Orc Hunting

A special guest visited the Black Onyx Mansion at noon the following day.

It was Tabbris again! The guy came to visit with his right-hand man Ravian with the intent of inviting Gerald to join their expedition.

"..."

"Fighting orcs?" After telling him why they were there, Gerald appeared somewhat uninterested. "I don't know man, Orcs are a pain in the ass to fight… They take too long to kill."

"No worries," Ravian said, "We can use Warg poison to kill them quickly. We just need to agitate and tire them out a little bit first."

"Oh? It does sound plausible… Tell me more."

Tabbris spoke, "It's simple, really! You just have to tire them out for a bit and do some shallow wounds. After some time, when they lose about a third of their blood, you can hit them with a poisoned dart and they should go down in no time!"

"Wait, wait… A third of their blood? How long do they usually need to be running around for that to happen?"

Tabbris and Ravian looked at each other, unsure what to answer.

"About half an hour, maybe? Sometimes a bit less…I think."

"Half an hour?! What's the point of this strategy then?! I was thinking about five minutes or something like that…"

Gerald looked at those two with wide-opened eyes, and they did just the same.

"Five minutes?!" Ravian expression appeared quite interesting. He felt like they were being insulted and mocked right now.

"How long did it take you to kill that Orc then?!"

Getting the question so aggressively thrown at him, Gerald didn't feel like explaining much. "It was all kind of blurry, but it was probably no more than ten minutes…"

"Ten-" Ravian failed to swallow his saliva properly and almost started choking.

"Then how long does it take you to kill weaker beasts?" Tabbris asked. 'It should be a few minutes each, right? Even if he can kill an Orc so quickly, fighting multiple opponents is much more difficult after all…'

"Eh, Probably thirty seconds for a dozen Goblins? I don't know man, I usually don't pay much attention to that. By the time the first one stops choking on his own blood it's usually already over."

"Aha," mouthed Tabbris while leaving his lower jaw just hanging in there. He didn't know what to say anymore.

'This guy is a freaking walking natural disaster! But I guess that's to be expected since he can control so many spells at once… Even father can barely do something like that, and he's already…'

Tabbris shook his head to get rid of his thoughts and straightened his back to appear calmer. "Anyway, about the expedition…"

"Gerald!"

A higher-pitched shout disrupted the talk between men, and a person entered the room soon after.

"What is it Sera?" Gerald asked. From what he could see, she appeared annoyed for some reason.

She took a deep breath before telling of her woes, "Some people have been seen constantly snooping around the Mansion, and the guards are pestering me about what to do about it. They are annoying me to no end!"

"Oh, that? Unless they try to climb over the wall, just ignore them," Gerald answered calmly. A thing like this didn't require his attention.

"So, can we count on you…?" Tabbris asked once more since he was disrupted before.

"Hmm…" Taking a moment to think, Gerald made a pondering expression, shifting his gaze from Tabbris to Sera and back.

"Actually, I just got an idea! Okay, we'll come with you!" he eventually announced.

"We?" asked Tabbris, puzzled.

"We?" asked Sera, feeling like she made a mistake by coming here.

"That's right! Spread the news to the rest, we are going Orc hunting!"

"Erm…" Sera fidgeted her fingers and stared at the floor, "I know I said I love hunting and all… But can we please not seek death by fighting Orcs? Please?"

Gerald looked at her in shock. Not because it was the first time she expressed her resistance against hunting, but because she gave him a puppy-eyed look.

If he didn't know any better he would truly think she was a helpless little girl that was afraid of the world. He almost wanted to pinch her soft rosy cheeks.

"Oooh, who's a good little girl," he booped her nose as you would with a cute little doggy. He even hugged her and patted her head while quietly whispering comforting words in her ear.

"It's okay baby, you don't have to be afraid, master will be there with you so no big bad Orcs will hurt you…"

"Fuck off, I'm not a dog!" Sera's face turned crimson from embarrassment and she quickly pushed him away.

"You are not?!" Gerald made a baffled expression, appearing truly shocked by her words. "But your eyes..."

Ravian and Tabbris felt uncomfortable watching the two goof around until they couldn't take it anymore.

"Ahem!" Forcefully clearing his throat, Tabbris managed to bring the attention back to himself.

"So, how are we going to do this? The plan is to leave at dawn in two days, and there will be about fifty of us total..."

"…" Gerald returned to his serious state and posed an important question, "How long do you think the travel will last?"

"About two days if we hurry," answered Ravian without even having to think. "Most people are on foot, so that will slow us down a bit."

Gerald sat down on his chair to think things through before eventually giving his response. "It's settled then! The girls will leave with you, and I'll join you a bit later. I still got some things to do in the meantime."

"Really? Should we just wait for you instead, or do you have a horse…?" Tabbris asked him. The entire thing was somewhat excessive to him, but the King wanted to learn more about Gerald, so they were tasked with bringing him along.

"Dude…" Gerald looked at him sideways, "You do know I can fly, right? I'll be there in a few hours."

"Oh…"

"Ah-ha…"

"I'm sure your sister told you, right? Or did you forget?" Gerald said while paying close attention to the guy's facial expressions.

"No, no, I was just thinking it probably uses a lot of Mana… I would never forget something like this," Tabbris quickly said while exaggerating his hand gestures.

'He totally forgot! Wow, this guy is way too easy to read!' Even Sera was able to figure out that much.