Chapter 332: Thirty Reinforcements (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 332: Thirty Reinforcements (2)
It was a surreal sight.
Thousands of Orcs, hesitating to charge.
Just three humans walking toward them.
As they stared each other down in suffocating tension, Kalot drew his massive greatsword and roared.
"Chwiik! There are only three of them! Kill them!"
Only then did the Orcs snap back to reality.
No matter how the enemy had cleaved the castle gate in a single strike, there was no way three mere humans could handle this many Orcs. Exhaling rough, ragged breaths, they watched Roman Dmitry step past the shattered gate. Raising their weapons, the horde charged all at once.
"Chwiik! Attack!"
"Chwiik! Kill them!"
It was a breathtaking sight.
Orcs flooded their entire field of vision.
The moment Chris and Kevin drew their swords from behind him, Roman Dmitry dashed toward the enemy, staying one step ahead.
Flash!
"Kwek!"
"Keuk!"
The Orcs charging at the front spewed blood.
Without even a moment to register how Roman Dmitry had attacked, they collapsed to the ground in burning agony. Yet, the rest of the horde didn't care. Trampling over the faces of their dying comrades, they unleashed their crimson Aura directly at Roman Dmitry.
Rumble!
Rumble!
It was the trademark move of the Orc warriors.
As they brought down their strikes, gleaming with murderous intent, Roman Dmitry didn't dodge. He met them head-on.
Crack!
An Orc warrior's eyes widened.
His sword, shimmering with Aura, shattered instantly. He staggered back, his chest slashed wide open. That was his last memory. Roman Dmitry lunged forward and decapitated him. The Orcs rushing in behind him had their limbs severed before they could even put up a fight.
Splurt!
Blood splattered.
Roman Dmitry plunged right into the thick of the enemy.
Though the Orcs attacked from all sides, his godlike movements ensured not a single strike landed.
Whoosh!
Rumble!
An axe swung past from behind.
Tilting his head to dodge, Roman Dmitry thrust his sword up under the chin of the advancing opponent. At the same time, attacks came for his upper and lower body. He stomped down on the weapon aiming for his legs, using it as a springboard to leap upward and cleave an Orc's head in two. It was a movement that clearly transcended human limits. Amidst the chaotic melee, Roman Dmitry's presence was absolutely unrivaled.
Heavenly Demon's Sovereign Step.
He took a single step.
Toward the endlessly surging enemies, Roman Dmitry unleashed his Aura.
'Heavenly Demon Sword Technique - Mid-stage First Form.'
Boom!
Rumble!
The enemies were annihilated.
He swept them away in an instant, leaving a massive, completely empty crater in the horde.
It was an awe-inspiring display of martial prowess.
While the Orcs were completely overwhelmed by Roman Dmitry, Chris and Kevin, following close behind, displayed their own outstanding martial prowess.
This operation was entirely different from what Caden knew.
The original plan was for Roman Dmitry to simply buy time, but he had given a different order to the two men following him.
"Rescuing the prisoners does not guarantee our safety. Do not wait for our allies' help. Our top priority is to slaughter every single enemy before us."
It was a dangerous task. Even knowing they were risking their lives, Chris and Kevin had accepted the order without a moment's hesitation. Now, they engaged in a frenzied slaughter alongside Roman Dmitry. Under Chris's swift, precise attacks, the Orcs sprayed blood and fell away, while Kevin plunged straight into the swarming masses, killing indiscriminately.
A massacre.
They killed, killed, and killed again.
Terrified of falling even slightly behind the bloody path Roman Dmitry was carving, the two gritted their teeth.
Crack!
Kevin crushed an Orc's head.
With blood splattering across his face, he bared his teeth through the crimson stains.
"I'll kill every last one of you."
Madness erupted.
At Luna's castle gate, the three men waged a war of their own.
* * *
At that exact moment, Dmitry's soldiers began their operation.
Entering the secret passage and moving inward, the slippery ice and steep incline posed significant difficulties. Even Caden, who was deeply familiar with Luna's environment, found it challenging. Yet, Dmitry's soldiers scaled the passage as quickly and effortlessly as if they had hooks attached to their hands.
When they had been pushing through the blizzard earlier, Caden had suspected Dmitry's soldiers must have learned some special technique.
He was right.
While preparing for the Arcadia expedition, Roman Dmitry had taught his soldiers the techniques of the North Sea Ice Palace.
"From now on, I will teach you about Snow Heaven."
Snow Heaven.
Meaning "snowy sky," it referred to the martial arts created by the people of the North Sea Ice Palace to adapt to extreme environments. It wasn't just a single technique. Snow Heaven Sword Technique, Snow Heaven Footwork, Snow Heaven Dagger Technique, Snow Heaven Lightness Skill, and so on. They had created various methods incorporating the profound subtleties of Snow Heaven. What Roman Dmitry taught his men were just the basics, but in the short span of a week, the energy of Snow Heaven had managed to take root within the soldiers' dantians.
Thanks to this, they were able to adapt to the cold.
Although they couldn't completely ignore the frost like Roman Dmitry, the energy of Snow Heaven circulating through their bodies suppressed the biting chill. While ordinary people would feel a freezing cold that threatened to sap their very lives in Arcadia's environment, Dmitry's soldiers only felt a brisk winter chill and nothing more.
It was the same now.
Whether pushing through a blizzard or navigating an icy cavern, they utilized the methods of Snow Heaven.
It was fundamentally different from Luna's approach.
While the Luna Kingdom had created ways to live comfortably in a peaceful world without war, the North Sea Ice Palace had risked their lives over thousands of years of history just to survive. Those desperate efforts had turned the extreme cold into the North Sea Ice Palace's unique weapon. Although they had ultimately met their demise at the hands of the Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk, their power would still be unmatched today if a monster capable of conquering the Murim had not been born.
Caden gritted his teeth.
Even though he tried his absolute best to keep up, they were so fast that he couldn't catch Dmitry's soldiers leading the way.
It was then.
They entered the ice warehouse.
As soon as they spotted the Orcs standing guard, Caden witnessed an astonishing sight.
Snap!
Stab!
One Orc had his neck snapped, while another had his mouth covered and his throat slit.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Even though Dmitry's soldiers didn't exchange any hand signals, they dealt with the guards quickly and silently, acting as if they were communicating telepathically. There was no way for Caden to know they were using a technique called Voice Transmission. Already shocked by the fact that he was falling behind, Caden gasped inwardly at how rapidly they broke through the defenses without a moment's hesitation.
'Is this the true power of Dmitry?'
At first, he thought they were just thirty men.
But as time went on, he began to realize how incredibly terrifying these thirty were.
Roman Dmitry had handpicked his absolute elites. Although he had clearly stated during negotiations with Luna that he would not sacrifice his own people, he certainly hadn't approached this task half-heartedly. As they moved deeper, the number of Orcs they encountered increased. First two or three, then a dozen, and eventually hundreds. Yet, every single one of them met an instant death the moment they clashed with Dmitry's soldiers.
Ares, Fred, Logan.
It wasn't just the feats of the commanders whose faces he remembered.
While they certainly displayed outstanding martial prowess, even the nameless soldiers handled multiple Orcs with terrifying ease.
Only then did he realize exactly what kind of monster Luna had allied with.
'Oh God. You have not abandoned Luna.'
Just maybe, he thought, this absurd operation might actually succeed.
* * *
Three.
Just three.
Kalot, who had believed it wouldn't take long to deal with mere humans, stared wide-eyed at the scene before him.
"Kwek!"
"Chwiik! M-Monster!"
The Orcs fell into total chaos.
Those who had charged with confidence now wore terrified expressions at the one-sided slaughter. It was a sight that defied the common sense of Arcadia. Arcadia was a world where peace had been guaranteed, and thus, many races—including humans—did not show much interest in becoming stronger.
Because of this, the difference in innate physical traits was absolute.
Beings born with naturally strong bodies, like Orcs and Yetis, possessed martial power that easily overwhelmed the other races.
To Kalot, humans were a fundamentally weak species.
While he acknowledged the strength of Leo, the Royal Knight Commander, most humans were nothing but weaklings who couldn't even fight properly without Isabelle's blessing. That was why he had never doubted Graxar's plan. The plan to conquer Arcadia and turn the other races into livestock was not a difficult task for the Orcs, who possessed overwhelming combat power and numbers.
But these humans from beyond the Endless Mountains were different.
Under the overwhelming martial prowess displayed by Roman Dmitry, the corpses of Orcs were already piling up into literal mountains.
It was then.
"Chwiik! We have a problem! Enemies have appeared in the rear as well!"
Kalot's face contorted.
He didn't know how enemies had bypassed them to appear in the rear, but if this continued, they would surely free the prisoners and launch a pincer attack. His mind raced. Kalot was not a very wise being, but fortunately, he had Graxar's instructions prepared for any contingency.
Graxar had left ten thousand troops behind.
It was a decision made out of pure wariness toward Roman Dmitry's existence, and he had explicitly ordered Kalot to mobilize him if even that was not enough.
"Chwiik. Sorry."
Crack!
Kalot blew off the head of the Orc who had just reported the situation.
Then, killing several more Orcs nearby, he gathered their steaming corpses into a pile.
"Chwiik. Shaman! Perform the ritual!"
An Orc Shaman.
A special existence born only once in a hundred thousand Orcs, they could wield shamanic magic by utilizing the energy of nature from birth. At Kalot's command, the Orc Shaman stepped forward. Smearing the pooled blood from the corpses all over his face, he muttered in a dark, guttural language incomprehensible to humans.
Soon after.
"Chwiik. Berserker."
He cast the forbidden spell that would turn the tide of battle.
* * *
A crimson energy shimmered from the Shaman's body.
It rapidly spread to the surroundings, and the Orcs who absorbed the foul energy had their eyes turn blood-red as they bared their sharp teeth.
"Grrr..."
"Kuaaah!"
Berserker.
It was a spell that dyed living beings in pure madness to multiply their strength, in exchange for eating away at their life force. Under the effect of Berserker, the Orcs exerted more than twice their usual monstrous power. But beyond mere physical strength, the sight of them forgetting all pain and charging like rabid beasts made them infinitely more terrifying.
Just like now.
Splurt!
Blood splattered.
An Orc's arm was severed, but instead of screaming, it thrust its face forward, desperately trying to tear off a chunk of Roman Dmitry's flesh with its teeth.
The attack failed.
Roman Dmitry casually blew off the Orc's head, but the headless body, remembering its final command in life, still lunged at him. There were thousands of such Orcs. Although Berserker was rarely used due to the risk of drastically shortening the horde's lifespan, Kalot knew he had no choice.
Roman Dmitry.
Kalot simply had no confidence in handling him.
In his entire life, Graxar was the only being Kalot had ever seen display such monstrous martial power.
The crimson energy surged.
The madness-dyed Orcs rushed in relentlessly.
"Kuaah!"
Slash.
Chris remained perfectly calm.
Since the Orcs felt no pain, he sliced their legs to neutralize their mobility, then stomped their faces in as they writhed on the ground. He showed no signs of agitation. Even as the Orcs surged from all directions, radiating rabid murderous intent, Chris dismantled them one by one with unwavering composure.
In stark contrast, Kevin was a whirlwind of chaos.
His face was completely drenched in blood.
He advanced—slashing, slashing, and slashing again. When an Orc lunged to grapple him, Kevin simply bit off its ear.
Crunch!
"Pah!"
He spat out the raw flesh.
Although the disgusting stench of blood assaulted his nose, Kevin displayed a madness that eclipsed even that of the berserk Orcs.
Despite the situation, Kalot wasn't worried.
These humans were displaying martial power that transcended common sense, but he firmly believed they would eventually reach their physical limits. This was a battle of attrition. The power of Berserker, which supplied seemingly infinite stamina, was not something three mere humans could withstand forever.
Yet, as time passed, something began to feel terribly wrong.
Gradually, the distance between him and Roman Dmitry was closing.
Even though thousands of Orcs were throwing away their lives to block the path, the distance between them shrank with every blink of an eye. It made no sense. It was impossible. Humans were weak creatures who had to live for twenty years after birth just to properly function as adults. The scene unfolding before him completely shattered the common sense of Arcadia.
Unconsciously, Kalot took a step back.
With a look of sheer terror, he shouted toward the Shaman. "Chwiik! Shaman! Use a stronger spell—"
At that exact moment—thud!
Blood splattered.
The head of the Shaman, who had just been looking at him, abruptly shattered like a melon. Kalot suddenly found a terrifying presence filling his entire field of vision.
Roman Dmitry.
Before he even realized it, the human had reached right in front of him.