Chapter 163: Clash
"Shit, that's an orc shaman," Agnes exclaimed, just as the female orc shot a bolt of lightning in their direction. She dispelled her stealth and cast a thick blanket of darkness to intercept the lightning.
Despite the immense power behind the attack, Agnes was merely pushed a step back, showing no signs of weakness or wounds in her person. She had absorbed the bolt of lightning.
"Humans," Rashe'Ivek screamed, turning to the goblins. "Of course, you senseless goblins had no idea that a couple of humans were trailing after you. I don't know why the Lord is even bothering with your ugly asses."
"Rashe'Ivek, don't you dare!"
"Will it not be better if you people quarrel after we take care of these two humans?" the orc shaman said, preparing another bolt of lightning to shoot at them.
"You are right," the Orc Lord said. "They are merely iron rankers; let's sacrifice their heads to his Lord's descent."
The orc then charged at them, swinging his hugeass axe. He was about to confront Agnes, but Warden shot at him, bringing out the divider.
"Haha. Ha ha, puny human, I will kill you in one swing," the orc said. "Then I'm going to breed your woman."
"Fuck off!" Warden blocked the axe and swung downwards. Unfortunately, his blade was unable to make even a shallow wound on the orc's body.
The orc shaman continued to shoot lightning at them, while the goblins surrounded Agnes. She did not seem to be having much trouble dealing with them. However, with their numbers, they would only be at a disadvantage the more they fought.
"What's the plan, captain?" Warden shouted. "This ugly orc here wants to breed you. Should I take care of it, or would you like to do it?"
"Limp-dick human, you are going to pay for not focusing on me," the Orc Lord said, bringing down his battle axe at a tremendous pace.
Warden dodged the blow, stepping sideways as the battle axe created a large crack in the ground. The orcs are bad at energy manipulation. Yet the earth-splitting attack was completely through its physical power. Why the hell would they need spirit energy when they can do this just with physical power?
Warden reassessed the Orc Lord. While they did not go through the same power systems as humans, they were much closer to dungeon creatures. The orc was more like a fiend, possessing terrible physical power with little to nothing in the spiritual aspect.
Still, it did not look like something he could easily take on, not to mention there were still dozens of its minions standing behind, watching without wanting to inconvenience their chief in his fun.
"We withdraw," Agnes decided in a split second. Since the main objective of the mission was to scout for further treasure, there was no need to force everything against a superior opponent. On top of that, they were missing the others in the group; it wasn't the time for swinging their blades recklessly.
"I will make a way," she declared. "Run as soon as you can." This is a m-vlempyr special
Warden was mostly dodging the attacks as the orc Lord grew more and more ferocious. The orc had even awakened a nascent intent on his weapon. Without using his full defence, Warden did not think he would last long against this opponent.
After making her call, Agnes flared with overwhelming power. She covered the whole area in tangible darkness, blinding all their senses for a split second. In the next moment, when the covering darkness disappeared, Warden found most of the forsaken fighting on the ground with piercing wounds on their bodies.
Even the silver-ranked Orc Lord and the goblin chief were not exceptions, though the damage to them was minuscule. Not only that, her attack had stunned most of them on the spot, giving them the spur of the moment to withdraw.
"Come on," Agnes called as she ran.
"Humans, if I cannot behead you, then my name is not Rashe'Ivek," the Orc Lord shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Take a new name then," Warden shouted back. He was already on the move and caught up with her in no time. "That one sounds so bad."
"I'm going to cut off your limp dick!"
"I knew something was wrong with you," Warden retorted. "You like dicks too much."
"Human, you're infuriating," Rashe'Ivek shouted, charging after them. "I'm going to—"
"Keep it in your pants, buddy."
"Stop shouting at that bull-headed orc and run," the captain rebuked, so Warden had to stop bantering.
The goblins and orcs didn't take much longer to charge after them. Agnes shot projectiles of condensed darkness to slow them down. Even still, the forsaken followed them in mad glee, as though they couldn't endure the presence of humans.
Thankfully, with the catacomb being carved like a maze covered in darkness, Agnes had no trouble fooling the mentally impaired forsaken from withdrawing. Well, in the end, only the Orc Lord chased after them, unable to get over everything Warden said to him.
It took some time—about half an hour—but they finally escaped the chase.
"That was a little close," Agnes said. "Who knew you're gifted in infuriating dull-headed creatures as well?"
Warden grinned. He studied her form. Other than her chest rising in a slow gasp, he didn't find anything wrong with her. She had used her darkness power a lot in the escape. Now, Warden didn't know how deep her well of power went, but the sheer amount she forced out was enough to make most Iron rankers feel somewhat weaker.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
Agnes clicked her tongue, not appreciating his goodwill talk. "I'm not bragging when I say I could have killed that orc if I was alone."
"Then why didn't you?"
"Cause I had to make sure of your safety," she said, picking her eyebrows. "And the others. Overtaxing my power to kill a Fiend will leave me weakened for some time… I deemed it unnecessary at that time. But by gods, that orc was so annoying, especially when you kept translating to me what it was saying."
"I'm proud that I can be of some help, Madame Captain," Warden said with his signature grin.