“Hell orc!” Zarian roared.


    “Its axes are legendary and covered in high-quality enchantments!” Hannah let loose volleys of frost beams from her little orbital golems. Each strike left patches of ice on the hell orc’s big and hard body as it swung its axes down on Naomi. “It’s safe to assume it has a legendary ss while empowered by the energies of hell!”


    “This bastard can hit worth a damn!” Gilbert lunged into the way between Naomi and the hell orc. An array of colors from Unified Monk Force +2 covered his body as he soaked another colossal hit with his shield. This time, he stayed on his feet. “Take the juice, Naomi!”


    The Knighted Healer used his Adrenaline Jolt +2 on the Rumble Scion, coating her with a red arcane ssh. The intense buff seeped into her flesh and muscles, pushing her already powerful body even further to the zenith and beyond.


    Naomi let out a strident battle cry, like an amazon warrior going berserk.


    She dashed around to the sides andnded a kick behind the hell orc’s knee. The big, tough brute dropped, kneeling well within range of Naomi’s fast and brutal punches to the side of its face.


    The hell orc seemed to feel the hits more, swaying away from the Rumble Psion. But it couldn’t get away fully.


    Gilbert moved to the other side and used his shield to shove the hell orc back into Naomi’s thundering pistons for fists. Gilbert also used Tranquilizer Touch +2 to pacify the orc some more.


    Blood, spittle, and teeth flew loose from the hell orc’s big and squarish mouth.Encouraged, Naomi kept pounding the orc’s face with a mix of quick punches and heavy haymakers covered in thunder and lightning.


    The hell orc stayed dazed, but alive, mostly reliant on its extreme supply of vitality and its immense toughness. But that only prolonged its death.


    Zarian saw no way for it to get back to fighting while Naomi punched, Gilbert tranquilized, and Hannah iced. The little orbital golems kept shooting frost beams from within the orbit of Hannah or flew around on their own for better angles.


    Zarian and the others stayed on guard, and for good reason, because more hell orcs charged out of the opposite tunnel. There were two this time, and they had simr features to the first.


    Zarian didn’t see the telltale signs of corruption with these hell orcs just yet, which was worrying. The hell orcs were already strong at the baseline of their abilities. Much, much stronger than the monsters from the Chimera Tyrant Lair.


    But that made the hell orcs the perfect test subjects.


    As Naomi, Gilbert, and some of Hannah’s flying golems worked on the first hell orc, everyone turned on the second. The Floridians were more prepared, too, with arcane webbing stretching taut at the ankles of the two new hell orcs.


    The webbing had enchantments on them that raised their sharpness and toughness, forcing the hell orcs into a minor stumble. The webbing was, however, not enough to stop them.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The hell orcs kept charging, releasing a burst of energy that sent them flying like rockets. But that split second of dy from the spider webbing gave Bianca enough time to line up her aim.


    She hit the hell orcs with Searing sh Array +3 and Shining Mark +2 in one blinding re.


    The hell orcs screamed in pain and rage. They rocketed blindly, their smoky bodies illuminated by Bianca’s mark, making them easy targets while dimming their evil prowess.


    Thatst feature became more important as Hannah fired her cannons and elemental frost beams on the second hell orc. The damage turned out more effective than expected.


    The second hell orc lost some fingers and a chunk of flesh off its shoulder before plowing into the dining table near Bianca’s foot.


    The third hell orc barreled near Loner and Slip, the former sting out concussive waves of force and darkness from his fists while riding on the back of thetter, who bounded out of the way. The duo stayed shifty on Slip’s hooves while Loner’s attacks shoved the hell orc into a segment of the dining table near Zarian.


    The Madness Wizard and his Parasite Cloak +3 were about to unleash their new wizardry technique when they felt a spike of energying from the fight with Naomi and Gilbert facing the first hell orc.


    A shockwave of aura pushed out before more aura belonging to Hidden Hell rushed in. Naomi and Gilbert cussed as they got thrown back by a nearly dead hell orc with a massive fireball of aura burning around its big juggernaut body.


    “Well fuck us sideways, the damn hell orcs have Aura Ignition!” Zarian yelled before dishing out orders. “Naomi, Gilbert, stay on the first! Hannah, try to kill the second one before it ignites its aura! Bianca, sh that first one and runsers on all three. Loner, Slip, with me.”


    Zarian didn’t need to talk. They could rely on impressions through the spiderwork.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences elsewhere.


    But it was calming to hear his voice in the middle of the chaos. He noticed how everyone responded to that more positively, even the summons.


    It was also easier to put more of his resources into High Rune Mindframe +2 regardless of their emotions running hot. The skill buffed the mental speed and critical thought processing for all five Floridians.


    Both Zarian and Para liked that a lot. They needed all the smart enhancements they could get as theyyered spells together, choosing to unite their Aura Mastery and free evil +4 wizardry, doubling their effectiveness and output.


    The third hell orc was getting back to its feet as Zarian’s and Para’s right handsbined two casts of ck Fire with Aura Mastery, which changed the ck and gray mes to all ck. Zarian’s and Para’s left handsbined two casts of Torturous Lightning with Aura Mastery, which turned the red-orange electricity into bright red.


    That was four spells shared between them, which the duo could pull off easily. But fusing their aura with the spells to alter their function was only possible because of all the training from the past two months.


    What did that lead to?


    Zarian and Para could now use Aura Mastery to make their non-damage spells deliver direct damage.


    It hadn’t urred to Zarian that this was possible when he reviewed the new spells before Operation Save The Cook. It was while making their way down here Zarian and Para had an eureka moment.


    All of Ruvaria’s teachings and their own aura training had prepared them for this.


    From their right, the duo thrust out their ck mes. The fiery torrent came out silently as it engulfed the hell orc and devoured its vitality with a ravenous hunger. The ck mes also applied actual burn damage, feasting on the flesh, giving off enough heat for even Zarian to feel.


    The burn damage didn’t seem to faze the hell orc as much, but the thunderous force applied to the red lightninging from the duo’s left demanded more respect.


    With a resounding p, the lightning struck the hell orc’s chest and knocked it backward. The lightning sank into its body and lit up the hell orc with torturous pain. Most people would’ve keeled over or shut down on the spot.


    The hell orc, however, stopped itself from falling over. It stood its ground even while it suffered under the cruel red lightning and the fiendish ck me.


    Worst yet, the hell orc looked like it was going to use Aura Ignition, but Loner and Slip bounded near for a drive-by st of force and darkness against the orc’s back. Bianca assisted, shooting down several forceful and bright torrents of light like a towering sentry turret.


    Zarian kept up the DPS while staying aware of the others.


    Naomi and Gilbert fought like hell against thest dying embers of a berserk hell orc with Aura Ignition.


    Hannah used all her cannons and golems to st down the second hell orc. She mixed various elemental types such as force, lightning, and ice to keep her hell orc under pressure and distracted whilending more cannon shots.


    Bianca assisted everyone with shots and shes of light. She refreshed Shining Mark +2 on the hell orcs, debuffing their evil prowess.


    <em>Not fast enough</em>, Zarian thought, sensing they needed to knock down one before more arrived. <em>Let’s push, Para.</em>


    “Into hell, we rage and rage, bringing doom until we are what the wicked fear most!” Para said aloud from her serpent mouths, for herself and the others to hear.


    Zarian grinned as he stepped forward. He and Para kept up the Aura Mastery fusions of Torturous Lightning and ck Fire. With wicked mes and lightning pouring out from their many hands, the duo moved into a position between close and midrange.


    Zarian added Void Authority and Void Acid into the mix, making dark void droplets appear from above the second hell orc. With every drop of Void Acid, a piece of the hell orc would get ripped away and thrown into the void.


    Para cast Void Authority, Void Layer, and Bloody Lifesteal on her lengthiest tentacles with heavy spikes of bone on the end, which made them glow with a ssy and ephemeral ckness.


    They still hadn’t finished upgrading Bloody Lifesteal yet, and the Aura Mastery version of Bloody Lifesteal wasn’t all that special. But Void Layer + Bloody Lifesteal turned Para’s whipping tentacle strikes from being physical to being almost spiritual.


    Each cracking snap phased in and out of the hell orc’s body and struck its life energy. It was there, Zarian saw their most effective tactic.


    The hell orc screamed in a way that was new and more frightened than before.


    It was as if the cloak of the Madness Wizard had vited something that was sacred to the hell orc. So much so, the creature showed an ounce of fear. Zarian and Para both wanted to feast on the hell orc’s fear.


    It was a shame that void lifesteal sent the energy into the void instead of absorbing it directly into Zarian. But finding a true weak spot in the hell orcs was worth the loss of steble energy.


    Better yet, the tide changed swiftly.


    Naomi and Gilbert finally killed the first hell orc. They joined Hannah and Bianca who focused on the second hell orc, attempting to kill it before it used Aura Ignition.


    Zarian and Para had Loner and Slip bounding in and throwing out dark sts from behind the third hell orc.


    Assaulted from all sides, the third hell orc switched from fearing to raging. It tried to trigger Aura Ignition, but it was toote.


    The void acid ate into its skull and forced it to pause. In the next moment, the hell orc’s vitality gave out and the ck mes snuffed away, its main purposeplete.


    Aura Mastery + Torturous Lightning pulverized the hell orc’s hulking eight-foot body, making it copse into a pile of shattered bones, burnt flesh, and torn up muscles. It was still alive until Para whipped its life energy one more time and broke the tethers holding its soul.


    Only then did the creature die fully, with a haunting and hellish howl that was more ghoulish than physical. A phantasmal eruption released a chorus of many gibbering and guttural voices. They quickly faded before Zarian or Para could fully grasp what that meant in the supernatural sense.


    The physical death took things a step further by turning the remains into ash and charred remnants. The hell orc’s dual axes turned into useless rust kes and a puddle of rapidly cooling metal, leaving nothing worthwhile to scavenge.


    The same had happened with the first hell orc.


    Zarian and Para ended their many spell casts and conducted a survey of things. His aura was okay because of the Summon Wizard Hat +3, Zarian’s Aura Magnificence, and Hannah’s Aura Generator. The others were up and alive, finishing up the second hell orc.


    They killed it before it could use Aura Ignition.