Chương 283: 283：Crossing the Bottom Line, The Brawler's Wrath

"Overlord Nak has issued a decree! Warchief Blackstone's subjugation army is breaking camp! All winter grain belonging to humans in this fortress is hereby requisitioned for military supplies!" The Orc captain raised his chin arrogantly, pointing his spiked leather whip directly at Duran's nose:"Hurry up and load it! If you delay the Warchief's military campaign to sweep the Greywater Village territory, I'll twist your head off and use it as a chamber pot!"

Hiding in the shadows, Soren's face darkened upon hearing this brazen, bandit-like extortion.

"As expected. The moment war begins, the bottom-tier civilians are the first to be bled dry." Soren activated [Eagle Eye Perception], instantly locking onto the exact positions of the Orc squad. However, he didn't immediately intervene. He intended to observe exactly where this young man named Duran's bottom line lay. At the stall, Duran clenched his fists so fiercely his knuckles popped with a sickening crunch.

But knowing the catastrophic consequences of resisting Orcs in this fortress, and thinking of his paralyzed mother at home, he forcefully swallowed the suffocating humiliation.

"Milord... Officer, sir," Duran bent his massive waist, forcing a pathetic, subservient smile onto his face, his voice pleading:"This sorghum is damp and moldy. It's not fit for the noble Orc warriors to eat. I was planning to sell this for medicine money... My mother is bedridden and paralyzed. She relies on these few coppers for medicine to survive!" Duran's hands trembled as he pulled a dirty, worn pouch from inside his thin vest. Inside clinked a dozen pitiful copper coins.

"Milord, this is my entire life savings. Please accept it as a token of my respect. Have mercy, leave me one sack... just leave me half a sack of sorghum!"

"Medicine money? Hahaha!" The Orc captain acted as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. He snatched the pouch from Duran's hands, weighed it disdainfully, and viciously threw it straight at Duran's face! Copper coins scattered across the mud.

"A blind, paralyzed old hag is worthy of wasting food and medicine?!" The Orc captain's face twisted into a sadistic sneer. He raised his heavy, iron-capped boot and delivered a brutal kick dead center into Duran's stomach. THUD! Duran's colossal frame was violently kicked two steps backward, but he bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood, refusing to fall over.

"What the hell are you staring at? Haul the grain!" The Orc captain waved two Green-skin soldiers forward, his mouth spewing venomous curses:"This brat is built like a brick wall; he definitely has good stuff hidden at home! Once you're done loading the grain, go raid his house! If that paralyzed old hag dares to make a sound, toss her directly into the streets to feed the dogs!" That single sentence was the absolute, final spark.

Duran's subservient, enduring posture vanished the very microsecond the Orc threatened his mother. In a situation with absolutely zero way out, an apocalyptic, surging killing intent violently erupted!

"You... deserve death..." Duran growled in a low, guttural roar. Just as the two Green-skin Orcs reached for the grain sacks with sadistic grins... He moved! Duran's perpetually hunched spine snapped violently straight! Beneath his thin leather vest, his muscles grotesquely engorged and bulged like writhing pythons! As a [Brawler] specializing exclusively in close-quarters bodily slaughter, his very limbs were lethal weapons! WHOOSH! A low, whistling sonic boom tore through the air.

Packing explosive leg strength, Duran executed a flawless, ruthless lateral sweep kick directly into the knee joint of a Green-skin Orc! CRACK! A crisp, sickening sound of shattering bone exploded! The right knee of the three-hundred-pound Green-skin Orc was violently, forcefully snapped backward at a grotesque, unnatural right angle!

"Aaaaargh!" Before the Orc even hit the ground, Duran's onslaught continued. Exploiting the rotational kinetic force of his waist from the kick, his left hand shot out like a steel vice, firmly locking around the Orc's thick neck! Then, his right arm muscles bulged terrifyingly—a savage uppercut packed with a lifetime of martial mastery! BOOM! A devastating impact echoed through the market. Duran's massive fist slammed brutally into the Orc's chin! The sheer kinetic force instantly pulverized the Orc's jawbone.

The overwhelming shockwave traveled straight up the skull, instantly liquefying the monster's brain! The Orc's scream abruptly cut off. His eyes rolled back, blood leaked from every orifice, and his colossal frame collapsed limply into the mud. Killed instantly! Everything happened so fast! From the moment Duran moved to the second the Orc died, only an instant had passed!

"Bastard! You dare rebel?!" The second Green-skin Orc finally snapped out of his shock. Roaring, he drew his heavy battleaxe and cleaved it viciously toward Duran's skull! Facing the savage axe strike, Duran showed absolutely zero fear. His entire body radiated a dense, suffocating aura of murder. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Just as the axe was about to fall, Duran didn't retreat; instead, he violently lunged a half-step forward, sliding perfectly inside the Orc's guard! This was a hyper-lethal, extreme close-quarters maneuver! His left hand shot out like lightning, precisely clamping onto the Orc's axe-wielding wrist and viciously twisting outward! The Orc roared in pain, the battleaxe flying from his grip. Simultaneously, Duran tucked his right elbow, transforming his shoulder into a hardened steel battering ram.

Packing staggering momentum, he delivered a devastating shoulder strike dead center into the Orc's chest! CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! A dense, horrifying symphony of fracturing bone erupted. The Orc's sternum was entirely pulverized by the tyrannical blow, the splintered ribs driving deep into his heart and lungs! PUKE! The Green-skin Orc violently vomited a massive mouthful of blood mixed with chunks of ruptured internal organs. His colossal body was launched several meters backward, crashing heavily into a wooden cart.

He twitched twice and died. The once-bustling market plunged into a deathly, suffocating silence. Within a ten-step radius, two Green-skin Orcs—boasting physiques vastly superior to any human—had been consecutively slaughtered by a barehanded human youth in a matter of seconds! Even the Orc captain standing further back was paralyzed by the sheer, unadulterated brutality of the slaughter, the hand gripping his whip trembling slightly.

"I... I killed them..." Duran stood beside the two Orc corpses, staring blankly at his own hands, which were now caked in green bodily fluids. For nearly a decade, he had meticulously hidden his martial arts, enduring every insult just to keep his mother alive. But today, he had drawn Orc blood for the very first time! In a fraction of a second, the shock of his first kill, the horror of breaking his vow of pacifism, and the apocalyptic dread of the impending retaliation flooded his mind.

He froze, momentarily lost. AWWOOOOOO! During that brief moment of hesitation, the Orc captain finally snapped out of his paralyzed terror. With a face twisted in panic, he blew the warning horn hanging around his neck! The desolate, urgent blast instantly shattered the twilight peace!

"Mutiny! A human slave murdered our warriors!"

"Guards! Surround the market!" The dense, chaotic thud of marching boots and the rabid barking of demonic tracking hounds immediately erupted from the surrounding streets. Large detachments of Orc patrols, guided by the horn, were rapidly converging on the market from every direction!

"No..." Duran's face drained of all color. He violently snapped his head toward the southern sector of the city—where his home was.

"Mother!" He pumped his legs to break out, but the Orc captain had already drawn his blade, leading over a dozen soldiers to flawlessly seal him into a dead-end alley. Just at this absolute critical, life-and-death precipice—just as Duran was about to be hacked to pieces! SWISH! SWISH! Two shrieking flashes of silver plummeted from the sky with the speed of lightning, entirely without warning! SQUELCH! Two Orc soldiers raising their blades to strike Duran had their Achilles tendons surgically severed.

Blood sprayed as they crashed to the ground.

"Who's there?!" The Orc captain looked up in terror. A lithe, agile silhouette vaulted gracefully from a two-story roof. Silver hair dancing in the wind, Lyra landed nimbly, her fingertips already locking onto three more throwing knives, radiating an icy killing intent! From the shadows of the market corner, Soren strode rapidly toward Duran. With [Eagle Eye Perception] fully active, Soren's gaze swept the area.

In micro-seconds, he had flawlessly mapped the topography of the surrounding streets, pinpointed the weak links in the encroaching Orc patrol perimeters, and calculated every single visual blind spot.

"If you don't want your mother to die under an Orc's blade, shut your mouth and move with me!" Soren grabbed the stunned Duran by the arm. His tone was absolutely authoritative, exuding the undeniable, commanding aura of a supreme warlord.

"Lord... Lord Soren?" Trapped in this absolute dead-end, seeing this legendary lord descend from the heavens instantly vaporized Duran's terror, transmuting it into the profound ecstasy of finding an invincible backer.

"Lyra, three o'clock! Deploy smoke grenade to seal the alley entrance! Cover our retreat!" Soren issued the order in a low, rapid growl. BANG! Lyra seamlessly backhanded an alchemical smoke orb onto the bluestone pavement. Thick, billowing smoke instantly erupted, completely blinding the Orc captain and his squad.

"Keep left! Hug the wall! At the third intersection ahead, there's a pile of abandoned wooden crates. It provides exactly a twelve-second patrol blind spot!" Flawlessly predicting the enemy's marching cadence and sightlines in his mind, Soren hauled Duran forward. Flanked by Lyra, the trio vanished silently into the heart of the thick smoke.