Chapter 442: Invasion [8]
"Yes, I did," Narg responded just as calmly, although beneath the surface, his nerves were on edge.
"Are you the clan chief?" the orc asked, casually lifting and lowering the axe in one hand as though its weight meant nothing.
Narg frowned slightly at the gesture.
He couldn’t read this orc at all. By now, he had expected it to attack, especially after seeing the corpses of its brethren scattered across the ground, yet the orc seemed far more interested in talking than fighting.
That alone brought a strange question to Narg’s mind.
Was this orc a Chosen?
No, no... only goblins could be Chosen.
At least, that was what he had always assumed.
Then again, Narg had never really considered the possibility of another species having Chosen of their own. Goblins and orcs barely interacted in the first place, and on the rare occasions when they did, there was hardly enough time for conversation.
Their encounters usually ended with one side trying to kill the other.
But what if... just what if this whole Chosen thing was bigger than goblins?
"You haven’t answered my question, goblin."
The orc’s voice pulled Narg from his thoughts.
"No..." Narg responded, deciding that whatever questions he had could wait until later.
Then he stepped forward.
"Why?" he asked, keeping his gaze fixed on the orc. "Do you not think I’m enough to stop you?"
The orc stared at Narg for several seconds, its expression barely changing.
"I do not."
Then it vanished.
Narg’s eyes widened.
For a fraction of a second, he simply stood there, blinking rapidly as panic and confusion struck him at once. He hadn’t seen the orc move, nor had he sensed any buildup of mana that might have warned him of what was coming.
By the time his instincts screamed at him to move, it was already too late.
The orc appeared directly in front of him.
Narg barely registered the massive axe descending before an immense pain tore through his body.
The blade struck through his shoulder and continued downward with terrifying force, cutting through flesh and bone before cleaving straight through him.
Narg’s body split apart.
And both halves crashed to the ground.
The upper and lower halves of his body completely separated.
The orc barely spared what remained of him a glance before resting its axe against its shoulder and walking away. With this portal dealt with, it began heading toward the next one, intending to deal with whichever goblin was holding back the forces there.
It had barely taken a few steps when a voice suddenly came from behind.
"Why aren’t you arrogant, thinking that’s enough to stop me?"
The orc stopped.
Slowly, it turned around, and for the first time, something resembling surprise appeared on its face.
Narg was standing again.
Dark tendrils flowed from both halves of his severed body, stretching across the gap and pulling them back together. They twisted around one another like living stitches, drawing flesh, muscle, and bone into place until his upper body had completely reattached itself to his lower half.
"Oh..." The orc’s gaze sharpened with interest. "That’s an interesting ability you possess there."
"Indeed," Narg replied.
The last of the dark tendrils disappeared into his body as the wound sealed completely, leaving no visible trace that he had been cleaved in two only moments earlier.
Narg straightened himself and looked at the orc.
"Do you like it?"
"I do. But I wonder how a normal goblin came to possess such a powerful skill."
"Maybe I’m not a normal goblin," Narg responded, earning a slight smirk from the orc.
Despite the confidence in his voice, Narg was anything but calm.
It was fortunate that the previous attack hadn’t destroyed anything truly vital. His body could reconnect and repair severe damage, but there were limits to what the ability could recover from, especially if his brain or other critical organs were destroyed before the regeneration could take effect.
Even reattaching his severed body had consumed a significant amount of mana.
And although he was whole again, that didn’t mean the pain had disappeared. His body still remembered being cleaved apart, and a deep ache lingered along the path the axe had taken.
He couldn’t afford to suffer another strike that brutal.
More importantly, he couldn’t afford to relax for even a second.
Narg’s attention remained fixed on the orc, watching every movement until he noticed its leg shift ever so slightly.
That was all the warning he got.
In the next instant, the orc was already in front of him.
But unlike before, Narg was prepared.
Dark tendrils exploded from his body before the orc could bring its axe down.
The orc immediately withdrew.
It already understood how dangerous those tendrils would be if they managed to latch onto it. Its defenses might have been strong enough to resist the effects of Narg’s other skills, but [Deathroot] was something else entirely, and it clearly wasn’t willing to find out what would happen if the tendrils made direct contact.
Instead, the orc swung its axe from a distance.
A massive cleave tore through the air toward Narg.
But this was no ordinary cleave. It reminded Narg of Eli’s rift slash, not because the two abilities were the same, but because both possessed enough destructive power to tear through almost anything in their path.
Narg knew immediately that there was nothing in his arsenal capable of stopping it.
So he didn’t try.
He threw himself out of the way just before the cleave reached him, and the attack tore through the space where he had been standing before continuing onward.
Buildings in its path were ripped apart as the cleave carved through wood and stone without slowing, finally stopping only when it slammed into the barrier surrounding the settlement.
A deep hum rolled through the area as the barrier throbbed from the impact.
Narg sucked his teeth.
He couldn’t allow the orc to continue firing off attacks like that.
The barrier might have stopped the cleave, but everything between them and the barrier hadn’t been nearly as fortunate, and if this continued, the clan would eventually suffer the consequences.
The problem was that Narg couldn’t exactly stop the orc from using such a devastating attack.
Taking the initiative wasn’t easy when the orc was considerably faster than him, and keeping his distance presented an entirely different problem.
If Narg attacked from range, the orc would likely respond in kind, and judging by the destruction that single cleave had caused, a prolonged exchange would tear through the settlement and potentially catch other goblins in the crossfire.
Close combat wasn’t much better.
The orc was too fast for Narg to reliably catch with [Deathroot], and worse, it was smart enough to recognize the danger the tendrils posed and avoid them entirely.
So... what am I supposed to do?
Narg let out a slow sigh.
At this point, casualties might be unavoidable.
Ideally, he needed to deal with the orc as quickly as possible before their battle caused any more destruction, but from everything he had witnessed so far, that was going to be far easier said than done.