Free Web NovelChapter 44: This Dragon Commands it
Ren watched the energy flow back and knew that something was up.
"That’s not their soul, it’s what remains of their life energy," he muttered and then looked back at the bodies. They had dried up so much and shattered into dust.
"Could this be what the orc said the calamity orc does?" he asked himself.
"These orcs are nothing but tools for his amusement and use. Even in death, their lives have no meaning." He said that in a tone that hinted he was pissed. He looked at the direction of the cave again.
"Enough waiting around, it’s time to end this calamity orc."
[Quest update: Destroy the calamity orc.]
[The calamity orc has used many monsters of the forest and turned them into nothing but slaves who, even after death, have no peace. He rules his section of the forest with an iron fist.]
[Reward: Title of Forest Lord, 1000 EXP, Unique ability]
"Quest, huh?" Ren said, a humorless smile tugging at his mouth. "More reason to attack." He was already going to do that in the first place, but now he would be rewarded for it.
He turned away from the dust that used to be two orcs and made his way back toward where the main battle had been raging, wings carrying him low over the treeline. When he landed at the edge of the fighting, what he found stopped him cold. The war had already ended.
The orcs were already dealt with. Rows of them lay incapacitated, bound, groaning on the ground. Others were simply dead. His subordinates stood among the wreckage, weapons still drawn, breathing hard but very much victorious. Every one of them reeked of a changed aura, the kind of aura you had when you had become a proper warrior.
Ren stared at the scene for a long moment, genuinely caught off guard. He hadn’t expected them to already be finished, not against a force this size, not this fast. It was genuinely shocking that they did. He did not want to throw all the accolades to his buff because his subordinates had to be very good to be able to use the buff properly.
Remu and Silas broke off from the group and approached him, both looking worn but steady on their feet. They had smiles on their faces, the smiles of victory.
"It’s dealt with, master," Remu said, dipping his head. "We’re willing to take the rest on now, if you’ll allow it." They seemed eager to fight even after they had only finished the last one. Ren liked that, their enthusiasm was pretty nice.
’These two are pretty much the leaders already. Nice.’
"No." Ren shook his head. "Head back to the settlement. You’ve fought well, better than well, but I want to end this before it goes any further." His gaze drifted toward the cave in the distance, jaw tightening. "I have a feeling the calamity orc is consuming his own people right now to get stronger."
He looked back at Remu and Silas. "Letting him send wave after wave just gives him more time to grow. Take those who’ve surrendered back to camp and keep them locked away. I’ll end this myself." He turned and looked at the mountain in the distance. "Using those that swore themselves to you as tools to get stronger is a level of stooping no being should enter."
Neither of them argued. Ren didn’t wait for a response beyond their nods. He spread his wings and shot into the sky, angling straight toward the cave. He moved so fast that he became a blur.
He was spotted before he’d covered half the distance. Rows upon rows of orcs lined the cave’s entrance, far more than he’d seen before, and in one coordinated motion they hurled a storm of massive wooden spears into the air, thick enough to skewer a horse, filling every possible angle of approach.
Ren dodged.
He twisted between two spears, dropped under a third, banked hard to avoid a fourth that would’ve taken his wing off, weaving through the barrage in smooth, almost lazy arcs that made the sheer density of the attack look almost casual. One after another after another, the sky around him thick with wood and violent intent, and he slipped through all of it without a scratch.
But more kept coming, and the gaps kept shrinking, and he could feel that dodging his way through the entire mess wasn’t going to stay easy for long. He needed to clear a route faster.
So he stopped.
Mid-air, wings holding him steady, he drew in a breath and let it out as a compressed line of chaos flame, tight and controlled instead of wide. The spears in front of him didn’t stand a chance. The wood caught, burned, and turned to ash in an instant, the flame punching a clean, smoking corridor straight through the barrage and clearing his path in one motion.
Ren didn’t hesitate. He folded his wings and dropped.
He came down like a falling star, faster than a rocket, and the ground met him with a violence that shook the whole clearing. The crater that bloomed outward from the impact point sent orcs flying in every direction, bodies tumbling end over end through the dust and debris, the shockwave alone enough to knock the closest ranks clean off their feet.
The ones further away immediately got scared to even come close. They could sense the aura that was leaking from Ren, and it was not something that they wanted to even handle.
Ren straightened up slowly in the center of the crater, dust sliding off his shoulders, and looked up at the mouth of the cave. He looked in, and his dragon eyes were already seeing the inside of the place, yet he could not see the calamity orc, though he could sense its presence.
"Big piggie," he called out, his voice carrying easy and confident across the wreckage, "come out to play."
He rolled his neck, purple light still flickering faintly at his fingertips.
"This dragon commands it."
