Chapter 263

Chapter 263: 263

Neo let out a long breath of relief. The fight against the man with the strange Q skill was over, and somehow he had come out the other side still standing. Losing to that kind of power had not been shameful. It had simply been the logical result of facing someone with a title that heavy. He shook his head once, clearing the last of the tension from his shoulders, then jumped lightly into the air.

Darkness mana flooded out of him at once. It wrapped every part of his body in thick black plates. Long spikes jutted from the armor at the shoulders, elbows, and knees. A dense dark aura rolled off the plates like smoke that refused to rise. The two red knights immediately set their hands on their sword hilts, bodies tightening as they prepared to move.

Sana stepped between them and Neo before either knight could draw.

"No," she said, voice sharp and clear. "He is not a bad person. Look at the mana. Really look."

The knights studied the darkness more carefully. The color and the weight of the aura looked wrong at first glance, but the energy itself was clean. It was not demonic. Still, the appearance alone was enough to put anyone on edge.

Neo shook his head again. "Don’t worry. I was born like this. Dual attributes. Darkness and holy at the same time. This darkness is not demon power."

The red knights glanced at Sana. She had already summoned him. She knew him better than anyone present. After a moment they both sighed and lowered their hands from their hilts.

"We will trust the princess for now," one of them said. "We will report to the queen later."

That was enough. Neo and Sana turned back to the hunt. They spent the entire morning clearing goblins, pushing deeper into the forest with every group they cut down. By the time the sun stood high the trees had grown thicker and the air heavier. They had crossed into orc territory without noticing the exact moment it happened.

One of the red knights stopped and raised a hand.

"We should not go farther. Orcs are far stronger than goblins."

Neo nodded. "I only want to take a look. What do you think, Sana?"

Sana did not hesitate. "If Neo says we go, then we go. It will be good training for my summon. The stronger he becomes, the better he can protect me. Don’t you agree?"

The knights exchanged a look. Her words made sense. The summon she had only recently called had already killed Swordmaster Hans. Watching that same power grow by fighting orcs was something both men wanted to see. They nodded and fell in behind her.

The group of four moved deeper. The undergrowth thickened. The light dimmed. Then the trees opened into a small clearing and a pack of orcs came into view, already moving toward them.

One red knight turned to Neo. "Can you handle them?"

He asked because the levels were wrong. These orcs were far stronger than any common pack. Levels near twenty were not something a red knight took lightly. One of them alone could give a knight serious trouble.

Neo’s eyes widened. Levels. So this world really measured power that way. He opened his own status without thinking. Level 18. Sana sat at level 5. Both red knights were level 20.

He turned his attention to the orcs. Most of them hovered around level 19. At the back stood a dark-skinned orc whose level showed only as question marks. Neo focused harder. A system window flickered into place.

High-level camouflage detected. Host may lift the veil by remaining completely still for one full hour.

Neo almost laughed. There was no chance he was standing still for an hour in the middle of a fight. He looked at the two knights.

"Protect Sana. I’ll take the front."

He pulled two swords free and wrapped both blades in natural energy embrace. The metal glowed with a soft green light. Then he launched himself forward.

The first orc never had time to raise its club. Neo’s blade took its head clean off at the neck. Blood sprayed in a wide arc. The body dropped. The rest of the pack roared and closed in.

For a full minute Neo did nothing but evade. He jumped left, rolled right, twisted under swings that would have crushed bone. One orc’s fist slammed into a thick tree beside him. The trunk exploded into flying shards that filled the air like wooden shrapnel. The force of that single punch told Neo everything he needed to know. A clean hit would end him.

He landed, spun, and lifted his spear. Holy pyro flooded the weapon until the tip burned white-hot and the light was bright enough to pull every orc’s eyes toward it. Neo set his stance, drew his arm back, and hurled the spear with everything he had. The weapon punched into one orc’s chest. The creature staggered but did not fall. The wound looked shallow compared to the power Neo had put behind the throw.

The orc answered with a roar. It raised its massive wooden club and swung with full force. Neo saw the blur of the weapon too late. The club took him square across the face.

The world spun. Neo’s body left the ground and flew. He crashed through one tree, then another, then a third. Each impact snapped the trunk like dry kindling and left a trail of shattered wood behind him. He kept flying, spinning, until gravity finally dragged him down. He hit the earth hard enough to dig a deep crater and lay there for a second, every bone in his body screaming.

Blood ran from his mouth and nose. Cuts covered his arms and chest. He forced a healing potion to his lips and drank. Warmth flooded his veins. Flesh knitted. Bones slid back into place. When the pain finally dulled he stood, breathing hard, and looked up.

The pack was already charging. The dark-skinned orc had taken the lead. Demonic power poured off its body in thick purple waves, denser and heavier than anything Hans had ever released. It looked like a second sun made of hate.

Both red knights went wide-eyed. One stayed glued to Sana’s side. The other sprinted toward Neo and reached him just as Neo pulled three more healing potions from his storage.

"Drink these if you get tired or hurt," Neo said, pressing the bottles into the knight’s hands. The man nodded and took them.

The dark-skinned orc closed the distance in long, ground-eating strides. Its club began to glow. Purple light gathered along the wood until the weapon shone so bright Neo had to squint. At the last possible second his sensing skill screamed and his body dropped into a crouch. The club whistled over his head, the wind of the swing alone strong enough to sting his skin.

The red knight who had come to help was not so lucky. The same swing caught him full in the chest. Armor crumpled. Bone shattered. The upper half of the knight’s body came apart in a spray of blood and metal fragments. What remained of the lower half dropped to its knees and toppled sideways.

The dark-skinned orc’s eyes locked on Neo. Purple light burned inside them.

"You are next."

Neo’s heart hammered against his ribs. Thoughts raced. He needed space. He needed time. He activated teleportation and reappeared dozens of meters away.

The orc was already moving again. The purple glow around its body had grown brighter, denser, more violent. It was getting stronger by the second. When it charged this time the speed was higher than before, almost too fast for the eye to follow.

Neo did not wait. He forced himself into Lord of the End mode. Darkness attribute flooded both swords until the blades looked like they had been carved from pure night. He crossed the weapons in an X and met the incoming club head-on.

The impact lifted him off the ground and threw him into the air. Trees snapped and shattered as his body tore through them, leaving another long line of destruction. Neo cursed, teleported again, and appeared at the orc’s flank. He slashed as fast as he could, carving deep cuts across the creature’s ribs and back. For a moment the wounds looked promising. Then the flesh closed. Muscle knitted. Skin sealed. In seconds every injury was gone.

An orc fist the size of a boulder smashed into Neo’s side. He flew again, hit the ground hard, and tried to rise. The dark-skinned orc was already on him. A massive hand clamped around his skull. The orc lifted him and slammed his head into the dirt. Then again. And again. Each impact drove Neo deeper into the earth until his body had carved a shallow grave for itself.

When the grip finally loosened Neo forced himself up on shaking arms. Above him the dark-skinned orc hung in the sky, body coiled, ready to drop like a falling star.

Neo turned to run.

A system window exploded across his vision in cold blue light.

Quest notification: The orc has locked you in this place. You cannot run away or use any teleportation skill.