The orc captain was speechless at this moment; his initial anger had turned into terror after Arthur and Nepheli Loux appeared.
Facing the numerous and close orcs, Arthur did not choose Morgwyn's Sacred Spear, which had a wind-up time, but instead re-gripped his unadorned greatsword.
The orc captain clearly remembered this greatsword; the orcs who had fortunately escaped from Arthur's hands had spoken of a wizard in armor wielding a greatsword, easily slaughtering them.
Initially, when the orc captain heard such claims, he scoffed at the escaped orcs, believing them to be nothing more than cowards scared witless by a wizard.
He had not been without encounters with knights from human nations, and among them were not a few who used greatswords, but they all died on the spot and became food for the wargs.
Because the orc captain knew that with normal human stamina, it was impossible to wield a greatsword for a long time. He relied on this point to order his orcs to exhaust the humans' stamina, and when the opponents revealed a weakness, he would have the wargs swarm them.
But when the orc captain saw the "great" sword in Arthur's hand, he finally understood why the runaway orcs had looked so terrified.
Compared to Arthur's greatsword, which stirred up a bloody storm with every sweep through the orc horde, the so-called greatswords in the hands of human knights he had seen before seemed as ridiculous as toothpicks.
The orc captain even wondered if the greatsword in the wizard's hand could truly be called a "sword"?
It looked more like a massive and crude block of iron! And the orc captain couldn't even sense any exhaustion from the opponent wielding that massive iron block!
"Ah!"
"Crackling—"
Just as the orc captain was consumed by terror because of Arthur, the sound of thunder, accompanying the orcs' screams from the other side, jolted him back to his senses, and the sound was getting closer and closer.
"Roar!"
The warg beneath the orc captain let out an uneasy snarl. The Captain looked in the direction of the sound and saw a humanoid storm, imbued with golden lightning, rapidly approaching him.
All the orcs and wargs in the path of this lightning storm were swept into it, their gray bodies visibly cut into pieces, and black blood splattered around like a burst waterskin.
"Get out of the way, you fools! All of you, get out of the way!" The orc captain watched Nepheli Loux's figure getting closer and closer, realizing she was coming for his head, and immediately roared at the orcs crowding around him.
But the orc captain had too many orcs crammed into this not-so-small area in order to destroy the outpost here, making it ineffective even when he raised his weapon and slashed at the orcs next to his warg.
He could only watch helplessly as the golden lightning storm drew nearer, and even the warg beneath him threw him to the ground and abandoned him.
"Oh oh oh—"
Amidst the orc captain's furious shouts of alarm, Nepheli Loux approached him.
The next second, a battle axe imbued with golden lightning severed his head.
The second second, another battle axe horizontally cut through his chest.
…
The orc captain, like the orcs before him, soon fell to the ground like a broken rag.
His head was then lifted by Nepheli Loux, who grasped its sparse, withered hair, her crimson eyes coldly gazing at the surrounding orcs.
The orcs, seeing their Captain die miserably and without resistance, instantly dropped their weapons. The formation they had maintained under the orc captain's compulsion instantly dissolved into disarray, and they began to flee the battlefield.
Conversely, the wargs, whose savagery had been ignited, were still fighting the Kingrick Royal Army inside the outpost, but under the well-trained coordination of the Kingrick Royal Army, this resistance was futile.
Not to mention there was also a knight captain on the field who was bloodthirsty. Wherever the enemies were most numerous and the resistance most fierce, this knight captain, who had fallen to the path of blood, would let out a roar more like a beast than a warg and charge in.
This scene made the fleeing orcs around them wonder who was truly spreading fear and bloodshed.
But their escape speed did not slow down because of this. In fact, many of the stronger orcs, in order to escape, actively turned their blades on their weaker compatriots in front of them, wounding them and throwing them towards the terrifying human knight behind.
On Nepheli Loux's side, another normal Kingrick Knight, carrying a broad-headed spear stained with orc blood and fragments of organs, led four Kingrick soldiers behind him to rendezvous with her on the battlefield where orcs were fleeing everywhere.
"Tanes, Your Majesty." The Kingrick Knight first bowed respectfully to her, then saw the orc captain's head she was holding, and a slight look of disappointment appeared in his eyes.
He had also aimed for the orc captain's position, leading his soldiers to fight their way through, but he didn't expect someone else to get there first.
Never mind, as long as that madman doesn't get the credit for the first kill, it's fine.
This Kingrick Knight glanced at the fallen knight captain not far away, who was wielding a knight's greatsword and chasing orcs, hacking at them everywhere, and comforted himself internally.
While the Kingrick Knight was conversing with Nepheli Loux, the other four soldiers proactively shielded the two of them, and also pulled out the hand crossbows from their backs to kill the orcs who were approaching in their frantic flight.
Nepheli Loux nodded to him and said, slightly out of breath, "The orc captain has been slain. Their formation has collapsed. Now is the time to pursue. But remember, do not be greedy and advance too far. Are any of you injured? Leave the wounded soldiers behind; the rest of you continue to pursue the orcs within the outpost."
She had been continuously using her Storm Battle Skill just now, and her stamina was somewhat depleted.
"Yes, Nepheli Loux!"
The Kingrick Knight respectfully nodded to Nepheli Loux, then turned to a Kingrick soldier who was breathing heavily and commanded, "You, with the leg injury, stay here and await treatment."
The soldier could only nod helplessly. He still wanted to continue pursuing the enemy, but his leg injury would definitely slow down his teammates.
He had been bitten on the thigh by a warg playing dead on the ground while he and his knight captain were charging towards the orc captain.
Fortunately, this warg had been severely wounded earlier by a friendly crossbow bolt from the watchtower, and the soldier himself was wearing leg armor. Therefore, his thigh only had a small cut where it wasn't covered by armor, with no bone or tendon damage.
Then the Kingrick Knight commanded the soldier next to him, "You cover him to the nearest watchtower, then quickly rejoin me."
The soldier pointed to by the Kingrick Knight immediately acted, proactively helping the soldier with the injured thigh to move quickly towards the nearby watchtower.
"Slow down, I can walk myself."
"If we go any slower, all the orcs will run away. I still want to make a good impression in front of Arthur, Your Majesty."
The conversation between the two soldiers faded into the distance, and Nepheli Loux smiled faintly upon hearing it.
She understood the feelings of these soldiers who had previously traveled far from home.
Nepheli Loux lifted the orc captain's head in front of Godrick, the Knight, and motioned with her chin for him to take it: "I know you've been killing your way through for this orc's head. I don't need this, so keep it safe yourself."
Godrick, the Knight, used the tip of his broad-headed spear to pick up the orc captain's head and looked at Nepheli Loux in disbelief.
After Nepheli Loux gave him the head, she re-gripped her battle axe and went to chase down the other orcs.
Godrick, the Knight, watched Nepheli Loux's agile figure as she departed, his eyes filled with envy, and he sighed, wondering when he would be able to prove himself without the heads of enemy leaders, just like the Storm King.
Near the relay station.
"That fool finally died. It actually naively thought that a wizard's territory would be so easy to conquer."
The strong body of the orc Vice Captain appeared beside the stone-built wall of the relay station, followed by a dozen more orcs.
Perhaps, it should be called "Captain" now.
These dozen orcs were originally the Vice Captain's subordinates, but the deceased orc captain had taken them from the Vice Captain by force.
Now that the orc captain was dead, the remaining orcs either fled, or followed their original captain, and the orcs behind the Vice Captain belonged to the latter group.
"Captain, aren't we going to run away?"
A scrawny orc, with shifty eyes, scurried over and asked cautiously.
The orc Vice Captain, who had become Captain again, heavily slapped the other's balding head, which had only a few strands of hair, and said in a rough voice, "Fool, if we run now, how will you explain to the master later? Are we going to say that we were driven out by the wizard like wild dogs?"
Then it looked at the stone wall of the relay station it was leaning on, extended its tongue to lick its exposed fangs, and revealed a bloodthirsty gaze: "When that fool forced us to destroy the outpost just now, I passed by here and noticed a Human female figure. She must be a Human who didn't have time to retreat to the fortress. While the other orcs are distracting the wizard, we'll thoroughly bloodbath this relay station, inside and out, and bring the Human woman's head back to the boss to report."
Then it ferociously roared at the dozen orcs following behind it: "All of you, hurry up!"
Under the Vice Captain's scolding, the orcs' timid eyes once again became fierce.
They couldn't and dared not fight the wizard, but if it was just bullying defenseless civilians, they not only had the courage, but a great deal of it.
The evil figures of the orcs quickly stormed into the not-so-small relay station, but to their confusion, they found no Human figures.
The robust Vice Captain glanced at the orcs scurrying around the relay station but finding no one, and showed an exasperated expression, then scolded: "The Humans must be hiding. You fools, go find if there's an underground entrance!"
Soon, a passage leading underground was discovered by the orcs.
There was no light within the passage, only a pitch-black expanse, like the gaping maw of an abyssal beast.
"Boss, I found this passage, and I heard movement inside," the orc who first discovered the underground passage eagerly claimed credit.
But the Vice Captain did not appreciate it; instead, it reached out, grabbed the orc, and then kicked it into the tunnel.
"You found the tunnel, so why aren't you getting in? And all of you, get in quickly!" the Vice Captain grumbled.
The sound of the orc's body hitting the wall came intermittently, followed by its groans.
The other orcs, urged by the Vice Captain, blindly jumped down, supporting themselves on the stone walls as they descended.
But very quickly, the first orc, the one kicked down by the Vice Captain, suddenly let out a terrified shriek, and then the other orcs who had entered the tunnel heard the sound of flesh and bones being crushed.
The orc at the very front stopped. It smelled the blood flowing from that orc and dared not go any further.
But the orcs behind it were driven forward by the Vice Captain, who was holding a weapon, pushing it into the tunnel.
"Thump—!"
Before this orc could react, a metal flail, half its body length and covered in sharp spikes, came smashing down with a whoosh.
Like the orc that the Vice Captain had kicked in, its body burst open like a water bag.
"Hoo-roo... Hoo..."
A muffled panting sound came from the darkness. From the orcs' perspective, a humanoid muscular monster, roughly the size of a Troll but wearing a huge golden spherical helmet, suddenly appeared.
The orc at the very front, startled, instinctively swung its rusty iron sword at the opponent's huge spherical helmet, but other than a "clink" sound, it only left a shallow white mark on the helmet and caused no substantial damage.
This sudden appearance before the orcs was none other than the Pumpkin Head Soldier that Arthur had assigned to protect Sellen at the relay station.
The orc's strike not only failed, but it also aroused the Pumpkin Head Soldier's ferocity.
A chilling roar emanated from within the nearly fully enclosed spherical helmet. The Pumpkin Head Soldier lowered its head and charged in the direction it had been attacked.
The orcs in the underground passage shrieked in terror. The orc at the very front had its ribs directly broken, and the Pumpkin Head Soldier directly pushed them out of the underground passage.
"Woooooah!"
The Pumpkin Head Soldier roared in anger while swinging the flail in its hand.
The surrounding orcs looked at their weapons, which weren't even as long as the opponent's arm, and dared not approach.
But Arthur had placed more than one Pumpkin Head Soldier here. Another Pumpkin Head Soldier, hearing its comrade's roar, also emerged from the tunnel, following the sound.
The Vice Captain swallowed. It no longer had any thought of slaughtering the relay station; it just had one thing on its mind that it couldn't figure out.
That was how the wizard had tamed these two Trolls.
That's right, the Vice Captain mistook the Pumpkin Head Soldiers for Trolls.
The Vice Captain narrowed its eyes, watching the two Pumpkin Head Soldiers, and retreated little by little towards the outside of the relay station.
It planned to make a run for it.
But the Vice Captain suddenly heard the clamorous shouts of the dwarves coming from behind it.
Dwalin looked at the orcs retreating outside the relay station, let out a roar, and quickened his charging pace.
Kili, on the other hand, directly drew his bow and nocked an arrow, aiming the sharp arrowhead at the retreating orc, then released the bowstring.
"—!"
The Vice Captain's murky eyes widened. It let go of its weapon and struggled to claw at its neck, but soon collapsed powerlessly.
The arrow shot by Kili had pierced its neck with pinpoint accuracy.
In the basement of the relay station, Sellen, who had removed her Witch's Glinstone Crown and revealed her delicate face, looked up from a scroll. Hearing the noisy sounds from outside the basement, she shook her head slightly with displeasure, then refocused her attention on the scroll in front of her.