You can see flames, explosions, and smoke everywhere. As usual, me, my home bois and the parade we are leading are gradually making our way into the Mansion district while frequently getting into fights.
Our K-pop boy band's fans have increased again, but this time some vehicles are moving with us, and inside these vehicles are carrying supplies or people who couldn't fight, like the sick or injured, elderly, pregnant women, and children.
Sometimes a vehicle would pass and be surprised to see a group of humans following a group of green beasts; they would follow us, trade some supplies, and trade some information.
They would move their vehicles to the back and join the human convoy leaving the city if their destination was the same as ours; if they were going the other way, they would ask if anyone wished to join them.
The truth is, there is strength in numbers. Some people might be asking if it is even safe to simply join a group of random strangers.
The people who are going the other way are aware of this because some of them have tried it but had to turn around because it was too dangerous to cross with insufficient people.
The world they once knew only ended eight hours ago; you have to be a psychopath if evil intentions are the only thing on your mind. Though people would show their ugly side, it was only for the sake of survival.
Yet for people to hurt one another without reason, there must be something seriously wrong with their heads, and fortunately for us, there aren't many of them.
Almost every human that has survived up to this point has picked up on little clues like mana and the importance of classes.
Those who have fought and survived know things are quickly changing, and they must keep the momentum going. At the moment, some of these people are fortunate. Due to the sheer power of the orks, we fought beasts that are deemed impossible for humans to fight without having a lot of casualties, or power leveling in gaming terms.
Every time their group was attacked, they could only attack and kill a few beasts. They could fight each of those beasts in a relatively safe environment and receive a lot of mana as a reward.
Those humans who were scared and reluctant to fight were finally convinced by their fellow peers, and thus, when the group had around 10 people that could fight, after a few hours, almost all of them had classes; the children, with their parents' assistance, managed to kill dying beasts and after a while got a class.
Only those who were injured, elderly, or infants couldn't have a class.
And because of the growing strength of the humans, our traveling speed increased by a margin, but no matter how fast we traveled, we still had to stop and make camp as the night was approaching. Although the electricity was still on, the darkness itself was never the threat; it was what lurked in it.
As we were walking, I abruptly stopped, raised my head, and looked at the sky. My home bois also stopped with me, and the humans on the other side became vigilant.
"The sun is setting; let's find a place to make camp."
I glanced around at the surroundings. We had already left the inner city, and around us were 2- to 3-story buildings. Some of them caught my attention, and they looked like a good place to set up camp.
"Orkaa and Orkoo, each of you go check those stores, and bring three orks with you."
The orks went as I pointed at a gym building and what appeared to be a restaurant.
A little while later, conflicts would break out inside the buildings, some beasts would be thrown out the windows, and then the orks would come to finish them off.
After realizing what the orks were doing, the humans organized their own small groups and began to clear the buildings they believed were safe enough to spend the night in. Other groups were tasked with gathering supplies.
One of the humans leading a group to clear some buildings was the guy to whom I traded the mana crystal for his sledgehammer; the air around him is different. Right now, he is holding another sledgehammer; apparently, he got it from his system, although visually, it looked different from the one he previously held.
*****
Bell's POV
'Gulped! '
"Ahh, thanks."
My group is in what appears to be a BBQ store. It has been an hour and a half since that strong, powerful, magnificent, handsome, and most handsome green boi swapped me the mana crystal for my hammer.
I was first dismayed when the green guy snatched my sledgehammer since, without one, obtaining mana would be considerably more difficult and risky.
A shotgun or a handgun are less efficient than a sledgehammer. When all of this commotion first began, I used to work at the bank, and I observed how the staff tasked with escorting the money from the armored truck were immediately overpowered by bears.
The pistol and AR bullets would shatter upon impact, while the shogun pellets would have no effect on distance but at very close range would just stick and eventually drop to the ground.
Without any weapon capable of stopping the boar, the guards were all tackled, breaking their legs and getting stomped at the head; out of terror, I went inside the bank, which was the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life.
The bank was now my prison; I couldn't leave the office where I had concealed; they react to sound, therefore everything was mentally tormenting when everything was so quiet.
The beasts that were nesting inside the bank were little and monkey-like, and there were a lot of them.
I hid at the office for hours until I heard disturbance coming from the road, sounds of humans that seemed to be fighting.
I thought they were the military rescue, so I risked everything and committed the 2nd biggest mistake of my life. I shouted, asking for help from my office through the window, and while the creatures kept hammering on the office door, I kept shouting for help.
That's when I discovered they were civilians like myself, moving in groups. They also noticed me, but they could only look. I lost all my strength when I observed them gradually getting further away without doing anything.
'I'm gonna die.'
Was what's on my mind, then I looked at the door; it was not going to hold, and since I was going to die, I might as well do a last struggle. I plan to sprint once the door is about to break and run from there. Then I heard a scream outside.
"Aghhh! Ahhh!!, HELP!"
The guy hiding next to my office used me as a distraction to try and slip away, but he was still discovered.
It didn't take me one second to make up my mind. I grabbed the handle and escaped from the office, running towards the entrance. The group of monkey-like beasts that was eating my old coworker chased me, and while I was running, I also met my fellow coworkers who had the same idea; I only had one thing in mind then.
'I don't have to outrun the beasts, I just need to be a little bit faster than my coworkers'
For a guy who had never run for such a long time, he now had the stamina of an Olympic athlete, sadly for Bell but also for the others.
Everyone was trying to outrun one another; it didn't even take them 5 seconds, and somehow they outran the monkey-like beasts, but getting out of the bank was not only the challenge but also finding the group of humans who passed by a while ago.
I ran in the direction I last saw them leave; my coworkers asked me where I was going. From the looks of it, they only heard the commotion but never saw them, and they thought they were the military. No time to explain; I just told them to follow me.
And we ran until I found the silhouettes of the humans fighting a group of ratmen.
When we managed to join their group, I was ecstatic.
"You know what would be good right now, a cold beer."
I saw a 6.4-foot green beast surrounded by nine 6.1-foot green beasts; shit, I jumped from a sunken ship onto a lifeboat of cannibalistic pirates. My face lost its youthful appearance, and then I heard one of the humans laugh.
"Hahaha, look at your face; relax. Those green people don't seem to have any interest in us, though if you were to attack them, you would end up like those rat creatures. By the way, I'm Jimmy."
Jimmy extended his hand. (Jimmy)
"Th-they don't? Why? Likewise, I'm Bell." (Bell)
Bell accepted Jimmy's handshake.
"I don't know, but they appeared to be here for something. I heard from the other survivors who came before me that these beasts went on top of the building and seemed to be surveying the area. " (Jimmy)
"So you're simply following them everywhere they go?" (Bell)
"I mean, it's safer, and besides, they are leaving the city, and based on where we are headed and the information the other survivors obtained, this group would travel through the noble district." (Jimmy)
"Noble District... do you mean there? Does this mean that?" (Bell)
"Yeah, military, we are almost there. We're finally going to be safe. All though the green beasts looked like they were protecting us, they aren't; they just like to fight, and we were just sticking with them, so don't expect these guys to save you; you have to save yourself. By the way, do you have a weapon with you? Also, have you slain any beasts?" (Jimmy)
"Aaah, no, I merely hid and bolted when I saw your group." (Bell)
"Well, so that was you, ummm, I hope you realize we couldn't in any way assist you, right?" (Jimmy)
"I. I know, it's fine. Yeah, I don't have a weapon with me. I simply fled and hid when the uproar happened; I haven't slain any type of beast." (Bell)
"That's cool, anyway. The group is moving; I will continue on the road; advise your group to follow and listen too." (Jimmy)
"Well, alright."
I glanced at my colleague, and they appeared to have heard everything, so stick a little bit closer as we walk.
"Okay, if you kill one beast, you receive mana; don't ask what mana is because I don't know either, but it's really important; if you could trade mana, it may even be worth more than a billionaire's whole fortune right now. OK, so you kill beasts, receive mana, and then select a class." (Jimmy)
"So what's a class? Once you get mana, you can explore them yourself; once you pick a class, you receive more mana and use mana to keep growing stronger. Now, listen carefully: all beasts give different amounts of mana; in short, the stronger the beast, the more mana we get; this is where the green beast comes in. I don't know why this works, but the green beasts don't really care if they killed the beasts or not; what they care about is whether it could still fight; most of the time, they would punch a beast but not enough to kill it on the spot, so you guys are following me now?" (Jimmy)
"I assume, so we kill those beasts and then we receive mana?" (Bell)
"Bingo!" (Jimmy)
"But why do we receive mana this way?" (Bell)
"We didn't do anything, and don't you think those green animals would be upset at us?" (Bell)
"I don't know either, but I think it has something to do with killing it in close proximity. One of the survivors who worked as a guard said he never got any mana from killing some beasts with the pistol, but when he got pinned down by a beast and managed to kill it on top of him, he gained some mana." (Jimmy)
"As for those green beasts, they are more than happy to let us finish off the beasts while they continue fighting, you know, they simply love to fight, and if their enemies can't fight further, they'll get bored." (Jimmy)
'Deep Breath'
"So, what you're implying is that this is a terrific chance to acquire mana without too much risk in contrast to the typical method, so is that why some of the children are carrying a weapon?" (Bell)
"In a way, yeah, but less danger doesn't imply it's nearly safe; it just means that as long as you don't screw up and get unlucky, you'll be alright." (Jimmy)
"Well, I have to leave with my group; you should create or join a group; keep each other in check throughout the fights; we can't watch out for everyone." (Jimmy)
I hesitated for a minute and turned back to ask my colleague, and they appeared not to mind. We went to search for weapons, but from time to time, a survivor would take up a class and receive a better weapon, so we would then use the discarded weapon for our own.
It didn't take long before I experienced the benefits for myself. Jimmy was correct. It's a lot quicker and safer to obtain mana this way.
With the way those beasts fought, we would undoubtedly lose people in every encounter, not to mention they constantly kept on coming, even if we continued to grow stronger.
It didn't even take that long before I could choose three classes, which were swordsman, ranger, and rouge. I had studied other survivors who had picked a class, and right now, the swordsman is the best option. The ranger requires ammunition, and given the way those rangers are continuously grumbling about spending mana on ammunition, I elect to not pick it up.
As for the Rouge, they could deliver a lot of damage in a second, but they lacked stopping power, something that would make the beasts halt their assaults. Therefore, swordsman was the best choice, and as I was about to choose swordsman for my class, my finger froze.
'Am I about to make the worst mistake of my life?'
What came to me was that I shouldn't restrict myself; this is a perfect chance to be greedy. I kept holding onto my urge to select a class.
"Bell, you didn't choose a class?" (Random A)
"Yes, I'm thinking about selecting a knight class."
"You need 45 mana for that; wouldn't it be harmful to continue without a class?" (Random A)
"Look around you, we're the luckiest survivors in the world right now; we get to acquire this much mana in a short amount of time with minimum dangers."
"You're correct; I'll hold mine likewise." (Random A)
In truth, I wasn't the only one who conserved their mana and researched more about classes and which would fit them best; one of the survivors with us was a family of four, where the mother was a priest, the father was a guardian, and both of their 9- and 10-year-old sons were knights.
Of course, just because it requires more mana doesn't imply it's stronger; there are individuals who still opt to select a swordsman, ranger, or rogue class.
Some people might question, "Aren't knights and swordsmen somewhat the same?"
Those that choose the knight class would say that the knight's class is a master of combat and weaponry, and the swordsman is the master of swords, although it's just a 1h sword for now.
There would be a little difference at the beginning; the knights would inflict more damage compared to a swordsman, but as the swordsman continued to grow and gain more swordsman-related abilities, they would slowly outdamage the knights by a massive margin.
Yet the knights also have an advantage: their versatility. The knights could utilize any 2 handed melee cold weapon, along with their unique skills and titles, to create a devastating effect, but they also bitterly remarked that these skills and titles don't come for free when you pick the knights class; you need to expend mana to gain these skills and titles.
Time steadily moved ahead. It didn't take much time to save enough for the knight class.
After choosing the class, a screen of weaponry started hovering in front of me. These were: 2H Claymores, 2H Scimitars, 2H Boardsword, 2H Bastardsword, 2H Sledgehammer, and many other 2H weapons.
And I picked the sledgehammer, not because it was stronger, but because its skills fully fit my taste; indeed, this is what makes the knights and swordsmen different: the knight's skills change according to their weapon, which they might change depending on the circumstances. In principle, the swordsman can carry a claymore or a sledgehammer, but they won't be able to use their 1h swordsman skills.
After I killed a number of beasts with my class, I eventually felt even more confident and gained more reassurance. The sledgehammer skill sets are specialized around CC and zone control; not only that, but they also inflict a considerable amount of damage.
I whacked one of the lizard beasts in the head, squashing it into pulp. I was searching for more beasts, but it appeared like the other people were either fighting or were about to kill the remaining beasts.
The survivors established an unwritten law: mind your own fucking business and support your group when they require your help or you believe the individual to be in danger.
It's not the best, but it made things a bit harmonic, and then I observed the largest green beast approach a crowd of humans and stand in front of Peter. Peter was definitely shitting himself by now.
'I need to take a shit too; I hope we will make camp sooner.'
We all watched Peter and the green beast's leader play in front of us, and apparently the leader is interested in Peter's sword.
"Speaking of weaponry, these green beasts definitely are using unusual weapons." (Bell)
"Haha, sure, but don't look down on it; those weapons are tough as a rock; I have seen them swinging them on those hard shells and they still look good." (Jimmy)
"Aw, dang poor Peter, hahaha." (Bell)
"Hahaha, I'll treat him to a beer if I get to find one; the green dude is now looking at us." (Jimmy)
"Yes, I wonder wh- he's gazing at us!" (Bell)
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"Calm down; it's probably not us." (Jimmy
Then the green guy slowly went towards where Jimmy and I were standing. He was pointing at my sledgehammer, so I tried to calm myself down and anxiously gave him the weapon.
The instant the green guy touched my weapon, I knew I'm fucked. The green guy was about to have an orgasm simply by caressing the sledgehammer. I'm never going to get my weapon back, and I just spent all my mana on the class change. I only have less than nine mana right now. I'm screwed.
Suddenly, the green guy looked at me and yelled something that prompted his underling to come.
"Orkac, come here, and bring the box with you."
My goodness, is this it?
The green guy picked a transparent blue stone as huge as a baseball and gave it to me. I was a bit bewildered as to what this item was then.
*Ding*
- Mana Crystal T1
- Reserve: 250/250 mana
"GASPH!"
I couldn't breathe; right now, I am holding a billionaire's fortune. 250 mana, how? 250 isn't a lot if you think about it; after all, I was able to gather more than 50 mana in a span of less than 2 hours, but our circumstance is special; in a normal scenario, every mana you earn from killing a beast means you just survived a life-or-death scenario.
Even beasts that provide one (1) mana are capable of killing us in a 1v1 scenario when you don't have a class. In a sense, a classless individual acquiring this full mana crystal indicates he has fought 250 times in a 1v1 with a beast and survived.
"Hey Bell, what is that?" (Jimmy) (Jimmy)
I was brought back from my thoughts when Jimmy asked, and I was hesitant to show him this mana crystal, but then it dawned on me: I have now 250 mana to utilize to make myself stronger, and I have now the capacity to defend myself. So I told him about the crystal, but I didn't hand it to him.
"This crystal contains 250 mana within."
I gazed at him at the same instant a sledgehammer materialized in my hands after I spent the mana to purchase another one, which costs 20 mana. Lokie would go bananas if he were to find out, but he probably wouldn't make a huge deal out of it.
"You lucky son of a bitch, fuck! Maybe I should go and sell my weapon for a crystal. Wait, since you have over 200 mana, then you can purchase the quest, and sooner you will be able to achieve that skill, right?"
"Yes, I could, but it's not that easy."
What Jimmy was talking about was the skill "Knight's Honor." It is a powerful skill that is both active and passive at the same time.
The passive effect is that the knight would negate one attack that could instantly kill him (24 hours CD), but once the passive is on cooldown, the knight would then gain a base of 100 physical and magical defense and a 13% chance to restore all my stamina and fatigue when executing a skill for the duration of the cooldown.
As for the active skill, I would obtain a 50% CC reduction (T1), all my weapon skills would be empowered, all my weapon proficiency would increase by a tier (max T2), and I would gain HP and HP Reg of 1500 and 100, respectively, for the period of 60 minutes. It's a powerful skill, but it has a lot of prerequisites.
For starters, the skill requires 250 mana. And to be able to utilize the skill, all of my basic stats must be at 10, and to get there, I could either consume potions, skills, or bloodlines. I need to have at least five weapons at T1. For now, everything is at T0. And last but not least, I need to earn the title of "Honorable Knight."
Unlike the game, where if you do something, the system will give you an achievement and a title if you meet the requirements, in this system, I have to pay 200 mana to gain the Honorable Knight quest, and if it were to fail, I would lose the quest along with the mana I spent, but I could always buy the quest again.
"I should definitely get the other Knight skills first. They aren't very strong, but combined with the others, they can have a good effect." (Bell)
"True, but Bell, be careful. What you're holding isn't something that shouldn't exist at this early stage; our current situation is good enough that most of the guys here won't even bat an eye for that since we've got it good here, and from where we are heading, we might make contact with another group of survivors." (Jimmy)
"I'll keep it in mind. Thanks Jimmy." And after that, we chatted about anything we could talk about. Suddenly, the green guys started clearing the shops around us. Thank heavens, we're making camp; I can finally take a shit.
The green guys occupied the gym and the restaurant next to it. As for us, we opted to occupy the shops on the other side of them. Right now, most of us are eating and resting. Others would glance at the enormous buildings that had automated lights on them, but chaos was still rampant.
Periodically, we would observe some beasts that wouldn't leave their nests this afternoon and are now wandering about the streets. As I was pondering, I could hear some sort of fighting in the green guys' shop; it appeared like their boss was getting mad at them as he taught them how to butcher a boar. Their commander isn't even that adept at butchering the boar, but compared to his subordinates, he was a lot better.
After staring at them for a bit, I rose up and crossed the street to go to the green guys' camp. The leader noticed my presence and glanced at me before looking at his subordinates. He then said something and returned to butchering the boar.
As I stood there, pondering how I should approach this, I simply decided to heck with it. I purchased two sledgehammers at the same time and set them on the ground. This time I attracted the leader's attention. He appeared shocked.
Then I used my hand to raise four fingers and point to the sledgehammer on the ground, then purchased four additional sledgehammers. Following then, I glanced at the green guys and their leader; the leader appeared to be thinking, but his eyes were rolling upwards.
Then the green guy's leader pointed at the six sledgehammers and raised six fingers, and then I nodded. Then he lifted 10 of his fingers and then another 3, then pointed towards the sledgehammer. I shook my head sideways, indicating that it was a "no" and that the leader appeared to be confused.
I showed him the crystal, and I motioned that I could only use it to purchase 12 sledgehammers, for which I pointed to the six on the ground and mine, then gestured for 5 fingers. The leader would then have his eyeballs rolled upward, blood would pour out of its nose, and then it would grin and hand me another 2 crystals from his box of sodas.
I gave him all 13 sledgehammers he asked for, and then I was about to give him the remaining mana crystal, but he grinned and held both of my shoulders; his eyes then rolled up, and after a while blood would flow out of his nose, eyes, and ears. Suddenly he grinned, and he said something.
"Come, buddy, we have a lot to speak about. Let me bring you to my man cave; don't be scared; I am not into religion, and you look old. Hell, no wonder it was so simple to pull kids into a van back then—ignorance! Orkaa and the rest of you pick up those weapons; you can have 2 each."
The green guy led me farther into the shop; he gave me a chair, and he gazed at me and made gestures.
On that particular night, a peculiar event is happening on: an ork and a human are playing charades.
*****
Lokie's POV
After a night of playing charades with that Bell human, I made some gains. Aside from 20 sledgehammers, I managed to squeeze out everything to my capability; basically all my brain cells are in the ICU.
Each potion costs 100 mana, with a 20% chance to obtain the bonus. The problem is that I can only consume it five times, and if I don't get any effect in those five times, I won't get any after six times or above. For a potion so powerful with such side effects, I guess it's only normal. I managed to teach Bell some of my arithmetic skills, and so did he.
There is another potion that would give me stats, but it gives 0.05 per consumption on all stats and costs 250 each; it would no longer be effective once I obtained 5 of each stat from the potion. My INT though, sigh.
*>Swayn's Potion<*
Strength Potion 5/5 (+3)
Agility Potion 5/5 (+2)
Constitution Potion 5/5 (+4)
Intelligence Potion 5/5 (0)
My horde is now heading to "Noble District.", With a sledgehammer in each hand, we went wild like crazy. Our speed was two- to three-times faster than yesterday.
"RAAAA!" x10
"FUCK YOU PIG!"
"FUCK YOU RAT!"
"FUCK YOU GOBLIN!"
"FUCK YOU MONKEY!"
"OH FUCK SPIDERS RUN!"
Every time we spotted a group of beasts, we would storm them by surprise. The orks were in ecstasy. After we killed the group of beasts, we would jog on our way to our destination. The ork's instinct has completely taken control over me. Not going to lie, letting my orkling instinct have control has made me less stressful and made my head a lot clearer, but though it feels good, our bodies are now full of injuries.
(I can't post the gif.sadge.pepega.)
When we were almost close to the Noble District, gunshots and a series of assault rifles and sub-machine guns had been firing non-stop; there would occasionally be grenade sounds and non-stop firing of LMG, followed by mortars and tanks cannon. Such a lineup, and you would expect they were doing fine, but right now, they are slowly being decimated, their front lines are crumbling, and they are being slowly overrun.
Thanks to these 8-foot-tall giants that were leading the assault, and there were 11 of them.
The giants don't have thick skin, but they had something the military was never trained for: an 8-foot-tall giant with a mana shield, and its skin pores were releasing poison gas.
The giant had a total of six shoulders, three on each side, and each hand was holding a halberd. Their faces were nothing but mouths in a vertical position, while long horns were growing on their heads.
Bullets and any sort of projectile the military can launch were used, but the nature of the damage made them less effective at breaking the mana shield. The tanks slowly backed up while still shooting, and people could be seen planting C4 or any explosives on the ground and detonating them when the giants walked over, though this was ineffective.
Behind the giants were beasts with a pair of horns growing horizontally on their heads. They were bipedal creatures, their heights were around 5.4 to 5.6 feet, they were all wielding a great axe, they had brown, thick fur all over their bodies; their bodies were coated with mana shields, and their heads resembled those of cows.
I shall name them cowmen. These cowmen, who numbered around 200, were slowly moving behind the giants, killing any humans that were left behind. Their fur was so thick and hard that their low-caliber guns couldn't penetrate it, and that is if they could even break the mana shields. Dismembered soldiers and civilians were everywhere, and for every 30 dead soldiers and civilians, there would be 1 dead cowman.
While all of these were happening, my horde and a large group of humans were watching from the back. The orks were excited and ready to fight while the humans were scared and unsure of what to do since they expected the military to be taking control, but from the looks of it, the military won't last for another day.
"Behind those giants are the cowmen, and behind the cowmen are 11 groups of religious cowmen. I have witnessed mortar shells and two military jets bombarding those religious cowmen at the back, but a shield would protect them from the shelling and missile damage. Logic dictates these religious cowmen have something to do with those giants at the front."
Now here comes the problem: these cowmen are between my horde and my potential mission objectives. I could turn around and sneak my way in, but then, if the cowman manages to wipe out the military and somehow the library is there, then I would have to face the cowmen on our own. But if by any chance it's not there, then I would have no choice but to keep moving north and find a detour to check the park to the east.
Brain Cells I CALL YOU!,
"OUCH! OUCH!, My head hurts!"
Brain cells are on strike; they demand a bigger welfare package!
"Bell!"
I called the human, who was named Bell. Bell quickly ran and headed towards me; the other humans were bewildered at what was happening in front of them.
Only a few people who saw Bell tried to communicate with us last night. Right now, both Bell and I are squatting with 11 pebbles at the center. I pointed the pebble with one hand and the other hand towards the shaman. I grabbed 10 pebbles and placed 2 ork pebbles on each of the 4 shaman pebbles. I placed an Orkaa pebble alone on one shaman pebble, while I also placed mine alone on another one. Basically, the plan is that we will take care of the six shamans while the rest of the humans, who, by the way, have more than 130 healthy humans with melee fighting classes, including around 21 rangers and 41 mages, could fight along with 18 priests at the back providing support. That's right, the humans who followed me had grown stronger, and there are more humans who are saving mana to get their desired classes.
Bell then formed a circle around the shaman pebbles and pretended to use a pebble that hit the circle, then acted like the pebble bounced back when it hit the circle; he then looked at me. I shook my head, hinting that this was not the case. I found a small dried branch and acted like it was a missile; when it hit the circle, it bounced back, then I held a pebble, pointed at myself, and pushed it inside the circle, pressing the shaman pebble against it, crushing it.
"I don't know if this will really work, but trusting you has gotten us this far, so I guess why not?"
Bell said something, and he ran towards the humans to explain our plan. Some had grave concerns; some were worried, while others looked motivated and couldn't wait to go and fight.
"Orkaa, Orkee, and the rest of you! Come and gather!"
I called all the orks who seemed to be staring at the battle happening, eager to join and just attack whichever side they got their hands on. Thankfully, my authority is stopping them from storming recklessly.
"Ahem, you see those religious cowmen over there? Well, I don't want to. So we're going to kill all of them; the first six religious cowmen on the right are our target! You will all group in pairs, and each pair will deal with one religious cowman, or shaman for short; Orkaa and I will each deal with one shaman; once you're done clearing your target, you will all then regroup with me and for more upcoming battles, understood?"
"GOOORAAAAH!" X9
My horde and I are now waiting for humans to form their own group; why does Orkaa also get to fight alone? I let him consume Swayn's potions, and he got lucky. He got all 4 on all stats except Int, where he only got 2, which means his Int is now equal to mine.
Soon Bell's group is now ready; 40 to 60 humans per group with a total of 5 groups are taking cover and waiting for Bell's signal while he is also waiting for my signal, Right now I am waiting for the giants to distance themselves a little bit from the shamans at the backline.
"Now!"
When I signaled and Bell also gave his, all of us stormed towards those cowmen, making sure the orklings shut their mouths and stopped them from shouting their war cry.
As we got closer, the cowmen guarding the shamans finally noticed us.
They shouted their call, alerting the other cowmen who were watching the battle with the military.
2 seconds away from my target, I cast ">Power Strike!<" on my right hand, and after a second, I cast another one on my left hand.
I ran to the center of the two cowmen guarding, then I aimed my sledgehammer at their bodies while they tried to block it with their great axe.
"BOOM!" "BOOM!"
Both cowmen were blasted back, their hands were dismembered from the strong shock wave, and they had a huge dent on their chests; they were dead when they landed.
The other cowmen also tried to stop me, but with my momentum, I got my sight on one of them and raised both of my sledgehammers and aimed for its head.
The cow tried to block it with his great axe, but unfortunately for him, he overestimated himself.
"BOOM!"
Like a Canadian clubbing a seal, next!
Two more cows came running at me. I rushed to one of the cowmen, front-kicked the closest one, knocking him back, then aimed both of my sledgehammers at the last incoming cow, and the gory scene repeated itself. By the time the knocked-down cow managed to stand up, my sledgehammers were already about to smack its face.
"BOOM!"
After killing five cows in succession, another four have just arrived. I aimed my sledgehammer at the nearest cow and threw it hard at him, but I missed.
Luckily, it hit the other cow behind him, and with my strength, the cow's head was deformed. I then threw my last remaining sledgehammer at one of them again.
This time the cows tried to dodge. One of the cows saw me aiming at him, so when the projectile was released, he tried to dodge sideways.
Unfortunately for him, if he had just kept running straight, the sledgehammer would have missed him because I can't fucking aim, so when the cowmen tried to "dodge," he actually got himself right where the sledgehammer was heading, and the same thing repeated itself.
I rushed towards the closest cow; he was about to slash down with his great axe, but I grabbed the handle of his axe and front kicked him, knocking him back. Then the second cow got close and attempted to hack me with its axe.
I used the great axe I had just taken and blocked with it. With my raw strength, I overpowered him right away, and I proceeded to use the great axe to behead the cowmen.
I then picked up another great axe on each hand; what happened next didn't even make me sweat. I cut off its hand while I used the other axe to parry its attack; after that, I cut off its head and slowly walked towards the kneeling shaman in front of what seemed to be an altar that slightly resembled the giants.
The cowman knew of my presence, but he kept "praying".
Then I beheaded him right here, and when I did, one of the giants at the frontline suddenly stopped moving and fell down, and the cows near the giant that had just fallen lost their mana shield protection.
By then, the giants and the cowmen at the front noticed that their backrow was about to be wiped out, so they hurriedly ignored the military and rushed to help their back line.
After killing one of the shamans, I dropped the great axes and went to pick up my sledgehammers, then rushed to provide assistance to Orkaa. By now, Orkaa was only dealing with the remaining 3 cows, and though he has a lot of injuries, he seemed to be enjoying the battle. The moment I got there, it didn't take long for the cowmen to all die, followed by the shaman praying to a giant-shaped altar. After that, we joined the other orks and steamrolled the rest.
Once we killed the last shaman and I noticed that the humans were almost done, there seemed to be a lot of injuries on their side, but with more than 19 priests and more than 40 mages, there were no casualties, only heavy injuries such as limbs that were very close to being completely decapitated and deep wounds that would kill the person in seconds, but with the assistance of priests and mages, they are still alive and slowly but weakly healing.
Although they were about to be done, the giants were going to reach them before they could kill the religious cows, I rallied my orks, and charged at the remaining religious cow. By the time the last remaining giants reached us, the head of the last shaman had finally died.
"Bell!!"
I called Bell and pointed at the incoming 200+ angry cows at us. Bell then ordered his human companions to proceed with our second plan. We ran!
We retreated back, the enraged cowmen continued to chase us, and we lured the cows to the long underpass tunnel road where they couldn't use their numbers to their advantage. Once we got there, the orks and the human guardian positioned themselves to receive the incoming guests.
Then the rangers behind us fired their barrage, followed by the mages with their fireball, icicle, and any magic projectiles; the orks then lifted any vehicles they could get their hands on and threw them on the incoming cowmen blocking most of their way; they had to push it away by then the humans would hop on a vehicle and retreat and reposition themselves for another barrage of arrows, magic, and vehicles, then repeat the cycle. Once we got to the exit of the underpass tunnel road, the human guardians would use their shield to hold the cowmen, then the mages and rangers would go up the road and shoot their magic and arrows from up there.
By the time the cowman and the guardians engaged in close combat, the cowmen's number had reduced to less than 80, though there were still more cows stuck inside the tunnel. However, vehicles were blocking most of their way in, so they had to squeeze their numbers onto a small path.
While the guardians held their ground and were being healed by the priest, while the rangers and the mages continued their attacks, the orks and the other humans with melee classes rode a transport vehicle and went around from above.
When they reached the tunnel road they entered from, we all stormed inside the tunnel, killing stragglers on the way. When we reached the main horde of cowmen, the guardians were barely holding on. The moment we flanked their back line, the chieftain cowmen discovered what had happened and shouted their war cry.
The other cowmen turned around to fight and salvage their backline, but they made a huge mistake by doing that; once they did, the guardians who were holding on made way and vehicles passed through and crashed their backline, letting those other melee classes who didn't come with us attack their now disoriented backline.
The orks held the front, while the humans would provide cover. As the mages and the rangers slowly killed off most of the cowmen, the only one left was the cowmen chieftain.
"RAAAAA!"
The cowmen chieftain shouted; clearly he wanted an honorable battle with the opposing chieftain, which is me.
"HA!, Why the fuck did I plan all of this for? just so I could have a 1on1 fight at the end? My home bois, don't stop!"
I grabbed a vehicle next to me and threw it at the cowmen chieftain's face; the others followed suit; the rangers, mages, and orks kept throwing projectiles.
"Kite that mother fucker! I didn't bring enough of you here to be an audience; don't stop!"
The cowmen chieftain would rush to me, enraged, forcing me to fight him, but I would deny him that satisfaction. I would run in circles while they slowly killed the cowmen chieftain. A few moments later, the chieftain stopped in its tracks, went on its knees, and weakly dropped down.
"If you had met a far stronger opponent, you would have had your honorable battle, but you met me, so all you got to get is deez nutz!"
I slowly raised my hammer and smashed its head off the moment I did.
*DING*
- You have slain Jugagor's Champion.
- You have tarnished Jugagor's Champion's honor.
- You have obtained a drop of jugagor's power.
*DING*
- Use 250 VP to convert Jugagor's power into your own?
-Y/N
"NO."
From now on, every time I kill some sort of cult or religion and get rewarded with a piece of their power, the answer will always be NO. You can never be too safe! Even if they are safe, then who gives a shit!
*DING*
Confirm?
- By agreeing, Jugagor's power will dissipate.
"Yes."
The moment I confirmed it, the cowmen's corpse and the chieftain slowly came to life, but only for a brief second, as what followed was an agonizing screech by the cowmen's souls being pulled by shadows that looked exactly like those 11 giants back there, then the body quickly decomposed with only the bones remaining.
"Well at least we got some cool CGI, compared to that altar, Orkac, soda!"
After that battle, most of my orks had a lot of injuries on their bodies, as did I; this time the humans lost a few people. We all found a spot to rest, and as much as those people who can't wait to join and meet up with the military know that our current situation is not safe, with most of us exhausted, if we were to encounter a group of beasts, the casualty count might skyrocket.
After resting for a few minutes, a convoy of military vehicles slowly came towards us and came to a stop. Slowly a group of soldiers came out of the vehicles, but the soldiers had smiles on their faces when they saw a group of humans with classes; then their eyes spotted us and frowns appeared on their faces. The military personnel raised and aimed their weapons at my horde, which completely met my expectations.
Bell and the other humans noticed what happened.
"Sir! You better not pull the trigger, because if you do, no amount of healing can help you recover when those logs get shoved up your ass. Trust me, no one in here can stop them from doing so."
The military officer looked at Bell and then ordered his men to stand down.
"Are these monsters with you?"
"No, sir, but we were hoping they could bring us with them, and no offense, sir, but I think I speak for everyone here that if we were to choose between you guys and them, it's going to be them, and they aren't monsters."
