Harun Volume 2 Chapter 5

《The first combat》

It’s been 3 days since they started the journey. The path they took was very frequently used and was located in some n.o.ble’s territories. Despite the efforts of the n.o.ble who sent their private army to suppress the monsters, Haroon and his members could encounter the Goblins or Orcs who were out their position on its scout, even up to several times in a day.

Haroon actually needed their existence as they were easy targets for the Quad w.a.n.kers to practice the way of combat as a party. And this allowed him to find out several things.

 “Gitan, you coward! Block them, Block them!”

 Serinn shouted at Gitan as he was frozen in the middle of the field, shaking and terrified by the Orc’s hostile charge at him. If the Orc gets Gitan, the next was her.

 “Yi-Yikes!”

 At last moment, Gitan went pale and collapsed on the ground. His pupil was out of focus. As soon as Gitan collapsed on the ground, she ran away as fast as she could. So Philip and Ritrina, who were waiting behind them, had to take care of the Orc. Philip already had combat experience, and Ritrina has shown good performance in her first combat, and she was getting better.

 “I guess it was no use.”
“Boss, we should rule them out from the combat.”

 Like Philip said, these two seemed useless for the combat. Haroon regretted that he chose the Quad w.a.n.kers to be his members. At least Ritrina was better than them. But thinking how she gets overwhelmed by her madness when she enters the combat, it was dangerous to put her in the combat as well. For some reason, she was talented at taunting the monsters, even they couldn’t understand her language.

Haroon logged out and asked Bell for some information about combat strategies, and came up with one combination.

 “Gitan, you’ll be defending, ONLY. Philip, help Gitan to make a giant s.h.i.+eld that he’ll be using.”

 Haroon made Gitan to make a wooden s.h.i.+eld big enough to hide his entire body. Though he may be a coward, he is physically strong so he thought it would be best if he could be Tank of the party. With Philip’s help, Gitan was able to make a wooden s.h.i.+eld just in a day. It was as heavy as a man, but Gitan had no problem holding it.

The party had breakfast cooked by Serinn, who wasn’t getting any better and decided to try out their new strategy.

 “Alright. Ritrina, lure a monster by taunting it. One by one if possible. Gitan, just block their attack with your s.h.i.+eld. Philip, with your skill ‘Smas.h.i.+ng Blow‘, try to kill the monster when its attack gets blocked. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Hehe, this is going to be sooo much fun.”

 Giggling, Ritrina went into the forest. It didn’t take long until an Orc with an ax to chase her to the party and face Gitan with a s.h.i.+eld.

As the giant ax was getting dropped on Gitan’s head, he went pale once again. Seeing that, Haroon shouted.

 “The s.h.i.+eld!”

 Gitan shut his eyes and hold the s.h.i.+eld out. The ax bounced off the s.h.i.+eld with quite a loud impacting sound.

 “Philip, Smas.h.i.+ng Blow!”

 Philip came out from the backside of Gitan and struck at Orc’s head, which was still recovering from the aftershock. With an uncanny sound, Philip’s blade penetrated the skull and stuck out of its back. Like its name, the power of the skill piercing vulnerable enemies was amazing. Philip prefers using it over the other skills because the blood won’t splatter as much as the others do. His smas.h.i.+ng blow was fast enough for the Orcs, which didn’t give them enough time to block it even if they saw the attacker’s movement.

 ‘I’ll definitely get that skill too,’ Haroon thought.

 “You d.i.c.k-like b.l.o.o.d.y fleshed Orc, Come on! Bring your a.s.s on! I’ll punch a hole in your stone-head!”

 Ritrina has lured another Orc before they knew it. It seemed surprised by the camping humans and hesitated but as soon as it saw Ritrina wagging her fingers, it charged with anger with its club high up in the air. Oh dear lord, just how effective is Ritrina’s taunting skill?

 “Gitan!”

 Still paled, Gitan instinctively pushed his s.h.i.+eld front, and Ritrina’s face pa.s.sing him was smiling brightly, like as if she were dying out of fun.

As the pure strengths strike, Gitan and Orc staggered by the aftershock. And this time, even Haroon didn’t call Philip, he jumped out with his sword, and struck Orc using its momentum.

  “Smas.h.i.+ng Blow!” Philip Shouted.

 Even before the Orc could recover from the shock, Philip’s sword went in and out of the orc’s head once again.

It was very grotesque to see a green blood pumping out of an Orc’s forehead, but there was no time to see that. 3 more Orcs has followed their fellow, chasing Ritrina.

They roared seeing their fellow falling down to the ground by Human’s hands, and it was full of anger and hostility, which was enough to scare Gitan. His face went white out of terror, and his pants got wet but Haroon didn’t order the retreat.

  “The s.h.i.+eld!”

 It was three Orc’s co-attack. There was no way to find out if it was their instinct to attack the most aghast enemy, or if it was the giant s.h.i.+eld that attracted their eyes, but anyway, they attacked Gitan’s s.h.i.+eld with their weapons.

Fortunately, the fear gave him more power than he normally can, and it made the orc’s weapons to bounce off.

  “Smas.h.i.+ng Blow!“

 Philip, once again, killed an Orc, only to make him vulnerable to the other Orc’s attacks.

 “Gitan, Push them off!”, Haroon shouted, throwing a dagger.

 Gitan’s trained and prepared body was able to move instinctively even though he himself was terrified. He moved in front of Philip and pushed the s.h.i.+eld once again. Thanks to Gitan’s defense, Philip was able to have enough time to ready his next attack.

As the dagger penetrates Orc’s neck, it couldn’t even scream and fell on the ground. It dropped its club and hold its neck, but it was too late. The dagger already has gone through the neck.

 “Smas.h.i.+ng Blow!“

 With Philip’s short shout, the sword struck into the remaining Orc’s forehead. As the sword swirls the brain and went out of the head, the Orc tried to move its arm to attack, but slowly fell down.

 “Serinn, skin their leathers. You need to skin it clean this time. Ritrina, help her.”
“Got it, Boss.”

 Serinn distorted her face and head to the dead Orcs with a sharp short sword. Ritrina followed her breathing heavily and with madness in her eyes. She was to help to pull the leather. Haroon saw Philip helping Gitan to relieve the fear and he felt proud of it.

 ‘Now, that’s what I call useful.’

 They tried various ways to maximize their strength and minimize their weakness, and Haroon finally found the roles they most suited.

The biggest problem was on Gitan. He is strong enough to lift and throw a man-sized boulder, but no one knew how coward he is. Haroon and the others finally found out why he was working in the office, despite how his size seems to be capable of various combats.

He had to go to the point city anyway, so it was better if he could have some accompanies. With lack of experience and some useful information, Bell found online, they finally made Gitan a tanker through numerous trials and errors.

And to Philip, who had precise and quick sword movement, Haroon a.s.signed him to be a damage dealer of the party. In fact, he was capable of dealing with two or more enemies but he had to practice the skill ‘Smas.h.i.+ng Blow‘ to fight as a party. His slim and light body was allowed him to be agile, which made him perfect for quick and precise stabbing attacks.

Serinn, who was not useful at all, except her beauty shown on her face and body, took most dirty and rough jobs. It was skinning the monsters. She had to endure the smell of blood and odors.

 ‘She does remind me of those b.i.t.c.hy n.o.bles in District S.’

 Being useless wasn’t the main reason she had to take that job. There were also some personal feelings of Haroon as her att.i.tude of using her beauty was so alike to that behavior of n.o.bles in real life.

 “See how Ritrina’s taunt skill is getting better and better. Take her improvement as an example of yours.”
“Hohoho, I didn’t know how talented I was at taunting. I had no idea taunting others are this much fun. Boss, Thank you.”

 As the time goes, Ritrina showed her perverted personality. First, she was interested in taunting the opponent with swears and curses with an irritating face, then she somehow got a skill, well, made a skill named ‘Taunt’.

Her taunt skill wasn’t limited to humans and well affected the monsters as well. It was so effective, that even innocent and coward animals like deers got taunted by her skill too.

 ‘She is mad!’

 Once the combat goes into the confused fight stage, her eyes turned so that the others can see only the white part of her eyes, then she went in swinging her swords, laughing. Whoever it is, they would say she is mad if they saw her in that stage. Even Haroon felt frightened by her face in mad state.

 ‘This may be our first combination.’

 Haroon took the commander role, directing the combat and eliminating dangers from the distance. The Quad w.a.n.kers was able to focus in their role as they trusted Haroon’s G.o.dlike throwing knife skill.

Coward, but strong Gitan took a role of a Tanker, which cuts the flow of their first attack. Like usual, he couldn’t handle the fear and wet his pants, but he was getting better so the time will solve that.

Philip would be the hidden spear that eliminates the enemy made vulnerable by Gitan’s parring. His powerful and agile sword technique that was closed to be an Expert was perfect for his role.

And Last, and least, Serinn had to take miscellaneous works. She did reject few times to that decision, but Haroon simply pressed those complains by threatening with the medicine.

Building fire, preparing foods, needlework, laundry. She had lots of works to do, and she didn’t like it but she got used to. Mostly because she realized she had no other skills to contribute to the guild, but she herself was interested in those works.

TLer’s notes.

A short, and repet.i.tive chapter, and I personally found this chapter a bit… boring. But the next one is really, really long. Expect the delay. If it gets longer than 5 days, I’ll release by parts. Maybe in two or three parts.