I swing my sword to wipe off the blood from the orc. Crimson liquid splattered on the cavern floor.
「You have leveled up」
「Your attribute 'Absorption' is activating」
「You have obtained the skill 'Tenacity Lv.1'」
「Your attribute 'Assimilation' is activating」
The notifications of the 「system」 inundated my head. The dings of the messages rang painfully amidst my headache. I had expended too much mana fighting the orc. Still, though, it wasn't all negatives.
I had gotten a new skill–something that I hadn't been able to do in a long while. Ever since I had begun picking paths, a lot of valuable opportunities had been blocked off to me. The amount of skills that I can obtain, absorb, and assimilate had been reduced.
And yet, if it wasn't for that I'd already be dead
It was ironic, but I had to let it go. It was true that ever since my first evolution I had faring better. The first time I had evolved gave me one of my most essential skills–「Night Vision」. While this valuable skill had granted me an inconvenient counterpart–「Light Weakness」, it was still one of my most important skills. The same could be said for my original skill.
「Instinct」
No matter how I thought about it, this was the skill most useful to me. Even though 「Night Vision」 was one of the skills that I would value the most, 「Instinct」 was just too convenient.
The skill gave me a near precognitive alarm of an undesirable future. Though the skill was very vague as to it's usage and prerequisites, I couldn't help but admire it. It kept me alive and well, warning me of any dangers that might threaten my existence. On top off all that, the skill was still on a relatively low level. A loud explosion interrupted my reflection.
"Hahahahahahaha! Is that all you got?!"
The mage laughed. She seemed have a few screws loose–no, scratch that. She definitely was not right in the head. I had only known her for a few moments but I am already somewhat aware of her carefree attitude. Another explosion occurred.
Looking more closely at the fight of unbelievable proportions, I felt my skin crawl. That wasn't something that I could intervene in.
The tribe leader swung his club with enough force to cause a deep fissure on the ground. Earthen shards flew everywhere. They flew in a straight, narrow line. The spell was weaved, crafted, and executed with such precision that even I had to praise it. This was the same spell that the goblin mage had used.
I guess he wasn't just all brawn after all…
On top of using a 「Reinforcement」 spell leagues above mine, he also had several earth-related 「Conjuration」 spells too. Though I had been confident in handling myself after just seeing the leader orc, I couldn't say the same now. The orcs were already too much of a pain when they weren't using mana. To think that their leader was such a monster.
Though not as much as her
My gaze moved up. Above the dust cloud that the leader orc had raised – most likely to obscure itself – floated a single figure. I focused on the latter.
The figure was barely visible, dense mana constantly surrounded it. The mana moved with such rhythm that I had to wonder if it was even real. It wasn't like the mana was just spinning and moving around the figure. Each mote and stream had their own purpose. Whether that would be altitude control, propulsion, or maneuvering. The myriad of spells intertwined into what can only be described as a work of art.
Thus, she wasn't floating. She was flying. In such a short amount of time, the mage had managed to form such a complicated series of spells all by herself. Even I can tell that what she did was beyond exceptional.
The barrage of earth soon reached the mage. The shards of earth pelted the mage's dense mana. Before it could reach her, however, the bullets stopped just inches before her. With a wave of her hand, the projectiles changed trajectory. While most of the shards were simply crushed upon collision, some did reflect. These shards – almost grains – flew in all directions, some even approaching me. One of which grazed my cheek. It was too fast for me to follow.
I glared at her, unsure if she even noticed me. I hadn't expected a response, and yet one came.
Behind the dense mist of green that surrounded her, an opening appeared. I had to wonder if that was the best decision – considering her current situation – but it seemed that she had it under control. She waved at me.
The reflected earth flew towards it's caster. I couldn't see much behind the thick dust cloud. As soon as the miniature bombardment began, a roar filled the cavern. It was loud enough to produce ringing in my ears.
I dug my pinky into my ear, hoping to get rid of the infuriating sound. I failed. Not that I'd expected that to work. Putting aside the possible acoustic trauma, I refocused on the fight.
A gust of air blew in the middle of the cavern. It grew and grew, each second that passed was another feet that was added to it's length. Eventually, a giant tornado was created with the orc at it's center. By now, I had expected the leader orc to retaliate–maybe even get rid of the spell with it's brute strength or some other spell that it had hidden. Sadly, that didn't happen.
Besides the orc's astounding use of 「Reinforcement」, it had nothing else noteworthy. Though I shouldn't be saying as somebody who is somebody significantly weaker than the leader orc, that was my honest assessment.
The orc was strong–extremely strong. But nothing beyond that. It was probably a miracle that one of them even learned and mastered mana to such a degree. Still, it was just that. They were 'only' strong.
Despite the orcs' overwhelming martial advantage, they were was nothing beyond that. Their blows were instinctual. Simple and effective; easy and predictable. They never took the time to hone and master anything and just tried to brute force their way into any answer.
Against an opponent of that level, an outcome like this was inevitable
As the storm cleared up, a mangled, distorted corpse of a former great warrior could be seen.