One hulking giant of a man wielding a ridiculously large sword led the charge as the soldiers ran behind him. Orcs were never one to turn down a fight, but when they saw that huge brute running at them, they knew they were screwed.
The moment the man reached the orc group, he slammed the flat side of his large sword into the chest of the nearest orc, sending him flying back, knocking down 16 orcs behind him.
Daruck, who was overseeing the fight from the back, stumbled back in fear when he saw that man.
"Why?! Why are you here?! What happened to Champion Teldgulg?!"
The giant man laughed and spun his blade in a circle, taking down 4 orcs before responding.
"Teldgulg? Haha! You should have seen his face when the A-Ranker we recruited and I beat him to a pulp! I have never seen an orc run away so fast!"
Daruck’s face paled, knowing he had failed the mission entrusted to him by his father. The moment this man showed up, all hope was lost.
The soldiers who followed behind the man caught up and joined the fight. They broke into the group of orcs and made a beeline toward Sol to rescue him. The orcs stood no chance as they were against the elites of the army.
One of the soldiers who broke the encirclement around Sol spoke to him.
"Follow us, kid!"
Sol nodded and ran behind but not before using [Siphon] on all the bodies that had just dropped, courtesy of the giant man.
[Basic Axemanship] leveled up! (7 -> 9)
[Endless Vitality] leveled up! (1 -> 2)
Learned [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3!
[Cross Slash] leveled up! (2 -> 3)
Learned [Charge] Lv 4!
Sol saw many notifications appear in his vision, but he had to ignore them for now. He followed the soldiers that cleared the way and quickly escaped the fight.
Back in the brawl, the orcs flew left and right, smashing into walls, floors, and other orcs. Daruck watched with a heavy heart as his clansmen fell to one single man but did not give the order to retreat, and no orc tried to run away.
The reason for not doing so is that there is no point.
All the orcs knew that they could not escape once that monster of a man set his eyes on them, and without any equally strong warrior to hold him back, there was nothing they could do.
Another thing the orcs could do is surrender, but that will never happen. Orcs are a very prideful race, the fact that they had planned a sneak attack on the fort was shocking enough as they detest fighting dirty. Even so, they would rather die than surrender, at least then they would die a proud orc death.
The giant man did not stop his blade for even a moment as more and more orcs fell. Eventually, only 5 orcs remained as they stared the man down. The man then looked at the remaining orcs.
"I won’t bother asking for you to surrender, so just answer one question. Who gave you the black powder?"
Daruck scoffed at him, "Just kill me now, Olfred."
The giant man, Olfred, sighed, "So be it."
Mana gathered into Olfred’s giant sword as he swung it horizontally. A thick wave of mana then left his sword as it traveled rapidly towards the orcs. Daruck saw this and did not try to resist and instead simply closed his eyes and murmured something.
"Sorry, father, I tried."
SLASH
The wave of mana cleanly cut through all 5 orcs, and their bodies collapsed on the ground with their upper and lower bodies separated.
Olfred finished with the last of the orcs, made his giant sword suddenly disappear, and then turned back to join his men in assessing the situation.
"Why did you run in there?!"
Sol was currently lying on one of the spare beds in the canteen surrounded by worried healers as he was being treated by Nataly, who was taking the chance to also reprimand him.
"Do you know how lucky you are? If it wasn’t for the reinforcements, you would have died!"
Sol saw the sincere worry in her eyes and in the eyes of all the healers.
"Sorry about worrying you all, but I had to do something. If we didn’t stop the orcs at the tunnel exit, they would have killed everyone and destroyed the fort."
"Yeah, but-"
"It’s okay, I survived. Speaking of which, what of the other soldiers who joined me?"
Nataly froze at his question, not knowing how to answer. Before she could say anything, a deep voice answered for her.
"Dead, only you survived."
Sol looked to where the voice came from and saw the giant man who single handedly beat over a hundred orcs. Having heard of the fate of the other soldiers who went with him to protect the men and women of this fort, Sol looked downwards and clenched his fist. His nails dug into his skin, almost drawing blood, but Sol did not notice.
’I wasn’t strong enough…’
Suddenly, a big callused hand slapped him on the back with a strong force that almost launched him off the bed.
"Cheer up, kid, you’re a survivor. Celebrate the fact you are alive."
While Sol knew these words were to make him feel better, it didn’t help.
’I only had enough strength to protect myself, and even then I could have died here if they took any longer.’
This event showed just how weak he truly was. That no matter how strong he was against individuals when against an army or those who were truly strong, he does not stand a chance.
’What a fool I was to think I was strong. I am only stronger than the average C-Ranker, maybe B-Ranker if they’re on the weaker side. Even if I am strong, I can still be overwhelmed by numbers… If I was stronger, none of those soldiers would have died…’
Seeing his encouraging words did not improve the young man’s mood, Olfred was unsure of what to do. He wanted to help Sol feel better since he knew how hard this young man fought to protect everyone but felt helpless.
’Man… I am a fighter, not a therapist…’
No one said anything as they did not know how to comfort Sol, but someone spoke up.
"Why the fuck are you blaming yourself for their deaths?"
"Huh?"