Armored Orc's Assault II

Resting by the fire, Ilk slowly opened his eyes. 'Seems I drifted off, guess I was more tired than I thought...' Suddenly, the smell of blood hit his nose.

Ilk quickly looked to the side and saw the dead body of one goblin, and the other one about to be killed. Before he could even get a word in, it was stabbed in the heart and had its neck sliced open.

"Tilok!!!" Ilk screamed, alerting the only survivor besides himself. Soon, the drowsy goblin awoke to the scene of his subordinates' bodies mutilated. Tilok's eyes shot wide open, adrenaline pumping ferociously inside him. He stood up and ran towards Ilk, planning to use him as a meat shield so that he could escape.

"Protect me you damn fool!" Tilok shouted at Ilk, demanding him to assist. Hearing this command, Ilk nonchalantly stood there. "Protect yourself." Was all he said before the kobold rushed towards him.

*Swoosh!*

Five razor sharp claws glinted in the dim flame light as they sliced open the back of the fleeing goblin. "AHHHHHH!!" Tilok screamed, the pain being greater than anything he had ever felt.

"Solus, incapacitate him for now. Slice the Achilles tendons and his wrists." The orc began talking in a language that neither goblin could understand, but both Tilok and Ilk had a bad premonition.

The next second, the kobold sliced at the back of the legs, and the wrists of Tilok. Causing him to release another blood curdling scream.

"EEEAAAAAHHHHH"

The orc, covered in a dark brown and black armor pulled out a rusted hatchet from his back. He looked at Ilk, before walking over to the fire and setting the hatchet head in the flames and the backpack nearby. As he turned around, he eyed Ilk and began to menacingly walk towards him.

Ilk began to produce a cold sweat as he stared at the creature in front of him. He could tell the creature was far weaker than him, not even forming its Mana Heart yet.

Ilk decided to put these strange feelings to the back of his mind though, he was a warrior, and he intended to act like one.

Rushing up to the orc, Ilk brought his old sword down on it. He had refined his [Sword Arts] to level 3 already. He was one of the highest ranking in his generation!

"Die, piggy!" Ilk screamed.

He quickly performed a side sweep with his sword, aiming at the only exposed section of the orc, which was its head. Right before his attack connected, the orc brought its right hand up and redirected the attack using the armor on the back of its hand. The creature then used its left hand to stab at Ilk!

*Putsiik*

The four fingers of the orc pierced his side. He could feel the sharp pain, but ignored it as the wound wasn't too deep for the location of the attack.

Ilk quickly pushed the orc off of him, before performing a horizontal slash at the head once again. The orc tried dodging, but was half a step late. The sword managed to hit its shoulder armor. A deep crack formed on the armor, but it didn't manage to slice through the entirety of it.

Seeing his attack fail to hit his target, Ilk became enraged. He activated his Mana Heart, enhancing his body with mana. Feeling his strength increase, Ilk began to attack even more fervently. He continuously swung at the orc, causing small damage here and there.

"Slippery damn pig!" Ilk yelled out, truly annoyed at the fact that the small orc was still alive.

Soon though, he noticed his attacks slowing down. He felt light headed as he looked at the orc, smiling wickedly at him. Confused at what was happening, the orc chuckled and pointed at the only wound he had inflicted on him.

Ilk saw that the wound had been profusely bleeding, getting progressively worse as he continued to fight. When he was distracted by the thought of his own negligence, the orc screamed out.

"Solus, NOW!"

"ARGH!"

Collapsing on the ground, Ilk could see that his legs had been sliced open. Deep, painful wounds were keeping him in place. He was no longer able to fight.

"This is no warriors death... I'm simply a pig to the slaughter." Ilk said aloud as he looked at the orc, whose armor and skin was now self repairing.

"Ha ha ha! Seems I was nothing but an ember after all..." Were Ilk's final words before his neck was pierce by the strange finger blades of the orc.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hah... Hah... Hah..."

Roy panted heavily, looking at the body of the goblin he had finally managed to kill.

"If I hadn't chosen to use my stalking time to make armor... I'd be dead." Roy said aloud as he calmed his heart rate. He was extremely pleased with his evolution choice. He was even able to use keratin to repair his skin! He felt more like a troll than an orc right now, with his [Keratin Growth] giving him a simple regeneration ability at the cost of a few MP. "I've never been so happy with my biology classes." Roy joked, reminiscing about his high school days again.

...

Fully standing after the short rest, Roy looked over to the other goblin, barely clinging to its life. He walked over to grab his red hot hatchet from the fire. Seeing the temperature was more than enough, Roy stood over the goblin and placed the hatchet atop the goblin's wounds.

"AHHHHH!" The goblin screamed once again as his open wounds were cauterized. The melted skin stopping the bleeding, but his tendons were already cut apart, leaving him no hope of escape.

Having finished the work he needed to do, Roy walked over to the goblin corpses and threw them into the small fire.

"I really don't want to do this, but I need to eat..." Roy said, watching the bodes of the goblins cook. 'They only have a humanoid shape...' Roy repeated over and over as he watched the goblins slowly roast on the fire.

"Solus, let's eat!" Roy unenthusiastically called for his companion. Sitting next to each other, they quietly consumed the disgusting flesh. Inbellis off to the side being the only one happily eating its meal.

To distract himself Roy decided to look at the system logs from the battle.

[Goblin killed]

[84 EXP Received]

[Pierce has reached the necessary requirements and has been acquired]

[Received Pierce Lv. 1]

[Achievement: Mana Heart Killer (Tier 0)]

[Achievement: Lesser Intelligence]

[Enough Experience has been accrued]

[Mental Fortitude Level up 4->5]

'Info on [Pierce]' Roy requested to the system tutorial.

{Info}

Use mana to enhance piercing power.

5MP per cast

5% pierce boost per level

'Now, what the hell is a Mana Heart and what is Tier 0?' Roy was puzzled as he asked for the system's help.

{Info}

[Mana Heart]

The container used for mana.

Beings with no Mana Heart are Tier 0, typically being lesser beings which can't make one and regular beings which have yet to make one.

Forming a Mana Heart is required to evolve past a regular being.

Mana Heart can be used to store mana, use mana to temporarily strengthen the body, and collect ambient mana to grow your mana capacity.

'Wow that's a lot of information, I'll just read what the achievement does real quick and stop to digest this new info.'

{Info}

[Achievement: Mana Heart Killer (Tier 0)]

As a Tier 0, kill a Tier 1

+5 all stats

Finally filling their bellies after an entire day, Roy stood up. He was about to attempt to learn some of the goblin language from his prisoner. He was hoping to experiment and see if he could obtain a language comprehension skill.