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  In a fight, you have to be aware of not only the opponent’s weaknesses, but your own strengths.

  Well, it sounds cool if I say it like that. What I really mean is that in MSS, type-match ups matter.

  They matter a lot.

  “He’s there! Get him!”

  “Sound the alarm!”

  A mage whose only discerning feature was the pointed hat with a wide brim pointed at me while her partner dashed towards me. She promptly lifted her hands into the air, chanting and dim points of light beginning to gather in between her hands.

  ‘A spell meant to cause a flash of light, no doubt accompanied by a loud sound.’ I told myself.

  The best thing about alarms is that they don’t need to be complicated. They just need to be bright, loud and distracting as hell. That’s kind of the whole point of with alarms, they’re designed to grab people’s attention and stop them from whatever they’re doing. Seeing the mage about to cast a spell that was the MSS equivalent of a fire alarm, I had seconds to act.

  Luckily for me, her partner was running towards me at a snail’s pace.

  ?Lock Slaveborn used [Lingering Darkness] ?

  The Totem Skill was accompanied by what sounded like a distant caw of a crow, followed by the fluttering of wings. A split second before the darkness blanketed the entire area, I saw feather tips at the corner of my vision; the night-black wings folded to envelop me from shoulder to shoulder.

  “What th-”

  “Isn’t this a Crow Totem?!”

  “ORC! IT’S AN ORC! BERSERKER!”

  Too late.

  [Lingering Darkness], the upgraded version of [Darkness] creeped forward and clung to everyone within the thick swampy fog –slowing their movements like ethereal mud.

  While they were still panicking, I danced around the Shielder easily and reached the mage.

  The mage had wisely closed her eyes, choosing to trust in her comrades rather than disrupt her spell and try to defend herself. In a normal situation, I would have commended her. But here in this situation, it was a mistake –one that would cost her dearly. A mistake that came from an incomplete understanding of the power levels between herself, her partner and myself.

  ‘Counter her magic with your innate ability, her hesitation with decisiveness and capitalize on her incompetence with a rapid response before she could recover.’

  I swung Skaris’ spear like a baseball bat, careful not to hit her with a blade.

  As it was, the shaft right before the blade-tip caught her in the side of the head and she crumpled to the floor like a ragdoll. The lights of her spell disappeared along with her, buying me precious few seconds.

  ‘Come on, Skaris. Come on.’

  Even as I prayed for Skaris to hurry, I turned around, my senses pinpointing on the soft pad of paws on the beach sand. My eyes, unaffected by the darkness, saw Dorocian on top of her massive gray wolf, pacing around the outskirts of the murky cloud which I’d summoned. She was being careful, studying my Lingering Darkness before deciding to jump in.

  Precious few seconds where the success of my plan hung in the balance.

  The plan was simple enough in theory.

  While I distracted the guards, Skaris would go and set fire to the boats.

  To be frank, it was a complete mismatch of our abilities. If anyone would make a better distraction, it would be the seven-foot tall Lizard Beastman with his flashy fire-based abilities and spearmanship. But if Skaris did that, there was no one in the fleet who wouldn’t recognize him. He was the only one in this entire expedition who wielded a spear and a flame –a flame so hot that it shimmered between blue and white.

  Worse, the ships were enchanted with reinforcement magic. Normal fire wouldn’t even burn on it. So Skaris had been delegated to burn the boats while I was stuck on distracting the guards.

  Which was well, because I was probably the only one who could pull this off without being recognized. Namely, by making use of trickery: Lingering Darkness. A Crow-Totem ability.

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  An ability that’s unique to orcs.

  But that brought up an issue. I wouldn’t be able to show off this ability in front of anyone else except our party for the rest of this expedition.

  Up until there, it was fine.

  The problem was elsewhere. Namely in the fact that to completely hide my ability, I had to hide my abilities. All my Core abilities, in fact.

  [Tortured Spirit] and its ability, [Share the Load] which was my opening move.

  The [Royal Oni]’s active ability which acted in conjunction with my shield [King’s Guard]. Plus, to keep [Artisan of Battle] from activate, everything had to end in either one strike or a grappling move.

  No tanking spells from [Shadow Mimic Wolf] passive either, at least now anywhere someone would notice. And no using mimicked abilities either.

  [Ujo]’s [Arcane Masochism] wasn’t anything I could control. Still, my one and only massive-nuke-damaging ability, [Hateful Wound] was gone too.

  [Aura] was out for sure. If I used [Aura], they might suspect a human, not an Orc. The first of my disguise hinged on the fact that they were going to blame this on a rogue orc from the Uleum horde.

  Anything at all that could be linked back to me was out. Which was why I took Skaris’ spear, which was still encased in the fire-type [Weapon Mod]; the reason why the blade was burning with a small ember. Without it, it’d just be a normal spear; albeit a good one.

  In the dark, with a flaming spear and using Orc Totem abilities, no one should be able to tell it was me. Of course, the trade-off was that I was effectively sealing 99% of my abilities.

  But my build is a cheat for a reason and that was showing now.

  In [Lingering Darkness] everyone was blind except me and they were paying for it.

  The mace-and-shield user was running blindly, not knowing which way was out. As soon as the Mage’s body dropped to the ground, he spun around towards my direction and swung, the weapon cutting through the air with enough power to break boulders. There was no way I could take that head on without a shield or using an ability.

  ‘I have to use my speed against his strength.’ MSS is all about the match-up. Matching your strengths against someone’s weakness.

  Timing his swing, I ducked underneath the swing and grabbed his wrist; shoving him off balance with my hips and whipping him over my shoulder in a two-handed throw. He was slower than me and there was no way that his [Handicraft] or [Footwork] stat could match mine. I felt his body go tense as I pivoted, slamming him into the sands beneath us.

  I don’t care what people say about someone being slammed into sand. You would think it would cushion the blow and I’m sure it did somewhat. But I threw a man weighing nearly two hundred pounds with hundred pound of armor over my shoulder, not to mention I threw him with enough impact force for the sand to fly back so that it resembled a meteor crash site.

  His armor crumpled like yesterday’s homework as he wheezed out a breath.

  An opening.

  I was on him in an instant, scrabbling over his armor and shoving a fistful of sand onto his mouth, eyes and nose. He struggled, trying to push me away –all thoughts of using his weapon were forgotten as I kept his brain locked on the fear of being suffocated through sand. Climbing over him like a lizard, I shoved one forearm under his neck and pushed, still shoving sand over his face until he stopped struggling.

  Unconscious. Not dead.

  There was no need to kill anyone. These guys were innocent. Just doing their jobs. As I dashed away, I kicked his ribs with my foot and turned him to the side. It would be enough to keep him from choking on his own vomit.

  Dorocian still lingered outside on the edge of [Lingering Darkness]. The wolf that she was riding on sniffed the ground, its eyes in sync with Dorocian. They were looking in my direction. I knew that they couldn’t see me, but it felt like they could. Most likely a combination of its hearing and scent allowing it to zoom in on my location.

  They were being careful.

  I’d wait for backup too, if an unknown orc assailant took out five guards in a matter of minutes.

  But waiting was a mistake.

  ‘Crush a cautious scout with a risky move.’

  I never stopped moving after felling the mace-using adventurer. I pivoted instantly and jumped into a full out sprint towards Dorocian. I saw her eyes widen and narrow, flickering with realization that I was charging right at her. Playing it safe, she barked out something I couldn’t make out and the wolf beneath her danced further away from the coiling shadow –like a puppy playing tug.

  “Fuck! How the hell did an Orc get here without being noticed! Emilian!”

  As she retreated a few steps, she yelled out an unfamiliar name. Most likely back-up from an auxiliary force.

  I dropped [Lingering Darkness].

  The torches flared into painful existence and the sudden onslaught of light nearly blinded Dorocian and more importantly, her Wolf summon. This trick, using a flash of light against those with a high enough [Sight] stat to blind them, had been used against me when I was escaping the Samak Horde. An elf who used dual daggers, whose name I couldn’t even recall anymore.

  These guys, they’re roughly around the same level as the orcs who enslaved me. Dorocian might even be a match for some Berserkers –especially if she ever awakened Aura.

  But I fought those levels of fighters long ago, with not a single Core to my name. I was a slave once, and I had nothing but my wits to get me by. The fact that I’d never forgotten tricks like this, the fact that these small things were engraved into my bones was a testament to the fact that I was a survivor.

  Am still a survivor.

  The grey wolf immediately lowered its stance, a predatory instinct, making its body seem smaller. It would be less of a target. Dorocian did the same, her blue hair flinging wildly as she flattened herself to her beast’s back as the beast itself hunched towards the ground. Dorocian squinted her eyes shut, no doubt trying to recover her vision before exposing her corneas to the light again.

  If I had my sword and shield with me, I could have finished the battle right here. Even if I could use my Core without fear of being discovered, there were plenty more options. Hell, if Skaris was using this spear instead of me, he could have done more than just maim her.

  I lashed out with the spear, the long shaft feeling awkward in my hands as the wood warped from the force of my thrust. I leaned my body the opposite way as the spear was stretched to its full length and the tip almost missed Dorocian entirely. Heaving with supernatural strength, I forced the tip to hit Dorocian in smackdab in the middle of her chest and knocked her off of the beast.

  Damn, maybe I should raise my [Spear Mastery] stat sometime.

  Still, it got the job done.

  The wolf was still clawing blindly, but I knew the patterns inside and out. I stepped to the left and the canine leaped back, clawing the air three times with its deadly claws. Three swipes in less than a fraction of a second, swipes that could shred through my armor and into my skin –leaving precious blood evidence on the scene. Then I leaned forward, and let the momentum tuck me into a roll.

  Although I couldn’t see it, my mind could imagine what it looked like. The wolf diving forward, spinning like a corkscrew and its jaws snapping on the spot where my neck had been moments before. Its fur brushed against my skin like a bristly comb used for pigs on farms, and a second later the tension loosened as the wolf sailed by. Still blinded, I heard it give a snappy bark and spin around.

  I was only two steps away from Dorocian. She was weaving her arms, mana trailing behind them. I couldn’t let her summon the other wolves; which were colored white and black. To her credit, she didn’t react with panic-induced fear as I grabbed her wrists and twisted her arms to the side. She simply grit her teeth and slammed her head forward, trying to stun me with a headbutt.

  She was still blinded, a lack of information about the battle.

  ‘Fight her ignorance with knowledge.’

  Grabbing a fistful of sand, I rubbed it all over her eyes just like I did for the other adventurer.

  Some might call it fighting dirty. I call it efficient.

  I didn’t grow up in a Great House of Turina, coached by the best Knights that MSS had to offer. I was a software engineer from Earth. Fighting fair can take a backseat until it’s absolutely necessary.

  Hey at least I didn’t grab her hair or anything.

  Just as I reeled back to kick her, Dorocian let out a snarl and flicked her arms. She produced a knife in each of her hands seemingly out of nowhere and lunged towards me. As expected, she was a level above the other adventurers; she knew exactly what I was trying to do and was buying time until her sight came back.

  I pulled on her hair, pulling her off balance and shoved her face in the sand again.

  Never mind.

  A snarl from behind warned me just in the nick of time as I threw myself to the side, evading Dorocian’s wolf.

  Dorocian sputtered, spitting out sand and rubbing her eyes.

  “Fuck! You fucking orc! I’m going to-”

  “Dorocian, that’s not an Orc.”

  I turned to face the speaker.

  It was the Bishop’s bodyguard. She was perched on one of the torches, hanging on the wooden beams like a monkey. One arm and one leg hooked around it. In her other hand, she held that sickle she displayed before.

  “That’s not an orc.” The bodyguard spoke through the veil, her face hidden. And her next words sent a jolt of worry through me.

  “...I think that’s one of us. We might have a traitor in our midst.”