Refuge

"I don't need this anymore," Char thought as he cut his bone sword in two and crushed the other bones he used to enhance his speed.

"The sooner the skeleton respawns, the sooner I can rest," he told himself as he was readying himself to fight the incoming creatures.

The orcs were climbing the dead giant orc's body since it was blocking their way, which made them really vulnerable, Char rushed at one of them and plunged his sword through its eyes.

He did not even need to use his magic to pierce through the orc's brain, killing it in an instant.

The Imp also joined him to fight the orc. It kicked the orc in the head with its combined magic, causing the orc to bleed from every hole of its body.

It wasn't satisfied with that. The Imp spun in the air and kicked the orc's once more, smashing its head and killing the orc within a split second.

Char was about to continue to fight but a hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him on his track.

"Char, go to rest. It's time for me to fight. Don't you think you gathered enough points already?" Anne told him.

She wanted him to rest for his own good, but she was shy and she used their rivalry as a reason.

She was down that he left her behind; he got stronger than her in a blink of an eye, she could only support him from behind while he killed a knight-tier creature.

"Are you sure you can hold the line?" He asked.

"I did not remain idle all this time, I will whoop their ass, just watch!" she grinned as she went toward the orcs.

Char agreed with her as he was really tired. He did not have much mana left and he did not want to risk using his mana absorption magic.

Who knows if the absorption speed would burn him inside out in a second the next time he used it.

"I really need to tweak that magic so I can control it better. That was no joke, if I did not have healing ability or get helped by Skelly at that time, then I would have turned into ashes!" he thought.

Char took a rest while Anne and her Imp took care of the orcs. They were getting stronger than before!

"Anne can hold her own, and I have grown stronger too. I think we should go all out and kill all the orcs in this area before another knight tier appears," he thought as they were strong enough to try leaving the hunting ground.

After a while, Char re-summoned the skeleton, and it took over from Anne. She joined Char in resting; the Imp took a body part from the giant orc's body and brought it to them.

They started to cook the orc's meat for dinner, Char and Anne had skipped lunch since they were busy fighting the orcs.

"Char, do you think they will come to rescue us?" Anne asked suddenly.

"I don't think so, if they are going to rescue us, then they would have come a few hours ago," he shook his head.

"Then what should we do? We are going to stay here?"

"No, we will kill all the orcs blocking our way, tomorrow morning. We will attempt to get out of here by ourselves," he told her.

She nodded and did not ask anymore, both of them were tired and wanted to rest badly. She took a bite at their roast orc.

It tasted way better than they thought. Char could feel his body growing stronger even only a little bit.

It was known that eating higher-ranking creatures would increase people's strength, but rarely anyone could afford it since the higher the tier the more expensive it is.

They eat their fill before letting the Imp finish the rest. It ate the orc's meat in delight before joining the skeleton to fight the orcs.

The two hold the line while Char and Anne rest for the night. Even if the cave ground was hard, they slept within seconds as they were too tired physically and mentally.

They woke up to find the skeleton and Imp were guarding the entrance without doing anything. There was no living orc left for them to fight.

"Did they finish them all? Well, it would be strange if they never run out," he mused.

"Anne, let's get ready to move, we will leave in half an hour," he told the girl before he walked out of the cave to check the situation.

The moment he stepped out of the cave, he saw a group of five running toward the cave.

"Get back inside!" a girl hollered at him.

Behind the group was another horde of orcs, they were running from them, Char found the voice familiar but he did not have time to bother with it.

"Skelly! He called for his skeleton while pulling out his sword, he split the leading orc in half with a single swing before falling back inside the cave.

Once he was inside, the skeleton and Imp blocked the entrance and started killing the orcs, their speed in killing the orcs grew exponentially after last night.

Char had found the giant orc's body missing. Not even bone remained. He suspected that the Imp had eaten the meat while the skeleton absorbed the bones.

"Char, what happened?" Anne asked when she noticed the commotion.

"Just another group of orcs that they lead to us," he pointed at the group that was grasping for their breath since they were running with theirs all.

"You are Char?!" the group was surprised as everyone knew the former genius of the academy, and he definitely was not as tall and muscular as the person that just helped them.

Char's muscle was not so big that he looked like a bodybuilder, but he definitely looked buffer and taller with his reconstruction.

"Yours truly, the one and only Char," he retorted at their shock.

"Now tell me what happened to you guys? Why are you running here, where are your creatures?" he questioned them.