Floor 2 — The Orc Great Warrior Karakshi (3)

Beyond the wall that had swung wide open, a cavern revealed itself. Something was glowing inside it.

As if ensnared by that light, I walked forward.

And at the very center of the cavern, a golden mace stood driven into the ground.

No — not gold. Electricity. Tiny bolts of lightning crackled and seethed around the mace.

Wow. I couldn't help but marvel.

So this was the hidden piece of Floor 2. As expected of the goblin saint. Thank you, Dobby.

I approached the mace slowly.

BOOM.

At the tremendous sound, my gaze whipped around behind the mace.

There, in the rear — a sight I'd missed entirely, my eyes glued to the mace — an enormous stone sarcophagus stood against the wall.

"GRAAAAAGH!"

CRASH!

The roar thundered again, and the sarcophagus shattered, dirt and dust spraying into the air.

From between the billowing dust burst a green-skinned colossus, over two meters tall and darkened with age.

A notification window bearing nothing but a name. Strange — unlike every other time, there was no supplementary description.

Different from everything I'd faced so far. Stronger even than the goblin knight. Was it because this thing was so genuinely powerful that the Tower offered no explanation?

The Orc Great Warrior Karakshi stared holes through me with bloodshot eyes.

Ah, damn it all. Nothing ever comes easy. I quickly readjusted my grip on the sword.

"Grrrr."

The two-meter-plus Orc Great Warrior exhaled a ragged breath through the gap between two massive tusks jutting from his lips.

Saliva dripped down in thin strands. His lifelessly bloodshot eyes, oddly enough, held no focus at all.

It was as if he had lost his mind.

"Kkihiik!"

Behind me, I heard Dobby's breathless, terrified squeak. I shook my head, signaling him to fall back.

Dobby scrambled out of the cavern.

Focus.

The aura rolling off him was anything but ordinary. Every nerve in my body stood on end, honed to a razor's edge.

Perhaps because I was concentrating so hard, I could feel my heartbeat pounding faster and harder.

I readjusted the shield on my left arm and raised it up to my chin.

Behind it, I tensed the muscles of my right arm, gripping the longsword, ready to swing at any moment.

Between Karakshi and me lay the lightning mace. Unfortunately, Karakshi was closer to it.

If I sprinted for it, I would lose the race. That much was certain.

Karakshi didn't move. He simply watched me with those smoldering eyes.

And I couldn't be the one to move first either, so the standoff dragged on, neither of us able to advance or retreat.

Should I just charge in?

"Krruh!"

In the very instant I was deliberating, Karakshi let out one rough breath and slammed his foot into the ground.

Karakshi came barreling toward me at blistering speed, right hand outstretched to seize the mace.

With practiced ease, he rotated his wrist and wrenched the mace up into position. The distance between us shrank.

"GRAAAH!"

With a shrieking bellow, the mace came sweeping in horizontally from Karakshi's right.

Crackling lightning flared around its head.

Shield or no shield, I had no confidence in holding it up against a mace spitting electricity.

Dodge it. I had no idea how strong that lightning was.

I rolled my body diagonally to the right.

WHUMP — the mace carved through empty air. I sprang back to my feet and reclaimed my line of sight.

Damn it.

With a veteran's snap of the wrist, Karakshi caught the whiffed mace mid-swing and brought it crashing down from above.

Too late to dodge. I clenched the hand around my shield and shoved it upward.

CRANG!

My left hand went numb.

Because of the lightning mace, my fingertips felt sluggish, as if paralyzed. As the mace swung down a second time, I rolled swiftly sideways.

CRANG! The mace hammered the ground, dirt billowing up in a thick cloud.

I can't keep this up.

My left hand, the one gripping the shield, was tingling at the fingertips.

I had to attack too. Because of that lightning mace, a war of attrition was far too disadvantageous for me.

Gritting my teeth, I slipped past the mace as it came hurtling in yet again.

I aimed for the opening and tried to thrust my sword, but my movement was too slow.

Again — I abandoned the thrust mid-extension as the mace flew at me and frantically threw up my shield instead. The lightning mace slammed into it.

CRANG! I was flung backward, sailing a good two meters through the air.

Ah... everything was spinning.

The back of my head throbbed. I'd landed on the bare floor headfirst. Damn it — no time for this.

"GRAAAH!"

The moment I pushed my upper body up, I saw the mace descending toward my head.

Once more, I angled the shield up over my skull.

CRANG — a dull, heavy impact rolled through me. And with it came a sharp pop from my left arm. My left arm was screaming.

"Ngh!"

The pain was vicious and piercing. Something was definitely wrong with the bone.

Could Dobby cast a healing spell from where he was?

I had no room to even think about that. Retreating rapidly, my mind went to the shield's option. The healing spell.

"Wound Mending!"

A faint radiance blossomed from the shield and poured into my left arm.

The pain receded fast, and the numb, tingling hand gradually came back to life.

Karakshi, who had been mid-charge, froze and fell back a single step at the glow rising from the shield.

Think. How was I going to break through this thing?

He was stronger than me, and faster. If I fought him the way I'd fought goblins on the first floor, I'd lose, guaranteed.

Perhaps because his mind was gone, his attack patterns were simple. In a short span, I'd already grown somewhat familiar with them.

I'll just have to gamble.

A long fight was beyond me. The healing spell in the shield had another twenty-four hours until it could be used again. Even with Dobby's support, I couldn't win by the book.

Keep this up, and I was dead either way. It was now or never.

"Fuck it! Come on, then!"

"KRRUHH!"

Karakshi charged again. Focus. Focus.

The mace came swinging in from my left — higher than before.

Instead of rolling diagonally, I rolled straight forward. WHUMP — the mace swept ponderously over my tumbling body.

Rising as I came up, I slashed my sword across. The blade raked across Karakshi's abdomen, a thin spray of blood beading along the steel.

Damn it — too shallow.

The sensation in my fingertips told me the blade hadn't gone deep. Whether ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it was his thick hide or sheer muscle, the cut was far shallower than I'd expected.

"GRAAAAAGH!"

I shoved my disappointment aside and rolled sideways again. Enraged, Karakshi's mace smashed into the innocent ground.

A short swing — I cut across Karakshi's forearm. Shallow again, of course.

"GRAAAGH!"

WHUMP — as the mace came flying horizontally, I snapped my upper body back to evade it.

Karakshi flicked the mace skyward with a snap of his wrist and dropped into position for an overhead smash.

Now.

One step.

I timed my retreat to the mace's rhythm, falling back in a wide stride, the muscles of my right leg coiling tight as I drew it fully back.

THOOM — the mace slammed into the earth.

I drove power into my right leg and leapt. Planting my left foot on the mace embedded in the ground, I vaulted again.

The numbness crawling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up my left leg from the lightning spitting off the mace — I forced myself to ignore it.

From midair, my vision opened wide, and Karakshi's thick neck stood out in perfect clarity.

It's over.

Twisting my torso, I drove my right arm forward — the arm I'd been winding back behind my shoulder to its very limit.

THUNK — the sword punched through the right side of Karakshi's neck and burst out through the left.

"Krr... haaah..."

Black blood glistened slick along the silver blade.

A sound like air escaping a torn bellows wheezed out of Karakshi's mouth.

He lost his balance and toppled.

Whew. Thinking back on it, that was a magnificent counter. If my timing had been off by even a beat, the one sprawled on the ground would have been me.

Exhilaration and hollow exhaustion washed over me at the same time.

For all my talk of taking a gamble, the fight had ended far too quickly. Once again, I understood what combat truly was.

Stay humble. Always.

Being stronger and faster than your opponent didn't guarantee victory. Fighting Karakshi, I felt like I'd grown by a full step.

"Kkiik! Human! You okay?!"

Dobby came running up, belatedly.

Useless creature. What kind of battle priest doesn't cast healing spells on his own initiative mid-fight?

"Kkiik! Amazing!"

Well, time to give him a thorough education.

Priests had cooldowns on their spells too. The shield's healing spell had to be saved as a last resort.

"Dobby, why didn't you use your healing spell back there?"

After giving Dobby a firm lecture on the proper use of healing spells in combat, I made my way back along the path we'd come.

According to Dobby — the goblin saint — the Orc Great Warrior Karakshi had already been dead.

That was why he'd been consumed by madness, drunk on black blood.

Something about him being possessed by a wraith of the Tower, or whatever.

Even so, the fight had been grueling — but I'd come away with a rewarding prize. The lightning mace now resting in my hand was exactly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that.

The way electricity crackled around the mace's head — it looked seriously cool.

How should I put it — like it filled the void left by the yearning for magic I'd forgotten about ever since picking my weapon.

After getting the mace, I'd swung it around a few times, and the feel of it in my hands was actually better than the sword.

If I'd known, I would have chosen a mace back in the Waiting Room too. Well, better late than never — I had a weapon like this in my hands now, and that was enough.

I gave the goblin knight's longsword to Dobby.

It felt like too good a thing to toss aside, and Dobby was on my side now, after all.

Even a grateful goblin like Dobby ought to have at least one weapon for his own protection.

Though whether he can actually use it properly is another question.

In truth, the goblin knight's longsword was far too big for Dobby to wield.

Even now, he was huffing and groaning as he lugged the sword along behind me.

My hands were full carrying my own gear, so I couldn't help him.

Dobby was a goblin in his growing years anyway — a bit of exercise seemed like it'd do him good — so I told him to carry it himself.

"Kkiik! Orcs!"

As we walked, another fork in the road came into view in the distance.

Six orc warriors stood guard at the junction.

A pattern similar to the fork we'd passed about thirty minutes ago. The only difference: two more orcs than last time.

Orc warriors had a build roughly similar to a human's, but with muscles stacked and bulging all over.

Hm. I didn't feel particularly nervous.

Thirty minutes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or so ago, I'd dispatched four orc warriors with ease.

Of course, at first I was terrified.

Right after the fight with Karakshi, I'd assumed every orc must be another Karakshi, and I'd walked on with my heart in my throat.

And quickly enough, I learned that assumption had been dead wrong.

Orc warriors were definitely stronger than goblins. Each and every one of them was on the level of the goblin knight, the first-floor boss.

Had I not run into Karakshi, this might have given me real trouble.

Taking down the goblin knight and then Karakshi had evidently sharpened me considerably, because the fights with the orcs came easily.

— You want to live?

— Human, die!

Thanks to the experience I'd gained saving Dobby on the first floor, I even found myself asking the orc warriors whether they wanted to live before I cut them down — but the orcs never answered.

Apparently the lightning mace was the real prize of Floor 2.

And this fight was no different. Press in fast, block with the shield, stab with the mace.

"Human! Goblin! Die!"

The six orc warriors who'd come charging in with a rousing battle cry were flat on the ground in under two minutes.

"Oh! Dobby, this one looks even better, doesn't it?"

"Kkiik! Smells! Less bad!"

I'd found a leather armor in better condition than the one I'd stripped off an orc warrior a while back.

There was a bit of blood on it, but honestly, so was there on the one I was wearing. I quickly changed into the new leather armor.

Smells about the same to me?

Contrary to Dobby's claim, the stench was every bit as foul.

It didn't bother Dobby at all.

Presumably orcs washed even less often than goblins. Filthy creatures.

"Which way?"

"Kkiik! Right! We go!"

"Alright, let's go."

And after the whole affair earlier, I had resolved to trust Dobby completely.

Ooh, the goblin saint. If I just stuck to Dobby's heels, fortunes would fall right into my lap while I slept.

Onward.

There were four more battles after that.

The number of orcs guarding each fork climbed as high as eight, but they never gave me much trouble.

The small wound I'd taken on my shoulder, Dobby healed up in no time.

And after roughly two hours of marching, we reached the Floor 2 Boss Room.

Honestly? I wasn't nervous.

I couldn't imagine whatever waited inside the Boss Room being stronger than the Orc Great Warrior Karakshi I'd faced in the hidden mission.

That hidden room reeked of pure malice — as if it had been built for the sole purpose of killing a regressed climber. Karakshi was, without question, the strongest thing on Floor 2.

[Enter the Boss Room?]

"Yes."

Not a shred of hesitation.