Authors note: Warning graphic violence ahead though if you have read the other chapter before this then this should not be a surprise.
....
"Those who have only studied or heard of the Battle of Brunag in books or a bard's songs would only know it as a decisive, overwhelming victory for the then Kingdom of Chavaria."
"One which would open the way for them to ascend to the level of an empire."
"However, only those there or a truly erudite scholar studying the battle would know of the risk and near defeat, which was only prevented by the valiant effort and sacrifice of the soldiers on the frontline and of one man in particular."
"Lyndon Gladorus, the valiant vice general of Chavaria."
Archtorius Shadowspire Imperial General of Chavaria.
….
After Nagak smashed a hole in the Chavarian defence line, the orcs poured through it like water gushing through a broken dam, a 6-foot six large orc metal-clad orc leading the charge wielding a large battle-axe which sliced a Chavarian soldier in half who attempted to plug the newly created gap his body now in two parts slumped to the bloodied ground.
"CHARGE! Charge through the gap and obliterate these dishonourable humans."
The big orc roared, continuing his slaughter by skillfully wielding his battle axe, the great strength in his blows breaking through the heavy steel armour worn by the Chavarians, shredding the metal plates like paper as the metal head of the axe cut into their soft flesh. The orc warriors were finally able to bring their great strength to bare against their opponents and used it to begin putting pressure and crushing the Chavarian line. Only the well-crafted steel armour kept the Chavarian infantry alive though only until the orcs could bend and breakthrough the steel plates and get to the soft human skin below, as each blow which was deflected by the Chavarian infantry added strain to their arms and muscles as they struggled to counter the orcs overwhelming strength.
While the battle had been raging and after nearly destroying the orcish pikemen, the Chavarian archers and crossbows focused on the skirmishers to the right who were not being suppressed and annihilated by the Chavarian cavalry. Both sides began to exchange fire with each other.
The skirmishers, who were outnumbered by the Chavarians, slowly fell, most taking a man with them before being filled with arrows and bolts; however, due to nearly 1,000 dying on the way up due to taking fire from the archers in the initial stages of the battle after the orc infantry formed tortoises to protect themselves from the Chavarian arrows which fell like rain down from the hill the damage that they were able to do was limited as they also attempted to fire into the Chavarian infantry on the right hoping to down a few with a javelin from behind.
After the orc infantry engaged the Chavarians, the orc skirmishers got even more kills as the Chavarian infantry, who now had to deal with orcs attacking them from the front, would not see a javelin coming in from their side piercing through their armour and bodies at best it would slow them down allowing an orc to get a solid hit on them which would mostly end in their death leading to many casualties on the Chavarian side their gasps of death being unnoticed on the chaotic battlefield.
Naguk lumbered to another section of the Chavarian frontline, ready to beat another hole into the increasingly stretched Chavarian line. If this happened, the frontline would completely collapse and be overrun by the vicious orcs who were already pushing through the first gap, the line having to stretch, forming a small oxbow lake around the hole to keep the front line intact.
The giant orc raised his humanised, bloodied spiked mace, bringing down with all of his strength onto the fearful Chavarians who struggled below him like ants ready to be squished.
[Crushing Strike skill activated]
THUNK!
A tall humanoid figure wielding an ornate curved glaive parried the strength-filled strike; his bulky muscled arms ached and cried out in pain from the impact of the parried blow, which nearly broke his arm.
Much to the shock of the soldiers, some of whom had closed their eyes waiting to be smashed into meat paste, this steel glaive intercepted the giant spiked mace of death.
[Heroic Stand skill activated]
[Protective Parry skill activated]
"Vice general Lyndon!"
"The vice general is here to hold the line and protect us."
"Hold the line! Don't let the vice general down."
Soldiers began to shout their morale which had almost broke, was restored at that moment. Upheld only by the heroic acts of their heavy-breathing general, who was still bulking under the strain from deflecting Naguk's heavy-handed blow, the human-sized spiked mace being knocked to the side by Lyndon's glaive.
Seeing that his blow was unexpectedly defended, Naguk stopped for a second, acknowledging Lyndon as an opponent before taking another swing at his new rival, a primal roar emerging from its tusked mouth.
Still needing to defend his men from the giant orc's wide devastating swings made by the colossal mace, Lyndon once again up all of his strength to deflect the next blow adding more strain to his body before heading towards the right side of the battlefield towards the orc army and to somewhere that he could use his greater agility to dodge instead of block the large orcs strikes.
The giant orc followed Lyndon, the monster's eyes fixed on the human who could take one of his strikes, a phenomenon which had not happened before this in his life wildly swung his large mace at Lyndon, not caring whether any collateral damage he did affected friend or foe bashing both without discrimination.
'Why are you coming over here, you big oaf! Why can't you get into someone else's way!'
Zugbu grumbled resentfully as Naguk, the giant orc's prominent, muscled figure, got in the way of a perfect shot that the orc captain had just lined up.
"Captain, watch out!"
One of the orc skirmishers shouted in alarm, shoving Zugbu to the ground and taking his place as a stealthy steel arrow which escaped the orc captain's notice, pierced the skirmisher's heart, killing the heroic orc instantly.
"Damn, missed the sneaky bugger bloody shacky ground making my arrow miss
150 yards away, holding a freshly fired bow, stood Archtorius, a scowl appearing on his handsome youthful face.
"Young master, I believe the arrow hit; just one of his comrades took the arrow for him also; please pay more attention to your surroundings."
Sorrells old gruff voice reminded skillfully, wielding his steel sword and cutting down two orcs who tried to kill his young master while he was homing in on the small orc captain.
"This old bag of bones won't be around to protect you forever!"
The old man added, stabbing another orc in the heart; the green-skinned warrior falling to the crimson, blood-soaked ground, the blood forming tiny streams as it headed down the hill, which had become a battlefield.
"I will in the future, but while I have you around might as well make the most of it!"
"Now, where has that little shit gone!"
Archtorius said, a predatory glint in his eye as he looked frantically around for the small orc trying in vain to find the orc who had nearly deep-fried him and General Lucius the previous night and seemed to have slipped away into the crowd of faceless metal-clad orcs.
After 5 minutes of looking around with Sorrell, who diligently created a protective circle around his young master, killing anyone or thing that tried to interrupt or hurt his young master Archtorius finally calmed down and looked around the battlefield and at the Chavarian line, which was barely holding on.
Two things stood out to the young man. First was a big orc clad in an ornate iron armour, not as large as Naguk by any means but still bigger than most, who had charged through the gap created by Naguk, wielding his large battle-axe with grace and great strength to easily break through the Chavarian heavy infantry and was now charging into the archers cutting one down with each swing as he charged his way to the top of the kill to cut the head off the Chavarian command chain.
The second was the duel between Lyndon and Naguk, the giant orc, as Lyndon moving with a practised lightning speed skilfully dodged every blow Naguk tried to land as his glaive began to slowly take small chunks of green skin off the monstrous orc. Lyndons glaive suddenly sped up, appearing to disappear before reappearing and cutting a large piece of flesh off the orc who until now had only really been scratched, not a drop of blood falling to the floor until the new wound made it flow out like a gushing river. Seeing what was to come after made Archtorius rush towards where the duel was taking place, caring not for his own safety.
[Monster Slaying Strike skill activated.]
[Lightspeed Strike skill activated]
Enraged after suffering his first real wound of the battle, the giant orc, instead of slowing down from taking the injury instead, sped up, filled with rage as his strikes got faster and stronger as the giant spiked mace in his hands batted the old general away like a baseball.
[Home Run Bat skill activated]
[Blood Filled Rage skill activated]
The glaive that narrowly blocked but failed to deflect the strike was the only thing that prevented Lyndon's insides from exploding from the tremendous force of the strike as the old vice general flew through the air 20 feet through the air before crashing to the ground agonising pain erupting from every corner of his body.
Lyndon groaned in pain, forcing his body to go to one knee and coughed a mouthful of blood onto the ground, turning it the colour of crimson red like that of the other parts of the battlefield, his shaky hands gripping the glaive which lay on the ground to his side the blade red with the large orc's blood as the thundering steps of death lumbered slowly towards him.
Lyndon could only watch his body, too injured to move, as Naguk stopped before him, raising his human-sized spiked mace into the sky, ready to reduce the valiant vice general to meat paste.
'So this is how it ends.'
'I am sorry, your majesty, this old subject can no longer see the glorious outcome of your great cause.'
Lyndon thought, closing his eyes, ready to accept the coldness of death.
"Oi, you giant fatass orc over there! Yes, you! The moving peanut-brained fountain of blood though it seems that the blood has been stemmed for now.
Archtorius' young voice shouted, aiming two arrows at the giant orc's head which turned around to find the person who had insulted him, the raging fire burning inside him becoming an inferno of rage as the rim of the giant orc's eyes were rimmed red.
"Time to put your giant muscled mass of meat to sleep!"
[Twin Shooting Star Shot skill acitivated]
[Strenghend Twin Shot skill activated]
Two arrows shot out at blinding speed just as Naguk found the human who had insulted him, only to see a humanoid figure and two glinting steel arrowheads racing towards him before the arrows embedded themselves into his eyes, the giant orc crying out in pain as he was blinded by the two arrows which pierced through his irises.
[Giant Slaying Throw skill activated]
[Long Throw skill activated]
Only a second later, the two arrows were joined by a spear which pierced through the large orc's brain, his lifeless body crumbling to the ground, his cry of death being heard throughout the battlefield, and his heavy body sending vibrations throughout the land heralding news of the orcs death throughout the battlefield.
Not far from the orc stood Sorrell, his hands empty of a weapon after killing the large orc but with a sword safely in a scabbard on his right, looked back in concern to his young master Archtorius who cried in pain and was clutching a limp arm, sweat pouring off his face in obvious pain, the last shot breaking the young man's arm as he desperately fired the arrows to save his friend and mentor to death.
Kneeling on the ground, Lyndon opened his eyes, his face relaxing in relief, seeing the spear sticking out of the giant orc's head, the last of his energy spent as his eyes turned lifeless. His limp, dead body quietly falling to the ground.
On top of the hill, Lucius watched the events unfold
"Strike one!"
Lucius said to himself, seeing the first arrow hit Naguks eye.
"Strike two!"
Lucius said when the second arrow hit, and when the spear came in to deliver the final blow, only four words came out of his mouth as a small smile appeared on his usually calm and expressionless face, a gauntlet clattering to the ground, as Lucius raised a hand into the air clicking his fingers.
"Strike three! Batter out!"