A lone human escaped from the fortress, followed by the evil laughter of the orc king. 

None dared to stop Josh. After all, he still had the shaman’s appearance and had just come out of the king’s place alive. They all wrongly assumed that he was in their leader’s good graces. 

As soon as he was out, Josh slowly found a tranquil spot to reflect on the previous events. 

The orc king had cursed him with some weird spell linking them bother together. According to his claims, in 11 hours, he would die except if he were to challenge him. Was it true? Was it a bluff? He had no goddamn clue!

The white glow was gone, but he could feel that the white and sticky magical spell now stuck to his soul. Whatever it did, it wouldn’t be so easy to get rid of it. Josh probably had two options ahead of him: 

1. Find a way to dispel the magic. Was this even possible? It probably wasn’t easy since the shaman used to obey the orc king. 

2. Kill the caster and hope it fixes everything. After all, he had said something about it being some dueling magic. 

Now, how was he supposed to kill that creature? Josh had found dealing with the elite soldier troublesome already. He would 100% lose if they were to fight directly— except if he could somehow become stronger. 

Was that even possible? 

Josh slowly took out his wind blade manual, skimming through it one more time. If only he could master this, then perhaps he would be fine. He went to sit atop one of the large living boulders. He had no idea what it was, but it was peaceful enough. 

Josh slowly began meditating, feeling the wind and trying to understand it on a fundamental level, making sure to circulate his mana all across his body. 

After a few hours of relentlessly sensing the wind and practicing hard, Josh finally….got fucking tired of sitting on his ass­. It seemed that no matter what he tried, it wasn’t working. 

He could only sigh deeply, finally resolving himself to using plan B. Well, there was a reason why it wasn’t his plan A. Once he proceeded with it, there would be no turning back. It would likely be a one-way road to pandemonium. 

He quickly summoned Nightmare. 

“Neigh” (Disapproval) 

“I know, but we’re in deep horse shit right now. Here’s what I need you to do.” Josh slowly whispered instructions to the horse. 

“Neigh?!” (Fear) 

It couldn’t talk, but the meaning of its reaction was evident. It was thinking: “Are you crazy?! We’re gonna die!” 

“Perhaps we will, but we’ll die fighting. I currently have a deadly curse on me. What do you think will happen to you once your master dies? I believe in you. You can do this.” 

Josh slowly encouraged the very reluctant pet. He could understand its fears: they were perfectly natural. 

But, it still had to comply, leaving for its new mission. The faster they assassinated the orc king and the faster they would be back to safety, 

Josh remained behind, busying himself with his own task. 

He grabbed his True pickaxe and got to work. However, this time, he wouldn’t be bringing down the fortress itself. After all, a recent Tower update had increased the toughness of the rocks. 

He would opt for a more modest plan. It was time to create a temporary hideout that would allow him to survive what was to come. As for where to do it, he had the perfect place in mind, one that no one would check. 

Josh quickly finished on his side, then waiting for Nightmare to be in position….

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

A poor Nightmare was currently cursing its master non-stop in its head. 

Why did it have to do something so dangerous?! This didn’t make any sense. Nightmares were meant to gallop, not to fight, well, at least in its opinion. Things had turned so wrong ever since it had met this guy. 

Then it reached its destination. It was a border made out of bone, where they were not long ago. This danger zone was incredibly deadly and filled with monstrous panthers, which somehow looked similar to itself. 

They had the same body shade, similar spikes, and were really fast too, faster even. The difference was that the big cats were predators by nature. Their whole reason to live was to hunt. 

Nightmare took unsteady steps as it approached the bone barrier. What it was about to do was truly insane. As it stepped forward, it could sense them. They were lurking somewhere in the distance. 

It peered inside the area and began neighing as loudly as possible. It had to do this repeatedly for a few minutes, but then they appeared: the monsters. 

— Neigh! — 

Nightmare felt the terror they brought and almost wanted to chicken out, but then it remembered two things. 

1. Its master, too, could be extremely scary. 

2. As much as a bastard that he was, it was true that he had allowed it to experience the world outside the Tower. Without the insane master, it would probably have lost its soul a long time ago. 

Nightmare really wanted to run away, but it courageously stepped forward. It was time for it to play its role in its master’s plan. That’s when it powerfully kicked the bones on the ground, using as much power as possible.

— CRACK! — 

The bones were reduced to bone dust that slowly floated in the air. It had been made to counter panthers, not horses. 

There was a moment of silence with the panthers just staring at it. But then the world resumed its course as all the parties involved dashed at full speed. 

But the panthers were definitely faster. With every passing second, they caught up a little more. Nightmare knew that it would soon be over, that they would pounce on it and devour it entirely. 

It felt the wind from their leap and knew it was over. This was the end and— 

But that’s when it suddenly felt the world topple over. It suddenly realized that its master had unsummoned it just in time! This had been a close one. It then reappeared someplace else through a black portal. 

“Good job, Nightmare. There’s only the last push.” Its master reassured it with a smile. Easy for him, he wasn’t the one risking his life! 

But it could only calm down as he kept talking: “Don’t worry. You can count on me.” He seemed so confident. 

This whole thing was hard for it to understand. They were doing this to deal with an incredibly mighty enemy. Honestly, it almost couldn’t believe it. 

At first, it had even thought that its master was testing it! But then it had accepted the sad reality that there was indeed a need to do this. 

“Alright, you got this.” Its master gave it a thumb up before disappearing under one of the rock creatures, even blocking the way behind him. 

Nightmare waited in complete silence. It didn’t have a heart, but it would have been beating so fast if it had. 

That’s when they came… 

— ROAR! — 

In the distance appeared the two panthers. They had kept running in a straight line even after the chase. They had been confined for so long by the bone barrier that they were eager for food and revenge. 

Seeing them coming its way, Nightmare neighed once before rushing to the fortress. The orcs at the gate were soon utterly flabbergasted as a horse appeared from behind a rock before dashing straight through their main entrance. 

Then it became so chaotic as the panthers followed behind. They were death itself. Any orc that tried to stop them was instantly dealt with. They almost seemed as hungry as its master, and he could devour pretty much anything! 

Nightmare knew where it had to go. It needed to find the fortress hidden underneath. This was the sole mission its master had given it. It ran, it just ran, all until it found it.

How was a horse supposed to go through a trapdoor? The answer was head and hooves first! It felt itself fall quickly, but it used its ability to become more resistant right before impact. 

Half-sinking in the floor, it extricated itself, hurrying away. Nightmare gave a very loud neigh, now was the start of the countdown. It had to reach the palace room somehow. 

But, the corridor was neither flat nor straight. How was it even supposed to run in these conditions? The answer was it couldn’t— not well anyway. But no matter! It would do its best, even if it was slowed down! 

It valiantly pressed forward, hearing a loud crash behind it. 

— ROAR! — 

The enemies were here. It remembered the words of its master: 

“Now, it will feel like a horror movie but don’t stop, no matter what. They will try to devour you but keep going, and no matter what, don’t look back.” 

What was even a horror movie? It didn’t know, but it would listen to the advice. By some miracle, it managed to reach the double palace doors. This was great! 

But that’s when a towering green giant suddenly appeared in front of it. 

“Oh? What do we have here? What kind of creature is this? Ah, the big black cats are here too. This human sure is talented at creating trouble for others.” 

Nightmare couldn’t help but chuckle internally. Creating trouble was its master’s only specialty! But that’s when the orc attacked it. 

It knew that there wouldn’t be a way for it to survive the swing of the massive hammer. Enemies from all sides surrounded it and there was still time before its master was supposed to summon it back. 

It closed its eyes, knowing that this was the end, awaiting death. It felt the momentum behind the attack. It felt its body begin to break down and then— 

“I told you that you could count on me, right?” came the voice of its crazy bastard of a master. How had he even known when to summon it? Then again….it wasn’t the only thing about the man that didn’t make sense. 

Nightmare couldn’t help suddenly shiver as it saw the way its master was looking toward the fortress. He adorned an utterly evil grin, one of a man that was about to cause mayhem.

Chances were that the orc king and the big cats were now fighting. But, there would be no winner, for a slyer scheming evil was coming…