Chapter 220

Chapter 220

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK—!

The wave of deathly sand swallowed hundreds of Orcs and surged all the way toward the Orc Great Chieftain.

Even as he watched the sand wave rushing toward him with such tremendous force that it seemed ready to swallow everything in the world, Orca did not blink once.

At last, just before the ten-meter-high sand wave crashed over him, he raised his right fist high into the sky.

“If you want to kill this Orca, that won’t be nearly enough.”

At that instant, Orca struck the earth with the fist he had raised.

CRASH—!

With an explosive roar, a tremendous shock wave erupted.

The shock wave shattered the enormous sand wave that had come right up to Orca.

FLAAARE—!

The sand grains that collided with the shock wave scattered in every direction.

As sand poured down like rain, Orca said,

“That won’t do, human. Bring out everything you have. I’ll smash it all to pieces.”

Orca was a born warrior.

He preferred a head-on clash over petty tricks or clever schemes.

A true warrior proved his worth only through strength.

Zeon looked at Orca for a moment.

He had erased Sand Wave with a single punch.

It was clearly not a simple punch, but one thrown with fighting spirit.

Just as humans and elves sensed and handled mana, Orcs were said to handle fighting spirit.

Though Zeon did not know what difference there was between mana and fighting spirit.

In any case, Orcs also underwent something like awakening, just like humans, and from that point onward, they could handle fighting spirit.

Orca had been able to handle fighting spirit from birth.

He was a born Awakened and a born warrior.

He handled fighting spirit as naturally as breathing, and with that power, he had become the Great Chieftain of the Orc race.

Fighting spirit seethed from Orca’s entire body like lava.

The terrifying heat seemed capable of melting the entire world, to the point that even the priest beside him had retreated far away.

Zeon murmured,

“Good.”

It had been quite a while since he had faced an opponent with such tremendous fighting spirit.

Regardless of grade, Orca was an opponent who made him truly want to fight.

Zeon descended from the air and walked toward Orca.

Jang Yong-beom followed behind him.

Jang Yong-beom gritted his teeth.

That was because Orca’s fighting spirit was crushing him.

He was afraid and terrified.

Yet he was excited.

‘There were so many strong beings in this world. I didn’t even know that and lived while acting like I was the only one who mattered.’

After becoming a Grade A Awakened, he had lost his goal.

He hated the thought of serving under someone else, and he also lacked the confidence to lead countless subordinates.

So he had been satisfied with a small party.

Behind that was his confidence that there were only a few people in Neo Seoul who could beat him.

He had consoled himself, thinking that with his combat experience, he would not fall far behind even Grade S.

‘All of it was an empty illusion my pride created. Like a cripple, I locked myself in a small room and told myself I was the best inside it. Now I’m going to break every frame I built.’

If he followed his heart, he wanted to face the Orc Great Chieftain.

Just looking at Orca gave him chills, and his heart felt as though it would stop.

It was the first time he had ever felt this kind of pressure, this kind of presence.

It was frustrating, but Orca was not his opponent.

If he had become Grade S, perhaps things would be different. But with his Grade A ability, he could not defeat that Great Chieftain.

Jang Yong-beom acknowledged reality, and so he chose the priest as his target.

The priest looked almost as dangerous as Orca. Still, he did not radiate the same suffocating presence Orca did.

‘I’ll take you down and climb higher.’

With that resolve, Jang Yong-beom followed behind Zeon.

The area swept by Sand Wave was horrific.

Hundreds, no, thousands of tons of sand had swept through and buried everything in its path.

Hundreds of Orcs were buried beneath the sand Jang Yong-beom stepped on.

They had been buried alive.

Zeon walked calmly over the scene of calamity he had created. From his expression alone, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Only then did Jang Yong-beom realize it.

‘This bastard has pushed through countless battlefields. He must have experienced things like this countless times, as casually as eating. Just what kind of life has he lived?’

The thrill he had felt from Orca could also be felt from Zeon.

Zeon was right in front of him, but even if Jang Yong-beom reached out, it felt as though he could never touch him.

A tremendous gap existed between him and Zeon.

In the meantime, Zeon arrived before Orca.

Orca revealed his fangs.

“Human!”

“Orc!”

“I will kill you and eat you. That way, I will take your strength.”

“You can’t take someone’s ability just by eating them.”

“I know that. I speak of the strength of the soul. A warrior’s soul strengthens the soul of the one who consumes it.”

“Try it, then. If you can.”

Zeon smiled.

A fresh smile without a trace of shadow.

The moment Orca saw that smile, he felt his fighting spirit boil even more violently.

“ROOOOAR!”

Filled with exhilaration swelling in his chest, Orca unleashed Fear.

The Fear of the Great Chieftain, who stood at the peak of tens of thousands of Orcs, stirred courage and vitality in the Orcs, while lowering the morale of the Orc race’s enemies and making their bodies stiffen.

THUD—!

Orca kicked off the earth.

His enormous body soared several dozen meters into the air, then dropped straight toward Zeon.

He needed no other weapon.

His massive body itself was a weapon.

Like a falling meteor, his enormous body reached Zeon in an instant.

Zeon did not dodge his attack.

Instead, he raised a wall.

A wall made of sand.

It was ten meters tall and over three meters thick.

No matter how cohesionless sand was, at this size, it possessed hardness comparable to most rocks.

CRASH—!

But the sand wall was pierced far too easily.

With a sound like a bomb exploding, the sand that had formed the wall scattered in every direction, and Orca appeared.

“Grrk?”

Orca had tried to tear Zeon apart in one breath, but Zeon was no longer there.

At that instant, Orca’s eyes quickly swept the surroundings.

He located Zeon in an instant.

SHOO—!

Using his left leg as an axis, he spun and unleashed a blow to the left.

His punch, filled with fighting spirit, burst the air apart, and the place where he guessed Zeon would be exploded.

Sand scattered in every direction.

Through it, Zeon moved.

Even without his ability as a Sandmancer, Zeon was strong.

Stronger than most martial-type Awakened.

Deioden had trained him that way.

But in terms of pure physical ability, he could not match Orca.

In pure strength, reaction speed, and dynamic visual acuity, Orca overwhelmingly surpassed Zeon.

Orca was not making plans in advance or moving by predicting the situation. He was following and attacking Zeon with momentary judgment in every situation he faced.

Like a cat hunting a mouse.

CRASH—!

Orca’s fist brushed past Zeon by a hair’s breadth and struck the ground.

A massive crater over three meters in radius appeared.

Its power was truly terrifying.

If one were struck by that huge fist, it would not end with bones breaking and muscles being crushed.

If even one blow landed, death would come immediately.

It had been a long time since Zeon had felt this kind of tension.

That was why Zeon smiled.

As he had confirmed a moment ago, Orca had the advantage in every physical ability. But there was one thing where Zeon held the upper hand.

It was his vision of the whole and his ability to draw the larger picture.

Inside his head, a picture was being drawn step by step of how he would catch this mighty monster.

CRASH—!

Once again, Orca’s fist passed by his flank by a hair’s breadth and struck the ground.

Even though it had not landed squarely, his flank throbbed.

If he had not been wearing the robe made from Leviathan’s hide, this attack might have shattered every rib he had.

Zeon retreated with Sand Walk. Orca chased after him.

In an instant, Orca closed the distance.

To Orca, ten meters or twenty meters was a space he could easily cover with a single leap.

Within his space, escape was impossible.

‘You won’t dodge this time.’

Orca thrust out his fist with all his strength.

His target was Zeon’s head.

At that instant, Zeon’s figure vanished from his sight.

Using Sand Walk, he had silently moved to the left.

As if someone had pulled him with an invisible rope.

Thanks to that, Orca’s fist once again only made a hole in the innocent ground.

The enraged Orca shouted,

“How long do you plan to keep running, cowardly human?”

“Cowardly? I’m moving quite diligently while drawing the larger picture in my own way.”

“Shut up.”

“Well, since you say I’m noisy, shall I start moving in earnest about now?”

At that instant, the sand around Zeon moved, and dozens of Sand Soldiers were summoned.

The summoned Sand Soldiers attacked Orca.

Orca snorted at the Sand Soldiers’ wave assault.

“Sand dolls cannot do anything to me.”

THUD, THUD, THUD—!

Orca took the Sand Soldiers’ attacks with his whole body.

They could not use separate Skills, but the destructive power of the Sand Soldiers, which combined terrifying speed with the mass of sand, exceeded that of most Awakened.

Yet Orca endured every one of those attacks with his bare body without budging.

The Sand Soldiers clung to Orca’s body outright.

One Sand Soldier weighed well over a hundred kilograms, and with several dozen of them, even at minimum, the total weight was several tons.

With dozens of Sand Soldiers hanging from him, Orca charged toward Zeon.

If he had to be classified, an Orc was a small monster.

Only something around the level of an Ogre could be called medium-sized.

The power Orca now showed exceeded that of a medium-sized monster and came close to a large-sized one.

It was power that surpassed common sense and the limits of his race.

Zeon was slightly surprised by Orca’s power. But that did not make him shrink back.

“I have a rough idea of your strength. Then let’s see how durable you are. Self-destruct!”

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

At that instant, the Sand Soldiers clinging to Orca exploded all at once.

Each individual grain of sand was nothing special, but if several tons exploded simultaneously, that was a different story.

It was an explosion powerful enough to blow away an ordinary village entirely.

Yet even inside the explosion, Orca was unharmed.

The surface of the heavy armor he wore was slightly damaged, but there was not even a small wound on his body.

It was hardness beyond common sense.

Though he had not been wounded, Orca’s rage reached its peak.

He did not like that Zeon kept using strange tricks.

“GRAAAH!”

Orca once again released fighting spirit along with Fear.

His fighting spirit became a storm and swept over the area.

Even Zeon could not avoid the storm of fighting spirit.

“Mm!”

Zeon’s body shook after being struck by the storm.

Orca did not miss that opening and charged at Zeon.

THUD, THUD, THUD—!

Zeon fired Viper and Sand Blaster, but attacks of that level could not stop Orca.

But Zeon had prepared for that too.

“Quick Sand.”

SQUELCH—!

Suddenly, Orca sank into the sand up to his knees.

“......”

Orca looked puzzled.

Sand was soft, but he had never sunk this deeply into it before.

It was then.

The sand in the area where Orca stood flowed at terrifying speed like a river.

Quick Sand.

A river of sand flowing at high speed, in other words, shifting sands, had been created.

The shifting sands that swallowed Orca flowed endlessly underground. Just like the other Orcs, Zeon intended to bury the Orc Great Chieftain alive as well.

Orca struggled to escape the shifting sands, but it was useless. In an instant, Orca vanished beneath the sand.

“ROOOOAR!”

The hellish shifting sands swallowed even the Great Chieftain’s roar.