Johnson sighed helplessly. In order to maintain coordination with Alex, they had decided on several secret signs. Billows of black smoke that meant success and also requesting for Johnson's Cavalrymen to retreat and provide reinforcements.
However, Johnson still felt somewhat hopeless because he believed that Alex was walking on a dangerous path. A tactic that worked against these Orcs didn't mean that it would work against strong opponents. Although, strictly speaking, Johnson's expertise was in suicide assault tactics, his personality was completely the opposite. From what he could remember this young man was a reserved and meticulous person and he naturally didn't wish for Alex to take such risks in battle. But now, he had no say in it. He only has to carry his order like a good soldier should.
"Alright, Brothers!"
Johnson shook his head and threw bizarre thoughts to the back of his head. He raised his right arm, shouted out loud and swung his arm down.
"It's time for us to shine!"
The sword blade penetrated an Orc's solid chest, forcing a painful groan out of the exhausted creature. The Orc struck his stone ax forward while Marcus withdrew his blade and rolled to dodge the retaliation. But that wasn't all. The Orc neglected his punctured chest and extended his left hand forward with a bellow. Suddenly, a thin, golden barrier flickered before Marcus and slowed the Orc's attack. He seized this chance and leaped up. His razor-sharp blade flashed into a bolt of lightning that penetrated the Orc's forehead. The Orc collapsed heavily to the ground lifelessly.
Marcus withdrew his sword. He turned to the petite, adorable healer and nodded with a smile. The healer lowered her head shyly.
After the mercenaries broke into the fort, the situation took a quick turn. The abandoned fort was built by the Humans and wasn't suitable for the massive size of the Orcs, so they couldn't unleash their powerful might. The Orcs couldn't stabilize the situation when they faced the ambush. The mercenaries agilely used the narrow surroundings to their advantage and led the flustered enemies about. However, there was one exception.
"Go to hell!"
On another side, another Alex's party's members, a girl named Anne with a barbarian strength in a slender body raised her steel shield and charged forward like a human tornado, crushing into an Orc that was launching an attack on the healers. Her formidable strength propelled the strong, burly Orc away, but that wasn't all. She smashed her shield into the ground with all her might and the immense shock wave blasted into the pitiful creatures and their blood everywhere. Perhaps ordinary Humans would have been crippled in shock by the savage scene, but it was nothing unusual for Anne. She swung her shield into an Orc who had jumped down from the tall wall. Their weapons clashed and Anne sunk slightly upon the impact.
"…!"
No one noticed that Anne let out the deep growl of a wild animal. Her emerald red eyes glinted in a bright crimson radiance. Before the Orc responded, she drove him into the stone wall with her shield. The wall crumbled instantly and buried them under crushed rocks. Anne gritted her teeth as she crawled out from the pile of rocks. The worn down walls around her started swaying. Shortly after, stones fell from above like rain drops.
"Anne! Danger! Run!"
Alice another party member shrieked in horror. Anne didn't return to the healers instantly like she always did. Instead, after crushing her enemy, she stood up slowly and scanned around her as though she didn't realize the predicament she was under. As Alice ran over to drag her out of danger, Anne extended her right arm to Alice.
"—!"
Alice felt a strong gust of wind blowing against her. Then, she turned around and spotted fragments and blood splashing all around. An Orc's head had been blown away and it collapsed to the ground. Its eyeball flew in the air and landed on Alice's defense shield like a ball of mincemeat.
She looked on palely and was disgusted by the scene. But, she quickly turned around and shockingly discovered that Anne had already returned to her side.
"Don't worry, Alice. Anne will protect you girls. Just continue to charge forward!"
"Okay… Okay…"
Alice nodded in hesitation. For unknown reasons, she felt that the innocence in Anne was nowhere to be seen and there was suddenly a wild, irascible beast inside her. Even she who understood Anne the most became cautious of her.
The flames flickered.
Anvil retreated with his curved blade in hands. The red-haired young lady hidden behind him extended her arm and her pupils shrunk into a thin line. She sucked in a deep breath of air and widened her mouth. Roaring flames blasted out as though a flamethrower.
The fiery red flames struck the large doors. Shortly after, the Orcs inside let our mournful screams. However, the Half-Demons had no intentions of letting them off. The red-haired young lady closed her mouth and retreated at the same time. Another young man with long horns on his head extended his arms and chanted softly. A highly toxic, deep green fog exuded from his finger and blended with the flames. Then, the sorrowful groans turned softer and vanished entirely.
'Not bad!'
Alex was satisfied with their performances. Although this was their first actual battle and their strength wasn't comparable to his elite squad in the real life, he didn't wish to simply watch them defeat the Orcs. Instead, he hoped to see their discipline and execution capability. No matter if it was Joe, or the newly joined Anvil and his Half-Demons companions, they had all displayed strict discipline. Even though there was still room for improvement for the camaraderie between them, they would still be able to secure this win safely. The Half-Demons mostly possessed the abilities to control flames and ice and create poison and dark fog. It was also due to this strength that Humans had alienated them. But now, Alex needed this strength from them. In fact, their strength had been proven lethal. In the narrow space, no matter how strong the Orcs were, none of them could escape the envelopment of the poison fog and blaze.
As Marcus and Anvil's group suppressed the Orcs within the fort, Joe and Randall on the outside didn't watch idly. Joe led his team of Thieves to set up traps for the Orcs riding on their Rhino Beasts while Randall and his Rangers scanned the surrounding from the arrow towers.
Everything is going as planned.
Alex was rather spellbound by this scene. He didn't contribute too much in this attack this time. The Orcs were on the average of level 80 and they were still a little too threatening for his men. But these Orcs weren't worth any EXP for him, which was why he observed from the side after annihilating two dangerous Shamans for them. Alex felt as though he had playing game just by looking at this scene. The noise and clamor brought back a lot of memories.
"Suppress the east! We can't hold on any longer! Don't lure the creatures here. Hold them back with your AOE skills!"
"What the?! Those shameless skeletons are insane! Blast the bridge off now!"
But this wasn't the game.
Alex returned to his senses. Memories of banter between him and other players slowly faded. Every battle here involved life and death, unlike the game, where one could restart once again if one died. In the game, the player who died and laid on the ground could still joke with the healers in their spiritual status while waiting to be revived. But here, Alex didn't wish to test if he had the ability to revive on the spot because he was playing Bahamut's clone game.
He wanted to live on and win.
And now, it was just the start. In order to prepare himself for the upcoming battle, he had to use every experience here and treat them as if they're real. Although his current forces weren't as powerful as his real force, this was still a great start for him and he wished for a wonderful ending. If he could perform greatly here and learn from this experience he could also do the same thing in the real life after going back. Every single experience is worthwhile, it only depends on how you will use them in different situations.
Following Silveria's suggestion, Alex was experimenting, using various tactics from playing various VR MMORPG. He would gain experience through these experiments, all of this thanks to Bahamut's clone. He was secretly grateful for this, for the enemy to underestimate him and play like this, how could he not be grateful when gaining from this?
"Reporting, Sir! We've suppressed the entire fort!"
Marcus's voice rang and dragged Alex back into reality. He nodded.
''Good job, well done.'' He declared much to Marcus's joy, getting acknowledged like this was good for his future, maybe he could retire as a mercenary later and work for this young lord.
Alex ignored Marcus who was lost in his fantasy to go check on the others.
Meanwhile, in another location...
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