With more power than he knew what to do with flooding his body, Lewis felt his arcane nullfield spread out a dozen meters, encompassing the closest orcs even if his nullfield's effects weakened the further from him it spread. But unlike before, it wasn't just the nullfield that was protecting him from incoming spells, but his very body seeming like a black hole in the world. No mana able to reach him even without enhancing his field with mana.
In fact, he was no longer enhancing his nullfield at all, simply allowing it to unfold with the full power of his spiritually aligned body.
A flood of system messages all vied for his attention, but he pushed them to the side for now, wanting to deal out a little payback to these lousy orcs first.
Taking a step forward, he shot forward at great speed, moving faster than he anticipated as he reached the line of orcs in the span of a single breath, his open palm slammed into the closest orc's chest, but surprisingly, his hand didn't simply stop, but continued moving , pushing deeper into the orcs chest as its ribs broke and skin tore.
Lewis was even more surprised than the orc he was now wrist deep inside of as he activated [Unraveling strike]. Lewis didn't bother trying to mold the shape of the skill again, simply allowing a portion of his energy to be used up in its activation as he felt towards the source of the power, finally able to properly locate where his anti-mana was being channeled from.
As a result, he was able to see that the skill was far different now than it was only seconds before. His very spirit seeming to duplicate his actions as he sensed the blast of destructive energy forming within him and travelling through his body as it exploded out into the orc's chest. The energy having become more powerful by a significant factor. The creature's chest exploding outwards like a bomb had gone off, not only his torso, but also his head and arms entirely vaporizing from the blast. The result was even more catastrophic than when he had overloaded the skill not long ago, but this was now its new normal.
Shouts of alarm came from around him as the other orcs began scrambling back, wide eyed at the scene, but Lewis was only just getting started, removing his arm from the open space where the orc used to be, only a red mist and two legs proof that he was ever there, as Lewis moved once again, his speed faster than ever as he didn't even bother using his skills for the next orc, the creature swinging at him with a club, but Lewis simply moved faster than it could keep up as he karate chopped its throat with nothing more than the power of his hand. The creature staggered back while dropping its club and gasping for air as a large bruise spread across its neck, and it was likely bleeding internally.
Seeing Lewis effortlessly take down their fellow orcs, the entire group began breaking apart. Several magical blasts disappeared from the air before even reaching Lewis as he overpowered the orcs, outclassing them in speed even if many were likely still physically stronger, as long as they couldn't catch him, all their strength was useless and Lewis simply needed to apply a little unravelling strike to the tougher ones for them to meet their maker.
Lewis wasn't that worried about these powerful orcs anymore. Not because they aren't dangerous, I mean, they could chop down trees with the flat of their hands and crush boulders the size of a car with ease. He would need to be a fool to think they weren't dangerous. But they all seemed to be lacking diversity. All of the orcs seeming to have put a major focus on their strength and toughness, with a select few possessing mana related skills or spells, like the shaman. But against Lewis as he is now, their magic is useless and their strength without the dexterity to wield it is nothing more than a joke.
But the reason Lewis wasn't constantly running around and spamming unravelling strike on the orcs isn't because he was afraid of running out of mana. After all, it felt like he had an almost unlimited supply now with his spirit aligned with his body. No, it was because he was fascinated by the strange sense of lightness and power that accompanied his every movement. As if he was wearing an exoskeleton that was supporting and enhancing his every action. His spirit echoing his movements, making so that it wasn't just his fist that shot forward and knocked an orc in the face, it was also his spirit. His will accompanying the action and forming a sort of feedback loop where body and spirit resonate with the same purpose, lending the full power of both to the action.
The orcs face didn't explode, the creature one of the tougher ones, but it's skull cracked from the impact and fear blossomed in it's eyes as the orc clearly tried to use some sort of boosting skill as it's muscles suddenly bulged and expanded, but Lewis unleashed an unravelling strike into it's face before it had the chance to retaliate, another kill notification added to the minimized list in his head.
He was about to rush another group of three orcs that seemed to be knocking arrows, but right before he could move towards them, a line of blood appeared across one of their necks and it dropped its bow, clutching at its bleeding throat as another one suddenly gasped as a blade exploded from its front. The third orc stumbled back as the sword was removed from its buddy, revealing Fiona clutching a bloodied blade. Her armor was stained with blood, some her own, as she sported a nasty bruise on her face and her armor was partially dented, but she seemed to be holding up.
The third orc also spotted her, but before it could do anything, the tendon on the back of its knee was severed and one of its legs dropped to the ground, the orc letting out a pained groan before yet another line of red appeared on its neck, its head practically being decapitated as the invisible assailant finished it off.
Fucking finally, coming to join when things were finally tilted in my favor again? He thought, a smile tugging at his lips as he senses the bubble of look-away magic with much greater ease than before, even if he still couldn't see Morris beneath it.
Seeing that his teammates had joined the fray, Lewis decided he had better sweep the floor with these guys as he stopped sparing a portion of his mind to observing the way his spirit was functioning in conjunction with his actions and instead turned to find the orc shaman. He had ignored him for now since he seemed to be a clear magic user and had focused on the biggest threat, the brawler orcs, finding with pleasant surprise that his speed and reflexes were more than enough to deal with them, so now it was time to slay their necromantic leader. Except that as he turned in the direction of the large decomposing bear corpse, he didn't see the orc shaman.
Glancing around, he found the grey orc surrounded by two others, all seeming hesitant as they clearly didn't want to get closer, the shaman's face a strange color as he seemed to be in intense concentration, mana building within him.
Lewis simply smirked, questioning the creature's intelligence for attempting to use magic on him. Especially now that his nullfield had grown incomparably larger and more powerful. Stepping towards him, Lewis infused mana into his nullfield, expanding it out towards them as the field snapped around the trio, smothering any attempt at externalizing mana before the shaman could even finish preparing whatever final trump card he might have been preparing, along with the flickers of lightning dancing around the body of the orc to his side. Lewis hadn't forgotten the strange phantom that had bypassed his nullfield, so he preferred to make sure the shaman didn't have the opportunity of activating any spells, just in case.
The grey orc's eyes widened as his mana was washed away, his eyes snapping towards Lewis, who returned the look with a savage grin, holding the promise of imminent violence. But before Lewis could reach them, the orc shaman reached out and put a hand on the shoulders of his two companions. But instead of him telling them to back up or run away like Lewis had expected, their faces simply twisted with agony as they seemed to go pale, their bodies seeming to shrivel up before collapsing to the ground, devoid of life.
Cocking his head in confusion, he stared at the orc shaman that seemed to have drained the very life out of his fellow kin, bypassing Lewis's nullfield by physically touching them, but why would he do such a thing?
He got his answer a moment later when the orc shaman looked at him with a murderous glint in his eyes. Right before disappearing before as if blinking out of existence with no prior warning.
It was so unexpected that Lewis simply froze, his steps faltering as he stared in comprehendingly at the spot the grey orc had occupied only moments before, but not even his mana detection felt any hint of mana. He had gotten pretty good at detecting people hiding using concealment magic, but felt nothing of the like from the shaman. All he had done was kill his own allies before disappearing. But suddenly, it clicked.
The bastard must have leveled up by killing his own, bringing him to level 20, so that the system would automatically send him to the second floor. What a vile bastard.
His finger touched the tattoo on his hand, briefly considering activating it to run after the shaman, but he had no idea if he would appear in a completely different place, and he was needed here. He still had to rescue the people taken prisoner by the orcs and return to Patch and the others. He wanted to make sure those guys were okay and introduce them to Laurence. At least the injured people would be a lot safer there. Not to mention, he also wanted to go back to the dungeon in the goblin den. No, there was far too much he still needed to do before he could think about leaving this place.
Turning back, he found Morris and Fiona working together to kill the final orc still fighting. The soldier took its aggro while the invisible Morris snuck up behind and sliced out at its back and tendons, the two of them making quick work of the strong creature, outmaneuvering and overwhelming it before it got the chance to show off its powerful build.
Most of the orcs lay dead on the ground right outside of their base, the few still alive running away with clear distress. Lewis wanted to go after them, but he only saw three of them, and they were all running in completely different directions, so he wouldn't be able to catch up with them all. After a moment's deliberation, he decided to let them go and went to check on his two teammates, along with the situation with these prisoners. If any of them were still even alive. Morris had claimed they were, but he also claimed that there were only a dozen orcs, but that number had been far from accurate, with at least three times as many orcs in the base.
He started walking over to the two, Morris having become visible once again now that the fight was over, with a sharp-looking, curved silver dagger clutched in one hand. The blade clearly possessed some kind of magical property, making Lewis retract his nullfield back towards his body, only he found that, unlike before, he could now fully retract the field straight into his body. It surprised him at first, but it started to make sense considering his body was now far more resistant to mana with his spirit aligned within himself, so there wasn't anything to push against the field anymore. If anything, it was now a weaker version of what was inside of his body.
"Are you guys alright? How's it inside?" He asked.
"How are we? How are you? We thought you had died ten times over. You're absolutely insane? Are you the main character or something, you totally got a freaking power-up right when it looked like you were about to be blasted to pieces." Morris exclaimed, his calm facade completely breaking, revealing his true personality as he clapped Lewis on the shoulder, inspecting his body, his eyes wide as he stared at the man like he was some sort of ghost.
Fiona just gave him a respectful nod, her expression clearly indicating that she was impressed as she eyed him with a strange look in her eyes.
"The kidnappees are secure thanks to Morris. Had more orcs guarding them than expected, so I was forced to divert attention and help him. Things got pretty messy, but we made it through and came rushing to help, but by then it looked like you were finished, until you simply weren't. Were you hiding your true strength all along?" She asked, but Lewis simply shook his head. Morris also seemed interested in the answer, but Lewis didn't know how to explain or if he even wanted to. These people were his teammates right now, but he hadn't known them for more than a few hours, so sharing his secrets with them now that he was aware of just how abnormal he is didn't seem wise.
"I'll explain later. Let's get these people out of here first and get back to the others." Lewis replied, both of them agreeing as they moved towards the crude wooden gateway into the orc's base, the cries of people being heard from within.