Conflicts

Third-world nations are increasingly threatened by the encroaching orc forces, and desperate people resort to extreme measures.

-The black orcs are the only reason the stupid orcs are acting like that.

-If we take out the leader, they'll go back to their old ways.

-Luckily, they're on their guard. Protests are still being held across the country, and we need to make a decision before the orcs go on strike.

The Orc Federation hasn't shown any signs of cracking down on the citizens yet.

It is only the human police who are confronting the protesters, and they are desperate.

If they were unable to subdue them and the orcs took matters into their own hands---it would inevitably be a massacre.

Besides, the economy was in trouble. It had been ten days since the orcs had called a general strike.

The Western civilizations had criticized the orcs for caving in to the election results and staging another coup, but the orcs haven't even snorted.

A small number of Hunter raiding parties were dispatched, but they were unable to cover the vast expanse of China.

-The number of dungeon breaks has reached a critical level, and we need to kill that Murka or something and push those beasts through the gate.

-But they've been gone since our last meeting. Looks like they're preparing for a raid------

-That part's no problem, Wuhan City, Republic of Wuhan. We know they're gathering there.

-How do you know that? None of our satellites have been up since that day.

-Hoo-hoo, we have a sponsor.

The identity of the benefactor was not disclosed by the former Speaker of the Mother Republic, but they had no time to verify its authenticity.

-How many troops can I mobilize? Hunter power is important.

-We have Hunters from all over the country. The Duke Warrior Guild, the Battlefield Guild, the Red Revolutionary Guards──there are fifty S-class Hunters and three thousand elite A-class Hunters.

Indeed, the continent was the continent.

Even in a place with half the population and no proper nurseries, growing itself through fistfights, there were fifty S-class Hunters just by gathering resistance.

That's a lot of power, considering that even South Korea, a Hunter superpower, has only twenty S-classes.

-That's not all, our benefactor has provided us with a large amount of Star Iron Armor, enough to arm the entire country.

-?!!

Although they were skeptical, the mention of the Star Iron Armor made them realize who the benefactor was.

-TTG Temple──

-Shhh! If we mention their names in this operation, we will not be done dying!

The knights of the Ten Thousand Gods are not mere killing machines, but soul killers, and their annihilating power is something even demons fear.

-The Warehouse of Iron Armor, ostensibly owned by the Great Gods.

-And their power?

-According to my patron's observations, he's traveling the Federation with fewer than five hundred SS troops.

-Cheeky bastards.

Orcs are a valuable military resource, but that's about it.

The Anti-Orc Alliance could not stomach the idea of savage beasts lording it over humans.

Or, more accurately, they can't accept that their power is being usurped.

* * * * *

~A quiet night~

The city burns red from the bombing raids of fighter jets, and spreading flames light up the city.

A signal came over the radio simultaneously with the successful bombing of the air force's raid on the Wuhan Republic Building.

[The air forces from Tianjin and Shenyang have made a successful preemptive strike, move in.]

"Damn orcs."

Huang Chunzhai, an S-class Hunter of the Anti-Orc Alliance, was filled with contempt as he thought of the orcs that must have been crushed under the collapsed government building.

It's been 34 days since the orc coup across the continent, and Hunters across the continent have been left feeling disenfranchised by the ease with which the orcs have taken over their countries.

Just twenty years ago, they were the largest nation in the world and now they're back, albeit torn into 53 pieces and pointing their muzzles at each other, but only to restore their former glory.

A united China was the best in the world and to lose a country with such potential to such beasts.

'Do you think we'll allow you to stand over us?'

Today, we will destroy those black orcs and reclaim our country's name.

[Enemy troops spotted! Engaging!]

The battle has begun.

Huang Chunzhai and the Anti-Orc Alliance Hunters were confident of victory.

Fifty powerful S-class Hunters from all over the continent rose up for their country. For the sake of stealth, they assembled 3,000 of the finest A-class Hunters.

They were veterans who had hunted as many orcs as they could at the Gate.

Each one of them capable of taking on an orc warrior. With only five hundred orcs, that's not enough to---- 

[Off!]

[What kind of monsters---! Support! Support! Support!]

"?!!"

A piercing scream erupted from within, even if it wasn't through the radio or him.

The screams, not drowned out by the noise of battle, amplified his anxiety.

The radio crackled with static, proving that the situation on the battlefield was anything but smooth.

"Captain, what do we do?"

"We hurry up!"

Huang Chunzhai thought that his allies would not be easily defeated.

The radio just now belonged to Qin Bao's unit, the number one S-class Hunter in the entire continent.

With ten S-class Hunters, there was no way that such a powerful force could be defeated by mere orcs.

"The Orc Great Khan has appeared in Jin Bao's unit! If we just kill him, the Orc Federation will be over!"

Indeed, he deserves to be the leader of the Orcs. Huang Chunzhai saw this as an opportunity.

If he could just kill that orc, the Orc Federation would collapse in an instant. Then this rebellion would be a success.

"We're here! Where's the Great Khan?"

At the scene of the battle Black Orcs were slaughtering the Hunters of the Anti-Orc Alliance.

Qin Bao, an S-class Hunter, the pride of Greater China, was being held by the head, bleeding profusely, with only his 'neck' left.

"What the hell."

Balbaza, the scarred, fierce-looking champion of Helkan, stared at Huang Chunzhai, who had arrived just as the battle was ending.

"Ma, this is ridiculous. How can you already------"

There were only ten S-class Hunters. The rest were hundreds of top-ranked elites, with many quasi-S and A-ranked ones. And yet, there were less than a hundred black orcs slaughtering the best Hunters?

"What are you going to do, Elder? I killed them all because they were too weak."

Balbaza's gaze trailed off to a black old monster who was clicking its tongue.

It was the Black Orcs' number two, Kran, also known as Murka's right-hand man.

"Oh well, humans are weak. Ah, the days of knightly battles."

Kran reminisced about the past and pointed his staff at Huang Chunzhai and the Hunters.

'Something's coming!' 

Huang Chunzhai and the Hunters instinctively activated their defensive skills, but when nothing happened, they swallowed their shame, feeling deceived.

"Huh?"

Huang Chunzhai, who was about to strike back at Kran, felt a strange sense of gravity.

It was as if a huge presence was looking down on them──

"Now, wait."

He looked up to see a pair of huge green eyes glaring down at him.

.

The next moment, a green beam of light struck Huang Chunzhai and the Hunters.

"Oh no. I thought you were going to use them as material."

Kran snorted at Balbaza's question.

"Next time, I'll try to catch them without killing them."

As he says this, Kran's gaze turns to the air.

In a black sea where the lights spreading brightly in the burning flames cannot reach as the Great Khan intercepted the enemy's gaze, he finally showed up with the highest level equipment.

"So that's the robot the Archdemons of Wisdom found so annoying."

"-------"

The source of arms and intelligence to the Anti-Orc Coalition, its obvious malice directed at the Orc Continental Confederacy.

"Scary, scary."

Under the machine's chillingly inorganic gaze, the Great Khan chuckled and disappeared into the darkness.

* * * * *

Half a year after Rakshar curtailed human space activity Yappy launched a new space-integrated weaponized platform, along with systems to defend against enemy satellites, a peacock-class non-combat observation mode.

Sleek in design, it takes the form of a bipedal robot that at first glance resembles a human.

Though the weapon was not yet perfected, it was able to evade Murka's green beams, which had sensed its presence and attempted to intercept it.

A stationary satellite would have been too easy to shoot down, so instead it was a peacock-class, monitoring the orc Continental Confederacy from space, but the failure of the Anti-Orc coalition was too much for even Yappy to report.

-Crackle.

Putting the Peacock on autopilot, Yappy looked up to see the eyes staring back at him.

"A failure?"

"-------"

At Beatrice's question, Yappy nodded mechanically.

"C'mon, not with a bunch of misfits like that."

"Don't laugh, Sir Vulcanus. Lives have been wasted."

Vulcanus barely suppressed a chuckle at Karina's point.

"Well, I don't have a broad enough sense of humanity to be saddened by the deaths of a few wretches. It is only the people of the gods that I love."

"Yes, before your baptism by fire, you were the villain of the century."

A hardliner in the realm who advocated wiping out the Empire, Vulcanus has no love and compassion for humanity.

"Still, I can't believe--- such power would be so overwhelmed------"

Koo Dae-sung, who had been watching the battle video, had a look of astonishment on his face.

It was no wonder, seeing the S-class Hunters, who had once been at the peak of Earth, falling like a flurry of wind.

"Orc champions aside, the Black Orcs are strong."

They had literally crushed the best of the best, consisting of only S- and A-class Hunters.

Not that the Black Orcs didn't suffer damage, but only a few dozen. In terms of combat ratio, it's not an exaggeration to say that they were outnumbered 100:1.

"What do you think, Your Grace, they're not bad, are they?"

"Well, they are strong for beasts."

Leon says, but there's no hint of condescension in his voice as his gaze turns to Yappy.

"So, how does Lord Spinner see it, you're better than us when it comes to analysis?"

-At least an A-class Hunter. The most elite of them all estimated to have combat power on par with the Holy Knights.

"And the Champions?"

-Checked the use of Divine Power. Analysis---Holy Knights.

"I see."

Leon sheathed his holy sword. He held the First Lionheart's Relic in his hand.

"I have seen three orc champions at the gate of Lord Jerea's holy convoy. Perhaps it was their intervention that caused Jerea's eventual failure in the original story."

They have the power to overpower even a Holy Knight.

"Isn't that a big deal? Murka is abnormally strong------"

Seeing Koo Dae-sung's anxiety, Leon smirked and looked at him.

"I don't know about you, my lord, but in the past, in the Kingdom of Lionheart, it was nothing new."

Humans and orcs, two races occupying a similar living space, inevitably competed for survival.

What surprised Leon in this world was that the orcs were weaker than he had imagined but now he understood the difference.

"We have fought each other constantly, representing the power of the gods. Hundreds, thousands of years of conflict, killing and slaying each other."

Leon's gaze turned to Koo Dae-sung once more. To him, the young saint did not understand the strength of the Orcs.

"With this king, the greatest Protector, and the greatest Holy Knights of all time under his command, how is it that the orcs have not been exterminated?"

Because they are just as strong.

They would have been wiped out long ago if they hadn't grown into monsters in the endless race for survival.

"Now there are only a few hundred ghosts who remember those days, and their numbers have dwindled considerably."

Leon, Karina, Vulcanus and the 50 Knights of the Burning Sword.

Hundreds of Black Orcs, including Murka, Kran, Orc Champions, and the last apostle of the Beast Gods.

"The time has come to end this tiresome bloodbath."

[That's right!]

Says the Goddess of Light and Justice at the declaration of the Lionheart King.

[The time has come to put an end to these impudent gods of beasts! Sound the war trumpets, for the true war is about to begin!]

Lionheart's blood boils over in the face of the God of War and Fire, the culprit who made mankind believe in war.

"The true enemy of our Lionheart has always been the orcs. It's a race for survival of the species."

The international community's cause is a good one, and even if they are cautious, the Lionhearts will prepare for a showdown with the orcs.