Chapter 164
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: Race Rank 10: Orcs
Race ranking tenth.
Orcs.
Their village, marked by their innate massive builds and pig-like heads.
An utterly bizarre guest had arrived there.
It was a group of five goblins.
Even to the orcs' eyes, four of them exuded an ominous aura.
Among them, the one the orcs feared most was the white-haired goblin.
He was a calamity.
The orc village had been peaceful, as always.
The goblin who suddenly appeared was immediately treated as prey by the orcs.
Just as the orcs excitedly grabbed their clubs, eager for some goblin meat delivered right to their doorstep...
One orc shot up into the sky.
It was the first time anyone had seen an orc flying, so everyone stared in a daze.
They soon realized it was the goblins' doing.
After that, orcs flew into the sky one after another.
No matter how much they relied on their boasted heavy builds and brute strength...
A single gesture from the goblin left them utterly helpless.
Orc society was one built on strength.
Those who had been overpowered had no will left to resist.
"Soon, I'll return here with more goblins."
The goblin issued orders to the terrified orcs.
"Until then, select the four strongest orcs from the arena and the surrounding area. One of them must be an orc shaman."
The orcs wondered if he planned to sacrifice them to the mountains.
But none among them dared defy his words.
Even the village's pride, the orc great warrior, had been brutally crushed by his hand.
The moment they were defeated in strength, Havel's words became law.
The orcs hurriedly selected their numbers before Havel's return.
Being simple-minded and dull-witted...
They soon forgot their fear of him.
And began competing to pick the strongest, as he had commanded.
Because each claimed to be the strongest.
In the end, the four orcs they chose...
The undisputed strongest, the orc great warrior.
The giant orc, with the largest build among them.
The high orc, treated as an evolved form of orc.
And finally, the orc great shaman.
Thus, the four orcs gathered in the village.
"Is that the one?"
The high orc and orc great shaman happened to glance toward Havel.
They had left the village upon hearing rumors of a goblin raid and had only just returned.
Having never seen Havel before, they eyed him with curiosity.
Orc society was ruled by extreme power.
They were also the group with the strongest yearning for the strong.
"Don't look at him. You'll both end up dead."
At that moment, the orc great warrior warned them.
Having felt Havel's power firsthand, he saw him as an untouchable existence.
"Hoo."
"That serious, huh?"
The orc great warrior, long a symbol of valor, was groaning like that.
The high orc and orc great shaman showed surprised reactions.
At the same time, their interest piqued even more.
Just how strong was the goblin who had defeated the orc great warrior?
"Orcs, divide into teams of two on your side."
Right on cue, Havel spoke up.
Hearing that, the high orc couldn't hold back his curiosity and raised his hand.
"Can I ask one question?"
"Go ahead."
Havel graciously allowed it.
The high orc then grinned at the other goblins.
"If we take down all these guys, will you give me a shot at you?"
"Bat Dance!"
At the high orc's words, the great warrior bellowed an orc-style name in rebuke.
But the high orc ignored him and stared straight at Havel.
Reading the yearning in his eyes, Havel turned to his goblins.
Then he smiled cleanly.
"Sure. If you win, I'll grant you that much."
"As expected!"
The high orc snorted excitedly.
"Heh heh, this'll be fun."
The orc great shaman felt the same.
Their minds had already dismissed the four goblins.
That lit a fierce competitiveness in the eyes of the four goblins.
They had noticed they were being looked down on.
The orcs feared Havel.
But they felt no fear toward those who followed him.
"Lord Havel, let us fight now."
Mob showed his battle intent with angry eyes.
The fire had ignited properly from the start.
Havel decided to fan the flames on the orcs' side as well.
"Orcs, if your side wins, I'll grant whatever one wish you desire."
The orc great warrior's eyes gleamed.
With power like that, he could truly make anything happen.
"You won't go back on your word?"
"Of course not."
When the orc great warrior asked for confirmation, Havel instilled certainty.
"I want the extermination of our orcs' enemies, the vampire race."
Among the lower races, orcs had the most abundant blood.
Thus, they had been endlessly hunted by the race ranked seventh, the vampires.
To orcs, vampires were objects of hatred.
Especially since, excluding shamans, orcs could only use physical attacks.
Vampires were natural predators.
"If that's your wish, I'll grant it upon your victory."
Havel promised to fulfill it if he won.
Aura surged wildly from the orc great warrior's body.
"Orcs!"
He then roared toward the front.
All the orcs gathered in the village turned their gazes to the great warrior.
Before those orcs...
The great warrior thrust out his chest and bellowed.
"Today, we will surely triumph!"
"U, u, u, u, u!"
To crush their long-standing foes, the vampires.
The orc great warrior declared he would stake everything on victory.
That single shout skyrocketed the orcs' morale.
The orcs pounded their chests and bellies with their fists.
It was a battle cry that heated the air to a boil.
"Orc great shaman, you're with me."
"Kuhum, got it."
The great shaman gladly followed the warrior's orders.
Naturally, that paired the high orc and giant orc together.
"Mob, Joa, you two take the great shaman and great warrior. Aren, Bibl, you're on the high orc and giant orc."
Meanwhile, the goblins finished forming teams.
"The battlefield."
"Follow me."
To Havel's question, the orc great warrior turned and started walking.
The orcs, eager to witness a legendary battle with their own eyes...
Rumbled after the great warrior in a mass.
Soon, they arrived at a reed field.
Reeds swaying in the blowing wind.
The orcs suddenly stopped following the great warrior.
Knowing it was their battlefield, they stopped to avoid interfering.
With the orc great warrior in the lead, the three orcs followed.
And soon, they halted at the center of the reed field.
"Up to where the reeds end. This entire area is the battlefield we've chosen."
Havel glanced at the reed field.
Reeds tall enough to barely show a goblin's head.
For goblins, the reeds were obstacles that made movement difficult.
But for orcs, they were hard to spot through goblin eyes as well.
A battle where both sides bore their weaknesses.
Since he had yielded battlefield choice to the orcs...
Havel raised no objections.
"We'll have the high orc and giant orc go first."
At that moment, the giant orc stomped forward with a thud.
The giant orc had a body as massive as an ogre.
To goblins, he was no different from a disaster.
"Aren, Bibl, your turn."
But they had the red goblin, Aren, on their side.
He looked like a goblin but was orc-sized.
As he stepped forward, the orcs murmured.
It was the first time even they had seen a goblin that big.
"Pretty big for a goblin."
And beside the giant orc, the high orc stepped out.
As an evolved orc, he had a more refined appearance than others.
Minus the pug nose, he could pass for handsome.
Moreover, he wore steel plate mail, sans helmet.
He had sought out humans for knight training.
And even commissioned reinforced plate armor.
A peculiar orc.
He evaluated himself thus.
High orc.
An evolved form among orcs, boasting superior intellect and strength.
That was the high orc.
The black goblin Bibl, facing the high orc, let his sword hang low.
Unlike the knight-like high orc, Bibl resembled a ronin.
"The fight continues until the opponent dies or is incapacitated."
As the four faced off, Havel briefly explained the rules.
A battle where killing was allowed.
From that point, how brutal it would get was obvious without seeing.
Havel turned to the orc great warrior.
He nodded, cleared his throat, and lifted his head.
"Shiiiiiiiiiirrrrk!"
Soon, the orc great warrior's roar echoed across the battlefield.
As the resounding roar continued...
The first to move was Bibl.
The instant Bibl lowered his stance, he vanished into the reeds.
Exploiting the goblin trait of being lone operators, he hid his form immediately.
Bibl, gone in an instant, was invisible to the naked eye.
The reeds swayed here and there with the blowing wind.
Bibl had ridden that wind, charging through the reeds unseen.
Bibl's specialty was his swift legs.
Tracking him in this reed field was impossible.
"Haha, time to make a big scene!"
Soon after, Aren stretched his legs and charged.
With his orc-like bulk, he strode through the reeds powerfully.
"Giant."
Seeing the two goblins move, the high orc drew his sword.
At his command, the giant suddenly slammed his massive fists into the ground beneath the reeds.
"Flip it."
The moment the high orc issued the order...
Crack, boooooom!
The giant lifted the reed field earth outright.
The upheaved soil from the reeds rose high enough to block the sun momentarily.
Before it...
Aren, caught in the debris, soared into the sky in an instant.
And Bibl was the same.
No matter how fast his legs, with the field flipped on such a scale...
Bibl was airborne too.
They were both about to crash down.
"Aren!"
The moment Bibl shouted toward Aren...
Aren extended his arm and grabbed Bibl.
Then, with full power, Aren hurled Bibl.
Whoosh!
Bursting through the debris toward Aren, the giant orc's fist came crashing down.
Thud!
With a sound that reverberated through the entire reed field, Aren slammed into the ground.
The orcs, seeing it, were convinced Aren was dead.
Meanwhile, thanks to Aren, Bibl was descending rapidly.
At that moment, before his landing spot...
The high orc emerged through the soil.
With his sword drawn, he was cloaked in fierce crimson aura.
Bibl hurriedly adjusted his stance, but he was still airborne.
No way to dodge; collision inevitable.
The high orc, sword fully charged, smirked.
"I'll claim the first point."
The high orc's sword sliced through the air toward Bibl.
True to his knight training...
The cleanly thrust sword struck Bibl precisely.
Clang-tang!
Bibl tumbled across the ground for a long distance.
His body surely shredded to rags.
"Woooooh!"
The orcs cheered as one once more.
A clean first victory for the giant orc and high orc.
However, the goblins, including Havel, remained silently quiet.
The orcs thought they had accepted defeat.
But soon, a certain sound rang out.
Crack!
The sound of the tables turning.