The Birth of Las Vegas
Pahuu’s charge was magnificent. It looked as if he would collide with the wooden barricade at any moment, but the fence tilted precariously in the direction he was running. Pahuu stepped onto the slanted wooden pillar, vaulted over it, and tore a path through. "Wooooooh!!" The orcs of the Legion of Wrath—or the Las Legion for short—gripped their clubs and followed their master. Whether it was during the conquest of Gremory’s Dungeon or here in the heart of enemy lines, their master was always at the vanguard.
Bang, bang-bang! The sight of Pahuu swinging his club with gusto atop his tower shield became a model for all the orcs. One could argue about his combat style, but at the very least, he was an example to his subordinates, standing at the very front and swinging his weapon harder than anyone else.
"Crush their skulls—!!" As soon as Arthur’s order rang out, the ten orcs following behind him lunged at the guards. The guards leveled their spears, and the civilians in the back began to scream and flee. "Damn it, kill them! Hold the line!" "Run, quickly!" Even as the guards tried to defend their perimeter, they couldn't save the people caught in the orcs' path of advance. Those who had refused to retreat into their homes, thinking it wouldn't be a big deal, were immediately exposed to the orcish charge.
"Kyaaaah!! Ah... ah?" "Wooooooh!" The civilians screaming and running were dumbfounded as the orcs brushed past them. It was extremely rare for the Demon King’s army, which usually killed humans on sight, to ignore fallen prey and head straight for the soldiers.
"W-what is this!" "Raise your shields, you bastards!" The guards were the ones whose feet were suddenly held to the fire. The orcs dodged the civilians, or pushed them aside when necessary, and charged straight at the soldiers wielding swords and spears.
Thwack! The orcs' wooden clubs slammed into the guards' shields. The guards felt their senses reel, but fortunately, their opponents weren't all that strong. "These bastards are all weaklings! We can win—" Thwack! The soldier whose temple was struck by a wooden club couldn't finish his sentence. Arthur immediately snatched a sharply honed sword from a fallen soldier.
"Brothers!" Arthur shouted the order passed down from Pahuu. "Find your own weapons!" Arthur swung his sword at a soldier charging from the front. The swordsmanship of a prestigious noble house, passed down by Eila, was unleashed by an orc's hand. The soldier was captivated by the fluid, flashy technique—and lost his life to it.
Clang. Arthur snatched a wooden round shield from a soldier. Had he not raised the shield, an arrow fired from the watchtower would likely have pierced his neck. Thwip, thwip! Arrows buried themselves deep into the shield Arthur held aloft. Thanks to that, the subordinate he had pulled down beneath him was able to save his life.
"Steal their shields! Strike their hamstrings with your clubs! And then hit their heads! Try not to damage the equipment!" Pahuu had said. The ultimate goal of raiding Jabyaba was to secure supplies. The reckless strategy of procuring food for logistics and equipment for armaments locally began to take hold through the surprise attack.
Boom, boom-boom-boom! A dull, heavy sound echoed through the air from afar. Arthur and his subordinates felt a surge of exhilaration as if the blood in their entire bodies was boiling. The orcs' eyes began to glow red, and their bodies began to heat up.
"Laaaas!" """Laaaas!!""" At Arthur’s lead, the subordinate orcs shouted in unison. The guards stepped back involuntarily at the orcs' war cry, which bordered on madness.
"Damn it, these crazy monsters!" "They're weak individually! Watch out for the strong ones! Don't let them take your swords and shields!" Just as the orcs had squad leaders, the guards had officers. Since the guard captain who oversaw them had been turned into a drum by Pahuu, it was crucial for the officers to lead the guards.
"Hold out until the people escape! Hold out until the guys at the main gate arrive!" "Wooooooh!!" Arthur lunged at an officer. As he raised his sword high and brought it down, the officer tried to block by raising his shield. No matter how strong an orc was, an officer's strength and shield could usually deflect the attack. Slash! And the moment the officer realized that thought was wrong, his arm had already been severed along with his shield.
"Ugh, aaaaaaah!!" Clang—! Arthur drew his sword horizontally. The officer's head flew into the sky, and Arthur caught the fountain of blood spraying from the neck with his own body.
"Grrr...!" Arthur’s eyes turned even redder. There were only terrified guards and civilians who had fallen over in shock around him. His instincts told him to kill them all right now, but while Arthur might have been excited, he hadn't lost his reason.
Boom-boom, boom! Boom-boom, boom! That drumbeat. The drumbeat that made his heart pound heated his body, but it kept his reason cold. It felt as if his father, the Legion Commander Pahuu, was roaring at the entire battlefield.
"Everyone—!!" At Arthur’s shout, the orcs who were about to rush out stopped in their tracks. They, too, were so intoxicated by the exhilaration that they were on the verge of going berserk.
"Do not touch the civilians!! The ones we must catch are the enemies holding weapons—!!" Arthur shouted at the top of his lungs. The sound resonated not just from Arthur, but from the other officer-level brothers as well.
"Kill everyone holding a weapon—!!" "Aaaack!!" At Arthur’s shout, a terrified guard screamed and raised his shield. The moment Arthur kicked the guard's shield-bearing hand aside and raised his sword high to behead him, the guard shouted out of a primal instinct for survival.
"Surrender—!!" He knew it wouldn't work against the Demon King’s army or monsters, but he had no choice. The guard didn't want to die; naturally, he wanted to live.
"......?" The opponent didn't kill him with the sword. The moment the guard tilted his head up in confusion, Thwack! Arthur struck the back of the guard's neck with the hilt of his sword. The guard lost consciousness and slumped forward. And such scenes weren't happening only where Arthur was.
Boom, boom-boom-boom!! Every time the sound of something being beaten echoed throughout the city, people were gripped by terror. The guards, in particular, were worse off. And in the city’s central plaza, a thunderous voice rang out.
"Throw down your weapons and surrender—!! Then I will spare your lives—!!" It was a surrender ultimatum that no one thought would ever come from the mouth of a monster. The guard captain was already a bloody mess, and in the plaza fountain, an orc in a robe, covered in blood from head to toe, was holding the captain up with one hand and shouting.
"All who resist will die!" Pahuu’s furious shout spread throughout all of Jabyaba.
* * *
I had turned the guard captain into a bloody pulp and used him as a drum to resonate throughout all of Jabyaba. The red light flowing from my tattoos spread across the entire battlefield along with the sound, and the subordinate orcs drove the guards back with even greater strength than before.
'Is this an Aura?' I thought I was only giving buffs to myself, but to think I could give a wide-area buff like this. I felt like I should be riding on top of a monster like a crocodile right now, but unfortunately, there was no such creature in our dungeon.
Snap! The club that had been beating the kite shield broke. It was quite a feat that it only broke now, considering I had been playing a rhythmic beat on a steel plate. I kicked the kite shield away and checked the guard captain's condition.
"Well, well. Are you a knight? You're still alive?" Even though he was bruised all over, the guard captain was still breathing. It seemed that crouching on the ground and sticking to it had acted as a cushion. He didn't seem to have any major injuries, but his condition was far from good. I grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up.
"You're the captain, right? Heh heh, that's perfect." I scanned the surroundings to find a place where everyone could see. As luck would have it, a fountain was peacefully spraying water in the wide plaza, and I ran over in one stride, stepped onto the fountain, and climbed up.
"Ugh, let me go!" "You got beaten to a pulp, and you're giving orders?" I stabbed the guard captain in the solar plexus with my still-unbroken club. The guard captain coughed up blood and wheezed. I didn't exactly plan on keeping him alive, but he didn't die easily, as if he’d spent some time eating the bread of a soldier.
"Hey. You, shout that you surrender. Then I'll let you live." "Bullshit!" "You don't believe me? Are you thinking I'm deceiving you or something? What good would it do me to deceive you right now? Why don't you announce it to everyone?" I pointed around with my club. From Arthur’s squad to Lancelot’s squad, a total of seven squads were fighting hard against the guards. The officers were fighting the guards 1:1, and the rest of the subordinates were swinging their clubs at the guards in teams of two or three.
"If I had a mind to, everyone sprawled out in this plaza would have been trampled to death by now. Don't you think?" I pointed all around for the guard captain. The people who were in the plaza, perhaps because they hadn't evacuated when we attacked the wooden fence, had sat down in their spots while trying to run away from our raid. If the officers hadn't avoided them and attacked the guards first, this place would likely be littered with corpses.
"Ha, damn, he doesn't believe me. This won't do. Hey——-!!" I took a deep breath and shouted.
"Throw down your weapons and surrender—!! Then I will spare your lives—!! All who resist will die!!"
But no one believed the orc's words, the monster's words. Even the guard captain, who was already a bloody mess, shouted louder than me even while his neck was being held.
"Everyone—!! Run away from these filthy monsters!! I'm sorry I couldn't protect you!!!"
"Those who run will die!"
"Shut up, you pig bastard! If you just stay still, I'll kill—, kgh!" I hoisted the guard captain up. "Pig, you say!" I held his neck with one hand and grabbed near his thigh with the other. And then.
"I am merely obese!"
Crack! As I dropped the guard captain, I drove my knee upward. The guard captain's waist bent sharply, and he fell beneath the fountain, foaming at the mouth. Splash! A dark red bloody liquid began to spread through the clear, blue fountain. As the guard captain was beaten to death powerlessly, the residents were terrified by the deep, heavy fear of death.
"I say it again, all who resist will die!" I raised my half-broken wooden club. Was there something that could have more impact? As I looked around, I saw a flag fluttering in one corner of the plaza. A building with a flag depicting a maiden, which could be called the symbol of the Virgo Barony. It had to be the Jabyaba government office. I held my club horizontally and threw it toward the flagpole.
Thwack! The club struck the flagpole accurately. At the same time, the flagpole snapped with a crunch, and the barony's flag plunged into the ground. The faces of the residents trapped behind wooden windows with curtains or glass windows were vivid in my mind.
'Since they can't run away, are they trying to hold out inside their homes?' That was troublesome in many ways. While I was holding the guard captain and making threats, Ryun and Eila ran up to me and reported.
"I sniped everyone who was on the watchtower."
"There was no one escaping through the breached wooden fence."
"Is that so? Good." I glanced around. People were thoroughly confused at the sight of elves and humans talking as subordinates of an orc.
"Ryun. Can you tell me the situation of the entire city?"
"...There are some escaping through the side gates, and some are falling into the river and swimming back upstream. Everyone is running away, what should we do?"
People were attempting to escape from everywhere except for the fence we had broken down. Since the government office was near the point we raided, it seemed there was a lot of information to check, but the people had started running away in a hurry.
"Leave them be. Our original goal isn't the people."
"Right? Hehehe."
"...Then, Master, what will you do about these people who are no different from prisoners?" Eila pointed to the humans who were groveling on the ground. Since they were citizens of the same kingdom, she seemed concerned in many ways, and it was difficult for me to litter this city with corpses either.
"Ugh." The residents were so terrified that even if I shouted for them to run, they didn't seem like they would.
"There are hardly any guards left now, right?"
"Yes. Most of them have run away. Some seem to have thrown away their swords and shields and hidden in the alleys."
"Leave those guys alone. ...It's practically an easy occupation."
100 orcs versus 100 guards. Naturally, it was a victory for our Las Legion. The Slime Dragon had joined the soldiers at the main gate and ravaged the guards.
"Heh heh. An easy victory."
As it was such an easy victory, the future victories would be even more arduous. And this city would become a bridgehead for those victories.
"Everyone, listen up—!! From now on, everyone enters Phase 2 of the operation!!!"
"Las—-!!"
The answer was "Las," but what was important right now wasn't "Las." I shouted high toward the sky so that even the humans holed up in their homes could hear.
"Don't kill the humans in their homes, drag them all out!!!"
I feel sorry for the residents who lived here, but they would have to be forcibly evicted.
"From today, this village is mine."
It was something I could do as I pleased. Therefore, I decided to change the name, which was hard to even call, right away.
"From today, this place is Las Vegas."
I had gotten my hands on Bad Town.