- Oliver -

  "Fuck! We're out of tact." Auro the group, announg the problem.

  "What do you mean, no tact?" Isabe asked.

  "You try sending the location, too," An replied.

  Rescue request sent ?? [ERROR] No unication received [ERROR] ??"N-no way," she said in a low voice.

  "Could it be the blizzard they mentioned?" An asked.

  "But whe here, there was no sign of a blizzard on the horizon," Oliver recalled.

  Katherine finished wiping away her tears aivated her armor's helmet.

  The four remained silent, trying to think of a solution until Katherine decided to speak her mind. "I think we o move forward."

  "B-but they're Orks," Isabe ented.

  "Even so, sitting here won't help. We don't know what's happening up there, but we won't be rescued anytime soon," she expined. "Until then, we could be discovered by the Orks. We at least use the fact that they don't know we're here to keep moving forward."

  They spent a few more seds in silence, getting used to the possible decision of having to face or at least infiltrate an Ork base.

  "They must have some stairs or a. Some way to receive supplies," Oliver ented. "Maybe this is our ce."

  "Besides, gray-skinned Orks are the weakest. It's quite possible we hahem if we're well-prepared," An expined, although he didn't quite believe his own words.

  "Right," Oliver firmed. "Let's start by gathering more information. The four of us will advao the chamber, but no one should engage in any fights for now. We o uand how these structures work, how we get in and out, and how many enemies are ahead."

  The others nodded, firming the orders.

  The four advao the chamber, sneakiween the huge rocks on the ground. They walked between each rotil they were close to the structures. Now closer, they could see the stru better.

  Looking up, they could barely see the ceiling. The structure looked like two towers of bck stone aal in the heart of an underground chasm. Around it were two rivers of va, with a stone bridge leading to the entrance.

  Both structures' entrances sisted of two huge doors. However, both were open, guarded only by two Gray Orks patrolling in front of the building.

  "Shouldn't there be more of them?" Katherine questioned.

  "There weren't any at the excavatioher," Isabe ented.

  "Maybe they're not here?" An wondered.

  "We'll find out," Oliver replied.

  The four waited a few minutes, the movements, w whether the Orks would patrol elsewhere or be repced by others. However, no matter how long they waited, there didn't seem to be any ge.

  "Maybe they're alone?" Oliver mused. "They're not ging guards or patrolling other areas."

  "We o get past them," Isabe said.

  "Yes. But there's o hide," An noted.

  "We'll o attack them," Katherine suggested.

  "But it 't be that simple. We 't alert them; we don't know what they do or what's inside," Oliver said.

  "Hmm," Katherine pondered.

  "We have to split up and try to attack both simultaneously. A siack that removes their ce to alert others without making noise," Oliver expined.

  "I think I do it using the [Blood Rose]," Katherine said.

  Before deg orategy, Oliver looked at the Orks again.

  [Observation]

  The Boon made his vision turn bd white again, and he could see each oppo's attad defehreads.

  "Hmm, they're Orks, but they seem weak. They're Pawn-level," he informed the others.

  Although Pawn-level didn't indicate their absolute strength, it helped them uand that these weren't among the stro and most evolved Orks, which was encing.

  Oliver tinued, "I have a way to elimihe other one," pausing before asking, "Is the chat w?"

  An looked at his gau aed it; he could unicate with the others but couldn't speak on els with people outside the cave.

  "Only among us," he firmed.

  "Alright. We'll get closer—An, Katherine, Isabe, and me. Each group should hide among the rocks," Oliver poio the stones where they should position themselves. "Before ung the attack, everyone will prepare. Isabe and An will unicate via chat to determihe moment to strike."

  The three nodded in uanding.

  "Okay. Let's go, and good luck," Oliver said before moving to the rock.

  The two newly formed groups moved betweeones, advang quickly but carefully to avoid being seen. Sihere were nuards except the two at the doors, they had no difficulty crossing the field ahead.

  Even crossing the stone bridge was simple, except for the heat emanating from the bubbling va just a few meters away.

  The Orks tiaring into the horizon. Oliver didn't know much about the enemies' anatomy, but they seemed buarding the gates.

  'I'll relieve your boredom, don't worry,' he thought as he kept moving.

  Oliver and An positiohemselves he Ork on the left. They were still a few meters away, but from there, they wouldn't have any more cover to hide.

  On the right were Katherine and Isabe, both crouched a few meters from the Ork. While Katherine trated and enveloped her sword with her blood, Oliver focused orag the Energy from his Z-Crystal, eling it into his feet and fist.

  'Less. It o be much less than in the Coliseum fight. I 't end up with a broken arm,' he tried to adjust the teique to avoid hurting himself too much. 'I'm not Nico; I 't regee if this goes wrong.'

  With both ready, they waited for the signal to advance.

  els

  - Exam1Group [4] [Private]

  Exam1Group [AquiAn] On go we attabsp;[AquiAn] 3 [AquiAn] 2 [AquiAn] 1 [AquiAn] Go!

  An and Isabe tapped their respective partners on the shoulder as soon as the message was sent.

  Katherine used two jets of blood to accelerate her advaoward the Ork. Both Orks were still looking bored when they saw the girl. However, they didn't have time to react; she was already upon them. With a leap, she reached the monster's height and thrust her sword. In the movement, several spikes made of blood erupted from the Ork's head.

  While Katherine finished off the first oppo, Oliver activated his ability [Prometheus].

  He felt the Energy burning his skin and bones, but he told himself it would be a quick move and that he'd deactivate it soon.

  An could grasp the basis of his friend's teique. He had been studying Energy bat, and there were some simir teiques, but all of them were forbidden to be taught at the Academy.

  'Where did he learn this?' An wondered.

  Oliver used all the enharength from [Prometheus] to leap several meters ahead, appearing in front of the Ork in the blink of ahe monster was still focused on Katherine's appearand didn't notieone in front of him at eye level.

  Oliver's leap made a perfect arc, allowing him to nd a pun the side of the creature's head. The force was so great that he dragged the moo the ground, creating a crater in the Ork's face.

  Thump

  Except for the sound of bodies hitting the ground, there was no other indication that they had been discovered.

  Oliver quickly deactivated his teique to avoid further injury. However, he could already feel the impa his deeply ag knees and hand, raw uhe armor.

  Katherine was faring a bit better; although she'd lost blood, she could recover it after some rest.

  Both signaled for An and Isabe to move forward.

  "Let's push the Orks into the va; if any others show up, they'll just notice the guards are missing," Oliver suggested.

  Although killing them had been simple, dragging the two heavy bodies to the va rivers was more plicated, requiring all four of them for eae. After pushing them into the va, except for the bloodstains, it would be hard to tell that the two Orks had been killed.

  "Be careful," Oliver warned as they passed through the building's entrance.

  The four resumed moving slowly, paying attention to each step to avoid any sound that might alert enemies. As they crossed the rge door, they saw a massive staircase leading to what seemed to be the top of the tower.

  The group felt hopeful again; there still didn't seem to be any Orks in sight, and they could see a bit of light ing from outside the tower.

  To avoid making any noise, Oliver poio the staircase and signaled for them to follow. They began asding slowly, careful not to make any noise. However, they noticed a room with an open door he sed floor.

  "Help! HELP! Someone help me."

  They heard the screams. The four didn't want to risk increasing the dahey were already in, but they least to see what was happening so they could report it to the aer.

  Oliver stepped away from the staircase and approached the door, opening it just enough to peek inside.

  “Is that a b?"

  GCLopes