Chapter 7 [Face Off]

"Huuup!"

Swish~

"Haaaa!"

Swish~

Inside the dimly lit cave a topless Alph continuously swung a rusted sword as beads of sweat rolled down his body.

Over the course of time his originally skinny body had gained some muscles and now he had a lean but well defined build.

After swinging the sword for quite a while, he threw it on the side and sat on a wooden stool.

He picked up a wooden cup, dipped it in a bucket filled with water, and scooped out some water before drinking it.

Savoring the sweet liquid, Alph drank a couple mouthfuls before putting the cup back.

It had been about two weeks since Dane had entered character development and Alph had started his caveman life.

Surprisingly the days had passed by quite peacefully.

During the initial week, Alph had been constantly tense. Always worrying about what might happen next, but after a week of nothing major happening he had gotten quite relaxed for some reason.

He didn't know why, he could swear that such terrifying traumas would take some time to heal, but his mind was now completely at ease.

The mental scars which should have been left behind were washed away by an unknown force.

However he still didn't let himself become too relaxed, lest he end up getting killed for real.

With the orc warrior, whome he liked to call Big Guy, basic manual taak like making makeshift tools and furniture were easily accomplished.

Hunting, butchering, cleaning and cooking were also taken care of by Big Guy, leaving him and the Draylion with nothing else to do.

The Draylion had been lazing around in the cave, near the entrance, to make sure no monster or beast could sneakily invade the cave but till now no stray beast or creature had approached the cave.

Bored, Alph had busied himself by exercising and practicing with the rusted sword he had gotten from a goblin warrior while also occasionally messing around with the Grimoire System.

By now, he had found out he various configurations that he could do with system along with hints on how to possibly unlock the rest of it's functions.

It was simple, he just had to bind more Grimoires to the system and as for the configurations, he found out that currently no matter how many Grimoires he might possess he could only equip one Grimoire at a time.

Fortunately there was an option to quickly switch Grimoires, he just had to select a keyword for the Grimoire and whenever he wanted to equip that Grimoire just say the keyword.

There were a few more configurations that could help the user in using the system with more ease but all in all the system didn't seem to do much aside from letting him use the Grimoire without being forced to comply to it's ridiculous clauses.

Although his life in the cave had been very comfortable and sometimes even boring Alph didn't dare become overconfident and venture outside.

He had still decided to stick with his initial plan and wait for Dane to complete his character development before going out.

As he was stretching his muscles, sounds of heavy footsteps reached his ear.

He knew that it was the big guy without even looking since, although not like Dane, all of his slaves shared a mental connection with him which was why a dumb monster like orc could perform hunan-like activities.

Through the mental connection he could also distinguish their presence and emotions, and figure out if any of his slaves were engaged in combtat, died, were injured, etc

The Orc walked inside and picked up one of the torches Alph had made, they were all stuck on the wall to make light.

Alph had commanded it to hunt, butcher, clean and cook an animal.

He had specifically told it which animal to hunt because out of all the other beasts around the area, the reindeer-like animal's meat tasted the best and he was also not very fond of eating meat of carnivorous animals.

Soon, the orc walked out with the flaming torch in it's hand.

Alph looked at the huge and muscular back of the orc warrior as it walked out and couldn't help but remember the last meal.

Like the water, the meat from animals of this world had a very unique taste and he couldn't get tired of it no matter how many times he ate it.

"Hmmm~" Alph leaned back and relaxed while waiting for the delicious dinner to be prepared.

.....

In a bush outside the cave, Kane and party were currently planning their next route of action.

"First we will have to verify if the orc is alone or if there is a group of orcs with it. Once we are certain of the situation we can lure it, or them, out and engage them in an open area." Kane sat on the ground and spoke after mentally calculating various options.

Charging blindly inside was the worst possible method of doing things and as an experienced adventurer proficiency meant everything to Kane.

"Grrr! I don't care! Let's just get on with it already!" Raiden however was the exact opposite, he was someone who could only think with an opponent in front him.

"It's out!" Mokuzen interjected and pointed towards the cave.

The orc warrior had walked out of the cave with a torch in it's hand.

"Is it the same one as before?" Saila who couldn't see clearly asked.

"It appears to be so" Kane noded and kept observing the orc.

The orc walked to a certain area and sat down in front of a small pit filled with dry wood and surrounded with stones.

It lit up the dry wood inside with the torch and let it burn while it started to skewer the pieces of meat with pointed wooden sticks.

After a couple of minutes it was done skewering and started to roast them on the crude bonfire.

"Raiden, it appears that it's about time for us to act" Kane glanced at the lone orc before looking at Raiden.

"Now we are talking!" Raiden was, as usual, ready to charge straight in to the battle.

"But what if there are more orcs in the cave?" Saila added with a worried voice.

"Its fine, I'm now fairly certain that the orc is alone. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense for an intelligent orc of this degree to go about doing everything by itself," Kane said before explaining further, "Intelligent orcs are arrogant creatures, they refuse to follow traditional orc rules and mostly leave their tribes to join bigger tribes or orc armies under an orc chief or an orc lord. Intelligent orcs almost always occupy special positions and are allocated underlings to fulfil their roles, so I'm fairly certain that this particular one is still searching for a tribe or army to join!"

"Huah! Then let's just get on with it!" Said Raiden as he picked up his silver battle axe, ready to lunge at the orc.

"Alright, then let's just go with the usual strategy" Kane also picked up his silver long bow and walked to a place where he could get a perfect aim of the orc.

Mokuzen jumped on the trees and disappeared among the branches while Saila and Riri both started chanting spell's.

"Guardian's Strength! Protector's Will! Untiring and Unfailing!" Saila casted two first circle and one second circle support spells causing Raidens body to start emitting a faint holy aura.

"It's done, Fight hard Raiden! We will make sure no more villages are burned by orcs!" Saila cheered with a determined expression making Raiden overflow with fighting spirit.

Meanwhile Riri didn't cast any spells and instead stored a Flame Bomb and a Lightning Spear spell in her staff, causing the gem embedded on the staff's tip to start glowing.

It was the special ability of her staff which allowed the user to store up to two third circle spells for an hour.

"Don't over do it Saila~ you still need to heal our orc if he gets injured while fighting the other one!" She didnt forget to tease Saila and Raiden once the preparations were complete.

"Ugh! Who are you calling an orc!" Raiden felt frustrated, why couldn't Riri be more like Saila?

She is so kind and gentle, always cheering him on when he goes to battle.

"Hmph!" Without wasting any more time, Raiden walked out of the hiding spot and approached the orc openly.

He didn't even try to take it by surprise, he needed an outlet to vent out the fighting spirit and frustration clashing inside him.

"You! Get ready to die!" He pointed his silver battle ave at the orc who was now looking and shouted.

"Gwaaakh! The orc also roared at Raiden and picked up it's large sword from the ground.

However the orc didn't attack and instead assumed a battle stance as a savage red aura started flowing from it's body.

"Battle Aura! Nice!" A huge grin appeared on Raiden's face and he immediately charged towards the orc.

Boom!

His sprint caused the ground he stepped on to crack and in a flash he appeared before the orc.

Woosh!

Raiden swung the battle axe at the orc's neck in a bid to behead it but the it only cut through empty air as the orc swiftly dodged it.

Taking advantage of the situation, the orc spun it's body and delivered a heel kick on Raiden's abdomen.

The kick contained both the power of it's muscles and the momentum from the spin which doubled the amount of damage it could inflict.

Bang!

Raiden was thrown twenty feets back by the force of it's kick.

Once he steadied his body, blood dripped from his mouth indicating that the kick had caused serious internal injuries.

"Cough! That was a good one! seems like I will have to get serious now!" Raiden was still grinning.

If it wasn't for the support spells casted by Saila, Raiden might have knocked out from that kick.

"Internal Healing!" Saila, who had been observing from behind the bushes casted a 2nd circle spell which immediately started to mend Raiden's internal injuries.

Raiden gave her a look of gratitude before focusing on the orc again.

The orc in front of him wasn't like any other orc warrior, it might be even stronger than orc champion if it could get better equipment.

"Huoo- Let's Go!" Raiden shouted and a silver aura erupted from his body.

"Mountain Fall!" He leaped in the air towards the orc with tremendous speed and momentum.

The orc tightened it's body and lowered it's center of gravity, seemingly intending to meet the attack head on.

Bang!

A shining silver battle axe and a black giant sword enveloped with red aura collided, resulting in an explosion of wind and dust.

"Now!" With his battle axe locked against the orc's sword, Raiden roared.

Crackle!

A long spear made out of lightning immediately descended on the orc causing it's body to stiffen with pain.

Splat!

A glowing silver arrow pierced the orc's left shoulder and almost simultaneously a shadow leaped down from a nearby tree, dashing towards the orc.

Mukuzen's whole body was shrouded in shadow and the twin blades in his hand erupted in flames as they cut through the air, aiming at the orc's wide open back.

At that point, Raiden immediately jumped back and another shining arrow shot out from behind him

Boom!

As death seemed eminent for the orc a huge burst of wind suddenly errupted around the it, blowing away Mokuzen and changing the trajectory of the silver arrow.

"Enough!" A calm but loud voice sounded from the cave's direction.

Raiden, Mokuzen, Kane, Saila and Riri were all stunned at the sudden change of events.

They looked towards the source of the voice and found a topless young man with unkempt black hair standing at the cave's entrance with a majestic Draylion standing beside him.

He looked at the cautious group and squinted his eyes, his demeanor was calm and composed.