-Kaaaaaaaah!
At the center of a collision that crushes the entire city, Karina is stunned, but only for a moment.
-Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
She regained her senses a dozen seconds later. Her ears hurt from the lizard's howling.
"It's loud."
[What?!]
The Black Dragon is fuming and furious. Karina stood up, standing on the claws of the dragon that had caught her.
"Oh no------"
[What happened?]
"I lost the holy spear."
In the momentary lapse of consciousness, the grip must have loosened. Unlike Leon, Karina does not have the power of the Lionheart to retrieve and deploy weapons from subspace, so she has no way of finding the holy spear.
"Are you and the dragons here to support me?"
Karina suddenly saw dragons flying around the Black Dragon.
Five, including the Black Dragon. Aside from the dragons on each front, these five were most of the dragons mobilized for this assault.
"It's not enough power."
[What are you thinking?]
"We're going to attack Skunik's javelin launcher. He'll keep throwing javelins as long as he has the strength."
Karina pointed to the nearest of Skunik's great javelins.
Like Gokrok's tower, the Skunik's great javelin is the orcs' most powerful ranged weapon, and while it doesn't shoot a beam of light like Gokrok's tower, it's annoying to have a javelin with the 'must-hit' property.
"Once upon a time, when I was the Grand Duke of Dragonia, I encountered one in an orc slaughter. It took a lot of work to destroy it, and it's now or never."
She once faced off against a large tribe of orcs who had built an idol of the orc hunting god Skunik. Its javelins could only be destroyed with the sacrifice of many knights.
"That's not the only idol of the Orc Gods. Inevitably, the Holy Knights will come to destroy it."
Their role, then, is to destroy the idol of Skunik, so that they can relieve the Lionheart King burden when he'll fight the Orc High Khan.
[Good! The power of our great dragon clan will be better than those tin cans!]
With a confident roar from the black dragon, the four dragons rode side by side.
"Beware, it is the Champion of the Hunting God guarding it. Even if you are a dragon-─"
-Kwak!
Something pierced through Black Dragon's wing. Black Dragon screamed in pain and crashed.
-Kuung!
[------!]
[------Save your kind!]
The dragons scramble to catch the Black Dragon's fall. But they had to dodge the javelins hurled at them.
"K------"
Karina, who had been dragged down by the Black Dragon that had been holding her, fell with it. She broke free of the Black Dragon's claws and helped the fallen Black Dragon to his feet.
"Get up! This is no time to be distracted!"
[Kkrrr---! You bastards! You dare tear off my proud wings!]
Fortunately, the wound was not fatal; though the torn wing made flight difficult, the dragon was still a dragon. The source of its strength came from its immense magic power.
"By the way---we're already surrounded."
Karina looked at the eyes staring at her and Black Dragon.
Orc hunters, these boar-mounted bore riders are the signature hunting group of the orcs and one boar in particular was huge and imposing.
This mythical boar and its rider have come to hunt dragons themselves.
"Kkkkk, five dragons and a big tin can. This will be my most glorious hunting day ever."
"Champion, you saved me the trouble of coming to you."
Karina dusted off her hair and drew her magic sword.
"Grand Duke of Dragonia. Enemy of King Leon Dragonia Lionheart. Karina."
"Skira, Great Warrior of Skunik. Today I will add your skulls to my collection."
The two divine warriors clashed toward each other.
* * * * *
A mounted charge is always more powerful in groups.
Hundreds of horsemen often crush an army a hundred times their size because the larger-than-life steeds and their heavily armored riders overwhelm the infantry with momentum.
A cavalry charge in unison has been the most powerful force in human warfare for thousands of years.
But,
The less mass, the less intimidating and less devastating the cavalry class power can be especially when their opponent is a group of warriors who are veterans of war.
"Stupid---! You think you can break through us single-handedly?"
As an S-class Hunter and Orc squadron leader, he was proud of his heavily armed men.
The best S-class raiders on the continent, though their status has been diminished by the rise of the Black Orcs, they are still a force to be reckoned with.
They've heard that their opponent is comparable to the High Khan, but they can't imagine losing.
"We, the Great Axe Warriors, are the strongest in the continent, and against such a--─?!"
-Kwah---!
The first roar of the clash erupted as the leading orcs flew through the air, the terrain crumbled, and dismembered corpses flew everywhere.
"K--- He's got good momentum, but he'll be stopped soon, he's alone."
Huh?
[Strongest Assailant]
The modifiers "strongest" and "most" have never been used in a trait or title before because it's really only given to one person.
One whose power is 'specialized' to surpass even the Demon Lords, not on the narrow planet of Earth, but across all dimensions but such a thing is impossible for mortals to possess.
The titles of 'strongest' and 'most' and 'largest' are reserved for the Demon Lords. Then──
"Die---!"
If there is a human being who has slain even the Demon Lords and claimed the title of 'strongest', what form does it take?
"Crack!"
It is in the form of a human being.
Sleek, flowing lines, refined design but it wears an armor of iron that seems impenetrable to anything in the world, and──
Divine Punishment
His gaze breathes fire.
Divine Punishment
His voice thundered down the thunderclap.
"Stop him, stop him, stop him!"
"I can't stop it!"
The monster in human form swung his sword.
-Khhhhhhh!
The monstrous horse rider rampages, trampling the green beasts.
It takes only three minutes for the S-class orc raiding party to be broken through. The orc captain trembled before the knight who had wiped out his men and had arrived in front of him.
"Ugh!"
What kind of disgrace is this!
I am a warrior of the grasslands. I am an orc warrior. A warrior of warriors who leads hundreds of orcs and has chosen to serve the great Orc High Khan!
The Orc Warchief raised his axe, trying to regain his fighting spirit.
"I am not afraid of you!"
The bravery of a beast that can roar with fear in the face of irresistible natural disasters it's a miraculous act of courage but this is how the Lionheart King responded to the courage of his enemy.
"Then be braver and die."
-Kwak!
The holy sword struck relentlessly, splitting the orc captain in two.
"You kept me waiting, Lionheart!"
A hammer struck with destructive momentum but Leon deflected the attack with his holy sword. At the same time, Stallion spun quickly and struck him with a swift back kick.
"K---!"
The orc who was kicked by Stallion stumbles back and Leon realized that the orc skin color was different from the others.
"A black orc."
"Hmph, yes, I'm a Black Orc, a member of the Great Orc Grand Khan Murka personal guard. The Great Black Orc War──"
"The beast has a big mouth!"
Leon approached in a flash with Stallion and his holy sword flashed.
"Strike!"
Five at a time, Black Orc Boar Riders, mounted on boars, charged at Leon.
"Stallion!"
Leon called out and Stallion's movements were remarkable.
He defies the natural limitations of a horse specialized in straight lines, moving sideways and diagonally to escape.
"What?!"
"What the---!"
The orc riders, having lost sight of their prey in the blink of an eye, crashed into each other with disastrous results.
"Crash!"
Such was the horsemanship of the gods. The knight and his horse were as fluid and swift as one.
"But strength in numbers will not prevail!"
A green aura flew from nowhere and struck Stallion's shin bone, when he dodged in response to the attack from all sides.
-Hmph!
The momentary impact nearly knocked him over, but he managed to keep his feet on the ground, and when he finally made it to safety, he limped on one foot.
"Are you okay, Stallion?"
-Heeheehee!
No problem. The White Divine Beast is still fighting, and he's willing to fight alongside Leon.
"Stay inside."
-Hmph---!
What does that mean, are you insulting me?
Her gaze didn't change Leon's judgment.
"They're not for the faint of heart. They are quite skilled."
He stroked the nape of his neck, soothing his old comrade. Stallion didn't hide his frustration, but he trusted his comrade's judgment.
The Black Orcs taunted Lionheart as he stepped onto the ground.
"Those pesky paws of yours are locked down."
A thoroughly verbal ambush, they know how to deal with knights.
"The stealth of the hunting gods and the curse of the witchcraft gods."
Leon, on the other hand, recognized a trick of theirs that he hadn't realized until just before the attack.
Orcs are fighting beasts who prefer hand-to-hand combat, and their use of stealth and curses from the beast gods is a testament to their practical nature.
And the black-skinned orcs, like themselves, are warriors who have been battling demons for the past two hundred years.
Leon glanced around and in that short time, he was surrounded.
They numbered about fifty and all of them, by the looks of them, were Black Orcs.
Black Orc warriors, said to rival the Holy Knights, gathered to hunt down one man, Leon.
"King Lionheart. Your fame has been heard on the other side of the continent."
"For a long time we have waited for the day to fight you."
"The final war would have been between you and us, had it not been for the demons along the way."
The orcs unleash their might: warriors of the Three Great Orc Gods, themselves chosen by the gods.
The power of the fifty elite Black Orcs was enough to crush even Leon's stardust armor.
"Come on, let's fight. A contest of strength against strength!"
"You'll die before you even reach the Great Khan!"
Leon raised his holy sword. It glowed golden, the light of the goddess Arianna focused on it.
* * * * *
-Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
The Holy Knight of Life and Abundance, Koo Dae-sung, is a man of few words.
"Lord Koo Dae-sung, come on, let's go!"
"Don't be in such a hurry!"
Kim Jae-hyuk and Chun So-yeon rush off at such a speed that the knights behind them can barely keep up.
"Uh huh, sorry. I thought we should hurry up and take care of it."
"Woohoo--- We're late, too."
Jae-hyuk pats the panting horse, trying to ease the fatigue of the sprint as So-yeon stepped forward.
"What we have to deal with is the Champion of the Shaman God and his idol. We need to plan a strategy and------ Oh, shit, Lord Koo Dae-sung!"
Koo Dae-sung immediately raised his Earth Shield. The Earth Shield that he had reinforced time and time again since arriving at this battlefield blocked the green flashes that shot towards the knights from the front.
"Whoa---! They're not giving me a break!"
The Tower of Gokrok, their target for destruction, watched them with a wide field of vision, firing destructive flashes from time to time.
"Only a Holy Knight class can defend against this attack but to completely block it──!"
The same method Leon had used to weaken the power of the flashes would be needed and it was Chun So-yeon who surpassed his expectations and cut down the green flash.
Holy Magic Sword (Secret Magic Sword)──her two swords cut through the flashes from Gokrok's tower.
Like Han Ha-ri, she is blessed with the rare blessing of two gods, and as such, has a great deal of holy power.
She uses Arianna's Blade of Light to absorb the light concentrated in the flash, and Ventasis' Blade of Darkness to cut through the weakened flash.
Thanks to this, Koo Dae-sung was able to shake off the flashes without much difficulty.
"Haoh~ So there are not only Holy Knights, but also some decent ones."
Then, Maghar, the champion of the Orc Shaman God, appeared.
He greeted them with more than a dozen large rock-faced golems and thousands of orc warriors.
"No one from Lionheart, I see."
Maghar, who had been hunting demons in the High Khan's service for more than two hundred years, cast a scornful glance at the young knights, all Earthlings.
"You think you're a match for me, you pretenders who just became knights?"
It was blatant disrespect but there were those who thought he had a point, and the Knights of Naju could only cringe.
Wasn't their opponent a monster from the same era as Leon?
"No."
But it was the 'common man', perhaps the one with the least self-respect among them, who stood at their head and returned the insult from the champion of the Shaman God.
"We don't need your judgment."
Holy Knight Koo Dae-sung, a man of great versatility who took the greatest step forward.
He doesn't cower anymore. He simply steps forward, silently--- and proudly.
"Glory be to the Lionheart."