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Chapter 44: Use your head

Arwin reached the doorway an instant before the orcs could emerge and thrust his hammer forward like a spear. The orc before him snarled and dodged out of the way, pressing its body to the wall to keep from getting struck. As soon as he got a good look at the monster, the Mesh identified it.

[Swamp Orc – Journeyman 1]

In the darkness behind the orc, Arwin could make out a pair of glowing green eyes and the rough form of another orc.

That’s the shaman. It’ll stay out of the fight and try to whittle me down with magic while buffing up its warrior. I can’t let this drag on for long. I’m not going to win a battle of attrition.

Almost as if on cue, the Mesh shimmered forth once more.

[Swamp Orc Shaman – Journeyman 2]

Behind him, Arwin heard Rodrick let out a battle cry. There was a loud thump, presumably the snake as it entered the fight with him, but Arwin didn’t have the liberty to turn and see how their fight was unfolding.

The orc before him lunged, thrusting its rusty sword for his chest. Arwin batted the blow away with the hilt of his hammer and drove his foot into the orc’s stomach, using [Scourge] to give himself enough strength to throw it back several feet.

His magical energy reserves weren’t as high as he would have liked, but it wasn’t like the orcs were going to sit around and wait for him to recover. The light in the orc’s eyes turned even brighter and it let out a furious roar, charging Arwin like a mad bull.

He drove his hammer forward, but this time, the monster didn’t even bother dodging it. It thrust its sword forward, taking the hammer blow to the shoulder and striking Arwin in the chest with its own weapon.

If it hadn’t been for his armor, the blow would have gone straight through his heart. Instead, it rang off the scales and caught on the furrows already present in Arwin’s armor, only leaving a superficial cut on his chest.

In turn, Arwin’s blow demolished the monster’s left shoulder. Bone and blood splattered across the floor, but the orc didn’t even notice. It thrust its blade again and again, having gotten close enough to Arwin that his hammer was nowhere near as effective.

He grit his teeth as the sword carved into his armor. He tried to shove the orc back, but it managed to dodge out of the way. Its sword rang off his greaves, giving them some kinetic energy, but Arwin wasn’t going to be able to get much use out of it if –

The orc’s sword slammed into his armor again. Heat swirled in Arwin’s chest, and a whip of fire lashed out, striking the monster in the eyes. It screamed, more in fury than pain, and Arwin took the brief reprieve to use a [Scourge] empowered kick to throw the orc back.

His chest stung something furious and blood dripped down his front, but none of the cuts he’d taken were fatal. His armor had held up against most of the monster’s attacks, but it wasn’t going to last forever.

A loud hiss rang out behind Arwin, followed by the clash of metal on scale and a slew of curses. In the brief instant that Arwin was distracted, the shaman sent a bolt of green light into the back of the orc he was fighting.

The wound on its shoulder stopped bleeding. It hadn’t been healed, but it wouldn’t be dying from blood loss anytime soon. Roaring, the orc charged Arwin again. The light in its eyes burned even brighter than it had before.

I can’t keep trading blows like this. The shaman is going to keep picking this bastard back up until it’s using the corpse like a puppet. I need to blow through and kill the real threat.

Instead of trying to fend the orc’s blows off, Arwin threw caution to the wind. He drove his shoulder into the monster, slamming it into the wall. He caught a sword to the side in the process, but it rang off his armor and failed to find purchase in his skin.

Arwin charged forward, and he was rewarded with a flash of surprise and fear in the orc shaman’s eyes a moment before he grabbed it by the neck. Letting [Scourge] empower his body, Arwin slammed the shaman’s head into the stone.

There was a sickening crunch and a splatter, much like a watermelon being dropped. The shaman’s body went limp in his hand and Arwin spun just in time for the other orc’s sword to slam into his shoulder with enough force to drive him to one knee.

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He snarled, lunging forward and tackling the monster to the ground. The sword flew from the orc’s hands and it reached up to claw at his face. Arwin drew on [Scourge] once more, slamming the orc’s hands to the ground.

It roared up at him – but the roar was quickly turned to a garbled scream as Arwin drove his forehead into the beast’s face, shattering its nose. One of its fangs caught his chin. If it hadn’t been for [Indomitable Bulwark], the fang likely would have completely ripped his face open. But, even with his empowered defenses, it still ripped across his flesh and left a deep cut.

Arwin didn’t give himself time to register the wound. It was taking literally all of his power to keep the struggling orc pinned down, and it wouldn’t be long before the monster managed to escape him again.

With a roar, Arwin activated [Scourge] once more, draining the majority of the magical energy he still had left to work with, and drove his head down once more. The orc’s skull caved in beneath him.

Blood splattered across his face, but Arwin didn’t care. He leaned back, releasing the monster’s hands and driving one more blow into its sternum to make sure it was well and truly dead before staggering back to his feet, breathing heavily.

Achievement: [Use Your Head] has been earned.

[Use Your Head] – Awarded for using your head in a way in which you probably should not have used it. Effects: The next piece of headgear you forge will be magical. This achievement will be consumed upon creation of your next piece of headgear.

Arwin dismissed the Mesh. He grabbed his hammer from where it had fallen on the floor and strode back into the other room, readying himself for another fight. But, when Arwin emerged from the hallway, he nearly ran straight into Rodrick.

The man let out a scream and jumped nearly a foot into the air, bringing his sword to bear.

“Good gods!” Rodrick exclaimed, his eyes wide. “You look like a monster!”

“Are you okay?” Reya asked, her face pale. Lillia looked like she wanted to say something as well, but she remained quiet. Anna hurried over to him and started to draw on her magic.

Arwin looked down at his torn up armor, then wiped the blood from his face with the back of an arm. “I killed the orcs. Where’s the snake?”

“Dead,” Rodrick said, stepping back so Arwin could see the corpse of the monster behind him. It was largely in one piece, having been run through the eye. Arwin gave Rodrick an approving nod, letting himself relax slightly.

Anna’s magic washed over his body, stitching shut the wounds he’d picked up.

“Thank you, and good job. We should pause here for a moment. That was… a little harder than I expected.”

“You killed three of those things on your own?” Rodrick asked, looking over Arwin’s shoulder and shaking his head in disbelief. “Some smith you are.”

“It’s not about the tools you have. It’s about how you use them.”

“Do you even have any tools other than that armor?” Rodrick asked with a laugh. “With the amount of blood on you, it looks more like you used your head to beat the life out of them.”

“Your whole body is a tool,” Arwin said. He touched the damage to his armor, then frowned. It had taken quite the beating from the fight. It didn’t feel like the magic within it was about to falter, but if he went through another fight that was as brutal as this one had been, there was a good chance it would be too ripped up to be repairable.

At least I got a pretty nice achievement out of this. I’ve got more than enough scales to repair the damage I took back at home. If I can just gather some new material to work with, then I can consider this a huge success.

Lillia dug through her pockets and pulled out a black napkin, tossing it down to Arwin. He caught it with a hand and wiped the blood off his face, giving her an appreciative nod.

“Thanks. This is probably going to stain, though.”

“That’s fine. I always use it to clean up blood. Butchering animals is messy.”

Arwin looked at the napkin, then shrugged. It wasn’t going to be any less dirty than he already was, so he wiped the rest of his face off. He gave himself another few seconds to recover before standing back up. He handed the napkin back to Lillia, who took it between two fingers.

“Should we go deeper?” Reya asked. “If the next room is even harder than this one…”

“It could be difficult. My armor is pretty cut up,” Arwin said. He walked over to the snake and knelt beside it, examining the monster’s body. He pulled at one of the scales, bending it until it snapped.

Not nearly as strong as the Forest Lizard scales. This thing must have been much more reliant on its stealth abilities. Not particularly useful for my forging, but it’s a good thing Lillia spotted it.

Arwin pulled the monster’s head up, holding it by one of the fangs to study the inside of its mouth. The fangs were large, so he snapped them off and stuck them into a pocket. He wasn’t sure if he could use them, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep them around.

He then knelt by the dead orc and ruffled through its belongings. Aside from the cleaver, there really wasn’t anything of real use on it. The first orc in the hallway was similarly useless, its sword far too rusted to be of use, but the shaman was different.

Arwin hadn’t had a chance to see it during the fight, but the monster had been holding a wooden wand of some sort. There was a glittering purple gemstone tied to its top. Arwin wasn’t sure what it did – if it did anything at all, as the Mesh didn’t identify it. Either way, he ripped the gem free of the staff and tucked it into a pocket. At the very least, it would probably sell for a little.

He returned to the room with the others in it. “Nothing too useful yet.”

“I did get a good amount of energy from killing the snake,” Rodrick put in. Reya nodded. “I did too, even though I only helped a bit.”

“Any achievements?”

Both of them shook their heads.

“Then it’s up to you lot,” Arwin said. “I’d be willing to push forward for one more room. We haven’t really gotten much out of this yet. If I rest for a few more minutes, I should be able to handle another fight without much trouble. I’d like to try to get more out of the dungeon on our first run.”

“I’m not keen on cooking orc, and the snake is kind of stringy,” Lillia said. “I’d like to go further as well, but I’m not really doing much fighting right now, so it’s up to you.”

“I haven’t been hurt yet, so I’m good to go deeper,” Reya said.

“Same here,” Rodrick said, and Anna nodded in agreement.

“Then it’s settled,” Arwin said. “We go deeper.”