〈 Episode 61 〉The East Targets the West 7

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I kept running, noticing the figures getting closer and closer.

'Just in time.'

They must have realized what I was doing from a distance; I could tell they had been hanging around to help me. But they weren't going to get caught, because.

"They're the best at hiding in the first place.

A touch of darkness, a touch of death, a touch of those close to death. Their mystery breeds fear, but they are as active in the mist and shadows as the hermits themselves.

"Am I to do as you say?"

"Yes, but the target has changed."

The voice of a woman who had already realized who the target was. I couldn't help but smile at the sound of the voice around me.

"Is that possible?"

"I don't see why not, they're just monsters."

The white fingers spread out, and the words began to spread like a breeze through the smoke of the fire.

"Profit!

The orcs, breathing harshly, chase after the bandits, glancing back for a moment.

"Ssshhh!

Swinging my blade, I slowly bring my shortsword down on the neck of one of them.

"Poof!

The blade lodges in the carotid artery of an orc's throbbing neck, and they turn to face me squarely.

"Tchhhhh!

With a loud, spittle-spattered yell, they lunged at me. The bandits had already lost their bearings, and I, the one walking into the fight, had become their final target.

"Saaang!

An orc's glaive swings at my waist.

"Paat!

I realize that no Sirtus is there, and I charge my shortsword with blue energy.

'Remembering how I felt back then.

How I felt when I touched the blue flower, when I traveled to the Witch City, when I was a guinea pig. As I recall that dazed and unsure feeling, the blue mana slowly flows from my veins into the short sword, which emits a brilliant light and swings towards the orc's glaive.

"Shatter!

Instead of slamming into it, the Shortsword shatters it.

Aaaaah!

'I've provoked them too much.

You've provoked the orcs too much. Well, it was probably a good catch, but if I provoked them any further, I'd be too big a target.

'This should be enough.

The orcs seem to be trying to make out my features through the smoke. However, what they saw now would have been something other than my normal self. The object of fear amongst the people, and the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of deceiving someone.

"Witch.

Ceredor. The spell she'd cast on me wasn't so mysterious after all.

"Hound's mark.

That's all I asked to be seen. The orcs would see me not as a brown-haired, blue-eyed man in a brown robe, but as a group of hounds, all dressed in black and wearing masks.

"Then!

I leap backwards, running away.

'Tsk tsk!!!!'

The orcs who'd been caught in the act drew their weapons and began to run toward me. My destination was simple.

'Behind the hounds.

Currently targeting Sergen and the knights, I aim for their backs as they run for their lives.

"Be good."

"Just run. No one will notice you later."

The orcs set out to take care of the bandits first, preferring to deal with the outnumbered hounds than to chase after the hounds, who numbered only twenty or so. But when I saw one of them appear and kill an orc, my anger boiled over, and I tore through all the black-clad men, and Mara was running toward me with those eyes.

"Tadat!

I run through the woods, through the ashes and the reddish flames that have yet to burn out. Through the wisps of smoke, I slowly run toward the hounds.

"You'll hold.

Knights are knights, no matter how much I've been taught to dust myself off. And with their full armor and shields, they're not going to fall easily to the hounds' attacks.

"Shhhh!

A giant Glaivez flies from behind.

'Eek, this is dangerous.'

All you can do is trust in the strength of your mana-enhanced body. I had to keep up with the orcs' speed. The orcs' inability to catch me in the snow only enrages them more, and they begin to run, shouting loudly as they try to catch me somehow.

'We'll be there soon.

"Pajik!

Barely, one of the orcs' axes whizzes past my head. I duck down quickly and plunge my sword into the creature's stomach.

"I'm not taking them all in one piece.

The sight of blood makes them even more excited. Soon, the orcs are filled to the brim with rage, and we're in position to overrun them.

"Ceredor!

"Pah!

At that moment, I burst into bright light and disappear from the orcs' sight.

"Three, Ceredor."

"The orcs will not recognize you now."

Ceredor looks down at me from the blackened trunk of a tree.

"Haha...magic is a strange thing."

Suddenly, I'm between the orcs and the hounds, transported to some distance away. The orcs hesitate a moment as I disappear, then watch as the Hounds fight off the marauders in the distance.

"Tchhhhhh!!!"

With a loud snort, they began to run toward the backs of the hounds, which were similar to the outfits I had shown them with Ceredor's magic.

"Pfft!

With a loud yell, the axe that flew out smashed directly into the backs of the hounds as they scrambled to dispose of the marauders.

"Cough!"

The orcs fell backwards, dying a futile death.

"What do you think you're going to do after this?"

"We're going to need Elisha."

"You mean me?"

She asks, now beside me, wiping the sweat from her brow.

"Isn't emotion magic something where you can transfer emotions to someone else?"

"Right."

She doesn't know much about orcs, but she says it's very easy to transfer emotions to monsters like them. Slowly, the hounds began to be mowed down by the swarming orcs.

"Hunters and soldiers, support the orcs with ranged weapons!"

Normally, orcs do not use ranged weapons because they consider it a disgrace. As a result, their power is limited to charging in like berserkers with no more than a half-hearted effort, which is a disadvantage that prevents them from using their troops properly.

"If you provide ranged support here.

To the Hounds, Orcs are known and feared.

"What the fuck are orcs doing here?!"

"They must be chasing us!"

"Fuck!!!! these bastards!"

Arms flailing wildly, they swing their swords at the orcs closing in from behind.

"They're so disrespectful of us up ahead!"

Long halberds dart out from among the knights forming a circle and holding shields. The basics of shielding, seize the moment when your opponent shows an opening and don't let go.

"Kick!"

The hound is startled by a Halberd's blade in his shoulder, and an orc's rusted sword plunges into his gut.

"Phew!"

The creature coughs up blood as it dies. Deckard's worst hand yet. One of them crumbles to dust.

"Pow!

Crossbows and arrows from hunters and soldiers pierced his body from all sides, and the hounds were turning into hedgehogs, their armor abandoned in favor of speed.

"Baaaah!!!"

A female hound shouts, breaking through the path.

"She's running away.

Her direction of flight was strange. It's as if she recognized me and took off to deal with me.

"Ah.

I can see the mana in her eyes. She'd been on high alert to find me.

'I let my guard down.

I shouldn't have been able to slaughter them completely. After all, they were Million's hounds. They weren't going to take kindly to being mauled.

"Me too."

Two halberds slipped out of his sleeves.

"Pow!

A burst of blue starlight, and they form a long meteor shower. By the time the two meteor showers are over, I've passed her, and she stares at it in disbelief.

"That, that's..."

A blue starburst. Deckard's hound, who couldn't have missed it.

"I don't think it was bad luck, just."

"Deckard..."

A necklace of rings jangled around the neck of a woman whose entire body had been pierced with arrows. A futile, mournful death. This was how war was supposed to be, I thought.

"Death.

I stared at the necklace of rings on her corpse, unable to close my eyes in grief, and I could guess what it was.

"Aye, it's a futile law."

Not a single one of them should escape. That would be a complete victory, especially if they were a special case among these hermitages, which could not be handled properly without an all-out war like this one, and if they were left behind, it would be a life of never being able to get a decent bowl of soup at an inn.

"Deal with it?"

"I thought it might be time for me to step up to the plate again."

The hounds were falling, one of them using the corpse of his companion as a shield to pierce through to escape.

"Boom!

The ready arsenal clenches in the blade of my hand.

"I've never really practiced throwing, but...

Still, the hound at that close range should be easy to take down.

"Ah, my outfit...the orcs won't get the wrong idea, will they?"

"You've already reverted to your original form."

After Ceredor's confirmation, I quickly threw the arcane water at the hound's body.

"Pow!

The hound looked up at me with a loud thud.

"You... shadow cub... go."

"Whatever."

I smirked at him.

"Get to work. Johnman."

The slumlord's gruff words were a fitting response for a hound. The creature's face twisted and collapsed.

"Profit!!!

Scores of orcs stare at the last of the hounds.

'Elisha.

The unseen power of the witches. Her emotion spell, a blast of sand from her hand, swirled around the orcs. Her emotional preliminaries were simple.

["We retreat from here.]

Same target. The same hound the orcs were after, and the same thing we were after. I shook my head, as if to convey that there was nothing to be gained by those left here fighting. The orcs, understanding the gesture thanks to Elisa's emotional magic, grunt and spit out their breath.

"Tsk!

His words were as if to say, "It's over. Let's go. We didn't bother to follow their disappearing backs.

"It's over."

The marauders, who were still preparing for the final battle with the remaining orcs, looked at me in despair.

"You... were you able to communicate with the orcs?"

Orcs are monsters that live in nature, different from those that can speak continental languages. Sometimes, there were mysterious beings called druids who could communicate with monsters and animals, or something along those lines.

"Body language gets you everywhere, right?"

If it did, orcs would never be labeled as monsters.

'Orcs you've fought before.'

But they were monsters, beings with thoughts. The trigger for this operation was a short sword thrown by an orc he had fought before.

"I wanted a proper fight.

The orcs would not feel the need to fight us when they had fulfilled the vengeance I had created in the Hound. I didn't need to provoke them, I just needed to use Elisa's emotional magic to convey the words 'it's over'.

"Heh, you're almost the first person to try body language with an Orc."

One of the marauders walked over and clapped me on the shoulder in a gesture of friendliness, otherwise a sign of distress. I feel a little bad, but I smile wryly at his admiration for my young form.

"Taking out bandits and enemies with an orc... I don't think any sage could have thought of that."

It's like bringing in a tiger to kill a wolf. But it worked, and the tiger was sent away after catching the wolf, a plan that would never have been conceived by a normal man.

"You must hold him."

Ever the opportunist, Jopin slowly whispered to Sergen.

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