Orc Village

Two months had passed since Mihai's departure and it was now May.

Allen was currently at the foothills of the White Dragon Mountains.

In the seven months that had passed since he had first attacked one last October, he had managed to completely eradicate all goblin villages along the length of the mountain chain in the area within the Granvelle fiefdom.

That had come to a count of fifty-two villages—with there being around two hundred goblins at each, that was a sum of roughly ten thousand goblins. The chivalric order had assaulted a few settlements, but the ones that Allen had taken down made up more than eighty percent of the overall total.

As there were no more goblin villages, Allen was going to attack his very first orc village today. The goblin kings that had led the villages were only Rank C, so he had been able to kill them quite handily. The orc kings that led their villages, however, were Rank B. Today was also going to be Allen's very first attempt at killing a Rank B monster.

According to the feed from a Bird E using Hawk Eye, the chivalric order was still quite far behind. Their great numbers made it hard for them to move swiftly. They would likely arrive at this village tomorrow, so Allen wanted to finish everything within the day.

His plan was to go with a pincer attack, the same strategy that he had used against the goblin villages. That meant placing five Beast Ds and one Insect D on standby at the back of the village. Allen would attack from the front gate, and then have those on standby charge in ten minutes later.

'All right, let's begin. Come out, Teddys, Spidey, Belly, and Brons.' Six Beast Ds, one Insect D, one Fish D, and two Stone Ds appeared.

One thing that Allen was doing differently today was introducing the Stone Summons. Just as the goblins did, he expected the orcs to throw spears and shoot arrows. However, the same tactic being used by orcs was much more of a threat than when used by goblins. The longer the battle went, the more chances there were for a projectile attack to reach Allen.

This was why he now had two Stone D Summons taking up defensive positions in front of himself. Just how useful would these bronze statues carrying two-meter-tall shields be? Today was, among everything else, also a test drive for them. Allen was never one to let an opportunity for analyzing his Summons go to waste.

Without further ado, Fish D used its Ability, Splash, on the entire group. Although Allen had called out all his Summons in an area that was a blind spot from the village's gate, there were so many of them that the sentries on the walls might spot them regardless. Allen decided to launch his attack before he lost the element of surprise.

'Here goes—the first orc village assault!' The plan leaped into motion.

Just like in the goblin villages, there were two orcs standing guard at the gate. When the Summons all burst from cover, roaring fiercely and shaking the ground with their pounding, shock ran through the orcs on the walls and in the watchtowers. The village bell started ringing cacophonously, signaling an emergency.

The Beast Ds at the very front Crushed the two gate guards to death. These giant bears, after being Strengthened, could more than hold their own against orcs one-on-one.

'As I expected, the orcs're shooting a lot of arrows at me.'

The two Stone Ds held their shields up high, protecting Allen from the projectiles. However, there was no such cover for the Beast Ds, which were gradually being turned into pincushions. Currently, Allen had no way of checking the Summons' HP. If he did not pay careful enough attention, his Summons would suddenly disappear on him, dissipating into bubbles of light.

'Not being able to see how much HP my Summons have left really is inconvenient, since it's pretty sudden when they die on me in the middle of hunts... Hmm, maybe I should add more Spideys. Come on out.'

In order to lessen the amount of damage the Beast Ds were taking, Allen Summoned two more Insect Ds. Naturally, he was keeping a record in his grimoire of the adjustments he was making to serve as reference for future attacks.

Three giant spiders clambered over the watchtowers and walls, spitting Spider Silk everywhere. When the Teddys finally burst through the gate, a crowd of roughly two hundred orcs came into sight.

'Nice, nice, all the XP's been gathered. I'll be helping myself, then!'

Allen pressed forward in high spirits—but soon realized that the sheer number of orcs was making it hard to make as much headway as he wanted.

So, as the Beast Ds continued wading through by spamming Crush, the Summons that had been positioned at the far side of the village as reinforcements charged in. The new force of Beast Ds and Insect D caught the orcs in the back by surprise.

Around thirty minutes later, just as the number of remaining orcs had dwindled to around half, Allen—who had his eye on the battle line—noticed a burst of light several ranks behind.

'Hm? That's... It's fire! Brons, use Defend!'

The next instant, several red flames appeared high above, then quickly turned into fireballs and flew directly at Allen. He promptly ducked behind the two Stone Ds' shields and ordered them to activate their Ability.

BOOOOOOMM!

'That was magic! Are my Summons...okay, they're still fine. Wait, there are more incoming!'

There were several orcs wearing fluttering clothes and holding staves standing deep within the group. More fireballs appeared in midair, mercilessly raining down on Allen's forces.

'Damn, there are ones that can use magic too? This is my first time encountering monsters that can use magic. Ah, the Summons on the other side have all been wiped out. Gotta keep sending out more.'

As the precise number of Summons out in the field was the key to Allen's way of fighting, he was keeping a constant eye on his Status to monitor the quantity of each card he had. Whenever a number went down, he immediately Created a replacement, Strengthened it, then Summoned it out. The pages of the floating grimoire flipped at a dizzying speed.

'In this case, I should probably get more Brons out. But first of all, you! Die!'

In the midst of everything else he was doing, Allen took out an iron ball from Storage and threw it at one of the magic-using orcs with all his strength. It immediately pulverized the monster's face.

'Awesome, that's one down. I'll increase my own defense while making it a priority to kill the ones that can use magic. Huh, where'd they go?'

The moment they saw their fellow get killed, the other magic-using orcs had shifted position so that Allen could no longer see them from behind Stone D.

'Shit, they hid. They're smart enough to hide! Hawkins, show me where they are!'

This whole time, Allen had been Sharing the vision of several Hawkins that were circling the village from up in the sky. Thanks to them, he knew exactly where the magic-using orcs were. However, the Stone Ds blocking his line of sight to them meant that he could not throw iron balls at them, and they were standing too deep within the orc forces for Beast Ds to get at them easily.

As the fireballs aimed at Allen had been deflected by the Stone Ds' shields, everything in his vicinity was now on fire. Both the village's walls and towers were eventually engulfed by flames, turning the scene into one of hellish pandemonium.

'Okay, my strategy's completely fallen apart. So now I can only brute force this using sheer numbers. I know I can't lose, but still...just you all wait and see!'

The surprise appearance of the magic-using orcs had made Allen lose his initiative. The cleverness of the orcs that could use spells had also been something he did not see coming. However, after two and a half years of hunting, he now had over twenty thousand Rank D magic stones in Storage. In other words, he could actually Create twenty thousand Summons. Although it would drag on for a while, his victory was only a matter of time.

He decided to focus on killing the orcs in front of him one at a time, ensuring that he himself remained protected from the magic attacks in the meanwhile.

The dogged fighting continued. After the death of a few dozen more orcs, one that looked markedly different from the others burst out from even further back than the magic-using orcs.

It quickly made its way toward Allen, unceremoniously shoving aside all the orcs in its way.

'Aaand there's the orc king.'

This monster was clearly on a whole other dimension than the others. Not only was it twice as large, it was also wearing armor and holding a gigantic halberd. It gradually picked up momentum as it charged forward.

"GUMOOOOOHHHHH!"

With a deafening cry, it swung its weapon and instantly reduced two Beast Ds to bubbles of light. Allen hurried to Summon more, but he was having trouble matching the orc king's speed. The thirty Teddys that he had called out in expectation of a protracted fight started going down one by one.

'Should I retreat?'

Just as Allen was about to give the command to pull back, more fireballs came hailing down. The Stone Ds blocked them with their shields, only to also disappear into bubbles of light.

'Shit, the Brons are gone too!'

The barrage of fireballs continued. Nearby Beast Ds threw themselves in front of Allen to shield him with their bodies, but the shockwaves from the explosions still managed to blow Allen off his feet.

'Owww! Okay, yeah, I really do need to retreat. Before the situation gets any worse.'

However, the moment Allen picked himself back up, bruised all over, a familiar voice spoke behind him.

"Hm, looks like you need a hand."