Chapter 27
#27. The Invincible Rampart
The elite orc troops charged toward Winterwald's rampart with a roar.
At the front of the formation, Chieftain Krok leaped forward and brought his axe down with all his might.
It was an all-out blow that had split the shields of countless human knights in half in the past.
Kyaaaaaaang!
A clear, ringing sound echoed around Winterwald's rampart.
"……Krrk?"
Krok let out a dumbfounded croak as a numbing shock traveled up his arm.
What he held was a wyvern-bone axe.
It had been fashioned from the solid bone of a wyvern, one of the rulers of the Northern Mountains.
It was Krok's pride and the symbol of his strength.
Even a gate made by binding together thick logs would be smashed to pieces by a single blow from it.
But this time was different.
The blue rampart blocking the orc army did not have so much as a scratch on it.
"Kurrk……!?"
"The chieftain's axe…! It bounced off!?"
The elite orcs following behind him opened their eyes wide in disbelief.
Krok's face flushed bright red with shame.
"I-it was only because my hand slipped! The snow made the axe handle slippery!"
Krok shouted as though making an excuse and raised his axe once more.
His subordinates were also striking the wall with their axes, but the results were disastrous.
The axe blades chipped away, and the handles snapped, striking the unfortunate orcs in the tops of their feet.
"Hit harder! Kurrk…! If we can't bring down a lousy wall like this, that bastard Tarkan will laugh at us!!"
"K-kurrk! Keep hitting it!"
Even though they had clearly seen with their own eyes that it did not work,
the low-intelligence orcs simply pounded the rampart with brute force.
They had no idea what calamity their foolishness was about to bring down upon them.
"Fiiiiiire!"
Whoooosh!
Along with a shriek that split the sky, golden streaks of light poured down from atop the rampart.
"Kweeeek!"
"H-hot! It hurts!!"
The arrows raining down from the rampart pierced the elite orcs' thick hides and lodged in their bodies.
Krok stared at his wounded subordinates as though he could not believe his eyes.
Orcs raised on the meat of monsters had exceptionally tough hides.
They were tough enough to deflect ordinary arrows fired by humans with their bare skin.
But the arrows raining down now pierced the elite orcs' hides as easily as paper.
"Yes! Hit him right in the eye! Big Brother! I've already killed two!"
"Hah. I've got three. Drinks are on me today."
Carefree and frivolous chatter poured endlessly from atop the rampart.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been the orcs discussing how they had beaten humans to death and divided up the spoils.
"By the way, Big Brother. They say Hans used to be a lumberjack, so how is he so good with a bow? He's already killed more than ten."
"……If you're jealous, you've already lost, Rick. Every now and then, a monster like that is born into the world."
Two. Three. Ten.
Rather than fear the orcs, the humans laughed and chatted as they hunted them, as though they were competing with one another.
Krok's eyes flashed with rage.
How dare mere prey act like this!
"Kurrk…!!! Throw your axes! Smash those human bastards!"
At Krok's command, the orcs crowded beneath the rampart all threw their axes at once.
But the adventurers easily ducked out of the way.
"Hah! You think we'd get hit by that!?"
Clang! Thunk!
In the old days, the axes would have turned both the stone rampart and the humans into chunks of meat, but the axes that struck the wall bounced off uselessly and fell below.
The rampart grew more radiant by the moment beneath the sunlight.
The humans who had ducked down raised their weapons and cheered.
"Kahaha!! Did you see that, you pigs!"
"That's right! The Grand Duchess is protecting us!!"
"Winterwald's rampart is invincible!!"
The humans' morale soared to the heavens.
Meanwhile, the confusion of the orcs, who could do nothing but take the beating, reached a fever pitch.
The golden arrows raining down from above were not the only problem.
Slash!
"K… rrk…?"
The neck of an orc adjutant standing beside Krok went flying through the air.
As blood spurted like a fountain, Krok frantically looked around.
"K-krrk…! Who is it!?"
Something invisible swept through the orcs like the wind.
Damn it, I can't see it.
Is it simply too fast?
No. It was fast, but it was something else.
With the enormous sun floating above the rampart, a deep shadow should have been cast, but there was no sign of its shadow anywhere.
Blackwater, the legendary assassin.
She freely reflected and refracted light, slipping into the orcs' blind spots and slitting their throats.
"Screeech! Here! There's something… kweek!"
Slash!
Another orc fell, clutching its throat.
While knocking away a golden arrow with his axe, Krok reached out with his left hand, relying on instinct.
Grab!
Krok's hand barely managed to catch hold of something.
"Got you! You rat-like bastard!!"
His enormous hand closed around a slender waist.
The refraction of light faded, revealing a lithe human female wearing a black mask.
"Kurrk…! Female meat! I'll eat you!"
Krok bared his yellow teeth in a grin and tried to crush the woman in his grip.
He loved the screams humans made just before their bodies burst.
But she met Krok's eyes head-on and mocked him instead.
"Oh my, sorry. Rough men aren't my type."
"……Kurrk?"
Sliiither.
Her body slipped out of Krok's hand like a snake.
All that remained in his palm was an unpleasant sensation, as though he had grabbed a slime.
While Krok blinked, the shadow skimmed past and sliced his shoulder.
Slaaash!
"Kraaaargh!!"
Krok clutched his shoulder and wildly swung his axe around him.
He was furious, but the human meat above continued to chatter noisily.
"Big Brother!! Sis almost got eaten just now!?"
"How dare that damn pig grab our sis around the waist!?"
"Calm down, Big Brother! If you go down there now, you'll get trampled to death!!"
"Let go! Today I'm going to mince that pig bastard into…!"
Krok's situation was desperate.
'This… this can't be happening…."
The elite unit he had been so proud of had been cut in half in an instant.
The unharmed rampart, the sun-arrows raining from the sky, and the invisible assassin—
everything was far beyond Krok's understanding.
If this continued, he would be wiped out right here instead of humiliating Tarkan.
Krok's poor brain spun desperately.
Even a mere beast could grow through adversity.
"Kurrk…! Gather the bodies of our brothers!"
The orcs flinched at Krok's command, but soon began carrying out their chieftain's orders.
The corpses of the orcs piled up one by one beneath the wall, beginning to form a foothold.
The golden arrows raining down from above pierced the orcs one after another, but even more orcs climbed over their fallen kin and crawled upward.
The mountain of corpses did not collapse. It only grew higher.
Rick stared at the ever-rising pile of bodies, then spoke with a face gone deathly pale.
"Uh… uhh… Are they really going to climb up if this keeps going?"
"Yeah…… those stupid pigs are finally walking into hell on their own."
"Huh? What do you mean, Big Brother?"
"Look there. His Highness the Grand Duke is coming. Our turn is over now."
Dozens of orcs finally climbed the rampart, using the corpses of their kin to shield themselves from the arrows.
Kwaang!!
Atop the rampart, Krok's massive body landed right in front of the Winterwald soldiers.
"Kahahahaha!!"
Krok swung his bone axe and effortlessly sent the shield-bearing knights flying, claiming the top of the rampart.
Overcome with elation, Krok raised his bone axe high and roared.
"Kwooooooo…! I am Krok, the great warrior of the Red Fang Tribe! Who is the strongest one here!! "
When the strongest leader dies, the remaining subordinates naturally lose their will to fight and submit.
That was how orc wars ended.
Krok had no doubt that if he crushed the human leader, this fearsome rampart would become theirs as well.
"Don't hide! Crawl out here! Kurrk…! If you're the leader, face Krok head-on like a true leader!!"
His shout reverberated across the rampart.
Krok looked down at the humans atop the rampart with a triumphant expression.
But then.
Rather than flee, they looked at Krok with the eyes one would give a pitiful creature.
"Did you call me?"
At that one cold utterance,
the knights and adventurers packed so tightly that there was nowhere to set foot opened a path to either side.
Through that path, a black-haired man was slowly walking toward him.
Each time the man took a step, the adventurers and knights who had been rampaging like beasts all bowed at the waist in respect.
It was similar to the way the orc warriors knelt before Great Chieftain Tarkan.
"I am Kylan, the master of Winterwald. I have no business with the likes of you, so bring me your Great Chieftain. If you swear your obedience, I'll let you hide somewhere in the corner of the northern mountains."
His voice was low and devoid of emotion.
Even with an orc chieftain standing before him, there was not so much as a speck of fear in his eyes.
He looked at Krok not as a predator, but as an irritating little pest.
It was the same gaze as Great Chieftain Tarkan's.
That arrogant attitude made Krok completely lose his reason.
"Tarkan is far weaker than me! If you want to rule the orcs, you'll have to defeat me, not Tarkan!"
Krok raised his wyvern-bone axe and roared.
But Kylan did not even spare Krok a glance.
He merely looked down at the rampart soiled with orc blood and said,
"You've really smeared shit all over the wall. The cleanup cost should be covered by those bastards' magic stones."