Chapter 165
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 166
Chapter Title: High Orc and Giant Orc. Bibl and Aren's Battle
High Orc and Giant Orc.
And the battle between Bibl and Aren.
The two orcs had launched a ferocious assault right from the start, utterly convinced of their victory.
The Giant Orc roughly brushed the dirt off his body.
The High Orc, certain of triumph, was sheathing his sword.
Then.
Crack!
A splitting sound echoed across the entire reed field, as if something had shattered.
The orcs' gazes snapped toward the source.
The High Orc's chest.
The noise had clearly begun there.
The High Orc belatedly realized it and slowly looked down.
He discovered a crack in his plate mail.
It was unmistakably a sword slash.
As the High Orc's eyes wavered.
Crack-crack-crack!
His plate mail finally shattered completely.
Thud!
The armor fell apart and dropped to the ground.
The High Orc stared at the plate mail in a daze.
Steel reinforced with his own aura.
For it to break so easily?
He could scarcely believe the sight before his very eyes.
"Whew, my hand's numb."
In that moment, a black goblin rose to his feet in the distance.
Bibl, the goblin they thought was surely dead.
A scabbard was gripped in one hand.
A sword in the other.
Not even the High Orc had seen exactly when he'd drawn it.
Moreover, the High Orc noticed something strange.
'No wounds?'
There wasn't a mark anywhere on his body.
The High Orc had struck with full power.
Yet no injury?
Crack!
Then Bibl's scabbard began to crack.
It didn't shatter, but it was in no condition to be used anymore.
Seeing this, the High Orc belatedly realized.
Bibl had blocked his attack with nothing but a scabbard.
"Wha?"
The High Orc let out an incredulous grunt.
His face flushed red then drained to pale in fury.
The fact that a mere goblin had parried his sword with a scabbard enraged him.
Boom!
Suddenly, the ground erupted once more.
All eyes turned in shock toward it.
There stood Aren.
"Uwooo, that hurt!"
He'd been smashed straight into the ground by the Giant Orc's fist.
A blow that would have pulverized any orc's body.
Yet Aren rose unscathed.
There were a few minor scrapes, but even those were healing rapidly thanks to his natural regeneration.
"Aren, if you're fine, get ready. The opponents are strong."
Meanwhile, Bibl tossed aside his scabbard, his eyes sharp.
He'd taken a hit after launching the first strike.
Now he was fully ignited.
"Haha, I'm ready anytime!"
Aren pounded his chest and puffed up his body.
He looked brimming with fighting spirit to anyone watching.
Watching them, the High Orc felt an ominous premonition.
Something bad was creeping in.
It was the innate combat instinct of orcs.
But now wasn't the time to rely on instincts.
He wanted to win this fight and then face off against that goblin named Havel.
"Giant!"
So the High Orc launched another assault.
The Giant Orc charged at Aren on command.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
True to his massive frame, he trampled the flattened reeds anew as he ran.
"Aren, don't get hit this time."
Bibl angled his sword diagonally at his side, eyeing the Giant Orc.
"Of course!"
Aren immediately crouched low.
Was he trying to hide in the reeds?
But with his huge build, that was impossible.
Then.
Aren's body began to grow even larger.
"Buik?"
The Giant Orc faltered mid-stride at the sight.
Aren was expanding to a size that even disconcerted the Giant Orc.
Once he'd grown enough, Aren uncurled.
Now he matched the Giant Orc's eye level.
Gigantification.
The secret art Aren had mastered.
His red muscles gleamed under the sunlight.
An ogre-sized goblin.
A horrific form that would make onlookers see a calamity.
"Haha! Let's keep going!"
As the Giant Orc hesitated.
Aren struck first.
He swung his massive fist.
Boom!
The startled Giant Orc took the hit.
"Bu iiiik!"
His body was shoved back hard in an instant. Enraged, the Giant Orc roared.
Then he charged at Aren without restraint.
Soon, their brawl erupted.
With their enormous sizes, they traded blows in a chaotic melee.
And beneath that spectacle.
Bibl and the High Orc crossed paths, dodging the frenzy.
Clang!
The clash of blades rang fiercely through the reed field.
The High Orc's sword traced a impeccably clean arc.
As if to prove his knightly training wasn't for show.
With swift strikes, the High Orc pressed Bibl.
In response, Bibl was parrying more passively than expected.
Nothing like that devastating blow from earlier.
His sword moved strangely slowly.
'His sword feels oddly slow.'
Even as the High Orc dominated.
Bibl's sluggish blade grated on him immensely.
Bibl's sword couldn't keep up with his swift strikes.
Why did it bother him so much?
Then it hit him.
'Wait, he's blocking all my strikes with that slow sword?'
The High Orc realized why it irked him.
Bibl's sword was slow, yes.
But it hadn't let a single strike through.
Before he knew it, the High Orc felt his swinging space shrinking.
A suffocating pressure built.
Bibl's sword was gradually dominating his space.
Every swing of the High Orc's blade was blocked.
It even felt like his sword was being drawn into Bibl's.
Disconcertment spread across the High Orc's face.
"Th-this!"
He tried to pull back to shake off Bibl's sword.
But Bibl gave him no room to retreat.
The offense had reversed.
Now the High Orc was desperately parrying.
Dull sword.
That was Bibl's style.
A slow blade that stole the opponent's space and seized control.
Combined with Bibl's superior reflexes and sense of rhythm, it birthed this paradoxically potent slow sword.
Bibl's swordsmanship was Havel's creation.
Tailored to Bibl's traits and talents.
The High Orc fell powerless before it.
Slash!
Before long, Bibl's sword sliced the High Orc's side.
The result of failing to handle it.
Wounds began accumulating on the High Orc's body.
He envisioned his defeat playing out.
'No!'
An orc couldn't lose to a goblin.
Out of orcish pride, the High Orc decided in an instant.
As he frantically blocked, his sword bent inward.
Bibl's blade thrust straight for his chest.
If he didn't block, his chest would be split.
But the High Orc's sword aimed elsewhere: Bibl's neck.
He chose to trade flesh for bone.
His chest might split, but he'd take Bibl's head.
Too late, he realized it was a blunder.
Across their blades, Bibl's and the High Orc's eyes met.
Bibl's previously serene eyes flashed open wide.
'He baited this.'
The High Orc realized Bibl had anticipated it.
Aura and calamity unlike before surged into Bibl's blade.
As the blade turned pitch black.
It shot forward at an otherworldly speed beyond perception.
Goblin Swordsmanship: Bibl Style
Black Goblin
The extended blade cleaved the High Orc's exposed chest in two.
Before the High Orc's eyes.
Bibl's figure had vanished.
His wayward sword slashed empty air.
Drip— splatter—
At the same time, blood poured from his chest, and he collapsed.
The High Orc's defeat.
Bibl caught his breath and looked up from the fallen High Orc.
Before him.
The brawl between the Giant Orc and Aren unfolded.
The Giant Orc, blessed with innate build, stamina, and muscle.
His wits might lag behind average orcs.
But he'd always overwhelmed them with his physique alone.
Now he faced a goblin matching his size.
It instilled fear in the Giant Orc.
He'd always fought smaller foes.
He didn't know how to handle someone his equal—or larger.
Aren's fist slammed into him again.
A few teeth shattered. The Giant Orc roared louder.
He unleashed wild punches desperately at Aren.
But Aren deflected them effortlessly.
"You don't know how to use your own body!"
The Giant Orc had only ever crushed the weak.
His size made it easy.
Aren, however, constantly sought battles with the strong, craving victory.
The outcome was decided from the start.
Before the Giant Orc's outstretched arm.
Aren stepped forward, extending both hands.
His arms coiled around the Giant Orc's like serpents in an instant.
Then he wrapped further to the shoulder.
"This is what a true powerhouse does!"
With a mighty roar, he slammed the Giant Orc down.
"Bu iik!?"
The Giant Orc's body flew into the air.
Then crashed down in a heap.
Kabooooom!
His massive frame sent dirt exploding upward again.
Beneath the debris.
The Giant Orc's eyes had rolled back.
He'd never learned to break a fall in his life.
He took the full impact, and his mind blanked out cleanly from that one blow.
A technique only possible against an equal build like Aren.
The watching orcs were dumbfounded.
High Orc and Giant Orc.
A complete defeat for both.