The Rise Of A Porter

"GET DOWN!" Talos roared as the Orc King swung his sword once again. The aerial bullet generated by the Orc King's [Silent kill] ability, once again found its mark and destroyed a couple of hounds in an instant.

Talos and his team were at the tip of their toes against the orcs. Although they had managed to slay a couple of orcs, the damage they had incurred in the process was tremendous. Talos had lost ten of Arnold's summons in an attempt of taking two orcs down. Sadly things got worse from thereon.

It seemed like the Orc King's power was affected by the orcs around him, because whenever they killed an orc, the deadlier the Orc King's blows got. Talos was afraid if they liked one more orc, the Orc King would gain enough power to obliterate all of them.

This the only option Talos had was to kill the King first... but it wasn't possible. The orcs were in full-on offensive mode. They barely, if ever slipped up, but even if they did the Orc King had their backs, and the end result remained the same...

Although Arnold's summons weren't afraid of getting injured or destroyed, they knew they had to be careful so that the battle could be dragged out till Arnold could arrived to help them, as they couldn't defeat all of the orcs by themselves.

'Situation is getting worse... Probability of winning with our current strength is 0.5%. If I use the grenades master had given me then the probability would increase by 6%.'

Talos was busy doing calculations in his man-made mind, but no matter what scenario he thought of, their maximum winning probability didn't exceed 8%, it was their upper limit. But in that scenario, the women behind the orcs would inevitably die as well, but then the entire purpose of fighting against the orcs would be destroyed. The orcs seemed to be aware of the situation as well, or at least they thought, Talos and company still had some card up their sleeves and they stepped back, closer to the women, even though they didn't need to.

'They are too close to the humans. I can't use the grenades until and unless I lure them out or... yes, I could do that too.' All of a sudden, Talos' eyes were shining brighter than the stars. Although his plan was dangerous, the reward was high as well.

He quickly summoned a single skeleton warrior, who had a giant bone hammer in its hands. Talos extended his hand towards the skeleton.

"Give me that." he said, and the skeleton quickly handed him the weapon it was carrying, Talos accepted the weapon and turned towards the others, "As soon as they break their formation, charge in and attack them with everything you got. It doesn't matter whether your attacks with on them or not, but till then stay put and don't move. Understood?"

Members of Talos' team acknowledged his command.

Talos quickly placed the hammer on his back and charged at the Orc which was nearest to him, his guns in his hands.

The Orc King saw him coming and instructed the orcs to get rid of him. Orc King's [Silent kill] ability was still under cooldown, he couldn't take care of Talos on his own. The orcs prepared themselves to face the lone enemy who was running with all his might towards them.

'Ready to strike are you?' Talos thought and further increased his speed, 'Then give me your best shot!'

The Orc slammed down his sword on Talos as soon as he was within his attack range, Talos quickly dropped on his knees and retrieved the hammer from his back, his momentum not only saved him from the orc's attack but also made him slide over the ground.

Before anyone could notice what happened, Talos swung his hammer at the orc's knee with all his might, shattering hid kneecap in an instant. The Orc let out a cry of pain and collapsed on the grabbing his knee, but Talos wasn't done yet. He quickly grabbed something out of the pouch which was tightly tied around his waist, and threw it inside the orc's mouth before kneeing his mouth shut and kicking the Orc towards the other orcs and ran away to the other side to do the same thing there as well.

The Orcs were confused, not knowing what Talos had done until the next moment, when the heads of the orcs, whom Talos had attacked, exploded, killing them while also injuring a few who were near them. Talos was sure that killing the orcs would enrage the Orc King, but he was prepared for the consequences, because...

"The master has arrived at our location." Talos shouted at the others, "Now all we have to do is reduce their numbers as much as we can!"

He knew Arnold had arrived as both of them could view each others location thanks to their communicators. 

Talos expected the Orc King to do something but he he never expected that he'd do anything like what Talos was witnessing right now...

he looked up to see that the Orc King had killed the remaining Orcs and was busy devouring them, one after another.

"You sick monster! They were trying to protect you and this is how you thank them?" Talos yelled and gripped his guns tightly in his arms.

"Being killed by a lowly creature like you would've been much more disgraceful than being devoured by me." Much to Talos' shock, The Orc King spoke in human tongue while he wiped off the Orc blood from his mouth.

The moment he finished speaking, his body began to change. The Orc King grew bigger, his skin turned jet-black, and two more arms popped out of his sides... bones protruded out of his back like spikes of a hedgehog. Two huge black horns burst out of his head as if he was a demon. The Orc King had ascended to a whole different level... he was no longer the Orc King... he was a Demon Orc.

Talos and the others were incapable of experiencing fear, but the women who were forced to stay behind the Orc weren't that lucky.

Adrenaline flooded their bodies, their hearts pumping and beating as if it was trying to escape out of their bodies. It felt like their hearts could explode at any moment, their eyes were wide with fear. Their body was begging them to either run out of the cave or dig another one for safety but instead, they remained where they were. Frozen. It didn't matter what they wanted to do because, in the end, they could do only one thing- Pray that the demon didn't kill them.

All of a sudden a woman got up and started sprinting towards the exit.

"NO COMEBACK! DON'T RUN! HE'LL KILL YOU!" Another woman shrieked at top of her lungs, but the woman didn't listen, she was just a few steps away from her freedom... but she wasn't able to take her freedom.

A spike flew out of the orc's back and hit the woman at the back of her head... she was dead even before she realised it. Her body fell next to Talos' feet.

The Orc turned towards the women, and said slowly and clearly, "All of you will get the honour of bearing my children. Don't even dare to think you can leave this place until then..."

The Orc's words poured gasoline onto the spark of fear in their belly. Few of them even wet themselves because of the fear. They weren't going anywhere. For them, death was the only way to gain freedom...

The demon then pointed a finger towards Talos, and asked in his hoarse voice, "Are you the leader?"

"What if I am?" Talos replied in his usual emotionless voice, unafraid of the monster in front of him.

"You get to die last." The demon smirked and got on all fours. The spikes on his back shot out like missiles out of a missile launching system.

Spikes rained on Talos' team like rain in a thunderstorm. All of them were annihilated even before they could blink their eyes. A few spikes landed in front of Talos who was knocked off balance, one of the spikes embedded in his left shoulder.

After staggering for a brief moment, Talos managed to get his balance again, but it was too late... the Orc was standing in front of him, his eyes were fixed at the Talos' left shoulder, which was already half-broken, thanks to the spike. Without any hesitation, the Orc swung its sword at him, his three hands grabbing the remaining limbs of the automaton.

CRACK!

The Orc cleanly sliced Talos' left arm. But Instead of blood, oil and sparks spewed out from where the arm was cut off.

"Oh... this is something new! Maybe I should eat you too. Who knows what kind of powers would you have?" The Orc said licking his lips.

"Nah I don't think you will." A man's voice echoed through the cave.

"Who are you?" The Orc let go of Talos and stepped forward.

"Me? Let's just say... I'm the one who'll kill you." Arnold replied and stepped out of the shadows, into the battlefield.