"With us, the Pale Hawk, holding the rear, you can go ahead without fear!"
Sigrfried reined in his horse, letting his squad form another defensive line behind the mercenaries.
"The bounties for these kills, along with the merit and pay from the Mercenary Guild, will all be yours!"
Experienced and well-versed in human nature, Sigrfried immediately threw out another incentive.
Several medium-sized mercenary companies were visibly tempted by this, but before they could discuss it amongst themselves, the ogres across the field grew impatient.
"Roaaar!!!"
The ogre at the forefront let out a terrifying roar, its bloody maw gaping wide. The massive hammer it wielded, fashioned from the bones of some unknown creature, swept through the air with a vicious whoosh.
*BOOM!* The bone hammer slammed into the shields of the front-line shield warriors with a dull thud. Several mercenaries were sent flying backward; the sound of cracking bones even reached their arms. Ogres generally possessed Strength between 5 and 7, equivalent to the power of a 5th-level elite warrior—far beyond what ordinary mercenaries could contend with.
As if answering their leader's roar, the ogres behind surged forward, brandishing their own huge clubs and hammers, while some even charged with empty hands.
The lines of several medium-sized mercenary companies crumbled almost on contact. No matter how their captains shouted, it was useless, and the sight made Sigrfried's expression turn grim.
"The data and attributes of this world don't seem to be a simple linear progression..."
Watching the scene, Lin Lei had a different thought.
After spending so long in the World of the
"Although the average for ordinary people is 1, increases seem to become progressively harder the higher you go. Breaking through the bottleneck where all attributes were 1 took considerable effort... and each point gained after 5 is several times harder than the previous ones... Once you pass 10, that gap will likely become even more pronounced..."
Lin Lei had a premonition that once the average standard reached 10, each additional attribute point might be equivalent to the sum of several previous increases. Overall strength would see a significant boost with each gain.
This method of increase was vastly different from the data displays Lin Lei had encountered before.
*Whoosh!* A sharp gust of wind cut towards his face. Lin Lei instinctively dodged, and a shattered piece of armor flew past where he had been, still stained with mottled blood.
This pulled Lin Lei's attention back to the battlefield.
"Kill these black-skinned brats!" the leader of a mid-sized mercenary band roared, a massive surge of battle-qi radiating from his body.
The ogres were few in number after all — not even a tenth of what several mid-sized companies combined could field. Once the mid-rank professionals moved in to hold the ogres in place, that numerical advantage began to tell immediately.
"Hah! Kill!"
A dozen or so low-ranked mercenaries gripped their long spears and formed a simple spear formation, surrounding a single ogre in a ring.
Even such a straightforward coordinated assault was more than an ogre's sluggish brain could handle. At the captain's command, a dozen spears thrust outward like striking vipers.
"Roarrrr…" The ogre bellowed. Though its hands seized two spearheads, far more lances punched into its body.
That natural hide — a thick layer of grease, mud, and other substances fused together — barely slowed the spears before being pierced through without any suspense.
A torrent of blood gushed out. The ogre thrashed and struggled, but the cage of iron spears held it fast.
A dozen low-ranked professionals working together were still enough to overpower an ogre that had already been gravely wounded.
The spears the mercenaries used appeared to have been modified — the tips featured blood-grooves and barbs. Once they pierced flesh, they would tear the wound wide open, causing catastrophic hemorrhaging.
Blood sprayed forth like a bursting spring. At this point, even the ogre's legendary regenerative ability was powerless to save its life.
Its roars grew fainter and fainter. The light in the ogre's eyes gradually dimmed.
Finally, the massive corpse toppled to the ground, blood and mud mingling to form a strange pattern upon the earth.
"Roarrr! ROAR!!!"
Watching its kin carved up and surrounded on all sides, even the dimmest brain could sense something was terribly wrong. The ogre chieftain let out a furious howl, clutching the severed, mangled arm of some unlucky mercenary in its grip.
Its cries shifted from the wild frenzy before to something short and sharp. At that sound, the remaining ogres began retreating — some even turned their backs, choosing to absorb several mercenary blows in exchange for breaking free of the battlefield.
"Hold it! Don't you dare run, cowards!"
At that moment, Lin Lei felt the black warhorse beneath him surge forward at full gallop, charging straight toward the ogre chieftain.
It was obvious — the young Knight Rafinia had been fired up by the battle, and at this point she had no thought for anything else.
The other mercenaries on the scene watched as a black warhorse, carrying a slender Knight, made a startling leap that carried it straight over the crowd to the very front lines of the battlefield, with a helpless-looking warrior trailing behind.
[Knight Skill — Charge!]
[Knight Skill — Heart of Valor!]
[Knight Skill — Sharp Combat Aura!]
A terrifying blaze of radiant fire erupted from the Knight's lance. Amid the gasps of "high-rank Knight!" from the surrounding mercenaries, the warhorse — bolstered by the Knight Skills — surged forward at breathtaking speed, catching up to the ogre chieftain in an instant.
"Hyah!"
Rafinia thrust her lance forward. The spearhead, carrying enormous momentum and laced with sharp combat aura, instantly tore through the ogre chieftain's defenses, piercing through his chest and erupting out his back. Blood rained down in a torrent!
As a tenth-rank Knight — fully equipped with armor, lance, and a warhorse — if Rafinia couldn't finish off an ogre with merely seventh- or eighth-rank warrior strength, her own teachers would jump into the river in shame.
"Well done! Who is that?"
Siegfried, watching from the sidelines, narrowed his eyes. A high-rank Knight! That was a formidable class of professional, and it usually implied a wealthy background — after all, not just anyone could afford to keep a Knight in their employ.
"They don't belong to any mid-sized mercenary company. They're a free agent!"
Beside him, the mage cloaked in dark robes from head to toe let his gaze flicker.
"A free agent, hm? It seems there's plenty of talent lurking in the lower ranks after all. Send someone to make contact later!"
Siegfried stroked his chin, quite curious about the newcomer's identity.
The mage gave a noncommittal nod.
"So this is what the legendary ogres amount to?"
Rafinia hoisted the corpse of the previous ogre chief onto her lance tip, and her cheerful voice rang out from behind the helmet — though Lin Lei could still detect a hint of hidden unease and trembling beneath it.
"Hey, hey… shouldn't you put me down first?"
"Oh! You're still here?!"
Sure enough, in the heat of her charge, Rafinia had completely forgotten about Lin Lei. It was only now that she recalled there was someone else on the horse behind her.
At the same time, Lin Lei also heard her muttering under her breath: "This is terrible, terrible… so dirty… I'm never using this spear again…"
He could only roll his eyes speechlessly at this clueless individual.
……
Despite Rafinia's last-minute intervention, the battle still progressed overwhelmingly in the caravan's favor. Especially after she charged in and cut down the ogre chieftain, the remaining ogres fled in a panic, vanishing into the dense roadside shrubbery in the blink of an eye — much to the disappointment of the mercenaries who had been counting on their bounty.
Rafinia, having earned her share of the credit, seemed somewhat dazed and barely acknowledged the people the Pale Hawk had sent. In the end, it was Lin Lei who stepped forward to exchange a few words with them.
When Rafinia returned to her own convoy, she was met with awestruck gazes from everyone else. On any normal day, this young lady would have been insufferably smug about it.
But this time, the first thing she did upon returning was to hurl away the iron spear drenched in ogre blood and stench, then retreat alone into the Hera sisters' carriage. Faint sounds of retching could be heard, and Lin Lei figured she probably needed some time to get over it.
Old dwarf Bam picked up yet another bargain, scooping up the discarded spear and storing it away as though it were a treasure.
When he learned that the ogre ears had also been abandoned by the dirt-averse Rafinia, old Bam beat his chest and stamped his feet for quite a while, even cursing Lin Lei as a wastrel on the same level.
His level of greed once made Lin Lei wonder whether old Bam might have some dragon blood in his ancestry.
"Hahahaha… if those ogres come back, old Bam will show them what my firegun can do — hic!"
Old Bam clutched the rum bottle with both hands, letting out occasional hiccups, his face flushed with excitement.
After defeating the ogres, the entire caravan resumed its journey. But this time, everyone's mood had settled considerably, and the earlier fear was gone — after their first encounter, they had discovered that ogres weren't all that frightening. They were strong, yes, but they could bleed and be wounded just the same, and their heads could even be severed and kept as trophies.
With the fear dissipating, all manner of thoughts began to stir, and even the Hera sisters wore a few more smiles on their faces.
"How predictable…"
Lin Lei shook his head at the sight, then felt a flicker of doubt cross his mind.
"Why does something about this group of ogres feel off? It's almost as if they were using… a ruse to lull us into complacency?! That's ridiculous!!! With brains like theirs, how could they possibly come up with something like that? Maybe it's just a coincidence… No, wait — the rumored two-headed ogres or ogre shamans might actually possess that level of intelligence…"
"If that's really the case, then things are about to get interesting…"
A meaningful smile crept across the corner of Lin Lei's mouth.