A proud orc warrior

“Awayuki, go scout please.”

“Cheep!” (Roger that!)

The party found itself on a warm sand beach, a bright blood-red sun shining upon the crystal-clear sea. The water’s surface was calm, its waves almost non-existent. Even from where they were all standing, everyone could see a bunch of dark or light blue blobs either floating aimlessly in the sea or slowly rolling along the seabed. There were at least a dozen of these water slimes. Thankfully, they hadn’t noticed Tamashi and the rest, so they still had time to prepare.

The other side of the beach was adjacent to a sparse palm-tree forest. The trees had a weird large pink fruit growing from their branches instead of the usual coconuts.

Beyond the forest was located yet another beach, neighboring the endless ocean. They were on an island.

“Whoaaa, it’s totes like a paradise island!” Takemi exclaimed enthusiastically. “It’s a shame I haven’t brought my swimsuit.”

“You can buy that in the System store!” Upon hearing Takemi mention a swimsuit, Kengo immediately blurted that out, then covered his mouth in shock, carefully glancing over at Takemi.

She had an undisguised smirk playing on her lips, her amber eyes sparkling under the red sun as she looked at Kengo suggestively. Despite that, she failed to hide the slight, but noticeable, pink flush on her cheeks.

“Stop flirting and focus. And don’t even think about fighting the slimes in the water, you’d stand no chance.”

Tamashi emotionlessly broke their intimate moment, causing the two of them to look away in embarrassment.

Himawari politely chuckled, Mika shyly looked away, and Uyumi just pretended she hadn’t seen anything.

Just then, Tamashi received Awayuki’s message.

Cheep! Three orcs in the middle of the island, two armed with stone clubs, the third wielding a spiked iron mace. At least two hundred pufípers across the entire forest, and around fifty water slimes in the shallows.

Hmm, Tamashi pondered the plan in his mind, then instructed Awayuki, Okay, Awayuki, come back and gradually deal with the water slimes on this side of the island, conserving your mana. Slay no more than forty.

Tamashi then faced his team and spoke: “Alright everyone, here’s the plan.”

***

As Awayuki froze his fifth slime, then shattered it to pieces, Tamashi put his hand on Kengo’s shoulder and said: “We can begin.”

Nodding, Kengo summoned a huge piece of raw pork bought from the System store, then tossed it high into the air, as far as he could manage with Mika buffing his physique.

After a few seconds, when the piece of meat was almost at its highest point, Mika suddenly shouted: “Knockback!”

A powerful and barely visible force flew out of Mika’s wand, thin as a sheet of paper and appearing to be about two meters by two meters in size. When this spell—the Knockback level 1—hit the meat in the air, it knocked it back even further, causing it to fly several dozen more meters away, landing deep inside the forest.

For about fifteen minutes, nothing happened. A few pufípers flew by the pork on the ground but quickly grew disinterested. Then, finally, a large figure appeared. It was about two and a half meters tall, with grayish yellow skin and a fat belly. Its deep brown eyes were vigilant, looking around the area. Seeing that there didn’t appear to be any threats, it walked over to the pork, studying it. It poked it with its large club, sniffed it a few times, then even took a small bite. Finally satisfied and done with its inspection, it threw the meat over its shoulder and turned around, walking away.

However, it didn’t get far.

Almost simultaneously, an arrow hit it in the calf, and a small waterball—around ten centimeters in diameter—struck the back of its skull.

With a leg injury and a strong impact to the head, the orc stumbled and lost its balance, falling onto the beachy grass.

The orc instantly realized it had been ambushed.

It quickly retrieved its large stone club and stood up, only to find two humans—both wielding large swords—pouncing at it at once.

Having barely enough time to react, it only blocked the man’s strike, allowing the woman to cut its already injured leg at the thigh.

The pain made the orc fall to its knees, but the fight wasn’t over yet.

Now that the two humans had both struck, they were left almost defenseless.

Quickly swinging its heavy club, the orc aimed at the woman’s head, intending to crush it to a disgusting mush.

Unfortunately for the orc, its strike was too slow. Before it managed to land, another arrow and water ball flew towards it. The arrow hit the orc in the club-wielding arm, embedding itself in the orc’s muscular bicep. The water ball, while slightly off course, still landed on the edge of the stone club; with the help of the arrow, the club was knocked out of the orc’s hand.

Now, left wounded and defenseless, both the humans leaped forward once again with swords in hand.

However, the orc was not defeated yet.

With a powerful kick, it sent the woman flying a dozen meters back. While she managed to position her sword in front of her to block the kick, it was still a huge impact, causing her to roll on the ground and spit out a mouthful of blood.

A split second later, the orc shielded its neck from the man with its bare hand. Although it suffered a rather deep gash on its forearm, that was infinitely better than death. Then, it swung its right hand—the injured one—at the man, striking him in the chest.

Now that it had some freedom, the orc had two options: fight or flee. Unsurprisingly, it chose to fight. It was a proud orc warrior, how could it flee from a battle?

As it bent down to pick up its weapon, a sickly green ball of light suddenly hit its stomach. At first it was alarmed, but after seeing that it hadn’t injured it in any way, the orc simply ignored it, chasing after the man to finish him off.

But then, about two seconds later, the orc suddenly felt its muscles weaken for an unexplainable reason, causing it to slow down and almost stumble. Thinking it was blood loss, it continued its pursuit, not caring about the decrease in its strength.

The man was already starting to get up, but it was obvious that he was injured, a thin stream of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, while he struggled to catch his breath.

To the orc’s surprise, the man’s sword was gone, replaced by a large wooden shield instead. That made the man much harder to kill, causing slight hesitation to emerge in the orc’s heart.

I must kill the humans! it thought, even though it didn’t really know why. But it didn’t need a reason. It was a proud orc warrior. It knew nothing of retreat. Thus, it charged forward, bringing its club down on the man’s shield.

The impact was so powerful that the already kneeling man had to lower his body even further, nearly sprawled on the ground. He let out a struggling groan and stubbornly resisted, but the orc’s strength was superior to his. Thus he had no choice but to divert the club’s force to the side while rolling to the other, abandoning his shield in the process.

Not wanting to waste this opportunity, the orc once again charged at the man, who was now shamelessly running away.

Both of them were injured, but the orc was still slowly catching up, only a few meters behind the young human.

Suddenly, the human appeared to have slipped, falling onto his knees.

“RAAAGH!”

The orc didn’t waste a second, immediately bringing its club down, aiming at the top of the man’s skull. However, just as its strike was about to land, the human rolled to the side, narrowly escaping death.

Before the orc could react, the man slashed with his sword, which had appeared in his hand out of thin air, slicing deep into the orc’s unwounded leg’s ankle, almost severing its entire foot.

“GRRRAAAHK!”

The orc screamed out in agony and instantly lost its balance, falling onto the ground only about fifty centimeters away from the man.

The human male was already standing, looking at the orc from above with an exhausted but determined expression.

Gazing into the man’s eyes, mere moments before its imminent death, the orc should have felt nothing but pride. It had lost but never fled. Although it had been bested, it was by another warrior; the fact that the human was of a different race shouldn’t have mattered to the orc. He had bravely fought until his last breath, honoring its tribe and ancestors.

So why? Why was it that the orc felt indescribable hatred towards human warriors? To the brave one who had defeated it. The admiration for the brave human was replaced by abhorrence and rage.

Kill... I must kill the human.

This thought alarmed the orc. How could it be thinking something so shameless after being fairly defeated?

The man’s sword proceeded to pierce the orc’s eye, entering its brain. The orc was killed on the spot, its—or rather his—last feelings corrupted by wrath and shame.