CHAPTER 53: ORC SHOWDOWN [1]

I never understood my whole beef with life and death.

Life hated me with passion, while death loved me with a bit more obsession.

It had been... what? Barely a few minutes since I entered the Forest of Unmasked, and already my lovely, obsessive yandere death had started making moves on me.

I am a traditional man, I would have loved it if it had made its moves slowly, like a few centuries after I died, but death was just too impatient, as if it just couldn’t live without me for even a moment longer.

And fate, that cruel, all-seeing matchmaker, wasted no time playing Cupid to unite me with death.

Just five minutes ago, I met up with Bearlo and even saw Cedric and his group around him.

I didn’t even bother saying hi.

Why should I get chummy with extras who are fated to die?

That was what I had thought. But karma, ever the dramatic little bitch, wasn’t going to let me get away with that kind of arrogance.

So, it decided to join up with fate to screw me over. Because otherwise, I have no damn clue how to explain this situation.

The moment I stepped into the forest barrier with Bearlo, I got teleported to a random location.

A massive cave, wide enough to fit a damn football stadium. The air was thick with the stench of sweat, blood, and something unsettling.

Bones of various animals were piled along the edges like leftovers—

And then I saw them and understood where the hell I was.

I wasn’t in a normal cave.

No.

I was in an orc cave.

And not just any orc cave. It was an orc cave during a fucking baby-making ritual.

"..."

Yeah. I had the privilege of bearing witness to two bald, green, tusked nightmares on top of each other. Naturally, they weren’t thrilled to have a human and a crimson-furred bear crashing their party.

They let out a thunderous roar, lunging at us. One of them had early E-

rank strength, while the other was still within mid F-rank—a minor rank lower than me.

I nodded at Bearlo. He immediately understood my intentions. Both of us vanished with a burst of shockwave using [Voidpulse Steps] at the same time.

Before the orc could even react, I was already in front of the weaker one.

The orc was surprised, but before it could react, I drove my fist forward, pulsing with my mana.

As it connected with the face of the orc, I released the pulse.

BOOM!!!

With a small boom, all accumulated mana in my fist was released in a pulse.

[Voidpulse Punch]

The head of the orc burst like an overripe watermelon, splashing its blood all around. My cloak, ever the clean freak, shielded my body from it before cleaning itself up after taking mana from me.

Just then, I heard another roar from behind.

The other orc—the one at E-Rank—was also struggling against Bearlo’s sharp claws.

Bearlo had no other attack methods currently. He had only copied [Voidpulse Steps] after all.

So, I decided to lend him a hand.

I channeled my mana into my hand as my skill responded.

[Card Throw]

A glowing orange card formed, hovering above my palm.

The target was obviously the orc.

I didn’t release it immediately, I waited for the perfect moment, channeling more and more fire mana in the card.

Just then, I saw the opening as the orc stumbled backward.

Now.

Without any hesitation, I released the card. It flew at blinding speed, but right as it was about to make contact, the orc reacted swiftly, raising its hand to guard its vital points.

My card lodged into his arm.

But still, a smirk appeared on my face.

"Explode"

I commanded, pulling the trigger as the card exploded.

BOOM!!

The card exploded, even louder than it usually did, lighting the cave in a burst of searing orange for a moment.

The orc screamed. Full of pain and fury.

Smoke rose from where its left arm used to be, now nothing more than a splattered stump of burnt flesh and bone.

He stumbled back, eyes wide in blind rage, green skin scorched and trembling.

Damn, his body is tough, no wonder Bearlo was having such a hard time.

But I didn’t do anything anymore, because Bearlo was already upon the orc. His claws pulled back as he unleashed one clean and brutal strike to the orc’s neck.

CRUNCH.

The orc’s head twisted sharply.

This time, there was no scream. With a loud thud, its body collapsed onto the ground lifelessly.

The fight was relatively easy... maybe because of compatibility.

Still, it showed me a glaring issue: Bearlo didn’t have any attack techniques.

Although he didn’t have any injuries, I saw how helpless he truly was against a tanky enemy.

The orc wasn’t stronger than Bearlo.

No.

But its body was a lot tougher, making it difficult for Bearlo’s claws to even dig deeper.

The only technique he had was [Voidpulse Steps], which was footwork, but for attack, he just had to rely on his fists.

I can’t even ask him to copy my fist technique because his Busogan only allowed him to copy one technique from one person.

He already copied [Voidpulse steps] from me, meaning he wouldn’t be able to get anything else.

Tsk.

Can’t have my meat shield—I mean assistant—without any proper skill or technique. I need to find something good for him once we exit the forest.

In any case, a smile appeared on my face.

Take that, fate. I survived your fucking joke.

And I didn’t even break a sweat.

If you really wanted me dead, you should’ve tried harder.

I felt smug about how quickly it ended.

I was just about to indulge in my well-deserved smugness when a voice snapped me out.

"My liege" Bearlo’s voice was strange as his wide eyes were locked in a single direction.

I frowned and turned to follow his gaze.

One.

Two.

Three.

...Fourteen.

"Fuck."

The word dropped from my mouth before I could stop it.

Because there they were—fourteen more orcs, running in from the only visible entrance of the cave.

Some were already foaming at the mouth. A few had crude weapons. One of them was even wearing bones like a crown.

And for the first time since coming here, I realized this cave wasn’t just a joke from fate.

It was a fucking trap.