Chapter 65

- Day 22 -

Ogres who aren’t Ogres, Part 2

I may have managed to buy myself some time to think by rallying everyone to that lie, but if I don’t think of something fast, I’ll have no choice but to tell them that we’re trapped up here.

Ugh.

I can already hear Risk moaning at me that he knew it was a bad idea, and ‘this’, and ‘that’, and ‘I shouldn’t have let you talk me into it!’ and stuff…

No, I can’t let that happen. Think tiny brains! How do we get out of this one--?

[** Transformation advisable **]

You mean ‘cheaty’ mode? If [Nighteye] transforms my face, ‘cheaty’ mode is bound to transform some part of me into a demon looking creature… And you’re saying you think that’s advisable? With everyone here? Uh-huh. Just stay quiet you useless waste of brainpower! It’s your fault I’m in this mess!

“He’s right, though. We could hop off that overhang by the tent and go find the boss.”

Verbal me? You’re meant to be a fabrication of my mind designed to comfort me when I’m alone! Don’t manifest when others are about. What will we do if they hear us talking?!

“S-Sorry”

If you understand, then keep quiet! My God! ...Morons, I’m populated by morons! ...But, I guess I can see that you’re both right. There’s an entire river of blood pouring off this mountain and umpteen litres in those useless flesh sacks down there. If we use it, we’ll be able to maintain cheat mode indefinitely. Fine, I concede. That’s plan B. Any other options? I give you both permission to offer up more ideas.

[** Blood Scythe **]

Blood Scythe? Oh, that skill I started with. How’s a melee weapon made of blood going to help?

[** Incorrect **]

Incorrect it’s not a melee weapon or incorrect it's not made of blood!? Be more specific in your retorts! Ugh, forget it. I can’t use blood magic in front of everyone anyway, vetoed. Next?

“I’ve got nothing.”

So we only have one plan then!?

“Well, I don’t see you mentioning anything!”

...Ahem. Fine. Then I guess we go with cheat mode. I can’t just slip away, though... Heh, think I'll just make Emily an accomplice.

Since the fighting had resumed, Emily had been rushing about in the background. Attempting to restart the fire with some dry wood she stored earlier in the tent, purifying water, washing rags and bringing potions back and forth from the shelter to the frontlines. She’s been working in earnest without a moment's rest since the fighting first began in truth. It’s a blatant attempt to prove she can be counted on and isn’t a liability on a battlefield. I have to admit that without her efforts, we probably wouldn’t have been doing nearly half as well as we are now.

“Emily--”

“Master, are ya joining in? Drink the tonic first--”

“No, I need your help with something.”

She puts the cork back in the vial and smiles up at me. “You’re planning to sneak off after the boss?”

If she’s guessing it without any hint, does she also know we’re stuck? I doubt it. I was pretty convincing.

[** ... **]

“...That obvious, huh. Yeah, I need you to cover for me. Tell them I’ve taken a nap in the tent or something.”

“A nap? Er, no. Ya can count on me, Master!”

“Good. I doubt Risk and the others will have problems maintaining the gully, but should they start to struggle, burn some of that wet grass and I’ll come back and get us out of here.” The ‘how’ I’ll have to figure out if that time comes.

“Okay, Master. Be careful.. Please.”

I smile as I nod and sulk away behind the tent.

Right. Let’s see… AE; I take it I don’t suffer from ‘over-absorption’.

[** Correct **] HP: 8480 / 8480 MP: 48,759 / 48,759 ST: 5653 / 5653

Hunger: 8% Thirst: 21%

Blood State: Low

Level: 106

‘Threat to survival, trivial’. I get it now-- I may not have taken the over-absorption penalty, but I do look to have taken a larger than the average ‘difficulty’ penalty.

[** Point-zero-zero-six **] [** 333,152 EXP obtained **]

Either way, I should spend these points before we go looking for Mr Boss. Only prudent to be the ‘best’ me against a so-called ‘undisputed ruler’.

STAT Points: 384 STR 90 AGI 120 STA 90 VIT 90 PER 90 INT 320 WIS 340 STAT Points: 4 HP: 12,720 / 12,720 MP: 71,019 / 71,019 ST: 6713 / 6713

“Hm. Okay, that ought to do it” I mutter as I stand leaning over the edge of the overhang, looking down at the Orc army that sits directly below. “They’re certainly keen, aren’t they. Well, let’s get on with this.”

I walk back towards the tent before turning quickly and running full pelt straight over the cliff-edge.

“The trick to jumping off a cliff is not to think about it.”

I agree verbal me. I agree.

As I begin to hurtle down face-first towards the ground, I draw three mana circles around me instantaneously. The bright blue mana weaves start to turn purple as my spells take form. The spell circles glow and tail out around and behind me, turning me into a giant blue and purple streak as I hurtle downwards toward the feverous orcs below.

[Void Ripper]

HP: 12,720 / 12,720 MP: 69,819 / 71,019 ST: 6713 / 6713

The spells form and the spinning blades whirl and howl like rotary saws through the air, spiralling up, down and around each other while following me as I fall. I revved them up to the maximum and sent the blades shooting forward, down towards the ground, commanding them at the last second to flip on their axises and fan out in all directions to begin their gruesome culling of the fanatical orcs. The blades begin to reel and screech almost immediately, requiring more and more focus to control as they spin outward horizontally in an ever-growing circle to mangle everything in their path as they do. Turning every orc touched into bright fleshy clunks of rendered fatty extremities, and hurling litres of dark iron-rich blood high into the air.

It’s strange. Really strange. Had I seen something like this in my previous life… The scene should be turning my stomach, but I seem to feel nothing as I continue to fall, headed straight for the centre of the carnage unfolding on the ground.

“That should be more than enough blood.”

I concur. That’s more than enough to fuel the transformation.

I begin channelling my mana, pulling at the freshly rendered blood that had been freed from limbs and organs alike.

[Blood Syphon]

With the air thick with blood, the spell seems ultra-effective in its purpose, and multiple streams suddenly take form from my command, like ever-expanding tree roots.

The liberated blood swirled and pivoted before rushing upwards through the air and towards a single gathering point behind me. It cannot seem to accumulate as fast as I’m falling, however, and starts cascading into some sick crimson waterfall so it can keep up with my descent.

As the upward streams pull more and more blood away from the carnage, a sudden surge occurs to forcibly merge all the flowing streams to create this odd thin red veil that starts getting thicker and thicker while domming up over me. The orb of blood-forming is already far bigger than myself and only continues to grow larger as the blades continue their rampage.

“This is.. Erm. Far, far more than enough to transform.”

I begin to take in the blood, slowly absorbing it from the large orb. Not an unpleasant taste, but needs salt?

That electric feeling that comes on as I begin to reach capacity begins to intensify almost immediately, making me tingle all over. I resist it, ignoring it entirely while upping my absorption rate to continue to take in as many litres of blood as I possibly can.

With the ground less than a metre away, I suddenly lose all control and cheat mode forcibly activates in an abrupt, loud and concussive explosion. This having the unfortunate consequence of sending all the unabsorbed blood that was still trying to come together hurtling outward to rain down onto the fallen orc graveyard as I landed on one knee.

That smarts. Like a lot... Superhero landings really are impractical! ...From this scene, I’m more a supervillain though, aren’t I--?

A rough couple of thuds draw my attention as a number of orc limbs begin to land beside me.

Raining limbs withstanding, conversion successful! Mhm. Oh, how I fricking love this mode! Ah--

“Piss... off?”

An orc had broken through my three circling [Void Ripper] that I was using as a defence barrier to run right at me. Only to have probably wished it hadn’t as I lightly slapped it into a blood mist.

“...Well that’s new.”

Probably shouldn’t shake anyone’s hand in this mode. Anyway, let’s throw up another three or so [Void Ripper]’s and go looking for Mr Boss while resisting the desire to chant ‘Francis’ slurs… Another reference. I really need to stop with those.

I proceed into the forested area on the opposite side of the winding river. My current plan is to head to each of the three orc settlements Risk mentioned the night prior. The boss pig should be at one of them, hopefully anyway.

With each step I take, at least twenty orcs die to my six whirling purple blades of death, staining everything claret and leaving fleshy mounds of torn up flesh for me to have to step over.

I really have to admit that I’m getting kind of bored of all this. There is zero challenge here, zero. Why hasn’t boss pig called off this stupid attack? It can clearly see that it doesn’t stand a chance with sheer numbers. There’s no point to keep sacrificing its people, so why keep this up? According to the text I read on orcs, they’re meant to have low human-like levels of intellect. I’m sorry, but no human would employ tactics like this, not even a child. Any sentient creature would turn tail!

“...Unless.”

Unless it's using us as population control? I guess that would be a valid reason to keep this up; they certainly have a lot of mouths to feed. Though we’re only a party of six, it’d be more useful to have just invaded the main Sinki territories? I feel like I won’t solve this one until I find Mr Boss.

The first two encampments were a complete bust. No boss at either location, but I’m confident now that it’s at the third. My confidence isn’t unfounded; it’s supported by an encounter with an orc that chose to run away instead of fighting. It may be just smarter than the average orc. Still, naturally, I followed it in case it’s a messenger of sorts, keeping a reasonable distance back and monitoring it with a [Spectral Shadow]. It’s clearly headed straight to the third camp.

“Perhaps it’s a runner orc?”

Looking to report to its chieftain. That’s the hope anyway. Which also is hopefully the boss I’m looking for. Double hope times two as this hunt is really grinding on me.

As I get closer to the final encampment, I indeed lay sights on something that must be boss pig.

Name: Gigboara [Aura of the Entitled]

Class: Orc

Sub-class: Berserker

Level: 171

I… I refuse to call boss pig that. In fact, I want to talk to the entity that gave boss pig that name. I’d like to shake its hand. That’s just. I can’t deal with it. Really? I mean; really, really? Was the naming guy, or girl on holiday that day?

...Like its name suggests. Boss pig is a giant boar; standing fourteen-feet tall and as wide as a truck. It’s holding an axe as large as itself and dons a single iron-horn helmet that faces forward. Its body emits a sort of energy that reverbs the air around it, visibly shaking light that passes through and causing an odd illusionary effect as it does.

“Ah. I see.”

It's a berserker. I can feel myself sighing. No profound reasoning in leading its kin to slaughter then. It's just a stupid, headstrong boarish fool. Well, I shouldn’t be surprised. Let's just get on with this, shall we?

As I continue my approach forward, Boss pig wastes no time, making a single loud grunt and stomping hard on the ground before charging right at me.

“You’re going to charge? Really? Through the blades that are cutting your countrymen to shreds? Unbelievable, do you not have a single lonely brain cell in that--”

My words cut themselves short as boss pig continues to charge into, and then somehow through my defensive ripper line, continuing directly on at me without pause. I admit to being more than a little shocked as I was forced to dodge its giant axe swings as they came from the left, then right, then left again. I clearly saw it get sliced by my ripper discs, and yet it seems completely unharmed?

I attempt to create some distance between us, darting back several steps in quick succession, but boss pig isn’t having any of it, pressing on into me without any hesitation.

The fat bastard is quick. I’ll give him that. Fine!

As I continue to dodge boss pigs enormously wide swings, I pull off three of my ripper blades from the defensive wall and begin to send them darting off diagonally through our makeshift gladiatory death pit. One blade heads straight at boss pig, but it just agilely side-steps it and takes another swing for me.

“Argh! I’ve had enough of that bloody axe, pig.”

As it commits to the swing, I send the next two blades towards him, aimed squarely at the wooden shaft of the boss pigs axe. They career into it, sending splinters flying in every direction as they chainsaw their way through the dense wood, screeching and waning before eventually ripping their way through.

Boss pig looks at the sawed handle remaining in its hand, grunting loudly before hurling it at me with another grunt and walking over to a nearby...tree?

Yet again somehow ignoring the ripper blades circling us in a defensive line and showing herculean levels of strength, boss pig rips up a tree and strips it of its branches. It grips it in one hand, raising it high and letting out a loud deafening roar as it pounds on its chest with its other before stomping in some sort of war dance. The display doesn’t even a couple of seconds before it begins charging right back at me with the tree in hand.

I didn’t exactly sit back and watch all this unfold, of course. Boss pig showed me his back, I was hardly going to just let that slide after all, so I launched all three free blades at him simultaneously, from three different angles I might add which should have cut off any chance of dodging. Turned out, boss pig didn’t need to dodge, didn’t even try, instead taking to batting all three blades out of existence with his newly found tree-bat. The nine-gale gust whipped up from the swing had me struggling not to be thrown high into the sky.

“What the hell are you?”

I feel verbal me mutter as we scramble to resume dodging the wild swings that seem to be ever-increasing in both speed and number. Boss pig is so fast and relentless; I have no opportunity to cast any of my spells-- I should have utilised that break to fire something more substantial. Too late now. I’m going to have to fight it in close quarters.

I feel a sudden onset of regret in choosing to put the majority of my points in wisdom and intellect, as a strength and speed boost on top of cheat mode would have been nice right about now. I resist the urge to lament further and pull my mind from its pointless reflection to set it to task and retrieving my spear from my inventory while choosing to leave my shield alone. Taking a swing from tree-bat is out of the question, after all, and this will give me added mobility. Spear in hand, I press forward into boss pig.

A sudden change in your opponent's tactics would have most withdrawn to observe or cause some hesitation, but not for boss pig. It pays no heed to my swift advance into its personal space, choosing instead to increase the ferocity of its attacks and taking shorter swings. It’s big. It’s agile. It’s steadfast. I compliment what deserves to be complimented, but it’s still stupid.

Boss pig swings wide, I lance at its shoulder, piercing deep. It grunts to show discomfort while rages a backswing in reply. I slip under its arm, lancing its armpit, piercing deep again. Boss pig twists back around in response, I lance it’s groin, piecing deep once more.

Blow after blow; it fails to block any of my counters. It fails to perform any counters of its own. All it seems to be able to do is grunt and groan as I shave away at its health points, stab after stab after stab. It’s certainly not the most flashy way to fight, nor the quickest method available to me, but as these basic moves Bella taught me begin to stack up, boss pig becomes slower and slower. Bloodied and exhausted, it finally collapses to a knee. Using its tree-bat as a crutch.

It looks at me, knowingly at what’s about to happen.

I take three hops back. I raise my left-hand high, pausing for a faint smile before hurling it down, pulling all remaining ripper blades into the centre of our makeshift arena, and tearing boss pig asunder. Its previous protecting veil now seemingly completely useless.

No sooner did the blades tear through him, did the suicidal orcs that had been endlessly running into the defensive ripper wall while we fought, turn tail and run, scattering in every direction to the thunderous collapse of their ‘undisputed ruler’.

“That’ll do pig. That’ll do.”

...Really?

“Seemed appropriate.”

I... guess it is. AE, how long until cheat mode ends?

[** Eight minutes, thirty-three seconds **]

Good. Once it ends, I’ll consume some of the boss pig and store its corpse. I’m certain Elder Faltus will want this one, after I harvest its core I mean--

[** Gigboara does not contain an essence stone **]

Because it’s not a dungeon creature, of course. I forgot. Wait what? Only five-hundred EXP? What’s up with that?

[** Essence tonic expiration **] [** Difficulty penalty point-zero-zero-one **]

Hold up a moment; that wasn’t an easy fight!

[** Gigboara could have been slain in a single spell **]

...If I had chosen to do so when it went to pull up the tree. Ugh. Fairpoint.

[** Territory acclimation now possible **] [** Do you wish to claim the territory, Lova? **]

Can we do that?

[** Correct **]

Should we do that? …Show me what you know about ‘Territory acclimation’.

[** Displaying to optic-nerve interface **]

...I see. So we get that ‘Aura of Entitlement’ buff which allows us to impose both rules and laws on the land, but they’re only active when we are in the territory. We also get command of the fanatical orcs, as they’re the primary species that occupy the region.

“Hm… A personal army?”

Nope. Nuh-uh. Honestly, there’s no point taking it. It sounds like it’ll be an absolute ball ache to explain to everyone why I suddenly have an army of suicidal orcs following me everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, it would undoubtedly make Aslogia more interesting, for sure, but no to that all the same.

Well, it looks like cheat mode is wearing off—time to pack it up and head back.

*Zip*