It's getting worse

"B-ghh..!"

The Borakin Orc struck with the shield has hit the ground first, and the hooded stranger followed right after, but with the difference of him actually twisting his body and rolling on the ground to regain his balance and immediately pulling out an iron mace.

"BUGRAAAH! HAAH!"

*CRACK* *SQUELCH*

While shouting to get the attention solely on him, the stranger struck his iron mace down twice at the head of the fallen monster, splitting the creature's skull open.

He didn't stop on this at all.

*KA-HRACK*

"BUU-HIIII!"

As he was still raising his weapon after the finishing hit, he already launched himself forward, punching the next Boarkin Orc in the face with his shield and then slammed the mace into its knee, making the creature squeal in pain…!

"III-BUGHUGH!"

Just to get the mace slammed into its open jaws.

"HYAGH!"

*SQUELCH*

"Bu-ghigh…?!"

The black-haired girl wasn't just sitting around.

As her wounds closed up, instead of running away, she launched up, stabbing her stone spear into the guts of another Boarkin Orc that was too distracted to look her way.

"BH-HI!"

The wound was rather deep, but it also didn't hit any vital organs, so it angered the monster more than it damaged it…

"STONE SPIKE!"

"BU-FUGHGHHIIIIIIIIII!"

The girl growled, clenching her fists and sending her mana through the weapon, using the spear as a medium to unleash the shrapnel-like stone thorns within the Boarkin Orc's guts, tearing them into mincemeat - which resulted in the monster throwing up a satisfing amount of blood.

"DIE!"

"BUGH!"

The girl then broke off the spear and used what remained of it in her hands to stab into the vomiting monster's mouth!

With the sound of the level-up ringing in her ears, the girl still didn't try to run away, instead making her way towards her savior, as despite her killing one of the boarkin orcs and constantly throwing stone spikes and creating stone spears to impale more of them, he was the one becoming center of the attention and therefore in the gravest danger.

"Stone spike! W-we have to g-get away from here!"

The black-haired girl dove under the swinging arm of a Boarkin Orc, aiming at her hooded savior and sending the earth-type spell right at the monster's eye.

"You! Run away!"

"BU-GHUGH!"

But in response, her savior grunted awkwardly as if he had a hard time speaking and slammed the stone spike embedded into his opponent's eye deeply into its skull.

"N-NO! N-no one else is dying for my s-sake! Stone Spear!!"

The girl gritted her teeth, shouted, and then chanted, forcing an elemental weapon to grow out of the cliff's wall from where he grabbed it.

"RUN!"

"Bu-GHUH!"

The hooded individual howled while deflecting a blow of a crude axe with his shield before countering with his mace, giving his opponent a concussion.

"NO!"

"BFGHHH…!"

The black-haired girl shouted, stabbing the concussed monster in the throat - dealing the finishing blow to it.

"LET'S R-RUN TOGETHER!"

"Bu-hiiigh…!"

The girl growled, stabbing the stone spear into the guts of another monster and gritting her teeth as the weapon broke in half in her hands, sending a numbing sensation all the way up her shoulders.

"NO! YOU! ALONE! RUN!"

"BHIIIIIII!"

The hooded individual roared, using his mace as a hammer and striking the remains of the spear sticking out of the wounded Boarkin Orc's stomach, causing the broken weapon to penetrate much deeper and shatter into devastating fragments.

"NOW!"

He finished both his sentence and his opponent, who had fallen to its knees, with a returning swing of his mace.

"N-NO! WE…!"

"THOSE ARE NOT THE MAIN GROUP! THOSE ARE CANDIDATES!"

The girl screamed, but the hooded individual shouted over her.

"They… are what…?"

The girl flinched and froze up.

In the midst of chaos, she wasn't really thinking why the boarkin orcs weren't overwhelming them with their superior numbers, but the weirdness of the situation suddenly dawned on her.

When she had a second or two to look around, she noticed that things seemed to be just as her savior had said.

There were still a lot of Orcs seemingly idly waiting their turn..

Frighteningly large amount, actually...

But most of them were simply keeping themselves in the back—some were even casually leaning against the trees while enjoying the show…

"!!!"

The black-haired girl felt her body covering with goosebumps when she was looking at them.

Each and every last of them was at least a foot taller than the ones she and the hooded individuals were fighting with.

The larger Orcs also had better weapons and amrors - even what looked like proper sets - as well as a lot more battle scars on their beastly faces.

"...!"

And then, she saw it.

For a second, she mistook it for an old dead tree because her brain refused to register something so massive as an orc, too.

But trees didn't wear pieces of several suits of armor as a single chestplate.

Trees didn't have arms and legs thicker than barrels of beer at a festival after a bountiful harvest.

Nor did they have thick dark-brown fur, beady black eyes, and two saber-like tusks protruding from their lower jaws, nor were they holding a saw-like cleaver the size of a door.

Of course, it wasn't a tree.

It was...

Boarkin Orc Chieftan.

A rare leader-type monster capable of gathering a force up to fifty specimens strong.

It was a bit ironic.

On the mid-terms the girl got quite good results. One of the questions was about Boarkin orc Chieftan…

"...~"

"...!"

The girl blanked-out for a moment and then flinched when the massive monster looked back at her and its eyes shone with cruel amusement.

"Bu-hi~"

"!!!"

The Boarkin leader let out a low squeal, pointing at the pair with his cleaver, and the smaller Orcs that were yet to fight began backing off while the larger ones pulled up their weapons and moved from their comfortable spots…

…with nasty look in their beady beastly eyes…

"...no choice… can't run away now… Enhanced heal."

"...!"

The hooded individual grunted, spatting through his teeth before reaching into his satchel and pulling out more leaves that he tossed into the air, where they began to swirl around him and the shocked girl.