Chapter 419 Rigor Mortis
Chaos broke free into the monster camp the next moment.
Breeee!
Breeee!
Breeze!
The cacophony of orc noises pierced the night's silence. Several Orc soldiers ran outside their huts with weapons in their hands and shouting something in Orc language. Some of them had come out in their birthday suits– clearly indicating what they were doing inside. Still, both male and female orcs looked ready to battle from the moment their call to battle was heard.
Sweee!
Sweee!
Sweee!
Another bunch of green arrows flew towards the camp. A few more orc soldiers died on the spot the same as the first Orc leader had died. This execution-style long-range attack was launched by Arjun Ruku. He liked shooting his target in their eyes so much that it had become a game for him.
Equipped with a vision-enhancing spell and artefact along with the top-notch runic bow for his rank, Arjun could be seen as a grim reaper for his orc opponents even without getting his hands dirty in the process. He was sniping the monsters from a considerate distance with unbelievable accuracy.
'People in the army really like their hunting games, huh!'
Eren watched as Arjun sniped one Orc Soldier after the other. After a while, the monsters had tried to zero in on the source of the incoming arrows. Too bad, Arjun could turn his elemental arrows mid-air using his mana sense while avoiding getting detected by the enemy. He would mix such attacks with his regular ones– making his enemies dreadful of his attack.
Arjun's ice element was poisonous by nature. It would act on his victim's heart. So if the opponent was unable to negate his laced-by-the-poison-nature mana in time, it would intrude their mana circuits through their mana circuits and act on the heart— freezing and poisoning everything in its wake.
Arjun had killed four Orc soldiers alone and injured three. The Orc Leaders had to come to their fellow brethrens' rescue to stop him from increasing his count. But drawing them out was his exact goal anyway.
"Dianna, my darling. You are up."
Arjun said to his fellow ranger who was placed in the other direction from where Eren, Arjun, and other soldiers were. This was a multi-front raid after all.
"Hehehe! Roger that."
!
!
!
There was no noise. No mana fluctuation. Seemingly no flying projectile to keep track of. And yet one of the Orc Leaders crashed onto the floor as if he suddenly remembered he needed to sleep on time.
Another Orc Leader had been incapacitated at the start of the raid.
It wasn't like the Orcs weren't using any defensive spells or that they didn't have any mana defence layer. But all of that couldn't prevent them from falling susceptible to the rangers' attacks. And both of them now had focused on the Orc Leaders alone.
At last, the Orc Leader who was standing amid his fellow Leaders screamed and raised his hands. Immediately, a defensive-type, dome-shaped mana layer was created in the air– taking a significant part of the camp under its protection.
Something hit the spell-created dome as soon as it was conjured by the Orc Leader. It was dissolved before the witnesses could discern what it was.
By now almost all the surviving Orc members had come under the mana layer's protection. The Orc Leader who had executed this spell sat on the ground and closed his eyes to strengthen the dome-shaped mana defence some more. Because he was expecting a stronger reaction from his hidden enemies.
And his predictions came true. Another bunch of projectiles crashed onto the dome-shaped mana defence before crashing down. This time the orcs could see what they were.
The projectiles were a dense mana-smoke shaped into darts.
These smoke-element darts had been launched by Dianna of course using another military-issue artefact given to her. Her mana had retained its formlessness even though it was made to take shape through the use of her spell– making the darts undetectable for the monsters.
The smoke-element mana would cause hallucinations and seizures among other effects related to the nervous system of its victims. The combination of Dianna's element and inherent nature boded well with each other– enabling her to take care of her opponents efficiently.
And yet, her attacks shared a huge weakness. The darts she could produce with her spells couldn't carry much penetrative power. So they could be easily blocked once her target got a lock on the projectiles coming their way.
Sweeeee!
Sweeeee!
Tch!
Tch!
Arjun didn't stop attacking the Orc Leaders even after the mana defence layer was created. He focused at a particular point on the mana defence and sent multiple arrows. They hit the same point of contact one after the other. Unlike Dianna's projectile, Arjun's arrows could pack a punch.
Break!
A huge hole was created in the mana defence layer. Just enough for him to send more arrows into it. But by now the Orcs had gotten wary of the flying projectiles. They had started using their defensive spells and equipment to effectively defend against the approaching projectile.
But the hole in the enemy's defence was not created for the projectiles to go through. It was created so that Eren's team could enter the dome. The ranger's job was finished. They could only support the team from now on.
Immediately after entering the dome, the Novice rankers approached the Orc soldiers and used array traps on them. These array traps would allow the rankers to catch their enemy in another energy field with them. These energy fields would provide the original caster with some buff effects while applying some debuff on their enemy.
The Orc Soldiers and the Novice rankers now had their battlefield. The Orc Leader who had cast the mana defence dome was protected inside the inner dome he had created for himself. He had sealed the gaping hole in the dome by now, locking Eren's team and most of the tribe's warriors inside.
"Time to test these babies."
Eren retrieved a new set of weapons and wielded each of them with either hand. He wanted to test the new gear he had been using for a long time now. Upon his request, a new kind of weapon had been given to him instead of his usual katars.
They were Shamshirs. A pair of swords meant to be used by close combat experts like him.
He had named them Rigor Mortis!