The ground beneath me churns.While I am already standing in front of him and about to strike with my dagger, the orc pushes himself upright. He crosses his blades at unbelievable speed, blocking my strike.
This orc uses his greatswords as both shield and sword. This could be called offensive defense.
This orc is a monster capable of destroying a city in ten minutes. Therefore, I must defeat him.
The girls look at me with worry as I jump back in a single leap. As I do, I notice the orc casting magic that multiplies his physical strength fivefold. His muscles grow thicker, tearing his shirt apart.
The orc now stands before me bare-chested. His entire body is swollen with muscles like balloons. In terms of raw physical power, he is now far stronger than I am. Even so, I will not give up.
I activate body enhancement as well, though without physical transformation. The only thing that changes is my physique.
I prepare for another attack. My legs harden against the ground and tense up. This time, I am even faster than before.
A massive cloud of dust erupts from my movement. Only this dust cloud, created by my speed, reveals my motion. While the orc can follow my movement, the girls have no idea where I am.
I appear beneath the orc. However, this is only a copy.
The orc strikes the copy, which disperses into dark mist. While he attacks the illusion, I leap upward toward his head. By the time his strike finishes, I am already there with three additional copies positioned in every direction around his head.
At that exact moment, he realizes what is happening.
I smile with a grin that shows my absolute confidence in victory.
The orc reacts instinctively.
"Watch out, from the right!" the girls shout in unison, their voices and faces filled with worry.
I look to the right, where one of his two greatswords swings toward me. I twist my body so the blade deflects me instead of cutting me. Using the rebound, I leap even higher.
The orc had already anticipated this trick. However, my Mana Eyes saw it beforehand. That is why I duck precisely beneath the blade while still in midair. This move catches the orc off guard.
I grab hold of his greatsword, restricting his movement. I can already see his next step. He intends to smash the sword into the ground. But this will be a feint, meant to make me release it by reflex.
I see all of this through the future sight embedded in my Mana Eyes. Along with it, there is another skill. It is called Gaze Reflex. Through this skill, my eyes gain inhuman reflexes, allowing me to analyze and evade even the fastest opponents.
However, this monster is faster than what my Mana Eyes can perceive.
The orc swings the greatsword downward. Just before I hit the ground, he swings it sideways. But it fails, because I anchor my legs firmly into the ground.
I pour all my strength into my body. The orc begins to lift off the ground. Using the greatsword as a grip, I raise him higher and higher. After a short moment, I manage to hurl him to the other side.
A massive shockwave rushes toward us. The girls do not notice it thanks to my barrier, though they can feel the gust of wind.
I am not blown away by the shockwave, as my legs remain firmly embedded in the ground. I grin as the orc looks at me with a sour expression mixed with pain.
A crater forms beneath him.
I raise my hand, glowing in fiery red hues. The mana shifts from purple and black to deep crimson, something the people in the city immediately notice.
The mayor watches this change. He realizes that this is not the work of a monster, but of a human. Even so, he has no idea who it could be.
Sparks burst from my hand, resembling violet-red flames. The flame condenses into a bow made entirely of these blazing colors. Three arrows are embedded within the bow, which itself is composed purely of flame.
I draw the bow and aim at the orc as he tries to rise. I release. The arrows fly with unimaginable speed.
The orc swings one of his greatswords and barely manages to deflect a single arrow. The other two strike his heavily armored skin, but bounce off. His hide is far too defensive.
This monster possesses the attack power of a Demon King. With buffs, his strength increases fivefold. His defense, however, rivals that of a god of defense. That means his defensive value has reached a divine level.
This is the defining trait of a God Monster. Each God Monster possesses one godlike stat. His stat is defense.
That is why I can never engage in close combat again. That had been my mistake all along.
I look at the orc standing before me, preparing a spell. I cannot interrupt it. Therefore, I must kill him within the five minutes it takes for the spell to charge. After that, I will still need thirty seconds to cast a sealing spell.
That means I must defeat this monster in under five minutes.
I raise my hand as five magic circles form in a wide ring. From each circle, a sphere emerges.
From the yellow circle comes a massive sphere of lightning.From the red circle, a blazing fireball.From the blue, a sphere of water.From the white, a sphere of ice.And from the final circle, colored like the night itself, black, emerges the sphere of darkness.
This is the strongest spell I have ever learned and used. Because of it, I do not know how much of the forest will remain afterward. Still, I hope enough will be left so the city does not label me a criminal once this is over.
The massive spheres slowly converge toward the center. The first two touch and begin to merge. One by one, they all fuse together, forming a gigantic sphere shimmering in all five colors.
The girls hold their breath. My heart begins to race, a side effect of this spell. Its defining trait is that no spells can be cast afterward. No matter how much mana one has, it consumes 100% of it.
I stagger slightly. Mana is the most vital elixir for life itself. I drop to one knee. I slowly move my hand toward the orc, my right eye half-closed.
The magic sphere launches toward him at terrifying speed. He attempts to erect a barrier. But instead of being repelled, the sphere detonates, the explosion occurring not in front of him, but practically inside him.
The sphere explodes.
I shield myself with a dimensional barrier, the same one I used for the girls at the start of the battle. The explosion spreads far beyond the forest, stopping just short of the city of Kimura.
The mayor looks out the window again as everything is illuminated in black, red, blue, white, and yellow. His expression changes. Fear, mixed with a strange sense of joy. He seems to admire the sight. Until today, no monster had ever displayed such power. Only humans can.
The mayor's daughter approaches on trembling legs, her entire body shaking. She tries to speak, but her vocal cords are frozen by fear. She moves closer to the window, her eyes shining with fascination. She loves researching magic.
The explosion covers roughly half the forest, which spans about 80 square kilometers. Because the blast behaves like a wall, distance from the city does not matter. I can reduce its thickness if needed, but its length always remains the same.
That is why I had to force him into that position. Everything was planned far in advance.
The forest is completely gone. A massive crater forms in a straight line like a wall, stretching all the way to the sea. Slowly, water begins to flow into the crater.
I cannot see anything, as a massive dust cloud envelops the orc. But after a few seconds, with only two minutes remaining, a shadow emerges from within the dust.
A body covered in scratches and dirt stands there. And he is smiling.
This orc is not merely a monster I cannot defeat. Even ten times my power would not be enough. I finally realize that. Still, I cannot give up now.
I grip my dagger once more with all my strength. My Mana Eyes already show me that he is about to impale me at incredible speed. But I do not care.
The orc charges at me. I prepare to leap. As he strikes into empty air, I jump upward, aiming for his eye.
At that moment, I realize my mana should be gone. My Mana Eyes are no longer active. Then it becomes clear. This was the orc's illusion, meant to kill me.
The orc grins. Both greatswords fly toward me.
My thoughts fall into chaos. I still have one spell left, one that requires no mana. But I do not know whether it brings advantages, disadvantages, or something else entirely.
I hesitate. Then I grit my teeth.
The girls scream. My fear is not for Cro, but for Min. They do not call me Cro. How typical, when they are worried.
I glow green.
As the greatsword pierces my back. My spine is severed as if it were butter. Dark red blood runs down the blade. Blood spills from my mouth.
The glow fades. My entire body is impaled. The orc grins.
Everything blurs.
After some time, when the orc lets my body fall to the ground, my vision turns white. My corpse lies drenched in blood. With my mana gone, the girls are defenseless.
They look at me with tear-filled faces, crying out my real name.
My body begins to glow again.
The girls stop crying.