After that close encounter with the giant deer herd we traveled for another hour or so before it began to get dark, we thankfully managed to avoid attracting any attention and we settled down by a couple of fallen trees that gave us some shelter.
Luna pulled out some cooked meat that she had stored in her necklace which Violet was only slightly jealous of. Definitely only slightly… regardless it was a quiet night and come morning they set out once more.
The mana density continued to pick up and it was felt by the two companions as they would constantly find themselves either hiding from strong monsters or fighting off groups of weaker monsters at a regular intervals.
The first they caught was actually a pack of dire mice, although their was almost 20 of them, still despite the numbers it was a swift execution by our duo, a smattering of void bolts and tail whips from Violet and a quick series of ice infused kicks and rapid jabs with the spear from Luna dealt with the pests quickly.
Another of the strange creatures that they ran into was a collection of strange semi liquid type balls of various shades, some were blue some green and even one red one. They utilised magics to attack and Violet had some fun exchanging magical attacks with the odd creatures. When she launched a bolt it would blow out a chunk of its body but unless she managed to hit the solid core within their bodies they wouldn't care about other attacks.
Regardless though the fight was quite quick and after winning Violet went to go try eat some of them only to sea over something truly shocking. "Urgh! They are disucting!"
[Your group has defeated Elemental Slime lvl13~18 x8 exp rewarded]
[Congratulations you have leveled up]
Lvl 12->13
Agility - 27->28
Strength - 21->22
Constitution - 23
Intelligence - 40->42
Wisdom - 33->35
[Your skills have leveled up]
Void Manipulation lvl 5->6
Void Bolt lvl 5->6
Void Spear lvl 6->7
As Luna laughed at Violet's violent reaction to tasting the 'disgusting' slimes. The dragon was trying to get the taste out of her mouth by licking anything else which also included Luna once the dragon noticed her laughing at her. And so the tense day was broken by a swift chase before Luna found herself covered in dragon saliva and slime in a delightful mix.
But this did give Luna the chance to practice her Arctic ice manipulation, she first froze all the gunk that was coming her then worked on separating it from her body and armour. It took her a few minutes but she was rewarded when she managed to level up the skill!
Once they were both clean and done with their play they got back to trailing the orcs. They had already traveled for over 2 days now they were starting to wonder exactly how far the orcs had traveled in order to hunt down Lunas clan. And as they were wondering how much further they would have to travel they managed to stumble right into a pair of orc hunters.
The two groups froze upon seeing each other, neither having expected to run into another creature. This was broken though when the orcs laid eyes on Luna and a haze of madness overtook them. Instantly they charged straight at the two who were slightly out off guard by the sudden rage that eminated from the two orcs before them. Still our two companions had gained plenty of experience in sudden fights so it took them but a moment to gather themselves before they got to work.
Luna charged forward to take on the orc that was wielding a club, whilst Violet stood her ground and summoned a void spear to deal with the orc wielding a bow.
Luna used her dash to close the distance her buffing and defensive ability Body of the Arctic Warrior enshrouded her in a thin layer of ice and provided a boost in her strength. She jabbed forwards with her spear only to have her stroke knocked to the side by the club before having to leap backwards as the orc swung down with the intent to crush her. Grimacing Luna had to admit that the orc was considerably stronger than herself, so she would have to rely on her speed to win this bout.
She activated ice strike on her spear encasing it in razor sharp ice, then she unleashed a multi strike sending several jabs in short succession towards the brute. It showed remarkable skill as it deflected the majority of her blows only allowing one through which only grazed its arm. But this would be a battle of endurance and so long as Luna managed to continually lands hits her foe would only grow slower and slower.
Her opponent was a true brute of an orc standing at nearly 7ft tall and was a covered in muscles that clearly weren't for show. After her rapid barrage of strikes a red glow enveloped his club and he swung again. Luna initially dismissed the swing as she was out of range but when the red glow detached from the club and flew towards her she swiftly raised her spear and held it horizontally to block the energy wave. She was sent staggering backwards from taking the blow and when she looked up she saw the orc grinning at her.
Yelling in frustrated rage she dove back in with a dash circling around the slower opponent and stabbed forward quickly managing to score another cut on the thigh of the orc causing it to let out a short bellow of rage and pain.
ROAR! THUD, CRASH!
This set the creature off as its roar extended and it suddenly rocketed forwards towards Luna who only just managed to evade the attack. Despite missing the orc didn't slow down until it crashed right into a tree who's trunk shattered and it collapsed to the ground. Not giving the orc time to gather itself Luna once more charged in and leapt into the air whilst swinging the spear overhead and bringing it down in a powerful arc. She manipulated the ice edge to extend it even further, whilst the orc was distancing itself from the collapsed tree he failed to block in time and as such Lunas spear top managed to impale it through the shoulder causing a large patch of ice to instantly form around the impact site effectively rendering that arm useless, as such the club it was holding in that arm collapsed to the ground.
From their the fight became much simpler and she slowly but surely whittled the orc down until she managed to land a blow aimed right at its throat.
SLASH, Gurgle
With that strike the orcs remaining arm tried to cover the falling wound in its neck but to limited success as it collapsed to the ground shortly after dead.
Meanwhile Violet was also having some trouble with her fight. She had launched her void spear only to grown in annoyance as the orc easily dodged to the side avoiding the spear. From there the two foes launched a series of attacks at each other, both violet and the orc managed to easily avoid each attack.
Violets only success came when she unleashed a barrage of void bolts and managed to secure a single solid hit on its side which caused it to let out a growl of its own .
However instead of causing the orc to slow down its attacks it instead caused it to step up. Its bow glowed briefly before a arrow shot towards Violet at a much greater speed than before, she tried to leap out of the way but it followed her movements and so she quickly summoned a void shield to try and block the attack.
THUD, BOOM.
And whilst it did stop the initial blow but she wasn't prepared for when the arrow exploded shattering her shield. The blast also knocked Violet off balance and made her miss the next arrow that came her way and struck her in the side, whilst it didn't manage to remove and scaled it did still wind the young dragon.
Growling in annoyance Violet decided to get in closer to finish this off. Do she charged the orc firing off another barrage of void bolts. To distract it. When she got within 5 meters she leapt into the air, the or. Seeing this fired off a quick arrow only for it to sail through the spot Luna previously occupied before suddenly the dragon was landing on the orcs chest and instantly began to rake with her claws.
ROAR. Gaahhh!
The pained bellows of the orc was like music to Violets ears and was a nice change from her first attempt at this move as now when the orcs tried to bash her away she could just take the punishment and dish out considerably more in return.
Violet managed to get her jaw into the orcs neck eventually and with a brutal yank she tore out the orcs throat and leapt back, and as the orc collapsed to the ground she fired off a void spear directly into its face just for good measure. And it too dropped to the ground dead.
[You have defeated Orc Hunter lvl 21 exp rewarded]
[Your skills have leveled up]
Void step lvl 1->2
Void spear lvl 3->4
Void shield lvl 7->8
As soon as Violet had finished her battle she swiftly looked over the lunas battle only to feel pride welling up as she watch her companion finish off her opponent with a quick slash through its neck.
Sensing that they were safe for at least the moment Violet plopped down on the ground to catch her breath. "Good job Luna, was a good fight!"
Luna soon joined Violet on the ground and after catching her breath for a moment she replied. "Yeah, it was much stronger than I though they would be… d-do you think we will be able to defeat them by ourselves?" She eventually asked the young dragon.
Violet thought about it for a solid 7 seconds before answering with confidence. "If we run into their camp right away we will die. But if we take things slow and fight the orcs that leave their base then we should be fine."
"After all they do need to go hunting, we can just kill their hunters and slowly take them all out!" Luna blinked at the surprisingly well put together plan and could only nod in agreement. It truly did seem that ever since her evolution Violet had grown considerably smarter, and that was exactly what was needed in this situation. After all even if they based it only on the force that attacked lunas clan which she doubted, their would be around 30 more orcs left to kill.