Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: 31. Blood, Sweat, and Tears (1)
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The battle dragged on.
They fought for so long that no one could tell how much time had passed.
Corpses littered the ground, enemy and ally alike.
Once Joachim's condition had stabilized, Yuri scoured the front lines for vulnerable spots, lending aid where needed most before returning to Brioll's ranks.
The Allied Forces had achieved a great victory.
Despite the enemy's numerical superiority, they hadn't broken. The sacrifices had been heavy, but far more orcs lay dead.
Everyone—foe and friend alike—was exhausted.
It was an endless war of attrition.
The orcs charged without giving up, and the Allied Forces held out to the bitter end.
"It's time to eat..."
Yuri grumbled.
Occasionally, an orc would slip into the Allied Forces' front lines. But even they lacked the manpower for a serious breakthrough.
The isolated orcs in the enemy ranks ended up skewered by spears and swords, turned into pincushions before dying.
Blood dried and crusted on the ground.
Yuri looked up.
Okua still stood motionless in the distance.
And on the opposite side, at the heart of the Allied Forces, Moyong Chan stood tall atop his command tent, glaring at Okua.
The two seemed locked in a staring contest.
"Whichever blinks first loses, right?"
Muttering nonsense, Yuri trudged forward.
The Allied Forces' front lines had grown looser than before. The orcs' assaults had weakened too. Their territories were starting to overlap.
Fight the enemy if one appeared.
Help allies if they were near.
An endless cycle of the same task.
While dealing with one orc, Yuri spotted a knight in his peripheral vision, vomiting blood after a halberd pierced his gut from afar.
Yuri stabbed the orc dead and hurried toward him.
It was too late.
There was no saving him.
Yuri knelt by the fallen knight and tore the family crest from around his neck.
"I'll testify to your bravery for your house."
"I... I..."
Foam bubbled from his mouth, cutting him off.
Yuri whispered again.
"I'll avenge you."
That was all he could promise.
The knight gazed at Yuri through fading eyes, gave a faint nod, then breathed his last with eyes still open.
Yuri closed his eyelids.
As he stood, an orc warrior wielding a halberd loomed before him.
"Krr..."
The beast was gnawing on a human arm torn from who-knew-where.
Their eyes met.
It tossed the arm aside.
The moment Yuri dodged, the orc warrior swung its halberd and charged.
Suddenly, blood from the arm's stump splashed into Yuri's eyes.
The hot liquid stung his cornea vividly.
Yuri didn't close his eyes.
Through his blood-red vision, he saw the orc warrior's twisted face.
His body was fatigued.
His mana was low.
But the instincts honed through prolonged combat remained sharp.
No unnecessary tension gripped Yuri's body.
He naturally deflected the halberd, slicing the orc's throat with just enough force to pierce its hide.
One orc warrior sank to the ground.
Taking a life was this easy.
"Concise. Efficient."
The senses of the ancient orc hunter from the ruins were gradually merging with his own.
Slaughtering orcs had become mechanical labor. And he was a craftsman who had mastered the technique.
The longer the battle wore on and the more stamina drained, the greater Yuri's value became.
He could butcher in any state. As the targets grew weaker, his efficiency soared.
He felled orcs with minimal force, slash after slash.
That's when he ran into Jared.
"Holding up okay?"
Blood smeared Jared's face. Spotting Yuri, he wiped his cheek and managed a weary smile.
"You're still alive, sir."
"Yeah."
"A lot died."
Was he talking about orcs? Or humans?
Probably both.
Yuri just nodded.
"I know."
"Yes, sir."
In that brief exchange, several orcs lunged at them.
They weren't as ferocious as before. Okua's madness drove them, but their exhausted bodies held them back.
One even tripped over its own feet and sprawled before Yuri.
Pitiful, but Yuri drove Guilty down without hesitation.
Blood sprayed up to his waist.
"Kuaaaah...!"
The orc pack was too spent for proper roars.
They just rasped out hoarse cries fueled by frenzy.
"Your Highness, watch out."
Jared whispered like a sigh.
Without Yuri's sharpened senses, he had weakened like the orcs.
"These damn pests..."
The orcs swung clumsily in staggering arcs, and Jared leaned back unsteadily before sweeping his sword upward.
The orc's jaw split halfway.
"Gweh!"
The orc swung down again.
Jared rolled across the ground, evading, then sprang up.
"Your Highness, are you al—"
He glanced back and froze, mouth agape.
While he'd handled one, the rest lay dead on the ground.
Yuri caught his breath and slung Guilty over his shoulder.
"I'm fine."
Then, like a machine executing pre-programmed motions, he walked toward the orc facing Jared.
"I can handle that one..."
Yuri brushed past him.
He wove into the orc's flailing attack with faltering steps. Dodging by a hair's breadth, he thrust Guilty home.
The orc collapsed.
To the casual eye, it looked like the beast had impaled itself on a limp thrust.
But Jared saw the control infused in Yuri's movements.
Anticipating the enemy's thoughts—or perhaps manipulating them.
It was the edge of that realm.
"No way... growing in the middle of war..."
"You can still talk, huh?"
"Swords in your mouth now?"
"If your arms give out, bite the damn thing and swing."
"That'd be the Three Swords Style."
Chatting idly, they pressed on in search of more orcs.
Fighting raged everywhere.
Yuri spotted a standout knight amid the fray and called his name.
"Rolang!"
"Your Highness!"
While aiding a nearby soldier, Yuri asked,
"Tired?"
"No, sir!"
Yuri's voice rang out, reigniting morale in Brioll's lines.
"Think of your fallen comrades!"
In mutual exhaustion, mental fortitude made all the difference.
Yuri methodically cut down orcs, bellowing all the while.
"Don't die! Wealth and glory await! Don't worry about those who went first—I'll take responsibility! Brioll never forgets!"
As Yuri roared, an orc warrior charged.
Yuri leaned back as if expecting it, countering with a reverse slash.
The orc warrior's body split open.
Yuri felled it in just two motions: dodge and slash.
A feat impossible before.
"For Brioll!"
Yuri raised Guilty high and shouted. Exhausted soldiers responded in kind. The dying embers flared back to life.
Starting from Brioll, fighting spirit reignited across the Allied Forces.
They were clearly winning.
And then, the unbelievable happened.
A strange wailing echoed—like sobbing or a beast's howl.
The orcs began to turn tail.
"What?"
It was a retreat.
The orcs, who seemed they would never yield, were fleeing.
Even with their ruler Okua holding the rear, they showed no more will to fight.
"Is it over...?"
"Did we win?"
Allied soldiers dropped their weapons. Some stabbed swords into the ground and leaned on them, dry-heaving.
Yuri summoned his mana.
"Don't let them go!"
His lion's roar thundered across the battlefield.
In the cooling heat of war, Yuri alone called for pursuit.
"Remember what they've done! Chase them down and hit 'em from behind!"
And he led the way, Guilty in hand.
He jammed Guilty into an orc's nape, used its body as a springboard to leap and sever another's waist. When it kept running, he targeted its legs.
The ankle-slashed orc tumbled, and Yuri crushed its skull underfoot before advancing.
"What are you doing!"
Yuri knew.
This wasn't the end.
The war wouldn't stop until Okua was dead. Which made now the perfect chance to thin their numbers.
The orcs they let escape would regroup and return to slaughter the Allies.
Killing one orc now saved an ally's life later.
"It's not over yet!"
Rare anger flared as Yuri urged his men onward.
As he charged, Rolang and Jared followed, targeting the orcs' backs.
Brioll's knights, hoarse voices cracking, roared and gave chase.
"Follow His Highness!"
"Kill the orcs!"
"Don't let them escape!"
The rearmost orcs fell.
The horde kept fleeing.
"Pursue them!"
After claiming an orc warrior's life mid-stride, Yuri looked up.
Their eyes met.
Okua's dark crimson eyes fixed on him from afar.
Just meeting that gaze brought a wave of dizziness.
His breath grew ragged.
A sharp ringing rose from the depths of his senses.
"Brioll!"
Yuri bellowed, slashing the air toward Okua with Guilty.
The pressure eased slightly.
"Hit 'em from behind!"
Brioll's fierce pursuit stirred the entire Allied Forces. The weary began to follow, one by one.
Instinct told them to reduce the enemy's numbers now. Their bodies had simply given out.
But Brioll's desperate assault spurred them on. They squeezed out their last reserves.
Orc losses mounted.
Then Okua unleashed another thunderous roar.
"...!"
It sounded less like a living throat and more like nature's fury.
Those with lower cultivation clutched their ears in agony.
Yuri shouted sharply.
"Pull yourselves together!"
Red haze rose from the rearmost orcs they were about to overrun.
The fleeing beasts suddenly turned feral, attacking madly and sowing chaos.
The madness-stricken orcs were no longer weary.
"That's..."
Yuri gritted his teeth, watching the lead orcs vanish into the distance untouched.
Another of Okua's tricks.
As the Allies chased to annihilate a unit, it drove a portion of the rear into frenzy to block them.
Some inexplicable heat sent them berserk.
They charged like a herd with fire lit to their tails.
"Haa..."
Yuri glanced back.
Moyong Chan was still visible, locked in his staring contest.
Shouldn't he step in when Okua pulled these stunts? Even if just to counter it. But his face remained stern, eyes fixed on Okua.
"Damn it."
The frenzied rear orcs tangled with the Allies. Pursuers halted, locked in melee.
Meanwhile, the main orc force pulled further away.
Yuri glared at Okua.
"You bastard."
As if waiting, Okua met his gaze then turned away.
Only when those dark crimson eyes shifted did the air lighten.
Okua slithered onward in its eerie gait. The orc masses around it followed.
Units that hadn't budged even in the thick of battle.
It was clear now.
Okua wielded the orcs like limbs.
Turning the rear orcs around suggested it might even control their minds.
By the time they'd slain the ambushers, the orc main body was far off.
No further pursuit was possible.
The Allies halted.
"Ahh..."
Still, the Allied Forces had won.
Soldiers raised their weapons in joy.
The whole army erupted.
"Okua fled!"
"We won!"
"Long live the Allied Forces!"
The war's end seemed in sight.
Yuri eyed the retreating orc army's backs and said,
"We need to attack right now."
He had a feeling.
With the enemy in retreat, they had to capitalize on this momentum. Lingering too long risked losing it.
Okua.
As long as that monstrosity lived, they couldn't relax.