Conqueror (3)
Conqueror (3)
A wretched form, as if an evil god had spat blood-flecked phlegm into the dirt and molded it. Monsters of DNA that converged upon a single trait — 'ugliness' — with no common skeletal structure whatsoever. That was the creature known as the orc.
"Damnation. This wasn't in the contract!"
The commander of the garrison defending the wooden fortress ground his teeth as he watched the orcs surrounding them on all sides.
He was the new commander of the mercenary company sent after the Western Army's defeat. His mission was to hold this outpost, requisition the nearby harvest, and hand it over to the supply convoy.
-Aye! Good to see you again, Captain! Bringing us a sweet commission like this.
At first, he had basked in the praise of his mercenary subordinates.
The Western Army was defeated, and its commander, Count Edward, had been captured. Recovering King's Field was impossible for the time being.
Drawing pay while garrisoning a castle with a low chance of combat was excellent on its own, and it was also possible to quietly skim some of the provisions if one was shrewd enough.
He had never imagined he would find himself in a predicament like this.
"Hold out by any means! We may be surrounded, but we hold the castle and our provisions are plentiful!"
The garrison commander rallied his men. And not just his men, but those who were not soldiers as well.
"You there!"
"Y-yes?"
A maidservant who had been cowering in a corner clutching her head started at the commander's bellow.
"Everyone else is fighting, what are you doing?"
"My lord! I am but a lowly maid..."
"You daft bitch! Will you still be saying that after the castle falls? Orcs love the flesh of children and women best!"
At that moment, a mercenary struck by a crude bolt plummeted from the watchtower. At the sight, the maidservant screamed as well.
"I won't tell you to fight, so at least haul stones with your skirts!"
The maidservant moved her feet even as she sobbed. Because being scared was one thing, but if this place fell, she would die horribly all the same.
They were different from humans, who possessed emotions advantageous to their survival, such as chivalry, compassion, greed, or lust. Orcs had only appetite and the instinct to kill.
"Keep shooting at the gate. Just a few more bodies piled up and it'll obstruct their passage. What are you doing instead of kicking those ladders down?!"
Having been entrusted with the key strongpoints of King's Field by the Kruger family, the garrison commander was a capable man.
"Shields! We need bigger and sturdier shields! Go to the kitchens and bring every pot lid you can find!"
For the moment, the defenders were conducting the battle favorably. They held the advantage of the castle, and had several times the number of archers.
"Have hope. Even if the messenger couldn't get through, the Kruger family will notice something is amiss with numbers this large. What's more, we have ample stockpiled provisions and those bastards are monsters who travel without supply lines! Hold out and victory is certain!"
At the commander's cry, his men answered with a cheer.
"How long until relief comes?"
"You think they'll come? You idiot."
"Sir?"
The adjutant stared blankly at the garrison commander, who had spoken in a whisper.
"There's no way the nobles will break through this sea of orcs just to save the lives of a few mercenaries."
"That can't be..."
"For now, shut your mouth and fight. We hold for a few days, then try to slip away under cover of night."
Fortunately, the provisions stockpiled in the castle were so plentiful that they could hold until the following year. Monsters were creatures without logistics. Trying to seize a chance to escape was well worth the attempt.
* * *
Eugene approached the battlefield accompanied by Baron Foster, well-versed in the affairs of Britannia, Rex, knowledgeable about monsters, and a handful of elite soldiers.
'This is what a real siege must look like.'
He had a record of taking Codon Castle and the city of Kitania, but those were not the common method. The orcs dying in droves trying to breach a small castle were the true face of siege warfare in this era.
"They are not the Ulucay."
Rex spoke after swiftly scanning the faces of the besieging orcs.
"Ulucay?"
"You remember, the desert orcs we faced in Samur? The subspecies bigger than the common ones, with extreme tenacity."
Just like ordinary beasts, monsters also had diverse subspecies. And even those subspecies had slightly different characteristics depending on region and climate.
"Ah, I remember them. The ones who endured the foot-skin peeling torture until the 13th round."
The ordinary orcs captured alongside them spilled everything freely, but the desert orcs held out, roaring like bears. They were warriors so superior in physique, strength, and grit that it felt wrong to lump them together as the same orcs.
"Monsters have never attacked on such a massive scale before... It is all because of this damned war."
Baron Foster cursed King Kruger in the midlands. When order held in Britannia, it was difficult for monsters to mass in such hordes.
With humans locked in bloody struggle across the whole country, a power vacuum was inevitable. It was inevitable that monsters who had been keeping wary in the undeveloped regions would cunningly exploit the gap.
"Is it a blessing in disguise? If we strike them down, at least our cause will be beyond reproach."
"The Kruger family will be in an awkward position to protest as well."
Just then, an anomaly occurred on the battlefield. A medium-sized monster appeared, parting the throng of orcs.
Unlike the hideous orc skin, its skin was a clean pink. Its whole body rippled with fat. But its thick limbs did not look sluggish, ready to convert that weight into power.
"A bugbear. It's been a while."
"I have heard that Britannia is their place of origin. As expected, the homeland is something different."
Astonishingly, it wore armor woven from iron and bear hide. It was also peculiar that a creature not known to associate even with its own kind outside of mating season was mingling with orcs.
"Long years and the human threat have gifted them a strange alliance."
"Baron Foster. Could you elaborate on that?"
"As Your Excellency knows, orcs have the best manual dexterity among monsters. They even possess their own refining techniques and ointment recipes."
The bugbear took the jar the orcs had prepared and gulped down its contents. At this rousing display, the orcs clashed their weapons and shields and cheered.
"At some point, in exchange for crafting weapons or armor, or the liquor they brew, it began doing work akin to a mercenary."
"That is remarkable. No, perhaps it is only natural? Once a civilization is established, however crude, experience and ideas are bound to accumulate."
The bugbear let out a thunderous belch and set the jar down. It roared with madness and surging vitality, then tucked a log under its arm.
"Smash it down!"
"The tender meat inside will all be yours!"
ROOOOAR!
Being promised the women and children as spoils seemed to have served as excellent motivation. The bugbear charged at the gate.
In terms of sheer weight, a bugbear easily surpassed a troll and rivaled an ogre. The garrison commander atop the gate screamed.
"Shoot! Focus all arrows on that one! Ignore the others!"
The archers shot desperately, but to no avail. Its vitals were wrapped in armor, and the rest was blocked by thick skin and layers of fat.
Boom!
The combined blow of the log and the bugbear's weight easily exceeded any ordinary battering ram. Several hinges flew off in a single impact, and the gate itself cracked deeply.
"Bring every cart and wagon we have and block the entrance!"
The commander gave the order frantically, but it was an impossible command to begin with. The bugbear pounding on the gate with brute persistence was far faster than his men hauling heavy objects.
Boom! Boom! Cra-ack!
Unable to withstand the fourth blow, the gate broke apart.
"We must act now."
"A wise judgment, Your Excellency. If the orcs take the castle and fortify it, it will be troublesome. And if they set fire to it, all the provisions inside will go up in flames."
Unlike other monsters that moved purely on instinct, orcs possessed the concept of tactics. They made good use of dropped human weapons and equipment, as well as strongpoints.
As Eugene raised the signal flag from his saddle, the army that had been waiting in reserve began to move.
* * *
Mounted upon his massive Might, his Wendigo Cloak fluttering and Blackout raised, the sight of Eugene displayed at a single glance the history of struggle he had forged as a knight.
Every knight felt their blood boil as they drew their weapons.
"Valiant knights of the South!"
When Eugene turned back to shout at them from the vanguard, laughter broke out among them.
-Just like those weak southern bastards.
-What do you expect to scrounge up at a tournament? Try not to get cut down and come back crying.
They had been angered by such contempt more than once or twice. Yet hearing those words from their own liege lord made all that past fury melt away.
"Battle begins! Let us make King's Field all the more fertile!"
At Eugene's command, countless arrows soared upward. The sound of flesh being pierced rang out noisily as orcs toppled.
"Humans!"
Struck suddenly from the rear, the orcs turned around in panic. They could see the knights approaching, kicking up clouds of dust.
"Those with spears, come forth!"
"Kneel! Kneel, I say! Crossbowmen, stand behind them!"
Orc leaders with bone ornaments around their necks began dressing their subordinates' ranks. Crude but sufficient to threaten horses, spears bristled forward like a hedgehog.
Fwish-fwish-fwish!
But then another volley of countless arrows flew over the knights' heads.
"Aagh!"
"Gwaaagh!"
The orcs who had leveled their spears to check the cavalry charge fell helplessly before the arcing fire.
All the orcs carrying crossbows were already positioned in front of the castle walls. It was no easy task to alert them to the ambush and summon them to the rear.
By the time the repeated volleys collapsed the orc spearmen, the knights launched their charge.
"In the name of the Shade Garden!"
"For the South!"
Following Eugene, the knights became a tide of steel and crashed into the orcs.
The mounted javelins thrown just before impact swept away the few remaining orc spearmen. After that, the furious assault of knights drawing swords and axes spilled foul flesh and blood everywhere.
A mounted knight was a battering ram of hundreds of kilograms, each one. Ramming, trampling, and the slashing from the saddle — it was a violence that could not even be called a battle.
The Hammer Brotherhood followed closely behind the knights.
CRACK!
A Paulhammer burst across an orc's forehead. Its skull caved in, and the impact ejected the eyeballs, severing the optic nerves.
"Offer your head willingly and I'll send you off in one blow without pain!"
"This feeling is why I can never give up the hammer!"
The dwarf warriors tore wider the cracks made by the knights. Where the Hammer Brotherhood pushed in, there were no sounds of flesh being rent or pierced.
CRUNCH!
CRACK!
Only the gleeful notes of shattering bone — skulls, shins, knees, wrists — rang out ecstatically.
"Shhheeeek..."
Among them, there were orcs whose shattered ribs had pierced their lungs, making a painful whistling sound.
Where Eugene rampaged, orc upper bodies and limbs rolled about. He cut them into chunks horizontally and vertically, shield or no shield, and they all screamed in terror.
BOOM!
Sometimes Might charged into a clustered orc shield wall and sent several of them flying.
"Grrruuu..."
During the chaotic battle, some orcs who hadn't breathed their last crawled along the ground. Some with both legs severed, others with only their upper body remaining, trailing their entrails.
Mounted on a high-performance warhorse, Eugene didn't need to pay attention to each of them.
CRUNCH!
Because when a hoof bigger than an orc's head stepped on them, they quieted down.
At about that time, the bugbear that had been ravaging the inside of the fortress burst out.
"That one! Kill that monster!"
When the orc leader pointed at Eugene and shouted, the bugbear immediately charged.
'Did the orcs' liquor please him that much?'
The swift cooperation between two species that considered each other prey. It was a marvel how they had negotiated.
"Your Excellency!"
"We will protect you!"
Eugene held Blackout sideways and swung it wide at the knights who were urgently trying to rush over.
Like a giant swinging a fan, a tremendous wind arose, bringing calm to the approaching knights.
"It's fine, stand back. When fighting a thing like that, it's hard to watch your back."
He meant that they shouldn't be in range and get cut by a blind axe blade.
While the bugbear closed the distance in an instant, Might gradually lowered its stance. Immense power gathered in its mighty thighs.
"Kiiill!"
As if responding to the orcs' war cry, the bugbear's club produced a tremendous crashing sound.
But Eugene was already gone. The club struck only the clod of earth kicked up when Might pushed off the ground.
Eugene swung his axe horizontally across the exposed bugbear's torso.
SLASH!
The flabby belly split wide open, and bright yellow fat dripped down in streams. The bugbear let out a shriek filled with pain.
'Was it shallow?'
About three seconds in, the pouring yellow fat began to mix with red blood, and around six seconds, there was more blood.
'No, it wasn't.'
Might cleverly began circling the bugbear 360 degrees.
ROOOOAR!
The bugbear held its belly with one hand and spun around, trying not to expose its back. But the more it did, the wider the wound on its abdomen stretched.
"Grrr!"
An orc that approached, claiming to support the bugbear, was rammed by Might.
BAM!
After it was thrown nearly 20 meters, whether it was a proper hit or not, no orc dared to intervene after that.
"Hoo-uk! Hoo-uk!"
The exhausted bugbear tripped and fell. Before it could even get up, the massive axe blade cleaved its face diagonally.
[Kiyaaaaa-!]
The bugbear's soul was bitten and torn by the Hell Spirit dwelling in the axe blade, screaming. Eugene could clearly see that sight.
Unlike the massive lump of flesh, the soul inside was emaciated. Only its abdomen bulged out like a tadpole, reminiscent of hell's maw.
"They're retreating!"
The terrified orcs wailed and began scattering in all directions, fleeing.
"Those bastards are pissing themselves!"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
They wore shoddy, short kilt-like garments. Thanks to that, the disgusting yellow liquid streaming down in straight lines was glaringly visible.
Knights and mounted archers chased them down, turning them into corpses one by one. They couldn't catch them all because there were so many, but it was certain they had dealt a massive blow.
"Surrender! We surrender!"
The mercenaries defending the wooden fortress dropped their weapons and threw both hands into the air. Rescue by an army appearing from an utterly unexpected direction left them all looking stunned.
"Wow, they sure are quick on the uptake."
Rex was impressed that they had lowered the Kruger family's flag on their own without being told.
The salesmanship they'd used to secure a good assignment from the Kruger family was manifesting in this form.
* * *
About two hundred mercenaries were inside the surrendered wooden fortress. Despite the overwhelming numerical disparity, they had minimized their casualties because they had been fighting a defensive battle.
But everyone was in a state of mental exhaustion. They stared blankly at the remains of mercenaries who had been turned into ground meat by the bugbear that had broken into the fortress.
"Who is the commander?"
"Th-that's me! Sir!"
The garrison captain quickly came to his senses at Eugene's question.
"You are now speaking with the guardian of the South. Show respect."
When Haind, drenched in blood, warned him with killing intent, his full reason finally returned.
"I'm sorry, Your Excellency!"
"I don't see any nobles within the fortress. Are other outposts also managed only by mercenaries like you?"
"Yes. The western army collapsed thoroughly in the last battle. The noble lords seemed to think we alone would be enough, and they focused their attention on the eastern front."
The garrison captain desperately brought out things he had picked up and peeked at while being dispatched here.
"No matter how defeated he was, a great lord is still a great lord, and they planned to hold him off with just mercenaries?"
"Well, the western army had to abandon their food stores when they retreated rapidly."
The western lords who had been bought off by the Kruger family had no intention of attacking their own allies. They only thought of straddling both sides as much as possible to preserve themselves.
-If we get pincered now, it's over!
But the western army, unaware of such shallow intentions, fled the battlefield without looking back when even Count Edward was captured.
"The west has always lacked food. Now, even if they raise the army again, I wonder if they can feed them for even two weeks."
"Even if they come to retake it, if we lock the gates and hold out, they'll disintegrate on their own."
At Baron Foster's words, Eugene nodded. The current western army did not have the capacity to capture a fortress defended by hundreds of well-fed soldiers.
"Shall we execute them?"
Haind asked. To him, mercenary prisoners were only slightly better than surrendered bandits.
"I, Bobby, am a lowly fellow, but I never forget a kindness. Please, just spare my life. If you only give me any task, I will work with all my dedication."
The mercenary captain, incongruously bearing a cute name, clasped his hands and pleaded.
"We have plenty of food, so there's no need to kill them. If needed, we can give them as spoils to the lords accompanying the army."
"Then at least let us have them clean up the orcs outside."
"That's a good idea."
Haind, having saluted, led the disarmed mercenary prisoners out.
Looting usable weapons or armor from orc corpses, unlike human corpses, was mostly a bust. Because many items were too old or broken, it was hard to find quality goods. It was perfect work for slaves.
* * *
"There is another outpost over there."
Bobby cooperated with full enthusiasm.
-It would also be good to hand them over as a gift to the Edward family. King's Field is a meaningful domain to them. Since they are the ones who plundered such a place, they would be a perfect outlet for their anger.
-Then they would die, wouldn't they? It would be lucky if they were killed quickly.
-Isn't that what living as a mercenary is?
Because he had heard the conversation between Eugene and his vassals.
"The remaining outposts are less than half our size. Since I know some of them personally, I will take the lead and persuade them."
Even if you roll in a field of dog shit, life is still good. Bobby and his men hoped that even if they were sold as slaves, they would be sold to the south.
Thus, Eugene's army swept through King's Field as if on a tour. No monsters or mercenaries dared to challenge an army of this scale.
"Don't shoot! We will surrender!"
Several outposts that were still intact immediately raised the white flag. If they had enough courage to fight an army more than a hundred times their size, they wouldn't be doing mercenary work.
They also found a palisade fort that had burned to ashes.
"The bone fragments are covered in lacerations."
"It looks like this place also fell to orcs."
In the space dozens of meters outside the fort's entrance, cleanly stripped bone fragments were lined up.
It seemed the orcs had enthusiastically welcomed the people who fled the intense heat and toxic gas.
"It seems a separate group of monsters from the ones we faced."
Rex examined the bugbear footprints imprinted on the ground. They were so large that they were clearly distinct from the individual Eugene had felled.
"Good heavens."
"Urp."
Where the footprints led, a cartload of excrement was piled up. A protruding hand could be seen, as if begging for salvation from hell. Cleanly digested, leaving only bones.
"It's not just one."
Where flies were feasting, there were several piles of dung.
At that sight, the knights' fighting spirit blazed all the more. Hungry for achievements, they all had fiery eyes, wanting to subjugate monsters and catch the great lord's attention.
The western nobles also reacted to the sight of the great army roaming King's Field and carrying out purification work.
An army of about 1,000 approached from the outskirts. At its head was a young man clearly showing signs of nervousness.
"Philip Edward. He is the eldest son of the captured Count Edward."
Baron Foster whispered to Eugene.
"It seems they took quite a blow in the last battle."
"Yes, Your Excellency. The troop losses are one thing, but the treachery has caused great discord among the lords, making it difficult to muster."
The western army, mixed with many conscripts, looked wretched with hunger and low morale.
Eugene likewise approached Philip, who came carrying a white flag with only a few guards.
"I greet the renowned master of the South."
Philip asked, struggling to steady his trembling voice.
"This land was directly granted by the glorious Half-Elf family of the 1st Era. I thank you with sincerity for your courage and honor in driving out the vile invaders from the land our ancestors have ruled for generations."
It was not a pure expression of gratitude. It was closer to a plea, using Varda's bloodline as a shield, 'Please say you didn't come here to swallow us up!'
Philip swallowed repeatedly, wrestling with diplomatic rhetoric.
"I have no intention of taking your land, so relax."
Eugene pointed to the area where they had fought the bloody battle with the orcs.
"It's a hard time, but take heart. That area will have bountiful harvests for decades to come."
"What? *Cough! Cough!*"
At Eugene's blunt reply, Philip choked on his own swallowed saliva.
End
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