Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Orc Warlord

“I’m ranked in the top three?”
“He’s ranked in the top three?”
Chu Cheng and Sun Yu, along with the others, received messages from their respective homeroom teachers almost simultaneously, each reacting differently.
After a brief silence, Sun Yu and Pan Yue exchanged glances, but neither spoke for a long while.
“He truly is our greatest threat.”
“This operation must succeed. If we can successfully prevent the orcs’ decapitation tactic, it will be the pivotal variable to shift the course of battle—at the very least a five-star storyline rating. That way, even at school, we can overshadow Chu Cheng.”
...
“It seems the first worship reputation really boosted my score; otherwise, I couldn’t possibly be neck-and-neck with them.”
“With both sides ranked the same, to outshine them, I must earn a five-star rating in this storyline.”
“But that’s still not safe. They’re definitely aiming for a five-star rating as well, and they must be confident.”
Chu Cheng understood clearly: for Sun Yu and the others to achieve a five-star rating in this scenario, they had only one chance—to thwart the orcs’ decapitation tactic.
But knowing is one thing; he couldn’t stop them.
He had to stay on the front line and couldn’t influence the central command.
Even if he could, there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t sabotage their efforts just to hinder them—that would hurt both sides and only benefit others.
“All comes down to skill,”
Chu Cheng was full of confidence.
He looked up just as a club came crashing down toward his face. Yet, the force couldn’t even break through the spatial refraction crystal wall; when it landed, he felt nothing but a slight sensation, devoid of pain.
The immense force was transformed by his spatial refraction talent into a sharp spatial wave blade, sweeping across the battlefield and felling another unlucky group of orcs.
It was simple—unadorned and direct.
With his mass slaughter of orcs on the right flank, the already advantaged human side gained further momentum, pushing the battle line toward the orc side.
Seeing this, Chu Cheng advanced as well.
Using his overwhelming strength, he forcibly pushed aside the orcs around him, squeezing into the heart of the orc army.
He surged forward a hundred meters in one breath, then again...
“Blood Axe Tribe! Press forward with your men!”
“Barhammer Tribe, where have your people gone? Why can’t you hold the line?”
“Blood Spear Tribe, your...”

A great, roaring voice issuing orders drew Chu Cheng’s attention. He quickly turned, leapt up, and locked onto a group of towering orcs beneath a cluster of battle standards behind him.
His gaze was instantly drawn to the figure at the center—a robust, red-skinned orc of exceptional stature.
Gruo (Terrifying): Orc Warlord, level 45, 38,000 HP.
“Orc Warlord? The left flank commander!”
A sharp light flashed in Chu Cheng’s eyes, and an idea formed.
He gauged the distance and maximized the dispersion of his reflected damage, then saw several elite orc guards not far from the warlord stagger.
“Not close enough!”
He decisively shoved aside the orcs in front of him, forcing his way deeper into the horde.
He dashed forward more than forty meters, until he saw the warlord, who was loudly issuing commands, suddenly clutch his chest at the appearance of a bloodstain. The warlord’s blood-red beast eyes turned and locked precisely onto Chu Cheng, a murderous intent surging in his gaze. His thick finger pointed directly at Chu Cheng:
“Kill him!”
The surrounding orcs instantly surged toward Chu Cheng, as though injected with adrenaline.
This was just what he wanted. He fixed his reflection target on the orc warlord and the tribal chiefs nearby, tagging them with a spatial marker.
Even without his eyes, he could sense the marker’s position clearly.
As before, the dense attacks didn’t harm him in the slightest, but eighty or ninety meters away, the tribal chiefs and warlord were howling in pain, sliced by spatial blades.
After only two rounds, the chiefs couldn’t take it any longer; they raised their weapons and forced their way through the crowd to attack him.
Chu Cheng saw this early but made no move, silently counting in his heart.
“One round...”
“Two rounds...”
...
“Nine rounds...”
A transparent prompt appeared at the corner of his vision:
“...Your spatial refraction talent triggers, reflecting 56 points of pure damage to the Blood Axe Tribe Chief.”
“...Your spatial refraction talent triggers, reflecting 56 points of pure damage to the Blood Axe Tribe Chief.”
“...”
“The damage you inflicted exceeds the target’s remaining life. The target has died!”
“You receive 1,258 kill experience points.”

This was the experience gained from the prompt. In addition, the Blood Axe Tribe Chief was a level 36 elite boss, granting him 1 point.
Three seconds later, at the tenth round of reflection, he instantly received six kill notifications, gaining a surge of kill experience and six points.
“Perfect!”
All as he predicted.
No need to dodge at all; in such a packed environment, these bosses were dead before they could even reach him.
The orc soldiers kept up their frenzied attacks, oblivious to the fact that their chiefs had just been killed by their own reflected blows.
They lacked the warlord's strength and couldn't instantly pinpoint the source of the spatial blades. As long as he controlled the reflected blades not to hit them, they would never realize how many of their own they'd slain; they simply fought on, unaware.
“This is overpowered!”
Chu Cheng even had time to wipe away a bead of sweat—pure excitement.
Because, upon seeing the bosses fall, the warlord did not retreat, but instead, enraged, lifted his weapon and charged himself.
That was the orc way: defiance met with force.
The stronger the enemy, the more it fired them up—not your enemy’s death, but your own, and nothing in between.
Chu Cheng’s excitement stemmed from this; the warlord’s fury was the opportunity he needed.
This time, he couldn’t stay in place. The warlord wasn’t like the minor chiefs. Based on the centaur chief he’d killed before—a level 34 terrifying template with physique and strength over a hundred—the warlord, at level 45 and with a warlord’s title, must be incomparably powerful.
If the foot soldiers couldn’t stop him, they certainly couldn’t block an enraged warlord.
Boom!
A series of heavy footsteps drew near, and the crowd was thrown into chaos as the warlord’s hulking figure pressed forward, trampling orcs aside with every stride.
His immense physique, vitality, and murderous intent blended together, forming a faint crimson flame rising from his back—a truly terrifying aura.
But Chu Cheng was not intimidated.
He slowly extended a middle finger in the warlord’s direction, then turned and pushed through the orcs toward another side.
The effect of his accessory, Centaur's Blood, had long since reached its full stack. His strength was now at 143—still not quite as high as the warlord’s, but not far off. The ordinary orcs posed no obstacle to him.
Their intercepting attacks only fed a constant stream of spatial blades, slashing at the warlord.
“You chase, I run!”
Chu Cheng fought as he retreated, occasionally stopping to make a provocative gesture, stoking the warlord’s rage and locking his hatred firmly in place.