Traces of the Father (3)
Clang!
The harsh ring of metal tore across the battlefield. The sharp scent of churned earth stung her nose. Before the sweat racing down her spine could cool, another scorching wave of heat slammed into the allied formation.
Arisha’s mana-infused voice, carried by Wind Command, rolled across the entire field. The soldiers on the left reacted to her cry and scattered. But they were a step too late. Two of them slid into the mud despite their desperate movements, and in that instant spearheads erupted from beneath the sludge.
“Aaaagh!”
Hearing the soldiers’ screams, Arisha bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
“Lightly wounded! We’re pulling back to the rear!”
Another soldier helped the trapped men up, reported, and withdrew from the front line. Arisha forced her gaze wider, taking in the full scope of the battle. …This is bad.
In the distance, a circular formation of orcs held position around a massive tree trunk. Their movements were precise and disciplined, as if following some kind of doctrine. At the front, six shield-and-weapon orcs advanced slowly in a vanguard. Behind them, orcs wielding sharpened bone short-spears maintained perfect intervals. The sight was so familiar it sent chills crawling across her skin.
They know how to hold ranks…?
The coordinated movement and formation showed clear traces of military tactics. This wasn’t the instinctive behavior of mere monsters. It carried the unmistakable imprint of intelligence—someone had trained and drilled these creatures like an army.
The moment her order rang out, the sharp cracks of mana rifles filled the air. The orc front line overlapped their shields like armor plating, deflecting the magical bolts. The shields buckled and deformed under the impacts, yet the orcs themselves remained unharmed. While the shots could penetrate, they weren’t landing fatal blows.
Arisha sprinted toward the right flank.
Her words cut off as something snagged her foot. She looked down and saw vines coiled tightly around her ankle. They weren’t naturally placed. The way they had been deliberately anchored screamed trap.
This can’t be…
The creeping dread she had tried to ignore grew thicker. The possibility she had refused to acknowledge was becoming terrifyingly real.
She shook it off, forcing her mind back to the battle. The cavalry, following her earlier orders, had already slammed into the orc flank, but the enemy’s defense held firm. No matter how weak they were among mid-tier monsters, orcs were still mid-tier monsters. Breaking their strength was no easy task.
At this rate, we’ll have to punch straight through the center…
Her thoughts spun desperately for another solution, but nothing sharp enough came to mind. Frustration was beginning to build when—
Clang!
The deafening crash of steel made Arisha’s head snap around. At the front, a single soldier had shoved an orc’s shield aside and driven his blade through its throat.
It was Han Jungwoo.
He carved through the gaps in the orc lines with a momentum that could never belong to an ordinary human. The sight was so absurdly bold that Arisha felt her common sense cracking.
All the experience and theory she had painstakingly learned and mastered—he overturned it all without hesitation. What the hell is he?
The fleeting moment of bewildered awe ended when their eyes met across the battlefield. Jungwoo simply stared at her from afar. Without a special transmission method like her Wind Command, he had no way to speak to her directly. She had to read his intent from his gaze, his gestures, his posture alone.
……
Jungwoo was demanding something of her. Assess the situation faster. Issue orders to the troops.
…Unbelievable.
His gaze was so honest and transparent it was almost infuriating. Don’t stop thinking. Don’t stop moving. It was the calm rebuke of a soldier to his superior. Her momentarily frozen mind kicked back into motion.
She knew it was incredibly arrogant of him, yet she didn’t dislike it. On the contrary, the awe she felt at how he had shattered both her common sense and the flow of battle brought a strange mix of curiosity and gratitude.
She issued the new order. The collapsed front created an opening, and the flanking force crashed into the orcs. As she assessed the situation, she glanced back at Jungwoo. He had already looked away from her and plunged deeper into the enemy ranks.
One orc exhaled violently through its nostrils, a guttural cry that carried clear intent rather than simple rage or confusion. Arisha was certain.
That one…
It had to be the leader coordinating these orcs in battle. It had just given its subordinates some kind of order. As if to prove her right, the orcs who heard the leader’s roar immediately began to withdraw in unison. The fierce clash where soldiers and orcs had pushed against each other with everything they had ended in an instant.
“What the—?!”
“Why are they suddenly…?”
The bizarre sight of every orc retreating to create distance left the soldiers bewildered. The unsettling feeling they had sensed since before the battle began—since the ambush had been thwarted—had already pushed their anxiety to the breaking point.
Then the orcs who had been holding a tight shield wall in a single line scattered to both sides. They switched to a pincer formation and began pressing the humans from the flanks once more.
“This is…”
Arisha understood their intention. The moment Jungwoo had bizarrely broken through the center, the orcs had abandoned that approach entirely. They reorganized their ranks from the rear and changed tactics to crush the humans between both flanks.
She steadied her breathing. She had to suppress the turmoil in her mind and maintain composure. A commander who let her thoughts go completely blank was the worst kind of leader on the battlefield.
Her mind spun without pause, searching for a path to victory. Then one idea flashed through her like lightning.
…That’s it.
It was an incredibly simple, even crude method. Nothing ingenious. Just a straightforward, brute-force solution anyone could have thought of.
The idea that a single individual could dominate an entire battlefield was absurd both in theory and in practice. Yet in this moment, Arisha saw that very impossibility as their only possibility.
His raw combat strength—enough to slaughter orcs single-handedly—rivaled that of the squad leaders like Varen. In terms of pure physical ability, he surpassed even Varen.
Jungwoo immediately moved to her side upon hearing the order.
The scale of the orc pressure from both sides was roughly equal, as was the number of soldiers responding to it. Arisha immediately moved to support the left flank with Jungwoo right behind her.
“Sweep them away with full power.”
“Understood.”
His reply to her curt, straightforward order was equally brief. He showed neither complaint nor doubt about how absurd and unreasonable the command was. He had received an order, so he would carry it out. There was no hesitation, no suspicion of his superior, no visible fear of failure.
Without the slightest pause, Jungwoo swung his sword at the orcs on the left. The blade was almost embarrassing to look at. After cutting down so many orcs in an endless battle, the edge was chipped like a worn saw and the hilt was caked in blood and dirt. Yet every time he swung, orc bodies collapsed without fail.
One orc’s neck snapped. The next was stabbed through the chest. The third had its hamstrings severed and fell, only for soldiers to drive blades into its exposed throat.
“Uraaa! Thanks a fucking lot!”
The soldiers who had been struggling suddenly found their breathing room as Jungwoo’s intervention began thinning the orc numbers one by one. A few of them regained color in their faces, as if a vise had been lifted from their chests.
“What a monster…”
The muttered admiration came, but no one answered. Either they were too focused on the fight to hear, or they simply agreed with the assessment.
The soldiers watched Jungwoo with open awe. The moment he entered the fray, the tide of battle flipped. Six orcs had been neutralized in the blink of an eye. His movements were beyond human comprehension. The orcs died before they could even feel fear.
“Ha.”
Even Arisha nearly lost herself in the sight for a moment, but she refused to make the same mistake twice. Overwhelming individual combat power that ignored tactics, strategy, and formation alike. An absurd method that shattered an entire battle line in seconds. It wasn’t solely his achievement, but there was no denying his intervention had been the catalyst.
That impossible method had shaken the entire flow of battle. With the soldiers suffering minimal losses while the orc numbers plummeted, their momentum surged. Soon they had completely seized the advantage on the left.
“Left flank suppressed!”
One soldier shouted loud enough for everyone to hear, driving the final nail of certainty into the moment.
“Yes!”
The soldiers answered with renewed vigor. They had personally felt the hopeless battle—where defeat and even survival had been uncertain—slowly turning into their victory. We can win. We can survive.
The moment the left was cleared, the flow of battle shifted entirely. Arisha was certain. We’ve won. With the current momentum, victory was assured.
But it was exactly then that it happened.
A heavy vibration suddenly rolled through the ground—not from the orc encampment, but from the forest on the opposite side.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Something was coming.
The soldiers froze and turned their heads. Every single person who saw it lost the ability to speak.
What emerged from the underbrush, parting the bushes, was a colossal orc whose size dwarfed any of its kin. Instead of the usual leather-patched tunic, it wore armor close to full plate.
“Why… is that thing…”
Arisha’s voice trembled. Jungwoo studied her shaken expression. Even though she usually recovered from shock or panic quickly, this time she couldn’t seem to regain control of her emotions.
“Why… that thing…”
Jungwoo followed her gaze. She was staring at the weapon the armored giant carried over its shoulder. It was a halberd with a rusted blade and peeling lacquer. His eyes caught the emblem engraved where the axe and spearhead joined.
“That symbol…”
It was identical to the one on the flag Arisha had shown him inside the tent. Jungwoo finally understood why she couldn’t compose herself. And as if to confirm his suspicion, Arisha cried out in a voice thick with grief.
The cry carried raw anguish. As if answering her, the massive orc moved. It mimicked the form of a true warrior. It raised the halberd into a perfect stance, then advanced with clean, practiced movements. This was no mindless monster swinging a weapon on instinct. The motion was steeped in efficiency and reason—the clear posture of a martial artist.
Arisha’s body stiffened as though frozen solid. The giant orc’s stance had clearly reminded her of something. Jungwoo and the soldiers alike held their breath at the overwhelming presence radiating from the newly arrived orc.
The halberd lifted high split the air. The metallic ring tore across the battlefield once more.