The End of the Skirmish

Jeera, who had one-sidedly pushed back his opponents so far, was pushed back for the first time in the battle. The poisonous energy jumped into his wounds and ran rampant in his veins, causing internal damage. The orc was used to pain of all kinds, but this was something even he couldn't take lightly.

"Demonic Poison!" Freya unconsciously shouted as the skill attached to the weapon activated. The purple energy that had been flowing out of the sword, unrestrained, coagulated around the dark blade like a thin layer of liquid. Freya felt a sense of relief as the energy went outwards instead of attacking her hands.

Jeera's heart raced as he noticed the dark purple energy surrounding the dark sword of his enemy. Its color was darker than the one that had entered into his body previously, and that likely meant it was even more dangerous. For the first time during the fight, he grew cautious.

The Nine feet tall monster rolled to the side, avoiding another hail of arrows, and used his axes to block another set of slashes from the black cloaked assassin. His aura energy was almost exhausted and he was surrounded once more.

An unthinkable thought emerged in his mind, a thought of escape. To an orc, retreat was a thousand times worse than death but he was not a simple orc. While others orc dreamt of dying in glorious battle and ascending to the hall of ancestors, Jeera only had one aim in life. Jeera wanted to grow strong enough to avenge the death of his father but he couldn't do it if he was dead.

His eyes scanned the perimeter to find an opening. And a second later, with a powerful kick to the ground, the orc lunged towards Ariane. She was exhausted from the continuous spell casting and was his best chance of escape.

Freya saw through his attempt and jumped after him, the ground cracking beneath her feet. With her boosted stats, she caught up to him in a flash and swung her sword at the back of her neck. The orc felt a feeling of death approaching from his back and quickly turned around while leaning back to avoid the slash.

He succeeded in saving his neck, but the sword still connected to him and opened a gnarly slit across his chest just below his neck. Jeera let out a painful scream as droves of poisonous miasma entered his body and turned his green skin black.

Freya pushed her advantage and quickly delivered a couple more slashed. Jeera brought up his axes to defend himself, but the swordswoman was too quick for him and he received even more cuts along his arms, further increasing his pain.

By this time the poisonous energy had spread throughout his body and all of his senses had become dull. Therefore, the orc failed to stop a lightning quick thrust from Freya and a long dark blade pierced through his heart a second later.

A large amount of green blood erupted from his mouth, and dark purple miasma spread through his chest as he lost all sensation in his body below the neck. Freya didn't stop there as she pulled back her sword and with a wide swing cleaved off his head.

As Jeera's decapitated head fell to the ground, a new set of message appeared before Freya's eyes.

[You have killed the level 49 Orc, Jeera. +11650 Exp]

[You have levelled up to Level 32. +15 Distributable points.]

[You have completed the quest, 'Orc Termination'. +8000 Exp]

[You have levelled up to Level 34. +10 Distributable points.]

[Stats Increase: +5 Dexterity]

[Processing Bonus Reward…]

[You have received a Master skill book.]

However, Freya ignored the messages and focused on something else. Her gaze wandered across the edge of the dark blade in her hand that had lost the dark purple energy around it and instead was covered in green blood. She looked the system menu and quickly came upon a quest objective menu.

[Objectives:

i) Absorb even more miasma. (80/100)

ii) Gain recognition of Demonic Severance. (Completed)]

She wasn't sure it was completed because from the voice she heard, it seemed as if the sword had only allowed her to wield it for just this fight, but apparently that had been enough. A smile appeared on her bloody green face as she had finally completed the most difficult objective of her first Epic ranked quest.

"Well done, Freya." Morris clapped on her back in excitement, "You finally managed to kill that son of a b*tch."

"Also, what is that sword? I haven't seen you use it before." Alex spoke as he came closer towards them and was looking at dark gray blade in envy.

"That can wait for now." Morris as he turned towards his full team. "Let's focus on wiping out the remaining orcs and bandits before they escape."

The four adventures nodded at their captain's orders and quickly scattered across the battlefield. Freya didn't forget the twin axes from Jeera's corpse, as they were definitely magic weapons and hence worth a fortune.

It took them almost an hour to finally finish off the remaining orcs and kill the bandits until the remaining surrendered.

Now, the five of them were once more gathered around a table in the command tent. The lot of them were worse for wear as their clothes and armor had sustained heavy damage and, in Freya's case, were beyond repair. Her rhino skin torso armor and gloves were completely destroyed, with their durability practically zero. On her boots remained in somewhat good condition.

Meanwhile, both Morris' shield and armor had multiple dents in them and even had some cracks appear along the shield and a tear or two in the armor. Maria and Alex weren't any better off, as their leather armor was also filled with tears.

Ariane was the only with no tears in her robe but it was less of a protective apparel and more of traditional garments for mages.

"Report." Morris' voice spread across the tent, and Alex quickly stepped forward to present his report.

"Captain, we had incurred a total of seventeen deaths and twenty nine life threatening injuries among the soldiers. The rest are minor injuries that would slowly recover over time. The severely injured are currently recovering under Ariane's care."

As the archer turned silent, Maria spoke up, "We have captured a total of eighty two prisoners, all human bandits and among the three infamous bandit leader that had bounty on their heads by the army. Around twenty bandits managed to escape but they are currently being pursued by a squadron of soldiers."

"We have also recovered extensive high quality leather armors and weapons, mostly from the orc corpses and some from the bandit leaders."

As her speech ended, Morris turned towards Ariane and asked, "And what of the corpses?"

"They were piled up in an open field and burned as you commanded." The mage calmly answered.

"Good!" the bulky man exclaimed, "We can't deal with a plague outbreak right now. All of you, good work. You all have made me proud that I am a leader of a team of such brave and strong people."

He then turned to Freya before speaking, "Most of all of you, Freya. You have been a valuable addition to our team and I can't thank that fool Wulfric enough for bring you to us."

"Thank you, captain." Freya responded with a grateful nod. And the captain continued a moment later.

"That's it then. I am sure you all are very tired, so go get some rest." He reminded them before they left, "And don't be late for the tomorrow's meeting at the mayor's office. He wanted to give all of a reward before we left."

The four adventurer nodded at his words and then went their separate way after bidding good bye to each other.