The scarab used geomantic powers to lift itself atop a giant stone block. It rose above the precipice that separated the enormous explosive device from the rest of the soldiers.

  It had four arms, and in each of them, it wielded gigantic halberds. When it appeared, the rest of the scarab warriors shrieked in unison, which sounded like a cry of joy, or perhaps reverence, for the warrior who had just arrived.

  Orcium watched it closely, following every one of its movements with his eyes, prepared to fight his new enemy. However, something worried him: how he would reach it

  The giant scarab moved around the platform, and then…

  CRASH

  The giant scarab destroyed two portions of the platform with its massive halberds, leaving Orcium isolated from his warriors. He was alone, and the rest could not intervene in the battle.

  Then the giant scarab struck again, destroying the tiny platform Orcium had been forced onto., seeking to knock him off the platform and send him into the abyss.

  Orcium, this time, resisted the blow of the massive halberds with his two axes, and, despite the massive difference in size, the recoil of his weapons clashing against those of his opponent made it retreat, stopping the blow from shattering the platform beneath him.

  “COWARD! FACE ME LIKE A TRUE WARRIOR!”

  Rage boiled inside Orcium; it wasn’t even treating him with respect, fighting him in an honorable duel. Instead, it seemed the creature simply wanted him gone. as quickly as possible.

  The scarab unleashed the powers of Geomancy once more, this time destroying the pillar Orcium stood on.

  At that moment, Orcium hurled one of his two axes at the ceiling of the cave, causing massive stone blocks to fall from where it struck. While falling, Orcium kicked off the falling blocks, leaping from one falling rock to another refusing to let himself fall into the abyss. The scarab, seeing what he was attempting, sent the rocks above crashing down harder, trying to crush him beneath the falling stone, but the orc warrior moved like a phantom, dodging both the stones and the free fall his enemy wanted to subject him to.

  "I'm going to tear that damn scarab apart.”

  Orcium gathered everything he had and jumped once more onto one of the falling rocks, gracefully dodging the impact and propelling himself toward the giant scarab, which struck at him with its halberds before trying to retreat.

  Seeing his opponent’s mistake, Orcium grabbed one of the massive halberds.

  “GOT YOU!”

  The furious orc stood up and, with impossible balance, ran along the levitating platform toward his opponent. The scarab tried to shake Orcium off its halberd, smashing it against the cave’s edges.

  But the fierce orc showed no signs of retreating or falling; his effort finally paid off, and he reached where his enemy was.

  Trembling with rage, he charged forward to cut him with his two axes. The platform shook with the impact of the clash of two legendary warriors, but the scarab warrior couldn’t fight properly in that position, his halberds were too long to strike at such close range. With the opponent, who was now on top of him. Orcium took advantage of this and cleaved powerfully into his enemy’s giant body with both axes, breaking its shell in several places.

  The scarab, seeing the situation, reduced its size until it was only a few meters larger than Orcium; finally, they would have a proper fight.

  Orcium raised his two weapons above his head while roaring proudly.

  The scarab warrior ignored him and lunged at Orcium along with the stone spears it drew from the platform, hurling them with incredible ferocity. Orcium released the energy of fury, strengthening his body even further, and charged toward his opponent to clash weapons with him. The stone spears struck the orc’s body, which he did not dodge, letting them wound him until he finally stood face-to-face with his enemy, who attacked at the same time with his four halberds, keeping his distance while striking fiercely.

  “IS THAT ALL?”

  Orcium roared as he swung his axes to push aside his enemy’s blows, which recoiled simply from the impact of Orcium’s weapons against his own. The gap between them was obvious.

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  “You fight like a pathetic weakling; you were right to keep your distance from me, bastard.”

  Orcium attacked with one of his axes, seeking to cleave his opponent’s body with a clean slash. The scarab blocked with one of its halberds, but Orcium easily destroyed the weapon now that he was empowered with fury.

  Desperate, the scarab tried to strike with its three remaining limbs, but Orcium unleashed a kick, shattering much of its stomach armor and sending it flying before it could launch its attack. Orcium rushed forward, giving his enemy no respite, and threw his axe at him to prevent him from channeling geomantic energy. The scarab was forced to block the attack, and now it was face-to-face with Orcium, who lunged at him, throwing them both off the platform they were on, plunging toward the platform where the soldiers had once been.

  The impact of their bodies crashing onto the other platform was tremendous, leaving a crater where they landed. The scarab warrior was badly injured, and Orcium stood over him, quickly raising his fists and pummeling his opponent with incredible strength. Each punch came with a crunch.

  The scarab, with its last strength, tried to encase Orcium’s body in stone and hurl him away. Stone obeyed the scarab warrior’s the stone obeyed his desperate command, covering Orcium’s body completely; however, he did not move. The scarab warrior desperately tried to summon the strength to move him, but at that moment, the stone shattered into countless fragments.

  “That’s enough. I’ve grown tired of your pathetic attempts to cling to your miserable life.”

  Orcium extended his hand, covering the scarab’s face, which bit it to escape his grasp.

  “From the beginning of this fight, you tried all the time to avoid fighting me because you knew you’d lose.”

  Orcium glared at his opponent with pure contempt in his eyes.

  “I don’t respect cowards without guts like you; I despise you.”

  He slowly applied more pressure to his grip. The scarab’s body writhed, hitting Orcium’s back, scratching and striking with its limbs.

  Orcium clenched his fist tightly, and his opponent’s head crushed in his hand, blood and chitin bursting from the crushed skull; finally, the scarab’s body stopped moving. Orcium grabbed the corpse by one of its arms, dragging the corpse behind him.

  And when he climbed, what he saw next froze him in place: just a few meters from where he had first fought the scarab warrior, where his soldiers should have been waiting for him, there was no one. Nothing. It was as if his warriors had vanished from the face of the earth.

  Orcium looked around, searching for a clue, when his danger sense told him to move from where he stood, and so he did, still holding the corpse of his prey. From the ceiling descended a gigantic female figure wielding a great curved saber, with lower limbs resembling those of a spider.

  The intimidating figure looked at him, letting her eyes pass over the corpse he still held in his hands as a trophy.

  The spider-woman released her aura, leaving Orcium stunned.

  “Semi-Transcendent rank… this will be a big problem.”

  Orcium quickly understood and smiled without the slightest trace of fear.

  “Hehehe, you want this bastard here? Then you can have him.”

  At that moment, Orcium hurled the corpse in the opposite direction of the precipice, and the spider-woman, her face a mix of surprise and fury, leapt for her comrade’s body.

  “That’ll keep you busy.”

  At that moment, Orcium ran toward the exit, summoning the axes he had thrown earlier.

  “If a Semi-Transcendent is here, then what happened to the rest of my legion is obvious: they’re all dead.”

  Now with a heavy heart, Orcium ran toward the exit.

  “I’m sorry, brothers. I promise I’ll join you soon.”

  Orcium would gladly have faced the spider-woman and died in an honorable battle alongside his brothers, but he had greater priorities. One was to find Victoria and make sure she was safe; the other was to prevent the explosive artifact from fulfilling its purpose.

  Thus, he ran to the exit, and at that moment, he glimpsed Victoria’s silhouette in the distance, running toward him.

  “I’m glad to see her… but why does she look so exhausted?”

  Victoria, upon seeing Orcium, relaxed her gaze.

  “Orcium, we have to retreat; there’s a Semi-Transcendent in the cave.”

  Orcium’s face turned serious as he looked at his comrade.

  “I’m sorry to tell you that you’re wrong: there isn’t one, there are two Semi-Transcendents.”

  Victoria’s face immediately turned just as serious as Orcium’s.

  “Victoria, I want you to listen to me carefully: I’ll stay and take care of the explosive artifact, so you must escape.”

  Victoria looked at him with sadness.

  “You’ll die.”

  Orcium smiled at the remark.

  “Yes, I’ll die a glorious death, fulfilling my mission and joining my brothers; I couldn’t ask for anything better. No, something even better.”

  Victoria approached the fierce orc and gave him a hug.

  “Take care, old friend; it was a pleasure spending all these years fighting by your side.”

  “Hahaha, give Eithne my regards.”

  Without wasting time, Victoria rushed to the exit.

  “Mmm, now that I think of it, how will she escape the collapse? Oh, right, she can turn into a puddle of blood and a bat, can’t she? Well, I feel more at ease now.”

  Orcium prepared himself as he felt two Semi-Transcendent auras closing in on him.

  “Haha, this is gonna be rough.”