With Hell Cock chasin’ the few remainin’ goblins away from our cluster I steered the drake clone towards the humanoid army hopin’ they were another cluster we could join forces with. As I neared it became clear that was not the case. I couldn’t believe my eyes: Orcs! Actual Orcs! Men and women, both were tall and varied in skin tone between the more common earth tones such as tan, green, brown, but here and there I noticed a few rare splashes of brighter, colorful skin tones such as pink, blue, teal, purple, crimson etc. The females were lean in comparison to their male counterparts and yet still looked like they could wrestle a bear to a draw. Where the male orcs had massive tusks and hideously blocky, hulked up frames, the females tusks barely protruded above their upper lips and they carried enough softness about their hips and chest to lend them a striking femininity. I’d never considered Orc females in fantasy content to be particularly attractive, but seeing some of them in person was swaying me. The orcs were covered in simple yet sturdy metal armor.

  A rough estimation put the orc’s number at around five-hundred.

  I used Inspect on the orcs standin’ in the front lines, most were around level 100 and Rank E. A third of them were as high as 150, still Rank E. A trio standing in front of the horde were in the low 300 range and Rank C.

  These were no pushovers, but still it made me wonder what level you had to acquire to be considered Rank A or S. Is Rank SS a thing? 100 levels per rank perhaps?

  The entire force stopped as one as I landed a football field away and dismounted. I left the drake clone there and approached the Orcs on foot. I didn’t know what to expect from this encounter, but if things went south I’d beat a hasty retreat.

  As I got within twenty feet the largest male from the Rank trio stepped forward and spoke, “Have you come to challenge Rekzas for the right to claim the tower human?” The orc stood at least eight feet tall and likely outweighed me. His face was contorted with contempt.

  Wondering why the orcs hadn’t claimed it before now, a thought occurred to me. Had the tower’s arrival coincided with the arrival of our cluster? Did a tower spawn next to each cluster from Earth? Questions for another time. Right now I had a hostile lookin’ orc to deal with.

  “Did y'all see that big ass chicken?” I asked, tryin’ to buy some time to come up with a plan.

  “Master, is he a bad guy?” my Blood Fairy whispered in my ear, loud enough for Rekzas to hear. “Want me to kill him for you?”

  I gestured for her to shoosh.

  Luckily the big orc ignored my A.I. companion, lookin’ surprised by my earlier question, he asked, “You saw the noble Hell Cock?”

  I nodded and pointed behind me with a thumb. “He’s chasin’ down the last dregs of a goblin tribe. Prolly done by now as fast as he is. Hey, what’s the deal with him anyway? How does a monster have a title?”

  A solemn look entered Rekzas’s face. “Three generations ago, one of our youngling hunters bonded him as a pet against the wishes of the elders. Typically the younglings are guided to bond animals that start out stronger such as direwolves, bears or long tooths, but he disobeyed. The bonding could not be reversed, and when it came time for the young hunter to go out into the wild and test himself he perished to a roaming band of goblins. The bonded chicken was tiny at that time yet somehow survived, never forgetting his master and never forgiving the goblins. It is said that he set out on a crusade to eradicate the goblin species. His crusade and determination garnered the attention of the system, he was rewarded with the title of Goblin Bane. However, goblins live underground and breed like rats making his crusade hopeless. Unless provoked, Hell Cock only slays goblins and goblins are weak, which has caused his strength to plateau many years ago. Enough stalling human. Do you intend to challenge Rekzas?”

  “Fine! I challenge you to a duel of passion!” I declared boldly, aimin’ to delay a confrontation. It wouldn’t be too much longer until Trojanus was fully restored and I could deploy it as one of my biggest trump cards. “If I can outlast you with one of your warrior women back there then I win.”

  “You would dare sully the honor of one of our females?!” Rekzas roared, veins bulgin’ on his neck and face. “None of them would lower themselves enough to sleep with a filthy pig like you!”

  A beautiful pale blue orc female stepped forward, eyeing me with bold interest. “I’ll volunteer sir!”

  “Master! You don’t need her!” my blood fairy exclaimed, lookin’ affronted. “I’ll serve you in that manner!”

  I gave the fairy a long, confused look. She was pretty enough, but only a foot-tall. How would that even work? I turned to the pretty orc wearin’ a rakish grin and gave her a wink.

  “No! A battle to the death,” Rekzas snarled.

  “Surely you don’t expect a level one to fight one with a high level such as yourself?”

  Rekzas looked at me anew and I felt a subtle energy wash over me. “How does a level one ride a drake of Rank C?”

  Had he been so confident of victory upon seein’ me that he hadn’t even inspected me? How rude. I could have tried further delay tactics but it wouldn’t gain me much judgin’ by Rekzas’s expression and firm grip on the hilt of his sheathed sword.

  “I’ve got an alternative path of growth, but I’m no match for you. Let me check my level equivalency,” I said before openin’ my status page. I noticed an option to display advanced stat options and selected it. It showed my boosted stats plus those added by flat and percentage based gains from gear and titles. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes!

  Life Stored: 10,082 years.

  Fantasy Stat boosts base Health and Mana by +10% per 10 Fantasy.

  Blackened Greatsword of the Opalescent Drake: +10 to Strength, Constitution, Agility, Dexterity, Perception, Willpower and Soul. +10% to all stats. +10% to Physical and Magical protection.

  Portable Dungeon: Drake Nesting Grounds: +20% to all stats. +20% to all resistances.

  Opalescent Forest Drake Hooded Cloak: +10 to Strength, Constitution, Agility, Dexterity, Perception, Willpower and Fantasy. +10% to all stats.

  Tusker’s Exaggerated Codpiece: +5 to Strength, +15 to Constitution and +5 to Fantasy. +1 to Luck and Charisma for every 2 Fantasy stat. Caps at +50 Luck and Charisma.

  Obsidian Spiked-Plate Shroud: +10 Strength, +10 Constitution and +10 Agility.

  A.I. Blood Fairy: (Titan Race Only): +15% to all stats. +15% to all resistances. Health Regeneration: +20% total health over 10 minutes. Mana Regeneration: +30% total mana over 10 minutes.

  Crown of Aeonic Dominion: +30 to all stats excluding Fantasy. +20 Fantasy. +10% to all resistances.

  Title: Punching Above Your Weight: +4 to all base stats. +4% to all stats with a minimum gain of +1 at 1%+.]

  The level equivalency placed me at 146 when Battle Form was active, which it wasn’t at the moment.

  “I’m level 146 basically,” I declared. “Let me fight someone close to that.”

  Rekzas laughed heartily and others nearby joined in. “Are you the strongest of your people?”

  “I am the strongest, but we’ve only recently been integrated into this world. Give me a year and I’ll fight you, Rekzas. Otherwise, I’ll fight someone my level now. Or, there is another option; we could share access to the tower.”

  Rekzas gazed at me thoughtfully for a long moment before speakin’, “No. Fight me. If you manage to impress me I’ll consider an alliance for the tower.”

  “Agreed!” I said happily, approachin’ Rekzas to shake his hand.

  Rekzas stared at my hand, puzzled.

  “It’s how we make deals where I come from. Just grasp it firmly and give it a shake.”

  Rekzas nodded and took my hand with a rock-crushin’ grip. I nearly grimaced but held it in, not wantin’ to show any weakness. The orc seemed pleased my hand had held up durin’ the exchange. Rekzas gestured for his warriors to form a ring around us and they spread out in a seventy-five foot circle.

  “I’ll attempt to limit myself to level 150.” Rekzas said.

  I whipped out my sword and activated Battle Form, the five-year life cost seemin’ insignificant at this point.

  “I feel like I should warn you,” I said. “My sword’s effect on hit is fairly potent.”

  Rekzas guffawed. “You will have to hit me first.”

  I ordered my blood fairy to not interfere and without wastin’ any time I activated Lightning Rail to teleport through Rekzas and attack the orc from behind. I reappeared behind the man, err, orc, leavin’ the afterimage from the blindin’ stream of lightnin’ that instantaneously carried me here.

  If Rekzas had been stunned by the lightnin’ he didn’t show it as he was quick enough to spin and catch my sweeping sword strike with his own weapon. My attack did at least force him back a step, which surprised both of us.

  My mana was essentially endless considerin’ Lightning Rail’s low cost so I kept it on cooldown, reactivatin’ it as soon as the 1-second timer ended to try and surprise Rekzas from various angles. I learned I could mentally alter the direction I’d face when exitin’ the lightnin’ transformation, reducin’ the amount of time the orc had to react to me, but the orc blocked every attack as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

  My current stratagem failin’, I was about to change it up when Rekzas unleashed a series of viper-quick attacks from various angles. I blocked all except one which scored a bone deep gash on my bicep causin’ the muscle to lose partial function. My bodies surgin’ lifeforce started sealin’ the wound up immediately as I backpedaled, defendin’ myself as best as I could. The orc’s every blow drove me backwards and I struggled to keep my feet.

  “That’ll save the healers some effort,” Rekzas said, noticin’ my healin’ and continuin’ his assault. “Let’s see how long you can keep that up.”

  I grinned and activated the Facets that weren’t actively controllin’ a clone, six in total were available. One Facet watched Rekzas’s movement, tryin’ to predict and react to his attacks. My second Facet I focused solely on lookin’ for opportunities to use Battle Forms bone morphing function to attempt sneak attacks or to pierce the ground around me should I need to anchor myself in place or secure my footing. A third Facet I handed control of my Lightning Rail and Furious Dash abilities. If I had more useful abilities it might make this fight a bit more even. Rekzas hadn’t even used a single ability yet and he was effortlessly keepin’ me in defense mode with no time to attack.

  I struggled to think of further delegation that would be beneficial so I put the remainin’ three in overwatch; observin’ the overall duel and calculatin’ various scenarios and potential paths to victory, as slim as those odds likely were. My Facets felt like a mini hivemind at work, sharin’ information seamlessly so none of them were trippin’ over the feet of another’s actions.

  I needed to change the tempo of the battle. Furious Dash’s 30 second cooldown was long, but if timed right it might be possible to surprise Rekzas with it. Havin’ so many Facets focused on the fight was aidin’ my defensive efforts; instead of takin’ hits head on with my sword and gettin’ knocked back, I dodged some attacks and used my sword to alter the trajectory of others, eventually givin’ me the chance I was lookin’ for. Overextended from a heavy swing, Rekzas failed to recover in time as I activated Furious Dash to rush the orc and tackle him. Two empowered steps burst me forwards slammin’ into his stomach before we flew backwards towards the ring of orcs. The orcs caught us and let us fall and fight there, then backed up to not disturb the fight.

  We both had lost hold of our weapons. The duel turned into a grapplin’ and brawlin’ match as we rolled about, punchin’ and clawin’ each other. It took some effort but I got my arms around his torso, clasped my hands behind his back and suplexed his big ass head first into the ground! Lengthenin’ multiple black, bone blades out from my shoulders I encircled his neck in them.

  Rekzas, understandin’ the situation he was in, nodded gruffly and conceded defeat with grace. “I underestimated you. With my full power I could defend myself from that odd technique, but that would go against the purpose of the fight.”

  I lended the orc a hand, gettin’ him to his feet. “So, allies?” The bone blades slowly and painfully returned to my skeleton and the wounds zipped shut.

  “I suppose so,” Rekzas said. “There is no limit to how many can enter the tower so there is no harm in it. Now we just need to build a settlement somewhere close to it. Judging by the mana gathering over there, your people must be using a system-based solution to that problem. You got lucky to find one so fast, construction-type plans are rare indeed.”

  I slapped my hand down on the orcs shoulder and pointed him toward my drake clone. “I have some ideas in mind for your housin’ problem. Let’s take a ride and I’ll show you.”

  real conflict but this is just what the muse delivered to me.