Chapter 91: Pursuing into the Orc Town

"Quick, quick, quick."

Bandak shouted loudly while leading the troops running along the road in the middle of the valley.

When the sky turned completely dark, this troop, aided by the moonlight, quietly stepped onto the valley road and crept toward Allen's direction.

After all, the entrance of the valley was more than ten kilometers away from the cave where Allen was staying; if they really waited until they saw the signal to lead the troops in a forced march for support.

That would require at least one hour, and that was the result of the troops sprinting at full speed; after arriving, they would still need to maintain a certain amount of stamina to immediately engage in battle, which would take even longer.

Therefore, after consulting with Desaiwei, Bandak believed that they could not let the troops wait idly in place, but rather should take advantage of the night to start marching early, even if the speed had not been fast.

As Allen's loyal Housecarl, the honest and simple-natured Bandak felt very anxious inside at this moment; he was somewhat worried about Allen taking such a personal risk this time.

After all, leading a troop of fewer than one hundred men to face an attack by thousands of Orcish was simply too dangerous.

However, after Allen stated the plan with extreme confidence, it was impossible for Bandak to say any words of opposition in front of everyone; that would be a provocation to the master's authority.

Bandak, who was both grateful and respectful toward Allen, would absolutely never do anything that would damage Allen's majesty.

He had not been without suffering losses in this regard before, and that one time had nearly ruined half of Bandak's life's achievements; this man, already past middle age, had kept that lesson deeply in his heart.

After seeing the signal, Bandak now only wanted to be faster, even faster, to arrive at the battlefield with the troops before Allen encountered real danger.

Especially just now, the sound of a large number of Warg howling had already reached his ears; those bursts of howling meant that the number of enemies was definitely not small.

Yet someone was even faster than Bandak; a galloping Giant Bear had already left Bandak's troops far behind—that was Cress riding the giant bear that Grim had transformed into.

Originally, after she reported the situation to Allen, she had returned to Beorn's garden, where she continued to care for and train her birds with Grim, but she had always been thinking about the matter of attacking the Orc Town.

Because in the rumors of the Wilderness Town, there was rarely any mention of this young girl, especially in the many battles commanded by Allen, in which Cress had no part, so she really wanted to participate in this battle to prove her own strength and obtain that share of Honor belonging to her among these rumors.

However, before Cress could return to win Allen's consent, the birds flying in the sky chirped to tell her the next morning that Allen had already set out.

Suddenly becoming very anxious, Cress called out to Grim, who was obedient to her every word, and after making some slight preparations, they set off just like that.

They rarely stopped along the way, galloping all the way from Beorn's garden to the High Pass, and subsequently, while taking a short rest at the entrance of the valley, they saw the fireworks flying into the sky.

In Allen's orders, fireworks were the command for full-speed support; the two of them, one person and one bear, soon set off again, and after catching up to Bandak's troops, they made no stops and continued to rush toward the direction where the signal rose.

Soon, Cress and Grim approached the vicinity of the cave where Allen was located during their gallop; Cress, riding on the giant bear, used her eyesight, which far exceeded that of an ordinary person, to lock onto the leader of this pack of Warg just as they turned their heads upon hearing the commotion.

Cress patted the bear's head hard, then lowered her body to point out the direction of the alpha wolf to the galloping Grim.

"Grim, over there."

Under Cress's guidance, Grim also quickly discovered that unique fellow; surrounded by many Warg, it was an alpha wolf with a huge body and white fur.

Subsequently, having confirmed the target, Grim, under the gaze of many Warg, suddenly increased his speed to the limit, rushing toward the direction of the white alpha wolf at a speed exceeding 70 kilometers per hour.

Cress, sitting steadily on the bear's back, was not afraid at all; instead, she grabbed the fur on Grim's neck tightly with both hands and shouted excitedly into the wind blowing in her face, "Charge!", the muffled sound of which directly startled Holimion at the entrance of the cave.

At this moment, the corpses at the cave entrance were almost cleared away by the Warg; although these Warg were no different in appearance from beasts, their intelligence was not low, and they actually knew how to clear only half of the obstacles under the cover of the pile of corpses.

This behavior cut off the possibility of the Humans and Elf shooting at them, but Grim's charge interrupted their actions.

The remaining hundred or so Warg on the field naturally could not watch this strange bear-Knight charge toward their leader; amidst bursts of howling, they also ran quickly, dodging and weaving in the forest, pouncing toward Grim and Cress on Grim's back.

However, the pouncing of the Warg had no effect on Grim during his high-speed charge, only slightly reducing his speed.

Their sharp fangs could not bite through Grim's tough bear hide at all, and their insidious hooked claws, upon touching Grim, were instead directly knocked away by the powerful force of the giant bear's charge, collapsing to the ground amidst wails.

As for Cress, sitting on Grim, she drew her elite Curved Blade backhanded, attacking the Warg that wanted to pounce on her from time to time; in a short while, five Warg had fallen under her slashing.

Just like that, Grim and Cress knocked away countless Warg pouncing on them along the way, rushing toward the white alpha wolf.

Amidst Grim's grand charge, this white alpha wolf entered a state of alert at the first moment; it knew that it could absolutely not be a match for this giant bear, but the One Ring was still attracting it vaguely, making it unable to make up its mind.

Subsequently, it saw Grim rushing toward it as if entering an uninhabited land, and a great fear arose in its heart; that massive wolf head looked frequently at the entrance of the cave and the giant bear that was already approaching it.

At this time, Holimion, having learned that support had arrived, also led the soldiers who could still move and charged directly out of the cave entrance, launching an attack on the nearby Warg; the grass in front of the cave once again entered into a fierce battle.

The noise produced by the forced march of the large troop also reached the ears of the alpha wolf; that was the large troop led by Bandak.

Finally, this white Warg let out an extremely unwilling howl and turned to flee into the forest.

Between the One Ring and its life, it ultimately chose its own life.

Amidst the howling of the alpha wolf, the wolf pack, which had already suffered nearly fifty percent casualties, left this land that was extremely tragic for them without hesitation; in this battle, they left behind more than one hundred corpses.

Up to this point, this siege in cooperation between the Warg and the Orcish had already failed halfway, but this did not mean that Allen's plan had succeeded.

In fact, Allen, who was fighting the Orcish, deeply understood that his plan had not succeeded; on the contrary, it should have failed. His core purpose was to greatly reduce the number of Orcish near the High Pass.

In his plan, the ideal situation should have been for him to lead the troops to resist the Orcish attacking from the outside in the cave, and after the reinforcements arrived, surround one wave, and then pursue and kill another wave with internal and external coordination; at the very least, they could have cleared out more than two-thirds of the enemies.

Such a large reduction in numbers would be enough to ensure that the Orcish in this area would not be able to stir up any trouble for more than a decade, but the current situation did not quite meet Allen's expectations.

Now, what was surrounding them from the outside were a large number of Warg, while the Orcish he was so intent on clearing out were rushing out from behind him.

Even though Allen had a certain amount of preparation for this result when he first entered the cave, now that things had developed to such a situation, his heart still could not quite accept it.

Now these Orcish with a retreat route could absolutely not just stand here and fight Allen to the death based on the temptation of the One Ring; as soon as Allen's support arrived, they would inevitably scatter in a rush.

Especially after a wolf howl came from outside, Allen could clearly feel that the Orcish in front of him appeared to be in a certain state of chaos.

He knew that the Warg outside must have retreated, so his own reinforcements must have arrived.

At the same time, all the Human soldiers under siege felt their pressure gradually decreasing; many Orcish were no longer launching attacks as crazily as before, but were quietly retreating, especially those Orcish with exceptionally fine equipment.

Before this, these Wolf Rider, who were a head taller than ordinary Orcish, had been insidiously mixed in among the ordinary Orcish, and after seizing an opportunity, they would suddenly use the fine weapons in their hands to attack the Human soldiers who were resisting the siege.

Their insidious attacks were often able to cause great trouble for the Human warriors.

Facing such attacks, the Swadian Knight, with their extremely exquisite melee skills and very fine equipment, could barely cope.

While several Horse Archer who were forced into melee combat were flustered under the attacks of these Wolf Rider, and were eventually pounced upon by a large number of ordinary Orcish and died miserably under the chaotic blades.

Facing this situation, Allen had no choice but to lead the soldiers to retreat toward the direction of the cave passage, further shrinking the area he needed to defend, while preventing being surrounded by the Orcish and also attracting more Orcish to pursue him, occupying more space in the cave.

Just when those well-equipped Wolf Rider had thoughts of retreating, Allen knew that it was time to execute his temporary plan.

Allen gave up his defensive position to Gandalf, who was wielding Sting and killing in all directions on the side, while he himself quickly retreated to the only remaining campfire.

Allen had ordered the soldiers to prepare many of these campfires in the cave from the beginning to deal with possible problems, but as the battle unfolded, at this moment only this one was still burning; the light it produced could only illuminate this small position in the cave.

The transition between light and darkness seemed to also express the battle between the Orcish and Humans inside the cave; in any case, at this moment, the Orcish occupied an absolute upper hand.

Fimbul, standing opposite Allen, would also absolutely not order the soldiers to retreat at this time, even if his allies had already abandoned this plan.

Allen, standing beside the campfire, pulled jar after jar from a backpack; some of these he had prepared in advance, but most were purchased on the spot.

Allen's plan was simple: he would use fire again. He intended to seal off the Orcish retreat with flames, driving the majority of the Orcish out of the cave, at which point Bandak, who was outside, would naturally resolve all remaining issues.

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Allen and the soldiers inside the cave were to protect the horses and block the cave entrance at the opportune moment, then, like wrapping dumplings, finish off most of the Orcish here to complete the objective of this battle.

Allen believed this plan had a certain degree of feasibility and said casually to a Horse Archer beside him, "Tell Holimion and Bandak to prepare to receive the Orcish running out of the cave."

After shouting an acknowledgment, the Horse Archer ran off to carry out the order.

Allen put down the weapon in his hand, picked up a jar filled with Fire Oil, and threw it with all his might toward the Orcish deep in the cave.

In a short span of time, he smashed over a dozen Oil Jars into the rear ranks of the Orcish.

These jars landed among the Orcish ranks; besides those killed on the spot by the impact, their companions nearby were drenched in Fire Oil the moment the jars shattered.

Moreover, Allen threw them with such precision that he ensured the Fire Oil would reach the entire row of Orcish, and the distinct, familiar scent of the Fire Oil caused a very small portion of the Orcish to feel suspicious.

Then, memories of that attack from several years ago surfaced in their minds; the terrifying scene reappeared in their thoughts, and several Orcish who still bore burn scars began to scream in terror, then frantically pushed aside their companions and charged toward the direction of Orc Town.

That screaming even drowned out the shouts of the Humans and Orcish engaged in close-quarters combat on the field.

Fimbul had not participated in that battle, and he was extremely dissatisfied with the reaction of these few Orcish slaves; he whipped these fellows to the ground, yet even while being lashed, these Orcish continued to crawl forward, as if something extremely terrifying was chasing them from behind.

At this moment, several burning torches also flew toward the rear ranks of the Orcish; Fimbul watched the Humans' actions on the opposite side with some confusion, not understanding why they were doing this.

Soon, those torches landed on several Orcish, igniting the Fire Oil drenched upon them; the pain of the flames searing their skin drove these Orcish into a state of madness in a very short time, and amidst shrill screams, they tried to extinguish the flames by charging about wildly, rolling on the ground, or even stripping off their gear.

However, their various actions not only failed to help them but also ignited the Fire Oil on their companions nearby, and the flames spread rapidly through the Orcish ranks.

The cave, which had originally been plunged into darkness, was once again shrouded in light, while shrill, miserable horn blasts filled the entire cave.

Allen, beside the campfire, did not stop his actions because of this; he threw the last two Oil Jars in his hands into the middle of the enemy.

Immediately after, he picked up the blood-stained Greatsword at his side and shouted loudly to the soldiers in front of him, "Clear a path, we must prioritize protecting the horses."

Then, Allen swung the weapon in his hand, hacking and killing the Orcish before him who no longer had the heart to fight, and moved toward the location of the horses.

The other Human soldiers also quickly followed their King, guarding the front of those horses.

Allen needed to protect those precious horses before the Orcish fell into complete chaos, lest the Orcish, now like torches, charge blindly into the herd and cause an even more chaotic situation.

A portion of these horses had been under the protection of Human warriors from the very beginning and had not suffered any harm until now; furthermore, the Orcish also needed to use livestock, and in a situation where he could win steadily, Fimbul was unwilling to harm this still-valuable labor force.

But now, even if Fimbul wanted to do something, it was already impossible; most of the Orcish he had brought were cut off on the other side of the fire, and he did not even know what was happening on the other side of the blaze.

Fimbul could only draw his Curved Blade and, together with the guards beside him, futilely hack to death one burning Orcish after another that charged at him, yet the number of Orcish splashed by the Fire Oil reached into the hundreds, and he simply could not kill them all.

Facing such a chaotic situation and listening to the extremely tragic screams of his own kind, Fimbul's heart, filled with desire for the One Ring, suddenly sobered up, followed by an uncontrollable fear in his heart.

Governed by fear, he abandoned his hundreds of subordinates who were still struggling bitterly in the cave without hesitation and fled back to Orc Town with the few remaining personal guards at his side.

Fimbul fled so hastily that he even forgot to close the gates of Orc Town.