Open - Caught with his head down | Page 2

Were they thinking she was a threat to their safety? Leona wasn’t someone to beat around the bush. If she wanted them harm, she would have done so already. She grimaced, pushing those complicated thoughts to the back of her head. Listening to the conversation between Joen and Krieg, she raised one of her eyebrows in response. “King? So we have a king here? I wasn't aware of any kingdoms other than Falderen and Astorea nearby.” She asked with a soft smile drawn across her lips. After Joen made his way towards the forest first, she glanced at Krieg. “Did I say something wrong?” She asked with a low and hushed voice.

Regardless of his answer, the blonde simply shrugged and followed them along. She’d rather not get lost again or think about matters too much. Thinking was a pain in the butt, she’d rather just act. They pushed forward until Joen spoke up again, sharing with them orc base location. “Alright!” Excited by the prospect of enjoying some action, she walked faster than her party members. However, her steps suddenly came to a halt — she was clearly heading to the wrong direction. The blonde scratched her head before turning around to look at them. “North’s this way, right? Teehe.”

Eventually, they reached the enemy base and thanks to the elevated ground they could see most of the fort. Although it was rather crude in general, its size was beyond anything she had seen before. Realizing the enemy before them may not have been as easy to deal with, Leona’s laid back demeanor was gone in the blink of an eye. Her expression was neutral, and her eyes gazed at the fort in cold fury, despite their vibrant green.

In the center of the fort, there was a large campfire adorned with skulls from several species, most notably one of a beast akin to a dragon or reptile of some sort, hanging over the campfire. Near the campfire, there was a huge throne, bigger than any sort of seat on the fort. However, no one matching that size was around. The houses were made of a mix of rock, unrefined wood, and dried palm leaves. Skeletal furniture, adornments and pelts were common and several orcs patrolled the entire fort.

“Alright, this it. I’ll go ahead and get all their attention to me, since I’m sure that I can take the most damage out of us. That is, if you both decide to jump in, so you guys do what you feel like! I don’t mind hoggin’ all the glory, you know, but if I fight alone the quest reward is mine alone!” She looked back at Joen and Krieg with a large grin on her face. After turning to face the fort again, Leona ran forward and used the momentum to jump down to the fort.

Camaraderie, laughing and ceremonies were interrupted abruptly by a loud crash as Leona landed atop one of the crude huts. “HEEEEEEEEEEY. OVER HERE, YOU GREEN SHITSTAINS.” her voice boomed out in the entirety of the makeshift fort. “I HEARD YOU GUYS ARE WAITING FOR YOUR FRIENDS. GUESS WHAT!?” She gestured a line across her throat using her index finger. The orcs roared with rage, some preparing for battle already. Weapons drawn and bows ready to shoot, they slowly surrounded the blonde. “Good, that’s the spirit…” In response, Leona unsheathed her chained axes on her back.

Hidden

“Before your presence, I will lay down my sword.”

“Before my enemies, my rebellion is yours.”

“Guide me unto glory, Lheo, god of war.”

“Bathe my body in barbaric blood…”​

Adrastea

“ADRASTEAAAAAAAA!” Her berserk mode was triggered at the same time as her champion armor of Lheo enveloped her body. The helmet had a spartan design, and the entirety of the armor was rather light by looks alone. It had a mixed red and golden colors flowing like flames, with a a very light transparency to them that barely allowed to make out the girl inside the champion armor. In the helmet’s eye sockets, only two glowing orbs remained.

Plummeting down like a comet upon the enemy, Leona advanced, her chained axes flying at high speed and power, cleaving the orcs near her with each swing of her weapons. Most of their attacks were rendered useless by her champion armor, but some still managed to pierce her defenses. Ensnaring one of the orcs using her chains, Leona swung her weapon and smashed him into the campfire and bones, before using the orc as a makeshift flail to bring a literal inferno using a giant, burning, green skinned humanoid as a weapon to smash her enemies with.

While Leona kept the majority of the orcs occupied in the frontline, however, some of them headed towards the rest of the group since their position was revealed after the blonde decided to make her entrance with angery screaming. They approached, some shooting envenomed arrows while others tried to get into melee range and attack them using clubs and spears. In the distant forest it seemed something, or someone, was approaching the fort in a slow but steady pace.

 

Krieg noticed a notable shift in the elf's posture and tone after the fight. He was tense despite the fact that the battle was already over and he seemed to look at the girl with...disgust? He knows that she had deceived them, but it turned out well for the most part. He was so keen on helping save the girl, but now he looked as if he wanted nothing to do with her. So flip floppy this man was. Perhaps he was one of those people who played a bit too far into their role? When Leona asked if she did anything wrong he simply shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows really. I only knew the guy for a few minutes."

When Joen had informed them of where they needed to go Krieg was already moving in the designated path. However, he nearly missed their new female companion walking away in the opposite direction. He didn't bother saying anything as he watched the girl walk away and smirked when she turned around. At her question Krieg let out a hearty laugh.

'Yep. This is an interesting one all right.', he thought.

---​

Once they reached the fort, Krieg whistled at the sight. It matched what he thought an orc base would look like from the sloppy design to the skull campfire in the middle. Seeing the abundance of enemies and the size of the place, he knew this would be a bit difficult. Hearing the challenge in Leona's words managed to pull him from those thoughts however. Perhaps this girl had a trick up her sleeve that she had...she just jumped into the middle of the base. Seeing her call out the flame-like armor with a shout made Krieg simultaneously envious and excited beyond belief. Was that a berserker skill? She certainly fought like one in his opinion.

'Oh well, I prefer the deep end anyway!', he thought before making dramatic introduction as well.

"Now this is what I call a party! Come one, come all! Everyone gets a free ass kicking!" When the first orc reached him he grabbed it by the arm and began spinning in place like a top. Using the orc's body both as a shield and as a weapon he advanced on the small force. Like a tornado, Krieg ripped a path through the small wall of enemies. Any orc who happened to be too close was sent careening high into the air before they plummeted to their death. Those who were smart continued to fire arrows at the crazed munchkin, but for now it was all for naught.

He threw the poor orc he was holding, who was now bloodied, bruised, and broken, into a small trio of archers who got too comfortable in their spot. "Hey, now! No sense in hogging all the fun to yourself, you amazon! Hahaha!" He ran into the area where Leona was, for the lack of a better term, massacring the orcs. Far enough to not get in her way, but close enough for him to start racking up a kill count as well. He may be new to the game and all, but that didn't mean he liked getting upstaged that easily. Might as well put all his money where his mouth was.

As he was pounding an an orc's face into the dirt, he heard a low rumble coming from the distance. He stopped for a moment to try and pinpoint where it was coming from exactly, but when he was struck in the head by a cheeky rook trying to salvage the situation, he lost it.

"Which one of you slimy pieces of garbage did that!"

With his berserk skill now active, tiny flames licked at Krieg's body. He charged into an understandably fearful group of enemies and proceeded to beat each of them with their own limbs. That is until one of the enemies hit him with a club that sent him through a small tent. When he regained his bearings Krieg saw that he was launched into what looked like the orcs' ale storage. With a shrug he grabbed a wooden mug and chugged whatever was inside. Seeing his energy go up just a tad put a smile on his face before he walked back out.

"Some nice drinks you guys got here. We'll be confiscating these as well as your lives. Hope you don't mind."

 

Joen stood his ground at the top of the cliff over looking the crude fort below, his silver optics scanned the entire area below him and took in everything. Standing there he watched as the female who only moment before had been pretending to be frail and helpless was now cutting a bloody swath through the ranks of the Orcs held up within the fort, a feet that caused him to grind his teeth together in anger. Shaking his head Joen decided to ignore the distaste for the female at the current time, they had more pressing matters to deal with at hand.

The scene below was one of chaos and death as the two berserkers engaged in what could only be described as a massacre, but despite the number of Orcs that the duo hard currently dispatched they just kept coming, Skill or no skill after awhile the two of them would be overrun by sheer force of numbers if something wasn't done, despite the way Joen may have felt about the females deception he hated Orcs even more.

Joen reached into the left sleeve of his robe and pulled out a slender looking shaft of wood, it was his wand. Joen had crafted the wand himself from one of the yew trees near the area that he had originally spawned into and used a Goblins bone as the core, it may not have been a particularly powerful want but it had served him through many battles. With elegant flourishes Joen began to work his magic, they were small and weak spells so with the aid of his wand he didn't even need to use a magical invocation.

Several vines grew rapidly and wrapped themselves around several of the Orcs immobilizing them while others snuck down from the trees and wrapped themselves around the Orcs throats lifting them into the air forcing them to hang. A small smirk spread across Joens face as an idea came to his mind "Khetsaram kyrnawi ya digas!", the words of power fell from his lips and echoed around the fort until the last syllable fell from his lips and the spell released its power, the air around both of his companions shimmered ever so slightly before they vanished from the eyes of the Orcs, Joen had just used his skill in the Illusion Magic Mastery to render both the human female and the Faerin completely invisible "That should help a little"