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Chapter 122: Round Two (2)

His greatsword and the double-headed axe clashed. The tide of the battle constantly shifted as their struggles continued. Orcs behind them shouted battle cries and hurled rocks up to the sky, and the arrows of dark elves rained down on them.

The orcs, who had grown more vicious with the sorcerers’ spells, climbed up the city walls and charged. Despite the brutal death match around them, Crockta and Calmahart’s eyes didn’t waver because letting one’s guard down meant immediate death. The two looked only at each other.

The axe and greatsword danced again. As the weapons clashed, blood and sparks flew in the air.

“You can’t beat me,” said Calmahart.

Without a word, Crockta twirled his greatsword and slashed his opponent’s chest, causing blood to drip down Calmahart’s broad chest. He wiped the blood with his fingers.

“Can you bet everything you have to become stronger?” smirked Calmahart. “That’s what I did.”

His wound was already gone. “You! You can’t beat me!” cried out Calmahart.

Crockta concentrated and entered the realm of the Pinnacle. The world slowed down, but he sped up. It was a ceaselessly static world where the arrows flying in the sky looked as if they were no longer moving. Within it, Crockta swung his Ogre Slayer.

But Calmahart had also entered that world. In their own world frozen in time, they accelerated their pace and hit, dodged, blocked and swung. The axe and the greatsword scattered red sparks in the air like fireworks, but the sparks were frozen mid-air.

The first one to hit the ground amid the frenzy was Crockta. “Ugh!”

Calmahart found an opening in Crockta’s defense and kicked him in the stomach. Crockta rolled on top of the city walls. He couldn’t breathe. He managed to get up by propping himself up on his greatsword, but his legs trembled.

With the tide turning in his favor, Calmahart charged as he roared. But instead of retreating, Crockta ran into the chieftain’s arms and rammed against him and knocked him to the ground. Crockta also staggered from the shock. They exchanged looks. Crockta raised his greatsword again. Right then, the trebuchet hurled another rock at the center of the wall, causing it to shake. The orcs shouted as the ground began to slowly tilt.

“...!” The ground Crockta and Calmahart were standing on began to crumble down. Everything in Crockta\'s field of vision turned upside down as he was engulfed in the collapsing turmoil. The sky and the ground flipped over. A cloud of dust hindered his vision.

When he came to his senses and raised his head to look, he saw the chieftain who had gotten up and chiefdom orcs; the look in their eyes announced they were ready to charge.

Calmahart smirked. “Spinora is done for.”

This time, even Crockta couldn’t say anything. The city walls collapsed, and the path opened up for orcs. The swarm of orcs were waiting for Calmahart’s command to take action. Spinora would drown in blood once these orcs went past the city walls.

Crockta looked around. The other side of the city wall was already being invaded by orcs. Headless dark elves began to drop below the city wall. They were resisting desperately, but Spinora would soon be completely breached.

But he couldn’t let them go easily.

He had to buy as much time as possible. Could he do it?

Crockta raised his greatsword. He could barely take on Calmahart, let alone the whole orc army that was drooling in front of him. They would soon spread out in Spinora like a swarm of ants.

Suddenly, he heard a voice. “Don’t shoulder the burden by yourself.”

“...!” Crockta turned around at the voice.

He saw a familiar face. It was Orcheim’s leader, Gorit, and its warriors. They were lined up behind Crockta. Compared to the large orc army in front of him, it was a pitifully small number.

“The dark elves didn’t do such a good job building their fortress,” grinned Gorit. Crockta couldn’t help but smile back.

Calmahart shouted. “We will kill all of them and advance to Spinora! Charge!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” The orcs charged.

Crockta and Orcheim’s warriors raised their weapons. “Bul’taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!” they cried out at the same time.

The orcs charged at each other. The two battle lines clashed and created a shockwave. Crockta slashed down all of the trivial orc soldiers and charged toward Calmahart. Calmahart also swung his double-headed axe at Crockta. “Let’s see this through to the end!”

Their weapons clashed.

***

Shireuga gritted his teeth and clung to the ladder. He could see the chieftain and Crockta fighting against each other on the west wall. Sparks flew each time they swung their weapons. All of the orcs on the ground cheered for the chieftain’s victory and shouted for Crockta’s defeat as they observed the scene. Calmahart and Crockta endlessly exchanged strikes.

Shireuga tried his best to look away. He didn’t have time to be distracted by them. His own fight was right in front of him.

An orc struggling above him fell. The ladder shook. Shireuga shut his eyes and clung to the ladder, enduring the shockwave. The orcs who had first climbed the ladder fell and bumped against his back and shoulders. Shireuga held on and gritted his teeth. Now Shireuga was hanging on from the edge of the ladder.

Shireuga cried out, “Victory for the chiefdom!”

Then, he climbed up the ladder like a madman.

The Great Warriors followed his lead, climbing up the ladder right behind him. Shireuga carried the momentum of the Great Warriors on his back as he grabbed the railing of the wall.

He suddenly met eyes with the dark elf about to swing his sword at him. Shireuga swung his axe and split the dark elf’s head in half.

“Ahhhhhh!” Blood gushed out. He felt exhilarated. The orcs clinging onto the ladder became excited at the sight of blood. Shireuga climbed to the top of the wall in no time.

The dark elves who had unwittingly permitted the orcs’ entry were retreating with startled faces. They wore expressions of weakness on their faces. A rock flew toward them and shook the walls again. His orc brothers behind him were stepping on their comrades’ corpses and being struck by arrows as they advanced. They didn’t have any more time to waste.

Shireuga swung his axe and opened the way. The orcs climbed up the ladder and swarmed over the walls. A melee broke out. Atop the city walls, a fierce exchange of blows and weapons took place. Rivers of blood flowed between them. The dark elves couldn’t stop the orcs.

Shireuga was about to swing his axe at the hesitant dark elves when his instincts sensed a threat, and he immediately retreated.

Two trajectories swayed in front of his eyes like waves. He had seen swords like these before. It was Driden, the dark elf who used dual swords. He was looking at Shireuga.

“Hahaha...” Shireuga laughed. ‘That dark elf is strong.’

But he had reached his current position by experiencing countless battles and being on the brink of death numerous times.

“I will take you on for real this time.” Shireuga’s body was already drenched in the madness of the battlefield. He no longer felt fear from the adrenaline rush in his head. He felt ecstatic from the thrill of swinging his axe between the boundary of death and life in a battlefield filled with death and dying. The orcs continued to swarm on top of the city wall.

Driden looked nervous. Shireuga went in for that opening and swung his axe. Driden’s dual swords didn’t miss a beat and blocked the attack, but Shireuga didn’t waver and pressed on with his brutish orc strength. Time was on his side. Driden couldn’t help but be nervous because he had to quickly rescue the dark elves.

Shireuga looked around after he blocked off Driden’s attack. The entire frontline was at a standstill due to everyone engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Then the first change occurred where chieftain Calmahart was standing.

The city walls crumbled down from the accumulated damage of the relentless bombardments of siege warfare and from Calmahart and Crockta’s fierce battle. Dozens of orcs who had been waiting their turn to climb up the ladder fell to their deaths.

After the dust settled, Crockta and Calmahart stood on top of the ruins. Then, the orcs began to charge. The orcs swarmed in like ants past the collapsed city wall. Shireuga erupted in laughter as he plunged his axe at Driden. “Hahahahahah! Are you watching?”

Driden blocked the attack by crossing his swords. Shireuga thrusted his axe downward at Driden again. “The sight of Spinora being destroyed!”

With the city walls in ruins, only one thing awaited them—massacre on a grand scale!

Now orcs were occupying other areas of the city walls. The dark elves were unable to overcome the orcs’ superiority, not in numbers, nor in combat experience. Moreover, the weapons devised by the sorcerer were effective against the dark elves. Everything would soon collapse as the rupture from the city wall spread outward.

But the battle lines were strangely at a standstill. Shireuga looked again. Right then, Driden’s dual swords moved rapidly and tried to slash Shireuga. Shireuga dropped his axe because of a brief lapse of concentration. “Ugh!” Driden’s blades swiveled and swooped toward his throat. Shireuga fell, but the Great Warriors who had been occupying the city walls appeared and repelled Driden’s attack.

“Are you okay?” asked a Great Warrior.

“I’m okay.”

Shireuga, who had just been at death’s door, took a deep breath. Now, several Great Warriors were confronting Driden. Shireuga retreated. He wasn’t proud of it, but this was war. Shireuga picked up the axe he had dropped and looked in the direction of the collapsed city wall where Calmahart and Crockta were standing. “...!”

Suddenly, the exhilaration of battle instantly subsided. The elation he had felt from invading the city wall and slaughtering enemies cooled down. The will to fight that had swept through him began to seep out as if he had been released from a spell.

He didn’t see what he had anticipated. The massive orc army should have already advanced to the heart of Spinora. That was a given, and yet, the one who was in front of the collapsed city wall wasn’t the orc army but Crockta with his greatsword.

He was the new city wall with Orcheim’s warriors supporting his back. At the center of the scene with orcs facing each other were Calmahahart and Crockta. Their formations collided head-on; their shouts intermingled.

“Victory for the chiefdom!”

“Bul’taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!”

The chiefdom greatly outnumbered them, but Crockta and Orcheim’s warriors desperately blocked their enemies’ attacks. The chiefdom’s army surging forward like a wave were blocked by their precarious defense line.

They were the chiefdom. They always had to be stronger than their enemy, but they were the ones who were actually pushing forward with purely numbers and resources. The enemies were the ones who didn’t lose their fighting spirit and resistance like true warriors despite their small numbers.

He turned his head again and saw Driden defeating the chiefdom warriors.

“Dammit.”

The chiefdom warriors had to prove themselves through battle, but the longer the battle dragged on, the ones who showed their true worth were the dark elves and their allies. The chiefdom warriors were the ones who meaninglessly charged at their enemies and fell to the ground. Countless orcs had already died in ways he didn’t wish for any warrior of the chiefdom.

‘Where are warriors who know honor!’

Crockta’s voice shouting at the chieftain came alive in his head. Honor. They had their own sense of honor. Crockta’s sense of honor from the continent and the chiefdom’s sense of honor from living in the continent were definitely different, but despite all this, Shireuga didn’t think of his current self as honorable at all.

The cries of battle, fighting to the death, downpour of blood, within it all, Shireuga felt dissociated from it all, as if he was floating in the air. Everything felt surreal. This entire battle felt like a dream.

Shireuga looked behind him. The eyes of all the orcs that the chiefdom brought together flashed red as they charged like crazy. Shireuga didn’t see any free will or pride in their eyes. Only madness like the chieftain’s glistened in their eyes. If this wasn’t a dream, how could he swing his weapon in such a shameful battlefield?

***

“Everyone, retreat!”

The dark elves began retreating. They had given up their city wall. The walls were in ruins from the continued siege warfare and had crumbled down in multiple places. The door had already been breached. The orcs were surging forward with tremendous force as the Orcheim orcs were slowly pushed back.

Crockta tried to calm his breath. His body was a mess, but Calmahart didn’t seem fatigued at all. He seemed to grow stronger with each battle, and the number of wounds increased on his body. He raised his hands up in the air as he roared, “Victory for the chiefdom!”

The chiefdom orcs responded with their rallying cry. “Death to the enemy of the chieftain!”

Calmahart charged and plunged his double-headed axe at Crockta. Crockta dodged by rolling away.

“Are you tired now?” shouted Calmahart.

Crockta looked around him. Everyone had abandoned the city walls and were running toward the center of Spinora. The dark elves who had been captured by orcs crumbled to the ground as the orcs swung their axes. Despite all this, everyone ran to the center of Spinora with their backs exposed because at the center of it all was the World Tree.

Crockta also slowly retreated.

Calmahart didn’t chase after him. He just laughed at Crockta as he stood there arrogantly. “Are you retreating because you believe in that pitiful World Tree?”

“...!” Crockta looked up at Calmahart. A clear red symbol was shining on his forehead. The bizarrely twisted inverted cross looked like a grotesque scar. Red aura oozed out from his body. Calmahart’s body began transforming again.

“The World Tree will burn in my hands today. Same goes for you, Crockta.”

Crockta didn’t respond. Instead, he burned the image of Calmahart who had transformed into a monster as if he was a completely different species in his eyes. Then, he turned his back and ran with the Orcheim orcs. Crockta suddenly looked up at the sky as he headed toward the World Tree. It was still noon.

All of Spinora was invaded by orcs except for the World Tree and its surroundings. The outcome would be determined before the sun dropped today—whether the World Tree would burn down or Calmahart would die.