The Harvester

Chapter 23: Raid

A steel saber clashed against an azure blade. Rakna winced slightly at the power behind the strike and deflected the Orc’s weapon instead of going against it. He then tried to kick the hands of his opponent to make it lose its weapon but it was parried remarkably well for a creature with that look.

Rakna tried to pull back but it wasn’t in time as the Orc punched forward with its free hand. He grunted and bent his body with inhuman agility to dodge. The fist grazed his nose and after almost making a ninety-degree angle with his body, Rakna let himself fall and caught himself by slamming a hand on the floor. While he was still in that position, the Orc swung its saber and he put all of his strength in his arm to propel himself up and avoid it.

When he landed, the two fighters looked at each other again. This small bout was short-lived but the two of them were now aware of the other’s strength.

After a few seconds, Rakna’s eyes narrowed and he kicked the ground while giving a mental command to Alexa. ‘Two to dexterity, one to speed.’ The change in his body happened instantly and profiting from that, he used it to increase his speed mid-sprint.

He reached the Orc in a burst of speed that the latter didn’t expect. The monster’s eyes narrowed and quickly decided to counter with a punch rather than its sword. It was too late to raise its saber since Rakna was in its close space.

Azure Sonata was thrust toward the Orc’s chest and Rakna expected it to do a lot of different things to dodge or block it, and it chose the one he wished the least for.

The chieftain stepped forward and let Sonata pierce its body, carefully making sure that it would not hit any vitals. It then followed with a punch that Rakna was forced to dodge by letting go of his spear and fall backward. But unfortunately for him, the Orc wasn’t done and then followed by hacking with its saber at full force.

Rakna extended his claws and used them to stick to the ground. He used this to launch himself to the side just before the two-handed sword struck the ground and caused the first environmental damage caused by this fight.

The floor cracked and quite rapidly broke apart across the entire room but the good foundations of the building made it so that it wouldn’t collapse. However, that also meant Rakna lost his footing for a second and that was enough for the Orc to deal out an unavoidable kick.

Rakna managed to reduce the shock by pushing himself away from the creature’s leg but he was still sent crashing on the wall. The concrete wall fissured and the shape of his body was carved into it. He groaned and stood back on his feet as he watched the Orc pull out Sonata from its chest.

At the same time, Alexa spoke into his mind, [You have been diagnosticated Lightly Injured. Ireful Shell has been activated, Rakna.]

Rakna briefly opened his status window to see his defense go up by quite literally .65. He didn’t know if he should be amused or upset. ‘Defense isn’t for the current me anyway…’ He thought then furrowed his eyebrows. ‘This…’ He was starting to feel and hear something on the back of his mind.

After a few seconds, it became very clear. He gradually felt like wanting to rip apart the Orc in front of him as a voice, or rather, a whisper talked to him.

<KilL. DeSTrOy. SpiLl. CoME tO mE!>

If it had been anyone else, they would have probably already lost half of their mental sanity. But to Rakna, this felt like an annoying bug at best. He closed his eyes and tuned it out just by focusing a little bit.

He then stood straight and stared at the Orc who was inspecting Sonata with a curious eye. Rakna didn’t seem bothered the least that his weapon was in another’s hands. “I would drop that weapon if I was you,” he said. But it didn’t sound like a threat. It was more of a… warning.

The Orc looked back. “That Is for Me to Decide, Beast Man.”

“I see,” Rakna replied impassively. “Then, have fun.”

Before the green-skinned monster could understand his words, Sonata began to glow and fume because of what appeared to be a rapid release of heat. The Orc abruptly felt a burning pain and grimaced. A weak current of electricity was generated by the spear and its hand contracted against its will.

“What Is… This?!” It roared out and Sonata released one final burst of Eion energy. It almost was as if a small bomb had detonated and Rakna was forced to cover his eyes for a second. When the flash of light was over, he saw Sonata resting on the floor as a scarf while the Orc’s arm had been fried and hanged limp at its side.

“That’s why I told you to let go. The old man made Sonata so that it would only answer to my finger prints or DNA,” Rakna indifferently explained and the Orc glared at him. It couldn’t use its right arm anymore, but, without his weapon, its opponent wouldn’t be able to get the upper hand. At least, that’s what it believed.

Rakna took an unarmed stance and for the first time since he was summoned by the System, he truly stirred his reserves of mana. “Round two, big guy. [Call of Fangs].”

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A few moments earlier, the wolves had already started to advance into the goblins’ forces. They were definitely strong compared to them, but the sheer numerical difference didn’t allow for a lot of damage to be done. In the end, the wolves ended up becoming a very solid distraction, just like Rakna expected it to.

Dan looked at the gate of the school with a careful eye. “It should be fine now. Xiorra has managed to attract at least 80% of them.”

Leis nodded and turned toward everyone. “It’s now or never! Don’t loiter and run to the gym as fast as you can. The formation is as we decided earlier!”

“”Understood!””

Flavia and Allan stood amidst the gang with a smile. It was quite odd to be surrounded by a very obviously trained squad but it was quite a refreshing new experience.

“Good, let’s go. Gantt, you lead the way.”

When Leis finished giving his orders, Gantt began to rush toward the gate with his shield in front of him. The rest of the gang quickly followed and Allan and Flavia were the last to the go; meant to act as the rear guard.

The second they entered the school grounds, a group constituted of the few remaining goblins noticed them; rapidly followed by the many eagles on the rooftops. For some reason, the avian predators didn’t seem to be interested in the wolves in the slightest. But at the sight of a group of humans, they instantly flew off in their direction.

Dan clicked his tongue as he ran at the very front of their formation. “The eagles’ attention is way more focused than we expected! They will not attack directly, but it’s a matter of time. Be ready to intercept them!” He shouted to the group but more specifically, Flavia.

When they were going through their strategy earlier, she had told them of her ability. Among them, she probably was their best way of dealing with the eagles after their guns.

After hearing Dan’s warning, she glanced at the large birds gradually gathering together in the sky. Although it would tire her very fast, she could probably twist their neck fast enough so that they wouldn’t have the chance to attack. However, that would be a very short-lived resort.

After Dan shouted, he immediately accelerated and left the others behind. He was the fastest and he was sure going to make use of that advantage. He dashed past a small group of goblins and slashed the necks of three of them with a flick of his blade without slowing down in the slightest.

His job was to reduce the number of enemies on the path to the gym as well as making sure they could smoothly enter said building. As for the goblins that he dodged and could not kill, Gantt would be their next opponent who would then in turn give the ones he couldn’t take to Leis and Leia.

After that, the rest of the group would finish off any leftovers while the people at the back of the formation were to defend from both long-range and close-range sneak attacks. Exactly like how Allan caught an arrow with his gloved hand and Flavia made one return to its sender.

After two very smooth sailing minutes, they had gotten pretty close to their objective and a path littered with dead goblins laid behind them. But that was immediately broken when Dan arrived at the door of the gym. His eyes widened behind his glasses and he very quickly jumped back to dodge a spiked mace. He then watched as a hobgoblin came out of the gym through the broken door and cursed.

“Shit! This fucker must have taken this place for himself,” he muttered and used Scan. The grade of his skill was vastly different compared to Rakna’s but he still got the crucial information. This hobgoblin was at the same level as the other, but he had one or two additional attributes as well as better equipment.

Dan grunted and retreated while keeping an eye on the monster. Unfortunately, the hobgoblin didn’t seem to be keen on chasing him. ‘Bastard, he wants to stay there. Do these things have territorial tendencies?’

When he returned to the main group, he didn’t need to say anything as none of them were blind enough to see the hobgoblin since they weren’t that far. This was merely a schoolyard, after all, a high school on top of that. At best, the distance from the gate to the gym was around 500 hundred meters.

If it wasn’t for the fact that they couldn’t recklessly run into hostile territory, especially as a group, they would have reached their destination a lot faster. It was also a shame that their destination wasn’t closer to the borders of the school grounds. They could have taken the same approach as Rakna had if it was the case.

Then, when they thought that things couldn’t get any worse, the first eagle plunged in their direction. It was anticlimactically killed by Flavia with a flick of her wrist but the second soon came down, and the third, and the fourth…

“No choice,” Leis groaned. “Everyone, start using your firearms. Do not mind the ammunition and just shoot. Half of you, focus on the eagles, the rest come forward and shoot the hobgoblin as we approach. Miss Jeina, we’re counting on you,” he added and accelerated with the rest of the group and the sounds of gunshots echoed across the area.

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Meanwhile, when Rakna uttered the name of his skill, four puddles of darkness formed behind him and started bulging as the same number of figures emerged.

Four wolves; with midnight black fur that could probably become unseeable in the shadows and a pair of glowing red eyes. They all growled unanimously as they appeared and slowly stood on Rakna’s side, baring their fangs at the Orc.

The chieftain grimaced at the sight but calmly raised its saber with its remaining hand. At the same time, gunshots pierced the walls and reached their ears.

Rakna’s wolf ears twitched but he ignored it and focused on the status windows of his summoned wolves instead.