The Siege of Las Vegas
Splash! Splash! Knight Ramatio emerged from the river, looking like a drowned rat. The cavalrymen following him were in the same sorry state, and they had to calm their own racing hearts as well as those of their terrified horses.
"Crazy bastards...!" Their condition was, quite literally, a disaster. Every cavalryman except for Ramatio himself was covered in bruises. Those who only had their armor or helmets scratched by stones were the lucky ones; there wasn't a single man among them who was unscathed.
"Damn it all." A miscalculation. He had assumed that because they were Orcs, they would naturally meet them in open combat; he never imagined they would cowardly pelt them with stones. Orcs were known for their obsession with melee combat to show off their strength, so he had planned to use the terrain to his advantage and launch a surprise attack during the crossing. Instead, the enemy had utilized the terrain far better than they had. Ramatio even fell into a momentary state of anomie, wondering if his common sense had failed him. But he was the leader of the punitive force. He barked at his subordinates as if shouting at himself: "Damn it, pull yourselves together!"
The eyes of the cavalrymen looking at Ramatio were fierce. They had followed the knight, only to be pelted by blind stones, and even lost comrades in the process. Ramatio had squandered more of his strength than he’d expected due to his misjudgment.
"I am revising my assessment of the enemy. They are not Orcs! They are savages wearing the skin of Orcs!"
Ten riders were confirmed dead, and five had been swept away by the river and never returned. Excluding those who had lost their horses or were severely injured, the fighting force was less than thirty cavalrymen. "We are retreating for now! Gather the wounded!"
The loss of strength wasn't limited to the cavalry. Among the corpses floating down the river, some were infantry. He had ordered them to follow the cavalry because they knew how to swim, but they had been wiped out by the stones thrown by the Orcs. That was another 150 men gone. The remaining soldiers were moving from the north of Jabyaba, circling the wooden palisade to head down to the south where the main gate was located.
Ramatio turned his horse and shouted to the cavalry, "Join up with the main force!" As Ramatio kicked his horse, the animals galloped across the field, their hooves thundering. Fortunately for them, the Orcs didn't fire arrows. It seemed they couldn't shoot them in the first place.
"Sir Ramatio?! What is the meaning of this?!" The adjutant leading the eight hundred infantry turned pale. Given how poorly the battle had gone despite his bold charge, Ramatio couldn't save face. He admitted his mistake, but he couldn't apologize to his soldiers.
"Cavalry, wait here! Infantry, gather! Advance! The enemy's only trick is throwing a few stones! Everyone, hold your shields over your heads and move slowly!"
The gate of Jabyaba Castle was firmly shut, but there was no particular need for a battering ram. It was the kind of gate that would open if about twenty strong men gathered and thrust a sharpened log into it a few times. And as reported, the 'enemy's' gate was sturdy.
"Everyone, advance!" With shields held high, the men carrying the log moved forward. Even then, the enemy made no move. About ten Orcs watching from the watchtower threw stones, but they bounced off the clustered shields, causing no injuries.
"Engineers! Prepare to breach!!"
"Prepare to breach! One, two, three—!!"
At the command of the engineer captain, twenty men thrust the log they were carrying forward.
GATE BREACHED
With a thunderous explosion, the gate swung open halfway. Ramatio was filled with joy at the thought of personally opening the gate and slaughtering the Orcs inside.
"Sir Ramatio!! Get out of the way!!"
"What?" At his adjutant's shout, Ramatio stared forward. The Orcs on the watchtower were far enough away that they couldn't throw stones—at that moment, a dark shadow formed over Ramatio's head. Ramatio instinctively jumped off his horse and rolled on the ground.
Crunch! With a sound of something being crushed, something hot grazed Ramatio's cheek. It was the blood of his beloved horse, which had been crushed by a boulder just a moment ago. The boulder looked like the shape of a shattered gargoyle.
"This is... what...?"
"Aaaaargh!" A shadow formed in the sky again. This time, a wider shadow—one of the gargoyle's wings—was flying through the air.
"This, by any chance?"
The enemy was breaking down gargoyles and using them as ammunition for their catapults. "Are these guys insane?!"
* * *
30 minutes ago.
The landing operation had ended in failure. The knight had gathered the cavalry and retreated north, and we used sticks to fish the humans floating down the blood-red river and stripped them naked.
"Take everything except their underwear." The leather, dented by the rocks, would be useful if we cut away the damaged parts. The dead humans were quite unpleasant to look at, but the ghouls didn't care how the humans were packaged anyway. The recovery of the bodies washed up on the riverbank was finished. Most of them were just water-soaked swords and shields, and since their clothes were all worn out, we burned them on the bank. Black smoke rose up into the sky.
"They'll think the Orcs are burning the city, right?"
"Then what happens? Will the enemies get impatient?"
"Who knows. First, they'll have to reorganize their troops."
They rushed in blindly, thinking the opponent was a cripple, so they were getting beaten like cripples. Of course, one might easily dismiss them as just 100 Orcs, but the punitive force had to constantly realize that they were the ones who had to conduct the siege. Where would they come from now? I returned to the square, and just in time, the portal shimmered as reinforcements arrived.
Thud, thud. A gargoyle appeared, spreading its wings. It was a monster that both Gremory and I could summon, so I had used the low-grade magic stones obtained from the sub-dungeon to summon as many gargoyles as possible and send them here through the portal. Lv.1. They were all ★ or ★★, which was a mess. They would clearly struggle or get crushed even against regular soldiers, but the gargoyles weren't our combatants.
"Heave!" I thrust my sword into the core of a gargoyle that was blankly waiting for orders. The gargoyle, its magic stone shattered, turned a deep gray, and soon scattered on the floor as a large pile of stone fragments.
"Phew." I picked up the largest chunk and smashed the other pieces. The shattered chunks became small stones, the perfect size to put into socks or scraps of cloth. I picked up a suitable stone from the gargoyle's remains and stuffed it into a sock tied to my waist belt. "This looks like... ahem."
I was just carrying tools for battle. And the moment I filled the sock with stones, the Orcs in the watchtower waved flags to urgently signal the enemy's position. "Heh, they've joined up with the main force."
Since the landing operation had gone down the drain, their choice was to join the infantry. Then, naturally, they would intend to break down the main gate. I moved all my subordinates who were in the watchtowers to the main gate. Except for the minimum number of troops guarding the government office, it was effectively all-out war from now on.
"Commander! The enemies have gathered in front of the main gate!"
"Yeah, I can tell just by the noise." The mustache knight's screeching could be heard all the way here. I picked up a suitable boulder from the pile of gargoyle stones I had stacked up in advance. It was quite heavy, likely well over 30kg.
"Phew, phew." While my subordinates took up positions in an oval, I confirmed the signal of the Orc waving a flag on the watchtower. Ryun was there, identifying the enemy's position with his own eyes. Angle 69 degrees, power at full strength.
"Rock-toss, gooooo!"
I squeezed out every ounce of strength, lifted the boulder with both hands, and ran forward. After three steps of momentum, I launched it toward the sky.
"Die, mustache!!"
I threw the boulder high into the sky. At the same time, the enemy engineers pounded the main gate with their battering ram. Crack! It opened so easily that it felt like the door was half-open already. But if they lost their leader, especially a knight, the enemy would be nothing more than a disorganized mob.
"Did it hit?!"
"He dodged! He rolled on the ground!"
"Damn it!"
I immediately turned my body and picked up another boulder. It was damn heavy, but I could handle this much. "Where!!"
"Three steps to the left!!"
I adjusted the launch angle as Ryun said. Since it was lighter than before, I kept the angle the same but eased up on the power slightly. "Double fire!!"
The lower half of a gargoyle spun and flew through the air. With a thud sound outside, there was a sound of something bursting.
"Did he die?!"
"The soldiers next to him were crushed! He dodged again!"
"That cockroach-like bastard!"
His thinking was shallow, so he kept throwing his troops into the meat grinder, but he was damn good at dodging. I was frustrated, but sniping the enemy leader with such crude catapulting was practically a miracle. If Ryun hadn't been there to spot the position, I would have just been hitting the dirt.
"Commander, we are—"
"You guys don't have the strength! Ugh!"
I picked up another gargoyle fragment from the stone pile. The headless torso of the gargoyle was the perfect weight and shape to grab, and I stood in front of the main gate. This time, I didn't need aimed fire. Three, two, one— I heard the engineers syncing up. I also stepped back to that rhythm.
Crack!! The gate swung wide open to the left and right. At the same time, the soldiers rushed in, shouting. So, I swung the boulder behind my head to welcome them.
"Welcome to Las Vegas, you little humans!!"
I threw the boulder toward the main gate. In sync with my throw, the other Orcs also threw the stones they had been swinging around.
"Aaaaargh!!"
The soldiers rushing in with their shields raised couldn't grasp the boulder I had thrown. With a crack sound, the boulder crushed the soldiers along with their shields, and I picked up another boulder from the pile again.
"Aim for the enemy's knees! Don't let them block with their shields! Don't just throw them anywhere!"
"Brothers, aim for their toes! Crush their pinky toes with the stones!"
"Face, crush their faces!!"
The Orcs targeted the exposed parts of the enemy soldiers according to the squad leaders' orders. I launched boulders toward the dense enemy ranks. If there were no catapults, I would just become the catapult. Just as I thought I had killed a fair number of enemies with the boulders, the enemy soldiers scattered left and right.
"They're coming!!"
Boom, boom. Along with the sound of the earth shaking, the sound of angry horse hooves was heard. The width was very narrow, but it was the perfect position for three horses to gallop at the same time.
"Woooooo!!"
The infantry broke through the main gate, and the cavalry galloped at full speed as if they were going to crush us with their hooves. At the lead was the mustache knight riding a horse. Perhaps because his original horse had been crushed to death by my boulder, he seemed to have stolen another one.
"My Christina's revenge!! Die, you monster!!"
The mustache knight aimed his long spear straight at me. Countless cavalrymen followed behind him. But all preparations were already complete.
"Eila!!"
At my signal, Eila plunged her sword into the ground. At the same time, the ground where the cavalry was about to gallop suddenly sank. Kwaaaang! Under the dirt road, the slime dragons that had dug holes in the ground opened their mouths wide and roared. The ground sank in a half-moon shape, and the following cavalrymen couldn't overcome their momentum and tumbled into the collapsing ground.
"Woooo!"
The mustache knight showed off some impressive horsemanship with a shout. He grabbed the reins and urged his horse with his legs, making it leap high before it could fall into the hole, and lowered his spear. Naturally, I was at the tip of that spear.
"Die—-!!"
The mustache knight thrust his spear at me like a harpoon with a reddened face. Before the spearhead could pierce my heart, my vision turned red. The tattoo on my face, reflected in the spearhead, was glowing red.
"Do I look like a pushover just because I throw a few rocks?"
If it's close-quarters combat, I welcome it. I grabbed the weapon I had prepared for him from my waist—bread.
"Hey!!"
I held the bread, which was as hard as a brick, and struck the long spear with all my might. The spearhead and shaft collided with the surface of the hard bread crust, and the mustache knight lost his grip on the shaft. I retrieved the bread with the spearhead stuck in it and swung it behind my shoulder.
"This is a face-breading!!"
I leaped high and slammed the brick-hard bread into the mustache knight's philtrum. With a crunch sound, the knight's teeth broke. Blood splattered on his mustache, and the knight fell off his horse with his eyes rolled back. Thud. The knight collapsed to the ground. I threw the blood-stained bread onto the knight's face. Splat. They told me not to play with food, but since that bread was too hard to eat anyway, it didn't matter.
I untied the belt from my waist and dropped all my slings to the ground. "All troops——!"
Click. I gripped the two one-handed axes I had strapped to my back in each hand. Normally, I would have used a flail, but I had been looking forward to the day I could use dual axes ever since I escaped the dungeon.
"Repeat after me!"
I caught my breath, more overwhelmed than ever, and shouted at the humans.
"En Taro Tra——-al!!"
"Las... En Taro Tral!!"
These bastards. They thought I was doing the Las chant three times. "Do you think I only do Las every day!!"
I jumped toward the cavalrymen trapped in the pit and brought down my dual axes.