Chapter 41 - Orc Champion
At the moment, the group had landed themselves in a four against one situation as there were two dozens orc standing before them.
Looking at their savage expression, Tristan knew that those orc could not be underestimated. It also did not help that the damned Blood Essence deficiency would choose to royally screw him over at this exact moment.
Among them, half wore some kind of armor. They were slightly taller than the rest and looked more ferocious. These orcs seemed to be what Piyo called as adult warrior orcs.
The prowess of these orcs were proven by how they were able to block, parry, and follow every action that Borin and Seth made. While the two were busy launching attack after attack, Piyo on the other hand seemed to be in a frenzy as he fired his crossbow continuously towards one particular orc.
The biggest orc among the horde, the Orc Champion. This particular orc has muscles bulking all over its body, two long tusk that rise to almost reach its nose. The aura shown by the orc could make any normal fighter tremble in fear. With a large ax at hand he came charging towards them.
Piyo's bolt bombardments did not have any impact on the said orc, Piyo was visibly frustrated.
"How the hell could an Orc Champion appear in such a small camp?!" shouted Borin while still fighting against three adult orcs at the same time.
As for Tristan, he still had his own share of different problems.
[Warning! Blood Essence is badly needed!]
Because of the warning notification, Tristan had been holding himself at the back. Currently, he was considering the option to return back to the entrance and used his Blood Extraction skill on the orc corpses outside. However, he was in hesitation as he wasn't sure about leaving Layla with these people and the dozens of orcs, alone and surrounded.
Thinking for a few seconds more, Tristan shook his head furiously and cursed inwardly, "Argh!! I should just quickly finish this!"
Once his mind made up the thought, Tristan immediately charged towards one of the orcs who was about to attack Barry.
BAM!
A loud sound resounded as Tristan rammed his body into the orc, before proceeding to send a slash to it.
Splllaattt!!
A clean downward swing, and another orc successfully fell to the ground with its body separated from top to bottom. As he dashed past the orc's fallen body, Tristan tried to use his extraction skill. Unfortunately, it feels very difficult for him to do it while being attack from all sides.
This left him with no choice but to just kill as many orc as physically possible. Hence, the reasoning for the current sight of Tristan zooming around the orcs, slashing and stabbing the orc mercilessly.
Splaatt!! Splaatt!!
Tristan hastened his attacks, and as he killed the orcs left and right, in Borin and the others' eyes, he had turned into a frightening killing machine, creating slaughter and massacre everywhere he passed.
While Tristan was having his killings, his focus was suddenly disrupted by Piyo who rushed close to him. "I need you to take care of this one!" said Piyo while pointing his thumb behind. Looking at Piyo's back, Tristan saw a massive orc was running after him. Correct, the damned Orc Champion.
The Orc Champion was holding two enormous axes on his hand that probably weighed hundreds of pounds. However, it was able to swing them around easily and effortlessly as if they were feathers.
Piyo went over Tristan and hid behind him while continuing to fire more of his crossbow. The bolts, however, appeared to just shallowly pierced the orc's skin, and this brought the raging orc towards their direction. After doing the deed, Piyo ran the other way, wanting to help his brothers.
"What the f*ck man!?" Tristan was even further annoyed by the short guy.
Clankk!!
Crisp sound was heard as the ax was parried by the claymore in Tristan's hand. The fight then quickly turned into a battle of strength.
As he fought against the Orc Champion, Tristan found out that this particular orc was a couple times stronger than its normal counterpart. It was even stronger than the grey one he fought at Cursaac's place.
Alas, when the battle was in critical stage, Tristan was interrupted by another notification that came out to ruin him, magnanimously.
[Warning! Host body badly needs Blood Essence!]
"Yes!! Yes!! I am trying my best here! Can you just shut up?!" Tristan said inwardly as he dashed and pushed the Orc Champion back, causing it to kneel on the ground. Tristan had won the tug of strength, and this was the opportunity to finish the huge orc once and for all.
"Time for you to die!"
Tristan raised his sword high as he prepared to reap this Orc Champion's life. But then, he suddenly felt that the massive sword on his hand was a lot heavier than before.
[Warning! Your body is suffering a drawback due to the lack of Blood Essence]
[Battle power decreased by 50 points]
[Current battle power 50]
"Fuxxxxx!!"
It was an insane drop in his fighting strength as it dropped to half what it used to be. With his current fighting strength, Tristan even felt that he could drop the sword that was raised at any time because of its current weight.
Due to the delay caused by his decreased strength, the Orc Champion managed to bounce back and regain its footing. It then continued to fight against Tristan. But this time, he was not stupid enough to fight the monstrosity in contest of strength.
Hence, instead of charging and clashing against the Orc Champion again like a warrior, Tristan opted to run back towards where Layla and Barry were.
"Grawll!! Grwall!! Chiwwickk!!"
Half a dozen of orcs as well as the Orc Champion; rushed forward and followed the retreating Tristan.
"Barry! Tag me! Let's switch up!"
Tristan ran back and stood next to Barry, hoping that he would go and fight the orcs. Meanwhile, he would watch the progress of the battle.
And if things went south, he would grab Layla and run.
Oblivious to Tristan's thought, Barry answered with confidence, "Yes, sir!"
When Barry rushed to fight the Orc Champion, Layla was shouting at her brother, "What the hell are you doing, Tris?! Why did you bring that thing to fight Barry!?"
"Just to see how strong that guy is. That's all!" answered Tristan with a straight face.
"I don't like it! Not one bit!"
At first, Tristan thought that Barry would not be able to handle the Orc Champion. But unexpectedly, he was able to. In fact, it looked like he was on par with the monstrous orc.
The guy appears to be more useful than he thought
...
While Tristan was doing his round of sightseeing, Layla herself was still firing her gun to the approaching orcs.
Realizing that there were no orcs currently around him, Tristan had no reason to delay using his skill. He stabbed the claymore to the ground, raised both of his hands and used the skill.
[Blood Extraction]
Clumps of red mist began to form from the corpses strewn around Tristan, and slowly flew into his arm.
[Received 100 mixed blood cells]
[10 Blood Essences extracted]
[Received 50 mixed blood cells]
[5 Blood Essences extracted]
The increasing number of Blood Essence brought joy to Tristan, but not long after, his moment was suddenly interrupted by a dozen orcs that came from the front entrance. This orc reinforcement must be those who just came back from the patrol.
"Chiiwwillkk!! Cwhiwiik!"