Chapter Thirty-Nine: Left Arm

Nevan's small frame, overshadowed by his taller friends, started shaking, his knees went limp, as he fell to the ground again.

"What's wrong, did the pig hit you that hard?" Rein asked. His ignorance made Nevan sweat buckets of droplets, as he pointed behind Rein, his fingers unsteady, shaking like there was no tomorrow.

"What's wrong?" Rein asked, as he slowly turned around, only to freeze completely, so did the rest of the adventurers. The archer joined Nevan on the ground, while their tank, with a heavy shield, supported his weight on the oversized shield. As for their swordsman, a young boy with many dreams, he started running.

In front of them was a colossal beast, seven meters tall. In its hands was an ax, made out of a foreign metal. The monster was thick, very thick, it was bulky and several trees had fallen in its wake, leaving a path of devastation from where it came. It had brown skin with tints of green here and there. Just like the goblin, it had the nose of a pig and a loincloth covering its privates.

The monster let out a breath from its nose, almost like steam, a cloud of mist formed around them. Nevan was the first to move, "Run" he screamed and ran for his life. But it was too late, the monster raised its ax and cut him in two, cleaving several trees in two, while at it.

The trees fell towards the scared adventures that ruled and jumped out of the way. Luckily for them, the other trees worked like pillars and stopped the trees from falling completely. But the tank, who had been standing, was accidentally hit by one of the tree's and he was thrown to the ground; the extent of his injury, unknown.

"Rolf, move, I'm sending Lenart over, but until then, you have to keep them safe!" Jantyr ordered the frozen father.

"Why is a tier one orc here?" he mumbled and jumped down. A wooden spear formed in his hand and lightning sizeled around it. Just like Lenart, in his younger days.

"Rein, Take the others and run for it!" Rolf ordered and raised his spear, pointing it towards the monstrous orc.

He stabbed his spear against the orc and a lightning bolt flew towards the monster. Annoyed by the bug's attempt, the orc slammed its ax down on the bolt, destroying it and creating a sinkhole.

Rolf was caught in the rocks, trees and debris, sinking, and struggled to free himself. He slammed the blunt edge of the spear into the ground, and channeled his energy into the ground. A sphere of wind formed around his legs, and he finally managed to get out. Not wasting any time, he jumped up into the air and hurled two lightning bolts at the orc.

Devastation surrounded them already, in the hectare of a hundred meters, everything was destroyed, replaced by a sinkhole and the eye of the storm, a tall orc.

The two bolts scratched the monster's skin, as it scuffed at Rolf's futile attempt. Raising its ax again; Rolf almost lost his eyes from them being so wide open. Coming towards him was an ax, traveling faster than the speed of sound. Several bangs were created within a second, as the ax hit Rolf's shoulder, cleanly separating his left arm from the rest of his body.

Rolf screamed in pain, as tears formed in his eyes. WIthout thinking, he grabbed the stump left of his arm, which wasn't much, as he lost some of his shoulder too. He fought against the urge to lose consciousness from the pain.

Deciding to return the favor, Rolf threw his spear at the orc, but it was simply caught. When the orc tried to destroy the toothpick however, it failed. Looking at the stick in confusion, the orc forgot about the punny falken, it fought some seconds ago.

Rolf was quickly bleeding out and would soon lose consciousness, something Jantyr wasn't so happy about. He couldn't let his fifth strongest die, just like that. So he gave him a blessing worth fifty FP, which quickly seeped into his bones and the bleeding stopped. But taking in that much energy also had consequences. As Jantyr didn't specialize in healing he had to give out a lot to heal such wounds, even the slightest, the arm was still gone. The only thing he stopped was the bleeding.

However the consequences of taking that much energy was forced ascension and possibly death.

'Lenart better come quickly!' Jantyr thought, watching one of his beloved worshipers burn up from the inside, with so much energy. An amount no tier zero should ever have.

Blood seeped out of Rolf's eyes and the lost arm's stump started bleeding again. Rolf's face turned red and his body started expanding, like a balloon, about to pop.

The orc felt the change in the weather, which had picked up. All around the forest clouds had gathered, and a storm had begun. Rain fell at such ferocity, the droplets pierced the trees, leaving holes in their wake. The orc understood this change was due to the human, who was getting worse by the second.

The orc bent down and picked up a stone, then it hurled it at Rolf. Just as Rolf's head was about to become paste, due to the rock, a spear ended its rampage. With it came a man.

Dressed in all black, he resembled a phantom and due to the clouds, he blended in with the darkness surrounding the forest.

"Rolf, your son is safe and so are his friends. I'll take care of the rest, just don't die!" the man said and sore through the sky. The spear he had thrown was retrieved, and mid air, he spun around and hurled it at the orc.

Like a bomb just struck, a powerful explosion occurred; the orc being in the middle of said explosion. A mushroom cloud filled the forest, as the debris was scattered into the air. Yet Lenart showed no leniency and made lightning rain at the orc.

Hundreds of lightning bolts, many times stronger than Rolf's, attacked the spot where the orc had been. When it came to an end, Lenart flew towards the orc and picked up his spear. "I remember when I was forcefully, kind of ascended, ah, the good old days!" Lenart said to no one in particular, while staring down at the orc, who had fallen to the ground from the attacks.

The orc slowly rose from the ground and towered over Lenart, glaring at him in hatred, its bloodlust leaking all over the place.

With his spear in hand, Lenart sighed and swung it down, cutting off the orc's left arm. "That's for rolf!" the he leaped over its head and said. "and this is for Nevan" then he slashed the orc in two, the ground around them suffering from the attack.

"Thankfully this one was newly ascended, or this would have been dangerous!" Lenart mumbled and turned to his flying friend, with worry in his eyes. "Will he truly be alright, Jantyr, he looks like he's about to explode!" Lenart asked, seeing the tomato face of his friend.