First Fight
“The Ashen Hawks will keep everything under control in the rear. The rest of you, advance!” Siegfried reined in his horse and allowed his members to form a defensive line behind him.
“The reward for beheading them and the contributions and monetary reward from the mercenary guild will all be yours!” Siegfried was deeply aware of the weak points of humanity, and was shrewd and ruthless enough to immediately throw out more bait to entice the others.
Several medium sized mercenary groups immediately began to desire it, but before they could discuss their decision more, the ogres across from them could not wait any longer.
“Ow ow!” The ogre who stood at the very front threw its ferocious mouth wide open like a beast and let out a terrifying roar, the unknown animal bone it gripped in its hand becoming a huge club that swept across like a fierce gale.
*Bang!* The bone club pounded at the shields of the Shield Fighters at the very front, and a dull sound could be heard. Several mercenaries immediately collapsed, their arms snapping loudly.
The general strength of an ogre was around 5 or 7 points, equal to the strength of an elite rank 5 fighter. It was something that ordinary mercenaries simply could not contend against.
As if responding to their chieftain’s roar, the ogres behind him brandished their enormous clubs and hammers, or even raised their bare fists to throw themselves at the mercenaries. Several medium sized mercenary groups had their frontlines collapse immediately, and their leaders shouted commands to no avail. Everyone could tell that Siegfried’s expression grew dark.
‘The data and attributes of this world do not exactly follow the superposition principle. The sum of two actions does not necessarily equal the effect of each of the actions performed alone…’ Leylin watched the scene, but began to ponder other matters.
After experiencing so much in the World of Gods, he finally realised that the attribute data was different in this world.
‘Although ordinary people have an average level of 1, it seems more difficult to advance further on. Even breaking through the bottleneck of 1 for all my stats was very difficult in the beginning, and I spent quite a lot of effort to do so. After raising my stats to 5, every time I raised my stats by 1 level, it became several times more difficult to do so again. After I reach 10 points, the disparity will become even more obvious…’
Leylin had a premonition that after his average attributes reached 10 points, every time it was raised by 1 would perhaps be equivalent to the sum effects of his previous advancements. His overall strength would increase and he would grow considerably. This sort of exponential increase was different to what he was used to.
*Whooosh!* A strong gale blew across the region, and Leylin subconsciously noticed a shattered armour fragment on the floor, with mottle bloodstains all over it. This shifted his attention directly to the battlefield.
“Kill those dark-skinned bastards!” A medium sized mercenary group’s leader bellowed, radiating a tremendous force of qi.
These ogres were few in number, and did not even have a tenth of a medium sized mercenary group’s number. After the medium-ranked Professionals went to stall the ogres, the superiority in numbers became clear.
“Ha! Kill!”
Ten low-ranked mercenaries grasped their pikes and grouped together in a simple formation, tightly trapping an ogre in their circle. Even these simple group attacks could not be deciphered by the ogre’s brains, and along with the captain’s command, ten pikes stabbed through one like vipers.
“Ow ow…” The ogre raged, and although it had caught the head of two pikes, many more pikes pierced through its body. Great quantities of fresh blood flowed forth, and the ogre struggled continuously but was firmly trapped by the prison of steel pikes.
The alliance of ten low-ranking Professionals had the power to seriously hurt an ogre. The pikes used by these mercenaries seemed to have been remodelled, with the spearhead containing bloody grooves and barbs. Once one pierced a target, it would undoubtedly spread the wound and cause a hemorrhage.
Blood spurted out like a torrential fountain, and although ogres were proud of their shocking regenerative ability, it could not save the life of this one.
The ogre’s roars grew fainter, and the light in its eyes also began to dim. Its enormous corpse finally thudded onto the floor, mixing fresh blood with dirt to form a strange mottled pattern.
“Ow ow! Ow ow!” No matter how stupid a brain the ogre chieftain had, watching many of its clansmen being surrounded and cut down made it began to roar, shattering the arm of an unlucky mercenary in its hands.
The sound of its cry had changed from its earlier frenzied state, and seemed very curt. The other ogres who heard the sound began to fall back, and some even turned their backs and paid the price of being struck by the mercenaries to flee the battlefield.
“Hey! Don’t even think of running away, cowards!” At this moment, Leylin felt the black warhorse beneath him immediately gallop off, advancing towards the ogre chieftain.
The other mercenaries were astonished when they saw a black warhorse carrying a slender knight, directly leaping over the crowd to arrive at the frontline. There was even a fighter seated behind her who seemed like he did not know whether to laugh or to cry.
Knight Battle Skill— Charge! Knight Battle Skill— Braveheart Knight Battle Skill-- Sharp Qi!
A powerful glowing flame burst out from Rafiniya’s lance, and many mercenaries cried out “High-ranked knight!” in astonishment. The warhorse had been reinforced by many battle skills began to gallop even faster, and overtook the ogre chieftain in a flash.
“Ha!” Rafiniya thrust her lance with great force, and as it had been reinforced by Sharp Qi it immediately shattered the ogre chieftain’s defences. The lance pierced through its chest and exited through its back, and blood suddenly began to rain down.
As a rank 10 knight with a noble steed, armour and a lance, if Rafiniya could not take down an ogre who was merely equivalent to a rank 7 or rank 8 fighter her master would probably throw himself into a lake.
“Good! Who is that?” Siegfried had watched the battle from the side, and his eyes landed on the high ranking knight. This was a powerful Professional, and it often represented a good background. Not everyone could afford to raise a master knight.
“They’re not from the medium-sized mercenary groups, perhaps they’re wandering mercenaries!” A wizard clad entirely in black robes replied from his side, her eyes flashing.
“A wandering mercenary? It looks like there’s still a lot of talent at the bottom of the barrel. Send some men over to speak to them!” Siegfried stroked his chin, feeling rather curious about the knight’s identity. At this point, the wizard nodded indifferently.
“Haha… So the rumoured ogres are only at this level?” Rafiniya strung up the ogre chieftain’s corpse on a pole, a playful voice coming from within her armour. Leylin could tell that there was some uneasiness hidden in her slightly shaky voice.
“Hey hey… Shouldn’t you let me down first?”
“Ah! How are you still here?” As expected, Rafiniya had already forgotten all about Leylin during her earlier charge, and only recalled that there was still someone seated behind her now.
At the same time, Leylin heard her mutter to herself, “Awful, how awful, it’s so dirty… I don’t want this lance anymore…”
……
Although Rafiniya had intervened at the very end, the fight had spread towards the caravans, and after she had finally charged towards the ogre chieftain, the rest of the ogres ran even quicker. In the blink of an eye, they seemed to have disappeared into the dense shrubs by the road, which made the mercenaries who wanted the reward money feel crestfallen.
Rafiniya had won the credit, and seemed to be in a trance-like state. She did not even respond to the men sent over by the Ashen Hawks, and finally Leylin had to present himself and chat with them.
Only after returning to their own carriage did Rafiniya reap the reverent gazes of the others, and usually this little lass would have been so happy that if she had a tail, it would be rapidly wagging.
However, the girl seemed most preoccupied with throwing away her steel lance which was covered in the ogre’s blood and stench. She went alone into the sisters’ carriage, and a faint sound of retching was heard. Leylin reckoned that she still needed some time to adapt.
Old Pam once again had picked up scraps, and collected the lance that Rafiniya no longer wanted. He put it away carefully as if it was some treasured object.
After hearing that Rafiniya had abandoned the ogre’s ears as she was afraid of how dirty it was, Old Pam threw a huge tantrum and stomped his feet. He even scolded Leylin loudly for being a wastrel.
The level of his greed made Leylin wonder if Old Pam descended from the blood of a hoarding dragon.
“Haha… If those ogres come again, Old Pam will let them taste the power of my gun… HURR…” Old Pam was gripping a bottle of rum in both hands, and belched from time to time, his face completely flushed with excitement.
After fighting the ogres, the entire merchant group began to continue on their journey. However, they had all calmed down and were no longer as afraid as they were before. After passing through their first trial, they had realised that ogres were not up to their level. Although the ogres were very strong, they would still get injured and bleed, and they even took the head of the chieftain as a souvenir.
After the fear had passed, all of their thoughts grew lively again. Even Hera and her sister seemed to smile more.
‘Really…’ Leylin looked down at the scene and inwardly shook his head, a trace of suspicion in his eyes.
‘Why do I feel that there was something off about these bunch of ogres? It seemed like they were using… A plan against the soldiers? What a joke! Even if they had the mental capacity, how could they come up with that idea? Perhaps it was just a coincidence… No, the rumoured two-headed ogres or ogre shamans would perhaps have this sort of intelligence…’
‘If it’s true, then things will become interesting…’ Leylin’s lips curved into a meaningful smile.