CH 61

"The Decisive Battle Begins"

Translated by Dawn

Edited by Dawn

“The Decisive Battle Begins”

Three more days had passed since the extermination of the orcs, and the orcs were finally approaching very close to the town of Rendark.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the preparations for the defense of the town had already been made in the past few days.

In addition to the 5,000 soldiers defending the town, there were about 1,000 adventurers in the town of Rendark. However, since half of the adventurers were of E-rank or lower, most of them were assigned to the task of fortifying the town along with the soldiers.

Of all the adventurers, the number of D-rank or higher adventurers, who were considered the elite, numbered about 200. The breakdown of the number of adventurers was 100 D-rank, 70 C-rank, 26 B-rank, and the last four were Gyrmzak and the rest of the A-rank adventurers.

After all this time, Gyrmzak and his team were the only A-rank adventurers based in the town of Rendark, and their abilities were so outstanding that they stood head and shoulders above the rest of the adventurers.

“I see them! The Orc horde!”

“They’re finally here……my arms are shaking.”

“I’m going to make love with Mirimura-chan when this is over!”

“Don’t declare your intention to go to the Brothel at a time like this!”

“You guys, focus on the enemy in front of you!”

The sight of the orcs caused a commotion among the adventurers in the surrounding area. The two hundred adventurers, currently the elite group, were deployed in front of the town, not to defend it, but as an intercepting force to intercept the orcs that were attacking the town.

One of them was me, and I was in a bit of trouble.

“……huh?”

“The time has finally come!”

“It’s finally time, Master!”

“I’ll show you the results of my training!”

“Me, too, I’m gonna show you!”

“….”

My adventurer rank as of now is C-rank. And here I am, one of the elite adventurers in an intercepting force. This is fine. I have already told Gyrmzak and the others that I will fight alongside them when the orcs come. I agree with that…….but.

“Hey, why are you guys standing next to me? Isn’t this strange!?”

“Why, you ask? Why, because Master Rolando is our master, of course.”

“Of course, because you’re a better adventurer than we are, you should be in the lead.”

“This is the natural arrangement. Yup.”

“Master, it’s important to give up on everything, you know?”

I don’t understand. This is very unintelligible. My rank is C, and I should not be put on the same level as these A-rank adventurers, even if I am mistaken.

However, the people around me don’t think so, and for some reason, they see me as the master of Gyrmzak, an A-rank adventurer. This was the reason I ended up rubbing shoulders with these A-ranked guys.

At first, I was in a line of C-rank adventurers, but when the adventurers around me spotted me, they asked, “What’s General Hunter doing here?” I was pulled by the hand, and before I knew it, I was forcibly reassigned to the front line where Gyrmzak and his party were.

My original plan was to stay inconspicuously in the C-rank row, quietly hunting a couple of orcs and helping out in a pinch without being noticed by others. However, when I thought about that, I found myself in this situation.

“If I sneak back into the C-rank row now, I can…..”

“Give it up, Master. It’s about to start.”

“Damn it, why did this happen?”

I was not surprised to see the plan fall apart at the first stage, even though I had been working to make Gyrmzak and his party into heroes while keeping my abilities from being known…….

However, lamenting what had happened would not solve the problem. For now, I turned my attention to the oncoming monsters to focus on the orcs in front of me.

The orcs were advancing slowly, and this seemed to be adding to the fear. The elite adventurers, however, did not seem to be perturbed.

When they reached a position where they could see the full extent of the orc pack, the adventurers who had seen it began to speak in hushed tones.

“Hey, what’s that?”

“Ah, somehow…”

“There are fewer of them than I thought, and some of them are wounded orcs.”

“What’s going on?”

The adventurers were bewildered by the scene unfolding before their eyes, but it was a natural conclusion for me, who knew the situation. As the one who had wounded them to the bone, I was surprised to find that there were fewer orcs than I had expected. Perhaps some of them ran out of strength before reaching Rendark.

(For the number, there aren’t even a thousand. Eight hundred ……, no, seven hundred seems about right.)

I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that other adventurers would be able to handle this without any problems. However, since one never knows what will happen in a battle until the very end, I figured it would be just as well to stay on my guard and get ready for battle.

“Those with long-range attacks, get ready to fire!”

Archers and wizards began preparing to attack, following Gyrmzak’s order. A moment later, when they were only a few dozen meters away from the orcs, Gyrmzak’s shout signaled the start of the battle.

“Now! Begin the attack!”

At his signal, arrows and magic rained down on the battlefield, and it was easy to imagine what would happen to a wounded soldier if he were to be hit by such an attack.

“Buhyiii”

“Bugya”

“Gugyaa”

Arrows and magic attack the advancing orcs with slow and sluggish movements, steadily reducing their numbers. However, the enemy did not lose its will to fight and simply charged forward.

About two hundred Orcs were disabled by the long-range attacks, but about five hundred Orcs continued to advance without giving up.

“Everyone get ready to intercept! Let’s start the melee from here!”

“UOOOHHH”

In response to Gyrmzak’s words, wild voices echoed across the battlefield. And in response, the Orcs also increased the momentum of their assault.

(If they charge at us like this, some of these people will suffer damage. It can’t be helped, I’ll intervene just a little bit.)

Deciding that if things continue as they were, there would be deaths before we could fight, I put my hands on the ground and let the magic flow through me. Using Earth Magic, a higher level of Soil Magic, the effect was instantaneous.

Just as the adventurers and orcs were about to collide, the ground a few meters in front of them began to change, transforming the entire area into a bottomless quagmire.

There was no way the orcs could cope with the sudden change in the ground, and their momentum visibly waned as they fell into the quagmire. Seeing this as an opportunity, archers and wizards attacked the unresisting Orcs ruthlessly, and the Orcs’ corpses were massacred.

“W-what happened?”

“Somebody did something magical, maybe?”

“Whatever it is, this is our chance, let’s go!”

Although they did not understand what was happening, the adventurers, seeing an opportunity in what was happening in front of them, each launched an attack on the orcs.

Adventurers in close proximity also took advantage of the opportunity to attack the orcs. At the same time, the adventurers launched an all-out attack.

The orcs, caught by surprise, were unable to respond to the adventurers’ attacks and were forced to move left and right, giving the adventurers the upper hand from the very beginning of the battle. It seemed as if they would be annihilated at once, but it was not going to be that easy.

“Buhyiiiiiiii”

“Buhibuhibuhi!!”

“It’s the Orc General! C-rank and below, concentrate on normal orcs and intercept them with B-rank adventurers!”

The Orc side, judging the situation to be unfavorable, deployed two mainstay Orc generals. At that moment, Gyrmzak sent out precise instructions, and the formation for defeating the Orc Generals was completed.

(Hm-hm, with this, there may be no need for me to intervene on my own. I was honestly surprised at the unexpectedly talented adventurers.)

Although they were inferior to the A-rank adventurers, they made up for it with their outstanding coordination.

Despite the advantage of having taken a certain amount of damage from the attacks, I was surprised to see these adventurers putting up such a good fight.

Even so, the Orc General’s abilities were extraordinary, and there were a few dangerous moments, but thanks in part to my stealthy interference so that the other adventurers would not find out just when they were about to counterattack, the battle between the two Orc Generals was quickly settled.

“You humans!”

“At last, the real deal is finally coming out……” 

With the Orc General dead, the Orc King finally made his move. The overwhelming presence of the Orc King, which was different from that of the Orc General, scared everyone present.

By the time the Orc King made his move, most of the Orcs had already been exterminated, leaving only the Orc King. The final battle was about to begin.