“…Damn.”
The edge of the map was turning crimson again. Their movements were different from the remnants of the orcs who had retreated earlier. They weren’t falling back—they were reforming their lines and advancing again.
The battle had merely entered a lull. It wasn’t over yet. I quickened my pace. When I reached the 3rd Platoon’s position, I saw soldiers whose tension had eased sitting in small groups, tilting back canteens or pulling out cigarettes to bite between their lips.
“Hey, did you see that earlier? The way the orcs burst apart from one shot of the company commander’s mana bullet?”
“I saw it. But I thought our platoon leader was even more amazing. Matching the timing perfectly in the middle of that chaos…”
An atmosphere slack with the intoxication of victory. I plunged into the middle of it and shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Everyone, up! Maintain alert status!”
At my roar, the soldiers jumped in surprise and awkwardly rose to their feet.
“P-Platoon Leader…?”
“Didn’t all the orcs run away?”
I shouted in rapid succession.
“Enemy reinforcements! They’re coming back! We don’t have time to rest! Get behind cover, now!”
At that, Sergeant Gunter quickly grasped my intent and began driving the soldiers on.
“Everyone, to your positions! Check your magazines and keep your eyes forward!”
Kurt and Hanna also moved at once, beginning to establish a defensive line with their own squads. The men of 3rd Platoon scrambled behind makeshift trenches and rocks. The metallic clatter of weapons being loaded filled the forest once more.
With a grim expression, I looked for Hanna. She was already staring toward the southern woods, her face pale.
“Hanna, can you feel it?”
“…Yes, Lieutenant. …It’s coming from the south. A magical reaction far larger and more sinister than before is approaching this way at high speed!”
“What…?”
Meaning this was no ordinary enemy.
Thud, thud, thud.
At that moment, the ground began to tremble faintly. Footsteps. Not the sound of hundreds or thousands of military boots, but a heavy vibration, as if a single gigantic beast were stamping the earth.
From within the darkness of the forest, a roar erupted, shaking heaven and earth.
“Kraaaaaaah!”
At the overwhelming bellow, the soldiers’ faces instantly turned white. On my minimap as well, I could see crimson dots rapidly approaching from the south. They were clearly coming for us.
At last, a massive figure tore through the forest and revealed itself. A hulking body easily over three meters tall. Its entire body was covered in scars, and in both hands it held enormous twin axes drenched in blood. Every time it roared, the air around it vibrated.
I immediately activated my skill.
‘Status Analysis.’
[Name: Kardoor Ironskin]
[Race: Orc]
[Affiliation: Gray Claw Tribe]
[Rank: Chieftain’s Right Hand, Warmonger]
[Hidden Trait: Steel Skin]
‘Damn it, he’s no ordinary one.’
The moment I confirmed the information, my mind went cold. This would not be an easy opponent.
“Captain!”
I shouted toward Seraphina. She, too, was staring at the creature.
“It’s an enemy commander-class individual!”
“I know!”
She immediately began commanding the unit.
“All forces, concentrate fire on the center! Don’t let that monster reach the main force!”
At Seraphina’s sharp voice, every muzzle in the 2nd Company spat fire at once. Hundreds of bullets rained down. But the creature’s skin was harder than imagined.
‘So that’s what Steel Skin means…!’
The bullets failed to pierce its green muscles and bounced off with metallic clangs. As if annoyed, Kardoor swung his enormous twin axes like windmills, knocking away the barrage, then charged straight toward the defensive line.
Crack!
The blow he brought down smashed the hastily built wooden barricade like toothpicks, and soldiers were flung into the air with screams amid the flying splinters.
“W-What the hell is that monster…!”
“Rifle rounds don’t work! They’re bouncing off!”
“S-Save me!”
Just as fear was about to spread like a plague, Seraphina stepped forward and prepared a mana bullet. Cold air condensed above her palm. Unlike before, the chill did not stop after one gathering, but compressed again and again. The silver-white mana bullet resting above her hand continued absorbing mana, emitting a vivid light. In contrast, Seraphina’s complexion was growing visibly paler.
‘Status Analysis.’
[Name: Seraphina von Reinhardt]
[Status: On the verge of a mana backlash seizure. Severe disruption in mana control detected!]
‘She’s pushing herself…’
It had only just been a moment ago that I suppressed her seizure with [Touch of Attunement]. Yet she was already on the verge of another. She was forcibly operating her mana right now, repeatedly strengthening the mana bullet. Naturally, for her, who possessed [Mana Backlash], it would be difficult to endure.
Whoosh—!
The projectile Seraphina fired streaked through the air in a silver-white trajectory. Its power was clearly far stronger than before. But it was not enough. The mana bullet struck Kardoor in the chest, but far from leaving a deep wound, all it did was make him stagger briefly. His charge did not stop.
“At this rate, the defensive line will be breached!”
Sergeant Gunter cried out desperately. That was when it happened.
‘Captivating Speech.’
“Do not panic!”
My voice, carried by the power of the skill, rang across the battlefield.
[Skill ‘Captivating Speech (Lv.3)’ has been activated.]
[It affects multiple targets (members of the 2nd Company) simultaneously.]
“That bastard isn’t alone! Take care of the guards around him first! Machine guns, sweep the ones spread out on his left and right! Isolate him!”
[Temporarily increases resistance to the targets’ negative emotions (fear, despair), and inspires positive emotions (courage, fighting spirit).]
The eyes of the soldiers, who had been gripped by terror, changed. They began moving in perfect order according to my instructions. The fire net focused not on Kardoor himself, but on the orcs following around him.
“Kraaagh!”
As the guards fell one after another, Kardoor’s charge faltered for a moment. I did not miss that opening.
“Klaus!”
“Yes, Lieutenant!”
“Load the new mana round you’ve been saving right now! And aim for his weak points! His eye, his knee, anything! Hurry!”
“Understood!”
Bang!
Klaus’s muzzle spat fire. The blue trajectory drove precisely into Kardoor’s right eye socket. With a horrific splat, the condensed mana exploded from within, blasting away half of the monster’s hideous head like a rag.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
For the first time, the steel-like giant let out a pained groan and staggered. I pulled the pin from the grenade I had been saving.
“Now!”
I threw myself out from behind cover and hurled the grenade. It flew in an arc and exploded right at the feet of the stumbling Kardoor.
Boom!
With the explosion, the creature’s massive body lost its balance and collapsed.
“Concentrated fire! Finish him off before he gets up!”
At Seraphina’s cry, every bit of firepower the 2nd Company had poured down on Kardoor. Every rifle and machine-gun round, grenades, and even Seraphina’s mana bullets.
Dudududududu! Boom! Bang!
No matter how much of a monster he was with [Steel Skin], he could not withstand a hail of lead while his eye had burst and his insides were twisted. In particular, when bullets burrowed into the wounds where the explosion had torn away his hide, the creature screamed horribly.
“Guh, urgh…! L-Lord Gromnar…!”
Kardoor spat out a death rattle mixed with bloody foam, reached a hand toward the air, then let it fall limply. With a heavy thud, his enormous body went slack.
“H-He’s dead!”
“We… we killed that monster!”
For a moment, silence flowed across the battlefield. Then the soldiers’ cheers burst forth.
In contrast, the orcs, having lost their focal point, fell into a panic. When their unit commander, the warmonger, died so meaninglessly, the remaining orcs lost their will to fight and began throwing away their weapons as they fled deep into the forest.
With that as the turning point, the battle gradually came to an end. After pursuit and confirmation kills continued, before long the sun was beginning to set. The orcs had completely withdrawn into the forest.
Silence returned once more. But the mood among the men of the 2nd Company was strangely buoyant.
“Did… did we really take this thing down?”
Private Hans of the 3rd Platoon nudged Kardoor’s fallen, enormous corpse with his foot. The orc warmonger, who had seemed like a gigantic mountain of rock, was now nothing more than a horribly mangled lump of meat.
“Yeah, you punk. We took him down. One of the bullets you fired is probably lodged somewhere in there too.”
Sergeant Gunter chuckled and put a cigarette between his lips. His hand was trembling faintly, but his face was filled with irrepressible pride.
“Insane… This makes no sense. We killed this monster and not a single person died?”
A soldier from 1st Platoon beside him muttered in disbelief.
He was right. Kardoor Ironskin. Against the second-in-command of the Gray Claw Tribe, whose name alone was said to make one’s knees tremble, our 2nd Company had achieved something close to a miracle. A few soldiers in 2nd Platoon had suffered minor injuries, but the number of deaths was zero. It was a perfect victory that would not seem out of place in a tactical manual.
“Waaaaaaaah!!”
A cheer someone started spread through the entire company in an instant. The soldiers embraced one another and jumped up and down, or thrust their fists into the air.
“Long live the 2nd Company!”
“We did it! We wiped out those monsters!”
I watched the scene with my arms crossed. It was nice to see the soldiers drunk on victory, but my mind had already moved on to the next step.
‘We need to hurry and prepare camp.’
Previous operations had mostly been centered around striking and returning, but this time was different. Since we had pushed the enemy’s main force deep into the forest, we now had to secure the occupied ground and advance the front line.
In other words, tonight we would be sleeping not in warm barracks beds, but on damp dirt. And this life in the open would not end in a day or two.
All of this was because the regimental commander had staked everything on this operation. The operation would not end with a single victory. The battle would only be over once we drove the orcs out of the Ashen Forest entirely and put a bullet between High Chieftain Gromnar’s eyes.
And my level-up would probably happen then too. While I had been staying in the tent just now, I had already confirmed that no system window appeared.
“Sergeant Gunter!”
“Yes, Platoon Leader!”
Gunter quickly ground out his cigarette and came running.
“Enjoy the celebration later. Organize the campsite first. 3rd Platoon will guard the nine o’clock direction. Tonight, the orcs may be so worked up they’ll try a night raid. Set up the watch thoroughly.”
“Understood! Hey, 3rd Platoon! Get your heads on straight and set up the tents! Anyone slacking off gets no dinner tonight!”
At Gunter’s bellow, the men of 3rd Platoon began moving in a panic.
Just then, the other platoon leaders approached me.