Chapter 41 - A Song Dedicated to a Big, Beautiful Green Lump (3)
An arm thicker than most men's thighs covered its face.
THUNK, THUNK.
Arrows sank into it.
The Orcs pulled the arrows from their forearms.
There was no sign of pain anywhere on those hideous faces as they shrieked.
All that showed was murderous intent and fighting spirit, and the Orcs bellowed in fury.
Seeing me coming down the slope, the Orc Warrior grabbed the axe rolling on the ground.
"Grrrr."
With a low rumble in its throat, the Orc Warrior kicked off the ground.
Thundering footsteps, roars thick with murderous intent, and the sticky stench of blood.
I ended up laughing.
Nothing could have been more enjoyable.
I simply could not endure it without laughing.
"Raaaargh!"
Before I knew it, the Orc Warrior had closed in and raised its axe.
WHOOSH.
With a heavy sound of air being split, the rusty blade came rushing in as if to cleave my skull.
Still carrying the momentum of my run down the slope, I rolled across the ground.
A terrible gust of wind brushed just above my head.
The skin above my nose stung as if it were being torn away by the pressure.
I endured it and slashed with Twilight.
CHUNK.
The sensation of flesh being cut reached my fingertips.
Ah...
Nothing could be more rapturous than this.
Without realizing it, I let out an exclamation.
THUD.
While I was lost in that rapture for a moment, the Orc Warrior reached out roughly.
Still using the momentum of my roll, I rolled forward once and kicked off the ground.
"Rrrraaargh!"
The Orc Warrior's roar sounded behind me.
But I did not look back.
There was another Orc right in front of me.
It was smaller and less vicious than the Orc Warrior.
Even so, it had a muscular body that could easily tear a human apart with its bare hands.
The Orc charged at me.
In its hand was a blade far too thin for its body.
The sword flew in.
I gripped Twilight with both hands and raised it horizontally.
Then I leapt straight into its reach.
Twilight crawled along the Orc's sword.
Along the blade, along the hilt, and there were its fingers.
I twisted Twilight slightly.
CHUNK.
The Orc's fingers were all severed at once.
I thrust the sword forward just like that.
The blade that had flowed along the weapon now flowed along the green forearm.
SLASH, SLASH.
Green skin peeled away.
Where Twilight passed, bright red muscle was laid bare.
Twilight climbed up the forearm, passed the shoulder, and slashed across the Orc's throat.
"Grrk."
The Orc made a sound like air leaking out and rolled its eyes back.
I twisted the blade and pulled Twilight free.
When the blade came away, blood gushed out in thick pulses.
WHOOSH.
The sharp reek of blood billowed up.
SNIFF, SNIFF.
My nose flared on its own.
At that fragrant scent, I ended up laughing without realizing it.
How long had it been since I last smelled blood?
Strength surged through me.
I had not even drawn out my mana yet, but vitality filled my entire body.
WHOOSH.
At that moment, something heavy came flying at my back.
I reached out and pulled the waist of the Orc whose eyes had rolled back.
The falling Orc's body moved this way, and I moved that way.
Our positions switched.
CRUNCH.
And one of those positions was the place of death.
The Orc clutching its own neck shuddered as if struck by lightning.
Its muscular body went rigid, then toppled backward.
A huge axe was embedded in its chest.
Beyond it, the Orc Warrior was charging toward me.
Its long-slashed waist was soaked in blood, and its face was twisted like that of a murderous fiend.
"Raaaargh!"
It let out a hideous roar.
At that moment, a rain of arrows poured down again from above.
THUNK, THUNK.
Long shafts sprouted from the backs and shoulders of the Orcs.
"Charge!"
Arwen came flying down the slope with her humming sword leveled.
The royal infantrymen ran down the slope with swords and shields in hand.
"You're late."
"Your Highness is too fast!"
Arwen, who had somehow caught my voice, shouted back fiercely.
It was an impassioned voice I had never once heard from her before.
"Raaaargh!"
And then there were the Orcs' roars, filled with bloodlust.
The day was clear, and the smell of blood was thick everywhere.
My body was light, and the master smith's sword in my hand was sharp.
"Splendid."
I felt as if I might fly.
"Your Highness!"
Arwen called me in a voice like a scream.
"Grrrr."
The Orcs were moving as if to surround me.
I saw Arwen lowering herself among the infantrymen as if she were about to spring out.
"Don't come!"
Because you will get caught up in it.
I adjusted my grip on Twilight.
Then I searched my memory.
Four hundred years, and far longer than that, in the past.
That era when Orcs were not monsters, but one of the proud masters of the continent.
That time when war never ceased.
The memory of the days when I was called a Demonic sword.
"Green corpses piled high, and a mountain rose."
This was the poem of an extraordinary hunter whose name did not even remain.
The song of a pitiful man who hated Orcs.
It was not a song about a Myth, nor was it a song about a Hero.
"Beneath it, a red pool came into being."
It was only the sorrowful elegy of a father who fought and fought until his strength finally ran dry and he was slain, the fleeting song of an extraordinary avenger.
「[Poem of Vengeance] is sung.」
That sad and desperate poem rang out into the world without a single verse missing.
Aaaaaah.
Twilight keened mournfully.
It was the mourning offered to those soon to lose their lives by a sword forged with the master smith's very soul.
THUD.
I kicked off the ground.
The first lament belonged to the Orc Warrior.
* * *
Joseph's mouth was parched dry, and his stomach churned.
He felt as if he might vomit at any moment.
Whether that was because of tension from the battle or because of the stench the Orcs gave off, Joseph could not tell.
They had said there would be no fighting.
They had said that, obviously, the Prince would hole up in the castle and steal his maternal uncle's achievements.
They had said all he had to do was watch from beside him.
He simply resented the Palace Count who had sent him here, resented him again and again.
"Charge!"
The female knight suddenly gave the order to charge.
Startled, Joseph clutched his sword and shield as if shoved forward and ran down the slope.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Hearing the soldiers shout put him a little at ease.
Joseph shouted with them as well.
But that was only courage for a fleeting moment, nothing more than rash bravado.
Uh, uh...
The Orcs looked completely different from the top of the slope than they did right in front of his nose.
Their vicious appearance went without saying, and their bulk put their heads a good two heads higher than most men.
Their muscular dark green bodies could not have looked more threatening.
TREMBLE.
His legs shook.
He wanted to run away at once.
But while he was going uh, uh, he had somehow ended up at the very front of the formation, so he could not do that either.
He looked beside him.
He saw the face of a soldier clenching his teeth from tension.
Was his name Hansdeck?
Even the leader of the infantrymen had a face crushed by pressure.
Hansdeck, whose eyes met his, nodded.
It was a nod whose meaning Joseph could not understand.
"We are!"
Hansdeck suddenly shouted.
"The sword of the Royal Family!"
The other soldiers beside him shouted at once.
"We are!"
"The shield of the Royal Family!"
Joseph was stunned by those abrupt shouts.
They were all about to die because of that damned prince, so what was this...
"We are proud soldiers of the Leonberk Royal Family!"
The soldiers shouted at the tops of their lungs.
Even so, it did not match the roar of a few Orcs, but they kept shouting.
As if encouraging themselves that way, they kept screaming.
"Victory under the name of Leonberk!"
"Protect His Highness the Prince!"
The soldiers, who had been frightened at first, were now shouting with courage swelling in them.
Thump, thump.
His heart pounded.
It was not because their shouts had given him courage.
It was because these damn soldiers looked like they might charge those monsters at any moment without fear.
"Maintain the square formation, forward!"
The soldiers would have gotten excited and rushed out on their own if left alone, and the female knight standing at the very front pushed them from behind.
THUD! THUD!
The soldiers stamped their feet as they thrust out shields reinforced here and there with iron plates.
Uh, huh?
Before he knew it, Joseph was pushed along by the soldiers in a tightly formed square and moved forward too.
"Raaaargh!"
The Orcs charged with roars.
The moment he met those red eyes head-on, his pants grew damp.
At that moment, someone right behind him grabbed him by the nape and pulled.
"You damned rookie bastard!"
It was the soldier directly behind him.
When a large back appeared before his eyes, he felt a little relieved.
But the situation grew even worse.
Now Joseph was trapped in the middle of the dense infantry formation, unable to go forward or back.
THUD! THUD!
The soldiers stamped their feet and advanced.
Beyond that broad back, the heavy thump of Orc footsteps came pounding toward them.
"Front rank, brace shields! Second rank, raise swords!"
CLACK!
At the female knight's command, the soldiers raised their shields or lifted their swords high.
"Brace!"
The moment the female knight shouted that, the front rank heaved with a boom.
"Aaagh!"
"Argh!"
With terrible screams, the soldier right in front of him collapsed onto the ground.
A rusty axe was embedded in the shield the soldier had refused to let go of until the end.
"Attack!"
A shout burst out right beside him.
At that moment, the soldiers thrust the swords they had raised.
Over the shoulders of the soldiers who had not fallen, or over the heads of the soldiers crouched on the ground.
Ten swords shot forward as one body.
Joseph, caught up in it, thrust his sword as well.
CHUNK.
A strange sensation reached the tip of his sword.
It was not as if he had never stabbed a person before.
But this felt completely different from stabbing a person.
It felt like putting a knife to a lump of meat frozen solid.
"Grrrr."
The Orc stabbed in the armpit glared at Joseph.
Its stupidly huge hand grabbed the blade.
The strength left Joseph's legs.
He wanted to throw down his sword and run away, but his clenched hand would not open.
And in that hand was the sword,
and that sword was also being held by the Orc.
He could neither collapse nor turn around, and simply stared at the Orc.
FLASH!
At that moment, the Orc's eyes rolled white, and its body trembled.
"Raaagh!"
Behind the Orc, which screamed as it thrust out its belly, a brilliant glow shimmered.
It was the female knight.
Behind the Orcs that had crashed into the front line, the female knight was running with her sword held at an angle.
The Orcs whose backs of the knees were cut screamed one after another and thrashed wildly.
At that moment, the soldiers of the front rank who had been sitting on the ground rose to their feet with screams.
The Orcs that had lost their balance fell backward.
"Stab!"
Someone shouted.
At that moment, the soldiers of the second rank climbed onto the Orcs, gripped their swords in reverse, and drove them down.
THUNK, THUNK.
If once was not enough, twice.
If twice was not enough, ten times.
If one man was not enough, two or three clung on and kept hacking away until the monster died.
["Cut the backs of their knees. The moment the Orcs lose their balance is your chance."]
Was his name Vincent?
The words spoken by the castle lord's eldest son came to mind.
It was absurd.
He could not believe they had actually pulled it off.
Thump, thump.
His heart pounded.
It was a different kind of pounding from a moment ago, and courage whose source he could not identify surged up wildly.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Following the shouting soldiers, Joseph shouted with them.
"Uwaaa... ah... ah..."
But it was far too fleeting.
The sprawled Orcs.
The soldiers mounted on top of them.
And beyond them, Joseph saw more Orcs.
There were three times as many as the Orcs that had just been killed.
Only then did Joseph realize.
The number of Orcs that had collided with the front line had not even been five.
Thirty soldiers had become one and barely managed to deal with five Orcs.
The flame burning in his heart went out as if it had been a lie.
And a chill worse than before the fire had been lit pressed down on him.
CLACK, CLACK.
His teeth chattered, and his body shook.
He had already dropped his sword on the ground long ago.
Twice as many Orcs as the ones they had just faced turned toward them.
Seeing that, Joseph squeezed his eyes shut.
That damned Palace Count bastard.
Like that, he waited for death.
But no matter how long he waited, the thundering footsteps that seemed about to crash down on him never came.
Instead, what dug into his ears were terrible screams.
"Squeeeeeal!"
It sounded like a pig having its throat cut, and Joseph cracked one eye open.
"Screeeeech!"
"Raaaargh!"
The Orcs were flying through the sky.
Their bodies split top and bottom, or left and right.
Fountains of blood erupted everywhere.
The blood that gushed up painted the air like a mist.
Beyond that red mist stood the Prince.
In an inhuman form, streaming lines of brilliant blue light.
