The Rise Of A Porter

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15 Orcs against 26 of Arnold's summons.

Maybe the orcs wanted to mock them before destroying them for good as a sole warrior came forward to attack the remaining golem... Marshal.

The orc rained blows onto Marshal, as if he meant to smash him into the very earth he was made of and Marshal did the same, he knew if he went down easily Talos and the others might get into trouble. Each of them fought like they didn't just want the other dead, they wanted him smashed, obliterated, nothing left behind.

Surprisingly, Marshal was doing well against the orc but not for long. The orcs intended to act high and mighty, not weak, the next moment they attacked as a mob, with their King leading in front. There was stillness on both sides. If hatred was visible the air would have been blood red. In that frozen second between standoff and fighting, Talos could see the eyes of the orcs flicker from him to the Orc King. Their faces are unreadable, no fear, no invitational smirk. Then with a sudden movement, so much force in every step of the orcs.

In that moment of hatred, there was no feigning honour. Everyone wanted what they wanted and force was the accepted method. It was better to be a dog in a big group than a lone Lion. Talos didn't back down from the challenge and soon the all-out war began once again. The battle had become a no holes barred situation when Talos went in for the attack. When it came to war with monsters, there was no honour, no code. All that mattered was the win and take nothing for granted. They had the exits covered, there was nowhere for the orcs to run, and Talos wasn't going to tell his teammates to run either. They would fight till they die.

Screams broke out. The summons rushed forward, Talos shouting orders. Swords clashed. Guns fired. More shouting. More screaming. More dodging. More shooting. The attack was fierce, efficient and deadly.

More skeletons popped out of nowhere, but it was different. Rather mindlessly charging towards them, they stood their ground. They weren't equipped with swords and shields either but wore a robe instead, and upon Talos' command started firing random spell at them. They were the skeleton mages.

Dance of the dead wasn't a spell that was strictly used to summon skeleton warriors, but it granted the user to summon whatever type of troop the user wanted. It all depended upon the user's imagination. But there was a cost to pay for that too. Summoning new type of troops or troops having higher battle prowess used up far more mana than summoning basic skeleton warriors. Thus the number of skeleton mages was limited as Talos couldn't afford to use up all of his energy/mana. Talos wanted to superior skeleton maybe something like Asterios but he was not sure if he'd be able to do that, hence he stuck with what he knew would work.

The Orcs were surprised by the appearance of a new enemy but they quickly adapted to the change and got closer to their enemies so that the skeletons wouldn't attack them. Talos had already expected this to happen and had a plan to counter them- Curse magic.

Curse magic was a branch of dark magic that allowed the user to include additional lasting negative effects to spells, The effects can range from dulled senses to debilitating sickness, and even hallucination. There were a variety of different types of spell that could do so. And right now, the orcs were their targets.

Talos' plan was somewhat successful, and the performance of the orcs had reduced over time, their agility, strength, evasion, and defence all went down but not by much. The skeleton mages were simply too low levelled and hence couldn't do much. Talos and the others did their best to take advantage of the situation and charged at their enemies. Rage fueling their actions.

The Orcs were temporarily forced to step back, but the moment they did that, the skeleton mages open fired at them without any mercy. But rather than aiming their spells at the entire enemy force, they concentrated their fire on a single orc. It took a while but it was safe to assume that the orc was dead.

14 Orcs remained.

Angered by their action, the Orc King roared like an injured bull and unsheathed his sword, swinging it through the air, but as he did so something came out of it something came rushing out of it like a bullet made up of wind, it was the special ability of the Orc King called the [Silent Kill].

Talos thought it was aimed at him and dodged the 'aerial bullet'. But the Orc King's vicious smile suggested something else.

All of a sudden, Talos' energy consumption decreased sharply which could mean only one thing...

He quickly turned towards, where the skeleton mages were standing, and sure enough... they were broken into pieces, but they weren't the only ones who got caught in Orc King's attack.

It looked like Marshal and a couple of automatons had tried to protect the skeletons from the attack as the skeletons lacked the agility to dodge the attack by themselves, but it seemed like they weren't successful.

14 Orcs against 23 summons. Even though the odds aren't affected much it was crystal clear that the orcs had the upper hand in the battle.

'Such a strong attack... they were playing with us all this time?' Talos thought as he turned back to face the Orc King.

Amid the chaos a single thought why through the mind of the Orc King, 'Perhaps it isn't a fair fight, but isn't that a strange concept anyway? I always leant toward short and brutal to curb the fatalities, maximize the fear and thus my power base. After all, what's the point of winning if there's no one left to subjugate? But this group of enemies is different... they don't know what fear is. I thought they'd run away once they see our true power but they didn't. Interesting... very interesting as a last honour I shall personally slay their leader.'