Lionheart vs. Orcs (5)

The clash of power wielded by the two transcendents created a ripple of unimaginable magnitude.

The laws of physics are disrupted as the powers of the gods crash head-on into each other and the shockwave pushes the world apart.

The air dissipated at the point of impact, and clouds blew up to 100 kilometers. The shattered fragments of the asteroid were crushed by the shockwave and scattered all over the continents.

"Aaaaaaah!"

"Aaaaaaaaah!"

Screams echoed from the sky and the ground..

The Knights of the Great Gods waiting inside the space battleship and the Orcs on the ground trembled in fear as they witnessed the shockwave of the collision.

There was no way anything could survive such an impact.

"Karina!"

Karina, at the center of the impact, was swept away by the wave. Leon reaches out for her, but even the peacock-class battleship is thrown off by the impact and Leon's arm can't reach her.

"Lord Spinner!"

-Emergency rescue sequence initiated. Dragon Squad firing.

The ship's largest cargo bay opens, and dragons, including the Black Dragon, leap out.

-Crawl!

The Black Dragon and five other dragons spread their wings and took flight.

"Kaaaaaaaaaah!"

"The battleship---!"

The battleship was swept away by the shockwave but Yappy responded.

-Emergency thrust deflector nozzle full extension. Attitude control.

-Quack, quack, quack, quack!

It shattered the concrete pavement, bounced like a rubber ball, and smashed into city buildings. Even so, the peacock-class decisive armor uses the combined power of the Space Integrated Armament Platform to steady itself.

-Inertial deflection thrust control successful. Ship energy transfer anomaly. Repair nanobots are dispatched.

The ship crash-landed but the damage is not insignificant.

"Wipe them out!"

""Whaaaaaaaaaaa────!!!""

When the Peacock came to a halt, the orcs that had been waiting all over the city rushed in.

-Enemy forces approaching. Need to recover damage.

"Wahahahahaha, I'll be the one to rip their heads off---!"

Warriors of the Orc fighting god Helkan. It was the moment when the Green Orcs, who had received the baptism of war, jumped towards the battleship with their red shining axes.

"Huh!"

A girl leapt out of the battleship's blast port, her pure white holy sword and black magic sword slicing through the leading orcs.

"So many---!"

Chun So-yeon, the leader of the Naju 1st Knight Corps. As soon as she regained her senses, she leaped forward and cut down the orcs' vanguard without a second thought.

"Strong humans, turn them into a beehive!"

The orc hunters who arrived shortly afterward added the acceleration of their mounted boars and hurled javelins in unison.

"Thwack---!"

So-yeon parried the flying javelins, but she couldn't stop them all. Her power, the Holy Law of Ventasis, is a vengeful power that specializes in one-on-one combat.

It was ineffective in one-on-many battles like this.

"Hit!!!"

The javelin that failed to deflect is stuck squarely into So-yeon's stellar iron armor. The armor blocked the blow, but the javelin, thrown with great force, still flew past the slender girl's body.

-Thud!

The moment So-yeon's body slammed into the battleship, a series of javelins flew in. It was a mass of javelins that could not be blocked by the star iron armor alone.

"Goddess Arianna---!"

Han Soo-ho's shield of light protected his companions as he expanded it with his holy power, and it blocked all the javelins that came at the ship.

"Well done, Soo-ho!"

A red-haired girl knight leapt from the warship. Her sword emits a flame that is even brighter than her impressive red hair.

-Kaaaaaah!

A shower of flames engulfs the orc vanguard. Some of them are immune to such firepower, but that's not Han Ha-ri's only skill.

She is a born knight of war and flame but also a goddess of the sea and waves. 

"Great!"

"We survived!"

The orcs who had survived were puzzled because despite being consumed by the powerful flames, their bodies were somehow wet. 

But the moment to understand it never came.

"Just the right amount of wet."

-Thud!

The sky shudders, and the clouds flutter as thunder appears.

The thunderbolt from Kim Jae-hyuk, a knight of Ultima, the god of the sky and thunder, struck the drenched orcs in a chain reaction.

"Kaaaaaah!"

Orc screams echoed from all directions. Orc shamans cried out from the battlefield as hundreds of orcs were slaughtered.

"While they're off guard, we're going to attack them with the power of the Shaman God Gokrok. They will know nothing and die──"

The orc shamans realized too late that a human shadow appeared.

"You must not interfere."

A man in green armor leaped from the battleship and landed in the middle of the shamans in a single bound.

"This, this distance at once?!"

The leaping power of a transcendent being called Holy Knight was beyond the comprehension of mortal beings.

Holy Art <Devour the Earth>

The ground that the Holy Knight of Life and Abundance, Koo Dae-sung, had trampled on gave way with a loud bang, swallowing the orc shamans in one fell swoop.

-Thud!

He was an earth knight, a saint chosen by the Earth Mother as her representative.

Wherever his footsteps touched, it was his land.

[This place is now my flesh]

The power of Demera rules the land. The earth, overflowing with life, soon backed up the Knight of Life.

"Her Excellency Karina------"

[Don't worry about her, she's more experienced than Vulcanus, she'll take care of herself.]

At the goddess's jade sound, Koo Dae-song gritted his teeth and looked at the swarming orcs.

"Flying orcs?"

Approaching were orcs riding wyverns of unknown origin.

"Come to think of it, there's a unit of orcs in the Wuhan Republic that specializes in taming flying beasts------"

Over the past three decades, the orcs have also adapted to Earth and grown in power.

The Orc Continental Confederation was able to swallow up the continent so easily because the Orcs had adapted to Earth and built up their power.

'The Black Orcs alone are troublesome, but there are so many elites like that?'

Koo Dae-sung wondered if he should deploy the Holy Law of the Earth to intercept them, but he soon realized that his worries were over.

Great Magic <Destruction Eye>

Black light stretched out and erased the Orc Wyvern Riders from the world.

"Ohhh------"

Overwhelming firepower and incredible accuracy. The great magician queen, who had turned the magical world of Earth upside down since her arrival, 'deleted' the orcs with a wave of her hand.

"Now that I've taken care of those pesky orcs, I'll leave the rest to you."

As if in response to her words, two dragons poured out of the cargo hold of the peacock-class. They were left over from the Dragon Squad that had gone out to support Karina.

-Crack, crack, crack!

They spread their massive wings and flew over the city. A few surviving orc wyvern riders resisted, but they fell quickly before the dragon's advanced flying skills and massive firepower.

"That dampens the spearhead's hopes------"

"We're not in formation, and there are still many beasts left."

"Whoa! Your Majesty?!"

Koo Dae-sung was startled by Leon's appearance on Stallion, with the Magician Queen casually riding behind him.

"The shock has caused the horses to spook, and it will be some time before the knights can bring them out."

"Hmm, well, it was a bumpy landing, so it can't be helped. We'll have to stall for time."

Leon stretched out his hand as he watched the orcs rush in from all directions.

Divine Punishment <Solar Manifestation>

It rose above the city in a flash.

"What, what is it?!"

"Shut up!"

Another sun appeared without warning and bathed the city in its melting heat as it approached.

-Miss, the missile is destroyed!

-The concrete buildings are melting?!

-The radio waves are failing! That sun is destroying all the machinery!

And it wasn't just the orcs that were disrupted, it was the entire Continental Army of the Orc Federation.

In addition to accumulating extensive real-time damage, the massive heat and magnetic fields are causing machinery to fail.

Of all the Holy Laws Leon can wield, Tatar, God of the Sun and Judgment Holy Law is the one that unleashes the most far-reaching power.

"Huh, that'll give us a breather. I'll have Lord Yappy quickly reorganize──"

Suddenly, Koo Dae-sung felt a chill. A 'gaze' as if something was staring at him.

────!!

Koo Dae-sung and Beatrice reacted at the same time at the flash of light.

Great Magic <Maximum Hardness Defense. Elemental Shield>

Several layers of defense were destroyed in an instant, unable to withstand the green beam as it slammed into Koo Dae-sung, cracking the asphalt and pushing it back.

"Ugh---!"

Not only is the earth shield crushed in real time, but even the armor melts.

"Hmph---!"

He used his full power, increasing the strength of his shield and deflecting the beam's trajectory with his might. In the process, the buildings it hits are cut in half, but that's nothing compared to the damage it does.

After deflecting the beam with momentum, Koo Dae-sung breathed a sigh of relief.

"It suddenly got easier in the middle------"

'Is this the beam's limit?' 

Koo Dae-sung's doubts didn't last long.

"It must be the Tower of Gokrok. It's even stronger than what the Eastern Desert Orcs built."

It was Leon who had stolen the light from the path of the ray with his holy sword. The power of the goddess Arianna had absorbed most of the light, the primary energy of the beam.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

"Don't try to defend against that power head-on. A single blow is as destructive as a divine punishment."

It was a deadly technique that could be said to be at the same level as a Divine Punishment and Koo Dae-sung was stunned when he realized that it had been fired twice in succession.

"And the third time?"

"It's about to fire, but there's more."

-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA────!!!

All eyes turn to the 'giant' as its massive presence is revealed.

"The one that smashed the falling asteroid------"

"It is the spirit body of Helkan, summoned as an idol by the Fighting God Helkan."

Koo Dae-sung gulps and swallows his saliva.

The spirit body Helkan summoned by Balbaza, champion of Helkan in Pyongyang. It was Koo Dae-sung who fended it off, and thus realized its destructive power.

If such a creature rampages, the city will be reduced to rubble in ten minutes. 

"The idols of the orcs grant them great favor by their mere presence."

[The statue of Helkan grants great power to orc fighters]

[Gokrok's tower increases the spirituality of orc shamans]

[Skunik's Javelin amplifies the senses of orc hunters]

[Helkan's statue has become───────────]

[Gokrok's Tower has become───────────]

[Skunik's Javelin becomes──────────]

Koo Dae-sung swallowed hard as he checked the system messages.

One buff after another. It's as if this land is the domain of orcs--- even the protection of the Holy Knights is blocked.

"Your Majesty, it can't be------"

"The only ones who can fight at full strength on this battlefield are the Holy Knights who can overcome their protection."

And then, seizing the moment──

""------!!!""

Everyone feels a chill run down their spines.

A strange chill that had been there for some time has become a materialized danger.

[Orc High Shaman Kran raises the Frost Palace]

-Kaaaahhhhh!!!

The heart of the Frost Queen, who had been resurrected from the Siberian snowfields, erupted in the center of the city in an instant.

The cold heart, which no mere mortal could destroy, has been resurrected by the hands of a high shaman.

[A chilling chill permeates the air]

-65% Slow is enforced.

-Mana usage is limited.

-Summons the Frost Queen's Chariots.

They were already outnumbered but the situation got even worse as the orcs added in harsher battlefield conditions.

"The beasts have prepared quite a bit, I can't believe they've prepared such legendary idols of history and even a secret move."

"Your Majesty, at this rate, we're not going to------"

"We'll drown before the tide of the great army."

The troops brought in for the surprise attack are a small force, all knights. Leon realized there was only one way out of this situation.

"Beatrice, Lord Koo Dae-sung, Lord Spinner!"

"Yes---, Your Majesty!"

-Crack!

Leon ordered.

"Gather your forces. Destroy those ugly idols and the palace! This king will break through the front. We're going to get the best of them."

"------"

Beatrice gritted her teeth as Leon chose the most dangerous front. The enemy High Khan had yet to show himself and there was no way he would leave Leon alone.

"I have no choice."

Still, there are only so many options on this battlefield and Leon's method is almost the only effective one.

-Organize your forces.

Yappy's peacock-class battleships have been unloaded with all the Templar troops as Yappy has gotten the best of the situation and read the odds.

-Her Majesty Queen Beatrice, Han Ha-ri and the First Squad attack the Ice Castle.

-Koo Dae-sung, Kim Jae-hyuk and Chun So-yeon attack Gokrok's Tower.

-Han Soo-ho and the rest of the troops will attack the statue of Helkan.

"Wait, Lord Yappy, who's going to take care of Skunik's javelin?"

-Already in the attack.

-Bam!

It was then. A huge boom was heard east of where they were standing and the sound was coming from Skunik's javelin.

Leon rode atop the back of his great beast, Stallion.

"Good luck, then."

As the final battle with a time limit started, Leon shouted. 

"Glory to the Lionheart."