NOVEL NEXT Chapter 137: Endings Are All About the Explosion
If you pit a regular adult man against a regular adult orc, the orc wins. An orc's natural build completely outclasses an adult man.
But if you pit a well-trained human soldier against a regular adult orc, the soldier wins. Sure, they might be a bit weaker strength-wise, but most soldiers train against orcs as their hypothetical enemy when learning to deal with monsters.
So what happens when well-trained human soldiers fight well-trained orc soldiers? From that point on, it comes down to how good their training is.
Humans try to beat orcs with technique, while orcs try to crush humans with raw power. In the end, whoever's got the better elite troops determines who wins the battle—and the war.
And all those assumptions?
"Graaaah!!"
They all get torn to shreds in the face of overwhelming power.
Thwack.
I slam an axe into the collarbone of a cavalryman on his horse. One axe in the neck, and I swing the other one over his shoulder.
"Aaaagh!"
The cavalryman screams and raises his sword. Pretty impressive that he can still lift a sword with an axe buried in his neck, but unfortunately for him, I've got two axes. I use the embedded axe as leverage and swing the other one horizontally.
Shrrk—!!
Blood sprays everywhere. The world that's already red from my tattoos gets even redder. My face burns. The stench of blood stings my nose.
"Aaaagh!"
A cavalryman who fell into a pit abandons his horse and tries to escape up and out. He tosses all his weapons and tries to jump from where he is to get back on solid ground.
Where do you think you're going? I kick the corpse to yank my axe free, then hurl the axe I'd swung behind me forward.
Thunk—!
The axe embeds itself in the dirt wall. The cavalryman's forearm goes flying from the middle, and he screams as he collapses to the ground.
"Agh, aaaagh!"
His agonized screaming is pretty damn loud. I wipe the blood off my face with my arm, then walk over to the cavalryman and stomp on his neck.
Crack.
I feel the vibration of the soldier's neckbone breaking travel up through my boot. I grab the blood-dripping axe handle and yank it out of the wall.
"Hup!"
I hook both axe blades under the ledge and jump from where I am. I clear the ledge that's easily over 2 meters in one go, climb out of the trench, and survey the battlefield.
Clang, clang!
Fighting between human soldiers and my orc subordinates continues all over the place. Quality-wise, my subordinates are way superior, but unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about the difference in numbers.
"Aaaagh!"
"Die, you monsters!!"
The humans scream desperately as they swing their swords at the orcs. I can somehow see faces similar to the guards I killed in their faces.
"I see."
Even though the knight is dead, they're trying to defend their land—the humans aren't backing down an inch. And I have no reason to back down either.
"This is my land—!!"
I conquered it, so from now on, it's my land. I grip axes in both hands and walk forward.
"Tristan, confirm kills on the humans in the pit! Everyone else, take your assigned sectors! Don't let them break through!"
The moment the crescent-shaped defensive line breaks, enemy forces can circle around through the alleys and attack the rear of our defense line.
But orcs who were fighting human soldiers on the front lines and got minor injuries or exhausted kept piling up. Accordingly, I rotated the orc units in each sector.
"Arthur, switch with Gareth! Lancelot, fall back! Your squad's exhausted!"
I chop off the wrist of a soldier charging at me with my axe. His sword sticks into the ground, and I hold my other axe horizontally and duck.
Shrrk!
The soldier's ankles get cut clean off. He loses his balance, and I shove with my arm the soldier collapsing toward my shoulder.
"Whew."
The axes can still be used more. The knight's dead, and the cavalrymen are trapped in the trenches with no way out. All that's left are ragtag soldiers.
I keep fighting, determined to kill them all. I cross my axes the other way. Gripping both ends of the axe handles tight, I charge forward like I'm doing a baseball bunt.
"Follow me, Arthur!"
At my shout, Arthur's squad rushes forward. The moment I charge, the humans start backing up nervously, and I swing my two axes like a double-bladed axe.
Shrrk!
If there's a soldier with a shield, I split him right through the shield. If there's a soldier trying to block with a sword, I deflect the sword and slash his throat.
"Die, you monster!!"
Between a soldier's armpit, a sharp spear aims for my heart. Even if it hits me, I don't think I'll die, but—
Clang!
Arthur raises his shield and deflects the spear. I grab the helmet of the soldier I just killed and throw it to the side, then hurl my axe at the soldier who stabbed with the spear.
Thwack.
The axe blade splits the soldier's forehead perfectly. All I'm left holding is a blood-soaked axe handle.
"Thanks, Arthur!"
I grip the handle like a club and smack the temple of a soldier charging from the side. The axe handle shatters so I don't kill him, but Arthur's squad members stab him with their swords to finish him off.
"Legion Commander, your axe!"
"It's fine!"
The weapons in this city's armory couldn't withstand my strength in the first place. I hold the remaining axe in one hand and snatch a shield from the soldier I just killed.
"Weapons are all over the place, aren't they?!"
I charge forward with the shield. After deflecting the spear of a guy trying to stab me, I slam my axe into his exposed knee.
"Aaaagh!"
The axe embeds in his hamstring, and the soldier screams and collapses. I hold the shield horizontally toward the face of the soldier whose balance is broken.
Crack!!
The soldier whose neck gets pierced by the shield rolls his eyes back and collapses. If it hadn't been a round shield, he would've died with his neck pierced by the shield.
Stab, stab.
Well, he dies anyway from getting stabbed by the swords of the squad members following behind. I yank the axe out of the soldier and catch my breath.
"Whew."
The number of soldiers who entered through the main gate has decreased quite a bit too. While I'm catching my breath, the other orcs catch their breath too.
"Are there any idiots who already kicked it—?!"
"No sir!!!!!"
My subordinates respond to my shout. From the moment the battle started until now, not a single orc has died.
'Though there are some who got stabbed pretty deep.'
At a glance, I count ten seriously wounded. Unfortunately, most of them are from Lune's squad.
'They took combat losses from fighting too much.'
Even though Lune's squad is actually racking up the most achievements. Of course, most of those achievements are Lune's results.
Pew pew pew pew!
Hidden on the watchtower, Lune is indiscriminately firing at soldiers trying to enter from outside beyond the wooden fence. Wind arrows that can't even be blocked by shields are literally one-shot kills. She might've killed more soldiers than I've beaten to death.
'The squad members got seriously hurt because they're separated from their squad leader.'
"Arthur. You doing okay?"
"Legion Commander, I can still fight!"
"Yeah, I'm asking if you can fight more!"
There are still way too many soldiers left to kill. If we kill them all, there were easily over 800 humans, but aside from the knight, there weren't any particularly threatening soldiers.
"Ugh, ugh, uaaah!!"
A pretty young-looking soldier falls on his butt and backs away. He looks like a kid who just joined the army, and I grip my axe handle with a heavy heart.
"Be born stronger in your next life."
Or be born strong enough to kill me. I raise my axe high.
"Uaaagh!"
The young soldier charges at me crying, sword pointed at me. It's a sword strike aimed precisely at my eyes, and I take a deep breath.
"Yeah, come at me!"
I raise my axe to send the kid off in one strike—
Whoosh.
A wind hole appears in the kid's head. I feel awkward with my axe raised.
Even while firing indiscriminately outside, Lune turns her body inside to support me. It wasn't really necessary, but still, since I got help, I should return the favor.
I stick my tongue out twice, and Lune grins at my signal.
"She's really going at it the hardest."
I didn't even say I'd give a reward for racking up achievements. But since she's working so hard like that, I should reward her by giving it to her real hard.
'Combat-ready orcs are down to 60 now. But there are still nearly 400 humans left.'
Even a rough glance makes it obvious. The orcs are already pretty exhausted, and the humans are just watching nervously while thinking only about escaping. It's time to wrap this up.
"Yeah, endings are all about the explosion."
I send a signal toward the watchtower opposite Lune. From the start to the end of the battle, a red-haired woman who'd been hiding and waiting stands up. In medieval fantasy, you could call her the flower of war—a 'mage.'
"Gremory! Psionic Storm!!"
"There's no such spell, you know?"
Gremory raises her staff high toward the sky with a deadpan face.
Crackle crackle!
"This is called Chain Lightning!"
A massive amount of electricity bursts from Gremory's staff. With a flash of light, the human soldiers beyond the wooden fence collapse without even screaming.
"Ugh, ugh, uaaagh!!!"
At the presence of an elementalist, the soldiers try to flee in terror. But thanks to the mountain of corpses created by Lune and Gremory, they have to step on corpses to escape.
Thud, thud thud!
Let them step on corpses and run. And those who haven't escaped yet huddle together crying. Even though they know they'll all die together if a rock or spell falls, they stick close to each other, trying to fight to the death.
"Whew—"
I take a breath and—
"Those who drop their weapons and surrender will be spared—!!"
Following common sense, I make a declaration no demon should make—a surrender offer.
***
Late afternoon.
After sending 20 seriously wounded orcs through the portal to the rear, I check on the prisoners' condition. Fifty men tied up in the square with their hands bound by rope await my judgment.
"Good thing you dropped your weapons. Otherwise you'd all be dead by now."
At the moment I offered surrender, there were well over 200 enemies remaining. And most of them declared they'd fight to the end, saying it was a demon army trick or whatever, that even if they lived they'd just become sacrifices and die anyway.
"You prisoners have two choices. Become slaves of our legion, or die right here."
If they'd actually faced a real demon army, it would've been a spectacular fight to the death, but unfortunately, I'm not that kind of demon army. As for those who'd join our legion, even if they're like Lu Bu, they're welcome. Even better if they're female Lu Bu.
"Of course, you guys were originally farming before getting dragged here, or just joined the army to fill your starving bellies. Who'd want to join willingly? But whatever the reason, I can't forgive raising a sword against our legion."
I don't have time to hear everyone's story. I forced a choice on them.
"Will you become part of our legion, or be buried with your comrades?"
I gave those who surrendered another choice. I was curious how many would actually join our army. How many would betray the human alliance and join a legion whose entire military force could be called just over 100 orcs?
"Those who want to become part of the legion stand on the left, those who want to die stand on the right. You've got 3 minutes."
The soldiers shuffle nervously and murmur. Those who know each other grab their acquaintances, hoping they'll come together. Some whisper to just survive for now, while others firmly insist they can't live under demons even if they die.
Three minutes pass quickly, and orcs stand in the middle and draw their swords. Among those who chose death, some stand with dignity, while others cry in terror.
'More went than I thought.'
The number of people choosing to live and plan for later barely reaches twenty. The remaining close to thirty humans wanted to die as humans. So I decided to kill them.
"If they're tenacious enough, they might survive somehow. Gareth!"
"Yes."
"Take the prisoners and cross through the portal. And put them in the 'chicken coop' in Gremory's dungeon."
"What if they resist even that?"
"Then it's really this."
I draw my hand across my throat. Dealing with corpses in Ras Vegas would be annoying, but it could be easily handled in the dungeon.
"Alright, let's go."
Gareth leads the prisoners through the portal with his squad members. Now they'll all either die from 'enjoying it,' or reject even the last lifeline and die.
"...Man, what even is this."
Gremory, standing next to me, lets out a deep sigh. I slap Gremory's butt with my palm. Though she's an avatar, she seems to be taking care of her figure lately—she's bouncier than before.
"Thanks to you, we can gather food to our heart's content. Thank you."
"If you're grateful, do something else. You know our dungeon's completely turned into Ras Vegas, right? I'm going crazy from how loud the birds are."
"Heh heh, isn't it nice though? Thanks to it, we're getting tons of eggs."
The 'chicken coop' in Gremory's dungeon. I mobilized magic stones to randomly summon avian demons, then [dispatched] them all to Gremory's dungeon to create a massive resource production facility.
'Can't just kill them for nothing.'
I'll squeeze them to the bone before sending them off. Hoping they'll make choices helpful to my legion, I head to my mansion with Gremory. Gremory touches her lips with her finger.
"I think it'd be way better if the main body came...."
"Be satisfied with the avatar today."
I squeeze Gremory's butt and enter my mansion. Inside the room, Lune and Eila are already waiting for me, dressed in white silk dresses.
"Well...there might be a night raid, but for today, let's enjoy the victory."
I take off my robe and toss it roughly at the entrance.