The jaws of the students watching this sight fell to the floor.
They were about to avert their gazes before the scene of their classmate getting murdered played out, yet these ‘soldiers’ decked out in golden armor suddenly appeared without a single warning.
Soldiers?
No, hold on – was it even okay to call those things ‘soldiers’?
But, these monsters looked more humani and the aura was at least double the size of an Orc? Really?
The Illuminated Soldiers Park Jongryeo had sent to Jin-Ah were part of his front vanguard. Not only that, these guys were the cream of the warrior crop found there.
Regular Orcs dared to have a go against an Adeptus? What a funny notion that was.
As if to demonstrate that clear gap in power, the Adeptus threw a powerful punch.
Kwajeeck!!
An Orc’s head shattered from the impact and the dead monster crashed down to the classroom’s floor. Meanwhile, the students were freaking out properly now.
‘Heok!!’
The terrifying monsters threatening their lives up until only a few seconds ago were getting massacred by even more monsterish human-like creatures.
Their current level of shock and fear had gone far past what they could tolerate and caused the inside of these students’ heads to completely blank out.
Except for one person, that was.
Only Jin-Ah knew the significance of those golden armors and began crying softly.
‘Hyeongnim? Did hyeongnim….?’
Jin-Ah could sense Jongryeo’s trace from these three soldiers surrounding her like a trio of bodyguards.
“Gururu….”
The two illuminated soldiers standing behind her didn’t even need to step forward. The adepti in front, having destroyed the head of the scout leader Orc, reached out to grasp the scruffs of the two remaining Orcs trying to flee.
“Kururuk!!”
“Kheuwahahahk!”
Now raised up high in the air, two monsters kicked and struggled desperately. But their struggles were ultimately in vain as their heads were violently slammed into one another.
KWAHNG!
The dead monsters and their shattered foreheads fell in a pair of heaps on the floor.
Plop.
Plop….
In the blink of an eye, the three Orcs invading the classroom were taken care of.
That was the end.
The illuminated soldiers stopped moving again from their spots and quietly guarded Jin-Ah’s sides.
Just how many seconds ticked by like this?
The students had regained some semblance of calmness by then; while trying their best to suppress their still-pounding hearts, they silently exchanged glances with one another.
‘W-what’s going on here?’
‘Did those monsters save us?’
‘Are we being protected?’
At the bare minimum, they felt sure that these golden-armored knights and golden-eyed man weren’t going to harm them.
“W-where is Hyeongnim? Is he here?”
Jin-Ah tearfully asked for Jongryeo, but the illuminated knights didn’t reply to her.
“Hyeongnim?”
Instead, the man with golden avian eyes stopped her when she tried to go somewhere else.
“…..?”
“Apologies, my master ordered me to not let you out of our sight.”
When Jin-Ah cautiously looked up at the man, the adepti silently shook his head. The top priority for these soldiers was to secure Jin-Ah’s safety. They couldn’t let her roam around the building when it was packed full of enemies right now.
And, sure enough, footsteps climbing up the stairs could be heard coming from outside the classroom.
Step, step, step!
Step, step, step.
The illuminated soldiers began pulling out their weapons housed on their backs and waists.
The students got tenser and tenser as those footsteps approached closer, but at the same time, hope wormed its way into their hearts as they watched these illuminated soldiers calmly get ready for battle.
The hope that they could get out of here alive, and the sense of relief that powerful allies were protecting them.
Among them, though, there were still a few who cried from the jumbled mixture of emotions – from fear, worry, anxiety, sorrow, etc.
“Sob…. Hic….”
Students hugged tightly their sobbing friends and held their breaths.
The footsteps were getting closer and closer.
Step, step, step.
And so – the Orcs spread around the school building all heard the death throes of their brethren and began gathering near the classroom of third-year seniors.
____________
The last restriction was finally undone.
Finally gaining the freedom of movement, the ‘owner of the dungeon’ left the boss chamber and strode outside the Gate. It was the Chieftain of the Orcs, ‘Groctar’.
Its entire body was covered in black tattoos, seemingly not leaving behind even a single patch of empty skin.
Tattoos signified a victory for Orcs. These were proof of how many battles this creature fought and how many enemies it had slain so far.
“Groctar!”
“Groctar!!”
The Orcs waiting for the Chieftain in front of the Gate chanted out its name and lowered their heads.
On the other hand, Groctar raised its head towards the ceiling without saying anything.
‘……’
Because it was getting rather noisy up there.
It had been some time since the advanced scouts took away a few of the warriors while declaring that they would conquer this castle of humans.
However, they still hadn’t ended their battle yet?
A sweating Orc received the furious glare of its Chieftain and hurriedly explained the situation.
“Divine warriors are aiding humans.”
“Divine warriors?”
Indeed, Divine warriors were strong. Regular Orc warriors wouldn’t be able to fight against them. Meaning, it was now time for the Chieftain to step up.
“How many?”
“Three.”
Even if their opponents were strong, what a shameful notion it was for dozens of great Orc warriors to fail at subduing only three Divine warriors.
“Pathetic….”
Groctar’s expression crumpled.
The Orcs were scared stiff from the Chieftain’s anger and began trembling like leaves. It was then, that the Orc great warriors that had been left behind by Guroktaru’s speed, finally emerged out of the Gate one by one.
There were a total of five out-of-breath Orc great warriors.
Confirming that all of its guards had escaped from the Gate now, Groctar gestured at the Orc making that report with its chin.
“Lead the way.”
The Orc lowered its head and stood at the front. The Chieftain and its guards strode right behind. Meanwhile, lights of madness were burning furiously within Groctar’s eyes.
‘Insolent bastards….’
It was now time to demand appropriate compensation from the Divine warriors, who dared to interrupt the hunting of the Orc warriors.
The divine warriors were indeed strong. Unfortunately, they were still no match for the Orc Chieftain, Groctar.
Xiao left behind his guards in the corridor and stepped forward to fight all by himself. And then, while Groctar easily evaded the attacks of the adepti, it pulled out a scimitar sheathed on its back.
“Is this all you have?!”
The interior of the classroom was filled with the corpses of the Orcs. Even at a casual count, there were 50 of them here.
Over 50 of its underlings were done by these three illuminated soldiers.
“Make me enjoy this more, warriors of the divine race!”
The Chieftain’s rage was transferred directly into merciless swings of its curved blade.
Groctar’s scimitar drew elaborate arcs in the air and began shaving away the illuminated knights, their armors and all.
“Ahh!!”
“Kyaaahk!”
The screams didn’t come from the knights, naturally, but from the mouths of the humans hiding behind them.
Groctar’s forehead creased up in displeasure.
‘Annoyingly noisy.’
After taking care of these illuminated knights, those bugs would be next.
Groctar sliced off an arm of a knight and chopped it up in fine pieces until it got eventually bored of doing that, and spun on its heels to cut off the opponent’s neck clean off.
Slice!
When that happened, other Orcs who had retreated outside the classroom because of the High Orcs all began raising loud cheers.
“Guroktaru!”
“Guroktaru-!!”
It was then, Groctar’s brows quivered.
The headless knight morphed into golden dust before reverting to how it was originally, right in front of its eyes.
‘Is this shamanism?’
Even after the Orc Chieftain cut and sliced its enemies several more times, the story remained the same.
“Kuwahk!”
Groctar eventually became really frustrated and roared out. It had sliced and hacked these illuminated knights numerous times to death, yet they all reverted to their original shapes again and again.
‘It won’t be hard killing them hundreds, thousands of times.’
However, there would be no end in sight if that happened.
Even right now, that damn voice in its head was repeatedly ordering Groctar to kill humans.
As a matter of fact, the Orc was beginning to suffer from a migraine as the voice continuously rang inside its head.
But that didn’t mean it could ignore these knights and try to kill the humans, either.
‘….Time to finish this.’
Guroktaru rolled its brain into gear.
If these High Orcs were creations of some kind of sorcery, then without a doubt, there must be a shaman controlling them somewhere.
Groctar had fought against many different kinds of sorcery in the past battles, and therefore, it subsequently knew how to end this dirty trick once and for all, as well.
‘That female!’
That human female, standing far behind these knights and holding her breath! Although faint, she was somehow connected to these divine creations.
Groctar’s eyes gleamed dangerously.
‘So, is it you?’
The monster’s target for its murderous rage was redirected to her. The moment Jin-Ah met Groctar’s gaze, her entire body shuddered uncontrollably.
That human female definitely knew something – Groctar decided as so and pointed at Jin-Ah while glancing behind itself.
“Kill that human female!”
Even before its words were finished, the guards observing the fight from the back rushed forward to carry out Groctar’s order.
Xiao ignored Groctar to desperately block against the advancing guards.
“I won’t let you, demons!”
‘I thought as much.’
Indeed, the Orc Chieftain’s guess was correct.
By seizing the opening created by the adepti being held up, Groctar stood before Jin-Ah.
“So, it was you.”
The Orc used the hand not holding the scimitar and grabbed Jin-Ah’s neck, before lifting her up.
“Ah….”
The female, with her airways squeezed tight, couldn’t even scream properly. This caused Groctar to tilt its head.
It was such a weak, slender neck that it’d get broken just from the monster squeezing a little harder than usual. But, how could such a weak human manage to complete a high-class sorcery that changed warriors into immortals?
There was a simple way to find out.
‘Kill her and I’ll see.’
And, just as Groctar began squeezing the female’s neck to snap it in half….
[Jade Screen]
A screen out of gold and obsidian with a translucent curtain appeared between Groctar and Jin-Ah. When the arm holding Jin-Ah phases through the translucent curtain, it was immediately chopped off, dropping Jin-Ah to the floor.
CN: The Midterm Exam is finally over!! The brief hiatus is done!!
⸜(｡˃ ᵕ Ë‚ )â¸â™¡ I’m back!!!
Btw, I noticed some of you DM me.
à´¦àµà´¦à´¿(˵ •̀ á´— – ˵ ) ✧
I apologize for not responding immediately😖🙠but I just want you to know that you made my heart flutter with your adorable messagesᯓ á¡£ð©.
Thank you so much.
Love you all!! (ã¥â€¢á´—•)ã¥â™¡
Comment