The writhing plants were unable to reach Ed's gallant figure try as they might. Inevitably, the tanky Shakh who seed like an unbreakable wall was t with an unstoppable force.
"Gaaargh!" A painful roar was what followed. The dazzling sight was blinding yet clear. Ed's flas which seed to have co to life hopped on over to Shakh's terrifying body seconds before contact.
It wasn't over though, the giant's bloodshot eyes did not fail to miss the axe that ca from the ball of fire with a horizontal arc.
With a bang, the axe dug into Shakh's thick skull and red blood seeped out of the egregious wound like the start of a river.
"It hurts!" Shakh scread out as he instinctively reached out to save its face. Ed was still clinging to the axe's handle adding his weight onto the axe head which was lodged in Shakh's skull. The pain was amplified with every second.
The thick woody vines reached out to help. They tugged at Ed's free arm ignoring the flas that burned its newly grown bark. But Ed didn't focus on anything other than attacking.
A trendous force that moved the air around it ca about as Ed's fist darted towards the giant's face. The vines could not afford to hold on as they simply broke apart under the heat and tension.
An audible crack then followed.
Shakh's face which had turned a mix of crispy brown and viscous red from the overbearing flas and the river of blood that co from its skull was further slighted as scattered shards of his skull dug into his brain. His entire body lost support and he fell to his knees.
Ed dropped slightly from his elevated position, axe in hand, while Shakh's giant and desecrated body fell next to him with a thud. The flas did not extinguish however and instead continued to lt the already dead orc.
Ed did not even spare him a glance. As far as the adventurers went, the orc in front of him could hardly compare to even the ones his anti-skeletons had fought.
For orc standards, Shakh was a tough opponent, yes. His tanky body might even be impervious to spells to a certain degree. The excessive flesh also automatically made it so blunt attacks would be nearly ineffective and pointed blades to leave mostly superficial wounds.
But to Ed, this didn't matter. The flas manipulated by him would almost seem to co to life, their offensive power was not sothing a fleshy body could easily contend with. The runes also had a clear flaw when faced with Ed's scorching hot flas.
The mont one of them was burned off his skin the entire array would either go haywire or not work altogether. Ed was interested in how an array could even be drawn onto a body so he had to give credit where credit was due. Still, who didn't like to boast a little?
"Looks like those runes were just for show" Ed spoke mockingly as he turned to face the elderly orc lady.
Lagakha was infuriated but she didn't let the heretic get to her. She, as a blessed of god, knew better than to engage in pointless verbal conflict. She was a mature woman.
"Get him!" She told the other orc warriors who had all along been frozen in place. In between the large writhing vines and the glaring flas, where exactly were they supposed to place?
Still, for their god, it was a privilege to die.
"Avenge him!" One of the orc warriors in the lead yelled to spur himself and the others forward. They were more or less 30 orcs, all armored and equipped, charging towards Ed.
'This grandma sure likes to delegate' Ed still had no complaints though. If all these orcs were willing to kindly offer him their consciousness then... who was he to intervene? While at it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to pick out a new body for Vorgarag.
Although… it would be troubleso if he were to accidentally break their bones or rupture so organs so maybe it would be better to postpone the matter.
'Hm… I could just try storing them' Ed had almost forgotten about that. In which case he wouldn't need to worry about breaking much.
In fact, it might even be a nice idea to only capture the orcs to perform similar experints as he had with the skeletons. He for example did not know if the bodies would die without a consciousness. Was there a limit?
"Aaa-!" One of the orcs ran over with a battle cry but its head was cleanly sliced off its body. The others still plowed through though and Ed simply had to wave his weapon back and forth to harvest their heads as if harvesting wheat.
The blood spewed like fountains as the mindless drones continued to charge forward without too much regard for their own safety. Fanaticism was clearly evident in each of their eyes as they trudged through the bodies of their fallen comrades to try and even touch a single hair on Ed's body.
Ed had also not failed to realize the abnormal growth of the plants in the surrounding. Soon enough, a green do started to form around him. The lively plants looked like a thicket of squirming worms coming at Ed from all directions.
The green tsunami threatened to consu him but Ed remained unfazed. In his eyes, the old lady's spell repertoire was not very varied. Her skills even seed to be solely limited towards plant life which was a bizarre sight.
'Is it possible to have an affinity towards a pseudo-elent?' He hadn't considered such a thought before but now it seed entirely practical. As long as it beca a new elent it would be different from being simply earth and water.
Ed ford a do. Why? His fire spells were rather limited. He only had two such spells that could qualify. One being naly, teor rain. The old lady had kindly procured him shelter so why not take advantage of it?
Ed's chant was ominous and deep. Anyone that heard it would feel alard. But inside of a thick do of earth and among the squirming plants, who was going to hear a thing?
The teor rain spell was cast with evident success as Ed's earth mana and fire mana traveled through a small opening Ed created to form giant chunks of rock in the air space.
The rocks cast a shadow down on the green do and on the direct surroundings of the small plaza such as the houses and cathedral.
The rocks then beca lit with hell-raising wild flas. The rocks turned hot and red, almost as if they would turn into sloshing magma.
A clear whistling sound as if a bomb was dropping from the high skies resounded in the desolate ruin-like settlent. The bombs being of course thick chunks of molten rock.
The earth tremble- no, quaked! The earth quaked violently with rumbling vibrations under the deadly bombardnt. Even Ed in his supposed safety felt nervous from the shocks that followed the landing of any given teor.
His do shook and cracks ford whenever a given teor landed on it. The plant padding had likely co undone after the first few making the situation that much more precarious. Ed spent the rest of his earth mana on reinforcing the do and waited until the spell had finally finished with its destruction.
Everything was silent.
Ed opened up a small hole on the do by the side and the overpowering sll of dirt and smoke entered from the opening. He ignored it to the best of his abilities and looked into the hole.
The ground had caved and ford a crater. There were chunks of rocks and burning plants or bodies littering the surrounding. It was a sorry sight, like that of a disaster.
Realistically, the use of teor rain had been rather excessive. Still, he was confident that all of the orcs in the settlent were not present at the mont as there were bound to be so guarding the captives. It didn't matter to give those that were present a quick death.
The do ca undone and burnt vines fell on Ed. He dusted them off and looked towards the cathedral. Part of its front entrance had collapsed perhaps a result of the tremors.
As for the old chieftess... Ed could not see much of her. He didn't know if her body had been so badly mangled or if she had sohow escaped. He was more inclined to believe she had escaped though.
'That's troubleso…' Assuming it was true of course.
The reason why he was inclined to believe it was though was due to the chieftess' age. Her spell repertoire might not be varied but her experience most certainly was. That's not to say she had seen teors rain before but rather that she knew better than to stand around when hearing what could only be an enemy attack.
'Note to self, teor rain has a long TTK' The spell was balanced though since shortening the ti to kill implied less damage and destruction. The altitude was the sole determinant of this factor after all.
Ed looked up at the artificial night sky. The moon had not moved much closer to its peak aning that not much ti had passed.
'I should find the captives and explore the cathedral' Ed refocused his thoughts and gazed at the crumbled entrance of the weathered cathedral.
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