The Orcs were perplexed by the sudden onslaught of monsters. Instead of goblins, they were suddenly defending against a surprise ambush of undead rising from the ground. Moreover, this was just the beginning as Jin had made it a free for all for his monsters to attack. (Some joked that there was hidden competition to see which monster or group of monsters could get the most kills and the System would reward them.)
At the same time, the werejackals and werecats had taken the fight to the orcs who were still in the sewers. Their speed and occasional spell casting made short work of the brutish orcs. Minotaurs of various classes, the Fanatics, Maids and Cowboys clashed head on with the Fire Orcs warriors in the open city squares who welcomed the challenge. Jin had yet to introduce them formally into any dungeons so this fight was a great opportunity for them to exercise out all the frustrations they had for some time.
The emergence of reinforcement also provided some breather for the zombies. Half Ghoul Lord Derek also summoned his latest creation onto the battlefield. The Orc abominations, or as he liked to call them ‘Zomorks’. Unfortunately, Jin was unhappy with the rebranding of the entire class of orc zombie abominations although his suggestion to refer to them as ‘Orc Zombs’ was just as bad.
In any case, the Zomorks/Orc Zombs were truly frightening for the orcs to battle. As they were made from various parts of orcs, Half Ghoul Derek purposely strengthened their muscles by at least two fold by combining it with the tissue samples from other races. To the normal Orc Warriors, this alone would prove to be a challenge. However, that was not the end. Because there was nothing to limiting Half Ghoul Lord Derek to the normal anatomy of their original race, Half Ghoul Derek experimented by introducing many styles. Three armed, Four armed, Six Legged, Two Head, Double Full Upper (Both front and back) and many other variations which made the bravest of orcs shook in fear when they encountered such abominations.
“At this rate, Half Ghoul Derek could potentially turn out to be as crazy as Ayse. Maybe we should limit his creativity a bit, or at least make sure he does not overdo it.” Jin overlooked the battlefield and also got some shivers looking at the Orc Zombs as he asked Kraft to help tighten his flexible body armour a little.
Kraft gladly helped as he was the one that pointed out that Jin had to go into battle in style. Since he represented the ‘masked humanoids’ side, he would have to work on his image and do more than the usual shirt and pants he always had been wearing. Jin reluctantly agreed although truth be told, it was more because it was King Hamu they were going to be dealing with and being a mere Grade 7, Jin was starting to have doubts if he was ready to face him. The more armour he got on him, the safer he started to feel.
———–
Therefore he had purposely created Another Jin tasking him to spend his time researching right combinations of inscriptions to be used for the operation ahead. When Qiu Yue heard about it, she could not help but decided to chip in. “I believe he’d like this shirt!” Qiu Yue said when picking up one of the only grey shirts from of the whole selection.
“Nah, the cutting on the shoulders would make it a bit hard to move during battle. I did try it.” Another Jin said as he dismissed the shirt he chose.
“But Jin will like the design!” Qiu Yue replied back with a pout on her face which Another Jin could not deny. For her own sanity, she treated Another Jin as an entirely different person even though Another Jin and Jin were technically the same person altogether. Another Jin could not resist her cuteness but at the same time laughed bitterly when she said that.
“Sure, he would like the design. After all, I also really do like the design. Nevertheless, it is no good in battle!” Another Jin tried to make Qiu Yue see the fact that they were the same person but she was not making any effort to correct it.
“Then let’s simply adjust it. Your adorable Red Pandas can do that, right?” The moment Qiu Yue mentioned ‘red pandas’ they came scurrying and surrounded her. It appeared they liked to be around Qiu Yue instinctively.
“Yes, we shall rework it so that it will be practical, comfortable while still to your liking too.” Red Panda licked their paws as it looked at Another Jin which he reluctantly nodded his head and followed the Red Panda into the fitting room.
———–
“I would not worry about that. There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. Also, if Derek really became as insane as Ayse, you would still have a potentially brilliant head researcher for Qiu Yue… there is no need for you to worry. My foxes will periodically oversee the experiments and they would inform me about any changes in his mentality. That is if I bother to reply you back, heh.” Kraft teased Jin at first, but noticing the other’s nervousness he quickly joked about it.
Jin’s body armour was finally adjusted to his comfort and the temporary inscriptions were in place which he thanked Kraft for his help. But without Jin noticing, Kraft had sneakily placed a bullet of his between the straps of the body armour. “Take care of this little guy, he is interesting and responsible enough to be our master.” Kraft sent his thought to the bullet as he patted Jin’s shoulder to confirm that he was done.
Jin later wore the grey shirt Qiu Yue selected for him over the armour which fitted really nicely mainly because the shirt was large enough to vest like armour. (And it did make Jin more manly than scrawny.)
———–
Meanwhile, the firefight at the Gob Gob castle became increasingly intense when the Orc’s Mechanised Walkers or aptly named Tin Cans came into the picture. But unlike the Northern Diversion where they have the Sandroku Golems to defend against the Tin Cans, there was none here. Hence, Jin had finally released something which he kept for hidden for a long period of time. He finally felt it was the proper time to use them.
The Robotic Arachnid and its robot crawlers.
It was initially under the possession of Duke Wolte, but the lazy slug decided to seat this battle out. After his core had been taken away by the System to power up the shield barrier in the Dungeon City Fortress, he argued that unless Jin provided him with another suitable method to power up, he would not assist in any fight. Jin did not particularly care much since he did not have that much information on him in the first place.
In addition, Lord Moloch recommended the same to Jin. It was no use patronising Duke Wolte. Had he not turned into a slug, he would be quite the powerhouse, but currently there was no time to search for a way around that. However, even in his feeble form, his military advice proved to be very useful. He was more than happy providing his expertise during the construction of the fort walls of the Western Coastal town of Gob Gob Si after Moloch had ‘convinced’ him. (Technically he was just bored, and was starting to feel bad for not doing too much) “Well, at the very least he is also contributing in some way in the Shaolin Instance, helping to provide some deadpan comedy relief for the cultivators,” Jin mentioned to Lord Moloch after he talked with Lord Wolte.
Besides, what better way to kill a Tin can then with another robot class? The Robotic Arachnid appeared out the muddy moats of the castle when the Fire Orcs were happily dishing out their projectiles against the dense magical barrier protecting the castle. The orcs were initially shocked when the legs of the Robotic Arachnid crept out like tentacles right in front of them.
The horrid mass of metal spikes immediately pierced some of the Tin Cans that were at the main gates of the castle and started absorbing its power source. They started to became immobile the longer the spike stuck onto them. It then proceeded to emerge out of the water to show its true form to the Fire Orcs. To further their shock, it immediately opened its belly and the same robot crawlers that had plagued Jin and his monsters were harassing the orcs.
With the System providing them with a better supply of power than the half broken dungeon core, the robot crawlers turned even deadlier than before. Their speed could not be outmatched by these ‘slow’ moving orcs so they aimed for the siege weapons first. In addition, the System had enhanced the Arachnid and her crawlers with the latest batch of metal which had a specification slightly inferior to the metal that was used for the M4 Sherman Tank. (They had to earn their keep to get better metal composition and this battle was one way to do so.)
The blades on their claws were able to pierce most of the orc’s armour easily and the power up also included the ability to shoot laser projectiles too, although the strength of the lasers could definitely be improved. In less than five minutes, they had destroyed the joints of the siege weapons, rendering most of them useless. The Orcs that were trained to kill humans and goblins, were not skilful enough to destroy these crawlers and suffered considerable losses.
However, that was all about to change when Orc King Hamu entered the capital via the same portal which the Wind Orc Air Force utilised.
Unfortunately, his welcome was not as grand as it should have been when an airship carrier was crashing towards the location he was being teleported to. King Hamu smiled as he finally had something to unleash his stored powers at. With a raise of his hand, A silhouette of Diabolos’ hand appeared, stopping the burning airship carrier crashing towards Hamu. All he needed was a squeeze of his palm and suddenly a black orb of energy enveloped the entire airship carrier, devouring it in a matter of seconds.
The black orb of energy turned into a spear like projectile with a twist of his finger and soon, dark red magical energy with green wind energy was seen spiralling around the projectile. No doubt, it was aimed at the dense barrier that had so far reflected and absorbed every single siege attack the Orcs had thrown at it.
“BANG!” Hou Fei’s surprise sniper shot still echoed in King Hamu’s ears as he felt the projectile biting into him, squeezing his flesh from the inside. However, the power of Garuda on his armour aided him and automatically pulled the bullet out without him having to move a muscle. He observed that piece of metal that pierced him and commanded the Winds of Garuda to crush the shell into dust. Despite the slight bleeding, King Hamu was able to quickly recover thanks to his powers peaking during the red moon.
In spite of that, he was annoyed that someone was honourless enough to target him when he was preoccupied. King Hamu conjured a spear out of energy and looked towards Hou Fei after Diabolos pointed to him where it came from. Hou Fei did not flinch and instead shamelessly shot another bullet at him again.
“Insolent!” King Hamu shouted as he threw the energised spear projectile at Hou Fei without any regards to the orcs that found the whereabouts of the shot and rushed to engage the enemy.
“Any time now System!!!” Hou Fei yelled as he fired one final shot towards King Hamu before the System created a portal on the floor, allowing gravity to do the work. Hou Fei freefall into the Dungeon Maker and sadly no one was there to catch him. Thankfully, his body still remembered the training from his youth. Hou Fei automatically curled up while holding his beloved rifle as he slammed on the floor. (Separately, the building he was on exploded from the energised spear attack and took the surrounding few blocks out too, eliminating dozens of orcs and some of Jin’s monsters with it.)
“Oof! You could have given me a better landing spot.” Hou Fei groaned with pain as he slowly got up. “I am not as young as I was, to suffer this kind of shit.” Hou Fei exhaled loudly from the pain while using his rifle as a support to stand up. He then gave an ‘okay’ sign to Jin which made the both grinned widely.
Out of the three bullets that Hou Fei shot, two managed to hit King Hamu. The first was at his chest area and the other was his left shoulder which King Hamu did not evade as the energised spear projectile blocked his peripheral vision. Naturally, King Hamu cursed as the winds of Garuda took the bullet out of his left shoulder again but he did not know that the shots that fired were not just simple copper bullets filled with gunpowder.
Those bullets were specially made by Hou Fei whose clan was well known for their research on poisons. How well would it work on a being belonging to a different race? Only time could tell. Still, he believed it should worked well enough. As this should be the first time the Orc King encountered this kind of weapon projectile which moved faster than an arrow but slower than the laser projectiles, the group would believe he would ignore the wound he received.
Besides, Hamu would not be expecting it since he had the winds of Garuda imbued into his armour but this shot could only be prepared and factored into the operation because Ayse leaked the news about the demise of Red Hurricane. (Kraft really did a good job getting all the information he could get, in a rather friendly way, since she was already cooperative.) If not for their ample preparations, the shots would not have been able to counter the winds of Garuda.
Starting to get a little suspicious about the extent of Garuda’s powers, King Hamu decided to deal with the high level magical barrier up close instead of remaining a possible stationary target for other goblins or humanoids to attack him. Unlike the newly acquired powers of the Shaitan Noble of Wind, the powers granted to him by Diabolos have already become a part of him and he trusted them wholeheartedly.
Alas, that itself was another trap waiting to be sprung by Jin and the others.
The moment Orc King Hamu got close enough to the magical barrier, the barrier instantly disappeared and transferred itself to surround Orc King Hamu, trapping him within the dense magical barrier. Peppers who was channelling her magic into the ritual, was smiling at herself as it happened and felt that the orcs were simply too predictable. (No, Peppers, you are just too sly.)
The moment King Hamu became a stationary target in the air yet again, he noticed a line of weird looking animal or perhaps bizarre looking monsters on the roof parapet, looking at him as if they want a piece of him. They were none other than the werejackals and the werecats holding onto various weapons that were glowing with light. Those weapons had been emblazoned by Goblin King Sol himself who did not mind the work since he was brimming with vitality all thanks to Jin.
Right Hand Oku and Yellow Ice who managed to catch up with King Hamu saw the scene at the castle and decided to aid their King in his defence. However, that sentiment only applied to Right Hand Oku as Yellow Ice sent Cross out of his shadow to shoot a bolt from his crossbow. Oku blocked it almost immediately with his gauntlet and sneered at Yellow Ice.
“I knew I smell something fishy ever since Ayse began to propose the plan. Whether you are in cahoots or not, that is irrelevant at this point. Your current actions have betrayed you.” Oku raised his hand and the same black energy orb appeared, floating above his armoured hand. “Unfortunately for you, the King has prepared backup plans to ensure that all traitors would be dealt with extreme prejudice.”
The Black Orb vibrated and the Fire Orcs that were gathered outside the castle immediately had a black hand mark visible on their necks. Oku had been bestowed with a certain degree of powers from King Hamu himself. One of them was the command over the leashes he had created. With just a point from Oku, the Fire Orcs blindly charged towards Yellow Ice.
“Go, do what you must in order to let the goblin allies win.” Yellow Ice ordered as he stomped his feet and an ice hand emerged from the ground, grabbing Cross and throwing him towards Oku who was trying to run towards Hamu.
“…And make me King.” Yellow Ice smirked as he could finally vent his frustrations on the orcs. A fog of mist had already started to materialise around the possessed Fire Orcs.
“I will not fail you, My King!!!” Cross already reloaded his crossbow and held his dagger under the crossbow while maintaining his aim at Oku as he flew towards the Right Hand.
