Harun Volume 2 Chapter 6 Part1

《Escorting  merchants with Rotem Mercenaries》

It was right after the lunch meal, when they went over a small hill.

 “Orcs, IT’S THE ORCS!” Somebody shouted.

 The party looked at where the sound came from. It was from the small gra.s.s field on the other side of the hill.

About a hundred Orcs were coming out from the forest and were about to a.s.sault the Merchants. It seemed there were 20 horse carts. They gathered into a circle, and it seemed there were only 20 to 30 mercenaries guarding the merchants.

 “They are the merchants who were traveling in ahead of us. That explains why we couldn’t see monsters lately. The mercenaries we see must have been clearing them.”

  Hearing those words of Philip’s, Gitan suddenly swore.

  “f.u.c.k! Why on earth are the Orc Warrior here?”

 That interested Haroon. He focused on the frontline of Orcs. He could see an Orc that was two or three feet taller than the other orcs. Its body was very bulky, which seemed it would burst in very short time. It was leading the swarm.

The Orc Warrior. They say three of them could face the Ogres. They learned the existence of it in the Basic Training. There was a lecture about the Monstology.

 “Fire Storm!”
“Fire Ball!“

 Two female magicians positioned on the cart and cast spell on them.

A giant flame ignited in the middle of a small group of the orcs charging at them, and spread to every direction, burning the Orcs. 6 fireb.a.l.l.s cast by another magician was shoot at different Orcs, making them scream and roll on the ground.

The archers didn’t miss that chance opened by magicians and shoot the arrows. Some mercenaries even shoot 3 arrows while the others shoot one.

With Orc’s scream, the Orc Warrior’s legs stopped. As the chunk of fire and smaller fireb.a.l.l.s burn their fellows’ body and furs, their fighting spirits were vowed for a bit.

Unfortunately, as the arrows were not shot for some specific targets, it wasn’t lethal enough to kill any Orcs. Of course, when the fire was gone out of sight, they could see some suffering from the arrows.

 “Attack!”
“Kill them all!”

 Mercenaries charged, shouting at the Orcs.

Seeing the combat scene, Haroon got excited before he knew it and started breathing heavily. It felt as if he was in the combat, charging at them. Philip and Ritrina standing next to him seemed they got excited too.

Unlike the other games, this was very vivid, real-like combat. They could feel the pulse and hot blood of the Mercenaries. They could see the wilderness and fighting spirit of the Orcs.

 ‘This is real!’ He thought.

 The Orcs are the monsters who damage the humans and even see humans as their food. Humans had felt no guilty killing them. But it was that the battle was the matter of life and death that excited him.

The battlefield formed about 20 steps away from the carts, the midpoint of the carts and Orcs when they encountered.

Orcs disabled or killed by the magic was only about 12 of them. As the combat got into melee phase, they couldn’t use magic anymore as they could put their side in danger.

The battle of Mercenaries and Orcs were very b.l.o.o.d.y and intense.

A mercenary had to face two or three Orcs at the same time, but it wasn’t a challenge to them. With a small s.h.i.+eld and their dodging techniques, they fought well. Though they were outnumbered, they were well experienced so they were capable of this kind of combat.

The Orc Warrior was fighting with three mercenaries. Their swords were s.h.i.+ny, and it meant they can use aura sword. Skilled, experienced mercenaries well faced it, but they could see the mercenaries were losing, pulling back. The Warrior’s strength was beyond their capabilities.

As the swords and axes couldn’t harm the Warrior’s thick skin, the mercenaries were getting exhausted. It was fortunate that most weapons used by the Orcs were clubs. If they were armed just as well as the mercenaries, it would hardly be a match at all.

The battle was not going well for the Mercenaries as the time flows. Though they were skilled and experienced, they were heavily outnumbered. They started to get tired and got in danger.

Moreover, some of the orcs were heading towards them. The mercenaries tried their best to attract their attention, but it was getting harder and harder.

 “Boss, Are we gonna just stand here and watch the fight?”

 Ritrina’s voice was shaking. Not because she was afraid, but she was excited to madness seeing b.l.o.o.d.y combat. She indeed is a true berserker.

 “If we hesitate any longer, there will be no chance for them, Boss!”

 Cool head Philip too seemed worried about the situation. He held his sword too tight that his hands went pale. As he looked back, he could see Gitan shaking hard, tightly holding the s.h.i.+eld. Serinn seemed frightened too. She was hugging herself and was not looking at the battlefield.

 “You two, stay here. Philip, Ritrina, let’s go!”

 As soon as he spoke, they ran into the battlefield. Haroon also ran, but toward the battlefield. He headed to the carts and climbed up one of them.

 “Who are you?”

 Middle aged magician asked him. She was watching over the battlefield with worry in her face. As she saw some strangers joining the battle and a.s.sisting Humans, she wasn’t too much surprised by his sudden appearance.

 “I’m Haroon from the Gust of Winds Mercenaries. We were just pa.s.sing by, and we saw the situation not going very well.”
“Thank you. I’m Meilan, the vice-leader of Rotem Mercenaries. But why are you here……?”

 Without any reply, he took out the throwing knife from his belt. The targets were 20 steps away. He didn’t need to use any active skill for that. The training duration may be short, but he has practiced through the pain of getting blisters and it being broken. And for some reason, he found that he was good at throwing knives.

A knife cut the air and flew into the middle of the battleground and struck in the back of the orc’s head which was about to attack a Mercenary’s vulnerable back, who was pulling his sword deeply stuck in an Orc’s side. The mercenary found Haroon and smiled back to thank him, then threw himself at another orc.

Ritrina has killed two orcs with her sharp and quick blade and found herself surrounded by three orcs before she knew it.  At first, she was too excited about the situation, then he got pushed by their weapons and fell right on her rear ends. One of them lifted its shabby, rusty ax high up in the air. Its felonious face came into her eyes, and she recovered her consciousness and realized how frightening it was. She shut her eye tightly. Then, she could hear something fast cutting through the air.

Oddly, the scream coming into her ears were not hers. It was the orc’s. She opened her eyes and she could see a handle of a dagger sticking out of the orc’s head. The other two orcs were looking around to check where the dagger came from.

Ritrina stood up with great haste and found Haroon throwing another knife in the other direction. She chased the knife and at the end of the trace, there was Philip surrounded by another three orcs, and one of it had a dagger stuck in its back of the head.

 ‘Our Boss is behind us!’

 An expert of throwing knives, Boss Haroon was fighting with them. When she realized that, she could recover her fighting spirit, and came back from the fear.

 “How dare you dirty b.u.g.g.e.rs attack me? Take the sword of Justice!”

 Her sword was swinging into the side of another orc, which was still looking for the origin of a throwing knife.

Haroon’s knives gave another help to a mercenary which was a step away from her head to be chopped off. For this time, he threw two knives at once and pierce the necks of orc; one in front of the mercenary, and one in the back of him. She pushed the dead orcs’ body away and faced Haroon. She moved her fingers on her lips to thank Haroon.

The battlefield was getting stabilized. More orcs were being fallen, and they were losing the momentum they had in the early stage of the battle.

When they taught they heard something windy, the orc next to it got killed, or got severe wound. The orcs could not focus on their opponent.

The tide has turned, and Haroon played a big role in it. Haroon positioned himself on the tallest cart, and threw knives or daggers to protect the mercenaries in need. Merchants and labor workers exclaimed whenever Haroon throws knives, but Haroon couldn’t hear those as he was too focused on the battlefield.

The Orc Warrior was having frustrating moment defending continuous attacks by the three mercenaries. And eventually, one of them retreat back slowly as he couldn’t keep up the pace anymore. The Orc Warrior saw this as the chance, and swung its club heavily on that Mercenary, giving an intense glare at him.

The club and the sword hit against each other, and unbelievably large cras.h.i.+ng sound burst out from the impact.

Particularly scary-looking mercenary stumbled because of the aftershock, and tried to recover and fight back, and it looked very risky.

Haroon threw a dagger.

As throwing knives have shorter blade length than the daggers, it seemed throwing knives will barely do any damage to the Orc Warrior, which has much larger and tougher body. Daggers should pierce deeper.

Though it may have a larger body, it was faster than the ordinary orcs, so when it saw the dagger, it avoided the dagger hitting his neck, but it couldn’t avoid the dagger to hit its shoulder deeply.

The warrior cried in the pain, and still intensely looked around as if it were going to destroy the entire battlefield. Then he got enraged, and roared.

 “Kuaargh! Cheiik!“

 And as if it was considered as a boss monster, the debuff ‘Fear’ affected the battlefield. Not only the mercenaries near the Orc Warrior but every mercenary in the battlefield were slowed down for a bit and it made them hesitate to make the next move.

 “Everyone, Get yourself! Don’t forget there are throwing weaponry users to a.s.sist you, so fight just as you did!” Meilan shouted.

 That helped the mercenaries to recover from the debuff. As the battlefield was once settled again with Haroon’s a.s.sistance, Philip killed another orc and charged at the Warrior.

 “d.a.m.n it! I am spent!”

 He was a bit late to realize that he threw every one of 20 throwing knives and daggers that he received from the Mercenary Academy. There were some throwing knives he received from Sevona, but he forgot that he put those in the arm sleeves.

At least, he had a shuriken in his inventory, but he only has been using sword-shaped weapons, not a star shaped one. He couldn’t ensure the accuracy of throwing it.

 “Anyone has throwing weapons? Quick!”

 It wasn’t Haroon. One of the merchants noticed the situation and hurriedly shouted to other merchants and labor workers. Mercenaries didn’t know Haroon has turned the tide, but the others who were not fighting saw the bigger picture. Haroon has never missed his target.

 “Here, take this!”
“I’ve got one too! Mine’s a short sword!”

 As merchants and labor workers are always exposed to various dangers, they always brought dagger or short sword, and a few throwing knives with them. In a matter of a second, throwing weapons and daggers tacked up on the cart.

 “Oh no! Norden’s in danger!”

 Haroon heard Meilan’s cry and turned his head. He found a young mercenary surrounded by 5 orcs. He’s been fighting well with his brilliant sword skill, but he was outnumbered. One of his arms was dangling as if his shoulder was injured. The chainmail was stained in blood too.

It was so urgent that Haroon threw three throwing knives consecutively relying on his sense. Fortunately, the knives barely avoided two mercenaries and flew between them, and hit Orc’s heads and necks.

 “Whew.”

 He didn’t realize he was covered in sweat. When the throwing knives left his hands, he was so nervous that his entire body got cold sweats. The joy of defeating the target with his pure skills spread to every bit of his body as if he was electrified.

 “He nailed it!”
“Awesome!”

 Some merchants head up and exclaimed before they knew. The others were surprised as well. There was no mistake in Haroon’s throwing knives so far.

As there was no more reinforcement of Orcs and Haroon’s throwing knives were intercepting the Orcs, the battle situation was getting better and better.

Now, there were four mercenaries of sword Experts, including Philip, were fighting the Orc Warrior, and they placed it on the defensive. The Orc Warrior checked the situation of the battlefield, being pushed away by four human’s co-attack. He could see his fellow orcs were falling down, as it couldn’t help them fight with the mercenaries.

– You have obtained an item!

  While Haroon was looking for the vulnerable target, when the orc he lastly attacked has finally breathed its last breath, he could hear a familiar voice in his years. If this UI sound didn’t exist He would have forgotten that he was playing a VR game.

Normally, the items were dropped on the exact place where the monster died, but Beyond didn’t implement that system. The item was obtained directly into the last hitter’s inventory.

Haroon was pretty sure that he has killed more than 10 orcs, even not counting the ones he has injured, but it was his first time to hear the UI sound.

 ‘Yes!’

  It was the first item he has obtained after he left the Metropolis. Saving people’s lives were already an exciting experience, and they were giving him the item for that. But his face was still cold with nervous.

Another throwing knife flew, and another orc stumbling and pumping out its blood. It got hit by a Mercenary’s sword, and fell down on the ground. The number of orcs was less than half now.

The mercenaries were tired, but they encouraged each other to press the Orcs, and Haroon wasn’t throwing his weapons to protect anymore but to attack together. In the beginning of the battle, there were too many orcs that one mercenary had to face, but now, too many orcs have died that they had enough time to help each other, which was the strength that mercenaries gain as they train together.

Encouraged mercenaries’ pace was very frightening. Like how a wild fire eats up the dry reed field, the number of orcs falling down increased gradually.

The Orc Warrior was busy enough to defend four people’s attack, and it was even more challenging when it had a throwing knife stuck in its shoulder. He got anxious about the situation and screamed as loud as it can which almost burst out the ear drum of the mercenaries. Then when they were disoriented by the sound, it parried four swords away and hastily escaped the battlefield.

When the mercenaries were recovered, the Orc Warrior stared Haroon once from the distance and ran away like a zephyr.

 “Chase them! ‘Till the distance of 50 steps. Don’t hesitate to come back when you leave the area.”

 Someone shouted, but Mercenaries were already throwing their weapons at the back of the Orcs running away. There were no easy targets like giant monsters running away.

It was that moment. A dagger left Haroon’s hand with the insane amount of speed, at the Orc Warrior that they only could see barely between the trees.

Cutting through the air, making loud noises that one won’t believe it is from a dagger, it flew between the trees, like a fish swimming in the ocean. It was avoiding the trees, humans, and orcs. Strangely enough, there was a blue light s.h.i.+ning at the end of it, and it drew the way the dagger traveled.

Some of the mercenaries who’s been chasing the orcs, the merchants and labor workers, most of the ones in the battlefield tried to track the trajectory of the dagger. It caught the attention of them as they never heard nor seen any types of throwing weapons to change direction mid-air.

At the end, they could hear an Orc’s scream.

  “It hit! It hit the Orc Warrior! The Orc Warrior has fallen!”

 The mercenaries stopped where they stood. It was the Orc Warrior that four sword experts had to struggle to deal with. It was the Orc Warrior that is famous being able to slay an Ogre if there is three of them. But Haroon has killed it with throwing weapons, using only one.

 “Let’s check!” Said Hay’al, the oldest and most experienced Mercenary among the group.

 The mercenaries head to where the Orc Warrior has fallen. They had no more interest in orcs running away from the battlefield.

 “Dang!”

“It went through the ears, and scrambled the brain.”

 They found the dagger stuck in the tree next to it. It was still vibrating. The Orc Warrior was pumping its blood through the every hole in his body, and it was still breathing, but the convulsion of it was getting weaker and weaker.

  “How far do you think it was?”

 An old man climbed up a cart and asked the magician standing next to Meilan.

 “At least 50 or even more than 60 steps.”
“This young one is, indeed, a monster.”

 The old man couldn’t hide his admiration in his eyes.

 “This… This is almost terrifying.”
“Was it really a throwing weapon that killed it?”

 The mercenaries watching it dying were more frightened than when they were fighting with the Orcs. They have just witnessed a throwing skill that avoids impediments and precisely penetrating the target from that far distance.

 “We might be with a legendary man now.”
“I can’t believe even I saw it with my bare eyes. I never thought someone could kill an Orc Warrior with a throwing weapon.”

 The mercenaries couldn’t continue.

Suddenly, Haroon’s body suddenly got stiff and fall down from the rooftop of the cart while everybody was looking at him. Serinn and Ritrina screamed, and ran at him.

TLer’s notes:

So I heard you like cliffhangers…..

I couldn’t make sure when I could finish this chapter, and decided to break into two parts. The battle, and the afterword. As usual, I hope enjoyed this one.