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n'Now what?' Ceph asked.

nWhile they had practiced the attack a bunch, they hadn't thought of what to do after. Eldrian hadn't thought they'd need to use it so soon, and not against a horde. It was more something planned to kill a single enemy.

n'Not sure, let's wait a bit.' Eldrian replied, admittedly he was a bit worried about not retrieving Crystoi since he hadn't bonded with it yet and thus it could indeed be stolen. Luckily, it seemed the orcs were all stunned and weren't reacting quickly.

nHowever, it didn't take long for them to recover from the shock of their Warlord dying.

nOnce the shock wore off, they searched the sky for their attackers to no avail. Fearing another attack they did not charge for the village. Instead, they waited and tried to figure out what had happened.

nThis, at the very least, was a massive win.

n'I might be able to use Incinerate, but I can't do it while near anyone.' Unfortunately, the control Eldrian had over it was not like other spells.

nIncinerate hungered and would burn anyone and anything too close to it once released. The only reason Eldrian was never directly burned was because he sent the spell away from him.

nHalf a minute quickly passed and the orcs started to believe that no other attack would come. However, they did not group again. They stayed separate to make sure an AOE attack would no longer cause as much damage.

nOne of the larger orcs also slowly moved to their previous leader, the Warlord. Seeing this Eldrian narrowed his eyes and knew he had to act. There was no way he would just let an orc take his spear.

n'Maybe it can survive,' He thought and then relayed his plan to Ceph. Getting a confirmation nod, Eldrian prepared himself for another swan dive.

nThis time he cast the Tier 3 version of Frost Needle, keeping the ice as compact as he could manage and reading himself to throw it as soon as they neared the orc. Unfortunately, Ceph would not be able to shift the wind barrier or Eldrian would die.

nHearing the shouts of the other orcs, this one looked up just in time to see the two approaching him at an insane speed. He had no time to react but luckily for him the spell also did not manage to stay whole.

nAs soon as it left the wind barrier the sudden resistance from the air caused it to shatter. It was still incredibly fast and the pieces did a good amount of damage. Forcing the orc to dive for cover, which there was none of inside the crater created from the previous attack.

nThe shattered ice tore through him, not enough to kill. But enough to make it hurt and focus on defense. It wanted to rage, but its attackers were too nimble and capable of flight.

n'Ceph, don't go higher. We need to get my spear first.' Eldrian relaid as he realized that while he would not be able to finish off the orc, he should be able to grab and store his spear. Even if he had to store the Warlord with it.

nOrc Chieftain (Elite) {Follower, lost}, Tier 5, Level 29

nHP: 2456

/2625 ( 11)

nStamina: 1598

/2461(-22)

nAttack: 338 (54)

nOrcs are capable of healing at rapid speeds any non-vital wounds. This, however, does come at a cost. For every point of health healed, two stamina is lost. And if poisoned, the healing will instead carry the poison through its body, given that it is strong enough to even affect the orc.

nOrc Chieftains are not born, nor is it something given to an individual. It is earned. Yet, for some reason this chieftain had decided to be a follower despite having had the will to earn his own title.

nCheiftains are far stronger, more resilient, smarter, and faster than normal orcs. To fight one without a plan is never a good idea.

n{Elite: Through constant fighting this orc has awakened a part of his primal barbaric bloodline, increasing his constitution and strength massively.

n'Yup, there is no way I am fighting it.' Eldrian confirmed after quickly scanning through the information, naturally, he had no time to read the blob of text.

nTurning around, Ceph gracefully landed next to the Warlord. Eldrian quickly hoped down and grabbed his spear, as he suspected he wasn't able to pull it out quickly and he did not want to stay on the ground for a second longer than needed.

nFocusing on the entire Warlord, he threw his corpse into the inventory and freed his spear as a result. Eldrian immediately stored it and jumped on Ceph who was already readying to take off.

nAs they quickly escaped, the orcs threw their weapons at them. This was not just a flimsy attempt at hurting them, as the weapons flew at tremendous speed and one even managed to pierce into Ceph's side.

nLuckily the damage was not much thanks to Ceph's natural hardiness as a Mythical grade Alicorn, but the shock and impact still caused him to stumble midflight.

nEldrian had to fight hard to not be thrown off as the wind barrier also suddenly disappeared as Ceph had to focus on countering the momentum.

n'Now what?' Ceph asked once he managed to stabilize himself and Eldrian and also cast the wind barrier again.

n'The spell worked quite well. We might be able to slowly whittle them down.' Eldrian replied, but realized just as quickly that this would not be possible. Ceph would be the first to end up exhausted.

n'Rather, we might be able to keep them busy for a while longer.' Eldrian rephrased after a bit of thinking. At this point, he wished he had a couple of large rocks stored in his inventory. Dropping them either with the swan dive or simply from high in the air would be amazingly effective.

nHe did not wish to ask Ceph to cast more spells than the barrier for the simple reason that he did not think they would be able to kill all the orcs before both of them ran out of mana.

nThe orcs' health was just too high thanks to their insane constitution and their regeneration was certainly not helping. And that was just passive things they had going for them, Eldrian was certain that most of their armor had to be magic grade.

nThis band of orcs was just too well equipped and made up of what seemed the highest ranks of orcs. At the very least, Eldrian suspected that every one of these orcs would be an elite. Though he doubted they all were chieftains.

nStill, this meant that likely they also had access to spells. And the scariest thought was that they were Tier 5 and might be able to cast a nullification barrier. Eldrian hoped that either they did not know it, or did not think of it.

nTime passed slowly as the orcs stared at the small Alicorn and its rider while the two returned the stare. Behind the two, the village was quickly being evacuated. With only the strongest remaining behind to stall for time if needed.

nAll the villagers were centaurs and they could cross distances quite rapidly. They weren't as fast as this orc band, but if they could get enough distance then they should be able to escape.

nThis was what Eldrian was aiming for. If he and Ceph didn't need to act, then they wouldn't. He just wanted to stall the orcs.

nAN: A big thank you to everyone who continues to read and support the story on WN.

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