〈 Episode 28 〉Witch's Dream 10

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"Thump!"

I carefully picked up the small dagger I had taken from the goblins. I didn't think it would work against the orcs, but...it was reassuring to feel the familiar grip in my hand.

"Oh, are you going to fight?"

Serghen asked me. He didn't seem particularly dismissive, but rather seemed to take some sort of vague pride in the fact that a new adventurer could meet an orc and not be intimidated into drawing his sword.

"They're all like that.

She wondered if the adventurers were proud or amused by the newcomer. After all, she was Count Sirtus's darling, not an adventurer...

"Do you want me to help you back up?"

"A witch to watch my back, I trust you more than anyone!"

Sergen leaps from the top of the cart. The foal, sensing the uneasiness of its surroundings, lets out a long, mournful cry.

"Tsk!"

Their loud breaths echo through the air around them. Their eerie, excited breathing is enough to make the air around me freeze.

"Damn.

My footing isn't quite right. Sergen is familiar, his sword drawn to guard the front of the wagon, and he's grinning at me. One look at her eyes, as if to see what I do, and I'm forced to jump out of the cart.

"You can't fight orcs with daggers, so stay away from me."

They were a different breed of goblin. Violent, murderous creatures who had survived the harshness of the Great Forest of Hammel and prioritized killing. They were the top predators of the ecosystem, preying on the goblins and wolves they had encountered.

"Kwaaaaaah!!!"

They shouted, shaking their opponents and boosting their own morale. The orcs began to walk out of the forest, thumping their chests.

"Five? No...are there more?

Serghen asks. Orcs typically consider those who do not fight cowardly, but with what I know and the possibility that the original ecosystem is different, I have to trust her experience.

"Kahul! Kahul!"

I can't understand them. They seem to be shouting something, but there is no one here who knows Orcish to interpret it. Even Serghen, who knows little more than the common tongue of the continent, laughs and glares at them.

"How do they compare to the goblins?"

"...They're big."

Looking at their figures, each one a head taller than an average adult male, I felt my resolve slipping away. The size of an opponent is usually a very important factor in a fight. It's a cowardly thing to say, but even when pickpocketing, I usually don't touch people when they're big.

"And they look nasty."

His pointed lower jaw fangs nearly covered his upper cheeks, and his glowing red eyes were a dull color, a far cry from Elisha's red. His body was covered in scars, and his thick green arms were the size of a child's torso.

"Do you believe that fights are decided by numbers and size?"

"It's often what determines victory or defeat."

"Hmm, that's not the only way to gauge an opponent's abilities."

I glanced over at Sergen, almost as if she were chastising me. Was there any way to gauge an opponent's abilities beyond their size, apparent strength, and numbers?

"Even with a dagger, you are a swordsman, are you not? If so, do not forget the stance of the cessation, pommel up."

Sergen held her sword up high, protecting her head, the point of the blade in an intercepting stance. I watched her stance, noting that not a single blade trembled.

"Adept.

I interpreted her words to include how familiar she was with her weapon. The middle sword was not my specialty, but a dagger is nothing more than an animal's claws gaping in defiance if not wielded by a skilled hand.

"Right.

I, too, had learned the dagger. I learned it from Eli, the butler's apprentice, but I always keep my dagger at the ready. Thighs and waist down, low... and never forgetting to look at my opponent, I assume the stance of a sneaky swordsman, waiting for an opening to strike.

"Oh, I'd swear you were in the Rogue's Guild's hermitage by your posture!"

He glances at Serghen, as if in praise.

"However, orcish hides are at least three times as tough as human ones. With a rusty dagger like that and your strength, you will not be able to pierce their flesh."

I wonder if he's just trying to provoke me by sounding so frantic.

"Daggermanship is not a skill that is practiced with a dagger alone. One blow. Yes, it's a skill for killing, not a skill for dueling with whatever weapon you're holding."

"What?"

"Paah!

With a loud bang, Serghen charges at the orcs, particles of shimmering sand gathering around her.

"Elisa?

The witch behind her, Elyssa, creates a barrier of sand around her.

"Taking advantage!"

The orcs are taken aback by Sergen's sudden charge. But they're monstrous beasts, survivors of the terrible battle of Hammel vs. Forest. They quickly grab their rusty broadswords, axes, and spears and prepare for battle. Their war cry is a pious shrine prayer to their god, Horc, who they worship with all their might.

"Ka-ang!

Middle Swords and Glaives clash. As they were not pushed apart, I wondered if Sergen's strength could match that of the Orcs.

"No!

If you watch closely, Sergen is spinning his sword, channeling the power of his glaives. Starting at the point, he circled the blade, channeling orcish power down the blade.

"Ducking?!

As if he were a hermit accustomed to daggerplay, he bends at the waist and thighs in a stance of suspension, stepping aside. To the right, where the other orcs were, she stepped aside.

"Tchhhhhh!"

As they drew their weapons, they suddenly covered their eyes. The sand particles that had been sparkling around Sergen had entered their eyes.

"Chaaaah!

At that moment, the Middle Sword, which was spinning in a circle, slashed at the Orc's side. The orc with the glaive burst open a gaping wound on his right flank, swinging his sword towards her in defiance.

"Clang!

Serghen catches the swinging Middle Sword back and slashes at the Orc with the Glaive's right wrist as he charges at her. From his position, Serghen could never see the orc's attack. But as if in anticipation, the orc swung his sword back and slashed at his wrist from behind.

"How?

He watched her stab back with precision.

"Boom!

The glaive dropped, sending her flying backwards with a bounce of her heel.

"It'll stick," she said, "because nothing hurts them as efficiently as their own weapons."

Rusted glaivez with a bunch of sword wounds. Serghen had given them to me because he said I couldn't fight orcs with a dagger.

"Uh...uh..."

A flash. In literally less than four seconds, I harpooned one orc in the side and wrist. The other orc, shielding his eyes, thrusts his spear in.

"Thwack!

Serghen's sword swept the tip of the orc's spear into the other, creating a weaponless void, and he swung it back, cutting a long diagonal slash across the orc's face.

"Aaaahhhh!"

The orc screams. Green blood spurts out of his right eye, which is drawn along with his face, and he immediately stabs the orc in the neck with his axe. It was as if Daihan, the barbarian hero who lived only for ancient battles, had come back to life.

"Tchhhhh!"

The other Orc, undeterred by the fall of his comrades, raises his longsword and swings it wildly. Serghen's crisis. The sword was aimed squarely at Serghen's center. From her current position, with her throat stabbed, she has no choice but to surrender herself to the attack.

"Tadat!

I rushed at the creature, my speed no match for Sergen's. Without waiting, I picked up my dropped glaive and used it to push him away rather than stab him.

"Saaang!

A strange light burst forth from her blade as she plunged it into the orc's throat.

"That one?

Suddenly, I remembered Noelle, her sword glowing like mine. Her sword glowed with a reddish light that shimmered like Noel's blue halo.

"Is it...something else?

Whereas Noel's blue light was like a glittering milky way, the light from Sergen's sword was like a red-hot aura, like a red midge. A harsh energy that looked like it would endlessly shred and crush her opponent emanated from her sword, slicing the orc in half from neck to head, and then whipping it into the air.

"Huh?!

A bizarre stance. The middle sword, raised high, slashes at the charging orc's long sword, spewing red slime.

'Thud!

The falling shards of the Long Sword stab the charging Orc in the side of the chest.

"Poof!

Serghen pushes the creature back with all his might.

"Kuguangtang!

The massive orc's body was thrown far away by Serghen's thrust, and instantly, the creature's heart was stabbed out, and it turned into a corpse, spitting out a thick, greenish blood.

"There."

Serghen looked at the orc with the short sword, who stood there in a dazed manner, as if he were a novice orc like me. He wiped the rust-colored blood from his face with his gauntlet and looked at me.

"You want to try?"

Serghen asks me as I rush in to help. Before I have a chance to help, she has slaughtered all four orcs, her middle sword picking up a red midge, and Serghen...and Elisa behind her, looking at me expectantly.

"Uh..."

The rusted, heavy glaives I was holding felt even heavier.

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