Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

This took the orc king by surprise and he was unable to connect it with his chain attacks.

Using this window of time to open up a distance, Berigard started channelling more and more mana into his staff. Since the last time where his staff was destroyed in the fight against the Lightning Draconic Serpent, Berigard had gotten himself a better staff that was made of the body of an ancient treant that was over level 500.

Whether it be in terms of magic capacity or mana flow, the current staff was many times better than the previous one.  It took Berigard just a few couple of seconds to conjure a unit target advanced magic.

"Tempest Magic Mastery— [Tempest Burst]"

A huge cannon of wind that was compressed to its limit, was fired from the staff. The magic broke the speed of sound and distorted the very space where it travelled and arrived before the orc king in the blink of an eye.

"Tsk… [Blast Force]" Belgarious clicked his tongue and activated his [Empower] skill to further enhance his power to dish out an attack that clashed against the [Tempest Burst] with an equal amount of force.

The burst of power from both the attacks threatened to tear the sky apart until finally, the magic started losing ground and was deflected away by the orc king's sword.

<strong> BOOOM…</strong> the magic that was deflected away fell far into the distance and created a burst of shockwave that managed to reach all the way back to the plaza.

After Berigard and the Orc King started engaging one another in a spectacular duel, the armies in the plaza did not just sit still. Berirock as instructed by the orc king took charge of the army and started a war with Berigard's army.

Of course, he did not forget to give the option of surrender to the other party. However, it seemed like none of them had any plans to do so.

Just when it seemed like a full-out war was inevitable, came a shout of surrender out of nowhere. This not only seemed to shock Berirock, but even the faction the individual was on were shaken.

The one that declared their surrender was none other than one of the three commanders under Berigard. The orc commander Belsea and the ten thousand men strong legion he led declared their surrender in front of the orc king's army.

"Belsea you bastard… you are betraying lord Berigard when he trusted and helped you so much?" Belmarch who couldn't take this betrayal, spoke in resentment.

Orc Commander Belsea was someone who was supported by general Berigard when his territory was attacked by the many foreign races living inside the ghastly winding forest. He then later came under Berigard after being moved by the latter. He was also one of the pillars that supported their campaign today.

Never did they expect that he would be betraying them at such a crucial moment.

"Please don't resent me Belmarch. There is no way I will put my head under the execution blade even while knowing that my death is certain. I only put up with the plan of general Berigard because I had no other choice".

"If I am the only one out of the three commanders under general Berigard who is in denial of this campaign wouldn't I become the first target for you guys to eliminate? That being so, I bided my time and acted in a way that you guys wanted until now".

"Honestly, I didn't think the enemy would let us surrender so easily but I guess that goes to show how magnanimous the orc king is. Now that general Berigard's plan has gone awry, there is no way we would win this. I suggest that you guys too join this side" Belsea said with a calm expression on his face.

There was no happiness nor any regret of betraying his benefactor to join the other side on his face from start to end. That was the type of person he was.

"GUGAGA… I see, I see—you naturally made the right decision by changing sides. There is no future in staying by Berigard's side who betrayed his own tribe. I ask everyone the same, open your eyes and see clearly, snap out of whatever spell he had put you under".

"The orc king is on our side while your general is the one who is the enemy of our tribe. If you still have a bit of conscience left, surrender now. There is no shame in doing so, you were only following the wrong leader".

"Enough… there are no cowards in our army who leaves their faction at just the sight of danger. Those ones who are, already did so. I will no longer tolerate you slandering our lord" Bellock barked out loud drowning the words of Berirock who was trying to demoralise their remaining army.

"GUGAGA… it looks like there are still some fools who believe in their master. Be it so then, I will accept your surrender when you see and feel the difference with your own two eyes" right after saying that, Berirock rallied the orc king's army and commanded them to march forward.

Due to the [Coordination] skill of the orcs, they lined up and marched neatly in order. Looking at them, one wouldn't be able to tell this big of an army was comprised of multiple legions that belonged to the various faction of the Diluvian High Orc tribe and not a single unit.

The orc king army which was about sixty thousand strong, marched towards the now demoralised army of Berigard. If before they were thirty five thousand orcs strong, now they were only around twenty five thousand strong.

A stark contrast to their opponent who had more than double their numbers. Despite that, Bellock and Belmarch who were assigned to lead this army, did not back away and mustered every ounce of their power to dish out commands.

Like this, the two armies collided like huge meat grinding machines. Bodies dropped here and there, skills flew everywhere and weapons were hurled in the air.

You would expect the orcs who were fundamentally different from humans, to fight differently and more savagely. However, that was not the case. In fact, they fought more orderly and coordinated better than what an average army could achieve.

Both Berigard's army and the orc king's army used the ordinary orcs as the meat shield and High orc as pawns to advance their armies. The Diluvian High orc tribe were the main force of each army. Although their numbers were lower than the ordinary orcs and the High orcs, they nonetheless held the most combat potential for both the armies.

Each Diluvian High Orcs could easily overwhelm dozens of ordinary orcs and take on a couple of high orcs themselves. But just like every living being in this world, the diluvian high orcs too get exhausted after a while.

This is where the large numbers of ordinary orcs and the high orcs come in, the exhausted diluvian high orcs are drowned by their numbers and killed. They are used not only to fill numbers but also to tire their enemy out.

Bodies were dropping like flies; however, it was not like each army was letting their front liners die for nothing. Each army had its own strategies and tactics that they adopted to defeat the other. So at the end, it boiled down to which army's strategy was better.

Be that may, the orc king's army had a huge numerical advantage, Berirock who was leading this army, knew this and thus did not bother changing much and adapted a simple arrowhead formation to pierce the enemy defences.

Bellock and Belmarch on the other hand adopted a variety of tactics such as the phalanx and the circle formation to fight the large number of their enemy with their small numbers.

Even though Bellock and Belmarch were just orc commanders, lower in rank compared to Berirock who was an orc general. Being under Berigard they had accumulated a large amount of experience fighting enemies multiple times stronger than them.

Thus when faced with a disparity this large, they weren't fazed. On the contrary, their eyes burned with the fervour and passion to achieve the order that they were given.

<strong>CLANG…</strong> on the other side of the plaza, a loud clanging noise echoed out followed by a large shockwave that pushed one of the orcs far back into the distance.

"GUGAGA… Berigard it seems like your judgement is going dull, to think that you took someone like that as your subordinate…GUGAGA". Belgarious gave a hearty laugh after pushing Berigard back with a swing of his sword.

He did not let go of his offence and chained his attacks with a few more combinations leaving no room for Berigard to counterattack.

"Berigard… why don't we make a bet to see how long your army can last against mine? Well, there is also the possibility of your army surrendering before that… GUGAGA".

Berigard grit his teeth and endured the constant mockery coming his way. The mana around him constantly fluctuated as he focused on conjuring his magic.

"[Tempest Bullet Barrage]"

Wind in the shape of bullets hailed down from the sky and targeted the Orc King. Each of the bullets were powerful enough to pierce an armour made of Whitesilver which was many times stronger than steel.

However, none of them managed to pierce the layering of mana enveloping the orc king. Nevertheless, it did manage to buy Berigard a few seconds of time to compose himself.

The enemy he was facing was far stronger than any of the enemies he had faced before and on top of that, there was a vast disparity of levels between them. Thus he couldn't spare a moment of negligence.

The only attack capable of hurting a being that was a true disaster class was his advance magic or amalgamation magic. However, it took a long time to evoke a powerful enough magic to hurt the orc king.