Beth raised her gun, her sharp eyes locked onto the orc lord.
Her grip was steady, her expression unreadable, but I could see the tension in her stance.
She wasn’t wasting a second.
The first shot rang out, cutting through the chaos like a blade.
Bang!
The bullet streaked through the air, aid straight for the orc lord’s chest.
But just as it was about to make contact...
Clang!
The orc lord’s club moved with terrifying precision, deflecting the bullet mid-flight.
It ricocheted off the heavy weapon, embedding itself uselessly into the cracked earth.
Beth didn’t hesitate.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three more shots fired in rapid succession, each one aid at a different part of his body.
His head.
His shoulder.
His knee.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Each bullet t the sa fate.
The orc lord’s club whirled through the air, an extension of his body, knocking every shot away as if they were nothing more than pebbles thrown by a child.
Beth’s jaw tightened.
She adjusted her aim, shifting slightly on her feet.
Another round fired.
This ti, a bullet aid directly for his eye.
Clang!
His club intercepted it just inches from his face.
"Damn it," Beth muttered under her breath.
The orc lord let out a low, guttural chuckle, the sound deep and rumbling.
He wasn’t just deflecting.
He was playing with her, showing her that her attacks were aningless.
My heart pounded.
We were running out of options.
If Beth couldn’t even land a hit—
I glanced at Edward.
His fists were clenched, his entire body tense as he watched.
He knew it too.
This wasn’t just defense.
This was complete and utter dominance.
Beth exhaled slowly.
Her gun lowered slightly, but I knew she wasn’t giving up.
She was thinking, recalibrating.
Because if brute force wasn’t going to work, she needed another way.
We moved as one.
The mont Beth’s bullets failed to land, the rest of us surged forward, weapons drawn, abilities flaring to life.
Sparks of energy, the hum of magic, the clanking of armor, all rged into a single chaotic symphony.
Edward was at the front, his muscles taut, eyes sharp with determination.
Beth, despite her frustration, steadied her stance, reloading her gun with practiced efficiency.
The other awakened and soldiers, their expressions hard, followed suit.
No hesitation.
No fear.
This was it.
"All at once!" soone shouted, their voice cutting through the tension.
Then, chaos erupted.
Gun shot rang in the battlefield as soldiers shot at the orc lord.
Awakened unleashed their abilities, flas roared, ice crystallized in midair, tendrils of electricity crackled like wild serpents.
So wielded the ground itself, causing jagged rock spikes to rise from the earth, while others manipulated wind, sending slicing gales toward the orc lord.
It was an overwhelming barrage, a coordinated storm of destruction.
And yet—
Boom!
A deafening shockwave erupted from the orc lord as he slamd his club into the ground.
The force sent dust and debris flying, pushing several soldiers off their feet.
His sheer presence alone felt suffocating, a weight pressing against my chest.
Still, we didn’t stop.
Beth was still shooting at the orc lord, nullifying his barrier.
An awakened with a greatsword lunged, his blade glowing with an eerie blue light.
He swung with all his might, aiming for the orc lord’s side.
Clang!
The greatsword t the orc’s thick armor and, shattered.
The awakened barely had ti to react before a backhand swipe from the orc lord sent him flying, his body skidding across the battlefield like a ragdoll.
Another awakened, a mage, hurled a barrage of fireballs.
The orc lord didn’t even flinch as he swung his club once more, the sheer force of the motion extinguishing the flas before they could even touch him.
Damn it.
I clenched my fists.
The attacks weren’t working.
Even with all of us attacking at once, even with everything we had, he was still standing.
Unmoving.
Unshaken.
But we couldn’t stop.
We wouldn’t stop.
Because if we did, we were already dead.
The battlefield fell into a deafening silence.
Weapons still humd with energy, flas crackled in the air, and dust from the last collision swirled around us.
Yet, for a single, terrifying mont, none of us moved.
None of us spoke.
Because the orc lord... was grinning.
His massive form lood before us, his grotesque lips curling into sothing that could only be described as amusent.
His thick, green skin was marred with scratches and dents, but none of our attacks had truly wounded him.
Not even close.
I felt my breath hitch.
What... was that look?
He was enjoying this.
A cold realization slithered down my spine.
Every attack we’d thrown, every ability we’d unleashed, every ounce of effort we’d put into trying to take him down, he had let us.
He had allowed it.
And now, he stood there, grinning as if we were nothing more than entertainnt.
A flicker of hesitation rippled through the awakened and soldiers around .
I could feel it, the uncertainty pressing against the edges of our resolve.
We had given everything.
And still, still, he stood there, untouched.
A heavy silence settled over the battlefield.
The kind of silence that cos before a storm.
The kind that makes your heart pound, that makes you want to do sothing even when your body refuses to move.
Then, in an instant, he shifted.
A barely noticeable movent, just the smallest twitch of his fingers against the handle of his club.
And every single one of us froze.
Our bodies locked in place, instincts screaming, minds racing.
None of us could move again.
Sothing was wrong.
I could feel it before I fully understood it, like an invisible weight pressing against my skull, dulling my thoughts, slowing my body.
My breath hitched, but even that felt sluggish, like my lungs had forgotten how to work properly.
Why... was everything so still?
I tried to move my fingers, but they refused to respond.
My feet felt like they were sinking into the earth, my entire body locked in place as though ti itself had wrapped chains around .
And then I noticed—
Edward wasn’t moving.
Beth wasn’t moving.
None of the awakened or soldiers were moving.
They all stood frozen, their weapons still aid, expressions still locked in battle-ready determination.
But they weren’t breathing.
They weren’t blinking.
They weren’t even trembling.
My heart pounded in my chest, at least, I thought it did.
But even that sensation felt distant, like it wasn’t entirely mine anymore.
I tried to force my mouth open, to say sothing, anything, but no words ca.
My mind was... freezing.
It was like my very thoughts were turning to ice, each second stretching unnaturally long, my awareness slowly slipping into sothing dull and unresponsive.
My very existence felt like it was pausing, as if I were nothing more than a fleeting thought being erased from reality.
The orc lord...
It had to be him.
Through the haze settling over my mind, I could still see him, standing there, unmoving, that wicked grin still plastered across his monstrous face.
And in that mont, I understood.
The orc lord had frozen us.
All of us.
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