“This isn’t a fight you can win, so I’ll take charge while we’re here.” After those words, ImAnOrc steps forward and takes the lead of our group.

  Since some time ago, ImAnOrc has been a common topic among battle enthusiasts, most of which end up, due to their amazing innate skill and the exclusive faction skills, using an orc Champion. He has competed with the top pyers for honor and achieved a few victories. Sure, he won only because they agreed to use Champions with identical stats, he wouldn’t have won otherwise because of the level difference, but this proves how strong he is.

  ImAnOrc might not be the best when it comes to Dungeon Invasions or Dungeon Battles because he sucks at designing monsters, but when it comes to a straight fight, very few pyers know how to move like him.

  He strikes without pause, not giving the opponent a chance to counter. He reads novices like a book and learns veterans’ fighting styles in just a few exchanges. He’s a true beast when it comes to melee fights.

  In the future, I’m sure ImAnOrc will be one of the most renowned pyers in DMA.

  Today, I was lucky to get into his training team. I joined Green Gang when it was created and have been waiting for this day to come. And finally, it came!

  I thought we would have to do everything by ourselves, but he’s now saying he’ll take charge from now on.

  I’m so excited…! I’ll get to see him fight!

  Though it’s a shame I couldn’t bring Betty with me today… I miss her so much!

  An orc hunter must bring a feral beast with him as a pet. That’s the standard everywhere, be it books or games. It can be a bear or a wolf, or maybe a big dog. If you want something more exotic, a tiger or lion can do too. Reptiles are a no-go for me, but I’ve seen other orc hunters take a crocodile with them.

  Anyway, what matters is that orc hunters always bring a beast with them, but today, I don’t.

  It’s a shame. I’d have loved to show Betty everything. What’s more, ImAnOrc’s guidance would have helped me even more than it already did, since I can’t showcase my full strength when Betty isn’t here…

  But the first rule for today was to not bring any support mobs, so I had no choice.

  I’d have loved for Betty to be with me today, but even if she isn’t here, I’ll make sure to learn as much as I can from him today. I’ll make double the effort, for the two of us. I’ll engrave ImAnOrc’s battle prowess in my mind!

  And when everything ends, I’ll brag to everyone in Green Gang. They’ll be really jealous, hahaha!

  “Huh, huh, huh!” ImAnOrc’s hearty ughter snaps me out of my thoughts. “You three,” He suddenly turns around and points at us, “if you see a trap that can be destroyed, destroy it as soon as possible. I can’t bother dealing with them.”

  We happily nod our heads.

  Our mentor for a day asks for our help. Not only we can learn and watch him fight, but also help him! This is the greatest day ever!

  “Here I go,” says ImAnOrc, taking the first step forward.

  I intently watch his back. He examines his surroundings, quickly turning his head towards any sound he hears. He has his axe ready for battle, and his shoulders are tensed.

  He looks… anxious– Nah, it must be excitement at the battle that’s coming up. He’s looking forward to the strong enemy we can’t hope to defeat. A monster so strong only he, with his strong battle sense and amazing skill, can defeat.

  Although…

  …Not to this level, but he has been like this since we stepped inside the first giant cave, his guard raised all the time regardless of how weak or insignificant the enemies were to him…

  This dungeon’s owner must be quite impressive to affect the great ImAnOrc to this level.

  I cross the door and step into the new room, following him. Metallic industrial shelves are all I can see, rising to the ceiling. They create straight passages and sharp turns, which remind me of a hedge maze. The sound of water is the only thing that reaches my ears.

  For a moment, my whole body trembles. It feels like a powerful predator is awaiting to devour me in this pce.

  “When we’re near them, don’t fall into the water canals,” ImAnOrc warns. “You’re dead if you do.”

  I already knew. It’s written in his guide, though I haven’t read all of it yet… Still, this pce looks and feels different from what I imagined. The Minitaur Queen must be waiting for us to lower our guard before dealing a critical blow…

  A shiver runs down my spine at the thought. I wonder how strong that monster is, for ImAnOrc to behave like that.

  The few traps we find on our way aren’t nearly as dangerous as I imagined. Only the single springtrap that almost tossed Masinton into the water posed a real danger to our group. Luckily, ImAnOrc caught him by the leg when he was falling and threw him back to the ground. His reaction was so quick… I didn’t have time to move a muscle before it all had already ended.

  Suddenly, ImAnOrc stops. Masinton, who was walking right behind him, notices it too te, pushing into his back. But ImAnOrc’s body doesn’t move an inch and he doesn’t seem to care.

  “It’s coming,” says ImAnOrc, his eyes darting everywhere, searching for something.

  What’s coming? He must be talking about the Minitaur Queen, right? Even though I look around like him, I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Even his senses are greater than mine, he truly is an astonishing pyer!

  But there’s something that’s bothering me… It’s the first time I’ve heard his voice tremble. It must be the excitement of the incoming battle.

  As soon as we enter the storage room, I give orders to the three newbies. Don’t bother me, don’t touch stuff, don’t fall into the water, destroy the traps as soon as you see them… The basic stuff.

  With this, I can fully focus on the fight. No more chasing after annoying traps or dealing with Goblimps that have followed us here. I’ll keep an eye on them just in case, though. No orc shall ever abandon one of their comrades! A warrior’s honor is as important as their battle prowess!

  Though, if they fall into the water, even if they don’t die, they’re dead to me. I won’t risk a perfect run for a useless nobody.

  “Huh, huh, huh! This is going to be great! Come on, Minitaur Queen, show yourself… I know you’re nearby…”

  My muscles twitch in anticipation.

  How long has it been? How long did I have to suffer? How many times have I come to this damned dungeon, trying to achieve a fwless victory, only to be maniputed by the Evil Mastermind as if I were a buffoon!? This ends today! After I beat the crap out of his first and most precious boss monster, I’ll rub it on his face the next time we meet. I’ll smash his mocking grin like I’ll do with his monster’s mug today!

  “Huh, huh, huh…!”

  My hearty ugh is the only sound audible except for the flowing water. But this isn’t a reason to lower my guard. The Minitaur Queen can fly, making almost no noise as it moves around.

  A little further in, one of the newbies activates a springtrap, but I catch him before he falls into the water. After the deed, they observe me with glittering eyes and mouths wide open.

  …Being surprised by this shows how green they are. This is something all pyers should be able to do.

  “Stop gawking at me and don’t fall for traps like that, you fools. Let’s continue, Green Gang!”

  ““GREEN GANG!””

  Saving another pyer affected by the trap is easy, but detecting it before it triggers or controlling the fall while in mid-air is close to impossible. If it were me who fell for that trap, I would have died out of embarrassment!

  I shake my head and continue walking, taking the lead. I take the shortest path to the center of the storage room, towards where the boss’ resting capsule. If it doesn’t come to us, I’ll go to it.

  But, before we can reach that pce, the muscles of my whole body start shaking.

  Fear? That can’t be… This is the same feeling I get right before everything goes wrong. Even worse, right before meeting HIM.

  No… this can’t be…! This can’t be true…

  Don’t tell me he’s watching my every move, precisely calcuting what I’ll do next so that I confidently move forward, just to strike when I least expect it…

  “It’s coming.” I quickly move, getting away from the water canal. “Don’t stand there, you fool–”

  “Uaaaaaah!”

  My warning comes too te, as the orc hunter suddenly flies away, hit by something. The invisible boss shows itself right after the impact, but by then, it’s too te for him. He’s sent soaring through the air and ends up inside the water, which drags him away.

  “Don’t stay near the water!” I warn them, a bit too te.

  This time, they do follow my instructions, though it seems like they’re running away instead of doing what I said.

  “You made a huge mistake, huh, huh, huh!” I ugh, rushing at the monster, “Now, dieeeeeee! I’ll kill you before dealing with your abomination of a master!”

  The Minitaur Queen used its invisibility to approach us and eliminate one member from the fight… The monster didn’t target me because I wasn’t close to the water canal.

  The monster likes to use the invisibility skill to run away, which makes the fight very hard. I can’t see invisible enemies, so I can’t easily finish it when it does. But since the skill has a long cooldown…

  I just need to kill it before it can use that skill again! It’s perfect!

  “Huh, huh, huh!”

  As I swing my axe around, I forget all my worries. That bad feeling must have been my imagination.

  My skin turns red when I activate Frenzy, and thanks to the Reckless Blows I’m using, Bloodlust will activate way quicker than usual, further boosting my attack speed. With the two bonuses stacked, my attacks are like a death hurricane that turns all my enemies into minced meat.

  Reckless Blow (Active skill)Cost: 100 EPDeal (30 + 5 * STR) physical damage to a single enemy. You also take 50% of that damage.I was using Mighty Blow before, but then someone showed me Reckless Blow and I immediately swapped one for the other. More than two times the damage for the same cost, and it reduces my HP, triggering Bloodlust? It’s perfect for an orc like me!

  “Haaaaah! Eat thiis!”

  The monster counterattacks by unching two spells at me. At close range, you have less time to react, so I let them hit me, which further speeds up the trigger of Bloodlust. I’ll start avoiding them when my HP drops below half.

  At first, the monster takes less damage than I thought it would, but after a while, my damage returns to normal.

  This must be some new skill… But I refuse to inspect a monster I’m fighting! I’ll never do it! If I die, that’s it, but I’ll never commit the dishonorable act of not putting all my attention on my opponent.

  The Minitaur Queen fps its wings to fly away, but I don’t allow it. I grab its leg and pull it back to the ground level. It then uses the moment when I’m recovering my stability to push me towards the water canal, but I use Leap before I fall to nd on the other side of the water canal.

  Now with more time to react thanks to the extra distance, I evade the Light Arrow and Acid Bubble the monster shoots at me before trying to fly away, but once more, I use Leap to catch its leg and bring it back to the ground.

  “Did you think you could get away!?”

  The next Reckless Blow brings both of us below the halfway mark. The true battle is starting now.

  I feel the sudden speed rush, and my attacks become even faster.

  This is it! This is what I’ve been craving for! A true fight against a formidable opponent! Though the battle outcome has already been decided. It’s just a matter of time until I emerge victorio–

  “Uaaaaaaagh!”

  “S-save us, mister ImAnOrc!”

  The two remaining orc pyers start shouting, interrupting the flow of my battle. What I see is a ball of fire.

  “Why is… why is it here!?”

  The short time it takes for me to take a look at their situation gives the Minitaur Queen time to get some distance from me. I’ve failed at bringing it down…

  No, no, no! My perfect run! Why did it have to appear right now!?

  I intentionally took too much damage to quickly kill the Minitaur Queen, to ensure it wouldn’t run away. How will I deal with another boss-like monster at the same time!? And both of them can fly!

  “Fueeh, that was close…” I swipe the non-existent sweat from my forehead. “If I had been just a few seconds ter, it’d have been too te…”

  I discreetly pop my head out of the corner, watching the fight taking pce. The orc pyer is slowly but surely falling. It won’t take long for the Sun and Minitaur Queen to emerge victorious.

  Behind me, hidden from the pyer’s view, there are the two remaining Hunters, The Mountain and The River, ready to join the fight if their turn comes… But it seems they won’t get a turn.

  “I almost allowed him to enjoy an easy victory... That was too close for me.” I shake my head.

  You know what would be the worst thing that could happen? That my most esteemed guest didn’t get to fully enjoy the newly modified Minitaur Queen!

  Can you imagine? It’d have been a catastrophe! The greatest shame! The end of the world!

  Luckily, it didn’t happen.

  I wouldn’t mind that much if it were anyone else, or if I wasn’t watching the Dungeon Invasion in real time; but since it was him and I was watching… I simply couldn’t ignore it.

  From the moment I watched the Minitaur Queen start the fight while using Trickster, I knew the orc pyer would defeat my monster. I’ve watched him fight too many times to know what he’s capable of, and this is something he’s good at. A straight fight, that’s where he shines.

  I never expected him to take it easy precisely today, choosing to avoid all unnecessary dangers, nor did I think he would bring more pyers with him… pyers that were doing his dirty work so he didn’t have to spend any EP, MP, or even HP, to reach this pce.

  He was in perfect shape!

  Furthermore, this was one of the few times he didn’t run into the Monster Train nor the Sexy Secretary, and luckily avoided all mushroom patches even though I just relocated them yesterday… And if this wasn’t enough, the Hunters were still sitting in the Control Room as the random timer I set for them to start moving didn’t trigger yet.

  In short, he was free to do as he pleased, and his pns would have worked! Too many things had to align for this to happen…

  …but, I couldn’t allow it!

  There’s no way I could allow him to have a free pass at my upgraded boss monster while I was watching it happen!

  So I had to log into the game as fast as possible, choose to defend his invasion, and drag my Hunters with me. I then gave the order to the Sun to intervene during their fight. This will not only secure the orc pyer’s defeat but also get me some important data about the improved The Sun.

  It’s a win-win situation. For me, of course.

  “And he’ll never know it was me who did it… Fufufu! Hahaha!”

  “...

  The best moment to strike isn’t when the invaders least expect it as you would think. Well, it is, if you only take into account the damage you’ll deal and the possibility of defeating them.

  But… that’s not what you came here for, right…?

  The reason you’re here is because you want to make sure the pyers invading your dungeon will never forget it, and a simple defeat won’t achieve that. If you want to surprise them with something they’ll never forget, you must first know what are their expectations and how will they react.

  Once you know their pns, give them time to see them through. Make them feel like they’re going to achieve success. And then, when they least expect it… Bam! You hit them with everything you’ve got.

  Destroying their hopes right before they achieve them, that’s what they’ll never forget.

  Even if they do succeed, you will have achieved your objective. Believe me, they’ll never forget when they almost lost all hope and fell into despair.

  …”

  - Fragment from ‘The Best Surprise’, one part of ‘The Dark Teachings’ series.