Orcs in the Back

Kim gritted her teeth as she parried another strike from her current opponent. She wasn't sure what these creatures were, but they were at least larger than goblins. She was confident about that much. There seemed to be two torches, but they were held at the back of the force in front of her. Which in turn didn't affect their vision in the dark as much as it did Kim's and her allies.

Even as she took down another of whatever was attacking, she couldn't help but wonder how long they might be able to hold these creatures back. Especially as she heard sound behind her in their camp.

She wasn't sure how long it had been when a giant of a creature had picked Heather up and threw her towards their camp. Kim hadn't heard anything from Heather since then and just had to hope that she was alright. Though, she was a little annoyed at how Elwin had been able to handle that creature before she had been able to.

Aside from Elmo, the rest of their combined group had shown up. Though, she couldn't say that she expected Elmo to show up. Not when he wasn't the type to go for the front line and couldn't remember about his system. So, she figured it was probably for the best that he wasn't there.

Though, she was a little surprised to see Bart show up with his staff, but she didn't care enough to say anything at the moment. She was going under the assumption that he just had a fighter's spirit more than anything else. Though, whether he remembered about having a system or not didn't seem to affect how he fought anyway.

Kim swung her sword in a counterattack on another creature in front of her, feeling her blade bite into its flesh as she felt its blood spurt onto her as she struck an artery. Or what she assumed was an artery.

Regardless, she shifted her focus again to the next creature, barely sensing the movement than hearing or seeing the silhouette of it in order to raise her sword to block it. While she didn't doubt that her own skill was sufficient to deal with these creatures, she had her concerns about if she made a simple mistake. All it would take was one single mistake and she could end up getting killed. Which would really make it a rather lousy day to begin with.

However, she wasn't sure what she could do about it other than finding a way to end this quickly. Though, she wasn't sure exactly what else she could do about it. At least until her eyes landed on one of the two torches across the sea of creatures, which then stole her ability to see until her eyes readjusted to the darkness.

She recalled her sword's ability to activate it's fire attribute. Though, rather than merely getting the sword covered in flames, she felt it would be better to create the flame vortex or pillar or whatever it was to take care of these creatures as fast as possible. To end this quickly, even as she pulled her arm away as she felt the blade of one of the creatures started to bite into her forearm.

As she couldn't tell how bad it was, given the lack of light, Kim decided to finish this as quickly as she could. She summoned a pillar of fire in the center of the mass of creatures, where she was confident that she'd get more of them, if not all, in one shot.

Even without being able to see her forearm, she could tell it wasn't good. She just hoped that Heather would be able to do something about it once the fight was over.

Provided Heather hadn't gotten seriously injured when she'd gotten thrown by that one creature. Which Kim had to admit was a possibility, she just didn't like that it wasn't an unlikely possibility, but rather a very real one.

As a pillar of flame erupted in the middle of the creatures, illuminating them while at the same time, killing many before they even knew what was happening, Kim took a brief moment to look at her forearm.

It wasn't that bad, but it definitely would need get treated sooner rather than later. She was confident that she'd be able to deal with these… Kim hesitated only a moment when she realized that these creatures were in fact orcs. Or at least closer to orcs than goblins.

They were about the average height for humans, they had a kind of dirty yellow skin, their features were strikingly similar to goblins, and they were clearly much better at fighting than goblins were.

Each of the ones that she saw had a weapon of some sort. Most had swords, but every so often, one had a axe or hammer. Though, now that the pillar of flame had erupted, they were clearly hesitating.

Kim had a feeling that it was largely due to how many she'd been able to kill with that pillar of flames, but she couldn't be sure that they didn't find that rather intimidating as well. Especially since she knew she likely would if she didn't know that it hadn't been conjured by one of her enemies

Letting her injured arm hang at her side, Kim swung her sword after a moment longer of taking stock of her surroundings. If these orcs were about ready to retreat, she thought it'd at least be useful to add more encouragement to do so.

While she had imagined orcs to have had scales, for whatever reason, she was happy to find that these orcs, at least, didn't. Which meant that each strike pierced their skin wherever Kim's sword struck them. Some strikes were more effective than others, but she quickly made it through their ranks while they were distracted.

Kim also felt a little surprised that some of the others in her group had paused a little, though they still fought the orcs. Just not with as much energy as they had been.

Kim glanced around again for a brief moment, and felt surprised even more when she saw that the orcs holding the torches weren't wielding any weapons. Instead, their eyes were focused on Kim.

Other than holding the torches, they didn't seem to have any purpose. Not only that, but unlike the other orcs, these were clearly older. They had wrinkles that none of the others had. Either they were the 'generals' of the orcs or they were some kind of mage. Or that was what Kim was assuming. Though, if that was the case, she couldn't figure out why they weren't casting any spells. Especially when all they had been doing so far was just holding the torches.

It felt odd to know that there had been two enemies who had just stood their the entire fight with no intention of doing anything. Which meant that whatever they were doing wasn't apparent. Which further meant that whatever they were doing, Kim doubted that she'd be happy with.

Fortunately for her, that was about when the rest of the orcs started to break. Which also made Kim wonder if it was over or if they were getting ready for another rush. Especially since she knew that her pillar of fire wouldn't last long enough to help out if the orcs made another charge after a little bit.

"What's going on?" Patricia asked, holding a sword and shield made entirely of thick ice, as well as armor that looked to have been crafted in the same vein as well.

Kim shook her head. "A reprieve, I guess. I just have no idea for how long, though."

"Don't worry, the two in the back were trying to gauge our strength. I'm pretty sure they don't know what kind of cooldowns or limitations we have. Or at least in regards to combat, that is, I mean, I didn't see anything in their minds about that. This was merely a test run for something. So, while they'll be back, I don't think that they'll be back before you can use that pillar again," Owen remarked quietly.

Kim couldn't say that she found his statement that reassuring. Especially with the fact that he was confident that the orcs would return. Even if her sword's cooldown for the pillar of fire ended before that.

"By the way, how's Heather?" she asked. "I saw her go flying into the trees, but I haven't had time to look myself."

"Sorry, we've all been pretty busy," Patrick said. "If you'd like, I could go take a look."

"Hold on," Patricia snapped, as the ice she was holding and wearing started to melt. "Why didn't you use that much of your flames? I mean, Kim made that pillar of flames, so why didn't you at least make us some lights so we could see these orcs?"

"Uh," Patrick suddenly looked sheepish. "I was afraid that I'd set the forest on fire. If that happened then even if we beat the orcs, we'd still be dead."

"If the orcs killed us, it wouldn't matter if the forest burned to the ground," Patricia snapped.

"Let's discuss this later," Kim suggested, feeling like she was starting to get a headache, which merely added to her annoyance with the pain that was coming from her forearm. "First, find Heather. Make sure she's alright and can heal those who need it."