Growth

"Yo, Char! You improved a lot, I expected that you would throw up again after killing these wolves. You adapt well," Anne poked at Char that was resting after their recent fight.

"Don't give me that! You are the strange one for feeling nothing from all that blood!" he protested.

"Well, it's not the first time I see blood, and I certainly did not adapt as fast as you. Also, your way of killing is too ruthless, you always have blood all over your face!" she pointed out.

"I can't help it, I always have the urge to cut the enemy in half whenever I see them wide open from me to use my vertical strike," he smiled.

Char did not think much about her words that it was not her first time. It might have some connection with how good she was with martial arts, and he did not want to risk stepping on a landmine.

"That smile looks better in your face, it's way better than the face you made before," she teased him.

"What face? I did not make a strange face!" he denied.

"You looked like a kid that had his candy stolen, but trying to keep quiet!" she laughed at him.

"Anyway, don't you think we meet too many creatures? In the past hour we already met three groups of wild creatures," she pointed out.

"I might be because of the smell of blood, we need to wash ourselves in a nearby river if we want to wash away the smell. But I think this is good, we can gather more points this way," Char said.

"Yeah, it's better for us that we meet more creatures to hunt. It's just my gut feeling telling me something is not right," she shook her head.

"I think this is normal. Let's continue hunting, we already get enough rest," he dismissed her suspicion.

Not long after they continued their hunt, Anne stopped him, "Can you feel that?" she asked.

Char could feel a small tremor from the ground, "Something big is coming, let's summon our creature just in case," he said.

They summoned the creatures just in time for a group of five pink-skinned humanoid pigs to appear from the bush.

"Orc! Anne, don't hold back! These orcs are strong. We will suffer a loss if we hold back!" he warned the girl.

He drew his sword while the skeleton threw three pieces of bone at him, Char caught them and before commanding the skeleton to confront the orcs.

Anne's imp also joined the skeleton to confront the orcs, but there was too much orc for both of them to stop, they only stopped three creatures while the other two went after Char and Anne.

"They are smart enough to know that we are the weakest link in this group!" Char grew wary.

When fighting a summoner, the best way to win the fight was to beat the summoner as they could summon their creature once more, given enough time.

The summoner was also weaker than their summoned creature in most cases, so killing the summoner was like hitting two birds with one stone, as a group only as strong as its weakest link.

The orcs were using clubs made of stone, their attacks were slow but a single hit would be fatal, not even Char with physical resistance could take the hit unharmed.

Char ducked down to dodge a hit and cut at the orc's belly with his sword. To his surprise, it only left a scratch.

"Orc is as tough as ever, even the wild one can be this though," he grimaced as he rolled to the side.

The rock club smashed into the ground where he was, creating a small crater in the ground.

On the other side, Anne also fought the other orc, she focused her kick on the orc's right foot while dodging its attack; she wanted to cripple its movement.

"Should I aim for the feet as well?" He wondered as he dodged another blow. It was then that he felt a sudden danger.

Without a second thought he activated two bones that contain haste magic, the orc's attack suddenly increased in speed as it had activated its magic.

Char put as much distance as he could from the orc with his increased speed, "Luckily I sense danger coming, if I activated the haste after I see the attack, then it would surely hit me," he thought.

He threw the activated bones at the orc; they exploded in its face, knocking it backward. To his surprise, it quickly gets up.

Its face was mangled, its skull can be seen as the skin and flesh got thorn by the explosion. The wound looked bloody and a normal creature would have been incapacitated from such a wound.

The wound sizzled and regenerated at such a speed that visible to the eye, "It's regenerating!" Char did not expect it to have regeneration magic.

It seems to go berserk after the explosion and charged at him, Char did not want to fight it on melee as he had no more speed boost to get himself out of trouble.

It was then that a bone pierced through the orc's head from behind, its steps slowed down before it came to a stop and fell dead to the ground.

The skeleton had pierced its sword from behind the orc with a physical boost activated; it finished its own fight just in time to rescue Char.

He found three unmoving bodies at a distance. It had turned the orcs it fought into vegetables as it shredded their soul with its astral body.

"Orc's physical body is so strong, but its soul is way too weak! Or maybe it's just my skeleton that becomes stronger!" he grinned.

On the other side, Anne also finished her fight with the Imp's help, Imp walker's physical ability was so great that it could kill the orc with the brute force of its kick.

"Luckily we did not hold back, if we hold back then the result might be different!" Char imagined what would happen if they did not summon their creatures.