Universe Tales: Virtual Log of the Fallen One

Chapter 96: Maria's Cruelty

Maria was just about to rush at the boss, but the boss entered a friendly state with its name turning green. She was perplexed at this but soon noticed that the ogres inside the village began pouring out while holding some flags, shields, and weapons.

It happened right after Orh'bankhur had bellowed out earlier and challenged her to a duel. Maria waited to see what would happen but she noticed that the ogres in the village that were once labeled as mobs now had yellow names indicating that they were now neutral-aligned NPCs.

The ogres began moving around them forming a large circle where she and the ogre chieftain were situated in the middle. Some ogres began planting down the banners and weapons they were holding. Maria understood their intentions.

"Ohohoh, a fighting ring, huh?"

"Yes. Honorable duel... me and you, fight. Winner, king!"

Maria chuckled and waved her ax around.

"Start?"

"Rahh!"

"Graahhh!!"

The ogres began bellowing and this marked the start of the fight.

Orh'bankhur immediately through the ax he was holding right at Maria. The girl responded by rushing straight towards the ax. She flew up and just as the ax passed below her, she kicked on it and launched herself forward, instantly colliding with the ogre chieftain.

The ogre was surprised at the strength behind Maria's blow. A sense of admiration grew in his heart because he didn't expect the small Maria to actually challenge him in a straightforward confrontation.

He expected Maria to use some tricks so to prevent her from doing that, Orh'bankhur had thrown his ax straight at her from the start but his expectations were dashed when Maria suddenly appeared right in front of him in the next instant only seconds after he had thrown his weapon.

The collision had sent the ogre half a step back, but this was only to be expected considering that it was a strength-type monster and had a huge build compared to Maria. Just the fact that she was able to send the monster back half a step caused everyone in the chat to go wild.

The next sequence of attacks where Maria skillfully controlled her ax with just a single hand while occasionally sending a punch with her dainty fist as she flitted around the ogre, was a sight to behold.

The flurry of continuous attacks had Orh'bankhur on the back foot and since he was much slower than the agile Maria who was constantly moving through the air and attack at his blind spots caused the ogre to respond by only defending himself.

Maria didn't let any opportunity slip that would let the ogre initiate a counter-attack. She still hadn't even used her [Angel's Wrath] or any of her spells. She only relied on [Calamity Cleave] and all her other physical skills to attack the monster.

Orh'bankhur finally had enough and it let out a strong bellow. He stomped on the ground and unleashed a shockwave which pushed back Maria a few meters but it was enough to let the ogre finally start its counter attack.

With four arms, the ogre's attack speed was unprecedented. Maria had to use her utmost concentration to dodge every attack the ogre sent at her.

It was now Maria's turn to do the dodging and defending. In terms of stats put into strength, Orh'bankhur was much superior to Maria, but the clash between the two whenever their weapons hit only resulted in Maria being sent back a few steps.

The ogre's battle AI was top notch and instead of using full-force attacks, Orh'bankhur used attacks with just the right amount of force that would only send Maria back a few meters which it could traverse in just one step so this distance between it and Maria was still within its attack range.

This way, Maria couldn't suddenly use the force from his attacks to propel herself backward and step out of his attack range, giving her some breathing space.

"HAHAHA!"

Maria only laughed at this. Instead of backing away, Maria met the ogre, blow for blow and despite being at a disadvantage Maria continued to fight in this manner.

With every hit, a small piece of her HP bar would disappear, only to suddenly rise again when she used [Cure]. She only fought this recklessly because she had the means to keep her small HP bar up, matching Orh'bankhur's battle regeneration skill.

After the initial amazing start of the fight, the battle continued as a slugfest for the next 10 minutes. The constant rising and falling of Maria's health caused the viewers to be somewhat worried about her.

Neither side relented, it wasn't until Orh'bankhur decided to use a skill did the pace suddenly change. It was a charge skill so it took a while to cast. Maria used this opportunity not to back away, but to respond with similar skill.

She began casting [Fire] and enchanted her battle-ax with it before suddenly throwing the weapon straight at Orh'bankhur. She was repaying him for the first flying ax that flew at her from the start of the battle.

Orh'bankhur used two arms intending to smash the weapon far away, leaving Maria weaponless. He struck out using his two left arms, each holding a blade and a hammer, and successfully smashed Maria's Calamity away.

However, upon impact, the [Fire]-enchanted Calamity exploded and this damaged Orh'bankhur's hands to some degree and lit his arm on fire.

Orh'bankhur quickly put out the fire. The tradeoff was worth it in his opinion. He only had his arm and hand damaged while Maria lost her weapon.

"Hah, stupid!"

Orh'bankhur's skill had finished charging and just as it was about to strike at Maria, the girl chuckled and said, "Heh, on your left~"

Maria reached out and swung her hand. Orh'bankhur immediately felt a sharp sensation aiming for his neck and he raised his weapons to defend. The ax which he thought he had sent flying away earlier had come back and struck at him, this time, with seemingly even greater force.

Without Maria's small frame to take the impact, the shock from the attack was entirely transferred outward and it pushed Calamity's momentum forward. The telekinetic attack sent the ogre stumbling but because the [Fire] enchantment was dispelled earlier, no explosion occurred.

"Grah!!!"

"Huhuhuhu~" Maria had an amusing smile on her face and she continued to remotely control Calamity from a distance and began toying with Orh'bankhur.

The ogre's charged skill from earlier had been disrupted mid-attack because it had to block Maria's unexpected attack, but it tried to throw another one of its weapons seeing that Maria was defenseless.

Maria already saw it coming so she stomped on the ground casting [Earth], a newly acquired spell she obtained after finally fulfilling another one of Paimon's Magical Book's requirements.

A stone wall appeared in front of Maria which defended her against, Orh'bankhur's attack. The ogre was smart, while it was being pushed back by Maria's telekinetic attack, it had moved its way towards the ax which it had thrown earlier at the start of the battle.

This was why Orh'bankhur didn't mind losing another one of its weapons since it picked one up immediately. The monster wanted to test whether something would happen if it did such an attack again, and just like Orh'bankhur had expected, Maria did have a way to defend herself without relying on the flying ax which was still attacking him.

Maria toyed with the ogre for a few minutes before she began to once again actively attack it. This time, she didn't let the ogre have a single moment of respite. A continuous barrage of skill, spells, and feathers attacked the ogre until it was battered.

The HP bar which had remained within the 90 percent range continued to fall stably while Maria's HP remained full from her attacks' lifesteal and with her large mana pool, repeatedly using [Fire], [Ice], and [Earth] was no problem for her since her in-battle MP regeneration far outclassed the MP output.

Orh'bankhur's HP slipped past the 50 percent mark despite it regenerating 5 percent every few seconds. The ogre was helpless to do anything. Flashes of [Fire] continued to blind it while the occasional [Earth Bullet] and [Earth Hammer] disorientated it. [Ice] was used occasionally to hinder its movements while Maria topped it all off with her [Gehenna's Eye] and a few other spells at her disposal.

"Do you submit?" Maria coldly asked.

It was already pushed into a helpless state so Maria didn't see any reason for the fight to continue. The ogres forming the ring had all turned quite.

At the start of the battle, each ogre was pounding their arm on the ground or on the shield they were holding, rousing the spirit of battle from both contenders. But right now, all of the ogres were silent because they saw how helpless their chieftain had suddenly become due to the onslaught of skills and spells.

"NO!"

"Tch..."

Maria flew forward and with a single flap of her wings immediately appeared right in front of the ogre with her Calamity in hand. She swung down hard on one of Orh'bankhur's arms...and lopped it off.

"GRAAAHHH!!"

Blood began to spray from the monster's injury and once again, Maria asked, "Do you submit?!"

"Grrrrr..."

The ogre was still growling in pain but Maria saw this as an act of defiance. Once more, she raised her battle-ax and swung down on the ogre's remaining right.

"GRRROOOOAARR!!"

"Do you submit?"

Just as the ogre was about to say something, Maria grew pissed because it didn't answer right away. She flashed over to the left side of the ogre and this time she activated [Calamity Cleave] and lopped off the ogre's two left arms.

"DO YOU SUBMIT?!"

"GAAHHH"

"YES!! YES, WE SUBMIT!"

The left head was howling in pain while the right head answered her.

"Good!"

Maria stopped attacking. The ogre knelt and prostrated in front of her and the other ogres did the same.

[Duel has ended!

You are victorious! With their chieftain submitting to you, the Mountain Creek Ogres have become a part of your faction!

Congratulations!

Rewards: Mountain Creek Village, Reputation +3200, Random Faction Rewards Chest x1]