Meanwhile, the four remaining orcs surrounded Lith, threatening him with their weapons from every side. Their duty was to restrict the enemy’s movements and create openings for the chieftain.
‘Five against five. Once again, I hate fair fights!’ Lith thought while unleashing his Death Call spell. Four tentacles made of darkness magic came out from his body, targeting the orcs like sharks following blood in water.
The warriors stood their ground, clubbing and slashing at the tendrils only to see their weapons getting covered in cracks. Darkness magic wasn’t tangible, but its hunger was real. To not get eaten, the four orcs were forced to step back whenever Lith came too close to them while dodging the chieftain’s blade.
Before the boot camp, Lith would have had a hard time against an opponent such as Testa’Lhosh. It still wasn’t an easy fight, but the skill gap made it manageable. While the chieftain put all of his might behind each strike, Lith used his blade to deflect the opponent’s by using the least amount of strength possible.
Between Death Call and Lith avoiding their mighty chieftain’s blows by a thread, the orcs truly believed they were facing a demon. One of them had been grazed by the tentacles multiple times. The contact had sapped her strength and hastened her body’s decay.
The female orc’s skin was full of cracks, she knew her death would come in a matter of seconds. In her mind, the orc thought the demon was to blame. She had no idea it was all her shaman’s doing. The warrior threw herself against Lith, disregarding what little life she had left.
The tentacles drained her life force and defused the explosion at the same time, but they weren’t fast enough to prevent her from crashing against Lith and sending him towards the Chieftan’s oncoming blade.
Cursing at his bad luck, Lith could only attempt a parry and watch it fail. Testa’Lhosh’s blade clashed with the Gatekeeper, moving it aside. The lunge had enough power left to pierce the Skinwalker armor and penetrate into Lith’s flesh while breaking his collarbone.
Lith would have fainted from the shock if he had not cut off his pain receptors at the last second. His left arm was now limp, blood came out profusely from his shoulder. The only silver lining was that the energy robbed from the dying orc was already mending the wound.
The problem was living long enough for it to matter.
Testa’Lhosh fearlessly pressed forward.
‘The demon is doomed.’ The chieftain thought. ‘With only one hand and the blood loss sapping his strength, he can’t avoid my blade anymore.’
<"Follow your sister's example! Use the power of the gods to slay the demon!"> Testa’Lhosh yelled. Three orcs meant three more free slashes, which equaled one dead demon. Easy math.
Lith had no idea what the orc had just yelled, but when Solus warned him about another enemy doing a suicidal rush from behind his back, their plan became evident. Lith knew what to do, but he couldn’t afford to turn around, so he let Solus take the wheel.
The moment before the orc was about to strike, a stone wall emerged from the ground, stopping the enemy and his weapon at once. The orc had no time to be surprised by Solus’s timely use of the earth wand with spirit magic.
The ethereal tentacles passed through a wall and seeped into his flesh, renewing Lith’s strength at the expenses of the orc’s life force.
<"For the Grey Wolf!"> Ragh’Ash yelled at the youth. The little girls screamed in agony and frenzy, the only thing she could think of was making the pain stop. She rushed toward Lith with the speed of a bullet.
The mana ravaging her body also gave her superhuman abilities. Lith and Testa’Lhosh cursed at the shaman in unison. Neither wanted to die. Whereas Testa’Lhosh saw only a death threat, Lith saw an opportunity instead.
Lith grabbed the stone wall Solus had erected and used gravity magic to turn Testa’Lhosh into the new center of gravity. The orc girl’s feet leaped from the ground with great strength, almost making her fly but also leaving her exposed to gravity magic’s effects.
She found herself falling towards the chieftain while Solus erected a second wall right in front of Lith. It was meant to be used as a foothold and a shield at the same time.
Testa’Lhosh had no idea what was happening, so he dodged the incoming bomb over and over, hoping to get rid of it. Yet the poor girl followed him like a curse.
Realizing he was doomed, the chieftain grabbed the girl and rushed between the two stone walls, to make sure that Lith would die along with him. Much to Testa’Lhosh dismay, when he got there, Lith was nowhere to be found.
In his place, there was what looked like an acorn the size of a fist. It was covered in runes of power which blinked faster by the second. Lith had Solus conjure one stone wall after the other and used them as footsteps to escape gravity magic’s short-range and get to safety.
He had also left a Fire Root as a goodbye gift. The combined explosion of the girl and the Fire Root turned the stone walls into debris that flew in every direction like deadly bullets.
Once again Ragh’Ash had to prevent the crystal from being destroyed. This time she could at least conjure a great stone wall to protect the holy crystal and what little was left of the tribe.
Ragh’Ash immediately used Life Vision to find Lith.
‘He’s not on the ground nor in the air. Where the heck is he?’ She thought.
The shaman used the power of the holy crystal to sweep the whole area, discovering that Lith was quite far from her position and was getting further by the second.
<"How dares he to run away?"> Ragh’Ash felt she was going crazy. The two remaining orc warriors had fled the moment they saw the living bomb converge to their position. They both considered a cowardly escape much better than a heroic death.
Ragh’Ash had no way to communicate with them and even if she did, the shaman doubted they would listen to her anymore. All that was left of the Grey Wolf were her and the two kids.
‘What a cowardly, sly creature.’ Ragh’Ash thought. ‘I can’t follow the demon. The children are too weak to carry the crystal, even if I bless them a little. If I carry it myself, I’d be a sitting duck. At least I’m safe now.’
Yet actually she wasn’t. Lith hadn’t run away, he had seen the shaman eating and meant to even the field.
‘Why would I rush in against an unknown opponent with a wounded body and my mana depleted when I can take a break?’ He thought while eating some meat from his pocket dimension.
‘I’ll wait for the world energy to stabilize again, so I can have full access to my spells. How are you, Solus?’
‘Much better, thanks. I think retreating was the right move. All that spellcasting and fighting had left you drained. How is your shoulder?’
‘Perfectly healed. I’ll use Invigoration to get back to my peak form before going in for the kill.’ Lith replied. He had no idea what the shaman could do with her crystal, but he was certain Ragh’Ash would rather detonate it than leave it in his hands.
Lith used that time to sort through his Alchemic weapons. Even if Ragh’Ash siphoned elemental energy again, he could still use them, since the spells they contained were already formed. The problem was that unlike his own incantations, alchemical weapons could hurt their user.
