Chapter 42 - Gate is Down

On Argus' side, men were dying left and right, the Orc's eyes started to glow red and its body size visibly increased by at least 30% larger.

Of the 4 men that surrounded it with Argus and supposedly Soeyoon, 3 had died. 

Argus was upset that Soeyoon did not release arrows to harass the Orc but had instead killed the Orc on the other side.

However he did not have the time to worry about that as now the pressure was starting to overwhelm the three of them.

The massive Orc was lunging toward Argus but he managed to roll away in time.

The Orc however had tripped on the slick human blood and one of the corpses.

As the Orc was on all four and the last remaining soldier was just in the right position behind it.

Soeyoon could see he exerted his utmost and thrust her spear up the Orc's chrysanthemum flower.

The Orc roared angrily while Soeyoon, who was right in front of it, let loose her arrow down the Orc's throat.

She could see the sharp canines in the Orc's mouth and saw her arrow flew true to target and was disappearing into its dark black throat.

Soeyoon could see the Orc jerked and then he collapsed.

"Orc Hunter Killed, 80 experience gained"

4 down, 1 to go.

It was now 1 vs 5, another man had been ripped apart when Soeyoon was killing the Orc fighting Argus.

Still having a dozen arrows for 1 Orc, she became more liberal in her use of arrows, with understanding that it was mostly for distractions as even the sword and spears are unable to fully penetrate the Orc's skin much less her arrows.

The 3 men and Argus surrounded the Monster. 

However, they were completely overpowered, it's like children fighting against an adult. Regardless of their numbers, it was useless. 

Another man died, but the Orcs' seemed to be foolish creatures only driven by rage and hunger.

Right after killing the poor scout, the Orc had directly bit at it trying to bite a portion of its torso off.

Argus hollered at the top of his lungs in anger as he leapt up from behind and bashed the pommel of his sword to the top of the Orc's thick skull.

The Orc was visibly disoriented and as Argus fell back, Soeyoon released the arrow she had been aiming at its eyes.

The arrow was stuck to its right eye but it did not manage to penetrate deeper.

The Orc was roaring in anger and pain while Soeyoon did not hesitate to nock another arrow and shot it at its open mouth.

This one also seemed to fail to do much damage apart from giving the Orc something stuck at its throat.

The Orc was bending over coughing out blood from its mouth while Argus was stabbing hard at its butt.

It lunged forward toward Soeyoon with an arm reaching out to her.

In her desperation, she shot another arrow which managed to destroy its last eye.

But the Orc was determined to grab this pesky shooter.

Soeyoon was barely able to roll away from the lunging Orc while the rest of the soldiers were desperately stabbing at the Orc with their spears.

Getting up with bow drawn and arrow nocked, the Orc had just turned to face another spearman, managed to grab at his spear and pulled him towards itself.

The man had been smart enough to let go and while the Orc was disoriented at the sudden loss of mass attached to the spear, Soeyoon released an arrow from 3m away at its right ear.

The arrow went deep into the skull and the massive Orc fell with a loud thud.

"Elite Orc Hunter killed, 250 experience gained."

That was how Soeyoon hit level 7.

After the fight, Soeyoon scanned around her and found that apart from Argus and her, there were 2 more men left.

Of the 12 who went out to hunt, only 4 survived.

Argus quickly ordered the men to cut the head off and start to rush back to the City.

The journey back was uneventful.

Soeyoon and the rest were led to the main hall where Argus had narrated the whole story then after it was done, the ministers were calling him a liar as Orcs were supposedly extinct.

Argus tossed out the head and the whole hall erupted in a massive pandemonium.

The City Lord Damien was unable to control the panicked crowd and seeing things were getting out of control, Soeyoon quietly sneaked away and returned to the guestroom allocated for her.

The next day, she saw an exodus of multiple big caravans leaving the city.

She was tempted to leave but her arrows were spent.

Hence, she had to delay her escape and went to Shoren to ask for more arrows.

After making false promises of staying to help. Shoren promised her that she would get her arrows by noon tomorrow.

With nothing else to do, she returned to her chamber to rest.

That evening, Soeyoon heard an alarm had rung from the city gates. She peered out and saw a ragtag bunch of armed men returning to the city.

Feeling something big was happening, she got dressed and went to the hall.

She had arrived just as Damien received the returning men.

"The Orcs are here. 

Our caravan was raided and no one was spared.

Everyone died. 

We stood no chance.

Please Lord, do something, anything, save us, we must get away!!!!"

Plead the scared bunch of cowards

"You bunch of cowards chose to run away at the most important hour of our City. 

Now, YOU WANT MY PROTECTION???

Man!! Drag them all out and kill them all."

Damien commanded.

"Hang their heads so all can see what happens to deserters."

He added.

Argus, who was already back on duty nodded and with his men dragged those cowards out to behead them.

Soeyoon knew it was time to leave. In her room, she stayed up all night fretting about her immediate future.

The next day, Soeyoon woke to a loud clamour. 

She got out of bed and peered out the window and was terrified.

The City was surrounded by Orcs, there were thousands coming out of the forest outside and none was the wiser the whole night.

The whole city scrambled to mount up some defence while the Orcs were approaching.

This city was finished, Soeyoon thought to herself.

Quickly dressing up, Soeyoon rushed to the blacksmith shop and filled her quiver with what was finished.

Of the 400 she asked, 240 arrows were ready. This had to be enough, she hoped.

Recalling what happened on the first Level, she hoped this level would be of the same format where after the number of Orcs killed had reached a certain amount, the challenger would be able to leave.

Darrius saw her and called her over, reluctantly she obliged and was told to join the special guards who were assigned to protect the City Lord.

Soeyoon was happy to oblige.

Following the City Lord to the wall, she saw the siege had started. The Orcs were rushing forth and before long, they were pounding the City gate.

Without waiting for order, Soeyoon started to fire her arrows and the rest of the soldiers started to follow her lead.

When she killed the smaller Orc, she noticed a different prompt.

"Orc Scout killed, 55 experience gained"

These variants were much easier to kill as they were smaller and her arrows were able to penetrate their chest and hit their hearts. Unfortunately, they were good at dodging.

After killing just 4 of these Scouts, the City Gate was breached and the hinge broke as it fell with a loud bang, smashing the soldiers guarding behind it.