Chapter 5: Pig Orcs

Kennen became alert again and looked at the entrance if there was any more monster coming in.

However, no more monsters came in even after the crystals formed.

They remained vigilant but started to distribute the four crystals.

One must be given to Rafael in order for him to awaken his power.

Evan wasn't going to take any since he had already absorbed four.

So the remaining three could be divided between Kennen and his two other friends. However, Kennen decided to give up his crystal for Frank.

Kennen believed his base power was pretty decent while Frank's power was so weak at the beginning that they started to wonder if he even had powers.

So he wanted to help out Frank a little bit during his weak early stage and get him to scale up.

Enzo also decided to give his to Frank after hearing that.

Not that it would help much since from what Evan said, he didn't get much stronger from his first crystal self after taking another three.

However, Kennen still felt his decision was the right one even if Frank was reluctant to take them after hearing what Evan said.

He felt that this wouldn't be their last battle today and it would probably be those orcs they saw earlier. Him taking the stone wouldn't change the upcoming battle but if Frank took it, it may be the difference between him surviving the battle or not.

"Are we done? Can I get my crystal now?" Rafael said impatiently as they finished deciding how to divide the loot.

"You sound like a crackhead." Enzo pointed out.

"Yes, please give me some crystals. Or maybe I should get them from Los Pollos." Rafael said in a mock serious tone.

Kennen chuckled at that.

Rafael then used the tip of his sneakers to touch the crystal that lay on top of the wolf. However, nothing happened even after he moved it a couple times.

"It probably needs skin contact but try grabbing it through a cloth to see how it reacts."

It would make sense if that was the case, otherwise how would they be able to be transported?

Rafael first kicked the crystal away so he didn't have to step on the blood pool under the wolf that had been skewered by javelin and then a hand under his shirt to grab the crystals.

"Well, that confirms it."

The crystal stayed fully solid, which confirmed Kennen's thought.

"Jab it into your vein and get your power mate." Evan said as he did the inject into my vein gesture.

Rafael slightly jabbed it on his other arm's exposed skin. The same process started and they just had to wait a few seconds now.

"With that, we'll have a full party now." Enzo said.

"Yeah…" Frank nodded.

"Ugh… my power is to bind a target…" Rafael sounded disappointed.

"Try it out on me?" Evan suggested.

Rafael readily did as he asked.

A rope made of yellow light was launched out of Rafael's right hand and wrapped around Evan.

Evan tried to get out and even used his hardening on one of his arms but he couldn't break the binding and even felt it tightening.

"Alright, I give up, mate, release me."

The rope unwrapped and disappeared with another tug from Rafael.

"It's not that bad." Frank said,

"Yeah, you can bind someone and make it easier for us to hit our shots." Kennen added.

That seemed to cheer Rafael up as he looked less disappointed now.

They moved the wolves to a corner and made their way toward the conference hall where the roar they heard originated from and as expected, they saw the two pig orcs there.

However, what Kennen didn't expect to see was to see the two orcs munching on two human corpses and people reduced to human paste on the ground.

Kennen had to try his best to hold on so he didn't vomit right there and then. He also heard some of his friends retch at the sight of him.

The retching attracted the attention of the pig orc who was the closest to them.

It threw the headless and armless corpse away and roared with his bloody mouth. That in turn made the other pig orc turn its attention to them.

"Bind it!" Evan yelled.

Rafael instantly threw the rope and binded the closest pig orc.

Evan and Frank stayed there and didn't rashly advance as they were afraid of what they could do to them with their clubs that were the size of Frank. Evan could harden his limb but he would probably still be sent flying.

Enzo had already manifested his bow and arrow so he quickly drew the bow and shot. The arrow hit right on the binded orc's right eye but that wasn't enough to kill it as the pig orc roared loudly in rage and broke the restraint on him.

At the same time, Kennen also had his goblins throw their javelins. One clipped the orc's head, another missed his head and the last one bounced off the pig orc's belly.

He gave a dumbfounded look to the goblins but they just showed their white teeth to him. They still had the cheek to smile.

"Bind it again and retreat!"

Kennen sounded the retreat with the second orc rapidly approaching.

Rafael binded the same orc again and Enzo shot another arrow but the pig orc protected his head with his hand this time so the arrow touched the hand this time and the binding got ripped off in two seconds.

The goblins threw the javelins again but they all got blocked by the arms or bounced right off the belly.

Kennen was feeling less and less confident about taking on the two pig orcs now. They were much tougher than what he thought and none of them dared to get close to the two plus meters orcs.

"To the stairs! We'll get the high ground!" Enzo suggested.

They all ran to the top of the stairs and waited for the orcs to get in. The second and unharmed orc was the first to get in and Kennen and their friends already learned that they couldn't pierce through the belly so they only aimed for the head. The orc got binded as the shots fell onto his head but the javelin couldn't pierce the skull so just left deep wounds and the arrow pierced into the orc's cheeks but none of them dealt a fatal blow.

Then the binding was shaken off and the other orc also got into the stairs so they all got up by one floor and waited for them again. Frank lagged slightly behind in order to have them keep chasing but the orcs learned how to put their clubs in front of their face to protect it and even the binding couldn't prevent that.

This went on for a few floors with them only touching the club, the arms and Enzo also tried to shoot at their legs but it was all superficial wounds and not enough to put them down.

At that time, Kennen, Rafael and Enzo were starting to get really tired as they ran up the stairs. They weren't the fittest guys and all that running was starting to take a toll on them.

"We can't keep going like this." Kennen said in between breaths.

"This is going nowhere…" Frank also agreed.

Kennen could only think of a single way.

"Frank, stay here and make sure they follow you to the roof. The rest of us will rush up to the roof and lay an ambush for them."

"Got it." Frank agreed without hesitation.

So Kennen and the rest rushed to the roof.

Evan was out of breath when they got to the roof but he was still fine overall. The rest of them felt lungs burning, their legs turning into jelly and even felt like vomiting.

"What's the plan?" Evan asked.

Kennen took ten seconds or so before he could make any coherent words and pointed toward the entrance where they came in.

"Get on top and then jump on top of the orc when they come in so you can stab the javelin into his head through his eye. I'll have the goblins try to do the same. Enzo stay at the side and try to shoot into his ears. Rafael bind one of them."

"Alright." Evan took a javelin from the goblin and jumped into the top of the entrance of the roof that was shaped like a cube.

The goblins couldn't jump that high so needed a little lift.

Rafael and Enzo stood at their position with trembling legs.

Kennen just sat on the ground in the middle of the roof and waited. This was the last hurrah and if it failed, it would probably be the end of them or at least him because he no longer had the energy to move.

Two minutes later, Frank came out the entrance and said, "They're coming!"

Right after that, the orcs came but the entrance was only big enough for one at the time.

The binding came and a goblin was the first to jump on. The goblin immediately drove the javelin into the eye. This effectively blinded the orc since the other eye was already injured. Enzo also changed his target to the orc's knee and he hit it right on it as the orc to his knee.

All of that gave enough time for the goblin to drive the javelin deeper into the head and effectively killing it.

Evan also jumped onto the other orc but he thrusted into the nose instead so it didn't kill the pig orc and when he wanted to stab it again, he lost balance due to the orc trashing and trying to catch him so fell to the ground.

Thankfully, another goblin jumped onto the orc and skillfully stabbed the javelin into the eye and adding another timely binding from Rafael, the second orc died.

None of the five friends spoke after yet another won battle. They sprawled onto the ground in fatigue.

Taking in breaths and a well needed respite.

"Thank F*ck…" Kennen muttered as he looked at the sky.

At this point, he just wanted to close his eyes and take a nap.

Way too many crazy things happened today, he was just so tired.

He thought life was hard before but now it was hundreds of times worse.

Now, he found it funny that he thought life was hard back then because he would gladly take that life now.

The apocalypse sucks.