Chapter 140 :

Chapter 140 - Result

It is often said that momentum determines the victor in a fight.

I agreed with that to a certain extent.

But that only applied to a one-on-one fight.

Once it became one against many, the likelihood of it having any effect dropped drastically.

Even if the leader defeated me like this, he would die unless someone helped him.

Confidence was not some kind of drug. There was no way confidence alone could produce enough power to deal with the remaining orcs.

The leader did not look foolish enough to fail at such a simple calculation.

“Kweeek!!! Die!!!”

Had I evaluated the bastard too generously?

I stepped aside to avoid the leader as he naturally charged at my neck.

The sound of wind created by the bastard’s rusted sword brushed past my ear along with the air pressure.

As if he did not want to drag this out any longer, the leader continued attacking without pause.

Every movement was packed with strength, and I could feel the bastard’s powerful determination to use this opportunity to cut off my head.

Judging by his grim expression and tightly clenched teeth, it also seemed that he had accumulated quite a lot of resentment against me.

Avoiding the leader’s attacks was not particularly difficult.

Compared to Ratel or Jing, his attack patterns were extremely simple, and unlike the other orcs, I would not be overwhelmed by his momentum from the start.

It also helped that his attack speed had noticeably slowed after the third strike.

The problem was that the other orcs had also noticed the leader’s breathing beginning to fall apart.

The remaining orcs, who had briefly retreated before the leader’s fierce attacks, slowly approached within my field of vision.

After avoiding the leader’s sword as it stubbornly flew toward my neck, I deliberately created a wide distance between us and stepped backward toward the orcs.

The bastards who had been preparing to attack the leader moved aside to avoid me.

However, there was no way this could last for long.

If the leader’s movements became any slower, the three orcs would no longer have any reason to hesitate.

The leader’s appearance had already ruined many things.

The plan to neatly push all three orcs into the pit had fallen apart, and the opportunity to test the dimwit had disappeared as well.

In the first place, one reason the bastard was reacting so excessively was probably because he was conscious of the dimwit watching him.

Had the resentment from suffering so many humiliations in front of the dimwit finally exploded like this?

Even if the dimwit saw him acting this way, there was no chance he would recover the dignity he once held as the leader.

Well, even if that were possible, I could no longer allow this spectacle to continue.

It was time to stop the leader’s bluff-filled struggle.

It was unfortunate for the excited bastard, but my purpose from the beginning had been to send those three orcs far away.

If I pushed them into the pit as originally planned, everything would be over.

After confirming that the bastards were following the leader and me closely, I glanced toward the entrance of the pit from the original work.

Then I felt the back of my neck turn cold at the presence of someone I had not expected.

It was the dimwit.

The dimwit was standing perfectly still at the exact destination toward which I was leading the three orcs.

A curse naturally rose in my throat.

Why are you standing there?

Just as I had expected, the dimwit seemed completely uninterested in the leader’s fight and merely stared at the ground as though entranced.

Whether the bastard looked at the leader with admiration or gave him no more attention than a passing dog did not matter.

What mattered was where the bastard was currently standing.

More importantly, he had made a decision while I had briefly looked away.

More importantly still, despite the fifty-percent chance, the bastard had chosen the losing option.

If he fell down there, we would return to the starting point with our destination right in front of us.

I urgently twisted my body to grab the dimwit.

However, I could not even touch him with my fingertips.

With only a few steps remaining, the leader’s sword cut in from behind, passing beside my shoulder.

Thanks to instinctively changing direction the moment I felt pain, my arm was not severed, but the rusted sword finally succeeded in staining itself with my blood.

The pain felt as if I had been burned, but the wound soon healed.

“Kweeek!! Next time, I’ll cut off your head!!”

The thoroughly excited bastard shouted.

Watching that triumphant face caused my irritation to rise.

What was so special about that boss position that he obsessed over it like this?

After taking a moment to catch my breath with a sigh, I turned around and began running.

“Kweeek!!! Running is useless!!”

Perhaps certain of his victory when I showed him my back, the bastard began chasing me.

Could that bastard not see anything else?

While I distracted the leader, the orcs who had been waiting for an opportunity were approaching him.

Did he not understand that even if he cut off my head, he could not deal with those alone?

When I bent at the waist to avoid the leader’s sword flying from behind, he immediately followed it with a kick.

Thanks to that, I avoided his attack by rolling forward, then raised my head and checked the dimwit again.

Perhaps something had attracted him, or maybe his curiosity had simply been triggered, because the bastard had pushed half of his body into the pit with a vacant expression.

Even if I kept running, there was no way I could reach him before he fell.

When I stopped and quietly sat on the ground, the leader snorted, certain of his victory.

I shifted my gaze over the bastard’s shoulder.

The orcs charged at the leader without missing their opportunity, and behind them, I saw Ratel.

As though he intended to keep his promise to remain still, he stood there annoyingly with his arms crossed.

Judging by his unpleasant expression, perhaps he was once again waiting for me to ask him to save me.

If he intended to take my side in the fight against the leader, I appreciated it, but the help I currently needed was not assistance defeating one senile orc.

I urgently opened my mouth.

“Kweeek, Ratel, pull the dimwit out!”

With my shout toward Ratel, the positions of the leader and me were reversed.

With frightening speed, the orcs’ gazes turned toward me.

The wariness directed at a mere stranger and the killing intent directed at an enemy who had to die possessed entirely different weights.

Greed, appetite, and a hint of confusion mixed within their gleaming eyes.

They seemed unable to decide whom to attack, torn between the instinct telling them to devour me and the appearance of a talking orc who was not their original leader.

To help them make their choice, I spoke again.

“Kweeek, what are you doing?!”

Ratel had been approaching me, but at my urging, he furrowed his brow and stopped.

You said you would do as I told you this time, didn’t you?

When I pressed him with my eyes, the bastard let out a quiet sigh.

Perhaps deciding to keep his word, Ratel turned around.

In the meantime, the dimwit had already disappeared into the pit.

How far had he sunk?

Just as I thought that if he had sunk to an awkward depth, it might be easier to let him reach the bottom—

Ratel arrived at the pit and reached inside without hesitation.

He shoved his arm in until his face nearly touched the ground, then forcefully pulled his body backward.

“Kweeek...! Puhah!!”

The thoroughly dunked dimwit rose back up, gasping for breath.

Ratel frowned and shoved the bastard aside as if throwing him away while he spat out water.

Fortunately, the leader did not notice Ratel’s abnormal monstrous strength.

It was because one of the three orcs that had approached had grabbed onto the leader.

The leader who had clung to me, and the three orcs who had charged at that bastard, became tangled together and frantically tried to claw and bite one another.

I had briefly forgotten it while traveling with the leader, but those bastards were monsters.

They were no different from savage beasts.

No, they possessed even more vicious tendencies than beasts.

The unfortunate part was that I was not free from that chaotic brawl either.

Swallowing a sigh, I tore one of the three bastards off the leader.

The orc, without so much as a trace of reason remaining, snapped at me as if it no longer cared who its opponent was.

Before the bastard’s teeth could reach me, I hurled it aside.

However, the bastard that had been thrown onto the ground rose again without showing any exhaustion and prepared to charge.

I kicked its jaw once more to prevent it from rising, then grabbed the leader by the back of the neck, lifted him, and created distance from the others.

“Kweeek!!!”

Just like the other orcs, the bastard bared his teeth at me, but after I struck him across the head once, he seemed to regain a little sense.

“Kweeek, get ahold of yourself. Kweeek, unless you want to die here with the dimwit.”

The leader, whose jaw had been knocked aside, blinked several times and looked back and forth between me, Ratel, and the dimwit.

When the bastard relaxed his body, he became much easier to drag, and I increased my speed toward Ratel and the dimwit.

When Ratel’s eyes met mine as I ran with a tail of pursuers behind me, he raised his eyebrows.

What are you going to do now?

Along with that silent question, his eyes contained the fairly tempting suggestion that perhaps we should simply kill all three bastards here.

Instead of nodding, I pointed with my chin toward the side that was not the losing choice.

“Kweeek, there’s an entrance on the right! Kweeek, take the dimwit inside!”

Ratel looked down at the pit opposite the one the dimwit had tried to enter.

It likewise boasted such a dark color that its depth could not be measured.

“Kweeek, there’s no chance you’ll drown, so stop worrying and just go inside! Kweeek, I know how to swim!!”

Ratel frowned as though displeased by my urging.

“I won’t drown even without help from someone like you.”

As if proving his words, Ratel dragged the dimwit and stepped into the pit.

“Kweeek!!”

The dimwit, being dragged into the pit while caught by Ratel, cried out as if demanding that his opinion be heard too, but it did not last long.

After taking one deep breath, Ratel gave the dimwit no time to prepare and jumped directly into the pit.

After confirming that Ratel and the dimwit were sinking, I stopped while breathing heavily.

“Kweeek!! I can enter by myself, so let go of me!!”

Perhaps having given up on killing me, the leader struggled to tear away the arm holding him.

I looked down at the bastard.

“Kweeek, no. You have to go with me.”

“Kwee, kweeek, what does that mean?”

“Kweeek, what are you doing? Hold your breath.”

“Kweeek, I asked what that means!”

Anxiety entered the bastard’s voice when he felt my grip tighten around his neck.

What did he mean, what did it mean?

It meant that you and I had drawn the losing choice.

Before the leader could begin struggling again, I dragged the bastard with me and threw myself into the deep, dark pit.

“Kweeeeeek!!! You insane...!!”

The leader’s scream was a little noisy, but it soon changed into the sound of bubbles beneath the water, so it did not matter.

Thanks to that, I could clearly hear the three splashing sounds that followed.

After confirming that the three orcs had followed the leader and me down, I held the leader firmly and sank deeper.

Deeper still.

Toward the place where the predetermined perilous path awaited us.