He dodged left, just in time to avoid the large fist that dug itself into the ground at where he had stood just a moment ago. The enraged roar of the massive orc at missing him reaches his ear but he was already on the move again before the Orc King even realized that it had missed.
'Faster, faster.'
His body felt like it was on autopilot as he moved left and right, taking potshots at the large orange orc using his crossbow even as he evaded every strike that the Orc King sent at him. His attention never left the second red bar that had appeared in his field of vision ever since this fight had started. Each time he shot at the orange orc the bar become slightly less filled than before. Next to it were a set of words, the title, the name and the level of the being he was fighting at the moment. It read:
[Mad Orc King, Karat. LV 56]
It was something very simple, a mechanism to help the players gauge the strength of the enemy and so that incidents like a level 1 player trying to fight a monster that only players that are over level 20 can kill without knowing won't happen. But right now it is the only that was keeping him from losing hope.
'What the hell?! The Orc King should have been the opposite of the Troll Shaman but still around the same level of strength, it should have been weak to magic while strong physically, so why the hell is it so much stronger than the Troll Shaman and immune to magic?!'
He still remembered how he had used the magic scrolls that he had brought with him to take advantage of Karat's weakness and how all the magic they sent toward Karat dispersed uselessly after hitting it. His momentary distraction almost cost him his life as he is so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed Karat slashing at him.
"Grrkh?!!"
The greatsword had only managed to graze his shoulder a bit and yet the force behind the slash is so strong that it sent him flying and break the spaulder on that shoulder, making it vanish in a burst of light. He stays in the air for a second or two until finally, he slammed back to the ground back first, simultaneously creating a large cloud of dust.
'Ghaak, aahk. Grrh, I need to use this moment to get to a safe distance, thank whatever deity that existed that my landing created a large enough cloud of dust that can block me out from view.'
After getting behind a pillar of the temple that he and the Orc King had found themselves in that should block him from the view of the aforementioned orc he began to check how much damage the Orc King had managed to deal to him. He looked at the other red bar that doesn't belong to Karat it looks like it is only 4/5 filled, next to it is his username and level.
[Reset Mousped. LV 40]
'Only a graze had managed to take 1/5 of my HP and break my spaulder? Not good, really not good. I can't let it hit me with a direct attack, I'll die instantly if that happened. How did Karat even become that strong? The Troll Shaman, Xochitl was only level 45, how did it have over 10 levels more? Karat should have only been around Xochitl's level as his fated enemy.'
No, he refuted himself internally, he did know how the Orc King suddenly become so strong but he just wanted to deny it. He turned his head to look at the hilt of the greatsword that the Mad King wielded as said orc marched slowly to the dust cloud he had just vacated, more specifically to the pitch-black gem engraved onto the hilt of the sword, a gem that the Mad Orc had just found in the temple they're in and the black lines that had appeared on the big orc's hand after it had engraved it into it's sword and the red eyes that had replaced the rust-brown that the Orc King previously had.
He really, really wanted to deny it, deny that his fears had come true but with the proof set right before him in the form of the new physical appearance of the Orc King and how it's title had changed from [Ambitious Orc King, Karat] into [Mad Orc King, Karat] he can deny it no more.
'I thought that Karat had only become the Mad King because it had previously been left reigning too long without it's fated enemy the Shaman Troll because the players had killed Xochitl but to think it was because of that gem, what rotten luck! As expected, should I just leave this to the other rankers?'
That is the logical option, the Mad Orc King is obviously a boss that can't be beaten alone, or at least at this stage of the game, but... He looked at the player rankings, more specifically the top five.
{ 1# Reset Mousped }
{ 2# Lily Ordex}
{ 3# Yulanda}
{ 4# Ruben Miya}
{ 5# Teresita}
He looked at them critically, more specifically his ranking, the rank he would never have achieved if he hadn't managed to somehow come back in time. He then remembered the miserable days that would come later if the Mad Orc King run rampant for even a little while without anyone to stop him. The tragedy that would happen because of the event that would be called [Tyrant Orc's Mad Conquest].
'No, they would arrive too late, with them being busy raiding Xochitl it'll take way too long before they can come to kill Karat, by the time they're ready Karat would have already made a new base and recovered enough to start his conquest. Especially since Karat can grow more, there's no doubt about that since the Mad Orc King I remembered is stronger than this.'
He slowly lowered his head, causing his face to be obscured by shadows as he wordlessly reloaded his crossbow with a new bolt as ideas upon ideas ran itself through itself in his head, all discarded as he generated more plans on how to kill the Orc King until one particularly crazy idea caught his attention.
He raised his head suddenly as he tried to stop the beginning of a grin from forming to no avail. Thankfully, the Orc King had been careless, letting him shave a little more than half of his HP, making it so that the plan is actually viable to be accomplished, even if it has a very high possibility that it would kill him upon execution. But would he care about it? No. After all-
"This may very well be my last chance to make stunts like this and stay ahead of others. After all, it's not like I've come back from that far into the future, I'm only from six months ahead and those six months are almost up by now, what else do I have to lose?"
The whispered words caused the Orc King to immediately turn it's head to face him as it immediately swung it's sword at his current hiding spot. He immediately jumped to his left. Just a moment after he leaped away from the impending danger, the greatsword hit and broke the pillar he was hiding behind earlier.
The orange orc was retrieving it's greatsword back from the rubble when it felt the familiar sensation of something small piercing it's skin again, this time it's shoulder. It grunted as it pulled out the offending object to see that it was another one of those annoying crossbow bolts again. It turned back to face the one who had shot the bolt at it to see that it was the infuriating Hunter again hiding behind another pillar like the one it had just destroyed.
"Hey, big, mean and orange! That's for my spaulder from earlier! And this-"
The Hunter raised his crossbow again as he took aim. The Orc King tried to move, tried to attack and stop him but it's too late as the Hunter choose that moment to pull the trigger. Twang, the sound filled the air of the temple before the orc felt something pierce one of it's eye. The Orc King roared at the pain it felt and the lost eyesight. The orc heard the Hunter speak again, this time his voice cold and unfeeling.
"...consider that as the first step to your downfall."
The Hunter's eyes had changed, it had become cold, hard and calculative. It made the Mad Orc King angry and when it's angry it only does two things.
*ROARRRR*
The roar caused the entire temple to shake as debris started to fall from the ceiling. The Orc King rushed at the Hunter and swung it's sword at him. The Hunter ducked and began to roll away even as the greatsword caused the pillar he was next to before to collapse. The orc started to give chase, so mad it is that it didn't even hear the words that were whispered by the Hunter.
"Phase 1 complete, 2 out of 8 is out. 6 more before phase 2 is complete."
Karat stabbed his greatsword at Reset who used the pillar in front of him to jump to the left. Another pillar crumbled to the greatsword of the King. Said King turned it's head to Reset with gritted teeth. Letting out a cry of frustration Karat raised it's sword overhead. Darkness started to be pulled out of the shadows of the temple as the gem engraved on the hilt of the greatsword started to glint ominously with a flash of red light.
Letting out a cry of exertion, the orange King swung it's sword down in Reset's general direction, causing a large wave of darkness to be launched from the greatsword. The darkness ravaged everything it passed through as pillars are torn asunder and the very earth cracked and broke, resulting in large pieces of stone to fly out in every direction.
Reset swerved around the stones even as he tried to get out of the darkness area of effect until finally, it came upon him. Reset barely had time to widen his eyes before a large crash sound occurred and spread throughout the temple even as another dust cloud was created in the area of impact. The Mad Orc King eyed the dust cloud carefully, trying to find out the fate of it's opponent.
"Looking for me?"
The Mad Orc widened it's before it turned left to find the Hunter, it's opponent. Said Hunter doesn't look so great at the moment as some of his equipment was destroyed by the previous attack and most of his equipment that did survive looked like they were one good hit away from being destroyed. Even more damning is that his HP gauge had been reduced to 1/5 of it's maximum capacity and yet, for some reason, he found it in himself to grin at the orc.
"You know, I should thank you since you had made my work so much easier."
Karat knows that it should attack immediately to end this fight but Reset grinning had it pause it's step in curiosity at him, trying to understand how Reset is still smiling in front of imminent defeat. Somehow, if it's even possible, Reset grin just seemed to enlarge at seeing the Orc King pause in it's step.
"You know, I'm pretty sure you should be able to talk, not just roar at everything."
Reset turned his head to look at the black gem in the possession of the Mad Orc.
"It's that thing isn't it? The one that made you like this. Ah, not like it matters anymore."
Reset started to raise his crossbow. Starting to narrow it's now sole eye at the perceived sign of aggression, Karat started to ready itself to charge at Reset, but then stopped in confusion when it noticed that the crossbow isn't loaded and pointing at somewhere else.
"Don't worry about my crossbow, you've already made me run out of all my bolts ah, but, Mad Orc King Karat. As a king, you should know how a building functions right? Even if you had lost your capability to talk and maybe even your sanity, you should still be able to understand what I'm asking you right now since you're still capable of showing your curiosity."
Slightly startled at being addressed with it's full title and becoming more curious because of the question directly posed at it, Karat started to relax it's guard. Wind started to pick up unnaturally around the crossbow and yet it still isn't pointed at Karat and so it ignored the weapon. Cracks started to appear around the temple.
"Returning to my previous question, a building needs something to support it right? So I wonder, what would happen to this temple if all of it's pillar that supported it before were gone?"
Eyes widening in sudden comprehension the Orc King started to look around frantically around the temple. All of the pillars of the temple had already been destroyed, except for one... The one that is currently targeted at by the crossbow with winds circling it in a way that is definitely not natural. Karat turned it's head back to look at Reset eyes as wide, if not wider than before.
Cracks started appearing more rapidly on the temple's wall such that it is easily visible by naked eyes, something that makes the Orc King worry even more. The Mad Orc noticed one last crucial detail it had missed before; Reset's back was faced to the sole entrance of the temple while Karat was positioned directly opposite of it, standing at the furthest point possible from the door.
"You seemed to have noticed it, well, it's too late anyway, enjoy being buried alive~"
His last piece said, Reset muttered the words that would spell the destruction of the entire temple.
< Drill : Twister >
His crossbow shot the aforementioned spell at the final pillar. The Orc King tried to rush and block it from hitting but in the end, the orc was just too far away. The pillar was penetrated and broken in a single shot. As if that's the trigger, the temple wall started to shake even as the cracks begin to spread faster than ever before.
Reset stepped outside the temple through the door, just in time too as the moment he stepped out the began to collapse. Animals living in the forest around the temple that hasn't been scared away before by his battle with Karat finally started to run away as the forest is suddenly filled with a cacophony of noises from panicked animals when before it was a serene calm.
'Well, phase 2 is complete, as always the < Drill : Twister > spell is a lifesaver. I'll never regret deciding to learn [ Wind Magic ].'
He turned back to look behind him where the remains of the temple lay. He narrowed his eyes.
The rubbles started to shake as something started to rise up from within them, pushing them out of the way.
*Boom*
The sound of an explosion rang through the air as dust clouds started to fly around everywhere, covering everything in sight. Reset silently used the wind magic, < Breeze >, to push all the dust away revealing a single figure that previously been concealed by it.
'Heh, I guess it's time to initiate phase 3.'
Karat honestly looked just as bad as Reset now with the armor it's wearing before now in the same state as Reset's equipment. Maybe the Orc King looked worse now as at least, Reset doesn't have any wounds where he bleeds, a perk of being a player, while Karat was bleeding all over with one eye shut, having just been blinded earlier. The only thing that looked untouched on Karat is it's sword, the gem on the hilt had been shining with black light for what seemed to be quite a while before it died down.
The Mad Orc King's HP gauge shows how bad a state it was in with only 1/20 of it is filled but that's it. The orc may be in a bad state but it's still alive. With only one good blow it could still kill insta-kill Reset. No, a mere graze is enough for Karat to kill him now.
So it's very understandable for Karat to be caught off guard when Reset, instead of retreating or advancing to attack him carefully had instead rushed at the Orc King recklessly. The Mad Orc hastily raised it's greatsword to guard itself, exactly as Reset wanted.
He took out the dagger he had readied for emergency moments where he had to fight in close combat and thrust out, not at Karat, but at the greatsword, specifically, the gemstone in the hilt of the sword. Clang, the sound rang out through the now quiet forest, devoid of the animals that originally inhabited it.
"Hey, the reason you're so powerful now, is because of this gem right? What would happen I wonder, if I took it out and used it for myself?"
Eyes wide, the large orc looked at Reset's shaking hand, trying it's best to dig out the gem engraved in Karat's greatsword hilt. In a panic, the orc released one hand from the sword's grip to throw a punch at Reset, hoping to kill him before the scenario spoken by him can happen. But alas, it's too late.
Reset blocked the punch by punching back and was pushed back a few meters as a result, but that's it, he was only pushed back, not die immediately. In his right hand, the one that punched back Karat there was held the black gem that had given Karat so much power. His HP hasn't dipped much, and the level that was displayed by his and Karat's had changed, now it read:
[Malevolent Hunter, Reset Mousped. LV 50]
[Cursed Orc King, Karat. LV 41]
"Hmm? What's this? A new skill? Whatever, it's time for you to die Karat, I guess I'll use you as my guinea pig for this new skill."
It was as if the scene inside the temple was reinitiated with the darkness coming out of the shadows of the forest to surround the dagger held in Reset's right hand. Only this time it felt more, violent and yet also refined. Karat looked on at him with an expression of fear and resignation until finally, he spoke for the first time, having regained the ability after having the gem taken away.
"Do what you wish, you had won fair and square."
Reset looked surprised for a moment before nodded at the Curs-no, the Ambitious yet Honorable Orc King that had previously been caught in madness not it's own.
"< Malevolent : Slash >!"
And with that, everything's finally over. Even though the advantages he gained from coming back to the past had almost ended Reset, no, Asterisk Acelrat is satisfied with this ending. But he doesn't know, that the gem he now possesses carries a heavy burden with it, one that wouldn't let him fade into mediocrity again just yet. His story is just beginning. But that, is a story for another time.