I was currently looking down on the orcs; I was sitting, or standing, on top of a rock -- which was about, no, slightly bigger than me.
I could look down on them because of just how insanely fast I could process and react to new information. I was maybe 10x quicker than an average human -- which would put my reaction time at .025 seconds, which was 5x faster than my previous self!
But I did not care about that. The entire reason I did that was because of a short notification:
Level: 4/10
I had leveled up! It took me a "long time" -- as it was still insanely fast -- but I had finally leveled up.
The level up made the chances of the orcs ending me even lower.
Leveling up not only increased my stat and made them more potent, but it also made all my skills stronger -- though, it was still a minuscule increase.
I sighed as I despaired at the fact just how low of a chance these orcs had against me -- which they did not even realize, and even if they did, they would have still fought me.
But I digressed; I turned towards and focused on the rock, which I was going to jump on.
It was a little smaller than the rock I was currently on.
And now, I was going to jump on it.
It was going to be some next-level parkour.
I knew I could easily do it with the help of my skills, form, and level. But, I also knew that I would not do it properly as I had already planned out what I was going to do for the next few minutes -- it was my master plan, after all.
I could not help but smile inside as I, again, imagined the horror which would be unleased some short minutes. I was going to be sick, literally and metaphorically.
I then finally jumped towards the rock. I lessened my sense of pain. As even though I had high pain tolerance, as I, for one, did not like experiencing pain -- which, to be honest, sounded idiotic.
Plus, with the help of my new questionable repertoire of knowledge, I could easily make a truly pained expression so that the orcs did not get any suspicious about me.
I cried out in pain as I got hit, head-on, by a rock that was as big, maybe slightly smaller, than me.
The impact force was immense. Since if I did not use my instincts and wisdom -- provided by the acquisition of Draconic Scales -- I would have gotten a chunk of my health bar sent to the shadow realm. Instead of the measly 2%, I had lost.
But I still had to get knocked backward. As not being knocked back, after getting hit, head-on, by a giant rock, for me, at such high speeds, was going to suspicious. I mean, very suspicious.
Plus, getting knocked backward would add more oomph to the entire act.
So using some skillful movements -- which were pretty hard to understand, even for me -- I was able to use my own force and some of the remaining energy of the impact to knock myself.
And thanks to that, I was flying 4 meters backward in an arc. With the help of my peripheral vision, I was able to see the orcs.
The orcs were all shocked, but even more than that, relieved and excited.
I was not surprised to see them like that, no, you could even say that I would be more surprised if they were not like that.
Though, there was still one thing that had worried me. Well, it was more like me trying to be worried. Since, no matter how much I try to ignore it, these orcs did not stand a chance against me. The thing which would have worried me concerned their ability to transfer information and ideas. They were able to talk without even requiring a medium as if they were talking through the ether itself.
Because of that, these orcs were able to communicate through very subtle hints, and those hints were very hard to read -- even with the provided to me by Sin.
So, I would only get the gist of what they were going to do, which was not that bothersome as I knew that anything they did would probably fail -- unless they pull off an asspull.
It was something I had greatly respected about the orcs.
Their brotherly bond and cooperation.
I then felt some strong primordial force laughing down upon me, saying that I had jinxed myself. I did not understand what had just happened, but one thing I did understand was that I was going to make that cheeky bastard suck it one day.
I quickly ignored that thought and looked down on the orcs rushing towards me, with all of them being heavy-hitters with low accuracy.
Most of them had wielded blunt weapons, and only some of them were wielding swords.
Looking at that made me understand a little portion of their plan.
They were not that smart to be able to pull something that clever.
Plus, I was good at adapting and improvising. Because of that, even if the orcs planned a god-tier strategy, I would still come out on top. But that would only occur if I was weak.
Since, currently, I had enough raw power and fighting ability to go through everything they could plan.
So, to make them have even higher morale. I, with the help of my questionable knowledge, made a face of absolute terror and despair.
With that single face, I could already feel their morale rising.
They all gave out their battle cries as they came after me, trying to attack me as much as they could.
They did not care about hitting me or anything like that. The orcs just wanted to make tired -- which they could not -- and make it so that I would be more prone to getting hit.
It was a good idea, but, sadly, I had already seen through it.
And so, I started to entertain their pitiful attempts at ending me.
I dodged all their attack roughly and precisely at the same time. I had made sure I gave the illusion of me barely dodging the attacks -- even though that was furthest from reality.
But not just that, I also made sure I let some attacks in and made sure they all looked like they had done more damage than they had.
And not just that, doing all that was as easy as walking for the Psuedo-Ultra Instinct me. I could not even imagine just how easy it would have been if I went full Ultra Instincts.
The entire 12 or so orcs had lasted for about 2 minutes and 30 seconds, which all of us had expected.
After all, right after the 2-minute mark, all the light-hitters - who could all one-shot me - started getting ready.
And after the heavy-hitter, orcs had all retreated.
Those light hitters all charged at me. They all had eyes filled with rage and fury, just like those of a rabid beast. I would not have even been surprised if they all had started foaming.
I then looked at all of them with a look of sheer despair in my eyes.
I was going for the act of just barely getting out alive. This time, to add even more effect, I made sure to look even more tired than I was.
Which astronomically easy; I was not even remotely close to being tired.
Plus, I knew that they did not like seeing me getting terrified or despairing. So I used that to my advantage and added more fuel to the fire.
That made all the orcs -- even the ones on the back -- seethe with rage and hatred for me.
And just like that, I had, again, increased their morale.
It had all went just like I had imagined it to, so I was happy and disappointed at the same time.
I mean, I was now seeing just high could I push it.
Like everything, I tried to make the morale of the orcs higher worked.
Are they just that gullible?
And right after some time, the second wave of orcs started attacking me.
With a new wave of fury covering their eyes and their morale sky high, they attacked me with their blades in hand, thirsting for my blood -- which they would get, but only in drops.
It was a cool scene, to be honest. It was just like seeing some heroes fighting the big bad.
And I would have thought the same if I had not been questioning their gullibility.
Anyway, the purpose of this entire wave was to hit me.
Since these orcs were light-hitters, they had higher accuracy than the heavy-hitters. And due to my feigning of tiredness and slowly getting weaker and weaker.
The orcs were all thinking that they would be able to get a good hit in.
Everybody here knew that even the light-hitters could end me in a single hit.
I just did my act of barely dodging the attacks again. Though this time, I needed to make myself get more afraid after every strike.
I needed to make sure that I also get hit more often than not -- though the strikes I will take would look disproportionately more harmful than they were.
It would not be hard. No, you could even say that it was going to be easy-- since it was.
Plus, in all this mess, I had already gotten back most of my hp.
I then kept on dodging their attacks in a rhythmic pattern -- just because I could, which they had all lovingly prepared for me.
While I was in the middle of my rhythmic dodges, I slowly realized a small detail that had made me facepalm myself in my mind.
It was due to just how tunnel-visioned these orcs were.
I had noticed that they did not find it suspicious that I was not even attacking. Just why?
I would not have minded if they were not *literally* living out in the wild. I mean, are not wild animals, beasts, or monsters supposed to be more aggressive the more hurt they were?
I mean, if I was trying to retreat, would not I attack some of them, and preferably kill them, and just run like a bitch? I mean, that would help anyone in a life-or-death situation.
It was now starting to give me a headache, so instead, I just chose to think about new and cool ways of dodging their attacks; while I made the illusion of getting hurt.
It was, surprisingly, more enjoyable and fun than I had expected. It was not all that surprising.
After all, it required me to have three major things: precise movement, perfect timing, and a level of understanding of the nature of others.
And all those things helped me improve and better my fighting abilities -- which were already pretty good.
Plus, there was no way I was going to ignore this opportunity to get stronger. Since getting more stronger meant that I could do more things, and the freer I would become.
So I kept on doing the same thing while making an expression that made it look like I was getting cornered -- I also made sure I feigned tiredness even more.
Both were untrue -- I mean, very, especially the stamina one.
I was also starting to have some fun dancing with the orcs -- that were trying their best to murder me.
And then, after 10 minutes or so, the wave ended.
The end of the wave finished what I would call the info-gathering portion of their plan.
I knew that because I had noticed that all of them were focusing on me -- a lot.
I was super happy about it.
As it meant that they were able to have a good plan -- it was, sadly, only a good plan for me, as it was a beyond terrible plan for them.
The reason it was good for me was simple.
It is because, even though I had bitched about them being retarded, sometimes they had shown to be very smart.
Their planning and cooperation were all next-level.
Though, their info-gathering was still a hit-or-miss, most of the time.
Due to them, I had figured out lots of my weaknesses, which were very easy to patch up.
And seeing them again trying to again find my mistakes in the fixed version was a huge plus.
As even getting some help in improving my fighting style was going to be a big boon.
So, for now, I would continue entertaining their stupid games and ideas.
It was going to be very beneficial for me, after all.
I then hid the smile I was building up and again gave a look of despair to the orcs as I saw most of them charging at me. I now knew that the battle was going to reach its climax.
I mean, if I were to be entirely honest with myself, if it were not for the improvements and enjoyment I had gotten.
I would have probably started killing them a lot sooner.
Since repeating the same motions over-and-over while changing my expression, to the exact opposite one I had, was boring.
But now I was having fun, as I was improving while getting to the climax of the entire thing.
___
Hey there, sorry for taking so long to upload -- this chapter was a pain in the ass -- but I finally got it out.
So, I just want to make guys aware of the fact that... the upload schedule is going to go down hill from here -- for two weeks.
Since my lazy ass did not like going into online class like a good student. So, wish me the best of luck.
And if you read this novel till now, and I feel disgusted to even say this, please add this to your collection! As that really helps motivating me!