The Giant!

Toma sees the person standing between the orc and himself, his eyes wide open.

Is he some kind of monster? He didn’t budge a single inch, with a strike that sent me flying earlier.

Standing like an immovable mountain, he was only wearing shorts, and he had the same strong, muscular body, maybe even stronger than the orc, his every muscle visible under his brown skin. His forearms were as big as the club of the orc; he was a 10-foot-tall giant.

Orc takes a few steps back, just at the presence of the giant, even the orc hesitates a bit. Orc’s hesitation was not just because of this giant’s physical strength, but also because the orc was getting overwhelmed by the pressure invisible aura surrounding him.

“Unnecessary violence is sin,” he says to the orc, of course orc doesn’t understand a word, he just growls at him.

“I am Storrik. Boy, can you stand up?” and offers a hand.

Toma sighs with relief; he is not a monster. He is human, who came to save us. Toma realises.

Toma looks at Storrik’s face, and from the looks, Storrik looks like a man in his thirties, with short black hair and a dense mustache that was well-maintained above his smiling lips.

“Yes, Thanks for saving us.” Toma takes his hand and stands up; he couldn’t help but notice Storrik’s giant, muscular frame. Mr.Storriks’ palm is at least double the size of Toma’s.

Elira notices the massive aura of Mr.Storrik, but Toma fails to notice it.

But before Elira could react -

Seeing a powerful foe, both the orcs activate their innate ability ‘BloodLust’.

In this world, as every species evolved, they have learned to use magicules, that is mana, for their survival, called innate ability. It is a form of magic species, but this doesn’t require incantation; this is like an evolutionary trait, engraved in their DNA. Even humans of this world are no exception to it.

Bloodlust dampens the ability to experience fear and amplifies the emotions of anger and rage, driving the body into fight mode, multiplying the physical strength of the orc. Their pupils shrink, red haze covers whites of their eyes, blood vessels under the skin bulge, throbbing with each heartbeat, and with each breath, a deep growl made the air around them heavier.

Toma and Elira feel a chill in their spine, but Storrik was just standing there calm and silent.

Both the orcs charge at Storrik, but he single-handedly just holds the arm of one orc before he can swing his wooden club, orc freezes in place with a single look in Storrik’s eyes. Second orc hits Storriks' shoulder with club, with force much greater than before under the effects of bloodlust. His wooden club shatters into pieces; it only manages to scratch Storriks’ skin.

After seeing his weapon shatter like that and Sotrrik’s eyes gazing into his soul, even under the influence of bloodlust, he runs off into the forest.

Cogs in Toma’s brain start to spin after seeing this. Storrik is strong; he is just playing with the orcs. I think we can survive this, and if he joins our party, I will have a walking fortress at my side. He thinks.

“Sorry, Mr.Sotrrik, but can you please kill these orcs for us?” Toma requests.

“No, I can’t break my oath; I will not use violence. But I can defend you,” Storrik replies.

What! He can end this fight instantly, still refusing to fight. Toma thinks in his mind.

I need to find a way to kill the orcs instantly; my strength is not enough. Earlier, I couldn’t even damage its skin. I can’t tell Elira to cast some spell; it might end up hurting Mr.Storrik.

What should I do? I can’t damage the orc from outside then… Yes, this might work! Toma thinks of a way to defeat the orcs.

After a pause of a few seconds, “That will do. I have a request, can you please hold Orc’s arms for a few moments ?” Toma asks.

“That I can do, ” Storrik says, and just hugs the orc, whose arm he was just holding in the air all this time, with both arms of the orc locked in by Storrik’s hug.

“I am just hugging you, this is not violence, it’s love. May Goddess Gracia bless your soul!” Storrik says his prayers.

The orc growls and roars, desperately tries to break free, but it is all in vain.

Toma takes this opportunity and thrusts his blade through the orc's open mouth, severing its spinal cord, killing it instantly as purple blood oozes out of the orc’s mouth. Storrik let go of the lifeless body of the orc.

“I am Toma.” He offers a handshake. “Once again, thank you for saving our lives,” Toma says.

“Mr.Storrik, Thanks for saving us!” Elira thanks him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you two here, today!” Storrik gives Toma a handshake and laughs with genuine happiness; their laughter fills the air.

“So, how did you find us? ”Elira asks Storrik.

“I was training on this cliff, and there I heard orcs’ voices, so I came to check,” he says.

Toma recognizes him; he saw him at the Bank that day. “You were there on the day of the Bank robbery, right?” he asks Mr.Storrik.

Storrik nods in affirmation.

He was the one who gave pat on Toma’s back that day, and Toma just fell flat-faced.

“I apologize to you for that day when I gave you a pat on the back and it ended up hurting you. This is the opportunity Goddess Gracia has granted me to correct my way.” Storrik says.

“No, no need to apologize, it was not intentional,” he says with an awkward smile.

“I know it is out of nowhere I am asking you, but can you show me your forbidden, cursed spell that you were casting in the bank?” Mr.Storrik asks with curiosity.

Toma remembers when his cube’s effect wore out. Whatever he spoke sounded gibberish to others, and Elira made up a story that I know some forbidden spell.

“Oh, that spell… that… spell….” Toma looks at the sky and laughs awkwardly, as if he is thinking about it.

I can’t tell him, I don’t know anything about it, no, there was no forbidden spell to begin with that was me, crying out for help. What should I tell him? Toma thinks.

Toma looks at Elira from the corner of his eyes, screaming Help me! In his mind.

She doesn’t get a hint.

“You ... you know thing is ... I can cast it once a year,” Toma says, still looking at the blue sky, afraid to see Mr.Storrik eye to eye out of fear that he would see through his lies.

I need to lie to him; I need him to become part of my party. If I tell him the truth, then he might think I am a weakling, was Toma’s thought behind it.

“What a big fat liar he is!” Elira thinks, staring at him with disappointment.

Elira asked Toma about it earlier when she was teaching him, and Toma told the truth behind it. Of course, because she was using a truth spell, so if Toma had lied, she would have known, and she would have abandoned him without teaching him anything.

Toma looks toward Elira, only to find that Elira is already staring at him. He quickly looks away. Hoping she won’t shatter his image built on lies, Elira decided to let go this time and didn’t say anything.

“If that is the thing, then it can’t be helped.” Mr.Storrik accepts his reason.

“Hurry up, Toma. We have to collect whispermint.” Elira says.

“Okay,” Toma says, obediently.

“Wait a moment,” Mr.Storrik says and picks a stone nearby and then smashes it to create a simple stone tool. With this tool, he skins the Orc in seconds and breaks all four canine teeth. After that, with a precise cut, he pulls out the heart from Orc’s chest.

Even after reading it in books, seeing all this for the first time, Toma vomits; on the other hand, Elira was observing quietly.

Storrik picks up the carcass and places it under the cliff, and with a single punch on the cliff's foot, the dirt covers the carcass, giving it a burial. Storrik prays for the orc in silence.

Then he turns back to Toma and Elira, picks up the canine teeth, orc hide, and orc heart. The orc’s heart crystallizes, its soft tissues turning solid.

“Take this Orc skin, and give it to Leatherworks; orc leather gives sturdier armor than normal leather armor. These canines can be crafted into accessories or sold. And most important is the heart, you can craft this into a scroll of Bloodlust. It is all yours!” and hand it over to Toma.

Toma first hesitates; “For you, violence was prohibited, right?”

“Helping someone harvest goods is not violence.” Mr.Storrik says.

“That is a twisted way to see things.” Toma thinks, and takes the freshly skinned skin of an orc, which was still warm, wet, and stained with purple blood, and hands over the heart and canines to Elira.

Toma wraps it in long, big leaves and vines and wears it as a backpack. He endures the stink of fresh orc skin by wrapping his shawl around his head, which helps.

In the meantime, Elira collects the whispermint in the area.

“Toma, we have enough whispermint, we can go back now,” she says with a smiling face.

But Toma lost himself in his thoughts. This smells awful. This world’s loot system is nothing like I imagined. Even when I read about it in Elira’s notes, it didn’t sound so bad, but this is -.

“Oi Toma, has Orc hit on your head or something?” Elira snaps him out of his thoughts.

“No, I am perfectly fine, Elira,” he lies to her. Orc has not hit his head, but he is not fine either.

Toma turns to Storrik. “Mr.Storrik, I have a request. Will you join our party?” Toma asks.

Elira interrupts Storrik before he replies, “Toma, we are getting late!” she exclaims.

Storrik smiles gently and agrees with her, “Elira is right, the sun is about to set. You guys should go back to Axcel. I will be camping out today for training. You can come to the Shrine anytime, and there we can discuss. May Goddess Gracia protect you!” Then he takes his leave and goes back to his training.

“At least tell me where the shrine is?” Toma calls for Mr.Storrik, but he doesn’t reply and vanishes in the thicket of the jungle.

Mr.Storrik saved our lives. It is rude to interrupt him like this. He would have felt bad. I will have Elira apologize to him next time we meet him. I hope he won’t deny my request after this, Toma thinks.

Elira and Toma also leave from forest and take the dirt road back to Axcel City.

“Why did you interrupt Elira?” Toma felt anger and disbelief; his eyebrows knitted together. Frustration was visible in his golden eyes.

“Thing is, Toma, I acted weird. I am not denying that, but I am against inviting him to the party.” Elira replies.

“Why, Elira? He is strong; he held two orcs with his bare hands!” Toma exclaims, he has a gut feeling that there has to be some reason for Elira to act the way she did. And he wanted to know.

“He is a berserker. Berserker is a sub-race of the human race, which never became part of the human society; they always lived as nomadic tribes. When some tribes started to destroy and pillage the lands and villages.” Elira’s voice grows heavy; something inside her mind stirs when saying this.

She continues, “The last emperor massacred nearly all of them to extinction on this continent. The current emperor made efforts to assimilate them into society to use them in the army for their exceptional strength, but still, people very much hate them.”

“But, do you hate him? ” Toma asks.

“I don’t want to argue, Toma. I know he is strong, but I don’t want to invite trouble, and this topic ends here!” says in a firm and cold voice and gives a unilateral full stop to the discussion; instead of answering Toma’s question, and starts walking ahead of Toma.

After this argument, both walk in silence to the city, give the orc skin to the Leatherworks, and then Toma comes back to his Inn, and Elira also goes back to her home without saying a single word.

Toma lies down in his bed, thinking of a solution to one question.

I need Mr.Storrik to join my party; he is strong. But, how am I going to convince Elira?

Toma ponders this question as he goes to sleep.