CHAPTER 36 – Special Boss.
CHAPTER 36 – Special Boss.
36 CHAPTER 36 – Special Boss.
"And who told you that you could move?" Alex's relaxed voice was heard clearly by everyone.
Alice and Ann just smiled lightly, turning to their targets while every orc's face turned into a scowl, even the Chief's.
"Human. Arrogant." The Orc chief spoke with a hint of anger but that was only for a second before she turned calm again.
She took her sword off her shoulder and pointed it towards Alex who was still standing relaxedly.
Then next second, her expression morphed into confusion as she saw Alex lifting his hand up in the air. The next second, however, her eyes widened as she felt a large amount of mana being used. Before she could move or say something, suddenly 10 Fire-thunder arrows were aimed at her and her subordinates. "Am I?" Alex spoke again with a smile as he lowered his hand, causing the arrows to move towards the Orcs at a very high speed.
Even though the Orc chief felt that she was being mocked, she knew that this attack was dangerous and she had to get serious. Alex's stats were limited to A+ but his skills were still active which meant he still had his instant regeneration active. This skill enabled him to continuously pump mana into the fire-thunder arrows, making them more destructive.
This continuous pumping of mana was something that was felt by the Orc chief, making her cautious. Alice and Ann were not surprised by this turn of events as Alex's previous show of power was still fresh in their minds.
However, if someone observed Alice clearly, they would be able to see the surprise Alice's eyes held, even though she tried to hide it with her calm exterior.
She knew how hard it was to be able to combine elements together. There was rarely anyone who could use two elements together, much less merge them. "RAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
The next second, however, something unexpected happened. The Orc chief shouted and the next second she waved her sword at the incoming fire-thunder arrows, breaking 5 of them.
But she was still unable to stop the other five as they pierced right through the orcs creating gaping holes in their stomach, hearts, necks, and heads respectively.
There was one thing that attracted most of the attention on the field right now and that was – the Orc chief. Her sword was glowing with faery red colour while radiating ground melting heat.
She was using her trump card, her ability that let her remain the Orc chief for as long as she could remember. It was called 'Infernal Sword Aura'. An ability she gained after she formed her incomplete mana core by chance.
This ability lets her coat her sword with an aura, but her aura is far from normal as it is an elemental aura, which is a very rare kind of aura. The people who awaken sword aura are able to use mana or their will to coat the sword with it, but that's just the first phase, as people develop further, they gain access to new possible paths. (Let's not go into details or else it would take a whole chapter's worth of words.)
She was among the rare people who were able to develop sword aura further by adding elements to it and her element was Fire.
But, it's not over yet, after all, her aura had the power to destroy Alex's mana-pumped fire-thunder arrow (though he could have just made it stronger, but he thought that would be an overkill).
Her fire was also not normal because it alone was strong enough to almost reach the intensity of Alice's flames which surprised both Alex and Alice, while Ann remained oblivious to this.
Still, one thing was clear to everyone – Those flames were not normal, just from the fact that they could stop 5 of Alex's attacks.
She proved that a special boss was not something to scoff at.
Alex looked at the Orc chief who was looking at her dead men with grief but kept looking at Alex with vigilance while keeping her sword pointed at him. Alex knew that she would lose if he were to get really serious, so, he spoke.
"You want to fight with swords? I will let you die with my sword then." Alex spoke while pointing his sword at the Orc chief whose expression kept changing from suspicion and anger. She was suspicious as to why Alex would want to have a sword fight when he could defeat her with his magic. Angry, when she thought that Alex was underestimating her or showing pity on her.
However, she knew she was in no place to argue, so, she took the change given by her enemy and ran towards him with her sword raised up. But just then another change happened, causing everyone to be surprised.
"WHAT?!" Alice exclaimed as she saw what Alex had done as she was the one most surprised by his move.
Alex's sword which was tilted downwards while being held in his right hand suddenly lit up with orange and yellow flames. Those flames looked an exact replica of Alice's flames much to her disbelief.
However, her disbelief was not due to the fact that those flames looked similar to her flames – No.
They were her flames, she could feel it, she could feel that everything about the flames was the same as her flames, from the heat intensity and mana consumption to the colour of the flames. But the next second she calmed down as she felt that there was something missing in those flames. The essence of those flames was different, she suddenly felt like she was about to touch something, something that could make her stronger.
When she turned to Alex and found him smiling at her as if understanding what she was going through, she knew that whatever she was feeling, Alex could help her with that.
So, she decided to talk about this with him later, for now, she focused on her fight as she could see that the Orcs were about to discover Ann, who was sneakily killing them. Alex had tried to copy Alice's flames and he was able to create something like a replica of her flames. He knew that he would not be able to replicate the whole concept of her flame as it was not something he could control, not until he used the Zone of POTE (Pioneer of the Elements) title.
Alex's All-master had given him the knowledge of the pinnacle of weapon mastery, so, it was not hard for him to create an elemental aura.
He looked at Alice and saw that his purpose of manifesting the flame was achieved – Which was actually letting Alice see the hidden potential she had. So, he decided to end the battle now. He looked at the sword descending towards him, and then he glanced at Alice. When he saw that she was not looking at him, he activated a skill that he had yet to use twice after acquiring.
'Temporal pause.' He spoke in his mind and everything stopped moving at least in a 70m radius with him in the centre, which included Alice and Ann's positions. Even for Alex, it was tiring to maintain the pause with Alice in it because even if he was strong the maximum mana he could use right now was A+ rank. For Alice who was a very strong S-rank Raider, it was basically impossible to be stopped by an A-rank raider's skill. Still, Alex being Alex, he could stop her for 3-4 seconds max, though that was only possible before her potential was locked. He knew that if he had to stop Alice with this Temporal pause after she unlocked her potential then he needed to be at least 1 whole rank ahead of her, even with his instant generation. That's how much potential she had. He would still be able to stop her for 3-4 seconds with the same ranked stats as her when she awakened her full potential, after all, he was not someone weak. But she would just be unable to move, she would still be aware of the time pause, unlike now.
Alex then turned towards the Orc chief. (Not even a second had passed till now, Alex turned directly towards the Orc chief after activating the skill. The above paras were just for the readers.)
Alex could see that the Orc chief was oblivious to the time pause as her expression still showed focus and well-hidden anger in her eyes. Alex felt it was a pity to kill such a talented warrior but he knew that there was no other way, so, he waved his sword right at her head, swiftly beheading her. This was the least he could do for her, giving her a swift death as she gave him some nice stats and a nice flame for him to use. He had selected only those two things to plunder after he killed.
He also deactivated the temporal pause, but when the orcs and the girls saw what had happened, the battle came to a halt again. No, one knew what happened, no one saw what happened, no one could feel what happened, but one thing was clear the Orc chief died before anyone could react. When the scene was finally registered in the minds of the beings on the field, there was chaos everywhere as the Orcs started panicking as they didn't have anyone to order them. The girls and Alex took advantage of the situation, killing Orcs as they fought like animals in the wild.
The matter of how Alex killed the Orc chief was ignored by everyone as it contributed to Alex's superb swordsmanship.
[She is a clever girl.] Sophia suddenly spoke.
'That she is, but she has a strong willpower as well' Alex also expressed his honest thoughts as both of them had noticed Ann looking at Alex with some confusion. When Alex activated temporal pause Ann had her face turned in Alex's direction. Just because of her strong will, she was able to resist some of the effects of Alex's skill which was literally impossible for any A-rank raider.
This fact surprised Alex and Sophia, but they also knew that Ann was just able to feel something amiss, unlike Alice. That in itself was a great feat, so, her suspecting that it was something related to Alex alone was enough for Sophia to complement her. ............….
It took them close to 10 min to clear the Orcs in the area and till now the Orc chief had already disappeared leaving only the loot behind. Alice and Ann had their eyes wide open with a happy smile on their faces when they saw the reward dropped by the Boss.
Their surprise and happiness were not uncalled for since the reward was not something that could be taken lightly...
_________________________________________