"W…hat? This is?!"
'… A head?!'
The Orcs stood stunned. Karakul's pupils shook as his eyes grew wide. He reached down with trembling hands to lift the Orc's head. He appeared to have died in pain. It was the last expression frozen upon the Orc that had been carried off as a prisoner.
Karakul's heart beat wildly. He had been involved in countless battles and carried himself rationally. Despite his cool-head nature, Karakul felt his blood boil.
'Why are they doing this…?'
Karakul had carefully wrapped the heads of each of the Holy Knights. However, they in turn threw the Orcs' heads upon catapults and sullied their valorous deaths. Had they no decorum? This was the same as sullying the holy battlefield! A red heat swept over Karakul. Heavy, rough breathing expelled through his mouth and nose.
The Orcs watched attentively.
"… What should we do, Commander?"
Karakul's breathing resonated in the encampment in the silence, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the Hero's forces.
Calm yourself! You must calm down! You must think logically! You must act rationally! I must, but…!!
Karakul's crimson face found its correct shade. His breathing calmed. His expression softened.
"We do not move."
His soldier's faces fell.
"… Under normal circumstances."
They picked up again, in confusion.
"The Demon Lord has come to this place. Are we going to take this mockery in this place that the great King of Hell has come to?!"
Karakul smashed the barricade with a mace. The spiky barricade was smashed to pieces. The dirt and fractures of wood flew out like a fog.
As the slaves watched the Orcs behave this way in between their barricade, a strange figure appeared on top of them. Karakul, who appeared all of a sudden, held a mace with both hands. He spoke with an ugly expression.
"I know your plan, you bastards. You wanted to drag us out! Yes, let's have a go! Dear Hero, it's a game you've started-!"
Karakul swung his mace. The center area of its impact exploded. Not a single trace of the slaves surrounding him could be seen, and the slaves in the vicinity were thrown back by the blast and sent rolling on the ground.
"I-it's just one bastard!"
"It's just a single Orc, don't fear him!"
The slaves grabbed their daggers and surrounded him. Karakul swung his mace with one hand in full rotation toward the slaves rushing him. Infused in his mace was his favorite explosive magic; it crashed into the slaves, their mangled bodies careening through the air.
Blood and screams flew in every direction. Their tenderized flesh rolled on the field, spraying red dirt.
The slaves recoiled; the drafted soldiers hesitated and froze in place. Karakul was covered in blood, and let out a breath before spitting toward the humans.
"Kill… them all-!"
"Commander Karakul has led the charge-!"
"Follow Commander Karakul!"
"Follow the Orc Commander-!"
"The might of the great tribe of the Green Orcs-!"
"Kuwaaaaaa-!"
The air trembled with the monstrous, deafening roar of Orcs. They leapt out from behind the barricade. With rough breaths full of passion, they lowered their hips and charged with their massive axes in hand.
"Kuwaaaaaa-!"
They used their large bodies to run straight through the slaves. Orc axes severed bodies in two while Orc feet of trampled flesh.
They had the force of a tsunami. The Orcs swung their weapons and rushed forward, their speed unaffected. They were a stampede, trampling slaves the slaves without mercy, and covering the battlefield with green flesh and red blood. Rather than becoming exhausted, the Orcswere now more rough and violent. The battlefield quickly became filled with the screams of slaves and roars of monsters.
"U-uwaaaa!"
The slaves abandoned their daggers and fled. The soldiers who had raised their spears retreated. They only watched the fearful scene with trembling eyes. Orcs were much larger than humans, and the soldiers forced to watch these Orcs charging forward like an army of ants. It was truly a sight to behold.
"T-these monstrous bastards…!"
The Holy Knight commanders panicked and shouted an order to the soldiers.
"F-fire your bows!"
The archers standing behind the spear wall took position and fired. Arrows poured like rain, skewering Orcs and slaves alike. However, the Orcs didn't relent as their bodies filled with arrows. Instead, slaves clung to the soldiers, begging for their lives. The slaves quickly retreated to the soldiers of the Hero's forces and begged while gripping the spears.
"O-open a path! We'll be killed like this!"
Desperate,The slaves gripped the soldiers' spearheads, the sharp blades cutting into their fingers as they begged. The soldiers stared back at the slaves, a greater fear gripping them.
"L-let go!"
"Please! I beg you! E-ey? Don't push from the back! I said don't push! I'll be skewer…! Uwaaack!"
The slaves began to push each other into the spear wall. The soldiers could no longer hold onto the weighty spears and grew exhausted. Even as they died, the slaves continued to cling on, even as those in front of them were skewered.
The Orcs leading the charge began to rally.
"We are the Great Orc Tribe-! Let us finish the bastards!"
"Awwoo-!"
With a shout, they moved swiftly and efficiently. They held their wooden shields at a slant to create a wedge, glaring toward the human soldiers they were approaching with anger in their eyes.
"Charge-!"
The Human soldiers felt a chill. The battle strategies of these Orcs were organized, not like Orcs in the wild. These Orcs were veteran soldiers. They possessed fearsome strength that surpassed the average knight. It was truly a monstrous army.
"H-hold!"
The Holy Knights shouted. The soldiers barely managed to hold up their spears, which were heavy with the bodies of dead slaves.. They gritted their teeth and held their line to the best of their abilities. No matter how monstrous their enemy was, they wouldn't be able to break through this pike wall which had withstood even cavalry charges. However…
"Kuwaaaaa-!"
The Orcs crashed into the Humans. The spears of the soldiers could not penetrate the worn wooden shields and bounced off, causing the humans to tumble back at the impact. There was no way the Human soldiers could withstand the charge of the powerful Orcs in their current state.
The formation shattered in an instant, Orc and Human soldiers intermingling.
"Kwaaaaa-!"
"W-wait, spare…!"
A massacre ensued. Those who wore rag-tag armor upon their flesh destroyed the human troops with their incredible strength. The fight continued and the formation on the Human side was pushed away before disappearing completely. Even from a distance, it was easy to see that though the Orcs were inferior in number, their numbers did not shrink.
The soldiers were now completely engulfed in fear and had lost all will to fight, but lacked the courage to desert their post. Even if they resisted, there weren't many soldiers that could overcome the veteran Orcs now that their formation had been dismantled. The field soon became soaked in blood.
— Ω —