BONUS Chapter left = 6 🤣
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“How about you, dears? Do you want to be the version of yourself that you want to be?”
The Orcs roared, baring their teeth and tusks while some were getting cold feet at the turn of events. The Old Orcs knew the tales of old about the Old Hag, while the younger generations lacked the teaching from their parents about the dangers of aggravating the cynical Old Witch.
“Don’t listen to a word it said,” Orakh warned, “Failure to mistake her kooky nature for benevolence is a mistake you don’t live to repeat . . . so keep your guard up in her presence.
“No worries . . . I like my body as it is,” Ren said meaningfully.
Ren saw how Orakh’s face changed from seriousness to confusion and dread. The head warrior Orc was silent while his team was arguing with the Old Hag.
“Hmm . . . if you’re not here to ask for your wish . . . then . . .” The Old Hag paused, hanging her sentence on purpose before she snickered and pointed her ladle against them.
“Then all of you will become my experiments!”
A pinkish beam shot forth from the Old Hag’s ladle and quickly covered a wide area from where the Orcs were located.
The sudden wave caught Evie and Ragnar off guard. More like they were shocked that giant pink hearts bubbled over the beam. That was, without a doubt, the [Charm] spell.
The others gasped. Ragnar and Evie’s LCK weren’t high to combat that [Charm] spell. If it hit, then that was it. They would be under the Hag’s control.
Everyone really thought that they would become the Old Hag’s experiment until flashes of white light formed as a barrier around Ren and the others, and it nulled the pinkish beams. The hearts sparkled and bubbled before they disappeared.
Looking through the blinding light, they saw Draki raise something in the air. It was a talisma. A saving item that Sharina gifted to him, blessed by the shaman, Zukulum.
However, after the spell, the barrier broke together with Draki’s talisma. It was a one-time saving grace, and after that . . .
“Ehehehehe.” The Old Hag’s laughter pierced the stillness, and everyone’s hearts thudded when its grin almost ripped its face.
“Don’t worry . . . I won’t kill you. I’ll have you all try my new potions, freshly brewed in my cauldron.”
While the Witch was busy talking, Orakh was giving out instructions. Nobody knew if he was simply brave to face the Old Hag or if he was faking it, as evident by how his voice almost broke.
“Split up. Gruda, Haki! You two find the exit. The rest, stall the Witch and protect Draki!”
“I don’t need protection!” Draki roared and pulled from the group. He stormed towards the Old Hag with his axe in hand.
“Draki!”
“Ehehehe. Here comes my first patient.”
The Old Hag’s DEF was low, and an Orcish might was enough to break her high HP.
The Old Hag stood still, wasn’t even thinking of evading the Orc’s attack like it was nothing. The grin on her face never disappeared like the Orc before her was simply a kid playing hero with a wooden axe.
Draki’s irritation surged, and he bashed down his weapon, shattering something, but it wasn’t the Old Hag’s neck – it was the sturdy body of a Golem, the Old Hag’s minions.
Draki’s strike with his fist and legs before another slash produced a solid but dull thud as his axe rammed into the Golem’s rocky physique.
But no matter how hard he tried to kill the Golem and kill the Witch behind its protection, his strike seemed useless as the Golem’s HP didn’t even half. Its defense was extremely high that even his STR wasn’t a match.
It was only when Draki realized the horrors of his actions. He briefly looked over at his clan members. Because of him, they might die here, and his mother wouldn’t even know where to collect their corpses.
The Old Hag laughed as it gave a [Bev-Rage] potion to the Golem. The Golem’s eyes flashed red, and it let out a deafening roar. The layers of rocks in its body trembled, and those rocks turned to boulders, doubling its size.
Its STR and DEF temporarily doubled. And with just its fist, it sent Draki flying like he was nothing but a sack of trash.
“Draki! Quick Heal him!” Orakh and the warriors faced the Golem while the others tried their best to kill the Witch. At the same time, the two Orcs were searching for the exit.
On the other hand, Ren instructed Evie to cast [Phantasmal Distortion] while he instructed Ragnar to ensure that Draki and Orakh remain alive at all costs.
“I better not die here,” said Ragnar.
“No worries. The Old Hag doesn’t plan on killing us. She said it herself. And if she really wanted to kill us, she could have done so within seconds in the beginning.”
Ragnar wasn’t sure if that was good news. “Good to know.”
“Just don’t attack it.”
Attack it? Ragnar wanted to laugh. What would a second-digit damage do against a six-digit HP? He would only get in the way. So the best course of action here was to give [High Potions] to the Orcs to make sure that their Health Bar wouldn’t reduce to zero.
The Old Hag wasn’t a world boss. She was Hidden Boss, one which required the Orcs, or special event, or specific ATP to reach its lair. Ren was aware of it, and it wasn’t the right time to kill it. If he killed her now, then the Cauldron of Wonders would be lost forever.
The Cauldron of Wonders would only drop to a practitioner of Alchemy and no one else. And right now, he wasn’t an Alchemist, yet.
The Old Hag cast another spell, and this time it was [Flesh to Stone] one that would incapacitate them. The Old Hag was determined to turn them into its experiments, and luckily, most evaded the beam, and Ren, Evie, and Ragnar were one of them as well as Orakh and Draki.
Some Orcs weren’t lucky, and they quickly turned sides after the Old Hag fed them her potions. They couldn’t move, so all they could do was roar in helplessness as the potions ran through their throat.
The others couldn’t do anything, too, since they were occupied with the Golem. Not to mention that the Witch was so slippery because it could appear and disappear within a blink in any part of its domain.
Their group numbers quickly turned half while the Old Hag’s army only increased.
It took one long, agonizing minute before the Orcs managed to kill the Golem. And only because the [Bev-Rage] lost its effect and the Golem weakened greatly for the Orcs to finish it.
Draki really thought that they could kill the Witch and gain whatever items she had when his hope evaporated to dust at the appearance of dozens of more Golems. Not to mention the Orcs who switched sides and now were eying them like fresh meat to butcher.
The situation was not in their favor.
The Old Hag laughed so hard its mouth opened like it would swallow a whole head of an Orc.
“Ahahahaha! Struggle all you want. But the outcome is clear! It’s either you succumb to your faith in becoming my experiment, or you suffer before you become my experiment. Either way, both choice works for me.”