[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]
Clouds appeared at night, blocking the moonlight. Ideal for a night attack. Each member of the Orc subjugation force moved to their respective positions under the cover of darkness.
Around the Orc settlement, to the north, north east, east, south east, south, south west, west and north west, each party located themselves at their positions.
From the strategy explained by Hobbes, firstly, as the settlement hadn’t finished construction, the Axe of the Thunder God would gather their forces by making a flashy attack from the east. The other parties would come in once Orc reinforcements went to the east and the defenses weakened, that was the plan.
Naturally, as the Axe of the Thunder God would be the ones to attack first, the general consensus was that the battle would be fiercest there as the Orcs gathered. Elk, who led the Axe of the Thunder God said,『Believe in us, we’re an A rank party』, with that, the other parties all consented. It could be said that getting everyone’s consent with a single sentence was proof that his experience and track record could be trusted.
Rei, with Set’s mobility as a Griffon, was placed in charge of guerrilla attacks and wasn’t placed at any of the eight locations.
「Set, it’s about time. Are you ready?」
「Guru~」
In the darkness, Set gave a short cry as the dim moonlight, due to the clouds, exposed his body.
At first, sinces a Griffon has the upper body of an Eagle, shouldn’t it have poor night vision? Was Rei’s thoughts, but after spending a night in the Forest of Monsters, it was found that there wasn’t any problems.
TL Note: For those that don’t know, Eagles have poor night vision.
「Orcs, your lives end today. Disappear and become food for Set and I.」
With Rei’s mutter, almost simultaneously, several lightning bolts rained down on the Eastern part of the Orc settlement. It was the magic of Min, the mage of Axe of the Thunder God.
「It has begun. Set, Our main aim isn’t the high ranking Orc Mages, Archers or Generals. Our top priority is the individual leading the Orcs.」
「Gururu~!」
On the ground, a group of Orcs could be seen heading East, organized roughly due to the panic at the sudden raid. And, taking that chance, the other parties attacked the Orcs from behind, invaded the Orc settlement from various locations and headed towards the East.
While seeing the action from the sky, he looked for the appearance of his target……
「There!」
Rei’s eyes discovered 5 Orc Archers drawing their bows fully back to attack an adventurer party they had discovered to the south west. Due to the fact that the surprise attack was carried out at night, even the adventurers hadn’t noticed that they had been targeted by the bows.
「Set!」
「Gururu~!」
To Rei’s sharp shout, Set also gave a sharp cry as he dived to the ground. This state was reminiscent of Raptors aiming at their prey.
The arrows shot by the Orc Archers hit the man at the back of the adventurer party, penetrating through his left leg, body and his right arm. However, he could be considered fortunate, the two remaining arrows pierced the ground away from the adventurer. The adventurer hit by the three arrows fell to the ground, his friends dragged him towards cover in a panic. The Orc Archers seemed to be dissatisfied that they hadn’t killed anyone and shot a large number of arrows at where the adventurers had taken cover.
The leader of the archers searched for his prey, he fired arrows at different locations from time to time, trying to locate the position of the hidden target.
Because this was the Orcs’ settlement, they had the home ground advantage. Not using it would greatly reduce the Orcs’ combat ability. Using this area could be considered proof that there were high ranking Orc species.
However, the difficulty of getting close to archers corresponded to their weakness in close combat. Therefore.
「Haah!」
Jumping from the diving Set, Rei poured magic power into the Death Scythe and swung down. The Orc he was aiming for was split in two like a piece of bamboo. Without realising what had happened, the body fell to the left and right separately. With a gusha~ sound, the freshly cut internals of the Orc spilled out of the body and splattered onto the ground.
In addition, Set, who had been diving, swung his claws and crushed the head of an Orc Archer with his momentum.
Rei gave a quick glance and saw the Orc Archer’s head fall with a dosha~ sound as the body fell to the ground. Swinging the Death Scythe up from below, he targeted an Orc Archer that hadn’t comprehended what was happening.
At the same time, Set, who had landed on the ground, pecked out the throat of an Orc, and the next moment, use his front claws to cleave the body.
「Bumoo~!?」
The remaining Orc Archer finally realised that they had come under attack. However, he was only able to raise a confused voice. The next moment, his head fell to the ground with his neck neatly separated by the swinging Death Scythe. Several seconds later, the body of the Orc Archer collapsed to the ground with blood gushing out the neck, as if noticing the head was gone.
「Set, are there any more?」
「Gururu~」
Though Rei called out to Set to check for enemies in the surroundings, Set shook his head side to side. Judging that the Orc Archers here had been dealt with, he quickly stored the bodies, bows and arrows of the Orc Archers into the Misty Ring.
「Rei, is it? Thanks for saving us.」
As he finished storing everything, a member of the Orc subjugation force called out to him, it was the leader of the party that had been attacked earlier by the Orc Archers.
Because they had been locked down by the Orc Archers and couldn’t move, they were planning to move out once the attack of arrows had subsided. Following behind the leader was a typical warrior equipped with a sword and leather armour.
「Where’s the other person?」
「He’s treating the guy hit by the archers.」
「Are the potions enough?」
「Ahh, the supplies we received are sufficient for now.」
As for the health and mana potions that he had brought in the Misty Ring, he had distributed them to each party during the evening. That person was probably being treated with them.
「What happened to the corpses of the Orc Archers?」
The warrior behind the leader asked curiously. It would be strange if there were no corpses if the monsters were defeated.
「I’ve already stored it into the item box. It’s a high ranking species of Orc. It’s better to prevent disputes in future.」
「Well, that’s true.」
The warrior nodded, agreeing with the leader.
「Then, I’ll be returning to the sky as a guerrilla unit to check the state of the other parties.」
「Ah, I understand. Thanks for saving us.」
「Don’t mind it, this is my job.」
He replied lightly to the leader before getting on Set’s back.
「Set.」
「Guru~!」
With a run up of a few steps and a flap of his wings, Set kicked against the air as he rose into the sky.
「It seems to have become very noisy.」
「Guru~」
What Rei saw as he rose into the sky were flames burning in several places in the settlement. Someone may have used fire magic which then spread to the Orc buildings. And with the light, it was possible for Rei to grasp what was happening on the battlefield.
「Hm?」
As Rei observed the ground lit up by the light source, he noticed an adventurer party heading to the shack in the North.
They might be going to help the woman he saw during scouting who was caught by the Orcs for breeding.
However, bad luck for them, they ran into Orcs who were just leaving the shack. Naturally, a fight occurred.
The adventurer party in charge of the northern side had 3 people. They were against 5 Orcs. One of the Orcs was bigger than the other and was wearing armour. It was a high ranking species, Orc General.
「It seems I can’t abandon them.」
It was a fact that he was still angry from appearance of the Orcs he had seen during the day. It was good to be able to vent his anger.
Rei determined this and directed Set to the next fight with a belligerent smile.
「Set, next is there.」
「Guru~!」
Following Rei’s words, Set dived towards the 3 v 5 fight they had seen just before. Rei jumped off Set’s back when their altitude had dropped to 10m above ground and activated the Shoes of Sleipnir to walk on the air preparing the Death Scythe and dropping towards the Orc General who was commanding the other 4 Orcs.
「Bumo~!?」
As expected of a high rank species, the Orc General noticed something approaching from the sounds Rei made as he descended, he raised the large sword at his waist above his head by reflex.
Normally, that would have been sufficient. It was no joke to say that the sword of the Orc General that Rei was targeting was the size of a great sword. It should have been able to block the average weapon. But……
「Don’t think you can block my attack!」
The Death Scythe was swung down. Death Scythe. It was a magic item created as a by product of Rei vast magic power during the activation of the Magic Beast Art. Aside from raising its sharpness by magic power, the Death Scythe that exceeds a 100kg in weight, felt like a pair of chopsticks in his hands. A scythe weighing over a 100kg with its sharpness increased by magic power. What happens when such a weapon strikes a great sword that isn’t a magic item? The answer was in front of Rei’s eyes.
The Death Scythe was swung down, cutting through the Orc General’s raised great sword without any resistance, cutting through the helmet that seemed to be made out of some monster skin, through the head, body and armour before it slammed against the ground, blowing a great cloud of dust with a roaring sound as it created a 2m radius crater.
「Bumoo~!?」
The Orcs that turned around due to the sound saw the appearance of their commander falling left and right with his armour split in two in the crater.
And Set, who followed Rei and dropped from the sky, didn’t miss the chance of the Orc frozen in surprise. With the speed from diving, wielding his claws in the same manner as the surprise attack against the Orc Archer from before, Set crushed the head of an Orc.
「Now, do it!」
To Rei’s sharp shout, the adventurers pulled themselves together and attacked the Orcs who were looking at Rei from behind.
The vanguards held a sword and spear. The adventurer at the back shot an arrow as a sword swung down at the back of the head of an Orc, killing it instantly. Arrows shot by the archer pierced into the back of an Orc consecutively. Thrust with all his power, the Orc that withstood the pain had its head destroyed by a spear to the back of its head.
「Bumo~!」
Their leader, the Orc General, was killed and a monster, Griffon, attacked them. The humans they were fighting just before stabbed them from behind and finally he was the only one remaining. The Orc understood that and judged that he had no chance of winning even if he fought. Without even the pretense of fighting, he threw his sword at Rei before running away at full speed.
Though the adventurers tried to chase the Orc, Rei, who had cut the discarded sword with the Death Scythe, stopped them.
「Leave it alone.」
「But why! That’s an Orc!」
To the voice of the adventurer with the spear,Rei had a ferocious smile. The adventurers who saw it sensed a great pressure for a moment, but they still looked at Rei as they wanted to know why he left the Orc.
「At any rate, all the Orc in the settlement are going to die tonight. The only difference is sooner or later.」
To those words, the adventurers fell silent under Rei’s pressure.
「And your goal isn’t to kill that Orc, it’s to release the woman held in the shack isn’t it?」
「……Ahh. That’s certainly right.」
The man with the sword nodded. When looking at his face, he was one of the people in the meeting with Hobbes. He was probably the leader of this party.
「Then, I’ll leave the shack to you. Evacuate them to Hobbes. As far as I could see from above, there aren’t any enemies in the area. I’ll deal with the Orcs here until you return.」
「Sorry, I’m relying on you.」
The 3 people bowed before heading to the small shack. While watching their backs, Rei reflexively let out a sigh.
Originally, he had planned to rescue the woman caught in the shack after the subjugation of the Orcs had been completed. However, when they saw the settlement burning, the 3 people judged that it would be dangerous to leave it until then. And the Orcs still had the intelligence to take group action. It would have been troublesome if they decided to take a hostage in an emergency.
With Set watching the surroundings, the men appeared from the hut after a few minutes.
There were two women with them. The woman Rei saw during the daytime was limping but still managed to walk on her feet. However, the other one was already unable to stand and was carried on the back of the man with the spear.
「So for a little while, I’ll be relying on you. Come back as soon as possible.」
「Ah.」
Exchanging a few short words with the party leader, Rei and Set saw the three people head out of the settlement.
