Evan D. Sherden, Realization and Leap Forward (1)
[You cheeky guy, I'll tear you to pieces!]
"I don't think so."
Shine flew away from the massive double-edged axe falling toward him. It was a fast, heavy, and absurdly destructive blow, but it wasn't a difficult one to avoid. Rather, it seemed too flashy. Evan could read what Shine was thinking, that if he finished too quickly, he would be struck by Evan.
"Don't hold back; let's do it."
[Power? You want to receive my full power?]
Setus scoffed at Shine. In his eyes, Shine was just a kid whose body was a bit sharper than he had initially thought. What could he do with those two tiny daggers? The only things he feared were those bullets the little boy behind him used. Even the witch was a little tough, but he wasn't afraid. If he could take care of those bullets, he could sweep away his foes.
"Yes, then let's see how it's done."
[Hah!]
Shine moved fast, aiming to get behind his foe.
[Kh!]
"Ha!"
The enemy moved around carefully, aiming to subdue Shine and reduce his stamina, but slowly…
'He's thinking wrong. He would have to hold on for a day to get rid of all the stamina I've accumulated on this battlefield.'
Shine's skill had the ability to turn him into a berserker if he could last the battle a bit longer. The number of monsters he had now defeated with his dual daggers was easily one thousand, so not even an ogre could compete with him when it came to stamina or health. After about three minutes of the orc chief Setus and Shine fighting, Setus finally realized something was off.
[You…you tricky little mouse!]
What's more, Shine's speed was so fast that he would lose sight of him if he weren't careful. Setus knew he needed a new strategy, so he tried to provoke Shine.
[You only run away! How boring!]
"Oh, bored with your men dying around you? It must be nice to be so easygoing."
[Well, these rats…?!]
He tried to taunt them but was caught by Evan instead of Shine. Setus inadvertently raised his head and looked around. It was true; in the short time that Setus had been facing Shine and looking for a gap in Evan's defences, the rest of the group had been devastating the nearby orcs.
"The orcs rushing over here to rescue their chief was a good harvest."
"At 1 o'clock. I will take care of them. Fire Rain!"
"Dain, please help me here!"
"I'm on my way!"
Since Setus had been caught by Shine and was unable to lead the orcs, the damage and confusion among their ranks had increased exponentially. The corpses accumulated and became mana, then vanished. This cycle continued over and over to the point that the battlefield had grown quiet. Little traces of the orc legion's death remained.
'Fuck, it's too late now to back down.'
Setus ground his teeth. It was these humans' fault. No, it was that cheeky, purple-eyed little boy's bullets that drove the orc army to this.
'What the hell are these? A witch that arrived from nowhere with some artefacts! He ruined the great devil rune's daily feast!'
Setus was angered by the shifting situation and didn't know what to do. In trying to provoke Shine, he had been the one who had gotten exposed.
'It's now.'
Shine wasn't such a fool that he would miss this golden opportunity. At the moment Setus's concentration was disturbed, he immediately used the power of the Shadow Cloak to activate stealth and swiftly moved behind his foe. His target was his Achilles tendon.
'Orcs and human's vital parts aren't very different. Devil rune or whatever won't matter!'
Shine quietly activated Shadow Dagger, the king of dagger-based attack skills that manifest shadows to double the damage done by daggers for a short time. Added to it was the powerful dual swordsmanship combat skill that he had been learning.
'I won't back down until I'm the best in the world at this technique!'
The moment the two daggers crossed, Shine kicked off the floor and rushed the orc. Setus flinched away as he felt Shine approaching, but it was too late. The two daggers powered by the shadow blades flashed out and struck him in the ankles.
Dark mana rose to block Shine's attack, but it couldn't prevent the destruction entirely. The amplified power of the dagger drew a black line as it cut through the spell and the orc's Achilles tendon, drinking the black blood of this variant orc.
[Ahhhhhh!]
Setus's scream rang out. Shine tried to continue his attack's momentum, but he had to evade as two fists covered in dark red tattoos flew toward him.
[How dare you! You dare damage the devil rune!]
"Oh, did Shine's attack just do permanent damage?"
Evan mumbled as he recorded the appearance and reaction of the devil rune as Shine collided with the orc. Why was the devil rune integrated with the body's damage? Was it due to the power of the Shadow Dagger skill? He wanted to explore more.
"Shine, can you keep testing?"
"Sure, now I've won."
Shine had cut off his movement so completely that Setus couldn't recover. At this point, it was already Shine's victory.
[Kaahahahah, what the hell did you do?!]
"From now on, I'll let you know directly…!"
Shine prepared to attack again, seeing that the orc chief was failing to raise the devil rune over his left ankle. At that point, some people began to intrude on the battlefield.
"We came to help! You've done so well so far, how admirable…huh?"
"Ah…"
"Uh?"
It was the commandos that had finally arrived after having finished their battles. The duke looked at the orc chief Setus, who was letting out a pained scream and looked dazed at the situation.
"This…did you do it?"
"No, Shine did."
Of course, the situation wouldn't have gone so easily without him, but there was no need to say that right now. The two blades in Shine's hand were glowing gloomily after soaking in the orc chief's blood, so the duke quickly realized it was true.
"You faced that bizarre variant orc alone? Not Sherden, but…what?!"
[Kruaaaagh!]
It was at that moment when the duke's sudden appearance had distracted Evan and Shine that Setus began to flee. He gave up on his left leg and jumped high into the air with the other.
[I will remember all of you guys! The day I come back, I will decorate the legion's flagpole with your heads!"
"Ah."
Evan, Belois, and the Duke threw a bead, spell, and spear, respectively. However, a black tattoo in a shield pattern appeared on the orc's back, blocking them all and causing an explosion.
[Be prepared!]
The explosion worked as intended, propelling Setus forward without damaging him. Evan was further interested in the devil rune's ability to implement such complex magic tricks.
'Yo-ma Great War 5, how hard is it?'
It was far from the abilities of the general monsters in 3 and 4, a truly threatening ability that greatly strengthened existing monsters. However, it seemed that there weren't many capable of possessing it, considering that only one such orc had appeared. At least, not yet. The Duchy, who should have found them and dealt with them in the 3rd and 4th games, sank with Matthew's ambitions…
'Matthew, that guy is really someone who doesn't help this world.'
"By the way…"
Evan watched Setus's back, far enough to look just like a point in the sky, and aimed his bead. A second later, he realized he had a skill he could try.
'Heaven Throw'
The only throwing skill he had, was Heaven Throw. It was a tremendous skill that summoned and dropped one's thrown object above the target's head. He couldn't use it in the dungeon as it was too cramped, but in such an open environment…after completing his calculation, Evan threw the bead as hard as he could and used Heaven Throw without hesitation.
"Heaven Throw!"
At that moment, a subspace opened in front of his eyes to suck in the battle bead. Fortunately, the range of the skill was very wide, so it could work on opponents that were far away.
[Quaaaaah.]
A huge black hole opened in the sky, and a boulder the size of a house fell out of it. The rock that fell over Setus's head…the battle bead, which had become enormous, fell to the ground while crushing Setus and countless orcs below him.
Everyone who was there looked back at Evan. It was impossible for them to not notice that Evan was the one who just launched that terrible attack.
"Uh…"
Evan slowly turned his head, feeling the gazes focused on him.
"Uh, where did that meteorite come from?"
"Can you explain, master?!"
"Evan, this isn't even funny. It's ridiculous."
The great flood ended with an unprecedented minimal amount of damage, and rumours began to spread anew about Evan and his knights.
It was rumoured that Sherden's Treasure was actually an arch-mage capable of summoning meteors.