Big Game Hunt
"Graaah!"
The orc warrior at the very front closed in on me.
A mass of muscle, two heads taller than a grown man. The crude club in its hands came crashing down toward my skull.
Clang!
I caught the blow on my sword. The force packed into that single strike was so tremendous that a sharp, tingling shock raced up the arm holding the blade.
"Tch..."
I clicked my tongue. Even after using a stat elixir, my strength still couldn't overwhelm an orc warrior. I'd thought I was growing well enough in my own way, but it seemed I still had a long way to go.
"Grrk!"
The orc warrior, as if even more excited that its club had been stopped, let out a threatening snarl and pressed the attack. This time the swing came in from the side. I dropped low at once.
Whoosh!
With a hair-raising whistle of displaced air, the club tore through the space where my head had been. I turned with the motion and swung at the slab of green meat that rose before my eyes.
Slash!
The Wailing Sword carved across the thing's abdomen. Dark crimson aura ripped through thick hide and tore mercilessly at whatever lay beneath.
"Krek!"
Green blood sprayed across the black earth. Even so, the orc warrior did not die from a wound that severe. Clutching the spilling guts where its belly had split, it scrambled backward in a hurry.
"Keheh...!"
Its breath came wet with blood. I could have finished it then and there, but I didn't give chase. The role I'd taken in this fight didn't leave me the luxury of running down something that was already dying.
"Take the wounded ones first!"
I shouted and lunged at another orc warrior trying to slip past me.
Roughly twenty orc warriors were charging this way, with dozens of ordinary orcs behind them, and beyond those, orc rangers and archers—reason long gone—were already climbing over the palisade.
Ordinary orcs were one thing, but an orc warrior was a foe on par with a two-star knight. Even with their minds lost, a force made of nothing but probationary knights and a few dozen soldiers had no business winning against strength like that.
And yet we had to hold. That had been the plan from the start.
Boom!
Just then, something shattered to pieces behind the palisade and shot skyward with a thunderous crash. The signal that Edwin and his knights had leapt from the cliff and infiltrated the rear. If we held until that main force reached us, the operation would succeed.
But could these men really hold? No—could I make them hold?
"...I can manage."
I muttered it as I cut down yet another orc warrior.
"Grgk..."
The orc with a sword buried in its nape collapsed where it stood.
"Hah...!"
Greg wrenched the blade free and let out a hot, tense breath. There was no time to savor the victory at leisure.
"Kraaa!"
With a shriek, another orc charged in. This one was no ordinary orc. An orc warrior—a monster that bore the title of warrior even among the savage orcs. It swung an axe straight at Greg.
He moved on reflex to block with his sword.
"Ghk!"
Sword and axe met with a violent crack, and it was Greg who was driven back. The orc warrior's strength was everything the rumors claimed, a level a mere probationary knight couldn't begin to match.
"Grrrr..."
Had it taken the measure of his strength in that single exchange? The orc warrior growled low, like a wolf that had found its prey. Greg reset his grip on the sword. An opponent too much for him. Even so, he neither retreated nor showed fear. He had known from the beginning that this operation would not be easy, and he had already steeled himself for death.
"Come on."
And so he provoked the enemy instead. The orc warrior twisted its face, as if Greg were something laughable.
"Kroooh!"
The axe flew in with the warrior's roar.
Bang! Bang!
Greg's sword, faintly sheathed in aura, met it head-on. Each time, though, his body staggered under an impact he couldn't withstand, and even the aura clinging to the blade was shaved away. In the end—
"Aaagh!"
Greg was flung back hard. An orc warrior was still beyond what his skill could stand against.
"......"
He looked up at the warrior glaring down at him with arrogant contempt. The massive axe in its hands was just about to move, ready to finish him.
Shhk!
A clean cutting sound, and the orc warrior screamed. Somehow Lucas was already behind it. For a moment Greg thought the young master had come to save him. The thought didn't last.
"Finish it!"
The instant Greg got back on his feet, Lucas shouted that and was already gone somewhere else.
"Finish this...?"
Greg muttered it with a bitter smile. The sword wound carved into the orc warrior's back was nowhere near enough to kill it. Only the outer hide had been sliced, and shallowly at that—if anything, it had only riled the thing up. At this rate they'd just repeat what had happened a moment ago. Even so, he couldn't complain. One thing was certain: a moment ago, he had owed the young master his life.
"Grrrrrh..."
The orc warrior snarled and turned its gaze back on Greg. Was it that furious at having allowed the young master a single blow? Its face was twisted to the extreme.
Ugly as sin.
Thinking that, Greg clashed weapons with it. And then—
"Hm...?"
The axe was strangely light. If the slashes from a moment ago had been boulders rolling down a mountainside, this one was a hollow shell of wood. That wasn't all.
"Khek... khek..."
Something was wrong with the orc warrior. Its blood-red eyes were so deeply engorged it looked as if they might start bleeding, and from the wound on its back—the one he'd thought wasn't deep—blood poured like a waterfall. At last, its body swayed.
"—!"
Greg swung carefully at the faltering warrior. A gap the orc had offered of its own accord. He struck with caution, half afraid even this might be a trick. The orc warrior couldn't even react.
Thud.
Its nape was cut with pathetic ease, and it pitched face-first into the dirt. It did not rise again.
"Did I... win?"
While he muttered in disbelief—
"Kehek!"
"Kraaah..."
Screams rose from orcs on every side. Only then did Greg look around, and an unbelievable sight met his eyes. Probationary knights like him were dropping orc warriors in one-on-one fights, and another warrior that had been trying to break the shield-bearers' formation was dying on a soldier's blade.
That monster, dying at a common soldier's hand—a probationary knight, maybe, but a soldier? And at the center of that scene, tearing through the field, was none other than Young Master Lucas.
Slash!
His fighting looked, at a glance, utterly strange. He cut across the battlefield and stubbornly blocked the orc warriors' path, yet once he actually faced one, he left only a light sword wound and immediately turned his back to seek out another. It was astonishing enough that a body that bulky could move with such ghostlike elusiveness. Greg, though, grasped the young master's intent soon enough. Every orc warrior cut by the young master's sword had gone wrong. Just like the one Greg had felled, they were wasting away as if they'd caught some plague.
"......"
Because of that, the soldiers' formation—which he'd thought would be swept away in a single rush—was still holding. The probationary knights, too, were not giving ground even before dozens of orc warriors. Then—
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
Another horrific shriek rang out. A grating sound that seemed to scrape at the eardrums. To Greg, though, it didn't sound entirely bad. This was the signal to counterattack that the young master had told them to remember.
"Push them!"
Greg shouted. At the cry, the soldiers who had been holding their shields advanced. The probationary knights surged past the formation and tore into the orcs. The hulking orc warriors, bodies locked stiff with fear, toppled one after another before them.
"Ha...!"
A sight he could see and still not believe. Edwin, their commander, had gone so far as to say they would have to be prepared for total annihilation if the operation was to succeed. But looking at this battlefield, where was there anything that called annihilation to mind?
"I never thought it would go this far..."
Greg's eyes turned once more to Young Master Lucas. The sword wrapped in dark crimson aura was, even in this moment, cutting down one more orc warrior.
"...Good."
I muttered it as I watched the battlefield slowly tip in our favor. The Wailing Sword's other traits—curse and bleeding. The effect of weakening whatever it cut had surpassed my expectations. I'd hoped it might bring an orc warrior down to roughly a probationary knight's level. I hadn't imagined it would weaken them enough for a common soldier to drop one.
Edwin's main force was doing its part just as thoroughly. Not a single arrow from the rangers and archers—arrows that should have been pouring down on us while we fought the warriors—was anywhere to be seen. Edwin's troops, having entered the rear, had hit them from behind with perfect timing. So the state of the battle was better than I'd expected. Good enough that, if things kept going like this, an easy victory was in sight.
But as always, the monsters had no intention of letting things go that easily.
"...I knew it would be like this."
I gave a bitter smile at the window that rose before my eyes.
Big Game Hunt
📍 Objective: Defeat the Green Ogre.
🎯 Green Ogre: 0/1
Boom!
A crash sounded from the palisade. My gaze turned that way of its own accord. There, the greatest variable in this operation—the green ogre—had finally shown itself.
Crash!
I saw the enormous sword in its hands smash down on the palisade again. A sword closer to a bludgeon, as if carved out of rock. It shattered a wall large enough to hide even an orc warrior in a single blow, and splinters of wood sprayed in every direction. Then the thing stepped over the broken palisade. Had it sensed that it was at a disadvantage? Rather than face an Edwin who was no easy opponent, it seemed to have chosen flight.
But to do that, it would have to pass through where I stood. I left the staggering orc warriors behind and moved forward to meet the green ogre. Stopping that thing was my job. No matter how favorable the situation, the soldiers and probationary knights didn't have the strength to face a green ogre.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The green ogre came running, shaking the earth. Behind it I could see Edwin, pouring out a clear, bright aura. He was trying to chase the ogre in haste, but the remaining orc rangers and warriors had him by the ankles. Our eyes met. In his, as he looked at me standing against the green ogre, suspicion and confusion were mixed together—as if he were asking why on earth I was standing there.
In that span—
"Uwooooh!"
The green ogre had already closed to within arm's reach. The sword it swung came down as if it meant to split the earth. Neither its size nor the weight behind it could be compared to an orc warrior's. That strength was probably a match for the Branded Monster I'd faced before.
Back then, I'd fought with pure brute stupidity. I couldn't parry and I couldn't dodge, so I took the hits with my body and gulped down potions. Just like a game. But now was different from then.
Clang!
With a clear ring, the trajectory of the rock-sword falling in a straight line warped. The blade that barely skimmed past me smashed the innocent ground instead.