Dante was pretty sure the loot channel was around two seconds. They might not reach him in that time, but a spear will. That might interrupt it. It won’t take more than a few more seconds after that for them to kill him and then loot the Boarc.

With no other options, Dante raised his fists again. He can buy more time this way.

“Going to fight? Against us?” the orc in front said, turning towards his companions. “I mean I get you’re waiting for your buds, but it won’t matter. All of you will be tired, and all of us are pretty fresh. Do you understand where I’m coming from?”

“No, I do not. Please explain it to me, in interact detail, and preferably over the next few minutes,” Dante replied, spitting the longest words he knew for as much time as possible.

That didn’t make them very happy. Before the orcs charged at him however, one of them stepped out with her hands raised. Her skin was silver and she had her brunette hair in a ponytail. “Let me try, please.”

Her friends gave her a questioning look. After looking at each other they grunted their approval. “Make it quick,” the one in the lead said.

She turned towards Nilbog with obvious relief. “Hey, I’m Sunny D. What’s your name?”

That caught Dante off guard. She was either really polite, or she was talking to him like he was a lost child.

“Sunny D as in the drink?”

“The one and only!”

He went with the first. No one with that name could possibly be a bad person. Besides, the longer he talked the more time he bought.

“Dante.”

“Dante as in Dante’s Inferno?”

“Uh, no, just Dante. I was in a bit of a rush, so when the game asked me what my name is, I just responded with my—”

“Sunny, that’s not quick!” one of the orcs barked behind her.

Ops. Subtlety was never Dante's strong point. Wasting time saying useless things was Sai's thing, not Dante's.

“Okay okay,” she said, turning towards them and back to Dante. “Don’t take it personal, please, but think about it. If you fight us, you’ll lose the loot and your life, putting your teammates behind for two hours. If you walk away, on the other hand, you’ll be able to fight again with your teammates!”

Dante gave it his best I’m thinking about it look, which included pressing his eyebrows together and rubbing his chin.

Of course, it was totally out of the question.

“Okay, How about this—I’ll give you my spear. All you have to do is walk away.” Before Dante could respond, one of her friends walked past her. She caught his hand. “Tin Tin, he’s part of Bloody Hound’s party! Stealing loot is one thing, but ganging up on one noob and taking his loot, after he soloed a monster, that’s just crooked!”

Shit. How did everyone know he was a noob? He didn’t look that clueless, did he?

“Uh-uh, and what if this was the glorious Bloody Hound in our spot. You think she would hesitate?”

“That’s different.”

“How is that different?”

“She’s stronger than both you and me combined. She will get revenge, if not today, then tomorrow, and it won’t be pretty. Trust me, I’ve—”

Tin Tin yanked his hands away. “It’s been a year since I’ve last heard of her, and the first thing she does is lose both duels.” The rest of the orcs took the cue. They spread out in front of Dante with their spears raised, but they were barely on his radar.

The downcast look Sunny gave Dante baffled him. How could she possibly feel so much for a stranger like him? She even bought him a full minute! It didn’t make any sense. It made even less when her sorrowful look became resolved. She casually jogged past Tin Tin.

For some reason, no one reacted. Not Tin Tin, not his party, nor Dante himself, who just stared as she came towards him. II was novel, how the wind and the swaying of the branches stilled as Sunny stopped by Dante’s side and turned, raising her own spear against her party.

“I’m sorry, Tin Tin. If my guts are telling me right, then I won’t get anywhere by fighting with you,” she said, giving him a nod. “Please don’t hold it against me.”

“I won’t,” Tin Tin replied, surprisingly stoic. Either he was abnormally understanding, or he—

Flames erupted from his body, fully engulfing him. The flames slide down his spear, turning it orange as it absorbed the heat. Two red dots shinned where his eyes were supposed to have been. “You saved me the time of booting you, really,” he said, shrugging. “I mean, really, level 2 and you can’t use mana yet?”

Dante’s fears were confirmed as the rest of Tin Tin’s gang activated their powers. The larger of the three caused the ground under him to press down as small, brown pebbles appeared around him. A faint layer of brown mist covered his skin.

The orc on Tin Tin’s left side had a see-through tornado rise from their feet to their heads. Strong winds gushed from him. The one on Tin Tin’s side had the same tornado rise up, but instead of solely covering his body a decent portion of it wrapped around his spear in a spiral.

Earth, fire, air. Other than water, they had the full combo. Tin Tin's and the air orcs skills were obvious, but the other two remained a mystery.

“To unlock your mana you need to do something personal,” Sunny said, not batting an eye, “Tin Tin got it when he killed his first monster, and The Bloody Hound got it when she fought a worthy adversary.

It wouldn’t hurt to give it another try. Dante gulped the deepest breath of his life, took a single step forward, and roared.

No fire came out, unfortunately. It did cause all the orcs to charge simultaneously, though, which arguably did more harm than good.

The fiery figure of Tin Tin dashed towards Dante. Probably a defensive skill. Tin Tin looked more like he was made of flames rather than flesh. Dante had to prepare to have his hits be shrugged off.

“And Sunny,” she said, jumping in front of Dante before he set off, “Is unlocked when she does something proper!” She raised her spear into the air as bright blue water gushed from her into it. She struck the ground, causing a massive wave to rise.

Tin Tin was too close to move out of the way. He crashed into it. The bright red flames were lessened to a dim glow as water vapor exploded everywhere. The surprise on his face was clear. His movement was slowed to a halt, but he still reached for the defenseless Sunny. She wasn’t able to recover in time.

Dante leaped in from the side, connecting his right fist with Tin Tin’s face. Dante followed it up with a quick left-right. It was a good, direct combo to the head, but Tin Tin still managed to shrug it off. He stepped back and thrust at Dante.

The orcs coming around the wave caused Dante to chase Tin Tin. Getting surrounded will instantly finish this fight. Without any intention of blocking, Dante jumped forward, intertwined his fingers together, and smashed Tin Tin right in the face. Tin Tin's spear bore a hole into Dante’s ribs, sizzling his skin, but the hurt was well worth it. Tin Tin struck the ground and bounced off. That would give Dante and Sunny a few extra seconds.

Before the pain reached Dante turned to the side. Sunny turned to meet the one that rounded on the left side of the wave, which put Dante in a very precarious position. The earth enchanted orc wasn’t something he could stop, but neither could he step away and having him crash into Sunny’s back.

So Dante stomped his feet down and swung his fists. Not at his head, that looked solid as rock, but the spear that reached for Dante’s chest.

It connected, but it didn’t as well as he had hoped work. There was too much power behind the spear for Dante to be able to turn it much. It went through Dante’s shoulder and stuck out on the other side.

Ignoring the burn that spread through his left side Dante held the spear with both hands. He twisted his body for a kick with his entire weight behind it. His foot connected with the enemy orcs stomach.

Nothing happened. The enemy orc barely moved an inch back. With a roar of his own he swung his spear with Dante in it. It dislodged mid-way and sent Dante rolling through the ground. By the time Dante got his eyes back up the spear was a few feet away from his face. He fell back, letting it pierce the ground instead of his skull, and before he could get his guard up Dante took a kick to the stomach. It sent him scraping against the ground, lost for breath.

Breathing. Is. Over. Rated. Dante rolled back, avoiding a stomp. He kicked up, hitting the orcs nuts, and jumped back to finally get that breath in as the enemy wheezed. Reducing the pain of a groin hit by 50% was like cutting infinity by half—it still hurt like hell. It gave Dante enough time to get to his feet.

He glanced at Sunny just in time to see her take a fatal hit of her own. The third orc that Dante had forgotten about had jumped above the wave. He left a deep gash on Sunny’s back as he came down. She tried to retreat from the two of them to no avail. They were far too quick.

Things weren’t going well. Kristina was taking her sweet time, and Dante wasn’t sure who was angrier—the orc he hit in the groin, or the Tin Tin that stood up with the flames reignited.

It was Tin Tin. He charged first, putting Dante at a loss. He was exhausted to the bone, had two holes in him, and his left arm was frankly gone. It took all his effort to raise his right fist as Tin Tin charged at him. His 16% stat increase from Brawler barely mattered at this point.

Dante tried catching the spear with the single hand he had left as Tin Tin thrust at him, which was understandably stupid. The heated spear scalded Dante’s palm. Worse yet, the tip made another hole in Dante’s chest. Tin Tin twisted his spear, smiling triumphantly as blood dripped out of Dante’s mouth.

“Lucky idiot you think—”

Dante pulled the spear further in, dragging Tin Tin with it. Tin Tin tripped forward straight into a headbutt from Dante. He struck the ground face first. The flames licked Dante’s forehead, leaving it noticeably coarse. It burned his foot as well when Dante stomped Tin Tin’s head, but that too was well worth the damage. Before Dante could stomp for a second time someone’s fist connected with his face, and boy were they strong. Dante flew a couple of feet into the air and dropped dead.

Well, almost. He struggled on, keeping consciousness as he bled out. Sunny had already fallen. It was mostly over. Dante stood up, wiping his cheeks. Almost. He tapped the spear sticking out of his chest. “You want—oh shit, I guess you do,” Dante mumbled, frowning as the four of them ran at him. That wasn’t very fair of them.

Dante heard a whistling sound. With a sigh, he looked behind him to see a flaming red spear fly so close to his face that he felt the heat on his eyelashes. It was going to land in front of him. Dante hoped it wouldn’t explode—it would have been tragic if Dante survived all of this time just to be killed by his own team.

All four orcs had the same thought in their mind. They stopped in their track and jumped back.

The spear struck the ground, but instead of exploding a level 2 Kristina materialized out of the flames. She picked the spear and raised it over her shoulder, the flames once again covering it to the tip. With only a second delay since her landing, she tossed the spear, striking the earth enchanted orc straight in the face. This time it did explode. He tumbled backward. It might not have killed him but it sure put him out of the fight for a few seconds.

Having tossed her only weapon the orcs dug their feet into the ground and sprinted back at Kristina. The completely air enchanted orc burst forward.

“Please don’t do—” Dante began to say too late. Kristina reached behind her, clutched the spear sticking out of him, yanked it out, and parried the enemy thrust with a single smooth movement. The orc flew by with a deep gash on his neck.

Only Tin Tin and the other air orc were left, and both were attacking Kristina at the same time. Tin Tin’s body light into flames again, and the other orc thrust forward, causing the spiral of air flowing through his spear lunch forward as a projectile.

Dante wondered what she was going to do, which was a mistake. Instead of wondering, Dante should have been moving. Kristina flipped backward, dodging the projectile. It went under her and struck Dante into the chest, bearing another hole in him.

He was 130% dead, but his usefulness in Kristina’s eyes wasn’t over.

Just as against Skan she struck her spear to the ground, using its flexibility for extra leverage. She launched back into the air, landing on Dante’s shoulder’s mid-fall, and immediately leaped off, using Dante’s height to help her jump over Tin Tin. While mid-air wind gathered into her body, giving her a high burst of speed.

Without knowing Kristina could use air the enemy could not possibly expect the sudden increase in speed. She sky dove the poor batard's skull.

That was when Dante finally died. In the darkness and the abrupt that came over Dante, a single table popped up.

You have completed your personal challenge. You may now use mana.