Chapter 167

Chapter 167

***

Rickart knew the scenery of hell well. And he also learned how to become a devil there. The Forest of Demonic Beasts brought to mind the devil he had forgotten. Stunningly like a faint memory.

Embracing that shuddering and creepy memory, Rickart moved forward together with his party.

As they moved forward the disgusting smell became thicker, and the true nature of the sense of incongruity also became increasingly clear.

And before long, they faced that true nature.

At first he thought something like a large boulder was wriggling wriggling, but it was none other than five or six Orcs crouching their bodies and eating something on the ground.

Would it be an appropriate expression if they looked like five or six large cows huddled together grazing, first of all when facing Orcs the surprising points were the size and the smell.

When facing it with one's eyes, fear seeps into the heart. The other people were still somewhat better because they had seen or caught Orcs a few times, but Raimund and Roy received a feeling exact like their hearts froze as was.

Conversely Rickart lowered his posture, and from behind the thicket stared fixedly at the Orcs far away.

Then suddenly one Orc raised its head abruptly and sniffed its nose sniff sniff, it clearly seemed to be because of the smell of humans.

However because around its nose and mouth it was entirely covered in the blood of its prey it couldn't accurately grasp Rickart's party. Feeling a sense of satiety as well, and so its wariness wasn't sharp, the Orc quickly turned off its attention.

Then it seemed like they bickered and fought each other like they would kill each other, then one side lay flat and submitted, and soon the five or six Orcs began to move.

Large clubs and weapons close to merely heavy rusted pieces of iron were held in the Orcs' hands.

Some individuals were dressed barely covering only their lower halves, while some individuals cut and tore all sorts of iron pieces made by humans and patched them together messily and wore them on their bodies.

Every time they walked a clanking sound clank clank occurred, and that sound gradually became distant. Rickart waited sufficiently and then approached what the Orcs were eating.

At the dirty and miserable sight the people dry heaved. The smell was disgusting and it was unsightly enough for them to did so even though they were never people with weak stomachs.

But Rickart suddenly grabbed that object whose shape was hard to recognize with his hand, and smeared it messily on his body. Thereupon the party opened their eyes wide and stared.

"Wh, what are you doing?"

"We have to hide our smell."

When hunters tracked prey there were cases where they smeared even the animal's feces and urine on their bodies, it was similar to that.

As Rickart first grabbed the things mixed with flesh, blood, internal organs, filth, and spit by handfuls and smeared them on his body, the other people also reluctantly smeared them on their bodies. Everyone's expression distorting in all sorts of grimaces was a sight to see.

However as a secondary effect, after doing this thing unexpectedly the fear toward Orcs subsided a bit.

It was because the thought of wanting to escape from this filth right now was stronger than the problem of living or dying. The sound of FUCK came out automatically.

Anyway hiding their smell too, they carefully began tracking following the direction the Orcs moved.

Since they weren't bastards that wandered around hiding their presence particularly there was no difficulty in finding them.

Following them, they finally reached the Orcs' dwelling place. The Orcs' dwelling form was dirty, clumsy, and unspeakably hideous.

Basically they pitched tents and lived, they drove stakes haphazardly to form boundaries, everything was crooked, and they had made decorations that were not decorations using animal bones, heads, leather, and such.

Among them if there was a peculiar or unexpected point, it was that something like a flag was seen. It simply looked like a palm print was stamped with plaster on a cloth blackened with dried blood.

"Having a flag means they formed a tribal unit. It's more serious than thought."

Rickart said. Orcs mostly form packs in family units, so this level of scale meant they had made their faction quite large by submitting or absorbing other packs.

However Count Ceska had no mind to answer right now. Not because he was weak, but this was a normal person's natural reaction.

What am I doing here right now, was it right for me to be here, because of thoughts like that his mind was in a roughly blank state.

When Count Ceska who was a Count was at this level, there was no need to even look at the other people. Roy looked at the sight of the Orcs living with his eyes opened wide and his mouth open.

It somewhat seemed like a human but not, and merely calling them natural beasts it looked special too. Roy received a huge shock while feeling the most unpleasant mood a human could feel.

Only Rickart focused like the eyes of a hawk and examined the Orcs, and he discovered one Orc coming out of an unusually large tent.

It was much larger in size compared to other Orcs, and one of the two fangs soaring long upwards was broken. He had the exact certainty saying IT'S THAT BASTARD.

That bastard was grabbing a female's ankle. He was dragging her out exactly like dragging luggage, and it was hard to distinguish whether the female was dead or alive.

Broken Fang tossed the female outside swoosh. Thereupon the other male Orcs rushed in crumbling. There was no such chaos as they hit and received and fought among themselves.

Then eventually they ended up tearing the body apart. And then wondering what they were trying to did they took the torn body parts and scattered on their own.

At the too shocking sight the people froze as was. However even in the midst of this Rickart coldly judged the situation. That right now when the Orcs were excited and out of their minds was precisely the time to ambush.

However things in the world were not easy. How could only Orcs live in the Forest of Demonic Beasts. Suddenly the nearby thicket rustled and a baby-sized spider popped out and pounced on Ceska's escort knight.

"Aaaak!"

Rickart who was startled out of his wits lightning-fast drew his sword and slashed the man-eating spider. However it was already after being discovered. All the Orcs that had been in the dwelling place turned their heads and were accurately looking this way.

At first they merely looked, but soon madness began to gleam in their eyes. Rickart judged quickly. It's already wrong.

"Let's run!"

Rickart smacked the cheeks or grabbed the scruffs of the necks of the party who looked like their souls had left, and made them come to their senses. Thereupon the party who were startled out of their wits truly ran without even looking back.

They brought things like nets, spears, and harpoons to catch one Orc, but right now getting caught on twigs or thickets they were merely cumbersome luggage so they threw them all away and ran.

KUWOOOOOOOOOOO!

Behind their backs the Orc's roar was heard. And to the point that the ground was felt thumping, the Orc warriors chased them wildly.

Since people's minds were bound to go out when driven to such a situation, one of Count Ceska's escort knights deviated from the route and fled toward the County territory.

"You mustn't go there!"

Rickart who deliberately ran at the very back hurriedly shouted. Because doing that would bring about the result of driving the Orcs toward the territory.

But whether it was misfortune or fortune, an Orc's fist ax flew from afar and accurately struck the back of the knight fleeing toward the territory.

HWING-HWING-HWING-HWING-HWING! PEOK!

How strong of a power was loaded onto the ax that the knight's spine shattered at once and his entire body flew up whoosh.

Soon the Orcs pounced on the dead knight almost as if falling over, and pulling to eat it among themselves they just tore the body apart. In an instant the form disappeared too.

Rickart quickly ran to the hideout for now.

Running for almost an hour, they were able to arrive at the hideout, but while he himself was passably okay the other people were completely exhausted and gasping for breath choking.

"Raise your weapons!"

Rickart shouted. Fight in the midst of this? Even thinking of fighting itself seemed crazy, but fighting in a state of being exhausted to the limit wasn't realistic.

But then what were you going to did? Were you going to sit and die? Rickart grabbed their scruffs of the necks snapping and forcefully raised the people up.

At that time one Orc chased them and got caught in a trap and fell squelch into the ground. Its body only fell in half, but because of the speed it had been running at it banged its chin smack on the ground.

And the Orcs running following behind tripped on its feet, and fell thump thump shaking the earth's axis. Rickart did not miss the opportunity and swung his sword like lightning. The golden flames seemed to draw a constellation in the empty air.

As the light flashed flashing a few times the fallen Orcs died without even being able to scream. But that wasn't all.

An Orc of tremendous size ran thump thump thump and rammed into Rickart with its body as was. Seeing that sight the party thought it was over.

"Master!"

Roy shouted urgently. However what should have happened did not happen. Naturally Rickart should have fallen to the ground and been crushed under the Orc, but such a thing did not happen.

Like blocking a charging bull with his bare body, the ground was just gouged a bit long and Rickart without budging endured the Orc's charge.

In that state Rickart grabbed the Orc's fangs grabbing, fully pulled and yanked them out, and then as was stabbed the Orc's eyeballs. Not once but multiple times.

PEOK! PEOK! PEO-EOK!

Thereupon that giant body seemed to try to resist somehow, then flopped its body and collapsed. Rickart nimbly picked up the sword dropped on the ground again.

Roy, Raimund, Count Ceska, and the one surviving escort knight looked at such Rickart. It was an appearance showing his back. It was an appearance standing confidently and facing the Orcs. The thought automatically came wondering how a human could be like that.

Conversely the Orcs that chased them were looking at the unwavering eyes of a human. The blazing and burning-like eyes beyond his bangs, that was.

At Rickart's feet was one Orc that died stabbed by its own fangs, and nearby multiple Orc corpses that got caught in traps and died in an instant were sprawled out.

The Orcs didn't get scared seeing that. The competitive spirit humans possessed didn't exist in them. So they didn't care about the likes of victory or defeat either. It was only slaughter.

However whether it was because of what they were thinking right now, they couldn't hastily approach Rickart.

Then suddenly, from behind the Orcs the boss appeared. Broken Fang hit the heads of the subordinates blocking its front thwack thwack with its fists and cleared a path.

Whether human or Orc, the boss of a group was bound to have their unique atmosphere or extraordinary demeanor. Broken Fang's gait was leisurely and heavy.

That hideous monster wore ignorantly heavy and crude helmet and armor and came forward. Its head was almost the size of Rickart's torso, and whether suppressing boiling anger it drooled and made a grrr sound.

In its hand a giant and blunt double-edged ax was held, whether the blade was sharp or not didn't matter. Since it would just crush and tear absolutely anything.

Broken Fang stared at Rickart for a while, then opened its mouth wide exactly as if it would swallow him in one bite and let out a loud roar.

"KUWOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Even though it was a somewhat distant distance it was to the extent that the wind reached Rickart. However here, Rickart shouted back facing it.

"UWAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Would Orcs have language? Even if they did words probably wouldn't communicate. However right now the meaning communicated. I and you, the two of us let's see to the end. If defeated you become prey, if you win you become a predator. That was precisely the single logic Orcs possessed.

Surprisingly the other Orcs backed away. Naturally, only Broken Fang and Rickart stood facing each other.

The party was watching all those sights from behind. They couldn't believe it. Just what in the world was this happening. It was an indescribable shock. How such a thing was possible, whether it was happening.

A duel between a human and an Orc was something unheard of and unseen. And a duel between a human and an Orc didn't need the likes of technique. Courage wasn't needed either, only strength and death divided victory and defeat.

Broken Fang raised the double-edged ax, whose handle was almost the height of a human, highly above its head. And placed all its strength into the ridiculously thick forearm. Compared to that Rickart's sword was merely at the level of a chopstick.

"KUWOOOOO!"

Broken Fang roared loudly and brought down the ax exactly as if to split Rickart, and Rickart didn't dodge and clashed head-on.

PAKANG!

A sharp metallic sound was heard. The giant double-edged ax broke and fell to the ground, and Broken Fang had no head. It merely stood as was without a head.

Soon after a massive amount of blood water soared high like a fountain with a splash sound from the cross-section of the cleanly cut neck.

The cut head had fallen at Rickart's feet. Soon the blood water spurting upwards became rain and fell on Rickart.

A burning sword, and the one standing with two legs spread was not an Orc but a human.

As the headless giant body slowly tilted and collapsed with a thump sound, which side was prey and predator became clear. The Orcs accepted that fact and backed away.

As silence sank into the forest, Rickart stood still and then looked back at the party.

"With this, I think the proof is done. Count Ceska."

"......"

Count Ceska strictly trembled and couldn't say any words. What could he say? He didn't know why but Rickart exactly speaking human words didn't seem to suit him.

He had this doubt. Did this prove he received God's selection, or did it prove he was a monster and not a human.

Chapter 35 - Proof. The End.