The orc commander flashed a sullen smile when he noticed Xiao Lin’s intentions. Instead of backing down, he yelled loudly, prompting the merfolk to tremble and scatter from all around him. He removed a large battle axe from the weapon rack beside him and dragged it toward Xiao Lin. Sparks were then produced from the friction rubbing against the ground.
The orc commander wanted a one-on-one duel!
Xiao Lin was pleasantly surprised since he was actually rather worried about how to deal with the merfolk surrounding him. Even though there were just weak little fry, their presence in large numbers would also be a headache.
Now that the path between the two had been completely cleared, the other orcs seemed to put a lot of confidence in their commander. Their attention was thus shifted to defense, because Xiao Lin had bought time for Cheng Ming to finally bring the others over the fortress wall.
As soon as that thought came up, the orc lifted up his battle axe with both hands and hacked down. Xiao Lin was about 10 meters away from the orc, but when the battle axe struck, a few large cracks immediately appeared on the ground and began spreading in all directions. As soon as Xiao Lin felt the slight vibration from under his feet some 10 meters away, his first instinct was to use his high agility to leap up and retreat to the stairs.
The orc grinned and accelerated all of a sudden. Despite its robust body, it shot out at an unimaginable speed, just like a cannonball.
Phantom Steps!
Although Xiao Lin was shocked, his footwork did not lag and he left an afterimage behind him. He had jumped down the stairs once more, but as soon as he settled, he noticed that his center of gravity was unstable and his body suffered from a very brief paralysis. When he looked up, the brown face of the orc commander was inching ever closer.
Xiao Lin could easily guess what would happen if the orc got a hold of him. The latter’s power was absolutely terrifying and there was no way Xiao Lin could face it head-on!
Flame Bullet!
He converted all his attribute values into intelligence and fired the flame bullet with all his strength. The orc commander’s approach was hindered slightly, but not much damage was caused because the orc’s defensive ability against magic was actually quite strong.
Things were getting tricky!
The Miracle skill finally faded after several consecutive uses. Self-created skills could not be used continuously, otherwise Xiao Lin would not have enough strength even under the influence of the Warbear Leather Armor’s fighting spirit.
Without the attribute conversion lent by his Miracle state, there were many risks in executing the Phantom Steps with his average strength. He immediately cast the Water Shield on himself, and even though its defensive effects were limited, it sufficed to reduce some pressure off the friction produced by the axe.
After several head-on clashes, Xiao Lin was clearly at a disadvantage. Although the sharpness of the Holy Soul Sword was neither the high-end nor the low-end of Bronze-rank weapons, the orc’s battle axe had a long handle and possessed a rather wide attack range. The training ground was very small as well, with the axe covering nearly a quarter of the area whenever it was swung by the orc. Such a situation made it impossible to do anything.
What scared Xiao Lin most was the move’s ability to paralyze him. The orc used battle axes to deliver strong hacks on the ground every once in a while, and even though Xiao Lin paid special attention to keep some distance in advance, he would still be caught by the vibration. It was a short-lived paralysis and he could not move at all during that short period of time, so the orc took advantage of its own explosiveness and rushed over.
Fortunately, Xiao Lin was also prepared. Whenever he was paralyzed, he would use flame bullets to stop the orc commander from advancing. Although the effect was limited, the paralysis did not last long either and he could break away while the orc was getting closer. Even so, continuously putting himself at risk would eventually land him into trouble.
The explosive power of that orc was too high and it was completely out of proportion to his physique. For the first time ever, even the Phantom Steps weakness was finally exposed, and Xiao Lin could not guarantee that he could constantly avoid all attacks.
A slight rubbing by the edge of the battle axe was almost as painful as getting sliced with a huge knife. After all, it was not a simulated battle. There was no health bar to determine victory or defeat, and the slightest injury had a big impact on the battle. The Warbear Leather Armor was considered weak in terms of pure defensive capabilities, and it was difficult to defend effectively against an extremely powerful orc.
After all, Xiao Lin’s attribute values were down to normal in his normal state. Hurting his arm would affect the strength of his next swing, and hurting his thigh would affect the effect of Phantom Step.
Such repeated actions maintained everything in a stalemate for about five minutes, after which the balance of battle gradually began shifting toward the orc’s favor. Even from the perspective of a bystander, Xiao Lin could be seen to be at the end of his battle.
Cheng Ming was dealing with a frenzied siege of orcs and merfolk on the top of the city. He did not have Xiao Lin’s agility nor did he have the Phantom Steps. He could not simply use his body technique to dodge attacks and avoid the besieged enemy, so he could not possibly help Xiao Lin even if he saw the latter’s crisis.
The undead swordsman Xiao Lin summoned with the Holy Soul Sword was also standing guard outside the city. The guy was unable to climb up. Xiao Lin could sense the guy’s presence in his consciousness and tried moving toward the gate, hopefully to get a chance to open the door and let the undead swordsman in, but the orc commander was not stupid. Wave after wave of more urgent attacks left Xiao Lin without any room for a breather.
Xiao Lin had one thing to rejoice about, and that was his bodily injuries becoming less severe as time went on. Several relatively shallow wounds had actually stopped bleeding, Xiao Lin remembered when Song Junlang gave him the dragon blood to drink. A certain automatic healing ability was gained after getting Elementary Vitality, and it was then that he could finally feel the powerful effects bestowed by it.
Even the orc commander could not control himself from showing a hint of surprise. He was actually more anxious than Xiao Lin, because the fortress was about to be breached. The longer he dragged on there, the worse the situation would become.
Xiao Lin racked his brains to think about whether any skill that he mastered could turn the situation around. Unfortunately, there were none. The Miracle skill could not be activated again in the near future, while Slashing was completely inappropriate for such intense battles. Furthermore, after using flame sword aura several times in a row when paving the way before, he was afraid to use it on a whim after noticing how much physical energy was used up.
There was still Replication, but that was his trump card. If he could copy the orc’s paralysis skills, there might be a chance he could change the situation.
Xiao Lin hesitated a little. He raised his head and glanced at the top of the city. More and more people were coming up, and there was a steady stream of screams from the fortress. In addition to the first team brought by Cheng Ming, the follow-up team finally began to attack.
Winning was all but certain as long as time dragged on. Xiao Lin did not think that the monitors would lose if they all attacked the orc commander at the same time.
