Dungeon Of Pride, Laplace

There was no doubt in his mind, Berigard knew that if the situation developed as it is now, the meteor would be completely broken apart. . Or that would be so if he was all alone, but that was not the case.

The two orc commanders that managed to successfully avoid the debris falling their way, intensely observed the Lightning Draconic Serpent without tearing their eyes away. The moment they felt it lower its guard against them and concentrate wholly on the meteor, they used this chance to attack.

Belmarch brandished his club and glanced at Bellock before nodding. Bellock immediately jumped on top of his club and was flung like a cannonball towards the Lightning Draconic Serpent.

One of the unique traits of the High orcs were their immaculate coordination in battle. Their synchronisation with each other could be said to be on a level of an army that had trained for dozens of years.

Bellock brought out his sinister long blade and quickly locked onto the underbelly of the Lightning Draconic Serpent who was still not aware of his rapidly approaching presence. He precisely targeted the spot where it was injured earlier by their storm of attacks and using the lapse in the enemies defence, he cleanly sliced through.

CHIIIIII…

ROOOAAAARRR…

Blood splattered like a geyser and the Lightning Draconic Serpent screamed in pain. A wide gash more than five meters big could be seen on its underbelly that had previously suffered some injuries from the orcs.

Its body wreathed in pain and it could no longer support its [Lightning Breath] which was cut short. Intense pain that it had never felt before, started from the wound and spread through its whole body.

The Lightning Draconic Serpent's eyes glared in fury at the assailant. The puny orcs flocking near its body that it thought was not worth its attention, managed to injure its body to such an extent. Losing its mind in anger, it repeatedly smashed its tail towards Bellock in an attempt to squash him.

However, all it managed to elicit was a smile from his enemy. It was only now that it realised it had fallen for their ploy; the objective of these orcs was just to distract him. The real threat was still the one facing him head-on.

Berigard knew that he was not the opponent of the Lightning Draconic Serpent and that was why he mobilised all the power he had in his hands. Although his sneak attack had failed, it was able to engage the enemy long enough for his subordinates to use that opening to attack.

The meteor now one-fifth of its previous size, without any obstruction to hold it in place, the meteor came crashing on top of the Lightning Draconic Serpent.

BOOOMM… the moment it landed, it immediately flipped dozens of meters of land into the air and generated a shockwave so great that it travelled for miles. The land quacked and the sound was so deafening that it was akin to a weapon itself.

Dust covered the area and the silhouette of the Lightning Draconic Serpent was buried underneath. The orc army of which only had forty or so numbers remained propped themselves up and looked at the area of devastation.

The power behind the meteor was so great that it had created a huge crater. As they witnessed the power behind the attack of their general connecting with the Lightning Draconic Serpent, they started erupting with roars confident in their victory.

-----

Simon who was forced hundreds of meters back due to the level of their battle being too huge, was reeling in shock. He knew the Orc General was strong the very moment he laid his eyes upon him but even then he didn't expect him to be this strong.

The Lightning Draconic Serpent, one of the three overlords of the north which he thought would be able to easily snatch the victory, was being forced to play on the terms of the orcs. There was no doubt that it was more powerful than any of the high orcs that it was facing; however, it couldn't gain an edge over them nor could it grasp the victory.

On the contrary, the latest development looked like the Lightning draconic Serpent was losing out as a huge gash was cut open in its abdomen forcing it to stop short its [Lightning Breath].

Simon couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the Diluvian High Orcs take the aggression of the Lightning Draconic Serpent onto themselves allowing the orc general a window of opportunity to breathe and continue with his attack.

If anyone asked him what the turning point of this battle was, he would no doubt highlight the attack from one of the Diluvian High Orcs that had changed the tide of the battle. Be that as it may, it would have still been impossible for these orcs to bring down the Lightning Draconic Serpent if not for its mistake to tear its eyes away from the highest level opponent it was facing.

Without the breath attack to hold the meteor back, it fell straight on top of it with a threatening amount of momentum.

Simon started panicking when he saw the meteor connecting with the lightning Draconic Serpent and burying it underneath. Even from his current hiding place which was a few kilometres away from the battlefield, Simon felt the shockwave of the attack travelling all the way here and hitting him like a sledgehammer.

The level of their battle was beyond him and even a stray attack could easily decimate a Diluvian High Orc. With his current strength and not relying on any of the secondary items to boost his strength, it would take him a while to even defeat a single one of the Diluvian High Orcs.

One could imagine the level at which the battle was unfolding to not even give these powerful high orcs even a chance to show their might.

"This is bad. If this goes on, the Lightning Draconic Serpent might actually lose. I cannot allow the High Orcs to subdue it. Dammit, do I have no choice but to step in… but even if I do, I don't know what I can accomplish" Simon voice was a little agitated when he couldn't see the figure of the Lightning Draconic Serpent surfacing from the dust even after a while.

"Hnnn~… so it is like that the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. However, I'm not sure you can be considered an oriole with your current level no?" It was at this moment that a clear voice of that of a woman rang from somewhere.

Simon suddenly widened his eyes to their absolute limit and looked around him.  The voice that rang out appeared to be extremely close to him; however, no matter where he looked, he couldn't detect any presence near him.

Sweat trickled down his face and fell onto the ground. The fact that someone had approached this close to him without even him noticing their presence until they revealed themselves spoke volumes about how powerful they were.

"Who is it?" Simon asked, his eyes scanning everywhere.

'Could it be that the battle between the Lightning Draconic Serpent and the Orc General had attracted the eyes of the others around? If so what is their objective behind revealing their presence now?'

'If they wanted to snatch all the rewards, they should have waited for an opportune time. Who is it and what are they thinking?' his brain went into overdrive as he thought about the objective of the new entrant that had yet to reveal their presence completely.

"Hehe, you should pay more attention to your expression. Blatantly revealing everything that you are thinking to a person that might be your enemy" the voice had a teasing tone and felt as light as a spring breeze.

"Well even if you strain your brain to their limit, you won't find the answer because I'm not someone from this forest".

Simon's thought spurned at the new information that was just revealed. The person had clearly said that they were not from this forest. Was it a lie or the truth? Is it one of the adventurers that had come to scout the dungeon?

Dozens of questions were flowing through his mind but none of them could pinpoint who this person was nor their motive.

Gulping audibly, Simon sharpened his senses and used every auxiliary skill in his arsenal new or old to detect the slightest trace of the person.

[Thought Processing] which allowed him to run multiple thoughts in his mind together, [Detect Presence] revealed all the beings near him and the [Sharpened Senses] skill improved all of his senses for a short period of time.

All of these skills were base tier Normal skill and had yet to reach the superior tier. All of these skills either enhanced his detection or his senses; nevertheless, even after activating all of the skills at once, the entity near him couldn't be detected.

"Would you give it a rest already? No matter how much you try it is impossible for you to detect my location unless I do so myself" The woman's voice had a tinge of pride as she conversed with Shim.

Seeing that all of his skills were useless, he gave up trying and instead tried to gain more information from the person.

"May I know who you are and why have you decided to reveal your presence to me?".

There was no reply for a while and just when he thought that his question was ignored, the person's voice rang once again, this time very close to him.

"Hnnn~ trying to gain as much information as we can from the enemy are we? Hehe, I can at least tell you that if I wanted to harm, you would be long dead.. Now have your question been cleared yet?".