Chapter 216

Chapter 216

“Grrk?”

“S......sand is moving.”

When the Sand Soldiers rushed toward them, the Orcs looked bewildered.

It was strange that sand was moving like people.

It was so absurd that they even forgot they had to respond. The price for that was the Orcs’ deaths.

THUD—!

CRACK—!

The fists and knees of the Sand Soldiers struck the Orcs.

The Orcs staggered under the tremendous destructive power, which was hard to believe came from humans made of sand, then collapsed.

The Sand Soldiers climbed onto the fallen Orcs and unleashed merciless violence.

“Kweeeek!”

“Kweck!”

The Orcs died with desperate screams.

“The human is using strange magic.”

“Kill the mage.”

A few quick-witted Orcs realized that Zeon was the source of the magic.

Most magic disappeared if the Awakened using the magic Skill was killed.

Even the foolish Orcs knew that much.

The Orcs chose Zeon as their target.

“Kill. Human!”

“ROOOOAR!”

The Orcs charged with monstrous cries. However, the axes and blades the Orcs swung never left a single mark on Zeon’s body.

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH—!

More than ten sand snakes shot out and struck the Orcs’ bodies.

Viper could not pierce the armor-like bodies of the Orcs.

All it did was make them pause for a moment.

But that alone was enough.

While the Orcs stopped, the Sand Soldiers rushed in and attacked.

THUD, THUD, THUD—!

Merciless violence continued.

A Sand Soldier was no different from a puppet moved by Zeon’s will.

Unlike human Awakened, it could not use any Skills.

All it could do was a physical assault using a body made from compressed sand.

One might wonder how painful it could be to be struck by weakly bound sand, but the hardness of the Sand Soldiers was on another level.

They had been condensed to high density, making them as hard as stone.

CRACK—!

“Kweeeek!”

An Orc’s head shattered, sending brain matter and blood flying in every direction.

The Orc trembled for a moment before its movements stopped.

It had died instantly.

The Sand Soldiers moved in search of their next victims.

They had no emotion and no fear.

The Sand Soldiers were killing machines that blindly carried out orders.

The Awakened who saw that wore horrified expressions.

“He commands sand soldiers.”

“Then is that the rumored Sandmancer?”

They had not heard Jang Yong-beom and Zeon’s conversation, so they did not know Zeon’s identity.

They had merely guessed he was no ordinary Awakened from the fact that even the arrogant Jang Yong-beom had been careful around him. But they had never imagined that his identity would be the much-rumored Sandmancer.

The Sandmancer’s majesty, seen with their own eyes, surpassed their imagination.

Sand became soldiers and crushed the Sandmancer’s enemies.

They thought it was fortunate that there were only several dozen Sand Soldiers moving in front of Zeon.

‘If he can command hundreds of sand soldiers or more, he’s no different from a one-man army.’

Fortunately, however, it seemed he could command only several dozen at most.

Even then, while the Sand Soldiers moved, Zeon did not take a single step.

‘Of course! It would be absurd if he could move while controlling that many summons.’

They thought they had grasped Zeon’s weakness.

His ability to control sand was absurd, but he could not move when commanding the Sand Soldiers like that. In that case, they only had to aim for that moment and attack from range.

Once they figured out a way to deal with Zeon, the Awakened’s expressions eased a little.

With the Sand Soldiers joining in, they could finally breathe. Now it was time to kill the Orcs in earnest.

“Die!”

“Haaah!”

The Awakened attacked the Orcs with monstrous shouts.

Gangkara’s face twisted as he fought fiercely against Jang Yong-beom.

He had realized that the Steel Orc Tribe was being pushed back by the humans.

“Prrrk! How dare mere humans......”

“This is human tenacity, you ugly pig bastard!”

Jang Yong-beom smiled with a relaxed expression.

Time was now on his side.

There was no need to rush. He could take his time and attack methodically.

Gangkara was certainly strong.

But he was not so strong that Jang Yong-beom could not handle him.

With Jang Yong-beom’s Grade A ability, he felt he could somehow win.

SLASH—!

His claymore cut through Gangkara’s side while Gangkara’s attention was divided.

A tremendous amount of blood poured out, but Gangkara did not look pained at all.

Pain amplified Gangkara’s rage.

Gangkara swung his large blade and shouted,

“ROOOAR! Everyone, spread your black wings.”

At Gangkara’s sudden words, Jang Yong-beom and the Awakened looked puzzled.

There was no way mere Orcs had wings.

In truth, there was not even a trace of wings on Gangkara or the Orcs’ bodies.

But the Orcs’ reactions were different.

“GRAAAH!”

“ROOOAR!”

The Orcs raised their heads and unleashed Fear.

At that instant, black patterns appeared on their backs.

They looked exactly like black wings.

They were clearly wing-shaped tattoos.

“You call those shitty tattoos wings?”

“The pig bastards have really gone insane.”

The Awakened mocked the Orcs. But soon, their expressions hardened like stone.

That was because the Orcs’ fighting spirit had suddenly amplified several times over.

Their combat power rose just as much.

“Krrgh!”

“Kek!”

The Awakened who had been fighting evenly were turned into bloody messes and sent flying by the Orcs’ attacks.

Only then did they realize that the tattoos that had appeared on the Orcs’ backs were not ordinary.

“Fuck!”

“They’re buff tattoos.”

“The tattoos amplified their strength. Everyone, be careful!”

Just as they guessed, the black wing tattoos had a buff effect.

The name of this absurd tattoo, which exploded latent power in an instant and allowed the user to display combat power several times greater than usual, was the Berserker Tattoo.

Only an Orc Priest could inscribe this absurd tattoo.

However, once it was activated, the aftereffects were so severe that the Orcs could not move for two or three days.

That was why they had not used it until now. But cornered as they were, they were in no position to calculate such things.

Right now was the time to kill the humans, no matter the sacrifice.

CRASH—!

“Khh!”

Jang Yong-beom’s face twisted violently under Gangkara’s attack.

The hand gripping his claymore tore open, and his shoulder was forced backward.

Under a heavy strike that surpassed his expectations, the ligaments in Jang Yong-beom’s shoulder snapped strand by strand.

It was fortunate that his bones had not broken.

If the force had been just a little stronger, his entire shoulder might have been ripped off.

“Damn it!”

Jang Yong-beom gritted his teeth and retreated. But Gangkara did not let him go.

His enormous body closed in on Jang Yong-beom at terrifying speed, belying its size.

SWISH—!

The large blade tore the air apart and aimed for Jang Yong-beom’s weakened shoulder.

Once Orcs found a weakness, it was their nature to target it relentlessly.

“Fuck! This pig bastard really knows how to piss a man off......”

Jang Yong-beom’s face turned as vicious as a demon’s.

Jang Yong-beom had always kept about thirty percent of his full strength hidden.

In this hellish world, the only ones he could trust were himself and his party members.

He thoroughly hid his true strength from everyone else.

But the Orc before him was not such an easy opponent that he could defeat it while hiding his full strength.

He could only face it evenly by displaying everything he had.

Gangkara was a powerful enemy.

FLAAARE—!

Intense flames rose from the claymore.

The red flames soon wrapped around the claymore and fixed in place.

It was a clear Aura Blade.

“Blade of Punishment.”

When Jang Yong-beom swung his claymore with all his strength, the Aura Blade around the sword flew out at terrifying speed.

Gangkara, who had been charging toward Jang Yong-beom at full speed, could not avoid the Blade of Punishment.

“I’ll smash it apart!”

Gangkara drew out all his strength and swung his large blade.

The large blade filled with fighting spirit collided directly with the Blade of Punishment.

CLAAANG—!

Tremendous light and a shock wave burst out.

“Krrgh!”

“Krrk!”

The Awakened and Orcs swept up in the shock wave lost their balance and rolled across the ground.

By the time they barely regained their senses and lifted their heads, the duel between Jang Yong-beom and Gangkara had already been decided.

Drip, drip!

Blood was flowing from Jang Yong-beom’s shoulder.

His left arm had vanished cleanly from the shoulder down.

Gangkara’s fighting spirit had made his arm burst apart like a firework.

He barely remained standing by using his claymore as a cane.

When Giselle saw him, her face turned pale, and she shouted,

“Captain!”

She hurriedly tried to run to Jang Yong-beom, but the Orcs blocked her path.

“These fucking bastards. Frozen Orb.”

An orb of ice shot from her staff.

The ice orb spun fiercely among the Orcs blocking her path and fired countless shards of ice.

THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD—!

“Kweeeek!”

“Kwek!”

The Orcs pierced by the ice shards collapsed.

Giselle hurriedly trampled over the Orcs and reached Jang Yong-beom.

“Are you all right, Captain?”

“I’m not dead, so don’t make a fuss.”

Jang Yong-beom straightened his bent back and spoke coldly.

His face was covered entirely in blood. He had suffered a serious wound that would not have made it strange if he collapsed at any moment. Even so, his eyes were shining colder than ever.

His gaze was fixed on Gangkara.

Gangkara stood tall and glared at Jang Yong-beom as if he wanted to devour him.

He opened his mouth.

“Human...... strong.”

Srrrrk!

At that instant, Gangkara’s upper body slid away from his lower body.

SPLAT—!

His upper body crashed to the ground, and a fountain of blood surged from the severed lower half.

That was the end of Gangkara, Great Warrior of the Steel Orc Tribe.

“Kuhk!”

Only after confirming Gangkara’s death did Jang Yong-beom cough up blood and drop to one knee.

His life was so precarious that it would not have been strange if it ended at any moment.

“Captain!”

Giselle did not know what to do, but then Briel approached.

“Make him drink this.”

What Briel held out was a Healing Potion she had made herself.

Without any time to question whether the potion was genuine, Giselle immediately made Jang Yong-beom drink it. A moment later, color began returning to Jang Yong-beom’s face.

“He isn’t completely healed, so take good care of him.”

“Thank you, little one.”

“My name is Briel.”

“Right! Briel.”

Giselle corrected herself immediately.

That was how much help she had received from Briel.

Once Giselle realized Jang Yong-beom had passed the crisis, she came back to her senses.

“Wh-what about the other Orcs?”

“You don’t need to worry.”

“What?”

“Zeon will take care of them all.”

As if possessed, Giselle looked at Zeon.

Zeon was still standing in the same place.

He said,

“Everyone, move back. As far as you can.”

The Awakened who had been fighting fiercely against the Orcs felt an ominous sensation they could not explain.

It was the feeling that if they did not obey him, they would be swept up in something terrible.

“Damn it!”

“Everyone, fall back.”

They retreated dozens of meters.

The Orcs, who had suddenly lost their opponents, looked puzzled.

“Grrk?”

As if to answer the Orcs’ question, the surrounding sand began to writhe.

Zeon gave the sand an order.

“Sand Blender!”

GRIIIIIND—!