ciara didn’t have as much luck as I did, as she wasn’t as fast or strong as I was. The orc that was targeted by Ciara was able to block her strike with his arm. The orc cried out in pain as the knife slashed down its arm, but it was still in much better health than the other one.

Ciara quickly dropped to the ground and slashed at its feet before rolling away. The orc was injured but could still fight. The plan didn’t do exactly as we intended, but it was still partially successful. We had them surrounded.

As the orc chieftain and the other orc tried to put up a defense, one of the guards stabbed the wounded orc in the kidney. This caused it to start bleeding a lot. At this the orc chieftain gave a mighty roar and used his special ability. “Ross! Check out that orc’s stats. Also, show me how it is compared to other orcs”.

Orc Strength 4.5 Stamina 3 Speed 1.5

Wow! It became stronger than I was when all was said and done. “I’ll distract the chieftain, the rest of you take out that orc” I shouted. “You can’t do it alone boy” the lord said. “I will help you, if the circle is broken than we won’t have a chance to survive”.

Ciara decided to ignore me as well and went for the orc chieftain as well. That left the three guards against the powered-up orc. Well, I thought, at least he’s already injured. They might be able to beat him like this.

With our battle with the orc chieftain starting to begin I told Ross to show me his stats.

Orc Chieftain Strength 7 Speed 3 Stamina 3

Unbelievable! This orc chieftain was still so much stronger than I was. I was beginning to think that we were all doomed to die here today. I tried to shake that thought from my mind though. I thought about Ciara, even though she isn’t that strong, she has been able to kill her fair share of goblins and orcs today. Stats aren’t everything, technique plays an important role too. With that the battle started.