Chapter 124. Wasteland and Mountain (3)

Dung! Dung! Dung! Dung!

The dull sound of drums reverberated through the air.

Uwaaaaaaaaah-!!

The orcs' war cry vibrated the ground beneath our feet.

"Warriors of the Empire, do not be afraid!"

"Shoulders back. Don't be scared, you bastards!"

"Luark will protect us!"

Even the encouragement shouted with all their might by the commanders was overshadowed by the presence exuded by the orcs several kilometers away.

Standing at the very forefront of the expedition, I gazed at the orc army gathering in one place, shouting and yelling, down below the hill.

[...Ash.]

The voice of Viscount Pewin came through the short-range communication crystal.

[There are too many enemies.]

"I know."

His voice trembled faintly, which was unlike him.

[We can't win with this number of troops.]

I could understand.

Because I was looking at the same scene.

Orcs pushing aside their tents and running out.

Orcs pouring out like a wave from the gates of the Hold's surface.

And the orcs already gathered in a disorderly mob behind the blue-tattooed Great Chieftain.

Just counting the numbers I could see with a rough estimate, it was over sixty or seventy thousand.

Since they were still popping out from the Hold and the campsite, an orc horde of nearly a hundred thousand was before our eyes.

A jet-black wave, like a swarm of ants.

To be honest, I hadn't expected a number that large.

No matter how threatening the awakening of an Orc Great Chieftain was as a mid-game crisis, there was no precedent for him gathering so many orcs so quickly.

[Ash, Viscount Ash Wolfskrig.]

"Tell the soldiers to look at me."

I temporarily disconnected the communication.

I turned my back to the orcs and faced my army.

The sound of the drums was transmitted down my spine like a heartbeat.

The orcs' shouts, cries, and stomping of feet rose through the soles of my military boots and seeped into my entire body.

I breathed in the dry air, heated by the sun, and opened my mouth.

"Those who have been with me for a long time will know!"

[Deploying [Commander’s Roar].]

I strained my voice to its maximum, imbued with the trait.

So that it would spread to everyone from this end of the formation to the other.

"I do not make empty promises! Today, some will be injured, and some will die!"

[Deploying [Lord’s Unyielding Mind].]

With each word I spoke, I made eye contact with the soldiers one by one.

Even I felt a sense of tension.

[Lord's Unyielding Mind] was keeping my heart rate calm even in this moment, but the feeling of my mouth going dry was surely not a delusion.

Just like when I saw the Infernal Meteor flying from Burken Fortress.

Just like when I faced the army of Count Calvenia marching towards the walls of Wolfskrig.

My fully preserved reason itself was sending the loudest warning signal.

If I was like this, how would the soldiers be?

I stared into their trembling eyes and looked at their tightly shut lips.

I took another deep breath of the dry air and shouted.

"But I promise! Even if you die here, your wives and children will receive just compensation."

"I will make your names widely known so that your parents and siblings can be proud."

"And I will safely protect the cities where your families live from any threat."

Still, it was a relief.

That while there were many who were gritting their teeth or whose eyes were shaking, there were few who were trembling.

This was a result that could not be explained by [Lord's Unyielding Mind] alone.

It must be a miracle created by harsh training, years of real-world experience, and the trust and bond forged within.

"And I will fight by your side."

I turned my horse's head towards the enemy camp.

I drew my sword and raised my staff.

A shield formed like a buckler, and a pure white aura blazed upon my sword.

The war cry of the soldiers shouting from behind me sent a shiver down my spine.

Of course, it was still a lacking cry compared to the orcs gathering in the distance.

Because we were inferior in headcount, physique, and the structure of our vocal organs.

However, humans had their own war cry.

"Ella Siollus."

[I'm here.]

"William."

"Ready, Viscount."

The human war cry was made by human hands.

The artillery corps, having finished loading, spewed fire.

The mages capable of long-range attacks, led by the witch of mad fire, cast their spells.

Magic and gunpowder.

Two of the Empire's four powers became a hellfire falling from the sky to judge the enemy.

Explosions and flames erupted in the middle of the gathering orc crowd, and the roar spewed by human technology began to bury the orcs' war cry.

The soldiers' shouts grew even louder.

But the volume was still lacking.

"Balkan."

"...Viscount."

"I hope your information is accurate."

We needed the dwarves' support.

* * *

"Uwoooooh-!"

"Chargeeee!"

"Follow the Great Chieftain-!"

The surface of the Dwarf Hold.

The orc warriors were shouting with slurred pronunciation and running towards the castle walls.

The sight of the black-skinned giants pushing and being pushed, rushing in a horde, was like a black river flowing.

In the process, building partitions and street facilities were being destroyed in real time, so it would be appropriate to compare it to a raging torrent whose water level had rapidly risen due to heavy rain.

"Keok?!"

An orc warrior who was being pushed along like that suddenly turned his head.

The bastard, stumbling out of the torrent of his kin, entered an alley.

There were no kinsmen in the alley.

The bastard strode inside.

Did he sense some presence?

The bastard sniffed the empty air.

It was at that point that I drew my sword.

"Uwooooooock-!"

The seam on the back of the leather clothing and the side.

A blade thrust through his back, piercing his waist, instantly skewered both of the orc's hearts.

I infused it with aura, stirred it lightly, and then stepped back.

"You-! I'll eat you...!!"

The bastard, who had been swinging his club wildly as if to strike me down, soon dropped the club and fell to his knees.

Kung!

No matter if it was an orc, if both of its hearts were turned to pulp, it would die.

I had to leave quickly.

The death cry the bastard let out would have been buried in the shouts of the other orcs, but the smell of the spilled blood would remain here.

[Deploying [Warrior’s Binding].]

[Summoning bound enemy.]

[Summoned Troop: Skeleton Swordsman]

To dispel any possible suspicion, I summoned a single Skeleton Swordsman to act as a fake culprit.

This way, even if the murder scene was discovered, I could rest assured.

The orc who discovered this place would only think that their dead kin was a foolish and weak fellow who was taken down by a single skeleton that popped out from somewhere.

Deducing where on earth the skeleton came from was a realm beyond the reach of an orc's walnut-sized brain.

Because in the time it took to think about that, they would be busy clobbering the skeleton in front of them.

Clatter...?

Don't make such a mournful rattling sound.

If an orc attacks you, I'll unsummon you before you die.

I concealed my presence and moved quickly.

It had been two hours since I infiltrated the Hold.

[Deploying [Phantom Step].]

[Deploying [Wide-Area Silence].]

[Deploying [Hebrun’s Blood Scent Concealment].]

Before arriving at the Everlasting Hold.

I estimated the number of orcs through reconnaissance using rangers and Vampiric Bats.

I never thought it would reach a hundred thousand, but I knew beforehand that it would be three or four times our number.

I immediately put the second plan into action.

The plan prepared in case the number of enemies exceeded my Expectation.

This operation had two aspects.

One was the battle in the wasteland.

I had to command the main force against the orc horde and hold out for as long as possible.

This was the role of my clone body.

After long training, I had become able to command and fight simultaneously with my clone and main body.

Just like how a person who has played the piano for a long time can move both hands freely and differently.

The other aspect was the battle in the mountains.

This was the core.

I went out with my main body.

Because in the wasteland battle, even if I made a slight mistake, the commanders and soldiers would fight well as they were trained, but this was an operation I had to carry out alone.

The battle in the mountain consisted of three stages.

Infiltration.

Persuasion and negotiation.

And problem-solving.

The first stage was infiltration.

The operation began from the moment the orc horde reacted to our army.

I left the command of the main force to my clone body and personally infiltrated the dwarf hold.

I waited for a moment of confusion because, although not as much as elves, the orcs' senses were also animalistic.

If it weren't for now, when everyone was rushing to the walls due to the Great Chieftain's summons and the excitement of battle, it would have been impossible to infiltrate the hold alone, avoiding the senses of tens of thousands of orcs.

Even now, with the entire horde high on adrenaline, I had to deal with the orcs who were lucky enough to sense me one by one.

"Sniff sniff... Kuoork-!"

When there was one or two, I assassinated them quickly.

If there were many, I used a few zombies or skeletons as bait to escape.

The destination was the innermost part of the Hold's surface.

Dwarf Holds were enormous.

You could think of each one as a dwarf kingdom.

Usually, a Hold was divided into a surface part and an underground part.

The surface part was the form of a city as one would commonly think.

Of course, it would be troublesome to imagine a medieval-style city.

The sight of castle walls over fifty meters high and dozen-story buildings packed tightly like skyscrapers was enough to cause even me to feel a sense of anachronism.

This massive fortress city, when viewed from above, had a fan shape extending from the mountain range, and the starting point and vertex of that fan was my destination.

There, a palace even more magnificent than the Empire's royal palace was located.

[Deploying [Sprinter].]

[Deploying [Marathoner].]

Six hours since infiltration.

I ran without rest.

If I hadn't been able to consistently maintain a speed comparable to a pony with the combination of the two traits, it would have taken several times longer.

There was no time to delay.

As soon as I arrived at the palace, I went inside.

Traces of orcs were scattered all over the vast hall.

Stakes for setting up tents and large cloths, a bonfire with only embers flying, unidentified leftover meat, and primitive knives and hammers.

I passed by crudely made cages and the pigs oinking inside them.

The orcs who had been staying here had already left long ago in response to the Great Chieftain's call.

They had all gone out to the wasteland.

It was a fight entrusted to my clone body.

While simultaneously controlling that body, I ran into the seemingly endless hall.

The deeper I went, the narrower the width and height of the hall became, and the stench worsened.

After running for about ten minutes, the end appeared.

A tightly shut stone door.

The area in front of the door, which was larger than the gate of any decent city, was stained with the orcs' excrement and filth.

They must have tried to break through it several times but failed, and expressed their anger in this way.

I had the key.

I stood before the tightly shut door.

I took out a thick piece of paper that the Dwarf Balkan had given me from the subspace and attached it to the center of the door.

Before long, the large rune engraved on the paper began to glow.

'Kkumteuli.'

'I'll proceed immediately.'

A tentacle that shot out from the subspace covered my vision and then disappeared in an instant.

I discreetly took out a bronze mirror and checked my changed face.

A good-natured young man with a thick jawline and a large mouth, the kind you might see on a construction site, was smiling from beyond the mirror.

It was William's face.

Then, a voice was heard.

[Who is it? Who connected the communication?]

It was a voice coming from the rune I had just attached.

[Has the request for support been accepted? Is it the Skyhammer Hold? Or the Burning Anvil Hold?]

The second stage of the operation.

Persuasion and negotiation.

I cleared my throat and opened my mouth.

"I am William, the disciple of Duke Meister."

[What? Who?]

"I am the disciple of the exiled Meister Duke Bukrum. I came at Balkan's request."