Elvis withdrew his gaze.
Luke continued explaining his plan, tossing and catching the rock he had recently picked up. "The plan is simple. Elvis and Caelithia will join me and move to the flank while Freda and Hayden pin it down with ranged attacks. Then the three of us will close in from the flank, encircle it, and attack while leaving a gap for Freda and Hayden to support us.
"I’ll throw this rock at you to begin the attack."
They all nodded in agreement.
They moved in a crouched posture to the right, using the trees as cover since the haze was no longer available to conceal their movements.
Two minutes later, they arrived at their positions.
Luke accurately threw the rock toward Hayden’s position. It landed silently in the thick snow beside them.
Under Elvis’s watchful eyes, Freda pulled her bow taut with an arrow nocked, while Hayden held his staff in a focused posture. About five seconds later, an ice spear formed in front of him.
The ice spear shot forward in a white streak. Freda released her arrow at the same moment, a black streak racing alongside the white one.
The blue orc snapped its head toward the incoming ice spear and arrow, but it was too late.
Both found their mark on its chest, piercing through its flesh. The blue orc roared in pain. Lowering its head, it saw the ice spear and arrow embedded in its chest, blue blood trickling from the points of impact.
Then it whipped its head up, spotting Hayden and Freda in the distance.
Freda had already nocked her next arrow in her taut bow. Hayden was midway through conjuring his next ice spear.
The blue orc pulled the ice spear and arrow from its chest before roaring at them, its menacing gaze scanning the duo.
Freda released the arrow in reply.
The blue orc yanked out its spiked club and swung it at the whizzing arrow, accurately smacking it away.
With a guttural roar, it sprinted at the duo with a large stride, leaving large, sunken footprints in the snow.
Meanwhile, the trio at the flank were already closing in from the side.
Hayden formed an ice spear at that moment and launched it instantly.
Freda released her nocked arrow a few seconds later.
The blue orc smashed the blitzing ice spear into spraying ice splinters but was too late to react to the arrow. The arrow flashed forward and pierced its arm. Follow the newest chapters on novelping(.)com.
This slowed it down almost to a halt, husky roars thundering from its lips.
The trio were upon it at that moment. The blue orc pivoted to face the new enemies, snarling at them with its spiked club raised to strike.
"Surround it in a triangle. Always strike at its exposed back and run!" Luke yelled as he dashed around, attempting to encircle it.
The blue orc snapped its head toward Luke, tracking his movement.
Elvis squinted, calculating how to strike swiftly without endangering himself.
But Caelithia bolted ahead.
’Damn girl! Are you not afraid of getting smashed into a bloody paste?!’ Elvis roared inwardly as he slowed his steps to act as backup.
The blue orc whipped its head around to face the sprinting Caelithia, its spiked club cocked for a powerful swing.
Elvis’s heart was in his throat as he watched Caelithia draw closer to it.
Suddenly, black and white streaks whizzed from its side, piercing the blue orc’s waist and sending it wobbling aside. Caelithia darted in the opposite direction of its stumble, slashing a deep gash beneath the impaled arrow and ice spear.
The blue orc roared in pain and pivoted sharply to chase after her, ignoring the bleeding.
Elvis lunged forward at the sight of the blue orc’s exposed scarred back facing him.
Just as Elvis arrived, sword raised high, the blue orc spun on its heel and whipped the spiked club around.
The massive weapon vanished into a dark arc, bringing a violent gust of wind with it as it crossed the gap in a split second.
Elvis barely managed to position his sword across his chest before the spiked club smashed into his sword and slammed it into his chest, sending him flying.
Elvis crashed into the cold snow, forming a depression beneath him, but his chest was burning.
He could hear muffled shouts, roars, and quaking vibrations. Perhaps it was because he was buried in the snow, everything sounded muffled.
It took him a moment to regain his focus, and he instantly remembered where he was.
He sat up, only to see the blue orc already close to him, ignoring everything being thrown at it from behind.
Still a bit muddled, Elvis grabbed his sword, bounded to his feet, and turned to escape.
But that was his mistake.
The soft, rhythmic quakes suddenly changed into swift, muffled pounding footsteps.
Peeking behind him, Elvis’s eyes widened when he saw the blue orc shift from taking large strides to speeding toward him, moving even faster than he was as it dragged its huge spiked club through the snow.
The distance was shrinking so fast that it would take merely a few seconds for the orc to catch up.
’Sh*t! [Predatory Rush]!’
His brain fired on all cylinders as he desperately tried to escape his predicament, and he remembered that he wasn’t a straight-up Warrior.
’Yes! Skills!’
Without slowing his pace, he stretched out his hand and activated [Shadow Mist]. The three-second window felt like an eternity as the muffled quakes grew louder.
’Faster! Faster!! Faster!!!’
Elvis couldn’t tell how long it took, but the black orb finally formed in his palm. He crushed it instantly, plunging his surroundings into darkness.
The muffled, pounding footsteps slowed to a stop.
Elvis immediately cut toward his presumed left direction and sprinted, trying to move through the darkness with light footsteps so as not to reveal his tracks.
But the heavy footsteps that had disappeared suddenly returned, accompanied by guttural roars from behind.
Then, soft smashes echoed.
Snow suddenly brushed over his face.
Elvis slowed down as his nerves instantly grew taut at the roars. The brush of the snow felt like the chilly caress of death.