Fortitude Unleashed

Chapter 3: Red Orc

In the ground outside the academy, everyone was in panic. All the students who were not in Class A were fleeing towards the academy, and most of the students of Class A who were either not confident in facing the red ogre or were too afraid to put their lives in danger were also fleeing the scene. Only eight students from Class A remained to face the red orc, hoping to buy some time for help to arrive or to hopefully defeat it somehow if the orc didn’t happen to have a high power level.

There were four girls among the students and four boys, and all of them were the cream of the crop, confident that if they couldn’t kill the ogre, they could at least survive encountering it by facing it together.

“Hey, Jimmy, quickly tell us what is the power level of this red orc. Hurry!” asked a boy named Jasim. He was the muscle man of the group and the most muscular person among them. He was 15 years old like the rest of them, and 5'9" tall. His awakened ability was unique and gave a boost to his physical stats, so he had a power level of 300 despite his actual power level being 250. He had red hair which gave him a fierce look and an older vibe.

“What I am about to tell you guys, I don’t think you will like it. This red orc here has a power level of 380,” Jimmy said in response to Jasim's question. Jimmy was the weakest of the group, his power level just barely above a hundred because he was a MagiTech specialized student with a high aptitude for mana. He wore a suit that looked more like iron skin. He was 5'4" tall. Unlike Jack, he was socially much better and had many friends. He was considered very strong because of his talent for the MaTech suit.

“WHATTT!” all of them shouted in unison. It was a valid reaction because every 50 power levels there seemed to be a huge gap in strength, and they had more than an 80 power level gap, even considering everyone was on Jasim's level, who was the strongest of the group, which they clearly were not.

But before they could continue the conversation, the orc started moving towards them, sensing them to be the strongest around. Orcs had the tendency to always go for the strongest opponent or, in their case, prey first. Their pointy ears caught every single noise in the battle, making them aware of their surroundings while they fought.

“Fuck, we are going to die if we fight him. If he truly has a power level of 380, then I don’t think I will survive. Guys, bye!” Shaddy said while running away towards the academy. Seeing this, the morale of the other team members went down a lot, and some started considering running away.

“Don’t worry, guys. I will face him head on. You guys just support me and don’t think of running away, because if even one of you runs away, then I will as well. Then everyone will run away, and we all will become an easy target for this orc bastard. I don’t need to remind you that his speed is way faster than ours, right? So all of us might die. Focus on supporting me, and I will keep this bastard busy until help arrives,” Jasim said and charged toward the orc, which gave the others a little confidence in facing the orc together since they were currently not facing it directly.

“Everyone, support Jasim! We can do this together!” said Sarah, who was known for her power. She had the second-highest power level, which was 290. Although Jasim's power level was higher than hers, he still hadn’t won against her even once because of her powers, which were related to fire. She had crimson hair and blue eyes, and she was quite tall for her age at 5'8". She had a near-perfect body and was a top-class beauty. She came from the prestigious family called Sunburn.

Jasim reached the orc and slowed down while his eyes were focused on every move the orc made so that he could anticipate his every move and react to his attacks in time. He was doing this to compensate for the power difference. The orc punched towards Jasim, which he dodged, but the orc threw another punch right after, which Jasim blocked by creating a cross with both his forearms.

The punch collided with Jasim, and he was sent a few meters back, leaving two lines on the ground created by his feet.

“Argh,” Jasim grimaced from the pain, his forearms a little red from the punch. As soon as Jasim was pushed back before the orc could follow him, a fireball the size of a football crashed into its chest, pushing it several meters away. A hint of smoke was left, and on the chest of the orc, a burn mark remained from the attack. The attack was launched by Sarah.

Jasim ran towards the orc again, this time more careful, but soon two figures appeared beside him. One was Mark, a swordsman. After seeing the orc pushed back, he got a little hopeful and joined the attack with Jasim. The other was Joanna, a petite girl with blonde hair who was a spear user. They both had wind powers which were helpful for augmenting weapons, so they used a weapon of their choice.

Watching from a little distance was Zakir. Zakir thought of joining the fight, but he saw something different this time.

His system was showing him the power levels of monsters and people now, and he could see with his eyes that the people facing the orc were all powerful.

“According to the system, 4 of them have a power level of 250, the same as me, and 2 of them are stronger than me. One is weak but uses a MaTech suit, so his actual power level is only apparent when he attacks,” Zakir thought to himself. “If they can’t fight it, then I don’t think I will be of much help. Still, let’s see what happens.” Zakir used his Ki energy on his eyes again. But this time, he was a little shocked.

“What is that? Why is this different than before? Is it because it’s not very far now that I can see it like that?” Zakir thought as he saw something shocking using his Ki and eyes together. He saw that the orc had red energy around its body, and most of the attacks the students did were ineffective because of this energy. It made the orc's body as if it were made of steel. But Zakir noticed something else. He noticed that this red energy was weaker near its head and right leg, and he also noticed that it was nearly identical to his Ki energy but red in color while Zakir's Ki energy was blue.

Zakir augmented his hand with his Ki and noticed that his hand was covered in blue energy.

“Wow, does this mean it will be as sturdy as the orc? Let’s put it to the test.” As Zakir said this, he reached a tree and decided to punch it with the arm coated with Ki.

He took a stance, prepared himself, and threw a fast punch. Zakir predicted that the tree would fall and when he noticed his hand it would still be nearly fine, but as soon as his fist made contact with the tree, seemingly nothing happened. But as soon as he retracted his hand, he saw a hole in the tree in the shape of his fist. Zakir became dumbfounded because he didn’t know that his penetration power would increase this much, and his hand didn’t even feel like it made contact with the tree. Before his fist could even make contact with the tree, the Ki energy coating his hand obliterated the point of impact. So he didn’t get to test his full power, but even so, this made him confident that he could be very helpful in this fight.

He started going towards the fight scene with a grin on his face as he rubbed the palm of his left hand with the fist of his right hand.

The Orc, on the other hand, became frustrated as He Clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, because by now he should have at least killed half of them, but instead, he had killed none so far.

“Roarrrr!” Out of frustration, the orc roared and charged forward in rage. As soon as his fist made contact with Jasim’s forearms, who was very tired, Jasim's left arm broke, and he was thrown to the ground.

“ARGHHHHHH!” Jasim screamed in agony because of his broken arm as he lay on the ground. Soon he lost consciousness because of the pain.

As soon as Jasim was thrown back, Mark swung his sword toward the orc's head, but the orc reacted in time and moved his head. The attack cut his pointy right ear, and blood poured from it. But the orc punched Mark in the arms with full force, which shattered his arm completely, and the sword dropped to the ground while Mark flew a dozen meters away, unconscious.

As soon as Joanna noticed that, she backed away while the others launched their attacks simultaneously. The orc dodged the attacks, especially careful of Sarah’s, which somehow had an effect on him. So far, she was the only one to have injured him and was also the strongest there, so he rushed towards her.

The others, as soon as they saw this, distanced themselves from Sarah to avoid being caught in the crossfire. Sarah, on the other hand, had just fired her attack, so she needed time to gather more power to launch another one with enough strength to damage the orc. But the orc had suddenly attacked her head-on, and although she was a good fighter in hand-to-hand combat, she was still not at the level to do anything against the orc in close combat.

The orc blinked towards her or rushed so fast that it seemed he blinked towards her and launched his most powerful punch at Sarah.

Sarah was in a panic and didn’t even get the time to react to the punch that was coming towards her. She closed her eyes and placed her hands in front of her head, her expression full of fear.

Sarah waited for the impact of the punch in fear, but she waited and waited, and the punch never came.

She opened her eyes to see what had happened, but what she saw completely shocked her. In front of her, a boy who was nearly 5'6" tall with black hair was standing in front of her, and he seemed to have blocked the attack with one hand. Then he kicked the orc in the gut, and for the first time in the battle, the orc was down on the ground.

“ARRGGGGwee,” the orc grimaced in pain. A dent in the shape of a kick was formed in his gut.

“Hey, miss, are you alright?” Zakir said, looking back at Sarah with a smile on his face. He was happy his entry was like a hero’s and was grinning inwardly at the situation.

“It’s just like in those movies where the hero comes in time and saves his heroine, hehe,” Zakir thought to himself.