Chapter 72 - What You Lost, What You Will Forget (3)

"Shoot!"

The eldest son of the Eli family screamed at the top of his lungs.

The nobles turned their heads. The officers receiving their gazes shook their heads.

"They are out of range."

At those words, the nobles clicked their tongues.

Exhausted horses, riders who had lost their composure, and pursuers closing in right behind them.

The sight of the Eli group riding in while screaming looked perilous.

"The Eli family has some ties with our House Branbrut. Although it isn't a deep connection, it is enough to pay the price for a few arrows."

Count Branbrut, one of the great lords watching the scene, made a hand gesture. Above the hill, a couple of flags bearing a black hawk were raised and lowered repeatedly.

STOMP. STOMP.

Archers stepped forward through the heavy armored infantry.

They wore tunics emblazoned with a black hawk and carried longbows that looked to be 1.8 meters tall.

"It's the Iron Hawks!"

Someone shouted, recognizing the master archers of House Branbrut.

The archers of the Iron Hawk Archers lined up facing the river.

"Target the enemy vanguard! Suppressive fire!"

The archers drew their bowstrings, leaning their waists far back.

"Shoot!"

There was only one sound of a snapping bowstring, but two hundred arrows flew through the sky.

The arrows fired simultaneously by the archers of the Iron Hawks crossed the river and rained down on the Orcs.

GAAARGH!

The fiercely charging Orcs were struck by the arrows and rolled on the ground. The Orcs following behind them trampled over their fallen kin and sprang forward.

SWOOSH.

A rain of arrows fell upon them once again. The Orcs in the front line collapsed, and the Orcs following behind tripped over the fallen ones.

In the brief moment the gap widened, the Eli group bolted across the bridge like lightning.

"U-Uh?"

The speed of the eldest son of the Eli family and his group did not slow down even after crossing the bridge. The startled frontline infantry made a commotion, parting to both sides to make way.

"L-Look, look, look!"

Seeing this, the nobles pointed their fingers.

However, paying no mind, the eldest son of the Eli family rode straight toward the hill where the command's flags fluttered.

"I am Bernardo of the Eli family! I have come with news from the North!"

Leaping down from his horse, Bernardo shouted while gasping for breath.

"If it is the situation in the North..."

"A majority of the lords in the North encountered the Orcs while leading their troops south! They were completely wiped out! The lords all died in battle alongside their soldiers!"

At those words, the nobles let out a groan.

They also had ears, and they had heard about the circumstances in the North through the refugees. Among those were rumors regarding the lords, including House Quern.

It sounded nice to say they marched south with their troops, but speaking bluntly, they had abandoned their territories and fled. Yet, it was truly pathetic that they had all died because they couldn't even run away properly.

"Currently, the four houses of Shurtl, Eaton, Cardane, and Barheim have gathered the survivors and are putting up a resistance, but the war situation is perilous!"

However, now was not the time to think about the dishonorable deaths of the northern lords. Bernardo of the Eli family continuously poured out the battle situation in the North.

Where they had been defeated, and how many soldiers had died.

Which lord's family members were killed, and which castle had fallen.

Among them, there was not a single piece of news that was not a tragic report.

"Hah. Isn't this far more disastrous than what we heard?"

The nobles let out groans.

Even as they set up camp here, they had thought the northern lords would hold out to some extent. As the saying goes, a fallen noble is still a noble; among their houses, there wasn't a single one that hadn't made a name for itself in past wars against monsters.

Yet, it had been barely a month since the news of Winter Castle's fall, and they were saying twelve of the sixteen territories, large and small, had been trampled by the Orcs. To think that all the high and mighty lords had died and now only four remained. The nobles' faces hardened stiffly.

It was a sense of crisis they hadn't shown even in front of the countless refugees.

It was as if they had realized for the first time that they too could die.

It was inevitable.

In the past, the kingdom had fought quite a few wars against the empire. They won several hundred years ago, and suffered a crushing defeat 120 years ago.

And in no scenario had so many nobles died on this scale.

Except in very special cases, most were taken as prisoners and were later released after paying a ransom.

That was a tacit convention regardless of friend or foe, a transaction that ordinarily took place.

However, the rules they believed in were useless before the monsters. The rules established by humans had no value to monsters with whom they could not even communicate.

The murdered northern lords were the proof of that.

They said not even their corpses were found. They were likely inside the bellies of the Orcs.

The nobles broke out in cold sweats.

It felt as though they had been sleeping on luxurious golden bedding, only to be thrown naked into a field swept by freezing winds.

While they stood there in a daze, Bernardo Eli exchanged glances with the Second Prince.

NOD.

Maximilian gave a small nod.

He also knew that his older brother's knights had long been running all over the place to lure the Orcs. And he was also aware of the fact that a significant portion of what Bernardo said was mixed with lies.

The deaths of the lords were real, but it was not the Orcs who killed them; it was his older brother.

It was true that many died in battle, but much of the process had been fabricated.

The surviving lords were not putting up a resistance. They were hiding somewhere in the South to avoid the Orcs, waiting for their time.

And the one creating that time was himself.

"As you have heard, the Orcs are merciless and cruel. On top of that, they are fierce and overwhelmingly strong."

Maximilian spoke as if he were deliberately lamenting.

"If this place is breached, the Central region will face the exact same fate as the North."

Groans of dismay leaked out from here and there.

"The Orcs are retreating!"

Just in time, the voice of an officer rang out.

The gazes of the nobles, whose faces were hardened like stone, turned forward.

Dozens of Orcs lay dead on the bridge.

Whether because they had received the concentrated fire of the archers, their corpses looked exactly like hedgehogs. The problem was the location of those corpses.

Most of the dozens of Orcs had died before they could even cross halfway over the bridge. However, a few of the larger corpses had almost succeeded in crossing it.

The nobles murmured in agitation.

The Iron Hawk Archers, renowned in the Central region, had stepped up, and once the Orcs entered range, the other archer units also fired their arrows at them.

Even though the archers, who made up ten percent of the entire army, fired their arrows with full intent, they still struggled to stop the Orcs from crossing the bridge.

The nobles looked across the river.

Beyond the range of the arrows, there were countless Orcs on the vast plains. The sight of those ferocious beasts tearing apart their sprawling kin and drinking their blood could not have been more horrifying.

The agitation of the soldiers could be felt.

A wind blew in from across the river. The nobles shivered. The chill seeped through their thick furs.

"It seems tonight will be a very long night."

The nobles absentmindedly nodded at someone's words.

* * *

Just as that person said, the night was long.

It was long for the sentries standing along the riverbank, and it was long for the nobles lying in their luxurious tents.

It was a nightmarish night.

However, the true nightmare was only just beginning.

"Their numbers increased overnight."

At dawn, when the twilight had settled in, the Orcs could be seen across the river. The number of Orcs had grown even larger than the day before.

"They said it was ten thousand, but at a glance, doesn't it look like double that?"

Someone expressed their doubt with a pale voice.

"There are more than expected, but it is not to that extent. Perhaps the Orcs are just so large that their numbers appear even greater."

At the Commander's words, the nobles shut their mouths.

It was because his words sounded as if he were asking if the enemy only looked more numerous because they were scared.

It was the truth.

Their massive dark green bodies were unusually intimidating. Whenever they met the gazes of the Orcs seen from afar, they found themselves shuddering without realizing it.

If the nobles in the command post situated on the hill in the rear felt that much, the terror felt by the soldiers standing right in front of the bridge was beyond description.

The soldiers of the heavy armored infantry that a certain great lord had boasted about were completely intimidated and merely fumbled with their shields, while the other spearmen standing beside them kept looking back.

"Pull yourselves together! The number of enemies that can cross the bridge at once is not that many anyway!"

"Our Red Iron Chain Knights will stand before you!"

The only ones who at least maintained their sanity were the knights who had honed their swords their entire lives. However, their numbers were merely four hundred.

The fact that the number of knights, which had seemed large just yesterday, looked so small today was probably because the nobles' hearts were just that anxious.

"Tsk."

An old knight, who had been watching the nobles and soldiers without saying a single word until now, stepped forward.

He was Count Richter Liechtein, one of the now four Silver Lions, and the greatest sword master of the kingdom, evaluated to possess swordsmanship superior even to the fallen lord of Winter Castle.

SHING.

The old master swordsman drew his sword.

And he overlaid an Aura Blade onto the edge of his sword. That radiant light, qualitatively different from Sword Aura, cleared away the dawn's twilight.

The overwhelming presence and fighting spirit bloomed by the Silver Lion stretched out in all directions.

The soldiers jolted and trembled. They had faces as if they had just woken up from a nightmare.

The old knight withdrew the light and sheathed his sword back at his waist. Then, he quietly stepped back. It was an attitude that seemed to say his job was done here.

Thanks to the Silver Lion stepping forward, the soldiers' agitation could be calmed. However, the allies weren't the only ones stimulated by the Silver Lion's aura.

The Orcs breathed roughly.

GROOOAAR.

Among the Orcs in the front line, an exceptionally massive Orc howled.

THUD. THUD.

At the same time, the Orcs' formation shifted. Parting the Orcs in the front line, new Orcs appeared.

They were Orcs gripping petite, elongated shields that did not suit their huge sizes.

"Ah..."

Seeing them, the nobles' eyes went wide.

Familiar crests were engraved on the shields the Orcs thrust forward.

"That is the snow deer crest of House Quern."

"That one is the wolf crest of the Winterwolf family."

Those were the crests symbolizing the northern families.

Even at a glance, more than ten types of crests were chaotically mixed together. It was a sight that painted the annihilation of the North as vividly as if it were right before their eyes.

GROOOAAR!

The massive Orc roared once again.

The shields thrust forward by the Orcs shook.

THUD.

At the same time, the sound of stomping feet could be heard.

"They're coming!"

One of the officers shouted like a scream.

RUMBLE-RUMBLE.

Emitting a deafening roar that shook the earth, the Orcs charged forward.

"Shoot!"

At the panicked shout of an officer, the archers fired their bows in unison.

A thousand arrows rained down on the plains across the river.

GAAARGH!

The Orcs fell back with screams. However, their numbers were few.

Covering their heads with the shields, the Orcs were charging like angry bulls.

Arrows flew through the sky once again. The unlucky Orcs died screaming, but a far greater number of Orcs dashed toward the bridge.

The vanguard of the Orcs finally entered the bridge.

"Iron Hawks, snipe the Orcs at your own discretion!"

At the officer's command, the archers of the Iron Hawks carrying longbows loosed their arrows at the Orcs' vitals exposed beneath the shields. The Orcs that had entered the bridge fell back in an instant.

The Iron Hawks fired arrows so fast their hands couldn't be seen.

The Orcs died in droves.

But there were too many Orcs, and the only archers capable of aiming for the vitals between their tough muscles were the Iron Hawks. On top of that, an Orc didn't die immediately just because an arrow struck a vital spot.

Most of them easily endured a few arrows as if it were nothing.

It was a toughness that could not even be compared to the Orcs they had seen the day before.

"Those are the Orc Warriors!"

The Second Prince revealed the identity of those Orcs.

And at that moment, the Orc Warriors who had steadfastly survived the sniping of the Iron Hawks emerged from the bridge.

"Rose Thorn Infantry!!"

"Hah!"

The heavy armored infantry thrust their shields forward and stomped their feet. They pressed their shoulders against the shields and spread their feet wide.

"Hold!"

"Hah!"

Right behind them, soldiers gripping long spears stood by, ready to thrust their spears at any moment.

However, they did not get the chance.

CRASH!

The heavy armored infantry who collided with the Orc Warriors were crushed along with their shields. Pinned under their shields, the heavy armored infantry screamed.

KRRRR.

The Orc Warriors rumbled their throats.

While trampling the heavy armored infantry who had been crushed along with their shields.

"U-Uh..."

Letting out a dumbfounded sound, the spearmen collapsed to the ground just like that.