The 3rd Prince of the Fallen Kingdom Returns

30. Variant (1)

Okuah was enormous.

His head towered over other orcs, and his shoulders were twice as broad. His arms weren’t particularly thick, but their length reached all the way to his knees, giving him an intimidating, unnatural presence.

It was a physique that seemed impossible for the orc race.

Could he be from a different species?

But his severed nose and protruding fangs were typical orc features.

“Is that Okuah…?”

An instinctive sense of repulsion arose within Yuri.

A strong premonition screamed in his head, urging him to stay far away from this creature.

“He looks like a complete monster. Is that really an orc?”

Jared said in a disgusted voice, and Yuri agreed.

“Exactly. Isn’t that an ogre from legends?”

Yuri raised his telescope and observed Okuah closely.

Okuah was staring ahead, his dark eyes gleaming, his mouth closed.

His crimson pupils turned sharply towards Yuri.

Was it just his imagination that their eyes met, or was Okuah truly sensing his gaze and glaring back?

Yuri lowered the telescope.

“This is nerve-wracking.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing.”

Yuri turned around. The Briol forces were behind him.

The entire Allied Forces were shaken, their resolve faltering in the face of Okuah’s monstrous appearance.

“Don’t be afraid, everyone! You won’t have to fight Okuah!”

Despite Yuri’s words, the soldiers’ eyes remained fixed on Okuah.

They were terrified, yet they couldn’t look away.

Okuah moved sluggishly, his steps heavy and unnatural.

Suddenly, one of the orc soldiers stumbled and got caught in Okuah’s leg.

Okuah reached out his long arm and grabbed the orc’s head with one hand, lifting him up. The orc struggled.

As Okuah tightened his grip, the orc’s skull shattered with sickening ease. Blood splattered, its contents spilling onto the ground.

The orc’s head was crushed in his grasp like a deflated balloon.

“Crazy…”

Okuah tossed the corpse aside.

Okuah’s eyes, stained with blood, burned an even deeper shade of red.

He stomped his foot and opened his mouth towards the sky. A thunderous roar shook the grasslands.

The roar echoed with terrifying volume, as if no living creature could possibly produce such a sound.

Each time Okuah roared, the orc army charging toward the allied forces seemed to glow with even more ferocity.

“What is that?”

“Is it magic?”

The Allied Forces, who had been bracing for the clash, were now thrown into disarray, their nerves rattled by the unexpected spectacle.

Jared asked Yuri.

“Is that magic?”

“It’s not magic.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t know either. But it’s not magic.”

Yuri shook his head.

Though he wasn’t a mage, Yuri was keenly sensitive to the flow of mana, and he could detect no sign of artificial manipulation.

It wasn’t magic.

Just as the morale of troops could be boosted by a capable commander, Okuah amplified the orcs’ frenzy with just his roars.

It was closer to an innate trait given to Okuah and the orcs.

It felt as though Okuah was born to lead the orcs.

“Whoo…”

Yuri took a deep breath.

“Focus.”

In any case, Okuah was still far away.

First, he had to deal with the orc troops charging toward the Allied Forces.

The orcs, a mix of ordinary ones and Orkbal, were rushing in without any regard for tactics.

They weren’t in their right state of mind from the start.

Madness burned in their eyes.

“Everyone, brace for impact!”

The sharp sound of a horn echoed from Ragna’s position, and the beat of war drums drummed into the hearts of the Allied Forces.

The soldiers of the Allied Forces dug their heels into the ground, lowering their stances in unison.

Countless orcs were madly charging towards the barricade. If anyone fell in the middle, the orcs trampled over them without hesitation.

Soon, the two armies clashed.

Like a herd of bulls charging at a wall, the orcs slammed into the barricades and defensive lines with all their might.

Axes and spears collided.

The sound of explosions rang out from every direction.

The clash of metal on metal, the sickening thud of flesh meeting something harder, filled the air, dizzying the senses with a cacophony of violence.

At first contact, which fell first—an orc or a human?

Yuri thought as he decapitated an orc.

It was probably simultaneous.

The moment the two armies collided, orcs died, and human soldiers fell too.

Enemy heads were pierced, while their own bodies crumpled and fell apart in the chaos.

A brutal war had begun.

“Briol!”

Yuri shouted and charged forward. It instantly drew the attention of several orcs.

But Yuri took the risk, easing the pressure on his allies, even if it meant facing greater danger himself.

“Fight!”

Arrows occasionally rained down from the sky, but the wyverns were too much of a threat to focus on right now.

The wyverns were like an unavoidable natural disaster, randomly striking the Allied Forces. They could only pray for good luck and focus on the orcs in front of them.

“Keep your focus, look around you!”

Yuri continued to shout, keeping the knights focused.

“You there!”

He pointed at a knight nearby.

An arrow plummeted toward his head, but he was so consumed by his battle with the enemy that he failed to notice the looming threat.

Losing focus on the battlefield meant death.

The arrow sank deep into his skull, and blood sprayed in a sickening burst.

The knight, his eyes wide with disbelief, collapsed.

A gap appeared in the formation.

An orc charged through the gap, and the knight behind him, too slow to react, had his face cleaved open by an axe.

The skull split, and blood and brain matter splattered into the air.

Over that gruesome sight, the orc’s roar echoed.

“Akuommetun! Aku Gutada!”

An Orkbal smashed through the Allied Forces, pushing forward to exploit the gap.

Briol’s formation began to crumble.

The Orkbal didn’t miss the brief opening in the line.

Yuri’s face twisted.

His core began to accelerate. The mana of Heart and Soul Slash within him surged with rage.

“You!”

He sliced through the four orcs blocking his path, then swiftly turned to decapitate the Orkbal advancing from behind.

Yuri’s will was set.

Then, the Heart and Soul Slash responded.

Mana rotated around the core, its center of gravity firmly fixed.

Yuri continued to draw the energy toward him. The accumulated force swirled in a vortex, gathering destructive power.

As Yuri briefly paused, four orcs simultaneously raised their axes above their heads.

The axe blades gleamed in the sunlight, reflecting the grasslands’ harsh brightness.

Not yet.

Yuri waited.

The orcs swung down their weapons, their bulging muscles powering the descent of their axes.

Yuri blinked.

Not yet.

He continued to accelerate the rotational force growing within him.

Yuri raised his gaze.

The four axes now reflected in his jet-black eyes.

The image expanded, approaching the moment where reality and illusion would meet.

Then, everything vanished.

A drop of blood splattered onto his eyelid.

Then, on his freshly wiped pupils, the sight of four heads soaring into the sky reappeared.

The aftermath erupted.

Yuri’s single sword strike tore apart the four orcs and even heavily wounded those standing behind them.

The orc with its belly split open tried to gather its innards, but was trampled by the wave of orcs pushing from behind and crushed to death.

“Jared, I leave this to you.”

“Yes, sir!”

Yuri kicked off the ground, leaping high. He stomped on the head of an orc charging at him, sending it crashing to the ground, before changing direction.

The orc’s head bounced off, its neck broken

“Don’t fall back!”

Yuri charged into the gap. The Orkbal was rampaging, widening the breach.

More orcs were pouring in through it.

Yuri swung Guilty downwards.

The scimitar blocked the attack.

“Hey, Okudoku!”

It was the Orkbal that had been swallowed by the Ancient Worm and taken away before.

The Orkbal with the scimitar burst into laughter, facing Yuri.

“Akuakkai!”

It had lost an eye to Yuri. A black eyepatch now covered the empty socket.

“That suits you.”

In the brutal close-quarters battle, Yuri and the Orkbal exchanged attacks and defenses, twisting their bodies like acrobats, each barely missing the other’s strikes.

Despite losing an eye, the Orkbal wasn’t weakened at all.

“Haa…”

Yuri stabbed and killed the orcs that occasionally tried to intervene.

The Orkbal didn’t seem to care about the sacrifices of its allies.

“Akuakkai, Gurutu Budusu Gieomae Muka!”

“I don’t understand, you Okudoku bastard!”

The clash of their swords sent a jarring shock through their arms.

“Get lost.”

Yuri suddenly lunged in.

After a few exchanges, Yuri kicked the Orkbal’s abdomen with a roundhouse kick.

“Kraaaaagh!”

The Orkbal staggered back, and Yuri’s Guilty slammed down onto the orc’s head.

The Orkbal barely dodged.

Yuri stepped forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with another knight.

“Finally out.”

While fighting the Orkbal, he had led it outside Briol’s lines.

Yuri covered the breach created by the wyvern’s arrows.

“Stay vigilant. Hold your ground even if a comrade falls.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Don’t let them in, no matter what.”

The Orkbal, realizing Yuri’s intention, grimaced.

“Akua Kutu Bomero!”

“Shut up.”

Yuri dodged the Orkbal with the scimitar and escaped that spot. He heard its enraged shouts but ignored them.

Briol’s formation solidified once again.

As the shock from the initial clash faded, the well-organized defensive line began to show its effectiveness.

Though the orc troops kept charging, Briol’s forces held firm and didn’t falter.

The war had only just begun.

Countless orcs were still charging like a swarm of ants, and Okuah, standing in the distance, was simply watching the battlefield.

They had to endure.

“Hernando!”

Yuri cupped his hand to his mouth and shouted. A voice responded immediately.

[Yes.]

Though magic was blocked on the battlefield by dispelling, short-range communication through artifacts was still possible.

An artifact created by Hernando was embedded in Yuri’s gauntlet.

“What about the other nations?”

Yuri deflected an axe that flew toward him as he spoke.

“Are they holding up?”

[They are managing around Briol. The rear is a bit shaky, though.]

“Is Master still there?”

[Yes. Sir Moyongchan is fine.]

Hernando and Moyongchan called each other Great Heroes. Yuri clicked his tongue and asked again.

“Tell Master not to step in, he has to fight Okuah.”

[Of course.]

Moyongchan was the wild card of the Allied Forces.

He was the most crucial player in containing Okuah when he appeared.

“If it seems like we’re about to be breached, let me know.”

[Understood.]

“Good work.”

Yuri lowered his gauntlet and gripped his sword, Guilty, once more.

The orc troops advanced relentlessly.

“Above!”

A swarm of wyverns circled above, releasing arrows into Briol’s formation.

Some soldiers were struck and fell, but reinforcements quickly moved in to fill the gaps.

The wyverns didn’t leave and continued to circle above, raining arrows down like they had made Briol their target.

“Yeah…”

Yuri pulled something from his cloak.

“I thought it was about time.”

It was one of the four daggers he had purchased at an auction from the Empire—a Wind Return Dagger.

Yuri infused mana into the dagger, and a faint light began to emanate from it.

At that moment, a wyvern dove down, its riders seizing the chaos as an opportunity and preparing to strike more boldly.

Yuri threw the Wind Return Dagger.

The dagger flew as though carried by the wind, striking the neck of the orc riding the wyvern.

“Kuuaaak…”

The orc clutched his neck and writhed. His body tilted, falling onto the wyvern’s wing.

The wyvern flapped desperately, but its balance was off, and it began to plummet.

The creature barely recovered its balance just before crashing to the ground, but it had descended too low.

“Laurent, I’ll leave this to you!”

“Yes!”

Yuri immediately kicked off the ground and leaped towards the wyvern.

His body, lightened by mana, barely managed to grab the wyvern’s leg.

“Kiyaaah!”

The wyvern struggled and gained altitude.

The ground grew distant.

Clutching onto the wyvern, Yuri was lifted into the air.

The scene below was now clearly visible.

“What’s Johannes doing?”

Although the Allied Forces were generally holding up well, as Hernando had said, the rear looked unstable.

But the urgent matter was the wyvern.

Yuri climbed up the wyvern’s leg.

The wyvern continued to twist its body and shake its leg, but Yuri wouldn’t let go.

“You bastard…”

Yuri reached out and grabbed its tail. As soon as he secured his position, he jumped towards its back.

“Arghhhh!”

He barely managed to grab the saddle.

The orc’s body remained tethered to the saddle, preventing it from falling off. With the Wind Return Dagger embedded in its neck, the orc was already dead.

Yuri retrieved the dagger and cut the rope, causing the orc’s corpse to fall away. With that, the wyvern regained its stability.

“Hey, wyvern.”

Like the orc, Yuri mounted the saddle and gripped the reins. However, the wyvern did not respond to him.

Suddenly, the sound of flapping wings came from around him.

The other wyvern riders, noticing Yuri, approached and aimed their bows at him.

“Akuakkai! Arukumetum!”

Hearing them call out, Yuri snickered.

“Everybody recognizes me? I’ve really become famous.”

Arrows soon shot toward him.

Not only was Yuri targeted, but the wyvern as well. It was clear that they were intent on bringing him down.

The wyvern Yuri was riding jerked in surprise and swerved to avoid the arrows, narrowly dodging them.

It was skilled at flying.

The arrows continued to trail them.

“Hey!”

Yuri struck the wyvern’s neck.

“Are you just going to let them do that? Huh? Want to just die like a fool?”

“Kyaaaahh!”

“You don’t, huh? Then let’s fight!”

“Kiyaaah!”

* * *

“What on earth is that?”

Ragna, who had been watching the situation from behind, looked up.

At this moment, even the soldiers fighting on the battlefield lost their focus and looked up at the sky.

An unreal scene was unfolding before their eyes.

“That, that…?”

Ragna pressed his palm to his forehead.

“How on earth did he get up there?”

It was hard to believe, but the Third Prince of Briol was riding a wyvern, engaging in a fierce battle with other wyvern riders.

The wyvern, charging towards its opponent while dodging a rain of arrows, suddenly rotated its body upside down just before the collision.

The two riders faced each other, their positions reversed.

The two wyverns crossed paths.

Yuri’s sword flashed, cleaving through both the orc and the wyvern.

The wyvern ridden by the orc plummeted.

Yuri and his wyvern spun once more and regained their balance.

A display of magnificent aerial maneuvering.

Yuri raised his sword. Both human and wyvern roared together.

“Yaaahhh!”

“Kyaaahhh!”

The letter he had sent before the war seemed utterly pointless now.

Ragna muttered in exasperation,

“That crazy bastard…”