God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 743: Soul Collector (1).

After defeating the Stone Knight and resting for a bit, they resumed their journey towards the base of the distant mountain.

The terrain didn’t change for a while, but after a few hours, there were noticable differences.

For one, the coarse sand beneath their feet began to disappear, and was being replaced with solid ground.

There were also numerous boulders scattered around them, a completely different scene compared to when they had initially entered the tower.

Besides all that, there were numerous holes in the ground. It was unclear if they had been left there by a creature of some sorts, or natural processes.

These holes were not incredibly large, with the widest one around ten meters in width. However, each and every one of them was immeasurably deep.

And the closer they got, the more of these holes they encountered.

Still, they were not yet close enough to the mountain base as they could still see the mountain loming in the distance.

Very quickly, they encountered the first set of living beings in the second stage of the trial.

They were a group of five humanoids. They had grey skin and tusks growing out of their mouths.

***

{Highland Orc}.

***

Their grey skin was covered with numerous visible runes. Cain frowned when he noticed that most of these runes were physicality type runes meant to boost physical attributes and overall battle prowess.

The {Highland Orcs} were approaching the mountain from a different direction.. however, they paths would meet after a while.

Cain exchanged glances with Evangeline who had a suggestive look on her face.

He smiled, then slowly shook his head.

She rolled her eyes and shrugged, then continued to walk forward.

As they walked further, their path and that of the {Highland Orcs} got closer and closer.

Eventually, the grey-skinned, eight feet sighted them.

Cain immediately felt the hostility. He looked around,and saw that the other girls were a bit tense.

They finally reached a point where the distance between their group was just a few meters.

Cain glanced at the group of {Highland Orcs} again.

Their eyes were black, like midnight, and their bodies were burly and muscular.

They wielded crude weapons crafted from what looked to be obsidian and animal bones.

They completely towered over them, staring down at them as one would stare down on the deceased being lowered into the ground.

’They are rather confident, I’ll give them that...’

"Krogg, to think we would see humans here of all places." One of the Highland Orcs said, its large mouth widened, revealing the rest of its sharp teeth.

The one referred to as Krogg was lanky compared to its orcish counter parts. Krogg grinned,

"It is surprising, Kragni." It licked its lips as it continued,

"However, it is a pleasant surprise nonetheless."

Cain was surprised too.

He looked up at the nearly salivating Orcs and frowned,

"You lot are rather well spoken for a group of orcs."

The initial Orc that has spoken up, Kragni, thumped its chest,

"Of course we are. We are Highland Orcs, the most intelligent and handsome of the orcish race!"

"Kragni, the human meant that as an insult..." Another of the orcs said with a frown.

Cain couldn’t help but be surprised once more,

"Oh? Looks like you were right. At least one of you is the most intelligent orc I have ever met."

Cain had indeed met an orc before; the Chaos Orc he had battled alongside Evangeline was one of the most troublesome opponents he had ever faced.

However, compared to these Highland Orcs, the Chaos Orc fell a bit short in terms of both intelligence and strength.

Kragni, who he had identified to be the leader of this group of orcs narrowed its small, black eyes,

"No one dares insult the great Kragni of the Black Eye Clan!"

Krogg drew his weapon, which was a large machete with a wide cross section and jagged edges,

"Why do you insist on talking to the food all the time, Kragni?"

Kragni turned around...

The other orcs had already drawn their weapons.

Kragni frowned, "I have told you before, Krogg. We are Highland Orcs, not barbarians."

Then he turned around and stared down at Cain,

"However, I cannot forgive an insult. As punishment, you, human, shall be killed and devoured here, while your women shall be ravaged by us!"

The orcs let out howls and roars...

Cain nodded. Indeed, this group of orcs were quite different from what he had expected. He had expected them to be mindless, bloodthirsty, savage beasts that knew not but to wreck carnage and havoc.

That was the reputation of orcs.

Surprisingly, these orcs were rsther intelligent.

Yes, they were still incredibly bloodthirsty. But they were also crafty.

The orcs quickly moved to surround them.

Kragni sneered as he swung his enormous battle axe,

"On my home world, my clan has wiped away countless human settlements throughout the millennia. Countless of your brothers and sisters have fallen to the blade of my kin. However, you cannot blame us. Humans are weak. They are prey. They are food."

Cain snorted and retrieved the {Lonely Dragon} Warblade from his inventory. He didn’t have any words to say.

The orcs rushed at them, their eyes widened with excitement.

Orcs are creatures of war. Their blood boils with a weapon in their hands and their hearts beat with the tempo of war.

Kragni had not been exaggerating.

On his world, the humans had been nothing but more entertaining game to the orcs and other stronger creatures. After defeating the Devils, prosperity had reigned for a thousand years.

After that, the humans had tried to start a revolution that would unite all the races under one banner; their own.

Very quickly, their revolution was destroyed and they were pushed to the bottom of the hierarchy, devolving into mere prey for the greater races.

Humans and beings like them were mere game.

As he gazed down at this human, Kragni suddenly frowned. Continue your journey on novelbuddy

This long-haired human human had horns.

Kragni wasn’t the smartest of orcs, but he had eaten enough humans to know that they generally didn’t come with horns. He also didn’t smell very human.

Staring into the cold, black eyes of the man standing in front of him, Kragni was filled with doubt.

He couldn’t see any fear in the man’s eyes. Most humans he had encountered, even the bravest warriors, would cower in his presence, knowing that their fate was sealed. They were destined to be consumed by him, the greater species.

But this human...

No, it was not just this human.

The entire group of humans, felt no fear towards him and his men, the most ferocious warriors of the Black Eye Orc Clan.

It was unheard of.

Kragni grinned ferociously,

"Come, human! Show me what you can do!"

The world rumbled Atlas his weapon fell towards the human’s head.

BANG!

Cain coldly stared into the orcs black eyes.

Kragni snarled and swung his axe again diagonally upwards.

Cain tilted his body and dodged it. Then he swung the {Lonely Dragon} at the orc’s neck, forcing it to jump back.

It was a five on five battle. The orcs were ferocious monsters, swinging their weapons with wild abandon.

Cain followed up with a sweeping cut which Kragni blocked by swatting it away with the bone shaft of his axe.

Suddenly, a viscous red energy enveloped his hand, and with a furious roar smashed it towards Cain’s head.

Cain’s eyes widened,

’Ki Fire?!’

Jerking his head back, he dodged with just an inch to spare.

Then, he spun on his heel, planted his legs into the ground and cut at the orc’s exposed side.

Since the orc has over committed to the punch, it was unable to guard against the sword strike.

There was the sound of steel striking steel.

Much to Cain’s surprise, his sword failed to do any damage. The runes on Kragni’s body lit up and a shield consisting of individual hexagonal patterns appeared an inch above his skin.

Cain frowned and leapt back, dodging another axe swing.

Kragni grinned as he stared at Cain,

"Not bad at all, human!"

A fire was lit up in the orc’s brutish heart.

He lunged forward.

Cain remained in place.

Kragni kicked against the ground, leaving a crater behind. Lifting his axe overhead, he prepared to strike down.

Cain let the Demon Matter and Ki flow into his sword.

’Demon Dragon.’

Plumes of dark and red streaks of energy undulated out of the warblade like billowing flames.

He also activated the flame enchantment of {Burning Spirit}, multiplying his attack power exponentially.

Kragni let his Ki flow out of his body and into his weapon, and like a boulder, came crashing down on the smaller human.

There was a miniature explosion, and the ground was blasted into pieces.

The head and the handle of the axe flew in two different directions, with one of Kragni’s severed arms still gripping tightly onto the shaft of the axe.

The Highland Orc fell to its knees, clutching the bleeding stump left behind, its eyes were wide open and veins furiously popped out on his forehead as he struggled to fight the pain.

"How..."

Cain stepped calmly towards the hunched over orc and placed the edge of his blade against its neck,

"You made two mistakes, the first was thinking your defensive runes would save you. Second was even encountering me in the first place."

Cain casually glanced around. The battle was already rounding up,band as expected, none of the girls had disappointed.

Turning back to his own defeated opponent, he couldn’t help but ask curiously,

"You said there are humans in your home planet?"

Kragni looked up. Around him, all his men had already fallen. The battle had taken gone on for less than a minute and they were already defeated.

The Highland Orc shook. He looked up at the black haired human— no, this was no human. Not in the slightest.

He growled, "You are no human! You are a Demon!"

Cain raised a brow in surprise,

"You really aren’t smart. To think it would take you this long to figure that out."

Kragni let out a roar and activated his clan’s signature ki technique, {Fire of Rage}.

The crimson flames enveloped his fist remaining fist. He punched forward, but his fist met nothing but air.

His eyes widened.

Then the glow of life in his eyes faded.

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A bloody flower blossomed from his neck as his head fell to the ground.

He was dead.

Cain sighed then lightly shook his sword, causing speckles of blood to fly off.