Throwing two precise punches, the orc looked unbothered by his blows. They both landed on its belly, and Raymondo rushed ahead before Rhys could be hit himself.
Stepping back to give him space, he hurled down his staff and managed to clip at its eye.
The small, sharp blade, cut its eye and eyelids, causing blood to come gushing down its cheek.
"RAAARGH!!" It roared, holding its face in anger.
BAM!
It punched Raymondo right in his chest, shooting his body to the ground. The impact behind its punch was scary, and Lewis felt like his legs froze him in place. He did not want to run in to just get hit by an attack of that calibre.
From beside the orc, though, Lukas swung down his large scythe and managed to cut its other cheek, while also cutting the side of its torso in the same swing.
"Intense Impact!"
Landing another strong palm slam, the orc slid back and Lewis shouted while running past Emmerich. He decided to not just stand on the side-lines like he was just doing and dipped past an incoming punch.
The orc was large and powerful but was terribly easy to predict. It threw the same punches and slams that anybody could discern in just a few attempts.
Slashing at the wound that Lukas had left with his scythe, the orc growled in agony while falling back.
Rhys rushed ahead to try and attack the beast, then aimed higher at its head. His punch landed and jerked the being's head back, but his punch did nothing.
"How?!"
He had been attacking this beast just as his friends were, but just couldn't get it to budge.
SLAM!
Slugging its left arm into Rhys, he was hurled into the air and sent rolling back. The impact felt like a cannon had been shot into his chest, and he struggled for breath as he lifted onto his hands and knees.
As he lifted his head, Emmerich landed two devastating strikes to the beast's head. It stumbled back and coughed blood, slowly succumbing to its injuries.
Seeing the beast was on its last legs, Lukas shot down his scythe and managed to stab it right in its heart, cutting into one of its ribs. Their mana was invigorating their bodies, giving them the power to combat a beast of this calibre.
It coughed out an alarming volume of blood, before stumbling to the ground. Slowly flailing around in agony, it was clear the beast was not just going to pass silently, but its movements soon came to a stop.
[Teen Orc Defeated!]
[+20XP]
Each member of the party had received 4XP for this defeat but since they were in a party, they all shared the XP gained giving them a massive 20XP each.
"There we go! That took longer than expected." Emmerich stated, ripping out the scythe to hand it to Lukas.
Rhys just stood there, dissatisfied with his performance.
'Even after all that training, my punches didn't even shake that thinking.' Rhys realised, looking at his gauntlets.
His gauntlets had granted him a whole extra stat point in strength, but the orc had only gritted its teeth in anger at his weak attacks. He had caused no damage whatsoever.
Emmerich felt a light breeze coming from the distance and looked slightly confused. The group looked normal, preparing to leave, but they all soon froze as they felt the breeze getting even more intense and chaotic.
"No way!" Emmerich whispered to himself, with fear in his eyes.
Rhys was frozen in place as he looked back to the origin of these waves of air, feeling like it was almost impossible to move.
voom!
It was certain. Another dungeon portal had opened.
"This is a Class-F dungeon, how could it be a second-order?!" Lewis called out.
Second-order dungeons were dungeons that could have dungeon portals open within them. These dungeons tended to be exclusive to Class-D dungeons and above, but it was clear that another portal had opened.
"KREEE!!!"
A seven-foot, grey-skinned beast charged at the group with such speed that they could barely react.
It had no eyes and instead had a mouth that was instead vertical and ran down the entire centre of its face. Opening up its mouth, it revealed a complex, dense collection of razor sharp teeth and latched onto Lukas.
"NO!" Rhys called out, watching this happen.
Its head opened up over Lukas' own, then quickly shut.
CHOMP!
Crushing the head in its mouth, Lukas' decapitated body fell to the floor and it continued to crush the remains of his head that was in its face.
[Party member (Lukas Friso) has been killed!]
Taking a large gulp, it then sped toward Raymondo that was stood beside him.
Just as it advanced, he had managed to try and slash it across its torso. Even though it was skinny, and its very bones were quite visible, his attack didn't even break through its leather-like skin.
BAM!
Punching Raymondo in his neck, his spine snapped on impact, and he was launched into a tree beside him. Instead of just biting onto his head, the beast ripped off his head and dropped it into its face like it was a culinary delicacy.
CRUSH!
[Party member (Raymondo Pliego) has been killed!]
Turning to the crew, it had no eyes but looked at them as if it could see perfectly.
'A cleaver in a dungeon like this?' Rhys wondered, watching on.
He was so scared and bewildered that he almost forgot that this beast was rushing at him, with the intent of taking his own head.
Lewis and Rhys were frozen in place, but Emmerich decided to rush into action. He rushed over to the body of the orc beside them, and the Rhys received a slash across his face from its bony, clawed hand.
The slash not only slashed his face open but launched him into the air. While airborne, the cleaver shot forward one of its long feet into his chest, shooting him back as if he was an arrow.
He slammed right into a tree, and it quaked upon taking the impact of his flying body.
Emmerich snapped off the forelimb of the fallen orc with a grunt and hurled the arm right over this cleaver's head. His throw managed to launch the arm more than 50 metres from them, and the cleaver rushed over in the direction of it.
It couldn't see and was drawn to a strong smell of blood and raw flesh more than anything else.
Emmerich grabbed Rhys, who's face was covered in blood. He couldn't even feel sensation in his body, and his eyes were starting to feel extremely heavy. As he was lifted onto his shoulder, he saw a weird notification appear.
[Configuring...]
[You have activated the Blooded System!]
"What's going on?" He wondered, feeling himself almost detach from his body.
He felt alone in his slowing thoughts, and his heart ceased its beating. His limbs slumped over and his head dipped down.
"Is Rhys gonna be okay?" Lewis said from beside Emmerich as they ran back to the dungeon's main portal.
He couldn't help but look back to the mutilated bodies of their fallen comrades. He just hoped that Rhys wasn't going to suffer the same end as they had.
"I don't know. I hope so." Emmerich said, before looking over his shoulder to see if the cleaver was in the vicinity.
They both leaped into the dungeon portal, and rushed away from the area as fast as they could.
Reaching a decent distance away from the dungeon opening, Lewis revealed a round flask that housed a luminescent green substance from thin air. This was a healing potion, that was used by hunters to replenish their HP after incurring grave injury.
"Please be alive, Rhys." Lewis whispered to himself, crouching down to his head.
Touching at his neck, he let out a sigh of relief as he felt a pulse. Emmerich did the same and just fell onto his bum in reaction. The group were now more than a mile from the dungeon opening and had to give Rhys help as quickly as possible before it was too late.
Cough! Cough!
Lewis felt even more relieved to see that he was awake, and he was fed this special elixir.
[Basic Healing Elixir Consumed!]
[HP Replenishing!]
As Emmerich walked up to look over the hill they were on, he could see numerous cleavers that had left the portal and were now in the real world. He looked upon the sight with shock, signalling for his friends to leave.
They took a quick look at what he was pointing at, and in seconds they began to charge away.
Rhys' HP was increasing rapidly, but it was doing so quicker than he expected. Healing elixirs that were labelled as basic usually took minutes to hours to work.
However, he could feel the cut across his face sealing up with insane speed, and it didn't even scab over. Utilising their mana to fuel them with newfound strength and stamina, they had totally left the area and arrived back at their school in just under half an hour.
They weren't breathing extremely heavy to their mana providing them with energy, but fatigue was slowly starting to creep in.
"Our dungeon was second order! There are cleavers all over the fields next to Osegan!" Emmerich shouted at the guards, almost waking them up.
They had been stood awfully still, but they rushed over to begin talking through walkie-talkies and things of the like. They seemed distressed, since this was a dungeon that wasn't too far from the school site.
In minutes, however, SUVs of soldiers were leaving the school complex and other vehicles met with them along the road that was just outside their school.
The students just felt relieved to know that they were alive, but they continuously thought about their fallen brethren inside the dungeon. There was nothing they could do. The cleaver was too strong and had crushed their heads.
They were never coming back.
"How did they mess up the prediction of a Class-F dungeon?! Those are literally like the easiest dungeons to analyse!" Lewis shouted, shaking his head with anger.
"They definitely weren't bothered. They might've seen no need to arduously check the energy signature to see if it was going to be second-order or not, truly despicable." Emmerich said, as they walked through their school site to the infirmary.