Barbarian in a Failed Game

“As expected, the bigger they are, the heavier the impact.”

The satisfying heft of the hand axe striking directly into the ogre’s crown brought a smile to Khan’s lips.

‘Nice.’

A weapon created with the combined efforts of the Dwarf King, William, and his comrades. The power of ‘Unyielding’ far exceeded Khan’s expectations.

The grade above the legendary.

Starting from unique, items have distinct characteristic options, and these unique options all boast amazing performance. Generally, it means higher coefficients or broader usability.

And the core unique option of this Unyielding was ‘piercing damage proportional to strength.’

『Strength: 84』 +1

Sssheee… Boom!!!

Unyielding embedded itself once again in the ogre’s crown with a satisfying impact.

The terrifying sound echoed across the Karuna Plains, indicating that a typical creature would have died already. Without any hesitation, Khan raised his arm gripping Unyielding once more.

“No way it’s dead already.”

It was an ogre. And not just any ogre, but one raised in the Land of Warriors, so it wouldn’t die unless its skull was completely smashed.

“Kuo-oo-oh…!”

As expected, even with its crown split open, revealing white bone, the ogre didn’t die, and it swung its fist at its own head with a roar.

Thud!

Borrowing the power of the wind spirit, Khan leapt downward swiftly, though he couldn’t help but feel a moment of dizziness. To hit its own head with full force just to swat away a fly, and still have its skull remain intact, was astonishing.

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”

Ogres were troublesome monsters.

In the past, when hunting ogres in the Argon Kingdom with Ludmilla, Khan vividly remembered the struggle, sweating blood while dealing with an ogre even weaker than a typical adult ogre.

If Ludmilla hadn’t blown off its head with a massive destructive spell, it might have been impossible to kill it in the end.

But now, things are different.

“Brace yourself.”

His fist was akin to magic. Khan sprang upwards, using the foothold created by the wind spirit. It was just when the ogre was turning its head to spot the annoying fly after recovering from the self-inflicted blow. In mid-air, Khan’s eyes met those of the ogre.

“Physical magic incoming.”

Before the emotion of anger could even appear in the ogre’s eyes.

Crrack!

Boom──!!

Not with an axe, but with Khan’s bare fist, he struck the ogre’s jaw. Despite their tough skulls, the susceptible point for Greenskins, which resemble humanoids, is naturally the jaw.

Hooong! Hoooong!

In an instant, the ogre lost its sense of balance, flailing its arms wildly. However, even such desperate thrashing was enough to crush rocks, making it clear that any single attack allowed would be fatal for Khan, a human.

Moreover, Khan had to stay close to attack the ogre. The ogre, instinctively sensing this, engaged in this kind of wild attack.

‘Let’s end this.’

Khan, precisely predicting its psychology, launched a strike that pierced through the air and skewered the ogre’s head.

Crack──!!

With Unyielding’s throw power increase option and the critical strike to the head, the attack literally ground the ogre’s face to dust. Even though it tried to regenerate, there was no head left to regenerate.

The ogre swung its arms a few more times, showcasing its stubborn vitality even without a head, but those were its final death throes. Its massive body, unable to withstand the impact of the Dragon Fang Cannon, toppled over, crushing other Greenskins beneath it.

Where they came from was unknown, but the Greenskins were densely packed into the Karuna Plains. The fallen one ogre’s body alone was enough to kill dozens of orcs and trolls.

“…….”

“…….”

The impact of the ogre’s death was more than just the death of Greenskins. The lively Karuna Plains, filled with the cries of Greenskins and terrified soldiers, suddenly fell silent.

The creator of that silence, “What are you all doing.”

Later to be known in the Argon Kingdom as the great warrior who slew dragons and giants, Khan jutted his chin.

“I took down the leader, now it’s your turn to earn your keep.”

***

The Greenskin tactic of bypassing the frontline to strike the command post was certainly a threat. Without even defensive walls, it was a fact that the generals couldn’t fend off the swarming warriors and ogres.

However, someone like Khan was an extraordinary variable who could demolish the opponent’s precisely aimed tactic head-on.

“You gotta be kidding me, the experience bar didn’t budge at all.”

The one who single-handedly turned the tide of battle, Khan, grumbled as he glanced at his experience bar.

As the Greenskins, who were aggroed by the human warrior who felled the ogre, swarmed him, the kingdom’s forces, fully regrouped and morale restored, began to push back the Greenskin detachment.

The distinguished performances of Maya and Alejandro also stood out. Maya pierced the warriors’ head with her terrifying thrusts. Alejandro, amidst the chaotic battlefield, erased his presence and assassinated particularly conspicuous enemies.

Of course, their achievements paled in comparison to Ludmilla.

During her stay in the Hoarfrost Gorge, she had apparently gained something significant, allowing her to freely manipulate spatial spells even though the Mage Tower had yet to establish a proper framework for such magic.

As such, the detachment that could have inflicted serious losses on the Argon Kingdom or killed King Orion was stopped─

“So, did you see? I made a flashy show on purpose, but I couldn’t see a thing with my eyes.”

“They only seem to have intervened enough to move them here. I can only read traces with my eyes.”

From the beginning to the end of the battle, Khan, covered in blood, approached Natrix, who had been observing the battle in human form, and asked.

King Orion couldn’t understand the sequence of the conversation and tilted his head in confusion, so Khan tactfully provided additional explanation.

“Our king seems to think I confirmed their movement from above the sky, but their movement couldn’t have been observed from the air.”

“What? Then how did you detect their approach, something unseen from both the ground and the sky?”

“Well, I saw them pouring out after opening space.”

“Opening space…?”

King Orion looked at Khan with an expression demanding a more detailed explanation. Khan then turned his gaze toward Natrix.

“Although I didn’t see it clearly, Natrix confirmed it with her Dragon’s Eyes. If it’s the front lines, they might have started noticing by now.”

“Was it perhaps their altars causing the problem?”

At that moment, a person stepped forward as if he knew something.

Within the kingdom’s army, he was a man surrounded by mysterious rumors, such as being a top-class assassin trained by the Empire or an assassination weapon created by the Kingdom through experiments.

“I saw something while on recon…”

It was Alejandro.

“Big sis said that Greenskins don’t perform such rituals, right?”

“Oh, they do have rituals. They worship battle, after all. But this time, the focus of the ritual was the issue.”

“The focus? Are you saying those horrific Greenskins are summoning demons?”

Alejandro cracked a joke to lighten the post-battle atmosphere and chuckled. Then, he braced himself for the scolding he expected from Khan for uttering nonsense. However, the anticipated scolding didn’t come.

“You’ve become sharp. Yes, they are worshiping a demon.”

“…What? Boss, are you serious?”

“What else could have allowed those massive things to reach us unseen?”

“No way…!”

The one who reacted to Khan’s question was Maya. During the journey, she proudly recounted her encounters with Khan, and she remembered hearing something similar in one of those stories.

“The high-level dark magic used by the fallen one one clergy…! Did the Greenskins use that?”

And her suspicion was accurate.

“It’s a dark magic called ‘Aecharis’s Pit.’

To be precise, they borrowed the power of Aecharis, which devours space. The ‘ritual’ Alejandro saw at the front line was likely for that. Such events are probably happening all over the front lines.”

The Scion of the Arch Demon, aecharis.

This creature is the mastermind behind this war.

Thump- Thump-

As Khan sensed Aecharis, the Heart of Predation began to race.

‘You seem impatient, aecharis.’

Aecharis’s goal was, of course, to reclaim a part of the power residing in Khan’s other heart. And since Aecharis revealed itself, there would be a reaction from their side as well.

‘I have to wait patiently until then… that’s the plan, isn’t it?’

A corner of Khan’s mouth lifted in a sly grin.

“I shall head to the front lines. I need to see with my own eyes what kind of chaos that creature is causing there. In the meantime, King Orion, you should use my name and contact the Imperial family….”

***

The Land of Warriors.

There exists only one rule there.

“Krrk. My King, the detachment has been annihilated─”

Crunch.

Win and seize.

And the King of Warriors is the being who has won every battle and seized everything.

The appearance of the ‘King’ always heralded a bloodstorm across the continent, and the Empire had to muster all its strength to face him. Now, the ‘King’ who reappeared after hundreds of years was far more peculiar than his predecessors.

“Pathetic. Underling…!”

The ‘King’ was the smallest being.

Always a being fleeing from the countless monsters in the Land of Warriors, scavenging the corpses left behind to barely survive day by day.

“Worm. You are! Even though you borrowed. The power of the God of Battle!”

But he changed. With the blessing from the God of Battle, he grew stronger by devouring corpses, and at some point, began attacking live orc warriors as prey.

And eventually, he became the ‘King’.

There was no one in the Land of Warriors who could oppose him, and though the smallest being, he became the strongest Greenskin.

Warriors called this ‘King’ the Little Giant.

“Krrk. Little Giant!”

A troll fighter leading a tribe in the Land of Warriors approached, bowing.

The King—the Little Giant—was stuffing the corpse of a subordinate, whose head he had just crushed, into his small mouth, listening to the report.

“Krrk. The altar preparations are complete!”

Gnash gnash.

Using an abnormally large mouth to munch the troll fighter’s corpse down to the bones, the Little Giant stood up.

“Keek. To the front lines. Our God is waiting to descend!”