Chapter 43
My voice was enhanced by the mic and speaker bought from the shop. No doubt, that everyone deep on the island must have heard it.
"Are you crazy!?" Asmara loudly exclaimed while grasping her ears. Everyone else was also looking at me as if staring at a crazy person.
"Crazy is as crazy does," I replied without looking at her and continued addressing the orcs. "ORCS OF THE DEMON BLADE TRIBE, I AM BEING BENEVOLENT HERE AND GIVING YOU A CHANCE TO SURRENDER!!!!!"
"BUT THAT OFFER WOULD SOON EXPIRE IF YOU DO NOT COME OUT AND SURRENDER IN AN HOUR, THEN I WOULD HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO ATTACK AND ANNIHILATE EVERYTHING ON THAT ISLAND AND THAT WOULD INCLUDE YOUR ENTIRE TRIBE!!!!!"
I ended my message and there was total silence after that. Stifling silence one could even say. Everyone on my side was astonished or maybe shocked would be the correct word while those on the other side, I had no idea what they were going through.
But there was nothing but silence for a few minutes. Just the serene sound of the waves of the sea.
"What are you doing?!" Asmara yelled after a while once she had gone through shock. I simply glossed it over and turned to Stepashin.
"Prepare Blaze, all of them. Position them at a one and a half degree in that, that, and that point over there." I relayed instructions to a dazed Stepashin but I was sure that he was still listening to all of them.
The points I was pointing at were the points in the forest behind the beach. My aim was to block that path with fire which would cause the remaining orcs no choice but to head to the beach.
I had no idea where the orc's hideouts were but if it was planned by an intelligent being, then the places they would choose would be the hills which would be too far away since orcs are close combatants so the most optimal spot left after that would be the forest behind the beach.
But even then, the forest was vast enough for me to pinpoint their locations precisely so I'm going to set fire to almost all of it in a straight line which would create a wall of fire, and even if the orcs aren't caught in it, the only place they would have left to retreat to would be the beach where they would be just target practice.
"Yes sir." Stepashin simply replied and gave up advising me at this point. Asmara was also quite shocked once again seeing how I had ordered the use of the blaze.
As expected, she does have good knowledge of warfare. If only she wasn't so aggressive, she could have easily done amazing in this mission.
Soon all the preparation was complete. I still waited until the time was up and once there was only a minute left, I shouted once again, "YOU STILL HAVE A FEW MOMENTS TO MAKE A WISE DECISION. I URGE YOU TO DECIDE QUICKLY OR I WILL HAVE TO TAKE IT THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY DECIDED AGAINST ME!!!!!"
My voice once again reverberated throughout the whole island but there was no response in return. Although there was a risk of the elves on the island speeding up, I doubt they would be able to open the place so easily so I still had some time.
"Do it." at my signal, the soldiers started dumping the oil into the sea. At the same time, water magicians created waves that carried the oil toward the beach and away from the ships.
"Is it stable?" I asked the head of the magicians who nodded and replied, "It wasn't a difficult task and we have succeeded in calming the waves from the radius you pointed."
The soldiers were doing an amazing job so far and although confused at my orders, there was no relapse in carrying them out.
"Begin!!!!!" I shouted once again only this time, not in a mic so my voice was limited to a certain radius only. Still, my signal was across.
Boom, boom, boom.
Three simultaneous shots of the blaze were fired at the points I had pointed.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Another simultaneous booming only this time, the explosion was on a very high scale. Fire erupted at three points in the forest behind the beach. However, that was just the beginning.
"Starboard, change the points to one and a quarter degrees and shoot again." My orders were again carried out swiftly and in just thirty seconds, another barrage of blaze was fired.
This time, the explosions were a little to the right, and given the distance, there was no way of confirming whether we had hit someone or not.
"Status," I spoke, addressing Stepashin who was standing next to me.
He assessed the situation through his spyglass and reported, "Orcs spotted, they are running over to the beach."
It was working it seemed but just to be sure, "Turn the blaze to one degree and drop it down to forty."
Stepashin relayed my orders and they were executed perfectly, starting another bout of fire in the forest leaving the orcs no choice but to move to the beach.
"Halt." I gave the order to stop the attacks and silence once again fell which was broken after a few seconds by Stepashin, "Orcs in sight. They are emerging on the beach. Some are injured while a few are missing limbs but the majority of them seem to be fine."
"And their numbers?" I asked about the statistics on our enemy's numbers. "they seem to be around three hundred." He reported back.
"So you intended to make it a battle on the beach?" Asmara spoke from beside me.
"They're sitting ducks." I simply replied. Of course, attacking them with Blaze was out of the question now. Like Stepashin said, three shots per minute weren't just its speed, it was also its limit.
"So what do you suggest then?" Asmara asked but I remained silent. "What do we do now, Sir?" Stepashin asked seeing there was no reply coming from me.
"We wait." I simply replied.
"What do you mean wait? Wait for them to recover?" Asmara angrily asked but I simply smiled and replied, "Yes."
She was stunned and speechless at my nonchalant response.
It took some time, but the orcs had now recovered. There was a reason why I had stopped the ships at this point. It wasn't just because this was an optimal spot for shooting blaze, but it was also because another trap lay in the sea.
And there it was. When the rocs recovered, they started moving towards the sea. They came closer and closer to the shoreline and when everyone thought they would stop, they stepped on water.
Still, all those with me thought that they were seeing things but it became clearer when the orcs not only stepped on the water near the shore but then they started running on it towards the ships.
This was the second trap that was laid by the elves. When the ships passed a certain point, the water from the point to the shore would become hard. But it was only for the orcs, the humans, on the other hand, drowned because they lacked the seals applied by the orcs.
The ships were sabotaged and humans were forced to abandon ship, and once they did, the battle was easily in the favor of the orcs.
The plan was like this, the ships were sabotaged to drown so the humans had no choice but to abandon ship, and when they did, orcs who could walk on water because of the spells applied by the elves, hurriedly left their hiding spots in the forest behind the beach and attacked the humans.
Eric avoided this issue by preparing haste seals in advance but even then, the battle was tough enough for him. This was the difference between knowing something and knowing how to act on it.
"How?" Asmara mumbled and everyone else wondered as well what was going on. They were baffled by this but the answer was actually straightforward.
"No need to delve into this so much. This simply means there is someone else on that island." I spoke which cleared everyone's doubts. My answer made sense so no one questioned anymore.
"Who?" Alicia softly asked. everyone else turned to me too, wondering the same thing as well.
"There are only two beings in existence that are so well versed in this scale of magic, humans or elves. I'm more hanging in the latter one but it could also be the former ones since there were many human organizations even in this time which sought dominion over the human race." I explained in great detail which quelled everyone's curiosity.
"Do we get ready?" Alicia asked, referring to getting ready to fight. "No." I simply replied. It seemed like not many were satisfied with my answer but before anyone else could speak, Asmara who was well-versed in warfare spoke, "Oil."
It was just one word but from the looks of it, many seemed to have understood.
It wasn't long before all the orcs were on the water. Since they weren't technically walking on water but staying about an inch above it, they also didn't come in contact with the oil so they were oblivious to its presence.
"Do it," I spoke, turning to Asmara who took a deep breath and prepared herself. All said and done, even though it was virtual, this was her first actual battle. I wasn't asking her to fight but to burn all the orcs simply.
It was a cruel method but luckily, unlike Max, Asmara wasn't held back by ridiculous beliefs like honor that severely so she went along with my plan.
She threw a torch in the water and the fire began. It traveled from the ships and it spread very quickly. The fire spread at a very fast pace and by the time the orcs became aware of it, they were already too far away from the shore to run back and the fire too close to them for them to do anything.
"Khaaakk!!!!!" Soon, numerous wailings reached our ears filled with pain. In front of us was a sea of fire and everyone in it, simply burned.
The vails of the orcs reached our ears but my fellow classmates couldn't bear to look. It was different for the soldiers with us but it wasn't anything special since these were the men who had faced wars and deaths.
Alicia, who was standing next to me couldn't bear to look and hear any longer so she averted her eyes and held my hand tightly.
Although she was like that, I didn't make her see since this was already too much for her. Although I was stalling making her my ally, since Allison was so much into this, I knew I would get involved with her.
If she was going to be my companion someday, she needed a strong stomach but like I have already said, too much teaching at once is never good. I will let her get used to this. I'm sure she will get used to it soon with how much there was competition and battles in the academy and after that.
So I corresponded by holding her hand in return. Asmara, on the other hand, was forcing herself to see even though her whole body was trembling.
The same couldn't be said for my comrades as two girls and five boys were vomiting in a corner while one girl had even fainted. The last one was doing somewhat better but even he was unsettled at the sight before him.
It wasn't long before things got worse when the wailings stopped but the smell of burnt meat flowed into our nostrils next.
All three hundred orcs burned to death and the smell of their burnt bodies traveled even this far. It was a cruel method but it was the most optimal method.
I know it wasn't just cruel for the orcs but also for these children, but this was a common sight in wars and these children have seen nothing even close to a war yet.
All wars were this ugly and the sooner they got used to it, the better.
"Get ready to lower the boats, the ships won't travel from this point." Even now, I didn't lose my composure. Since I had taken the role of a commander, I was going to do it until the end.