Chapter 20: Let us smash the noble pigs' noses
「UOOOOH! You pig-headed cowards! Do you not have the courage to come and face me?!」
With a disheveled mane and bared fangs, Vigaro let out a roar and jeered at the Orcs. Though the Orcs and Goblins standing in his way likely didn't understand his words, they retreated as if they were afraid of him.
Vigaro's role in this battle was to act as a diversion.
One glance at Vigaro was enough to tell that he was highly-ranked among the Ghouls. Leading a group of ten warriors including female mages, he made a show of rampaging around, defeating every enemy that came into his sight. The plan was to have a separate group including Basdia rescue the captive women while this was happening.
It was a simple plan; if their enemies were humans, they would have quickly realized that it was a diversion. However, it worked against monsters.
Aggressive behavior is something that all monsters have in common. With members of their own race being killed by Vigaro and his group, they could not help but to focus their attention on him. Orcs in particular were a race that were quick to become enraged, and Vigaro had even quickly defeated the leaders like the Orc Generals. There was no time for them to gather their troops together.
A rare kind of Orc called an Orc Tamer set monsters like Wood Wolves, Huge Boars and Giant Pythons on the Ghouls, but even those were easily crushed. They were nothing compared to the Undead led by Vandalieu.
(I didn't have a hard time at all fighting against the Orc Generals that are supposed to be of the same Rank as me. Rather than me having become stronger, this is Vandalieu's work.)
The effects of the[Strengthen Followers]skill and the battleaxe that was a Magic Item that Vigaro had been given. Even the various supportive spells cast on him by the mages were still active because Vandalieu had transferred his Mana to the mages to recast them.
And when Vigaro and his group had encountered Orc Mages and Goblin Mages that would have been difficult opponents, Vandalieu had appeared out of nowhere to release a black fog that surrounded the enemy mages and sealed their magic.
That was why they were experiencing such an overwhelming victory with not even a single injury, let alone a casualty.
The Ghouls did feel a little shameful to be completely dependent on this child, but Ghoul society placed value on ability. It was only natural for superior individuals to stand at the top.
And Vigaro understood that Vandalieu was superior to himself.
Without a doubt, Vigaro had the advantage in muscle strength and physical ability. In battle techniques, too. However, Vandalieu had the overwhelming advantage when it came to magic and Mana. And above all, he possessed the[Strengthen Followers]skill, the skill that a superior individual should have.
(I have the capacity to become the chief of a hundred Ghouls, and Vandalieu has the capacity to stand above me.)
Vigaro understood this. However, he couldn't help but to feel pathetic. As he was now, wasn't he pathetic for someone serving under Vandalieu - no, for someone who was Vandalieu's family member?
「BUGAAAAAAH!」
That was why when Vigaro heard a roar even more powerful than an Orc General's, both corners of his mouth twisted upwards in a smile.
There was a young Noble Orc whose body that was over two meters tall made Vigaro look small in comparison. His features seemed to be made out of pure ugliness and pride other than his brilliantly-shining blonde hair.
As his rage-filled pupils spotted Vigaro from a height of three meters, his expression softened into one of scorn.
He would scatter these insolent small-fries in place of his useless subordinates.
That was clearly what he was thinking.
「A Noble Orc!」
「Vigaro, what are we going to do?!」
Seeing not an enemy of the same Rank as Vigaro like an Orc General, but a powerful Noble Orc that was clearly a superior foe, even these elite Ghouls couldn't conceal their unrest.
Vigaro was a Rank 5 Ghoul Barbarian, and this enemy was a Rank 6 Noble Orc. Though the number was only different by one, the actual difference was significant. Generally, in battles between monsters, if two monsters face off head-to-head starting at healthy conditions, the higher Rank one will win unless the other monster has some significant advantage.
No matter how much experience a fox has and how much it practices its skills, there is no way it can win a head-on fight against a tiger. Vigaro himself had once said that if he were to fight a Noble Orc, he would definitely lose.
「What are we going to do, you say? … WE FIGHT!」
But right now, he didn't feel as if he would lose!
Letting out the roar of a lion, Vigaro closed the distance between himself and the Noble Orc. Looking down at him, the Noble Orc performed a sideways sweep with his own axe that was even larger than the axe that Vigaro had received from Vandalieu.
Vigaro crouched close to the ground as if crawling to avoid the blow that could have sent his head flying if it connected. He felt anger at the fact that some of his mane was cut off, but before paying too much attention to that, he used three of his limbs to leap sideways.
「BUGIH!」
The reason Vigaro did that was because the axe that was supposed to pass over his head instead came swinging down with a loud crash.
Normally, axes have bad balance and after swinging them once, time is needed to prepare one's stance again. Regaining one's balance immediately after swinging an axe is impossible. But the Noble Orc's incredible physical ability made it possible.
「BUOOOOH!」
It swung its axe consecutively with no technique, only pure physical strength. It seemed that there were plenty of openings in between, but if Vigaro were to let up his focus on evasion to attack that opening, he would likely be cut to shreds.
Vigaro kept dodging the attacks nimbly.
One of his hands was still holding his axe while the other gripped the earth and helped him kick his body off its surface to avoid the Noble Orc's attacks.
Each of the Noble Orc's swings contained terrifying power, and its physical strength made them quick as well. But each of its movements was obvious and linear.
Against an opponent like Vigaro, it was like telling him,「I'm going to attack like this, right now」, before every swing.
「GAAAH!」
「BUHIHI!」
「WAAUUH!」
Vigaro, the Noble Orc, and the warriors that each of them led were engaged in battle.
Vigaro had an idea of how the battle was progressing through the Ghouls' battle language, but the Noble Orc's head was completely focused on his Ghoul opponent in front of him.
Why wouldn't any of its attacks land on him?!
He was one of his great father's sons, the strongest of them all, Bugibulio! Why could he not land a single attack on something like this Ghoul?!
For Noble Orcs, male Ghouls were just small fry and female Ghouls were nothing but meat pots! So why were such Ghouls making him embarrass himself in front of his subordinates and slaves?!
「BUGAAAAAAH!」
With his rage and irritation taking over, the Noble Orc unleashed the martial skill,[Bisection.]It was a level 2 martial skill but even if a human were to use it, it would be powerful enough to cut down a tree in one strike. If a Noble Orc used it, it was capable of smashing a boulder.
However, the more powerful the Noble Orc's attack, the larger the opening following it was.
Vigaro avoided it and made great use of the chance at a counterattack that he had finally found.
「[Axe Whip!]」
Vigaro's long arm bent loosely like a whip.
「BUOH?!」
The Noble Orc immediately tried to bend backwards to avoid it, but Vigaro's long arm bent once more and his axe inflicted a deep cut in the Noble Orc's right arm.
「GAAAAAAH!」
Vigaro's right hand left the handle of his battleaxe. And then he gripped the mid-air battleaxe with his left hand and -
He used his martial skill once more.
「Bu-buhyiih!」
The Noble Orc deflected the axe aimed at his neck with his own axe. But after Vigaro's axe was repelled, his arm suddenly changed direction and severed the Noble Orc's right leg, which the Noble Orc hadn't been paying attention to.
Unable to keep his balance, the Noble Orc toppled over sideways. This time, Vigaro's axe dug its way deep into his neck and decapitated him.
The[Axe Whip]technique in which the user increases the flexibility of his arm and flings it like a whip, and the[Triple Axe Whip]technique in which the process is repeated consecutively. These were martial skills taught only to the long-armed Ghoul men.
「Uoooooh! Who's next?!」
Vigaro let out a roar of victory and stamped down on the head of the Noble Orc, which was still wearing the screaming expression at the moment of his death. Seeing this fearsome sight, the Orc knights began to fall apart and flee for their lives, but… there was no way that these slow Orcs could get away.
The few remaining Goblins and Kobolds followed their masters into the grave.
「Grrr! How's that, Vandalieu? Your family is strong!」
There was a small child who had called the Ghouls his family, gotten involved in a battle he didn't need to get involved in and even took on the Title of King. Even now, he was working harder than any of the Ghouls. How could Vigaro call himself a young chief, a warrior, if he didn't produce results that could make that child proud?
Standing in a pitter-pattering rain of blood, Vigaro gave a pride-filled roar.
Bugogan's third son, Budibis, had absolute confidence in his own beautiful looks and his skill with a bow.
He wasn't proficient in close-quarters combat like his brothers. But he believed that a noble should not clash with their inferior prey directly and become stained in an unsightly way by their blood. He believed that a noble should shoot their prey from a distance with elegance.
「Bugoh, buhihiih?!」
When he had heard a report that there was a group of Ghouls being led by a female Ghoul, he could only think of how fitting the prey was for him.
That group apparently contained many female Ghouls. His only thoughts were of capturing them, picking out ones that he fancied, presenting the other attractive ones to his father and distributing the rest among his subordinates, thus placing him in a superior position to his brothers.
「Buhiiiiih! BUGYAAAAAH!」
He had no intention of letting his guard down. He had given five Orc Knights the honor of serving as his advance guard, and also brought with him ten Orcs and thirty small-fry Goblins.
At first, things were going well. The warriors serving as Zadiris's advance guard were unable to completely stop Budibis's subordinates, and his arrow powerful enough to pierce straight through an adventurer in full plate armor was only barely stopped by the female Ghouls' wind-attribute Magic.
At this rate, the female Ghouls would run out of Mana in less than five minutes, and then the Orcs could push into them. Budibis was confident in his victory.
And then much more than five minutes passed and the female Ghouls had showed no signs of running out of Mana.
「GUOOOOOOOH!」
「GEEEEEEH!」
Instead, a group of Undead attacked from the side. With clouds of the Rotten Beasts' poisonous breaths floating around and a Phantom Bird's long-ranged fire from its spirit wings raining down, Budibis and his subordinates were shaken.
In the opening created by the Undead, the female Ghouls rallied, causing even more unrest in Budibis's forces, and then the Rotten Beasts rushed in.
The female Ghouls had been supposed to run out of Mana long ago, but they were releasing spells towards Budibis even now. Budibis's subordinates who were supposed to have pushed into the female Ghouls were instead pushed into, and turned into twitching, bloodstained corpses.
「Buhiiiih! BUGIBULIO! BUBOBIO! BUOOH!」
With his face that he conceitedly believed to be beautiful twisted in fear, Budibis called for help from the brothers that he secretly looked down on and the father that he despised. However, what reached out to him was not the helping hand of his family members, but the cold hand of death.
「Tch, how noisy![Great Wind Blade!]」
The enormous, greatsword-sized blade of wind created by Zadiris's spell cut Budibis in half horizontally as he tried to make an unsightly escape.
Budibis managed to take a few more steps with the top and bottom half of his body still intact, but then his strength gave out and he collapsed, his organs spilling onto the ground.
「Fuh… Surprisingly, he was not a greatly difficult foe, but he was a noisy rascal with a scream that pierced the ears. Boy, we are fine now.」
As Zadiris exhaled, a semi-transparent, thin, string-like object detached from her shoulder. This was Vandalieu's Spirit Form that had been transferring her Mana.
He had apparently attached it to Bone Bird and had it bring it to her.
Without even seeing Bone Bird off, Zadiris raised her staff high.
「Everyone! There are few enemies left! But do not let down your guard!」
A short while earlier…
The group of Ghoul warriors including Basdia quickly finished securing the building containing the captive Ghoul women.
There had been Orc guards here as well, but it seemed that their primary job had been to make sure none of the other Orcs did anything excessive to the women rather than to prevent the women from escaping. As they hadn't planned on killing members of their own race, they weren't very well-equipped.
And the ones who had come here to procreate had been even more poorly-equipped; they might as well have been fully naked.
The outer wall turning into Wood Golems had caused the village to fall into a state of chaos; most of the Orcs had tried to run out of the buildings while Goblins and less intelligent Orcs tried to get into them. Basdia and her group had charged in during the middle of this large traffic jam and cleaned them up quickly before things escalated into a proper battle.
The women inside the buildings were in a terrible state. In order to keep captive the Ghoul women who possessed the[Superhuman Strength]skill, their bodies had been immobilized by being half-buried in boulders, likely with a spell cast by the Orc Mages or Noble Orcs. In addition, it seemed that they had been tormented; there were whip-marks on their skin.
There were some women who weren't in this state, but they had been treated just as horribly - their hands and feet had been deliberately broken.
Ghouls had much more vitality compared to humans, so they functioned as tools to give birth to Orc children with no problems even if they were treated horribly. That was why they had been treated this way.
The human women in the same building… The Ghouls expected them to be in better conditions, and that expectation was correct. They couldn't say this out loud after seeing their actual situation, however.
Unlike most monsters, the Ghoul women had a sense of values. Perhaps this was why they were not rendered mentally crippled, even after receiving such deep emotional scars.
「What do we do with these women…?」
But the human women seemed completely broken. Their eyes were lifeless and their bodies were limp, like corpses.
Even though the humans were mortal enemies for the Ghouls, as a fellow woman, Basdia couldn't help but to sympathize for them.
She wanted to do something for them, but…
「GRRRRR!」
Hearing words from her allies' in the Ghouls' battle language, Basdia recollected her thoughts.
The meaning of those words were,『A powerful enemy is approaching.』
「BUOOOOOH!」
Basdia came out to the front of the buildings to see an enraged Noble Orc with fangs bared, as well as Orc Knights guarding him with shields raised.
「GRRRRRRRRR!」
Her companions didn't hesitate to call for reinforcements. None of the Ghouls here, including Basdia, possessed outstanding ability in combat. They could easily defeat Orc Knights, but a Noble Orc would be too difficult.
Even factoring in the supportive spells and difference in equipment, there was no way that this group of Rank 3 and 4 Ghouls could win against ten Rank 4 Orc Knights led by a Rank 6 Noble Orc.
In fact, they would be trampled one-sidedly.
「Did their leader decide to dedicate some of his forces to recapture the women? I would have thought that they would be headed to where Vigaro and the others are.」
Seeing the Noble Orc arrogantly looking down upon them, Basdia couldn't help but to wonder this out loud. In fact, the reason the Ghouls had come here was so that the Noble Orcs and their subordinates wouldn't use the Ghoul women as hostages.
But on the other hand, there was nothing more of value here.
Even if the Noble Orcs defeated Basdia and the other Ghouls here, the battle would definitely not go well for the Orcs as the groups led by Vigaro, Zadiris and Vandalieu would be able move about freely.
Recapturing the women would increase the Orcs' morale to some extent, but it would not increase their strength in battle.
Common sense would have told the Orcs that it would be a better decision to leave Basdia's group alone, instead dealing with Vigaro and Zadiris's groups. Of course, most monsters didn't possess common sense, but everyone had expected that at least monsters with the Noble Orcs' intelligence would have made that decision.
「Bubuh, bufufufu.」
However, the young Noble Orc looking down on Basdia and her group, Bubobio, was a Noble Orc that defied those expectations.
He was aware that the battle would not turn around with just the efforts of his subordinates and slaves, but had confidence that if he stepped into battle himself, he could win.
Like his brothers, he led his subordinates to act separately from them and add achievements to his own name. The thought of helping his brothers didn't occur to him at all; his head only contained thoughts of defeating them and currying favor with his father.
「Gubububuh.」
That was why Bubobio had chosen to secure the women. There were no Noble Orc or Orc women; they were races made up entirely of males. In order to preserve themselves, the females of other races were absolutely necessary.
If he were to recapture the women for the village, it would become a highly-valued achievement.
That was what Bubobio thought. It was a choice not to win the battle, but a choice brought about by the thought of gaining the greatest achievement to his name while exercising the least effort.
It was only natural for him to decide against what would be considered common sense.
「BUOOOOOH!」
Pointing the tips of their prided greatswords in the direction of the Ghouls, the Orc Knights raised their shields and lowered their center of gravity in a prepared stance.
「Grr! (They're going to charge in!)」
「Garr! (Buy some time!)」
They had to somehow hold out until reinforcements arrived. Basdia and the other Ghouls hardened their resolve while the ten Orc Knights simultaneously charged in while using their[Shield Bash]skill… Or as they began to, the ground surface began to move.
『UOOOOOOOHN!』
The ground turned into dozens of Earth Golems that stood to face the Orc Knights.
But there was no way that these brittle clay-doll-like Golems could stop the[Shield Bash]of Orcs that weighed over a hundred kilograms. They should crumble instantly, but…
「BUGYAAAAAH?!」
Before the Orc Knights clashed against the Earth Golems, their legs were caught in holes in the ground, causing them to fall down.
Earth Golems were made from the dirt on the ground. It was only natural that holes with the same volume as the Golems would form.
And then the Earth Golems collapsed on top of the fallen Orc Knights, burying them alive.
「…」
「…」
After seeing these unbelievable events unfold, both the Ghouls and Bubobio were silent.
「They were more effective than I thought, these Golem-made improvised pitfalls.」
『Oh, such tremendous technique! As to be expected from you, Bocchan.』
『You even gave them a burial. Though we'll have to dig them up again later.』
With the rattling of carriage wheels, Vandalieu and Sam appeared.
「V-Van?」
「Yes, it's me. Ah, there���s still the Noble Orc left, so let's not let our guard down.」
「You're right.」
「And the enemy's head is still intact, so please defeat him quickly.」
「Well, that goes without saying… Wait a minute, you want me to defeat him?!」
「Yes, from an Experience-Point perspective.」
Basdia was flustered and surprised, but Vandalieu requested that she defeat Bubobio as if it was the obvious thing for her to do.
「It's alright, I'm going to support you.」
「No, I think it's impossible for me to defeat a Noble Orc even with you supporting me!」
「It's impossible because you think it's impossible. Even that sheetty professor that valued results over anything said that.」
「And you're alright with learning from those words?!」
「But you know, he was really a rotten-brained, idiot professor.」
Even though Vandalieu was the laboratory animal, the professor should have been the one taking responsibility when the experiments didn't succeed, but he always said things like,「You don't have enough spirit…」He was a nagging, disagreeable fellow. The only time Vandalieu had a positive feeling towards him was when he let out his dying scream.
Looking at Bubobio, Vandalieu recalled that professor's blonde hair.
「It's fine; if I support you, Basdia, you won't die. He's coming this way now.」
「!」
With a sigh, Basdia raised her axe. Bubobio stood before her, trembling with rage.
「BUGOOOOOOH!」
Bubobio was enraged at the fact that Vandalieu and Basdia had forgotten him and were having an enjoyable conversation together. With a roar, he raised his greatsword. As he did so, the ground beneath which the Orc Knights were buried began to crawl.
Vandalieu was calm. He knew that he hadn't managed to dig holes deep enough to kill the Orcs instantly, so he had been expecting that they would emerge eventually.
「Rita, Saria and everyone else, please finish off the ones that are buried. Basdia, let's defeat the Noble Orc together.」
「Kuh, alright!」
Still wondering if she would really be alright, Basdia stepped forward.
From behind her came the screams of the Orc Knights who had managed to finally crawl out of the ground, only to be slaughtered by a glaive, halberd or Ghoul claws.
「BUOOOOH!」
Bubobio charged towards Basdia with the force of a brick wall. And then he swung his greatsword towards her head with a speed too fast to be seen by the eyes.
『Evade to the right.』
Basdia obeyed her instincts to dodge that lethal attack that her eyes couldn't follow.
「Buh, BUOOH!」
As if dissatisfied that his lethal attack had been evaded, Bubobio forcefully pulled his greatsword back and performed a thrust.
『A half-step to the left.』
And in the next moment, Basdia had evaded that thrust as well.
「Buh… BUOH! BUOH! BUOOOH! BUGOGOOOH!」
As if panicking now that he had been dodged a second time, Bubobio began unleashing attacks one after another.
A sideways-sweeping[Single Flash], a diagonal[Flowing Cut]from above, a[Triple Thrust]aimed at Basdia's neck, stomach and leg.
If any of these brutal attacks landed, they would have been fatal regardless of Basdia's well-trained body and high-quality armor.
But Basdia evaded them all.
Just how?! How could this female Ghoul move so fast?! Why did Bubobio's blade not find its target, even though he was supposed to be unrivalled?!
The expression on Bubobio's face had gone beyond anger, and there was now even some fear of Basdia.
(How am I able to dodge these attacks?!)
And even Basdia was surprised. Indeed, after the battle so far, she had seen that Bubobio wasn't particularly highly skilled. He was about as skilled as she was.
However, there was a vast difference in their basic physical strength. If Basdia was lucky, she would be able to dodge one or two attacks, but having these attacks unleashed one after the other should have ended in her being chopped to pieces.
But for some reason, Basdia had known what she needed to do to avoid dying.
She had sensed that she needed to move right, immediately did exactly that and the greatsword had swung down at the spot that she had been standing.
She had sensed that she needed to take half a step back, and then the tip of the greatsword had passed right in front of her.
As if she could see the future, she had known what she needed to do to survive. It was as if she had acquired the[Future Sight]skill.
(I see; this is Vandalieu's support!)
A cool, soft hand was supporting her. It was this hand that was telling her how to avoid being killed.
Vandalieu's arm, which he had used[Spirit Form Transformation]on, had fused with Basdia's back. Through that arm, Vandalieu applied the[Danger Sense: Death���that was constantly active for himself to Basdia.
[Danger Sense: Death]was a skill that detected the danger of death, which meant that it could definitely detect each of Bubobio's lethal attacks.
[Danger Sense: Death]wouldn't detect the attacks of a Kobold's sword whose individual swings inflicted only light damage. If Bubobio had simply kept his composure and mixed feints in with his attacks, things might not have turned out so one-sided.
However, the enraged, impatient, scared Bubobio was unable to keep his composure and repeated only these lethal attacks that would kill in one hit.
The three brothers, Bubobio, Bubidis and Bugibulio, were weak compared to the Noble Orc race as a whole.
Rather than them having been born this way, their weakness was a result of the environment that they had grown up in and Bugogan's failure to train them adequately.
Since they had been born after Bugogan had made his escape from his home into this Devil's Nest, they had been surrounded by nothing but servant Orcs and slave Goblins and Kobolds from the moment they were born.
They had made most things work with the physical strength that they were blessed with from birth, and all the enemies they had faced were foes that were easily defeated by swinging weapons at them, not requiring them to improve their techniques.
Naturally, they neglected their studies and since they faced only lower-Rank enemies, their levels didn't increase and their combat-related skills didn't go beyond level 3.
The rivals that they did compete against were their brothers that were just the same as themselves, so rather than working hard, they simply competed over who could get the easiest achievements.
If this had been a harsh environment such as the large Devil's nest to the south that housed many other Noble Orcs and other monsters that could challenge them, Bubobio and his brothers would have been forced to work hard to survive.
The Noble Orcs thought that children who could raise themselves were superior, while children that required the parents to directly raise them were inferior. If Bugogan had discarded this notion and trained his sons himself, then perhaps they would have had high-level martial and magic skills.
Instead, what he had produced were three foolish sons who had only experienced easy victories against weaker foes.
They hadn't had any problems with this until now. Their enemies were all inferior, after all.
However, Basdia and the other Ghouls were far more diligent than the Orcs in training themselves.
Vandalieu and Tarea had even provided them with equipment even better than that of adventurers.
Factoring in the supportive spells and the effects of the[Strengthen Followers]skill, this was more than enough to overcome a Rank difference of one.
Even then, Basdia would have a hard time defeating a Noble Orc without taking any damage. But with Vandalieu's support, she wouldn��t die.
Since a one-on-one battle would only end when one of the participants died, the outcome of this battle was already clear.
「Buhih, buhih!」
Now out of breath, the Noble Orc's movements became noticeably slower and it stopped using its martial skills. Using martial skills normally consumes Mana, but in this case, it also drained Stamina as well.
「[Bisection!]」
「Bugiiiiiih!」
And then Basdia went on the attack and Bubobio's arm was severed by her axe.
She unleashed a merciless series of martial skills, as if returning the favor.[Strong Flash],[Instant Response],[Single Flash.]
As Bubobio tried to turn and run, he toppled forward as Basdia's axe, empowered by the weapon-throwing skill[Lightning Attack], buried itself in the back of his head.
「I defeated him… I defeated him, Van! I defeated a Noble Orc!」
Basdia was likely exhilarated at the fact that she had gained a large amount of Experience Points by defeating this powerful enemy. She rushed over to Sam's carriage and picked Vandalieu up and started swinging him around.
「You defeated him, you defeated him, so please put me down.」
He was happy that Basdia was so overjoyed, but having his vision shaken up, down, left and right wasn't a pleasant experience. The other Ghouls wouldn't stop cheering, either.
But it was fortunate that Basdia had gained the Experience Points, just as he had planned.
Vandalieu couldn't gain Experience Points on his own because of his curse, and even if he could he was already level 100 so it would have been pointless for him to gain the Experience Points himself. That was why he had wanted Basdia, who could use the Experience Points, to defeat the Noble Orc.
「Now, we have to deal with these guys' dad -」
「BUGOAAAAAAAAH!」
An angry roar came from the largest house in the village, interrupting Vandalieu. At the same time, the walls of that house began to collapse from the inside, but even the sounds of the walls falling were drowned out by the roar.
A Noble Orc well over three meters tall appeared. He was holding a magic sword with a two-meter-long blade and wore an extravagant suit of armor.
Even Vandalieu and the group of Ghouls that was with him could see this Noble Orc.
They were rendered speechless. The happiness that they had felt moments earlier had vanished, and they were now trembling in fear instead. But it couldn't be helped; this was a true Noble Orc. This was a monster that could rival a Dragon.
Vandalieu took this opportunity to slip away from Basdia's arms and analyzed how much of a threat Bugogan was with[Danger Sense: Death.]
He wondered how they would win this battle.
If he cooperated with Basdia to fight him… No matter what he did, Basdia would die.
If he waited for Zadiris and used magic as their primary way to fight… No matter what he did, the rear guard including Zadiris and the Ghouls of the advance guard would die.
If he used Vigaro at the center of his tactics… No matter what he did, no matter how good or bad his luck was, Vigaro would die.
If he used Zadiris, Vigaro and Basdia as the primary fighting force while also combining the strength of himself, Sam and the other Undead… He thought he could win. But no matter how good their luck was, some of them would die.
If Vandalieu stepped forward to face Bugogan alone, with everyone else just supporting him… There was more than a fifty percent chance that he would die, but only a ten percent chance that the others would die.
「Well then, please lend me your support.」
Before anyone could express their surprise at these words, Vandalieu used the no-attribute spell[Flight]to float into the air, and then flew towards Bugogan with the speed of a bullet.
Chapter 21: An unsightly, humorous boss fight
Up until he heard his foolish, idiotic sons' dying screams, Bugogan had finished his preparations for battle, but remained seated on his throne.
The reason for that was because he was the ruling king. The king was not supposed to step out onto the battlefield. That was the job of his achievement-hungry sons, their subordinates and the slaves.
That was why Bugogan had simply sat on his throne, reprimanded the failures that were his subordinates and ordered his sons to join the battle.
And then he became aware that his servants and slaves had perished, and his sons had been slaughtered.
At that moment, Bugogan's rage exceeded its limits.
「BUGAAAAAAAH!」
He unsheathed his prided magic sword and stood up from his throne and destroyed the walls of this building that had taken longer to build than the other Orc dwellings, but was still nothing more than a shabby house.
Sending splinters of wood flying, he gave yet another roar. His rage wouldn't settle down at all.
How much effort had he put into increasing the numbers of the foolish Orcs to this extent?
No matter how stupid, foolish and inexperienced they were, how long had it taken him to create sons?
It hadn't been easy to gather slaves, women, weapons and armor, either.
All of that hard work was about be nullified in a single night.
He couldn't hold himself back any more.
These insolent Ghouls who had attacked his village! He would slaughter all of the males, capture every single female and have them give birth to as many Orcs as had been killed tonight!
As Bugogan lost himself in his rage, he saw something flying towards him with incredible speed.
Bugogan didn't think it was more than something in the background until it was about ten meters in front of him.
And even now that he had noticed that it was there, he forgot his rage for a moment and wondered what this thing was.
It looked like a human child with long, white hair, white skin, a right eye as red as blood and a bluish-purple left eye. For a moment Bugogan thought that this was a young female Ghoul, but the ears that could be seen protruding through its hair were pointed. Did this creature possess Elf blood mixed into its veins?
The reason Bugogan was confused at this child's appearance was that he felt nothing from it.
No presence, no sound, no smell, no bloodthirst, no hostility, no fear. He felt nothing at all.
If someone explained it to him by saying that he was having a hallucination, he would have believed it. This creature that he felt absolutely nothing from was so bizarre that he thought it might disappear if he closed his eyes and open them again.
Still floating in the air, it held its arms out as if to block his path, wrapping black Mana around itself.
Finally, Bugogan realized that this was an enemy.
The Noble Orc Bugogan. The Ghoul King Vandalieu. The scene of the two of them preparing to fight each other looked incredibly stupid.
At first, while Vandalieu was covering himself in black Mana and casting his[Impact-Negating Barrier]and[Magic Absorption Barrier], Bugogan was simply staring at him blankly.
「Fugoh!」
As Vandalieu finished casting his spells, Bugogan gave a short chant. A spear of earth suddenly appeared from below Vandalieu. It looked as if it was going to turn him into a skewer, but the moment its tip touched the[Impact-Negating Barrier], it turned back into fragile dirt.
Combined together, the[Impact-Negating Barrier]and[Magic Absorption Barrier]absorbed all of the power from any attack that originated outside the barriers. Electrical energy would be absorbed from lightning, heat energy would be absorbed from flame and, of course, Mana would be absorbed from spells.
Bugogan's spells were quickly rendered useless.
「Bufu, bugah!」
With that, he had likely discerned the effect of the barriers. Thinking that unarmed combat would be more effective than magic, Bugogan raised his magic sword.
「Bugagah!」
And in the next instant, he had closed the distance between himself and Vandalieu. With a speed that was unbelievable coming from his enormous body that was three meters in both width and height, he swung his magic sword down.
His attack looked like it could cut a rock in half as if it were paper, but it was blocked by the[Impact-Negating Barrier]and didn't even land a scratch on Vandalieu. The[Impact-Negating Barrier]absorbed not only the Mana, but also the kinetic energy of the weapon.
Kinetic energy is the energy needed to make a physical object move. To move a ten-kilogram dumbbell, ten kilograms of energy is required*. As that kinetic energy was absorbed by the[Impact-Negating Barrier], Bugogan's magic sword could not reach Vandalieu who was behind it.
In response to the strange sensation of having his weapon repelled by a soft wall, Bugogan's face twisted in confusion.
With Bugogan's blade stopped right in front of his face, Vandalieu looked at Bugogan with no expression on his face, but this is what he was thinking.
(This is bad, I'm going to die.)
On the surface, it seemed that Vandalieu was surrounded with an impenetrable defense. However, that impenetrable defense wouldn't last forever.
(Stopping that one preliminary attack that wasn't even a martial skill or anything cost me fifty thousand Mana.)
Vandalieu had been using his Mana excessively since the battle began; he had already spent half of it. He still had more than 50,000,000 remaining, but… If Bugogan attacked with a martial skill, it would cost tens of thousands of Mana to block it… Possibly even hundreds of thousands.
Of course, martial skills also consumed the user's Mana, so they couldn't be used endlessly. However, Bugogan could also use magic, so he would have much more Mana than his sons. And his Stamina would be even greater than that.
If Vandalieu ran out of Mana and his barriers disappeared, he would have no way of escaping Bugogan's attacks.
(I'm weak, after all.)
Are you strong? If someone were to ask Vandalieu this question, he would answer,「No, I'm weak.」
He could use death-attribute magic that nobody else could use.
He possessed over 100,000,000 Mana.
Because he was a Dhampir, at two years of age, he possessed more physical strength than an average adult man.
But he was weak.
If one were to separate everyone in Lambda into the strong and weak, Vandalieu would undoubtedly fall into the weak category.
Death-attribute magic was more restricted than other attributes of magic; there were limits to what Vandalieu could accomplish with it. There were almost no spells that dealt direct damage to the target like[Flame Spear],[Earth Axe��and[Wind Strike.]Its defensive capabilities were being demonstrated by Vandalieu right now, but since he could never go on the attack, he would be defeated eventually.
And whether he had 100,000,000 Mana or 200,000,000 Mana, he would die if his vitality dropped to zero.
His physical strength was barely stronger than an adult man's; there was no way that it would be a match for this monster that could even challenge a Dragon.
That was why Vandalieu was weak.
Vandalieu did not possess a permanent strength that worked in any situation.
But that didn't mean that he had the choice to give up and die.
「Get up.」
First, he turned the ground beneath Bugogan's feet into Golems to try to destroy his footing. His plan was to stop his movements until Basdia and the others got here, and then have them throw endless long-ranged attacks until Bugogan died.
「Buh!」
However, Bugogan quickly crushed the Earth Golems under his feet as they began to move. He stomped downwards with the unarmed martial skill[Kicking Strike], and each stomp caused multiple Golems to crumble.
It was only a tactic to buy time, but Vandalieu was surprised that he could only buy a few seconds by spending tens of thousands of Mana.
Next, Vandalieu fired the no-attribute magic spell,[Mana Bullet.]This was a simple spell where he hardened his Mana into a ball and threw it at his target, but since it didn't have any attribute, it was a spell that one could expect to work to some degree against any enemy.
He fired off multiple[Mana Bullets]the size of his own body containing about ten thousand Mana each, aiming for different parts of Bugogan's body with different timings, and then topped it off with a single, extra-large[Mana Bullet]containing a hundred thousand Mana.
Regardless of Bugogan's huge size, this barrage would send Bugogan flying to the edge of the village if they hit.
But Bugogan blocked all of them with his magic sword.
「BUOOOOOOOOOH!」
He moved his magic sword with incredible speed to repel every single[Mana Bullet.]The martial skill[Instant Response]increases the user's reaction speed. Bugogan used a superior version of the spell,[Super Instant Response], and a defensive spell where the user deflects magic with a sword called[Magic Breaker]consecutively while channeling Mana through the blade of his weapon.
Vandalieu was astonished to see him perform this feat that even a first-class swordsman would find difficult. He was the father of that weak Bubobio; why was he this strong?
Vandalieu's[Mana Control]skill was low relative to the amount of Mana contained in the deflected[Mana Bullets], so the Mana quickly dispersed without affecting the nearby terrain. For some reason, Vandalieu could sense something inside the house that Bugogan had emerged from with his[Sense Life]spell, so he was being careful about where he fired.
「BUOWAH!」
After repelling all of the[Mana Bullets], Bugogan raised his magic sword in the air and used the martial skill,[Cross Cut.]The[Impact-Negating Barrier]made an unusual sound.
The barrier hadn't been able to absorb all of the destructive power in the magic blade in an instant, so the blade had made it halfway in.
(I can't hold back here.)
It seemed that Bugogan had intended to finish things with this attack, so his eyes were wide open in surprise. Vandalieu looked down at him as he poured Mana into the[Impact-Negating Barrier]to repair it and strengthen it even further.
The[Cross Cut]executed by Bugogan was strong enough that it would cut the average knight or adventurer into four pieces.[Cross Cut]was a martial skill that actually had a lower skill level requirement to be effective than[Super Instant Response.]Bugogan was capable of using even more powerful martial skills than this.
(If he'd suddenly decided to go all-out, I might have died.)
The[Impact-Negating Barrier]protected Vandalieu's body from almost any attack, but there was a way to break through it. A single attack focused on one point, containing too much energy for the barrier to absorb. Pushing through by force, the kind of tactic that the main character of a story might use against the villain.
Vandalieu had loved such plot developments when he had lived on Earth, but the problem was that he was on the receiving end of it, and it might actually be possible for Bugogan to accomplish it.
There was no way that Vandalieu could die here, fail to avenge and revive his mother and become some stepping stone for a Noble Orc's ambitions.
He had to think of a way to kill him. He decided to position a Lemure behind Bugogan.
And then he would unleash a[Mana Bullet]at the same time the Lemure released its bloodthirst.
「Bugih?!」
The Lemure vanished, releasing a powerful bloodthirst. It was something that Bugogan couldn't ignore, even with an enemy right in front of him. The more powerful the warrior, the more sensitive to bloodthirst he would be and the more his body would react automatically.
And then the plan was to simply use[Mana Bullets]to turn him into a bee's nest, but…
Bugogan used[Super Instant Response]once more to increase his reaction speed and put his huge, flexible upper body to use as he performed a[Sword Dance.]This was a martial skill in which the user attacks in any direction. Bugogan attacked both behind him where the bloodthirst had come from, as well as the[Mana Bullets]coming from the front.
「BUGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAH!」
The magic sword that gleamed as it reflected the moonlight flashed in every direction; it even looked beautiful as it cut the black spheres of Mana into pieces.
And then Vandalieu felt a premonition of his own death. He quickly thickened his[Impact-Negating Barrier.]
「GAGAH!」
Bugogan pointed his magic sword towards Vandalieu and released a[Piercing Thrust.]A few millimeters further, and Vandalieu would have touched the cold blade. The thrust was so fast that Vandalieu would never have reacted in time if it hadn't been for his[Danger Sense: Death.]
Bugogan was able to deal with the bloodthirst of a Lemure and the[Mana Bullets]simultaneously, while also launching an attack. Bugogan's strength in battle exceeded Vandalieu's expectations.
(Now that it's come to this, what killing methods do I have -)
Release pathogens into the air with the[Incurable Disease]spell? Rejected. It would take time for the disease to infect Bugogan and produce symptoms. Vandalieu would run out of Mana before then.
Create poison with the[Deadly Poison]spell and then administer it to Bugogan? How? The simplest method would be to somehow inflict a wound and then apply the poison onto it, but it was difficult to inflict that wound in the first place.
Distract him with Golems? Vandalieu decided to give it a try.
Bugogan clicked his tongue and pulled back his magic sword. Before he could attack again, Vandalieu used[Flight]to fall back while whispering,「Get up.」
『OOOOOOOOOHN!』
『GISHIIIIIII!』
Earth Golems rose from behind, Wood Golems rose from the debris scattered around the area and the fallen Goblin and Kobold corpses rose as Living Dead.
At the same time, Vandalieu turned the ground beneath Bugogan's feet into Earth Golems to destroy his footing and even released a Lemure's bloodthirst and unleashed[Mana Bullets]simultaneously.
「BUGAAAH!」
Bugogan chased after Vandalieu.
He cut the Golems and[Mana Bullets]down with his[Sword Dance]while using[Kicking Strike]to crush the Golems under his feet.
Bugogan released a[Kicking Strike]with each step he took. Was he not afraid that the ground he was standing on would collapse? The ground shook with a loud thud each time his feet contacted the ground.
Just as Vandalieu wondered whether this would become a contest of who would run out of Stamina and Mana first, he heard the voices of his allies.
「Fire!」
『Bocchan!』
Suddenly, arrows and spears, poison breath, Spirit Form feathers, arrows of fire and stone, and attacks of ice and wind all rained down on Bugogan.
It seemed that Zadiris and the rest had arrived.
「GAAAAAH!」
Bugogan repelled these attacks with his extravagant armor, tough muscles and his magic sword. His magic sword even scattered the magic and poison breath attacks. He wasn't unharmed, but he had only taken damage on the level of superficial scratches.
(Not good… This situation is not good.)
Everyone had arrived at the scene, and they still had no way of dealing the decisive blow. Bugogan was fixated on killing Vandalieu for some reason, but would he give chase if Vandalieu were to run? No, in the worst case scenario, Bugogan would simply target everyone else instead.
Those targeted by him would have no way to survive.
(I can't let everyone be killed.)
Vandalieu might be able to have them stay in this world as spirits like Darcia. Sam and the other Undead might be fine as long as their souls were intact and he just repaired the bodies that contained them.
But what if that magic sword had the ability to cut through Spirit Forms?
No way, definitely not. He couldn't allow that to happen, he couldn't let any of that happen.
He had to kill this guy before that.
But how would he kill Bugogan? How could he get past this ridiculous defense to inflict a fatal wound?
Vandalieu thought so hard that steam might start rising from his head, and then he came to a sudden realization. He thought of something that Bugogan could neither evade nor block.
It was simple. It was nothing special.
He just needed to take a fatal wound himself.
Vandalieu deliberately made his[Impact-Negating Barrier]thinner. And then Bugogan's magic sword pierced through it and landed a diagonal slash on Vandalieu's torso.
Though Vandalieu wasn't aware of this, Bugogan seemed to be on the offense, but he wasn't in a comfortable position. In fact, from Bugogan's point of view, he was the one being driven into a corner.
The unknown foe before his eyes gave off no presence whatsoever and unleashed lethal attacks one after another with no signs of bloodthirst.
Each of the[Mana Bullets]that Vandalieu was freely releasing contained at least as much as the entire Mana pool of the average first-class mage. Their power was lessened by the fact that his control over his Mana was imperfect, but they were still powerful enough that if Bugogan took a direct hit, his bones would be smashed and several of his organs would rupture.
In fact, every time Bugogan deflected one with his magic sword, his arms received an impact that he couldn't completely shake off and placed a heavy burden on his wrists that he couldn't ignore. How much longer could he endure these attacks?
And on top of that, there were unknown invisible enemies releasing a bloodthirst, the ground surface and debris nearby had begun to move and corpses had risen up as Undead. Even if he wanted to use magic to deal with these, there was a strange black substance surrounding him that prevented his Mana from manifesting outside his body, making it impossible to cast spells.
He had no choice but to simply use consecutive martial skills, mustering all his Mana, Stamina and more importantly his willpower and emotional strength to deal with this and execute his own counterattack. But then the enemy's reinforcements arrived.
It was such a desperate situation that Bugogan wanted to shout,「You've got to be kidding me!」
Of course, aiming at any enemy but Vandalieu or trying to make an escape were both out of the question.
If he let this enemy out of his sight, how would he block those[Mana Bullets?]Because Vandalieu was erasing his presence completely, Bugogan could lose sight of him even if he focused on him.
If he turned his back on Vandalieu, he would take a direct hit from a final Mana Bullet and die.
What Bugogan thought was most terrifying about Vandalieu was that『expression.』The motionless eyes that watched him. They looked incredibly inhuman and showed no emotion.
Not fatigue, fear, impatience or anything else.
Seeing that, Bugogan thought that Vandalieu was composed. Didn't this guy look as if he could continue fighting for another whole hour, or even another whole day? If Bugogan didn't land an effective blow now, wouldn't he run out of strength and be killed?
Bugogan could see his own defeat and death.
「BUGAAAH!」
Believing that he was being driven into a corner one-sidedly, Bugogan thought that his only way to survive was to somehow kill Vandalieu, use what was left of his Stamina to scatter the Ghouls and then make an escape.
And then one of his countless attacks reached Vandalieu's body. It wasn't deep enough to slice Vandalieu's torso in half. But as Bugogan felt the sensation of his blade cutting through Vandalieu's ribs and sternum to reach his organs, he involuntarily gave an unpleasant sneer.
「VAN?!」
「BOY!」
Hearing the Ghouls' screams, Bugogan was confident in his victory.
He had expended most of his Stamina and Mana, but he still had a quarter of each left. That was plenty to scatter these inferior creatures. If he could, he would have wanted to slaughter them all, but that would have to come later. As long as he survived here, he would be able to build another kingdom. He would gather more subordinates and slaves and create more sons. This time for sure, he would create the strongest kingdom.
Licking the incredibly warm blood that had sprayed onto his face, Bugogan… fell to his knees.
(Looks like it worked. My blood spraying conveniently like that helped a lot.)
Vandalieu was on the ground, unable to breathe because his lungs had been cut. So he lay there silently, healing his own wound while watching Bugogan who was on his knees.
The moment he was cut, he had used[Spirit Form Transformation]to transform his heart and spine into spirit form. Because his back was intact, his arms and legs could still move. It was a harsh sensation, as he was bleeding a lot, but he wouldn't die as long as he didn't asphyxiate.
In order to close his wounds, he poured hundreds of thousands of Mana into the no-attribute magic spell,[Fortify Regeneration], with the mending of his lungs as the highest priority. He was fortunate that Bugogan's weapon had been an incredibly sharp magic sword. Because the wound was a clean cut, it was easy to heal.
「*Cough!*」
「Boy, do not move! I will treat you right now!」
「UOOOOOH! I'LL TAKE REVENGE FOR VANDALIEU ON THIS PIG!」
『Wait, I was just spitting out the blood that had gotten into my trachea. I'll be able to breathe again in a few minutes. And Vigaro, I'm not dead.』
『Bocchan, only we can hear your communication through thoughts.』
『I do know that.』
「Sam, what is Van saying?!」
『Ah, everyone, everything is fine. Bocchan's wounds will heal momentarily.』
The plan that Vandalieu had executed was to receive a deep wound that he could manage to heal on his own, while using[Deadly Poison]to turn the blood that sprayed from that wound into a toxic substance, and apply that toxic blood onto to Bugogan.
Bugogan hadn't expected that his enemy's blood would have turned into poison. He had been showered in Vandalieu's blood that had transformed into a poison so potent that it would permeate through the skin, and even licked it with his tongue and swallowed it.
His arms and legs began convulsing, his vision blurred, he lost consciousness and then had a heart attack. Under the effects of this incredibly deadly, poisonous blood, Bugogan couldn't even maintain his grip on his magic sword. He fell to his knees and then crumpled onto the ground.
『First, the finishing blow must be dealt to that Noble Orc. And be careful not to come into contact with Bocchan's blood -』
「Gahaah…」
「Vigaro?!」
『Hmm, this should have been left to us, as we are unaffected by poison. Very well, please excuse me.』
Sam's carriage wheel ran over the fallen Bugogan's neck with a crunch. And so he brought an end to the Noble Orc Bugogan who had been burning with ambition, but perished without any honor or proud achievements to his name.
The battle between the Ghoul King and the Noble Orc who had both overestimated each other's strength came to an unsightly end.
The battle was over, but there was still work to be done.
「Now that I think about it, someone did say that the hardest part would come after the battle.」
Dealing with the aftermath of war, so to speak.
The first thing that needed to be done was, of course, casting[Detoxification]on Vigaro to negate the poison in his body.
To prevent monsters that might be attracted by the smell of the large amount of blood spilled in the ruins of the village, Ghouls that had a relatively large amount of Stamina remaining were stationed as lookouts. The Ghoul women were in charge of caring for the ones that had been kept captive.
They searched the buildings that were still intact to check whether there were any survivors. And then they had to prepare bedding to sleep in tonight.
There was enough work to make their heads spin.
Even Vandalieu, who had sent Bone Bird back to the Ghoul village as a messenger, only had twenty percent of his Stamina and Mana remaining. But he wasn't resting, either.
「There's a full-bodied richness to it, and yet there is a persistent aftertaste that lingers in the throat.」
Fortunately, there was plenty of food lying on the ground all over the village. Vandalieu was draining the blood out of the Orc meat, and drinking it while he was at it, replenishing his Stamina and Mana.
The outer wall made of Ent materials had reverted to simply being logs. Tomorrow, the task of turning them back into Golems would be waiting for Vandalieu… Though there was something even harsher waiting for him as well.
「Boy… We are busy right now, so I will leave it until later, but there is something I want to say.」(Zadiris)
「Me too.」(Basdia)
『I suspect that Darcia-sama also has something to say. She simply cannot remain silent about what happened today, after all.』(Sam)
「… Alright.」(Vandalieu)
The plan of allowing his enemy to cut through his own flesh, organs and bones in order to dish out his blood as poison had succeeded, but it had made Zadiris, among others, very angry.
『To be honest, it's scary when people get angry at me so I don't like it, but…』
Vigaro hadn't been angered after finding out about Vandalieu's plan. Instead, he had complimented Vandalieu by saying,「Vandalieu is brave. Now that's what I call a real man.」So Vandalieu managed to comfort himself, telling himself that it might not be so bad.
「Vandalieu, we will leave the remonstrations for tomorrow, so I wish to consult you regarding what to do with the human women.」
「We ask them not to say anything about what happened and then release them near the town… This isn't a situation where we can do that, is it?」
「Hmm… Even if we were to release them near the town, they are in a state where they would likely sit there in the same spot until they die.」
「I see.」
It seemed that there would be no happy ending where everyone would live happily ever after, even after the evil monsters had been defeated.
Name: Bugogan
Rank: 7
Race: Noble Orc
Level: 100
Passive skills:
Superhuman Strength: Level 4
Endless Sexual Stamina: Level 3
Lower Race Domination: Level 3
Active skills:
Swordsmanship: Level 6
Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 5
Armor Technique: Level 5
Earth-Attribute Magic: Level 4
Fire-Attribute Magic: Level 3
No-Attribute Magic: Level 2
Mana Control: Level 3