48 Risk

"Char! Do you have any plans?" Anne asked as they entered the cave.

"For the time being, let's use the cave's entrance as a bottleneck, that way we will only need to fight two or three of them at one time. I will hold them first, you check behind us for danger, it will be bad if there is a creature attacking from behind," he instructed.

"Alright, if you need help just call me," she ran deeper into the cave while Char stood his ground on the cave's entrance.

"Skelly, don't be rash, try to hold on as long as possible and wear them down first," he instructed.

No matter how much endurance the orcs had, they can't beat a skeleton in a battle of endurance. The undead creature doesn't feel tired or in pain while the giant pig only has high resistance for them.

"let's forget about gathering scores. Survival is our topmost priority right now. Since the tracking device is not working, it means this is an emergency, the test will most likely be postponed and the academy will send out a rescue team to save the students, we just need to survive long enough to get rescued!" He analyzed the situation.

The skeleton was already upon its enemy; it threw a finger bone at them and it exploded on their face, it only gave them a few scratches as the finger could not harm their thick-skinned faces.

The summoned creature obeyed Char and tried to prolong the fight while dealing damage to the orcs with every chance it got. It only exploded a few finger bones so it could regrow them in no time.

The orcs staggered back from the explosion as anyone would if an explosion happened right in front of their eyes.

It gave the skeleton enough space to cut them with its bone sword; it did not go for the neck of the heart, but it only left a shallow wound on one of the orcs' stomachs.

The orc's wound was not lethal, but it screamed in pain as if someone just cut a limb. The skeleton's sword not only leaves a scratch on its stomach but cuts a portion of its soul with the astral part of its body.

The skeleton took a step back just in time to dodge another orc's attempt to hit it with its club, had the skeleton attempted to kill one of them in his previous attack, it would be hit by the orc's attack.

Losing a few limbs only at the beginning of the fight is not ideal since the killed orc would only be replaced by another orc.

Char pulled out a bow he took from the kobold and shot it at the orc. He did not have any archery training, but with the orc's size and their number, there was no way he would miss.

He channeled his mana into the arrow and activated the physical boost; it increased the arrow's power, but not as much as he hoped as the mana started to disperse the moment it left his hand.

It pierced one of the orc's arm, but it shrugged it off as if nothing hit it, the arrow only able to pierce its skin.

"Damn! That I need to aim for the eyes if I want the arrow to be effective!" he lamented as targeting such a small target from a moving opponent is beyond his capability.

Char did not entertain going into melee with the brutes as he would be severely injured if he got hit by their attack and he was not confident enough to evade each and every attack.

"I'm too weak! Without my skeleton, I can only wait to be slaughtered! I need to be stronger even without the skeleton so I would not be in a pinch just like before!" he thought resolutely as he remembered how he needed to wait for his skeleton to fight the kobold and the boy.

"Char! there were three goblins hiding inside but I already took care of them!" Anne returned after checking the cave.

"Is that all? How deep is the cave? Is there another way out?" he asked.

"Yeah, we already checked every corner. This cave is only a hundred meters deep without an intersection, so it's easy to search. There is no other exit, so we need to beat the orc if we want to get out," she replied.

The skeleton already took down one of the orcs by cutting its soul to pieces, but its body got dragged out by its friend before another orc took its place.

Anne was about to send her imp to help but Char stopped her, "No, let it rest first, we will need it to hold the front when my skeleton dies."

The skeleton might be able to hold on but it still took a hit from time to time, with how many orcs it was fighting, it would be killed, it was just a matter of time.

"Aright!" she nodded as she joined him to rest. They still needed to recover from their injuries.

The skeleton had died and been replaced by the imp then re-summoned three times but the orcs did not stop coming.

"Damn it! How many orcs are there?! Will we be trapped here forever?" Anne protested.

"They are getting stronger too, we will be killed if they keep getting stronger!" Char gritted hit teeth.

Higher-level orcs kept coming, luckily the knight tier orc he saw did not join the orcs that attacked them.

"What do we do, Char? Should we try to break through this blockade?" she asked.

"No, we hold our position, we just need to get stronger. We will wait here until help comes, there is too much risk in going out, who knows if he will meet another knight creature!"

"I just need to take another risk with a higher chance of survival," Char turned his concentration to his body.

He tried to gain a full understanding of his body, every fiber of his muscle, and every individual cell, he wanted to observe what was happening so he could stop before the damage became irreversible.

"There is no time for hesitation!" he gritted his teeth and activated the magic.