Praise the Orc!

Chapter 205 – War of the Gods (3)

It took only a few minutes for the sun to turn dark. During that time, everyone on the battlefield was terrified. In the darkness where nothing could be seen, something was walking around.

“Kuaaaaah!”

“Heoooook!”

Terrible screams rang out. Everyone turned to look in all directions. In the aftermath, some people stabbed randomly with their swords. The magicians of the expedition tried to create light, but it fell absurdly short of lighting up the world without the sun. Rather, the dim lighting caused fear to fill the hearts of the people.

Fearful faces appeared every time the light shone. The light illuminated bloody and tearful faces.

“Aaaaaaack!” The screams continued.

Crockta could hear them whisper, ‘Hungry, hungry, hungry…’

His eyes pierced through the darkness and saw strange beings climbing from the ground onto the battlefield. They had a terrible amorphous appearance which suited hell. However, they all had the same terribly big and ugly mouth.

‘Hungryyyyyyy…’

A demon of hell passed by Crockta, and it smelled bad. Suddenly, Crockta met its eyes. Then it licked its lips. However, instead of aiming at Crockta, it turned and bit the body of an expedition member.

Those who couldn’t see in the darkness were bitten without knowing what direction the demons came from. The only things left behind were the blood stains and parts of the limbs which couldn’t be swallowed.

These guys were filling up the battlefield.

‘Eat, chew, swallow…’

‘Hungry…’

Tashaquil was a shaman who always smiled and blessed the orc warriors. However, he was furious. So, his blessings had now become the evil souls which embodied hell.

“This is war.”

Crockta looked up at the sky. This was a world where the sun had disappeared. The ‘Sun Killer’ Zankus, he really was a hunter who penetrated the sun. Now that the sun was sleeping, all types of demons attacked the expedition members in the darkness.

The fearful soldiers waved their weapons randomly, killing their companions and stabbing themselves.

“Uwaaaaah!”

Suddenly, a blade flew through the darkness towards Crockta. Crockta blocked with his greatsword. It was a terrified expedition member. He was swinging his sword in every direction.

“Uwaaaaack!”

“Tsk.” Crockta reached out and grabbed the neck of the expedition member.

The demons were certainly frightening. In particular, for the expedition members, this was a situation where their vision was blocked, and they didn’t know where the horrible beings would appear, so it was natural to go mad.

However, this one had found the wrong opponent. Slowly, the light returned. The ‘death’ which swallowed the sun disappeared, allowing the sun to regain its strength. Dim sunlight shone on Crockta’s face.

“Ahh…” The expedition soldier’s eyes widened. He had fled from the jaws of death. However, he was now met with Crockta’s terrifying face.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” He screamed.

“Noisy,” Crockta remarked and gave strength to his hands. He broke the soldier’s neck instantly. The soldier’s body dropped down to the ground. However, Crockta thought the soldier was lucky to die now. This was because…

“It is better not to see this.”

The sun had returned halfway. That alone was enough to reveal the scenery on the ground.

It was hell.

Not everyone had been fully eaten by the demons. The demons had bitten the expedition members on a whim. People were groaning on the ground with their bodies half torn apart. There were corpses with the contents of their heads missing. There was one human corpse with all the skin chewed off. There were also soldiers with torn stomachs and their contents flowing out.

These scenes filled the battlefield. And…

‘I hate light, I hate light, I hate light… Hungry, hungry, hungry…’

The eyes, nose, mouth, and limbs of the demons were revealed. The expedition members screamed.

“What is thisssss!”

“Monsters!”

“Spare meeeee!”

The demons carried out their feeding until just before the sun fully returned. They didn’t stop, even when the sun burned their bodies. They bit, chewed, and swallowed. The demons acted like vultures and drove the formation of the expedition into complete chaos.

“How horrible,” Crockta commented from where he stood at the front lines, where orcs and humans were mixed together. Behind him, there weren’t many demons. However, beyond him, the camp of the expedition was filled with demons eating indiscriminately.

Every time a demon’s teeth moved, an enemy’s body was torn. The demons shook, and the expedition members’ limbs flew into the sky. Even to the orcs, this was a frantic scene of madness. It was a necessary but cruel scene which Tashaquil had produced.

“The sun is back.”

The sun had returned wholly. The demons melted down completely. They had swallowed the expedition members, but after melting, there were no traces left of them except for a handful of ashes. If someone looked at this place, they wouldn’t know what had just happened.

However, their bodies trembled at the fearful memories. Zankus had only turned off the sun for a few minutes…

And in those few minutes, many of the expedition members had been slaughtered. The gods turned their eyes to the disastrous landscape.

“Tashaquillllllllll!” The elderly man in the sky screamed Tashaquil’s name. His wings were like an angel’s, but his distorted face was like that of a devil.

“You shouldn’t have summoned the demonssss! I won’t let it goooo!” His voice rang through the battlefield. Then light exploded from his body, shining down on the entire expedition. The fear caused by the demons disappeared, and the expedition returned to being the faithful army of the gods.

However, the blessing wasn’t given to those who had already lost their limbs and couldn’t participate in the battle. They were dying as they watched their peers march with the light of the gods.

“The gods are the same as us.” Crockta’s lips twisted as he laughed. “There is no difference between them and the emperor.”

The expedition army marched forward with no emotions on their faces as they followed the gods’ will. They ignored the fallen allies whom they stepped on. Just like that, the wounded were trampled on by the expedition army and died.

The expedition army had become puppets of the gods. This was a war between the gods and the orcs. At that moment, Tashaquil’s voice whispered in their ears, ‘Everyone, be prepared.’

All orcs on the battlefield heard the voice.

‘The next attack is dangerous.’

As soon as he spoke, the expedition army stopped moving. Then they raised their shields and set up a firm formation. It was like a barricade.

“This…”

Then at that moment…

Crockta saw it. In the rear of the expedition army, magic power was boiling up towards the sky.

Tashaquil warned again, ‘The goddess of magic has come out.’

Crockta was a warrior, but in the past, he’d met the northern magician, Jamero, and he’d obtained ‘Introduction to Magic.’ Along with the instincts as a warrior, Crockta was able to clearly observe the flow of magic power.

Thus, he could see it. The magic power boiling at the rear of the expedition rose to the sky and penetrated the atmosphere. Then that magic power took shape. It looked like a net.

“It can’t be…”

It went beyond the sky, beyond the atmosphere of the planet, and headed towards a distant space. Then it grabbed the asteroids floating in space. The net of magic dragged the asteroids down one by one.

The universe…

The vast space…

The rocks drifting through it…

The goddess of magic gathered such things together and pulled them down to the ground. They slowly accelerated and burned white as they moved through the atmosphere.

“Scatterrrrrrrr────!”

‘Great magic.

‘Meteor Shower.’

The asteroids burned as they passed through the atmosphere but survived persistently. Then they became weapons of slaughter. The fragments of white meteors hit the orcs.

“Kuaaaaaaah!”

“Kuaaaaak!”

“Hurtsss!”

The flames and impact destroyed the orcs’ formation. Soon, there were craters here and there, as well as burning orcs. The meteor shower continued.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa!

Uwaaaaaah!

Screams were mingled with the sounds of the bombardment.

“Oh my god…”

The magic only told of in legends was actually produced by the goddess of magic. Crockta avoided the meteors which fell, but the aftermath caused the earth to shake and flames to burn his body. Crockta roared and shook off the flames.

“Pant…pant…”

His face filled with anger as he held God Slayer and glared at the enemies. The formation of the expedition was still intact. They maintained their formation while watching the pandemonium with cold eyes.

“Son of a bitch…”

There had been the demons, and now there was a meteor shower. They weren’t delighted at all. Crockta laughed and stepped forward.

“Crockta, are you okay?” A familiar voice suddenly spoke.

“Kulkul, don’t be concerned.”

It was Hoyt. He was in charge of commanding the orcs from behind. However, in the end, he hadn’t been able to bear it and had moved to the front.

“Is it okay to come out here?”

“Kulkul, I couldn’t stand watching you alone.”

Meteors poured down from the sky the ground was filled with flames as the two warriors stood at the forefront of the army. Hoyt shouted, “Everyone wake uppppppp───────!”

It was the same as when he shouted at the training grounds.

“Is it painfulllllll──────?!” Hoyt’s roar overwhelmed the battlefield.

Then orcs started to walk out of the flames. No one was okay. They all had terrible injuries or were burned. Even so, they raised their weapons.

“Not at all.”

“It just tingles, Hoyt!”

“The body is fine! Kuhulhulhul!”

“Now, it is nice and warm!”

The number of orc warriors gradually increased.

Hoyt grinned, “Then…”

He exchanged a glance with Crockta. God Slayer and Mountain Slasher… A greatsword and a hammer were raised towards the sky.

“Come──────!”

Two warriors charged towards the expedition army.

“Uwaaaaaah!”

“Bul’tarrrrrrrrrr──────!”

“Heoooook!”

“Killlllllllll!”

The orc warriors ran along behind them. The battlefield where demons appeared and flames fell from the sky… From there, the orcs charged forward as always.

***

The elf user, Yurika, was taking a rest after hunting monsters. It was noisy due to the war between the gods and the orcs, but she was more interested in exploring the world of Elder Lord alone.

“I leveled up today,” she confirmed after checking her status window.

However, her status window suddenly became dark. “……?”

She realized that a large shadow was being cast on her. Then she looked up and jumped back with a startled expression, “…Eh?”

Yurika had thought it was a big monster due to the size of the shadow. However, it wasn’t like that. It was an orc.

“Uhh…”

The orc was a monster and NPC. They were in the middle. Orcs clearly had a civilization, but they were ambiguous beings who were sometimes killed for quests. Her perception had changed a lot since Crockta appeared, but she was still unfamiliar with orcs.

“Excuse me… What…?”

Additionally, the atmosphere around this orc was different. She could feel a tremendous power coming from him. He was certainly stronger than her. So, she prepared to escape.

“……” The orc looked at her quietly and then opened his mouth, “I want to ask for directions.”

It was a low but loud voice. Faced with his sunken eyes and the pressure coming from him, she thought it was fortunate that no fight would take place.

“Yes, a-ask. I’ll tell you if I know.”

“Perhaps…” He thought for a moment before asking, “Orc… Do you know which way Orcrox is?”

“Orcrox?”

Orcrox was in the middle of a war right now.

Maybe this orc was going to help them. She felt sorry for him. This respectful orc seemed strong, but she didn’t think the orcs could win. The expedition was large, and the gods were with them.

She explained in a soft voice, “If you keep going that way, a road will appear. Continue along the road and you will reach Orcrox. There are signs… There will also be people heading there. If you get confused, ask them.”

“Thank you.” The orc swept his gaze over her with sharp eyes. Then he thanked Yurika once again, “Really, thank you. Then I’m going now.”

He walked in the direction that she had told him. As Yurika looked at his back, she prayed for the orc.

Then…

“…Eh?”

Kung. Kung. Kung. Kung. Kung.

Shadows emerged from the bushes and followed the orc. Their figures were soon revealed. They were orcs who were following the first one.

“Uh…uhhh…”

The number continued to increase. Yurika’s mouth fell open. All of them were wearing steel armor and helmets, as well as carrying huge weapons on their shoulders. They weren’t like the orcs she knew.

All the orcs she had seen were free-spirited. She had never seen orcs equipped like this and moving like an army. However, an endless number of them marched forward.

“Where…?” She wondered where this army had come from.

This was the Forest of Creatures. It was a land blocked by the limit line. Flags were flying above the orcs’ heads… The patterns were all different, but the letters below them were the same. She muttered, “The Great Clan…?”