A human and an imposing orc king were staring at one another in the castle room. 

The latter held promise stone dust and was even scattering it on the floor while grinning. 

Why did this feel like part of a funeral ceremony? Would this guy soon do the same with Josh’s ashes? How could this orc look so intimidating while sitting down? 

Looking at his face, it was clear that he had everything under control. The monster calmly spoke, but it sounded like a deep growl: 

“I’m surprised you managed to disguise yourself so well, human. I always thought the shaman to be a pretty conniving one, but you certainly have him beat by far. How did you get rid of him?” 

“I’m still alive, just barely. You see the thing is—”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to answer. Rak’SHA, show me how well you can fight.” The orc king instructed. 

That’s when the elite guard nearby came forward. His metallic armor reflected the light of the nearby torches. He seemed eager to obey the order as he strode forward.

His armor looked really sturdy, close to a full plate, and would prove to be a pain for sure except the head part. For some reason, he didn’t have a helmet. 

“Hehe, it’s time to die, human. One does not walk into an orc fortress and come out in one piece.” He taunted but then added. “Actually, I really hope you are the shaman. It would make things even more interesting!” 

Josh was now confronted with a dilemma. Should he copy the shaman’s fighting style and argue it was all a misunderstanding or not? Hell, could the stones of promise even be defective? Hard to tell. 

But then the enemy charged forward, bastard sword first. At that moment, Josh realized he couldn’t afford to slack off.

Out of the muscular green monster came powerful cries as he did his best to reduce him to mush. 

— ROAR! — 

— Slash! — 

Every time Josh barely avoided the sword, the floor would explode where he had been a second ago. Even his regeneration would be 100% useless against this guy.

A single hit would render him incapable of fighting back, akin to his idol, the black knight. But it wouldn’t be just a scratch as he’d lose half his body at least. 

“Die! Die! Die!” 

As his adversary attacked madly, Josh counterattacked! He sent a spear straight for the creature’s head. The reach was enough, but it was stopped by a glowing red fucking forcefield around the guy’s head. 

He hurriedly retreated, almost losing an arm in the process. Fucking hell! This wasn’t even from a direct hit! 

Blood began gushing as it hung low on his side. It was completely unusable, but his regeneration was already activating. 

“Hahahaha, weakling! How do you like that! I have already disabled your left arm. What will you do now?” 

“Use my right arm. It’s fine. It’s stronger than my left one anyway.” Josh spat out in what appeared to be false bravado. 

They kept fighting. The big guy was unable to hit the human but was too resistant to be damaged. But, the more it went and the better the orc got at parrying the blows. He was also staying on the human’s left side to exploit his injury. 

Yet Josh was internally grinning. He was waiting for the perfect moment to use the enemy’s “cleverness” against him. Hell, looking closely, there was now a tiny stick hidden in his left sleeve. 

He was very slowly channeling mana through it, so slowly in fact that it went unnoticed. He would soon be ready for the killing blow. 

But that’s when the orc king guffawed, his laughter interrupting the fight. 

“Hehe, talk about interesting! The human’s arm is already healed, yet he still isn’t using it to fight. Then there is the way his sleeve moves. It seems so rigid. It’s as if he’s hiding something thin long, and hard in there. A weapon, perhaps?” 

The elite orc warrior jumped in surprise as he took a few steps back warily. Seriously, the human’s arm was healed?! How hadn’t he noticed?! 

Josh could only click his tongue. Wasn’t this guy way too perceptive for an orc? Guess the stereotypes picturing orcs as powerful and dumb weren’t all true. Perhaps it was the effect of the king title? 

Either way, Josh didn’t like this. The Boss had yet to make a move himself and had only commented about the events so far. How deep in shit would he be if he had to fight the two of them at once? 

But that wasn’t all. While most had been dealt with, there remained plenty of orcs outside this place. 

If he retreated right now, he would be hunted for sure. If he stayed, he wasn’t sure he could even do anything. No matter how he looked at it, this was a very troublesome situation. 

The orc king spoke again: 

“I truly understand how the shaman fell right now. He probably underestimated him just like you did. Killing someone who isn’t wary is especially easy.” He chuckled. 

The elite orc couldn’t help but be so grateful to his leader, who had so nicely warned him. He turned his head, bowing his head in the King’s direction. It was a very subtle gesture, and he was too far away for Josh to exploit it— or so he thought. 

Josh wouldn’t miss such an opportunity. He tried an experiment: he visualized the stick activating, hopefully bypassing the chant. That’s when he felt his mana surge even faster into the stick. It was working! 

Before the elite orc even realized what was happening, a grass golem had materialized and thrown weed tentacles at him to restrain him! Would a proud and mighty orc warrior get stopped by so little? No way! 

He roared once more as his muscles began bulging. Then with a powerful movement, he freed himself. 

— Roar! — 

— Scratch! — 

The vines instantly got destroyed. This guy was even more effective than a goddamn industrial-grade lawnmower! 

Orc 1 

Grass Golem 0 

But did Josh care about the result? Nope, he had only been trying to buy time. Actually, he wasn’t just buying time. There was something he had been waiting to try for a while now. 

— ZOOOOOM! — 

The elite orc watched in stupefaction as the human suddenly charged over at an incredible speed. 

Josh made sure to handle his spear perfectly. This wasn’t just a gap close. Nope, he would use all that kinetic energy from his movement and turn it into force to propel his spear.

Then came the clash! 

— Kacha! — 

Everyone expected the spear to bounce back on the semi-visible red aura. Not this time. Not this fucking time. 

There was something profoundly different about the spear. There was a deep purple aura surrounding the tip. It gave it an overwhelming and fantastically deadly look. Then there was the killing intent. 

The grass barely did anything, but it held the orc in place long enough for Josh to plunge his weapon deep into the creature’s skull. 

It fell with a thud, its large headless body falling to the ground. But, Josh was left panting, trying to regain his breath.

— Clap! Clap! Clap! — 

The orc King began clapping, a sardonic smile adorned on his face: 

“Truly a great show. Whatever you did right there sure was effective. He never saw it coming and ended up impaled. Not many are able to beat the elite warriors.”

He seemed so relaxed and so casual about all this. This orc king would have been the perfect antagonist in a dark, fantasy drama, especially with the skull throne. 

“Now what? Do you wish to surrender? I have never had a human serve me before. Perhaps it could be interesting. Of course, you will have to swear allegiance to me.” He proposed. 

Josh couldn’t help but freeze. If this was the result of the new update…what kind of tragedy had he brought the world? Would it be possible for humans to be enslaved by monsters from now on? Then again, this was Hellish difficulty. 

But there was one thing he was wondering: 

“I’m afraid I’ll have to refuse. You see, I already am busy enough as is. You know, with climbing the Tower and all.” Josh uttered, holding his breath. 

Would the orc react to the Tower keyword? Did they know that they were nothing but creatures existing in a trial meant for humanity? He waited patiently, but the orc didn’t especially react. 

“Is that so? You humans sure are weird. Busy with a tower when you could be building fortresses instead. Talk about a primitive race, haha!” 

What was the world becoming? In all the stories, the humans were the ones looking down on the orcs for their lack of technology, and here there was one casually giving him building advice. 

“Well, enjoy sitting on your skull throne. I have some stuff to do, talk later!” Josh amicably waved as he began walking away. 

At this point, there was no point running. The orc king seemed pretty amused by his actions and simply watched him leave— for now. 

Josh was getting ready to use his Zoom set to the very limit. While he was underground, he wouldn’t really be able to use Nightmare either and was on his own. 

As for the stick, it probably wouldn’t even be able to buy time. After all, it had barely worked against the low-level subordinate. This apex orc wouldn’t even flinch. 

Josh thought he was ready for anything but quickly realized that he hadn’t been. 

“Alright, talk later.” The orc king slowly uttered while chuckling. 

But a second later, he waved his hand, and a brilliant white light suddenly formed a chain linking them both. Josh tried to evade it, but it was impossible. That’s when the orc king spoke again: 

“This is a duel promise. In 11 hours, you will die, no matter where you hide, even if it’s another world. We shall see each other soon indeed.” 

Oh fuck! Since when could orc kings use magic?! …

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[A/N] Lots of new stuff in the new Tower update, especially for Hellish difficulty. What do you guys think of this development?