“Damn it, Eren! No kill-stealing, you **** thief.
Alas, it was too late.
The night sky in Lyon’s eyes lit up with purple lights as Eren used his weapon to attack once again. It was about to chop off the in-flight Orc Leader’s head. But then a D-Rank mana pulse was released followed by the orc getting covered in quicksilver.
The flying slash landed on the metal-like surface of the quicksilver that protected the orc and nullified Ere’s attack without showing any form of wear.
‘Orc Lord is here.’
Lyon and Eren both got wary of their surroundings all of a sudden as they both thought of the same thing. They dropped the idea of killing the Orc Leader and retreated to the outskirts of the camp.
Breeeeeee!
A mana-induced monster scream rang in the vicinity and suddenly an 8 feet Orc Lord appeared on the battlefield. He had finally decided to show himself after Team Altashia’s persistent killing of his tribe members.
This Orc Lord had the same piggish facial characteristics as his lower-ranked brethren. But somehow they looked more intimidating. He had a fresh scar on his face that looked like it was struggling to mend because of the foreign mana invasion. The scar had azure spots around its edges that seemed to be spreading outward.
The Orc Lord also had a straight posture unlike the Orc Leaders and Orc Soldiers. Furthermore, he stood like a typical military ranker, keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings while keeping his guard up. His grey hair was a mess. The skin around his neck looked haggard– clearly indicating that he had aged. But his eyes shone with a distinct intelligence that couldn’t be found in other orcs.
The Orc Lord looked around and saw the carnage that had been unleashed inside his tribe’s camp. He looked at the dead bodies of his comrades with stern eyes before observing all the humans that were trying to run.
“You humans… Kill all!”
With a deep and growling voice, the Orc Lord spoke in human language. He spread his mana sense and covered his surroundings with it. Low-ranking human rankers tried to flee from the battlefield when they were affected by the monster’s mana sense, which was full of his anger. Most of them got on their knees out of fear. And those who still managed to keep on running thought that their efforts were going to be in vain.
Sid’s condition didn’t improve even when he was an Ace ranker. His mental state is already disturbed by Eren. Getting caught in the monster’s mana sense worsened his condition and made him shiver with fright.
The Orc Lord on the other hand didn’t focus on anyone that seemed fragile to him. He focused his gaze on someone running away from him without getting affected by his mana sense at all.
“You… I’ll kill first!”
*****************
Eren immediately fled after he saw the Orc Leader was being protected by a D-Rank spell. He could tell that it was no ordinary spell. It was cast by someone who had progressed considerably in their knowledge of the elements. Plus, the mana pulse that was released told him that the monster was as strong as someone in the solid stage of the D-Rank.
Eren ran in a particular direction. The direction that would allow him to meet up with Altashia. Only she could handle someone like this monster. Duelling him would only delay or expedite their inevitable, which was their death.
It wasn’t long before he heard the monster’s proclamation that he would kill all the humans. Monsters could speak the human language after they had progressed in their evolution, provided they interacted with humans or held them captive in the past.
Some intelligent monster tribes had set up their own societal rules and customs that were not all that different from human customs. The tribe’s customs were all dependent on factors like the head of the tribe leading them, the number of intelligent entities in the tribe, and geographical factors among other things.
So it wasn’t surprising for Eren when the Orc Lord spoke the human language. But what surprised and stressed him were the next words that sounded ominous to him.
The next thing Eren felt was that he was in a quagmire in that he was running ahead. However, instead of progressing further, his actions seemed to have the opposite effect. He realized that the monster had zeroed in on him.
Eren stopped running when he realized that. And then turned around and zeroed on the monster who was looking at him a few meters away from him.
“Yo!”
Eren greeted the Orc Lord with a slight bow that he didn’t mean. He gripped one of his Shamshirs while taking out his smoke with the other hand. The butcher took a brief drag and released the smoke before adding more.
“What took you so long?”
The monster felt challenged by the butcher’s behaviour. To make him fall on his knees, he released all his D-Rank prowess and concentrated all his mana sense on him.
Eren sensed the pressure on his psyche increasing. He felt like he was submerged in a very deep ocean current and there was no way for him to reach the surface and breathe. He felt like he was going to lose control over his limbs– the feelings of helplessness increasing by the moment.
And yet, his facial expressions didn’t change. He raised his shaky hand and took another drag before speaking up.
“My man, come at me or leave me alone. What will it be?”
The monster took a while to understand what Eren was saying. He broke into his signature monster laughter when he did. He thumped his left chest hard with his right hand twice before replying:
“Name… Baran. You?”
Eren smiled back when he understood the gesture. The monsters would only tell their names to human rankers like this when they felt they deserved to know each other’s names. It was akin to acknowledging each other’s strengths. The monster had practically lowered himself when he stated his name to someone in Ace rank while he was an Orc Lord.
“Eren Idril!”
The monster nodded before responding with just one word.
“Die!”
