“Ryan, what was that?” Pixie approached Ryan.

 

“It’s Jason,” said Ryan.

 

Pixie narrowed her eyes, hearing about that name. A name that always did the impossible.

 

“What’s he up to?” Pixie stared at the horizon as the clouds of black smoke rising up in the sky.

 

“Distraction,” said Ryan.

 

Pixie turned to Ryan with a scowl.

 

“What do you mean, sir?” she asked.

 

“This is strictly between us,” Ryan, with his scrunched eyebrows, turned to Pixie.

 

“A horde of orcs is just down the road. In our current state, we can’t take them straight on,” said Ryan. “That’s why Jason went alone.”

 

“But we can do it,” said Pixie as her whole body turned to Ryan with a flash of fire behind her eyes. “Didn’t you see, we’re able to kill four of them.”

 

“We’ve got tactics on our side. The chemical grenade can downplay their ability to fight,” said Pixie.

 

“To an extent, yes, but we don’t know whether it will work on other types of monsters. You should know this Pixie, we even tried poisoning them with lethal poison, but that didn’t work. For some reason, only the chemical grenades designed for crowd control for riot purposes was the only thing that worked on them,” said Ryan. “Hindering their movements and disturbing their thought process is the only thing we could do with our modern weaponry, but it isn’t enough.”

 

Pixie fell into silence as she knew the strength of these monsters. Yet, she wasn’t the type to give up. She swore to herself that she won’t forget about Dan’s sacrifice. She, of all people, knew that she had to live on for herself, her family, her comrades, her nation, and for Dan.

 

“We can’t just sit around and let him do all the work,” said Pixie. “We need to level up.”

 

“I’ve got a plan,” said Ryan with a ghost of a smile. “A guerrilla tactic harnessing the strength of the whole squad against a lone enemy, right now that’s the only way.”

 

“Affirmative, sir,” said Pixie with a stern look on her face.

 

“Get the squad ready, I’ve already asked the drone team to locate any group of orcs in the perimeter, and they told us a group of two isn’t far from here,” said Ryan.

 

Pixie ran off, and Ryan stared back at the location where black smoke kept on rising. He had only one thing in mind.

 

Hang on, Jason, we’re all counting on you. Thought Ryan.

 

Jason, on the other hand, was rolling on the floor pretending to felt the pain from that sudden attack. He couldn’t deny the force behind that weapon toss.

 

That pig is strong.

 

His whole body glowed in green light as energy guard numbers went back to full. He got up and walked to the hole on the wall. He stared down and a frown formed. The orcs on the road were staring at him back, grunting and snorting loudly at him. They were on the move heading towards Jason.

 

Geez, these orcs are really getting rile up huh. 

 

It was fortunate for Jason as he crashed on the second floor, if not he would have been surrounded by those orcs by now. Then he caught sight of something from afar, a huge orc walking towards him as it split the horde apart with its huge strides.

 

I guess I’m the menu for tonight then. 

 

The loud sound coming from behind signaled to Jason that the orcs had arrived. He turned and grabbed his swords on the floor. It was about time to greet some new guests.

 

I love staircases.

 

Confronting one on one was the ideal fight for Jason. He could easily overpower one without worrying any back attacks and him loving the staircase was due to its strategic terrain. The narrow staircase would only allow one to went through and thus made him being able to focus on only one of them.

 

Jason went through a few doors and arrived at a spacious floor. There was nothing on this floor except the cement floor and the ceiling.

 

Shit, an abandoned building? 

 

It wasn’t abandoned but unoccupied. The rental price was far too steep, and the owner was a bit of a money hoarder, thus leading to the unoccupied building. The whole spacious floor was riddled with orcs who were searching for Jason, and as one of them met eyes with Jason, it snorted loudly.

 

Ourk!

 

The orc charged at Jason while the rest followed suit. Jason’s plan of using the terrain advantage burst into nothing as he was forced to confront with these orcs.

 

An axe split the cement floor as Jason lunged at the orc with his sword covered in a crimson glow.

 

“Blood Edge Combo,” the sword pierced the orc by the cheek as the orc dodged the incoming attack. Jason missed his target, but his skill didn’t end there. Compared to Blood Edge Strike, the combo version allowed for continuous usage up to four times with the power increasing with each blow. The only problem was he need to continuously hit them without missing.

 

Ryan clicked his tongue, seeing his sword missing the eye but he didn’t stop. He forcefully changed the angle of the sword and pushed it to the side. He slashed right through the head of the orc cutting the head into two. An orc was slain going down on the floor and Jason ducked low dodging a spiked club.

 

The club smashed the wall into pieces but with its arm swinging it wide, it left the orc wide open. Jason pushed his legs and slashed his sword upwards. The orc’s arm fell off cleanly as he cut it right at the joint, a fluke you might say, and Jason followed through with another slash at the neck.

 

Shit!

 

The slash went deep but it stopped midway. That thick neck full of fat and muscle was indeed a hindrance. Jason pulled his sword out and retreated as a flurry of attacks went right at him. All sorts of weapons smashed together at the same spot cracking the cement floor.

 

The orc with a bleeding neck fell down on its knee as it bled to death. More orcs arrived on the second floor as they all chased over Jason.

 

Jason retreated back into the room where he crashed before. Using Shadow Sneak might the best to get out of the situation, but he needed to conserve his energy points.

 

But once he came back his eyes went wide, an orc was already in there as more were climbing up on the wall reaching the hole on the wall. Jason narrowed his eyes as he used Poison Coat.

 

He rushed at the orc while dodging the massive swing. He ducked low as he sprang up and jumped. He slashed with his two swords making as many cuts as possible on the orc sending those poisons deep into its cells and tissues.

 

Jason landed on the floor as he continued to poison every orc in the room. Right now, he was trying to poison as many orcs as possible. This would be the least effort type of method in killing them.

 

But unknown to Jason, the poisons he inflicted on the orcs didn’t actually come out as he expected. None of them were dead, they were merely incapacitated, barely being able to move. Those who were inflicted earlier were showing signs of being able to move like normal.

 

His poison was still far too weak. He needed to level them up more in order to actualize the potential of the skill.

 

Poison Coat level up to level 3

 

He was still oblivious about the weakness of the poison but nonetheless, he used it without question. But him focusing on poisoning led the room to be flooded by the orcs. The loud grunt and snort made Jason didn’t realize the floor getting cracked.

 

Then out of nowhere, he felt his whole body dropping. The floor on the room crumbled by the cumulative weights of these big hulking orcs. In that split second, Jason realized things were about to turn ugly.

 

“Shadow Sneak,” he vanished as the whole floor crumbled down below.

 

Within his invisibility, Jason didn’t stop moving as he fled away from the scene. He got out of the building but the rushing march of orcs proved to be an obstacle. He tried to dodge but he couldn’t make it a clean one. A slight stumble with an orc on the road made his cover blown as he was opened for the orcs to see.

 

The orcs snorted as it rallied the others to strike at Jason. Axes and maces were swung at Jason without hesitation. They were out for the kill and Jason was on the menu. Out of time, he couldn’t vanish in that instant. It happened all too fast.

 

I can’t die, I can’t freaking die!

 

A split-second moment, Jason grinned down his teeth as he chose a direction. Rather than backing down, he went forward while aiming his swords. He charged right ahead sliding his sword on the blade of an axe. Soon, his sword went down on the shaft of the axe as his body moved along with his movement.

 

Then he stood in front of a bewildered orc. Two swords pierced right at the chest of the orc as he put every strength he had in stabbing it deeper. Then as the orc knelt down and dropped on the road, he then realized the notification window in front of him.

 

Parry level up to level 2