Ambush (1)
The orc warriors were pressing their advantage against the crumbling human lines, preparing to deliver the final blow. Even when thick black smoke rode the wind and obscured their vision, they paid it little mind. Fires were common on battlefields, so they didn't think much of it.
But as they breathed in the black smoke, their throats began to sting and breathing grew difficult. Only then did they realize something was wrong.
"Chwik! What the hell is this smoke! Krgh! Chwik! Hack... I can't..."
Their skin didn't burn, but their eyes stung fiercely, tears streaming down their faces. Their throats grew raw and blocked, making every breath a struggle. They weren't the only ones—many orcs and monsters began showing the same symptoms.
The black smoke, carried by the wind down from the mountain ridge, engulfed the orc and monster forces completely. Those who inhaled it forgot all about fighting, too busy coughing and weeping.
"Kek! Where is this smoke coming from? Chwik... Find out! Chwik! Put out the fires! What are the shamans doing?! Raise winds to scatter this smoke! No—send it toward the humans!"
While the orcs writhed in agony from the incendiary smoke, Jinwoo had already reached the front of the human encampment. His mount, Ilonan, wasn't panting nearly as badly. When he looked back, flames and smoke from the firebombs were billowing thickly into the air.
‘If we charge into the orc formation and throw the glass bottles, won't they notice?’
‘If you threw them right next to them, yes, but with the smoke already covering the orcs, they probably won't realize it right away. And from the sounds I'm hearing, they're too busy coughing to pay attention to anything else.’
Just as Ilonan said, the black smoke had completely swallowed the orc units. Even if they crossed through and hurled firebombs, it seemed unlikely anyone would notice.
‘The problem is, we'll suffer from the black smoke too.’
‘Ah. Right.’
They had planned to charge across the orc lines and throw firebombs in every direction, but without gas masks, they would be exposed to the smoke themselves. Jinwoo wondered if they could endure it, but decided it was too risky.
‘Too bad. Let's head back the way we came.’
As they retreated along their original path, they settled for throwing the burning firebombs as far as possible into the orc ranks.
"Kek, kek. Sir Administrator, this black smoke is extremely toxic. What should we do? We're barely holding the orcs back from advancing, but it's getting difficult."
At the senior centurion's report from the front line, Patrick pondered their options. The orcs had slowed down thanks to the poisonous black smoke, giving the collapsing left flank some breathing room. The other sectors were benefiting too—the orcs couldn't mount proper attacks. He wanted to seize this opportunity.
"Soak cloths in water and cover your mouths and noses! Hold the orcs at bay as best you can! Once the wind clears the black smoke, push them back and drive them into it!"
It wasn't exactly a fire attack, but it functioned like one. They had to prevent the orcs from escaping the smoke.
"The orc shamans are trying to change the wind direction! Mages, please assist so the wind doesn't blow toward us!"
At Patrick's command, the mages summoned winds to push the black smoke back toward the orcs. But this collided head-on with the shamans' winds that were trying to send the smoke toward the humans.
When winds from both sides met and pushed against each other, nature took its course. The opposing forces twisted and spiraled, wrapping around one another. Rotational force formed on its own.
As the different winds met and began to rotate, they created a vortex that swirled the black smoke with it.
"Whoa! What is that?!"
Jinwoo had been throwing the firebombs as high as possible to avoid detection. That's when he saw the black vortex forming in the sky.
"That's it! Ilonan, move to the right side of that vortex. Hold your breath for a moment!"
He had meant to communicate through his mind, but the words slipped out. Still, since he was holding the Beast Sphere in his left hand, Ilonan immediately changed direction.
They had used up nearly all the chemical firebombs containing formaldehyde, but they still had plenty of the ones filled only with gasoline. Moving to the right of the vortex, Jinwoo pulled out the remaining firebombs, lit them, and hurled them in.
The heat from the burning firebombs added to the vortex that had been moving from the colliding winds. The rising thermal currents from the flames began to alter the vortex's behavior. It transformed into a rotating updraft, growing larger as it sucked in the surrounding heat and everything else, then spewed it back out.
The orcs and monsters caught in the vortex burned within the fiery tornado, falling as flaming lumps in every direction.
"F-fire vortex! It's a Fire Storm!"
He had only meant to harass the orcs with the smoke from the firebombs and force them to retreat. Somehow, it had turned into a Fire Storm that threatened to incinerate everything around it.
"Ilonan! Run to the other side! It's dangerous to stay here!"
As they fled the area, Jinwoo grabbed more firebombs from his inventory and hurled them in both directions while making his escape. Behind them, a tremendous roar like a typhoon—‘Kwooookwaaaa—’—echoed across the battlefield.
"T-that! It's a Fire Storm! Who in the world cast a Fire Storm spell on the orcs?"
Marquis Marcel and the nobles watched the black vortex burst into flames and devour the orcs. They thought it looked as if a black dragon was spewing fire and sweeping the orcs away.
"What incredible magic."
"My lord! We must retreat! Our soldiers could get caught in that vortex too!"
Seeing the orcs fleeing from the vortex, Marquis Marcel had wanted to pursue them to the end. But if they weren't careful, the vortex might turn on them as well, so he ordered a slow withdrawal.
"Huh? Who is that man?"
After detonating the last of his firebombs near the vortex, Jinwoo had pulled back to observe the situation. Seeing both orcs and humans retreating, he felt relieved. Instead of returning to where the supply wagons had been, he headed toward the central army. As he approached, he removed his helmet to reveal he was human and began shedding the armor he had taken from the orcs piece by piece.
"That's him! The one who created the black smoke from the direction the wind was blowing!"
A noble positioned on the right side of the formation raised his voice, claiming he had seen it clearly.
"Are you certain? My, my. This is astonishing. A mage wearing orc armor and deploying poisonous fog? What country is he from? Who is he?"
Marquis Marcel had halted the losing battle and was curious about the person who had inflicted such devastating damage on the orcs.
"Huh? That's our mage Zinu from the Shulman territory!"
Baron Cortner of the rear supply unit suddenly appeared and loudly declared that the man was a mage affiliated with the Kingdom of Shuzel's army.
"Impressive. Stealing orc armor, riding a wolf, and using such powerful magic."
None of them had seen Jinwoo throwing the firebombs, so they assumed the poisonous fog and Fire Storm were the work of magic. They also believed that with such a mage on their side, the orcs wouldn't dare attack again recklessly.
"Send out scouts to track where the orcs are heading. Then reorganize the battlefield."
"Chwik! We must attack again. We changed the Lord's orders on our own, so we have to show him a victory. Chwik!"
The orc warrior Shalok was breathing heavily through his nose as he argued with the goblin Maksha, insisting they had to lead the army back into battle against the humans.
"Cough. Cough. We can't. Those of us with sensitive noses—many are lying down and can't get up. Kek."
"Krrng. We inhaled that black smoke too, and none of us are breathing well. Orcs have dull noses, but we... krrng... our noses are sensitive, so it's hard."
Unlike the aggressive orcs, the kobolds and goblins were skeptical about attacking again due to the aftereffects of breathing in the black smoke.
Shalok looked at the goblin Maksha, who had received command authority from the Orc Lord.
"Krrng. We should attack again and kill the humans, but if that black poisonous smoke comes again... krrng... the goblins and kobolds won't be able to endure it. Krrng... We suffered heavy losses from both the black smoke and that fire-spewing vortex."
At Maksha's words, Shalok recalled the fiery vortex and couldn't push the matter aggressively.
"Let's withdraw until those injured by the poisonous smoke recover. Krrng... And since things have come to this, we should inform the Lord and await his orders. We must retreat."
"The orcs have definitely retreated?"
"Yes. They've pulled back more than a day's march."
"Good. We'll withdraw as well."
Marquis Marcel decided to fall back to a position with defensible walls and reorganize. Only eight thousand men remained fit to move. It was a crushing defeat with over thirty thousand dead.
"I'll request reinforcements across the entire kingdom again."
"While we're in this state, I'm curious what happened to Marquis Holvolt who went west. Send a raven with a warning."
"Burn it all! Leave no trace of the orc bastards! Burn everything!"
Marquis Holvolt had crossed the Akran Mountains all the way to the Valley of Origin that the orcs considered sacred, but he hadn't encountered a proper battle—hadn't even seen any monsters. They searched for orc villages and goblin caves, but found only traces of life. Everyone had already left.
His adjutants believed the enemy had fled upon hearing of their approach, but Marquis Holvolt felt uneasy. In all his fights against orcs so far, this had never happened.
‘Should we have gone for the grand battle like Marquis Marcel insisted?’
"A raven has arrived!"
The marquis took the letter from the raven's leg, read it, and his face hardened.
"It seems all the orcs and monsters headed east toward Marquis Marcel. And it says Marcel has been defeated."
"Then what will you do, my lord?"
"We head east. We'll ambush the orcs while they're drunk on victory."
"My lord! We've spotted the orcs. Roughly five to seven thousand of them. They saw us too, but since we're positioned on the slope, we hold the advantage."
At the scout officer's report, Marquis Holvolt went to confirm for himself. Upon inspection, the downhill slope looked perfect for a cavalry charge. He wanted to order an immediate assault. But knowing that Marquis Marcel had been defeated, he decided to proceed with caution.
"At first light tomorrow, we charge. Fortify our defenses and gather all the rocks we can roll down!"
"Lord. After they spotted us... chwik... they didn't charge. Chwik... Do you think they noticed something?"
"It's a perfect downhill slope for a charge, yet their commander is holding back. We could have ended this easily. What a shame. Still, we've made all the preparations for a stalemate, so we'll attack at night. Get everyone ready."
"As a matter of fact, the goblins went up through the chwik... caves and saw that they're only guarding the lower side. Chooik... They're not paying any attention to the upper areas."
"Hahaha. Even after getting beaten by us like that, the humans still think we're stupid. I wonder what their faces will look like when they're attacked from above at dawn instead of below."
This was why Orchan had left most of his forces with Maksha and was waiting on the mountain ridge with only about five thousand orcs. Humans looking down from above would underestimate the orcs and either charge immediately or fail to prepare proper defenses. That was why he had chosen this location—with its caves leading from the base to the summit—as the battlefield.
The knight Lennon—or rather, the user Shinzzau—who belonged to Marquis Holvolt's forces was feeling disappointed. He had expected an exciting clash like in World of Warcraft when he heard about the war between the Horde and the Alliance. Instead, all they had done was climb mountains and set fire to what looked like orc garbage dumps.
But when he heard they had discovered an orc unit while descending east across the mountain range, his mood improved. Tomorrow, he thought, they would finally have a proper fight like the battles in WOW.
He had stayed up late reattaching barding to his horse and discussing with the mercenaries how to make their cavalry charge look as cool as possible.
"Kr... ugh... O-orcs..."
Just as he was about to fall asleep, the sound woke him. He bolted upright. As he opened the tent flap, flames erupted all across the camp.
"Chwik! Kill all the humans! Kuhahahahat!"