Dong! Dong!
With the resounding sound of metal striking a bell Chief Kalharn was forced back. Not by the first blow, he'd barely moved from that, but the second hidden blow had pushed him back when it struck him.
"Urgh," Chief Kalharn grunted before bursting out laughing. "Hahahahaha, this little pup is better than half the young ones in our tribe. It only took him one battle to figure out how to wield a hammer the right way."
Chief Kalharn glared at the younger members of the tribe.
"I've even explained how to use a hammer to all of you and very few of you seem to get it," he shouted at them.
They looked a little ashamed of their failure then their eyes lit up as the battle resumed.
Chief Kalharn's use of a hammer was so subtle that most of them couldn't see what was being done but Chronos wasn't nearly as skilled as the Chief was. If they watched him, maybe they could learn how to wield a hammer the right way.
Bang!
Chronos was pushed back again as he failed to block another blow.
Ever since Chief Kalharn let Chronos hit his chest the Chief had increased the pace of the fight. Even though the chief was limiting his strength to the third rank his pure physical ability surpassed Chronos's.
Chronos was certain now that he was going to lose this fight, but he still wanted to learn as much as he could from it.
After all, it wasn't like Chief Kalharn was actually trying to kill him. If he was then he was hitting all the wrong places as his blows avoided the head, heart, and other vital areas.
Kicking the back of Chief Kalharn's leg Chronos put some distance between them and reset his stance.
He focused on the feeling he had from the first double hammer blow trying to grasp the inspiration from that time. Unfortunately, Chief Kalharn wasn't about to give him time to remember.
With three long steps he was on Chronos again forcing him to catch and twist the Chiefs hammer to the side in order to avoid the double hammer blows. They seemed to be Chief Kalharn's specialty and were imbued into every strike.
They almost reminded Chronos of the [Shatter] aura skill that destroyed armor from the inside. But unlike [Shatter] this skill hid a second blow inside of the first making it several times more difficult to use.
If he didn't do it right the first blow would be as soft as air letting the enemy knock it aside or the second blow wouldn't have the destructive power to harm the enemy.
Dong! Ding!
Echoforge bounced off of Chief Kalharn's hammer again, uselessly flailing in the air.
"No, no, you had it the first time just do that again." Chief Kalharn roared as he swung the hammer down at Chronos again.
Bang!
Dodging it the hammer dented in the ground.
"I'm trying but I'm only at the skilled level of mastery with a hammer." Chronos roared right back at him.
Bong!
"Then do better." Chief Kalharn yelled while blocking another blow from Chronos.
The Chief wasn't dodging any of Chronos's blows, choosing to take them head on so that he could learn better. Which Chronos greatly appreciated as he could feel his mastery of hammers increase with every exchange.
He'd had this feeling twice before when mastering the sword and spear. He knew that if this went on for just a bit longer, he would reach the master rank in no time.
Then just as he was about to block another blow the whole world twisted.
"Shit." Chronos cursed.
As his vision cleared, he saw countless orc ghosts gathered around him. They were looking at him in confusion while Sariah and Lyla were saying something, but it sounded like they were trying to speak through water.
Gregory had rushed forward placing himself between Chief Kalharn and Chronos while the Chief just looked on in disappointment.
Chronos realized he must be in one of the spiritual layers.
Apparently, everyone could still see him even if they couldn't interact with him. Just like he could see them, but when he tried to reach out to touch Gregory's shoulder his hand just passed right through him.
Several orcs with strong spirits rushed toward him and started casting something, shamans Chronos realized, but his attention wasn't on them.
Above his head there were thousands of ghostlike figures flying towards a white mound in the center of the orcs camp.
"The white mound is the undead battle site. But what are they doing?" Chronos wondered.
Currently the ghosts were circling around the mound before diving into it. Then from the bottom of the mound something massive started moving.
Despite it not being the haunting hour Chronos got a very bad feeling from how the ghosts were acting.
He watched as the mound trembled then rose up and a massive bone claw broke through the top.
Not wanting them to be caught unawares Chronos yelled at them, "Behind you! Watch out for the claw!"
The others gave him strange looks as he waved his arms and shouted, clearly his voice was just as garbled to them as their voices were for him but luckily the chief seemed to get his message.
Looking towards the center of the camp past the walls, Chief Kalharn saw the massive claw reaching for the sky and shouted something at them.
Immediately the camp exploded with activity as every orc available from the oldest hunchbacked grandpas to the youngest children grabbed a weapon. Only those too weak to hold a weapon didn't jump when the Chief yelled at them.
As the Chief ran off to fight Chronos watched as a three eyed skull emerged from the ground after the clawed arm. Then the world twisted again and he was back.
"...Grab your weapons! Guard the walls don't let the bone lord escape the encirclement!" Chief Kalharn was shouting.
One of the shamans grabbed Chronos's shoulder, spinning him around to face him.
"What did you do?" He demanded.
"I didn't do anything. Something in the central mound suddenly attracted a lot of ghosts to it and then that thing popped out. What is it anyway?"
The shaman stared at him for a moment before choosing to believe him.
"It's a bone lord, a fourth rank monster that occasionally appears at powerful undead grounds."
Roar!
With an earth-shattering roar, the bone lord lifted its upper body out of the ground revealing that it had four arms not two and for the first time the shaman went pale.
"An upper-tier fourth rank bone lord!?" He gasped.
Opposite to him Chief Kalharn's grin practically split his face. It had been a long time since he had gotten to go all out.
"Great, how do we keep getting caught up in these things?" Gregory grumbled.