Translator: AnubisTL
Jieming signaled, and Amy and Victor swiftly concealed themselves in the bushes on either side, ready to strike.
Their mission was to eliminate any survivors who might escape, while Jieming would lead the main assault.
Jieming took a deep breath, crouching slightly like a cheetah poised to pounce.
"Begin!"
The ten rune-imbued magical artifacts on his wrist activated instantly, blooming like flowers.
In the next instant, a torrent of energy bullets erupted forth!
The relentless barrage of energy spheres streaked through the air, leaving blurred afterimages like the scythe of death.
The Elite Orcs simultaneously snapped their heads up, their primal combat instincts alerting them to the imminent danger.
One warrior's face contorted in shock as he opened his mouth to shout a warning. But before the sound could escape his throat, an energy bullet pierced his windpipe with pinpoint accuracy.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
The energy bullets struck vital points with surgical precision: joints, throats, chests.
They pierced through the orcs' leather armor and their vaunted resilient flesh as easily as piercing paper.
In the blink of an eye, the battle was over.
Amy and Victor stared in stunned silence. They had braced themselves for a fierce battle, only to find it over before they could even strike.
At least they weren't completely denied a chance to act.
As Jieming's assault ended, two Elite Orcs, their bodies riddled with wounds, suddenly lunged to their feet, attempting to flee into the depths of the forest.
Despite their bodies being riddled with holes like sieves, they displayed terrifying agility.
Even Jieming couldn't help but marvel at their terrifying vitality.
But Amy and Victor reacted swiftly.
The moment the orcs turned to flee, Amy raised her hand, and several fireballs, guided with uncanny precision, slammed into the orcs' bodies.
To minimize noise, the fireballs didn't explode on impact. Instead, they transformed into tendrils of flame that burrowed into the orcs' bodies, instantly incinerating their internal organs.
Victor took a more direct approach. Several razor-sharp wind blades, like invisible razors, sliced through the orcs' necks in an instant, sending their massive heads flying into the air.
Amy and Victor quickly mopped up any remaining survivors, ensuring no one escaped.
As the aftershocks of the energy bullets dissipated, the scene before the shrine had been utterly transformed.
Except for the dying shaman Jieming had deliberately spared, all the Elite Orcs lay lifeless on the ground, their bodies riddled with tiny yet fatal bullet holes.
The green crystal atop the shrine dimmed, as if shaken by the disruption at its source of faith.
Jieming strode past the gasping shaman without so much as a glance.
The shaman's eyes were filled with terror and confusion. He couldn't comprehend how he and his elite warriors had been slaughtered without even a chance to resist by these suddenly appearing "demons."
Ignoring him, Jieming swiftly inscribed several special runes on the shrine.
These runes burrowed deep into the shrine's interior like bloodsucking tendrils, frantically draining its energy core.
Soon, the last glimmer of light faded from the crystal atop the shrine, leaving it a mere ordinary stone.
Boom...
With its supporting energy gone, the shrine let out a muffled groan before collapsing into rubble.
"We did it!" Victor whispered excitedly, barely suppressing his shout.
Joy lit Amy's eyes as well, but she wasted no time. She quickly approached the dying shaman and drew her spell artifact.
Deep within the forest, Jieming, Amy, and Victor moved like three phantoms, darting swiftly through the dense undergrowth.
Their footsteps were light and agile, leaving fleeting afterimages on the dappled ground beneath the trees.
Unlike their earlier frantic and aimless flight, their current movements carried a sense of purpose.
"Your pronunciation is off. It should be 'Grommash,' with a heavier guttural sound," Jieming's voice echoed through the forest. He wasn't speaking any language of the wizard civilization, but rather a rough, powerful-sounding orcish tongue.
"Grommash... Damn it, this is too hard!" Amy struggled to mimic the sound as she ran, her tongue refusing to cooperate, much to her frustration. "Common Tongue is so much easier to learn."
"Just keep practicing," Victor replied in Common Tongue, his pronunciation far more precise, clearly the result of dedicated effort. "According to the shaman's memories, if we want to operate in this region, we need to master at least Common Tongue and Orcish."
Through conversation, they practiced the language of this world.
This knowledge had all been extracted from the captured Orc Shaman.
After Amy precisely extracted the necessary information using her spell artifact, she ended the shaman's suffering without hesitation.
Over the past few days, whenever the three of them had free time, they would mimic and practice the language based on the information they had gleaned from the shaman's memories.
This served two purposes: to adapt to their new environment and to better disguise themselves and gather intelligence during future adventures.
"So, according to the shaman's memories, the Divine Oracle said this?" Amy's voice was somewhat stilted, her Common tongue tinged with a foreign accent as it echoed through the forest. "'Demons from beyond the heavens invade. Hunt them down and purge the filth...' That doesn't sound very friendly at all."
"Exactly, Amy. Your pronunciation is improving," Victor replied approvingly, his own Common tongue also carrying a peculiar accent. "It's only natural for them to be hostile. We didn't come here to make friends anyway."
"According to the shaman's memories, this forest is jointly managed by the orcs and elves," Jieming interjected, his Common Tongue more fluent, with barely a trace of hesitation. "The orcs control the eastern and southern regions, while the elves oversee the western and northern areas. Both sides have powerful Second-Tier Beings stationed here. It was definitely the right decision to leave this area immediately."
"Their military deployment is also quite clear," Jieming continued. "We can roughly deduce their patrol routes and key defensive zones."
Amy grimaced, adjusting her tone. "The shaman's memories indicate that the main wizard forces should be landing in the southern part of this region. If that's the case..."
"We need to head northeast," Jieming said, a glint in his eyes. "The commotion we caused at the shrine earlier will trigger a large-scale orc pursuit. If we keep this up, we'll likely attract enemies we can't handle. We need to mislead them!"
Victor immediately understood. "They'll easily figure out our identities. The southern region must already be swarming with troops... No wonder you had us run—you were creating a trail of false tracks, right?"
Amy nodded thoughtfully. "So... next, we should head northeast, toward the areas with fewer orc patrols and weaker defenses?"
(End of the Chapter)