The roar belonged to no other than Yargul who had been attracted by the booming shots of the tank’s cannon. He was delighted in seeing a worthy opponent to fight but was then confused, the orcs the tank was fighting wasn’t his or the Trident Lord’s. His orcish mind finally put two and two together and figured out that these orcs were under the command of that cowardly orcish commander. Once more anger rose and he blindly charged into the enemy, the Trident Lord holding back her forces for the moment. To attack now was to help the Metal Beast and she would rather have it weakened as much as possible before she dedicated her forces to an attack.
Yargul’s roar had momentarily stunned both orcs and humans alike, Erwin being the first to react as he knew he couldn’t let this golden opportunity to go to waste. He immediately put his attention to the opposite side of the fortress, ignoring Yargul as he knew that Yargul had to fight through a great army of orcs before he could reach the fortress. So he immediately commanded his forces to prepare to break through the orcs as he planned to use Yargul’s arrival to escape.
But they couldn’t stop defending however, if they did so the orcs that were still attacking the fortress would swarm them within moments. Meanwhile, Yargul was basically a moving mountain in every sense of the word, nothing could stop him for the power of Agleon flowed through him. But even so, not even a mountain could easily push through a literal sea of orcs.
As Yargul attempted to push towards the Metal Beast, the Trident Lord waited with her forces, ignoring her pleading generals to allow them to join the fray. In fact, her eyes weren’t even on the battlefield, she was looking around it instead, looking for signs of an orcish commander. These armies were moving in coordination, that much was clear from how the enemy was dealing with Yargul. One army was sent to focus on him while the other three focused on trying to annihilate the humans.
And even though it was one army less, that wasn’t of much help to the humans as there was still such an overwhelming number of orcs. And even the tank was having a hard time moving now, orcish flesh and bone clogged the gears that ran its tank treads and although it was still able to push through, it was doing so at a much slower rate. And it was beginning to sustain heavy damage for no matter how armored the tank was, it couldn’t last forever against a continued orcish onslaught who pounded away at its armored shell with all their strength.
Yargul’s fight with the Metal Beast and shown that it was not invincible and this made the orcs’ fear of it disappear, if it could be killed then there was nothing to be afraid of, they just had to be lucky. But the tank was still not dead yet, it continued to unleash countless bullets onto the enemy as well as its roaring flames which burnt countless orcs as well as fire indiscriminately with its main cannon, switching to high explosive ammunition to cause as much damage as possible.
He wasn’t alone as well, archers continued to rain down arrows while warriors, buffed by support mages, held the weak spots of the wall. Battlemages did their best to thin out the orc numbers but there were only five of them and they were running out of mana rather quickly and because their repertoire or spells were rather lacking, they were not of much help. Of course, they could still deal a lot of damage but they just couldn’t keep up their damage output, once they used a relatively powerful spell, they were useless unless they drank a mana potion or waited for their mana to refill.
Truly, it is a pity that the libraries of old were burned and the more skilled mages were killed by either orcs or demons. It also didn’t help that mages had been in a decline, the coming of the orcs was just a catalyst, they would’ve faded out of existence eventually. But nevertheless, their power was of great assistance to the Alliance, without them they would have fallen long ago. For even a weak mage still possessed the capability of killing multiple creatures in a single attack.
But these mages were already showing signs of straining themselves to the absolute limit, their mana depleted, thus making them unable to bend Magic to their will. Soon they were forced to join the freed slaves, basically useless until they could recover what little mana they could. The priests of Lux were doing slightly better but they too were running out of mana and when that happened, the orcs would overrun the Alliance forces with ease.
Even with buffs, the warriors were having a hard time, they could only hold on because of the fact that they had the high ground and had the support of elvish archers. But even so, they couldn’t hold on for much longer, they needed a miracle of some sorts. And this was what the priests were praying for, beseeching Light to look kindly upon them, praying with desperation and great fervor, sincerely putting all their hope and belief into their prayers.
But others, specifically the slaves, either stood or sat on the ground in despair and hopelessness. Their situation was the worst possible and there was no way out, they would either be re-enslaved or killed by the orcs and some even began to commit suicide, rathering to die than to face slavery again. Truly, their situation was hopeless, they were going to die.
Then the line of warriors broke and orcs streamed into the fortress, the drained mages standing up and burning up their own life force to take down as many orcs as possible. This gave them a brief moment of respite but the mages’ sacrifice proved to be in vain, the orcs continued to pour in through the breach and began to slaughter indiscriminately, the tired soldiers who were resting grabbing their weapons, powered by adrenaline. Erwin, seeing this, rushed over to the breach and blocked it with his tank, using his machine guns to clear out most of the orcs inside the fort but not before they had killed many helpless slaves and soldiers. He cursed, at this rate they weren’t going to last for long, perhaps this really was the end.
Finally, Erwin opened the hatch to his tank and shouted, “Give me your children, I will make sure that they will escape at least should we fall.”
The slaves upon hearing this lost hope for themselves, although a few began to beg that he take them too. He could only refuse helplessly, his tank didn’t have that much room, he could only manage the children. Seeing that this was the only way, what few children the slaves had were pushed forward, taken struggling from their parents’ arms and into the arms of Erwin who placed them in his tank. When all seven children were in his tank he entered the tank himself and closed the hatch, continuing to hold the breach until he was forced to escape.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
And, if he was honest, he was reluctant to leave everyone, it went against every fiber of his being. But he knew that if he were to die here, he would doom the Alliance to a fate worse than death and he simply couldn’t allow that. He sat in his tank conflicted, the main gun of the tank falling silent as he debated on what to do. Suddenly, with load roars, another line broke and orcs poured in, beginning the slaughter once more, killing far more this time as the breach couldn’t be sealed.
In fear, the slaves ran towards the Metal Beast, hoping that it would be able to do something. Meanwhile, the Alliance forces made one final perimeter around the tank, a previously thin line between the orcs and slaves. The orcs began to close in, relishing the fear of the humans and elves, the weary soldiers of the Alliance preparing themselves to try and kill as many orcs as they could.
Alas, that number wasn’t very much, they were simply too tired and the orcs too strong, they were annihilated, slaves and soldiers both, leaving only the Metal Beast. Inside the tank, fighting against his emotions, Erwin drove the tank forwards, aiming to leave the battlefield. As he left, he made a vow to himself, a vow that he would never allow this to happen again, he couldn’t let it happen again.
The orcs attempted to give chase but they were too slow and as the distance grew, it became a one-sided slaughter, the bullets of the tank scything down many foolish orcs that continued to chase. The orcs that were sensible enough not to chase began to cheer, they had defeated the enemy. But it was not yet over, the forces of the Trident Lord began to make their move, engaging the orcs whose attention now focused on Yargul. But the Trident Lord herself did not enter the battle, she had taken a small force of elites and was searching for the enemy commander who she knew couldn’t be too far away.
There were simply too many orc armies here for him not to be here and she was determined to kill him. As she hunted for the enemy, Yargul rallied her orcs under his command, routing the enemy orcs, some of which were still celebrating the fact they won. But routing them was not enough, no Yargul was determined to slaughter them all, more to unleash his anger than anything else. And although the Trident Lord might not have approved of his methods, she certainly wasn’t complaining. Yargul was providing an excellent distraction for the enemy commander, allowing her scouts to pinpoint his location and report it to her.
She and her elite forces began to move quickly, she couldn’t let him escape, he had to die here and now if they were to help the Skull King. But unexpectedly, as she was nearing on his location, the orc commander stood and led his reserve forces to attack Yargul. And then more orcs appeared out of seemingly nowhere, ambushing the Trident Lord and her small force, keeping them occupied as the orc commander headed to crush Yargul once and for all.
Yargul’s forces were hit hard in their flank and were slaughtered as the orcs sluggishly moved to respond. Yargul was surprised at seeing this but upon seeing one particular orc who wore shinier armor than the rest, he immediately dropped the fight on his head and began pushing his way towards the armored orc, intent on killing him. He soon reached him and he engaged in combat, ignoring the orc’s attacks on his person and instead focusing on a blistering offense, pounding away at the orc’s defense.
But as he was doing so, he felt a sudden pain in his back. He whirled around, preemptively slashing but his axe encountered nothing but air, whoever had attacked him had managed to slip away. As he began to ponder just what the hell was going on, he was then hit twice by two different orcs, each from different sides. Choosing one side, he turned and and found himself faced with multiple orcs who surrounded him. But Yargul was not to be so easily defeated, he had experienced countless battles and he knew how to deal with this. He raised his foot high and stomped downward, shattering the earth around him, countless orcs falling into the cracks of the earth which grew deeper, swallowing many whole.
Of course, there were some allies that he killed but that was of no matter to Yargul, their deaths would contribute to his ultimate victory. He looked around but seeing no sign of the armored orc, he shrugged, believing the leader to be dead. It was a good thing but Yargul couldn't help but be annoyed over the matter, he had expected more of the slippery bastard. Considering how infuriating that orc was, he was surprisingly easy to kill. But the fight wasn’t over yet, more skilled orcs began to appear out of nowhere, using the cracks in the earth to hide their advance and ambush Yargul when he least expected it. As such, he was having a harder and harder time fending them off as they began to adapt to his attack pattern, wounding him more and more in the chinks of his armor. To temporarily escape, Yargul stomped once more and created a spire of earth into the sky, giving him a bird’s eye view of the entire battlefield. Up there, he could take a brief respite from the assassin orcs and figure out how to deal with them.
Then he had an idea. He began to break off small pieces of the stone spire and he began to throw them at the assassin orcs, killing a few before they caught on to what was going on. From then on he wasn’t able to hit them anymore so he soon gave up, jumping down the stone spire and onto the ground, killing some miscellaneous orcs. This time he decided not to use his axe, instead he used his fists which he was able to attack far faster with, finding it easier to deal with the assassins this way.
As he fought off the orcs who were slowly but surely chipping away at him, the real orc commander was leading his forces against Yargul’s orcs, killing many of them. However, it was not to last, the Trident Lord—having left her elite force to take care of the enemy—had managed track him down and taking aim, she threw her trident straight towards him. But he managed to dodge, the spear whistling past him and impaling three orcs. The Trident Lord tsked but didn’t give up, grabbing a sword from a fallen orc and continuing to charge towards him, her orcs rallying behind her.
On the opposite side of the battle was Yargul who had finished off most of the assassin orcs, killing the last one by crushing the orc’s chest, pulverizing his lungs and ribs. He took a brief breather and took a look around him, seeing that most of the enemy orcs here had been taken care of. He suddenly felt a light tap on the back of his head and he turned to find that an orc had attempted to kill him by taking an axe to his head. Unamused, Yargul swiftly killed the orc and returned his attention to the battlefield, wondering if the Trident Lord had joined the fray. He soon sighted her and he began to head over, he might as well help out as it seemed that she too was being troubled by the assassin orcs.
And indeed she was, the orc commander had managed to isolate her from the rest of her forces and boxed her in with a group of spear-wielding orcs who worked with one another to keep her inside the box. She tried to attack but the spears mirrored her every movement, threatening to stab her should she attack. But the solution to this impasse arrived shortly in the form of her trident which speared two orcs. It had been thrown by Yargul who had begun to charge towards the enemy after doing so, virtually unstoppable as he bulldozed any orc unfortunate enough to be in his way.
In that brief moment, the Trident Lord took a hold of her trident and spinning it a few times, she shattered the inferior spears of the enemy and proceeded to slaughter them. More spear orcs came to keep her boxed, the commander turning his attention to Yargul. He then whistled, the remaining assassin orcs pouncing on Yargul, keeping him busy as the commander returned his attention to the Trident Lord, intent on finishing her off.