Chapter 464: Close Engagement, Siege Mode

These orcs appeared with terrifying speed, and because the void rifts manifested at random, their arrival points were impossible to predict. Almost every unit within the Alliance legion suddenly found itself swarmed by a multitude of these warriors.

With expressionless faces, they swung their warhammers and great axes in wide, merciless arcs, striking at the nearest targets. Their battle aura boiled; through specialized techniques, these orcs—whose physical strength, once enraged, reached the peak of a formal knight—gained the power of a Grand Knight for the duration of their aura’s surge.

"Crack!"

A mage in one of the squads failed to react in time and was struck squarely by a massive axe. The blade was so oversized that it did not merely cut; it shattered. The impact point at the waist erupted, and the fragile tissue disintegrated into a spray of gore while still in mid-air.

"Clang!"

A shield, hurled from the side, forcibly deflected a heavy club from an orc’s hand, saving a spellcaster who would have otherwise been pulverized into pulp.

The mage who had been cleaved apart was an exception, a victim of poor preparation. Most spellcasters, when suddenly beset by orcs, had their own means of self-preservation or were shielded by comrades standing nearby.

"Bang! Clang!"

As soon as the orc’s weapon was deflected, a knight surged forward, slamming his shoulder into the creature’s frame before raising his mace to strike. The blow met the orc’s parrying weapon, locking them in a stalemate.

"Hum!"

At that same moment, an orc’s greatsword swept toward a mage. The mage’s physical senses were not fast enough to react, but the instant the blade touched their body, a pre-cast spell triggered. Space shifted, and the mage vanished, reappearing several meters away.

Void energy rippled. A mage, unable to dodge an incoming fist, was instantly rendered intangible by a High Wizard from a neighboring squad. The orc’s punch swung through empty air, and immediately, a knight charged in to engage the beast, preventing it from threatening the spellcasters again.

"Engage!"

The knight roared, charging and slashing, throwing himself without hesitation at the orcs flooding the formation. Only by containing these intruders could they minimize the damage caused by the Utopia organization’s ambush.

"Clack! Squelch!"

Gilbert swung his longsword with cold precision. His inner-latent ability, the Nether Blade, activated; the weapon turned intangible, passing through the orc’s parrying block to strike the creature’s forehead. He split the skull—left unprotected by aura, as the orc had channeled all its energy into physical enhancement—and the beast dropped dead instantly.

Yet, as Gilbert struck, the orc’s own attack hit his chest. Sharp bone spurs erupted from the creature’s body, piercing the outer layer of Gilbert’s armor before being halted by the composite plating beneath. Had he not been wearing high-end equipment provided by the Nightfall Church—the Dragon-Scale Armor Type II—his chest would have been impaled the moment he split the orc’s skull.

What appeared to be an effortless kill was, in reality, a lethal clash of latent abilities. In such close-quarters combat, there was no time to probe or guess the enemy’s power. One had to strike with everything, killing the foe before they could unleash their own hidden strength.

"Crack, crunch!"

An orc’s great hammer shattered a knight’s heavy shield, snapping the arms holding it and crushing the man into the earth. Within the crater, the orc used its immense strength to rupture the knight’s chest and pulverize his heart, ending him on the spot.

"Boom!"

A deafening roar echoed through the orc’s brief moment of rigidity. A metal spear, as thick as the orc’s neck, pierced its body with impossible velocity. Lungs, spine, and heart vanished into a gaping, horrific void.

A nearby knight lowered the heavy alchemical weapon, still venting scorching steam. This close-range armor-piercing bolt could easily shatter a Grand Knight’s defenses, but due to its extreme recoil, it required at least the strength of a high-ranking formal knight to wield with any accuracy.

"Crackle, crackle."

Purple arcs of electricity danced as a spellcaster pinned several orcs to the ground with gravity magic. No matter how they struggled, they could not escape the crushing, omnidirectional pressure, sinking slowly into the fracturing earth.

This mage’s power approached that of a Legend. He had reacted the moment the orcs appeared, casting instant restraints and rapid-fire incantations in one fluid motion, controlling multiple foes in a heartbeat.

"Squelch!"

The knights and other mages did not waste this opening. Earth spikes erupted and blades descended, slaughtering the gravity-pinned orcs.

The scene repeated across the legion: orcs killing soldiers, then knights and mages killing orcs. The forces participating in the crusade against Utopia were uneven in strength, making every skirmish unique. Survival or death—that was the reality of the battlefield.

"Click."

Gilbert watched as a dragon-kin in human form snapped the neck of an orc that had breached the Nightfall Church’s line. It was the last of the orcs to emerge from the nearby void rift.

"The comprehensive abilities of these orcs are just as absurd as those spellcasters from before..."

His brow remained furrowed. The combat proficiency these orcs displayed reminded him time and again of how powerful and strange they were. The unique techniques he had witnessed were not merely one or two; such mastery would take a human decades to achieve, yet these orcs?

"These orcs are merely common citizens of the Bloodtooth Empire. They could never possess such skill. What has the Utopia organization done to them?"

The Alliance command included orcs—the Five-Race Alliance of humans, orcs, dwarves, elves, and the winged folk. In fact, the intelligence regarding Utopia’s control of the Bloodtooth Empire had been provided by the orcs themselves. Now, the orc commanders were intently analyzing these Bloodtooth warriors whose abilities defied normal logic.

The conclusion was obvious: these were ordinary citizens, their base strength that of a formal knight, yet bolstered by mastered techniques and a rational, controlled rage, each could touch the level of a Grand Knight for a time.

"Their shells remain the same, but their souls and wills have been utterly altered and twisted. It is identical to the riots seen in other nations. This is a power Utopia possesses."

"Those added techniques must be part of this process, granting them combat power far beyond their natural tier. Conventional tactics will struggle to end this quickly. If this continues, the Alliance will suffer heavy losses. Should we initiate a strategic withdrawal?"

The command team analyzed the data and reached a consensus: the orcs’ anomaly stemmed from a soul and consciousness that no longer belonged to them, a product of Utopia’s handiwork. Playing with souls—that was how the ancient goblins had erased themselves. The assessment of Utopia’s danger level rose once more.

"Withdraw for now. The orcs within our lines are nearly cleared, and the mages have reached a stalemate with the city defenders. Utopia has only used the void’s power once; this is not their full strength. We must force them to reveal more."

The decision was reached quickly. The command team agreed to advance the battle to the next phase. The probing stage was over; the transition to a full-scale siege had begun.

"Hold the line! Prepare for saturation bombardment of the enemy stronghold!"

The Alliance mages were locked in a spell-duel with the defending orcs. Even as some orcs continued their suicidal assaults on the knights, the mages remained focused, hurling fire, lightning, gales, and stone at the city walls.

Unconditional trust in one’s comrades was a tenet of the battlefield. Doubting the knights protecting them would only invite greater danger. With the immediate breach contained, the defense was left entirely to the knights.

"Boom!"

A massive bolt of lightning tore through the defensive barrier the orcs had erected, striking the heart of their formation and turning half of them to ash.

Even though these orcs possessed secret spells and a level of coordination the Alliance found difficult to match, they could not compete with the sheer numbers of the Alliance legion.

Even if every citizen of the Bloodtooth Empire were counted, they only outnumbered the Alliance by a small margin. Of those, less than half were combat-capable, and their strength was inconsistent. They could never rival the prepared, elite forces of the Alliance.

With half the defenders slain by the breakthrough spell, the balance of the siege was shattered. If the gap were not filled, Utopia’s defense would collapse like a broken dam or a row of falling dominoes.

And the only thing Utopia could use to turn the tide was the power of the void.

"Boom!"

A barrier constructed of void energy, twisting the material world to provide shelter, descended from a rift and slammed into the earth, bisecting the battlefield. The Alliance’s spell-barrage hammered against it, exploding in brilliant flashes, but failing to shatter it.

Taking advantage of this, more orc defenders arrived from within the Bloodtooth Empire to plug the gaps.

"Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!"

Cannons roared. Alchemical shells rained down like a storm, relentlessly pounding the void barrier. This time, the artillery array did not pause after a single volley; it began a continuous, suppressive bombardment.

The sky burned with fire, and the explosions blanketed the boundary between the two lines. The frequency of the shelling increased, the intensity rising with every passing second.

A closer look revealed that the alchemical artillery was advancing. Provided by the Sky Mechanical City, these cannons were mobile, and in truth, they were components of a larger structure.

The other parts of this megastructure were being carried by the Alliance units. Now that the line was stable, it was time to assemble this siege engine and begin the true assault.