Orc Boss

I was heading to the dungeon with Licia and Claire, this time, Beatrice insisted on joining us too, so the four of us were going together. She was pretty curious about a bunch of things on our way and reacted much the same as the girls did when they saw everyday things for the first time. Things like cars, tall buildings, and even some stores and their signs caught her attention.

As usual, I was having my own fun watching her reactions, but perhaps due to watching the TV last night, even though she appeared eager to learn more about a bunch of things, she also didn't display the same level of excitement as Licia and Claire did back then. Instead, she seemed to be contemplating deeply about the strange things that she saw.

Normally, that would be the end of it and we would reach the dungeon without any problems, but on our way, I noticed someone on the sidewalk fervently distributing flyers and enthusiastically promoting something to passersby. 

I typically disregard such things, as they often prove to be more annoying and not worth listening to at all. This time though, the guy seemed to be pretty insistent and started walking in our direction intently with a big smile on his face. 

In my mind, I could only think that he was either very passionate about this, or he spotted a group of pretty girls and saw his job as the perfect excuse to strike up a conversation with them.

I was ready to enter that cliche anime trope where a random guy starts to hit on the girls in front of the protagonist, but things happened a bit differently from what I was expecting.

??????: "Hey there! So... um... you guys know about the Army Of The Gifted right? We are recruiting new members so if you could um... I mean, if you wanna join..."

His first steps towards us were brimming with courage. but as soon as he started speaking he became conscious of the three women staring at him.

I couldn't help but notice his gaze shifting towards Beatrice from time to time, though he quickly averted it each time.

Every direction he could look at was filled with a pretty girl, so to calm himself, he directed his gaze towards me. However, at that point, he seemed to be silently imploring me to say something, just so he could shift his attention elsewhere and regain his composure.

Miwen: "Sorry, I'm not really interested so-"

Beatrice: "Eh? It's the thing they were talking about in that box, the army thing !"

I see, so that's what it was about this morning. Thankfully, this eliminates any threat of war since these guys are an army in name alone.

The organization known as "Army Of The Gifted" appeared a few years ago, they are a mysterious group with a bunch of different branches. Though they have a representative, members are often doing their own thing. Their activities mostly consist of participation in protests and they are the biggest pro "Gifted-oriented society" group out there.

The AOG's (Army of the Gifted) popularity has been steadily increasing recently, and two specific events propelled them to new heights. The first occurred when the government proposed registering everyone's Gifts and their effects in a database. This idea didn't sit well with many individuals, who believed that information about one's Gift should remain private. They were concerned that if this information became accessible, people could face discrimination and stigma based on the nature of their Gifts.

Additionally, there were critics who voiced concerns about the potential for government abuse of this information. The resulting movements against this proposal gained immense momentum. Ultimately, the AOG (Army of the Gifted) emerged as the prominent face of the protests that compelled the government to backtrack. Consequently, what began as a small group experienced significant growth during and after the entire ordeal.

After establishing a significant presence, their popularity received a second big boost when people who hadn't been born during the 'First Contact' reached the age of 18 and began manifesting their own Gifts

Their popularity with young boys and girls was particularly high, and for a lot of teenagers, upon gaining their powers, the desire to be important and make a change in the world took over, leading to many of them joining the organization that in their eyes could go toe to toe with the government and even promote or block certain changes. For them, it was the perfect place to have your own impact on society.

AOG Recruiter: "Y-yeah... our leader made a big speech about this being our era and..."

Leader?

That was the first time I had heard someone refer to him like that. As far as I know, he's not very self-centered and just goes in the spotlight to debate or expose his ideas, most of the time he's on the ground, doing the same actual work as everyone else. This image of an ordinary person stepping up alongside others to fight for what he believes in also contributed to their popularity, although to a lesser degree.

Miwen: "That's kinda weird..."

AOG Recruiter: "Dude, seriously, don't you think it's messed up what they did to that guy who was just trying to lend a hand with that fire at the store on Hamilton Avenue?"

The conversation went on while I was thinking, and I interrupted it at an awkward moment, still, about what he said...

Miwen: "I'm not sure. He did end up helping, but who knows, it could've easily gone wrong. Remember that incident when a girl tried to help stop a fire on an apartment with water magic, damaged the building's structure, and... well, you know how that story ended..."

The guy he's talking about is the one who used wind magic to mess with the air around a store, basically doing away with the oxygen and putting out the fire. It was a pretty heroic move, but in the official statement, the state thanked him and all, but also threw in a strong warning about not doing stuff like that, hinting at possible fines and even jail time for interfering with their firefighting efforts.

People have been commenting on how unnecessary and ungrateful the statement came across, but despite the stern tone, I think the warning is valid. Especially when you consider the other incident that happened not long ago.

The store this guy helped was empty at the time, but the girl who tried to assist with the apartment fire wasn't so lucky. It's sad that she genuinely tried to help, but her attempt only led to more casualties.

Her case ended up being pretty straightforward, and there wasn't much stir when she faced criminal charges.

AOG Recruiter: "It was tough... but these things happen more often than not. Firefighters don't always have it perfectly either"

Miwen: "Still, I'd much rather leave it to the guys who studied and trained to do it than rely on some random guy who only has good intentions and a lot of confidence going for him." 

Without me noticing, we ended in a discussion that I didn't really care too much about to begin with. Though I guess it would be cool to use your powers to help like in a comic, the truth is that these situations are much more complex than they seem and a lot of training goes into dealing with them in the most effective and safe way.

Even though we have people capable of healing magic, we still need doctors to identify illnesses and deal with diseases that a simple heal isn't effective against. It might be because I'm used to this status quo, but it feels right to maintain the value of trained professionals.

Licia: "Um... it might be a good idea if we head out now..."

Claire: "Come on, Miwen, let's not waste too much time !"

For a moment I almost forgot what we came here to do, so I decided to cut the discussion short and just went straight to the dungeon to get away from him.

Once inside, without wasting any more time, we began our journey towards the boss room, and once we were far from the settlements, I brought the girls from the Kingdom to join us.

And then... we came face to face with the boss room for the second floor, opening the door brings us to an empty dark room, and then, an unnatural light reveals 5 monsters standing in front of us. All of them are Orcs, and two of these Orcs are known to be [Lords] who are called mid-bosses.

The boss who reigns above them is a [Superior] who has a gimmick attached to him. Firstly, he's capable of water magic, which can be dangerous. But since we have three ice users here, as long as his opponents aren't Claire and Beatrice, we should be able to deal with him.

The real problem is that he can't be damaged until all the [Orc Lords] are dead, which means someone will have to keep him occupied while the others deal with the remaining monsters.

A good recommended strategy here is to try and bombard at least one, if possible the two Orcs who are neither [Lords] nor the [Superior], having one of them down would allow a party to gain numerical advantage, and so, the recommended number of members for a party in this floor is five.

The only problem with this is that you absolutely need a strong mage, or at least two people capable of magic. The [Superior Orc] might also start by bombarding us with his magic, so you need to be attentive to either dodge it or block it, if your dedicated mage chooses to block it, to keep momentum in your favor, someone else in your party should start attacking with magic.

Given the number of people capable of magic in our party, I thought that this strategy suited us very well, so, before they started approaching us, Claire, Beatrice, and I started releasing fireballs in the Orcs' direction, all the while, Ellie started to shoot the boss in an attempt to keep him occupied.

This worked pretty well, to block Ellie's arrows, the boss made a water whip and started deflecting them. As for the two orcs that got hit by our fire magic, one of them was down, while the other one was badly damaged.

Suddenly it became a 7v4, with Ellie and Beatrice in the backline, five of us went forward and engaged an opponent.

Mia came with me to face the boss together, this way, our battle would be the "safest" due to the numerical advantage, and our backline could focus on assisting the others.

Mia: "Try to keep up, okay?"

She said after giving me a bump in my right arm.

Since we couldn't damage him, our focus was on stalling above all, thus we kept a distance from each other so that when he attacked either of us, the other could either provide support from a safe position or attack a blind spot to divert the boss' attention.

With no regard to our formation, the Orc made use of his water-whip, and swung it in our direction from the right side, trying to hit us simultaneously. 

Mia's reaction was swift, her hands pressing firmly into the ground as she conjured an ice wall on her side. This well-timed move effectively blocked the incoming whip. She kept her gaze fixed on the menacing Orc, ready to anticipate his next move.

I, too, remained vigilant, closely observing, and thus I was able to notice his hand as it started to move. First, he extended his arm and showed an empty palm, then, he clenched his fist and drew it closer to himself. It looked like a battle stance, but given that when the whip hit Mia's wall a lot of water got behind her, I rapidly understood what he did.

Miwen: "Watch out, behind you !"

I thought she was going to dodge to her side, but instead, she jumped forward, stopping right before the Orc and only then dodging to the side.

She was really fast, and my warning wasn't even necessary, since she reacted before I could tell her about the attack.

Thanks to her quick reactions, the boss had essentially attacked himself with his water bullets, and in an even bigger blunder, even though he couldn't be damaged, due to instinct, the boss made a gesture to bring down the bullets, stopping them before they hit him.

This left the boss extremely open to any attacks, so much so, that she lightly bumped his arm the same way she did to me before.

Mia: "That's a hit, your turn."

She says it with a smile and retreats back to her initial position. 

This looked like a child playing, and if not for the boss being invulnerable, she would have claimed his life right there.

Mia seemed to have this completely under her control, and I knew the girls would be done with their opponents soon enough, so this looked like it was in the bag.

Mia: "Hm? Don't act shy now, go on."

Miwen: "Eh ?"

So she was referring to me, and not the Orc? Are you even taking him seriously?

Mia: "I'll throw a few pointers for you, so relax."

Miwen: "...Sure."

I can't get a good read on her intentions, it seemed like she was enjoying herself, but there was also a sense that she had some ulterior motive in mind.

Well, I also wanted to test myself against the guy, so it was actually a good opportunity. Right now the boss was focused solely on her, intently gazing at her every movement.

To start, I cast a few small, but fast fire bullets in his direction. Since damaging him wasn't really possible, it would be a waste to expend too much mana in this exchange. Most of all, I wanted to see how he would react.

Perhaps due to Mia, he cast a simple water barrier that blocked the shots. I knew it would be good to let water on the ground since he could use it to attack, so instead, I froze them into small ice nails and launched every single one of them towards him, taking the opportunity to also dash towards him in an attempt to stab his stomach with my dagger.

The nails were coming from his left side and I was coming from the center. I thought an attack from multiple directions was going to be effective, but to my surprise, he copied Mia and ran towards me to avoid the nails.

Being taller than me, he punched down and I had to dodge to the right.

That's when something unexpected happened, from behind me, a arm reached for my chest.

Mia: "What was that?"

Miwen: "Um... I didn't think he'd do that, so..."

Mia: "m-hmm... you could've done better, though. Keep in mind that no matter what you do, your opponent might react in an unexpected way, so, you need to have a follow-up ready if your plan succeeds, but you'll also need to have in mind a follow-up if your plan fails."

I guess she's right, I should've frozen his feet before attacking with the nails, that would have given me more time to reach him. It would also be safer, but that's just the foundation of my attack plan...

The most important thing is that I failed to foresee how he could react. I had a solid idea, but once he broke through it, there wasn't any real follow-up aside from dodging and trying to create another opportunity.

Right now, my pattern is lacking, instead of being a chain of attacks cohesively linked, it feels more like a bunch of isolated attempts.

Miwen: "I see what you mean."

Mia: "Great, go ahead then. The others seem to have finished too, so this time, do your best."

Miwen: "Sure, darling."

Mia: "... ! I hope he strikes you down, Idiot."

Well, since I was carrying the hopes of my cute fiance, there was no way I wouldn't rise to the occasion.

The others had finished the [Lords], making the boss vulnerable. 

I dashed towards him to restart our battle, but he threw a bunch of water bullets against me. To deal with this I created an ice pillar beneath my feet, and after arriving at a good height, I created an ice slide towards the monster.

Before trying to attack him, I froze his feet, and then I used the ice slide to quickly close our distance, and by the time I coated my blade in flames, I was ready to slash at him.

The Orc reacted quickly, and using a burst of water propelled himself back to dodge.

I kept my momentum and continued to chase after him. I wouldn't be able to reach him before he got back on his feet at the speed I was going, so, I got as close as I could and stabbed the air in his direction.

A bunch of fire projectiles in a shape resembling that of my own dagger were thrown toward him, and he deflected every single one... except the last, which suddenly changed its trajectory and cut his throat clean off.

While throwing the flame projectiles, I used my ice magic to increase the hilt of my dagger, essentially turning it into a lance-like weapon.

I also coated the blade in flames so it was camouflaged between the other projectiles and looked like them.

When stabbing him, he thought it was just another blade-shaped fire projectile, and tried to deflect it.

Knowing he'd do that, I chose to attack with an initial thrust as a faint and then changed it into a slash midway. This made me lose a bit of the strength on the attack, but I used my active skills, like [Focused Strike] to increase the attack to a level of power higher than it was before, allowing me to finish the battle in a single strike.

Mia: "Phew... not bad."

Miwen: "Yeah, even I didn't know I was capable of that."

Mia: "I've noticed that your style is completely improvised, but without much experience, so you end up falling back to simple tactics after one or two well-thought-out strikes. With time you can develop new patterns and a fighting style completely of your own. But the most effective way to do that would be to experience real, challenging battles... You can come to the kingdom anytime, and I'll be sure to help you with that, darling."

Ah, now I understand... so this whole time, her true objective was... create an excuse to give me a beating whenever she felt like it.

Seems like my fiance is a sly one.