Chapter 63: Variant (1)

Okua was enormous.

His head rose much higher than that of any other orc, and his shoulders were twice as broad. His arms weren’t particularly thick, but they were so long they reached his knees.

It was a body that seemed impossible within the normal parameters of orcs. Was he even an orc?

But his flattened nose and protruding tusks were unmistakably orcish.

“Is that Okua…?”

A wave of instinctive rejection overtook everyone. A deep intuition screamed that they should not approach him—warning alarms blared in their minds.

“That’s a damned monster. Are we sure that’s even an orc?”

Jared muttered, his voice frozen. Yuri nodded gravely.

“That thing looks like something out of a legend. Isn’t it an ogre?”

Yuri lifted his binoculars to get a closer look at Okua. The orc stood silently, staring ahead with faintly glowing dark eyes.

And suddenly, his crimson pupils locked with Yuri’s gaze. Was it an illusion? Or did Okua really sense his stare and was now looking directly at him?

Yuri lowered the binoculars.

“That gave me chills.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing.”

Yuri turned around. Behind him stood the army of Briol. Since Okua’s appearance, the entire allied army had grown restless.

“Don’t be afraid! You won’t have to fight Okua!”

Yuri shouted, but the soldiers’ eyes remained fixed on the creature. Even if they were scared, they couldn’t look away.

Okua moved forward with slow steps. One orc stumbled and bumped into his leg.

Okua extended his long arm, grabbed the orc by the head with one hand, and lifted him. The orc thrashed desperately. But when Okua squeezed, the skull caved in like it was nothing. Blood and brain matter splattered onto the ground.

The orc’s head compressed between his fingers like a deflated balloon.

“Bastard…”

Okua tossed the corpse aside. His blood-stained eyes glowed an even deeper red.

He slammed the ground and opened his mouth to the sky. A thunderous roar shook the plains.

It didn’t sound like the cry of a living being. It was an unnatural rumble that echoed endlessly. Each time Okua roared, the eyes of the charging orcs burned with even greater ferocity.

“What was that?”

“Magic?”

The allied army, bracing for impact, was thrown into confusion. Jared asked Yuri,

“Was that magic?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“I have no idea. But it wasn’t magic.”

Yuri shook his head. He wasn’t a mage, but he could sense the flow of mana. There was no artificial signal. It wasn’t magic.

Just as a troop’s morale could rise under a great leader, Okua amplified the orcs’ madness with his roars. It wasn’t a learned ability—it was innate. A being born to lead orcs.

“Fuuu…”

Yuri exhaled deeply.

“Focus.”

Okua was still far off. First, they had to deal with the horde of orcs charging toward the allied army.

They were a mix of common orcs and okrval. They charged with no tactics or formation.

They were no longer in their right minds. Their eyes glowed with pure insanity.

“Brace for impact!”

From Ragnar’s position came the sound of a war horn. The drums of war thundered in the hearts of the allied troops.

The soldiers dug in, took their positions. Thousands of orcs charged like frenzied beasts toward the barricades. If one stumbled, the others trampled him without hesitation.

And finally, the two armies collided.

Like a stampede of bulls, the orcs crashed into the defenses, heedless of barricades or formations. Axes, spears, and swords clashed. The air exploded with chaotic sounds.

Metal against metal, flesh against blade. A deafening storm of sound.

Was the first to die an orc? Or a human? As Yuri cut down an orc’s neck, he wondered. Surely, both fell at the same time. At the moment of impact, orcs fell. And so did soldiers.

Enemy heads were pierced. Allied bodies collapsed. A brutal war had begun.

“Briol!”

Yuri shouted as he charged into the fray. Several orcs targeted him immediately.

But he took the risk. That way, he could ease the burden on his comrades.

“Fight!”

Sometimes, arrows rained from the sky. But they couldn’t be distracted by the wyverns.

Those beasts struck randomly, like natural disasters.

All they could do was pray for luck and focus on the orcs before them.

“Focus and stay alert!”

Yuri kept shouting to keep his squad sharp.

“You, over there!”

He pointed to a nearby knight. An arrow was descending straight for his head.

But the knight, focused on the fight, didn’t notice. Losing focus in battle meant death. The arrow struck his skull directly.

Blood splattered, and the knight collapsed with his eyes wide open.

A gap opened in the line. An orc surged forward. The next knight, unable to react, took an axe to the face.

His skull split. Blood and brain flew into the air. And the orc’s roar echoed louder.

“Akuommehtun! Aku gutada!”

An okrval broke through the allied troops and pierced their line. Briol’s formation began to collapse.

The okrval seized on the fleeting breach. Yuri’s face tensed.

His core quickened. The energy of the Cut of the Soul and Heart stirred violently within.

“You!”

He killed the four orcs blocking his path, then spun and beheaded the leading orc.

Yuri’s resolve solidified. In that moment, the Cut of the Soul and Heart reacted.

Mana spun around the core like an axis. Yuri continued to absorb energy.

The condensed energy spiraled, building destructive power. Four orcs raised their axes at once, aiming for the still Yuri.

The prairie sun glinted off their blades. Not yet. Yuri waited.

The orcs, their muscles swollen to bursting, swung their weapons. The axes fell.

Yuri blinked. Still not yet. The vortex inside him grew in size and speed.

Yuri raised his gaze. The four axes reflected in his dark eyes. As they drew closer, image and reality collided.

Everything vanished. A droplet of blood splashed on his eyelid.

And over his now-clear, empty pupils, four severed heads soared toward the sky. Then came the shockwave.

A single slash from Yuri obliterated the four orcs and left those behind gravely wounded. One orc, his guts spilling out, tried to scoop them back up, but was crushed by the wave of orcs that followed.

“Jared. I leave it to you.”

“Yes!”

Yuri hurled himself upward with force. He kicked the head of a lunging orc and shifted direction. The orc’s head flew off, neck shattered.

“Don’t fall back!”

Yuri charged into the breach. An orc leader pushed through the formation.

More orcs poured in. Yuri struck with Guilty.

A curved blade intercepted the blow.

“Hey, Okudoku!”

It was the same orc who had been swallowed by the Ancient Wyrm. Holding a curved sword, he laughed upon seeing Yuri.

“Akuakkai!”

He’d lost an eye to Yuri. Now he wore a black eyepatch.

“Looks good on you.”

In the suffocating melee, the two dodged and attacked with near-acrobatic moves.

Despite losing an eye, the orc showed no weakness.

“Huh…”

Now and then, another orc would intervene, but Yuri stabbed them without hesitation. The orc didn’t seem to care about his allies dying.

“Akuakkai, gurutu budusu giome muka!”

“I don’t understand you, damned Okudoku!”

Their weapons clashed. The impact sent tremors through Yuri’s arms.

“Get lost.”

Yuri suddenly pressed inward. After several exchanges, he landed a spinning kick to the orc’s gut.

“Kraah!”

As he staggered back, Guilty came down toward his head. The orc barely dodged.

Yuri pulled back and joined another knight.

“He’s out.”

He’d forced the orc out of Briol’s battle line. The breach caused by wyvern arrows was closed thanks to Yuri.

“Hold your ground. Even if a comrade falls, do not retreat.”

“Yes!”

“Don’t let them through.”

The orc’s face twisted as he realized Yuri’s plan.

“Akua kutu bomero!”

“Shut up.”

Yuri dodged the orc with the curved blade and exited. Despite the orc’s shouts, he ignored him. Briol’s formation was firm again.

With the first wave repelled, the defensive wall began to prove its worth. Despite the close combat, Briol wouldn’t break easily. The war had only just begun.

The orcs kept swarming like a plague. In the distance, Okua watched the battlefield without intervening.

They had to endure.

“Hernando!”

Yuri shouted with the back of his hand at his mouth. A voice replied.

[Yes.]

Although the battlefield was magically sealed with Dispel, they could still communicate over short distances using artifacts. One was embedded in Yuri’s glove, crafted thanks to persistent requests to Hernando.

“How are the other countries?”

He asked while deflecting an incoming axe.

“Are they holding?”

[The area around Briol is well defended. Though the rear is a bit unstable.]

“My master is there?”

[Yes. Grandmaster Moyongchan is fine.]

Hernando and Moyongchan called each other “grandmaster.” Yuri clicked his tongue and asked again.

“Tell him not to move. He has to face Okua. He can’t waste energy now.”

[Understood.]

Moyongchan was the Alliance’s wild card. Their key to stopping Okua if he moved. He couldn’t be spent too early.

“Let me know if a breach opens anywhere.”

[Got it.]

“Good work.”

Yuri lowered his glove and grabbed Guilty. The horde of orcs showed no sign of stopping.

“Up!”

From above, the wyverns resumed their barrage of arrows on Briol’s line. Some soldiers fell, but were immediately replaced.

This time, the wyverns didn’t retreat—they kept circling and attacking. It seemed Briol had become their main target.

“Alright…”

Yuri pulled something out from under his clothes.

“It’s about time I used this.”

One of the four special knives he had acquired at an imperial auction: the Wind Ring Blade.

Yuri infused mana into the blade. It began to emit a faint glow. Just then, a wyvern dived down, trying to take advantage of the chaos for a more precise strike.

Yuri threw the knife.

It flew as if riding the wind and pierced the neck of the orc riding the wyvern.

“Guaaaagh…!”

The orc clutched his neck and thrashed. He collapsed onto the wyvern’s wing. The beast flailed and began to lose balance. It recovered just before hitting the ground, but had dipped too low.

“Laurent, take over here.”

“Yes!”

Yuri ran straight toward the wyvern. Thanks to the mana, his body was lighter, and he managed to grab hold of one of its legs.

“Kyaaaaah!”

The wyvern screeched and shot upward. The ground grew distant. From up there, the entire battlefield was in view.

“What the hell is he doing?”

The Alliance, overall, was holding the line—but as Hernando had said, the rear was a concern.

Still, the immediate threat was the wyvern. Yuri began climbing it.

The wyvern bucked and twisted, but he didn’t let go.

“Damn…”

He even clung to the tail. Once he found stability, he launched himself toward the saddle.

“Ahhh!”

He managed to grab the seat. The orc was already dead, the knife still lodged in his neck.

Yuri retrieved the wind blade and cut the rope binding the corpse. The wyvern regained balance.

“Hey, wyvern.”

He sat in the saddle and grabbed the reins like an orc would. But the wyvern didn’t obey. Then he heard flapping all around him.

The other riders had spotted him—and were now aiming their bows.

“Akuakkai! Arukumetum!”

Yuri laughed.

“You recognize me? I guess I’m famous now.”

Arrows flew. They weren’t just aiming at Yuri—they wanted to bring down the wyvern. The creature twisted in fear and barely avoided the projectiles.

It was skilled in the air. The arrows continued to chase them.

“Hey!”

Yuri struck the wyvern on the neck.

“You gonna let those bastards take you down? Gonna surrender like a coward?”

“Kyaaaah!”

“Right? Then fight!”

“Kyaaaah!”

***

“What the hell is that?”

Ragnar looked up from the rear. Even the ground troops paused briefly to look skyward.

A surreal scene was unfolding before them.

“That, that…”

Ragnar rubbed his forehead.

“How the hell did that idiot get up there?”

Somehow, the third prince of Briol had stolen a wyvern and was fighting in the air against others. Just when it looked like they’d collide, Yuri maneuvered the wyvern into a head-on charge at the enemy.

The two riders clashed in the air. Yuri’s sword flashed and cleaved through both orc and wyvern.

The enemy crashed. Yuri twisted again midair and stabilized his flight. A spectacular maneuver.

Yuri raised his sword. Man and wyvern roared together.

“Yaaah!”

“Kyaaaah!”

The letter Ragnar had sent before the battle was now completely humiliated.

With a hollow voice, he muttered,

“Damn lunatic…”