Chapter 111: Orcs (2)
TL: Potato-tan
Proofreader: Asianpotato
The cold air of dawn swirled around the battlefield. The stench of blood soon stained the clear, crisp air.
The time, which should have been quiet, was filled with the cries and screams of countless monsters.
But a louder sound covered it all. Russell and a large, nameless orc engaged in a fight.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With each clash of the two beings, a tremendous roar echoed, and the shockwaves spread out in concentric circles.
The monsters, indifferent to the shockwaves, rushed toward the two in a fight like moths to a flame. As they brushed against the aftermath of magic, they turned into chunks of meat and rolled on the ground. Some monsters even scavenged the meat. The battlefield looked like a mix of a chaotic mess and hell.
The people on the wall stared at the scene below with their mouths agape.
“No, what is that. . . . . .”
“Whoa. . . . . .”
Exclamations and groans that couldn’t form proper sentences came out. Tatiana, the lord, was one of them.
When a guard on night patrol rushed over with a panicked expression, stating that monsters were gathering in front of the gate,
As she struggled to put on her armor in the early morning and stood against the wall, Tatiana Grace contemplated the possibility of her territory being destroyed today.
There were so many monsters pouring out of the forest, and their momentum was ominous. Even though there were small goblins, imps, and kobolds, there were also orcs riding giant dire wolves and trolls wielding wooden clubs.
She couldn’t think of any way to defeat such a monstrous army with just a handful of territorial troops, two knights, and herself, who couldn’t even properly use magic.
She had spread the word about recruiting mercenaries, but the territory in the central mountain range, which wasn’t even thriving, had a rough path to get to. The only mercenaries who came were those in desperate need of money.
In the middle of all this, the Dragon Slayer’s visit was a ray of light shining through the cloudy sky.
She had hurriedly sent her knight, Vandel, to the inn where the Dragon Slayer and his party were staying, but honestly, she didn’t know if they could overcome this ordeal even with them there.
They crushed the thought that they might be able to help, even if the rumors were only half true. The rumors and legends were not false. A powerful warrior had fought a dragon right there.
“Hwaaaah━!”
Another warrior was yelling from a distant part of the battlefield. A terrifying red mana erupted from the brown skin of an orc. With long, braided black hair and impressive black tattoos.
He was defeating monsters with unstoppable force and confronting the uruks. But something strange was happening. As the gray-skinned monsters approached Kai, they clutched their heads and collapsed.
“It’s not too late, my brothers! Awaken! Hear my voice!”
As Kai’s incomprehensible words continued, more and more uruks clutched their heads and fell to their knees. And as Kai’s red mana touched the uruks’ skin, a change occurred.
The gray skin gradually turned brown. The skin color was changing. The dull eyes that had lost their intelligence were becoming clear, and the muscles and bones that had grown out of proportion without regard for balance were regaining stability and shrinking.
The shaman, Kelpag, looked at the phenomenon with wide eyes.
“That’s. . .!”
Kelpag’s voice shook, and the faces of the five or six orc shamans who followed him turned uneasy.
“Shaman! What is that phenomenon?”
“Kelpag-nim! The monsters are no longer under our control! The uruks’ dominance is also. . . . .!”
At the urgent calls of the orc shamans, Kelpag clutched his staff as if it would break. The staff that had been by his side since he was born—his history—emitted an ominous light.
“Impossible! This is nonsense! Why now, of all times?!”
Kelpag glared at Kai, who was driving away the monsters and restoring the uruks to their original orc forms.
It was undeniable. It was the aura of the orc’s ancestral god, from an age long ago. Without it, there was no way such a phenomenon could happen.
There existed a divine force that defied magic or sorcery. The orcs, who had lost their god, entered the forests and mountains, gaining green skin. They were gradually losing their intelligence and reason, becoming gray monsters and declining.
He thought that he had no choice but to borrow the power of the devil. He had no way of knowing how to find the forgotten god now, and the devil’s hand was too close.
But now, he had come to find the god. No, he didn’t know if the god had come to them, but that kind of reasoning was no longer in Kelpag’s head.
“Nothing will change.”
“Kelpag-nim?”
“Perform the spell.”
The orc shamans looked back at Kelpag. Kai was still approaching, and the monsters were escaping into the forest, freed from the spell. The uruks were breaking free from their control and returning to their original orc forms.
Everything they had initially planned was falling apart, but Kelpag gave the order again.
“Cast the spell!”
Each of the startled orc shamans raised their staffs. Like Kelpag’s, only a select few orcs, chosen before they were born, could become shamans who could communicate with nature.
And all the shamans receive their staffs. Even if they didn’t have Kelpag’s old, tree-like staff, the shamans with mature staffs chanted the spell.
The chaotic power of sorcery, combined with the power of the devil, began to spread among the shamans.
🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷
The shockwave that erupted from the ground shattered one unusually low cloud into pieces and scattered them. The scattered pieces turned their attention to the ground.
There were two swords with powerful magic.
With a tremendous roar, the two blades collided. The single point where the line and line met experienced an astonishingly powerful pressure. The magic-coated sword was unharmed, but the air and ground surrounding it vibrated.
Each sword’s owner did not stay in one place. The powerful magic masters raced across the vast battlefield. Monsters, regardless of friend or foe, rushed at them, and they turned into bloody messes under the magic and sword strikes that shattered the air.
Countless monster corpses piled up, and blood flowed into ditches. The color of blood was black under the sky, which hadn’t brightened yet. It would be the same even when the sun rose.
Russell exhaled deeply. The breath was thick and long. The white breath, like the smoke of a cigarette, swirled through the air.
The sun hadn’t risen yet. The color of the sky was a mix of black, blue, purple, and yellow, with colorful clouds decorating it.
One part of the sky was definitely turning azure and brightening, while the other part was still holding onto the darkness, as if it didn’t want to brighten.
“You’re pretty good.”
Russell’s hand wiped his mouth. His mouth was full of the metallic taste of blood.
“. . .Kh-huh.”
Jadmu didn’t respond, but instead twisted his body. The body, broken from the accumulated impact, was regenerating. The strained muscles of his right arm stretched with a grinding sound, and the broken ribs started to fuse.
Jadmu glared at Russell, his eyes shimmering with dark blue magic.
Russell wasn’t in perfect shape, either. The punch Jadmu had thrown at his face a moment ago had split his lips, and his tied-up hair was loose and flying around.
But that was all. Unlike Jadmu, his muscles and bones remained intact. And Jadmu had received those injuries while trying to punch him in the face.
“Huu.”
Jadmu clenched his fist. His opponent wasn’t a normal human in terms of durability. Even before he obtained magi, his strength could shatter rocks. In other words, he could smash a human skull to pieces with just a brush.
But even with his magi-enhanced body, it was just a small scratch for this human. So what should he do?
The two, who had retreated after a massive clash, took their stances again. Jadmu’s sword was a huge greatsword.
The sharp, single-edged blade was swirled with black magic, making it even larger. It was a sword aura. It wasn’t possible to coat a sword with magic simply by having a lot of magic.
It required an understanding of the sword and an understanding of oneself, who wielded the sword, to form a sword aura. Jadmu held the greatsword, which had swelled above the blade, with both hands, exceeding two meters in length.
When the greatsword’s swordplay, which was comparable to Nahilnir’s, was aimed at him, Russell felt as if he was being aimed at by a giant awl. He didn’t feel too bad about it.
Of all the magic-wielding enemies he had encountered so far, none had specialized in swordsmanship. In Errandis, Calia wielded a ceremonial sword, but it was a technique that used advanced magic and space.
Jadmu’s body, which had finished regenerating, was tougher and more resilient than before. The Stone of Life, constantly producing magic, gave Jadmu unprecedented strength.
Russell’s purple eyes sparkled.
“Ho.”
Whirring.
The Stone of Life, nestled in Jadmu’s heart, was vibrating like a seizure. Magic poured out, gushing and surging.
Jadmu, an orc who had accepted the power of the devil and avoided the extinction of his race. Bluish-black magi floated and bloomed over his green skin.
Kugugugugugu.
With a low rumble, the ground where Jadmu stood couldn’t resist the pressure and caved in. No, it was more than that; a hemispherical crater was forming.
Russell could see the magic pouring out of Jadmu’s heart, amplifying and amplifying again.
Kudddeuddeuk.
Jadmu bent his legs and lowered his stance. His thigh and calf muscles bulged, and his toes dug into the ground, pressing it down.
Jadmu’s greatsword was huge, but Russell’s Nahilnir was no ordinary greatsword either. He changed his stance too. He put both hands on the hilt, which he had been holding with one hand.
With Nahilnir, he didn’t create a sword aura. Right now, he had more powerful abilities at his disposal.
The blue moon shone in the dawn’s dark sky, which flowed unusually low. The moonlight fell on Russell’s greatsword.
Phatststststst.
The moonlight runes engraved on Nahilnir’s blade shone brightly. It radiated a silvery aura.
The clash of transparent mist and dark blue magi created sparks in the air. The ground where they were standing cracked, and light pebbles floated.
The tug-of-war between magic and magi disappeared in an instant, and the pebbles that had floated about five centimeters above the ground fell to the floor.
Kwaang-!
A louder roar drowned out the sound of the pebble falling. The shockwave crushed the soil into a pile of sand.
The sunken ground sank lower. In the middle, the two beings clashed again.
Jadmu’s entire body spun. It was incredibly fast. Anticipating the greatsword’s length and the sword’s aura, Russell fell to the ground, feeling as though someone had pulled him back.
Jadmu’s greatsword cut through his front hair, scattering it. As Jadmu’s greatsword passed, Russell, rebounding from the motion of his waist, thrust Nahilnir forward.
The wide swing had shaken Jadmu’s posture, but he managed to move his body and pull the hilt, blocking Nahilnir’s sword strike with the greatsword’s blade and deflecting it.
It was an impossible move, and the orc’s muscles screamed as they performed it. The magi emerging from the Stone of Life suppressed the scream.
Russell’s chest was momentarily empty because of the deflected Nahilnir. Jadmu’s left foot moved behind his right foot, and his waist tightened. As he stepped, the ground sank again with a thud, and the greatsword fell from above.
Against the background of the dawn sky, where one side was bright and the other was dark, the greatsword, coated with dark blue and black magic, fell like lightning.
Kwaakwang!
The ground sank completely, forming a crater larger than any previously created.
A giant shockwave swept over the ground, and the monsters caught in it flew through the air. Vulcan’s mana covered Kai, causing him to roll on the ground.
The humans on the wall retreated, shielding their faces with their hands from the dust that blew up. Coughing sounds, groans, and questions about what had happened followed.
Kwaang!
The dust, flying toward the sky, suddenly spread out with a whoosh. A second shockwave had blown it away.
“This can’t be.”
The humans on the wall understood, with their bodies, that only Russell and Kai were involved in the battle. The soldiers and mercenaries on that battlefield wouldn’t be of any help.
At the very least, only skilled knights and battle wizards, even those of the master level or higher, could hold their ground in that shockwave. Tatiana held her trembling body.
She could feel her magic circuit trembling at the clash of that powerful magic and mana. She desperately wanted to descend immediately, mount a horse, and wield a sword, but. . .
At the same time, she also wanted to stay here and watch the battle. In that paradoxical feeling, she saw another figure standing beside her.
“Oh, he’s already gone down without saying anything.”
“Is that Russell over there?”
“Yes, Sarannen-nim. More than that, wow. He’s gotten a lot stronger than he used to be. I can’t even guess anymore.”
“. . . I can’t believe he’s human.”
Tatiana looked at the two figures who had just climbed onto the parapet.
“Who are you?”
“Ah, Lord. My apologies for the late greeting. I am Jess, a paladin dispatched from the Grand Church. This is. . .”
Tatiana recognized Sarannen. Her parents had once mentioned the existence of a being known as a druid who managed the nearby forest.
“This is the first time we’ve met. It was nice to meet you. I am Tatiana Grace.”
“I’m Sarannen.”
Sarannen couldn’t take her eyes off the battlefield below. Magic, mana, and magi were swirling in excessive amounts.
Someone was grasping onto the current of that swirling energy. Sarannen‘s green eyes shone.
“Shamans.”
“Yes?”
“The orc shamans are trying to cast spells from the rear. . .By the way, where is Aellasis?”
“Huh?”
Greatsword vs greatsword clashed and fell repeatedly. The silver light of the moon’s mana burned the black magic that made up the sword’s aura. As the overflowing magi burned his lifeforce, Jadmu replenished the black magic and pressed on toward Russell.
The battle unfolded with attacks and defenses, followed by counterattacks and more attacks. Countless relentless strikes echoed through the air, shattering and digging into the ground.
The two drew closer and then moved away, and each time, a thunderous roar erupted from the ground.
Jadmu thought he had the upper hand. His speed was increasing, but Russell remained the same.
“Huu, huu. Orcs, we won’t fall here.”
In a diagonal line, Russell dodged the greatsword that was coming down from the upper left. Jadmu didn’t resist the dodge; he spun his body and swung horizontally.
Russell blocked it with the blade, then flew backwards. Jadmu followed, crashing into the ground.
He swung his sword countless times, as if he were chopping wood. There was no longer any swordplay visible in his attacks. Rather, he looked like a mindless beast possessed by the power of the devil.
Russell’s eyes turned cold, and at the same time, a chilling smile spread across his lips.
The greatsword swung diagonally again. This time, Russell didn’t dodge or deflect it. Jadmu remembered how Russell had flown backwards under his power earlier, and he put all his strength into it.
Jadmu couldn’t see Russell’s body for a moment.
It was just blurry. smeared, oil painting-like movement. A vague shadow.
Kaang!
A different sound echoed than before. It sounded like a common blade.
Jadmu’s dazed eyes looked at the greatsword flying up into the sky. The hand and forearm grasping the hilt were also visible.
He thought that the forearm looked familiar, and then, belatedly, blood spurted out of his severed upper arm with a whoosh.
He didn’t have time to scream. Nahilnir drew an elegant curve. Jadmu’s chest, abdomen, and left arm were in the curve’s path. And the greatsword, which swung along with Russell’s spinning body, completely severed Jadmu’s leg.
Thud, Jadmu’s knee buckled involuntarily.
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