Chapter 23: Hero vs. Demon Beast Battalion Captain

Here it is folks, the second half of the most awaited installment of this series ever!

Enjoy!

Bash found Houston fighting in the main hall as he entered it.

The Knight Commander was fending off a dozen bugbears.

Even though this place was set up to be a sort of lobby, they were still in a cave.

Houston wanted to take advantage of the space in order to line up the beasts and fight them one by one, but he was having trouble, seeing as he was surrounded.

“Move, move! Bugbears! Box him in! Kill him! Move it!”

Boggs shouted, mace in hand.

In a half-crazed frenzy, he controlled the bugbears and tried to corner Houston.

The latter, on the other hand, was skillfully outmaneuvering the beasts while defending himself.

The Beast Tamer wanted to leg it out of here as soon as he could and had originally planned to just ignore Houston and run. But the Human’s deft footwork and dexterous sword skills just kept getting in the way of his escape.

There was only one way out of the cave.

The entrance that Bash used was now Boggs’ ticket to survival.

Bash was familiar enough with Boggs’ abilities to know that he could easily defeat an average Human knight without even breaking a sweat.

But he was having trouble.

This could be chalked up to Houston’s skill…

But more than that, the Orc was in a hurry, and his impatience disturbed his control over the bugbears.

“Boggs!”

“B-Ba-Bash?!”

Boggs’ did an about face when he heard his name.

Standing there was the man even exiled Orcs recognized as the mightiest of them all.

That same man was now slowly walking towards him, his beloved sword resting on his shoulder.

“Kuh… Bugbears, to me!”

Boggs shouted, feeling his blood boil.

The bugbears that had been swarming Houston instantly turned around and formed ranks around the Beast Tamer.

“Why?! Why are you here?!”

Asked Boggs while being protected by his beasts,

As solemn and stoic as ever, Bash answered.

“Because I was given an order. An order to kill you.”

“Ku… so that’s what it was…!”

Boggs understood.

Why was Bash here?

Why did a man who was supposed to be living a leisurely life as a Hero back in Orc Country come all the way out here to kill him?

With only those few words from Bash, he understood everything perfectly.

Even though he had been exiled from Orc Country, it remained that Boggs was a warrior.

He had gone through many battles and hardships as a Beast Tamer.

He was proud of his accomplishments. Of his prowess.

He believed that this was the ideal all Orcs should aspire to. That combat and sex were a quintessential part of the perfect Orcish lifestyle.

But the Orc King betrayed his expectations. His orders went against everything Boggs held dear.

Don’t rape women? Lay down your arms?

Bullshit! What would the Orcs be left with if they were deprived of fighting and women!

And so, he rebelled and was banished from the Country.

He became a bandit, but he did not abandon his pride.

Rather, he was eager to embody the Orcish ideal in his own way.

However, those actions were sure to be an eyesore to those trying to foster positive relations with the Humans.

So, an order was given.

Kill them.

Kill those who would drive a wedge between the Orcs and the Humans.

Who gave that order?

There was only one man alive in the whole of Vastonia that could order around the Orc Hero, Bash, mightiest of the Orcs.

The Orc King.

That bastard Nemesis sent Bash over here to “take care” of Boggs.

“Gah! You’re all so annoying, we’re Orcs! We shouldn’t be hiding in our small corner of the world waiting for the other race’s charity!”

Boggs knew he was no match for Bash.

His instincts were screeching at him to immediately throw down his weapon, get on his knees, put his head to the dirt and beg for his life.

But no. Boggs still hadn’t lost his pride. He hadn’t abandoned his ideals.

To him, Orcs were meant to be proud, unyielding warriors.

And a warrior does not beg for his life at sword point.

“Grr… I am Boggs! Former Captain of the Orc Kingdom’s Magical Beast Battalion!”

Faced with near certain death to the hands of the Hero, the Beast Tamer declared his name.

“Ohh… I am Bash! Former warrior of Boulder’s Company and Hero of the Orcs!”

They declared their respective names and titles, shouted at each other, and fought to the death.

This was an Orcish dueling tradition, passed down through countless generations.

Boggs threw down the gauntlet, and Bash accepted it.

A venerable form of mano-a-mano combat between veteran Orc warriors.

Even Houston, the expert on Orcish history and sociology had never seen anything like it.

“GRAAAAAHH!!”

Boggs’ war cry echoed through the cave.

In response, the bugbears began to move towards Bash in unison.

“ORAAAAAAAAA!!”

Bash replied with his own war cry.

He fearlessly stepped forward without a shred of hesitation, diving deep into the surging bugbear wave.

In just one step, Bash had the bugbears within his range.

As soon as the leading beast’s paw hit the ground, a flash of light erupted.

…Three bugbears were turned to mincemeat in an instant.

“ORAAAAA!!!”

Letting out another shout, Bash advanced.

With every stride he took, another bugbear was put through the grinder.

One stride, one kill.

Faced with the Hero’s ferocious sword blows, these beasts were nothing more than walking, growling training dummies – who also happened to be made of flesh.

There were now only five bugbears left alive.

These were the elder beasts, left over from the Tamer’s time in the war.

They were Boggs’ trump card.

Stronger than Ogres and quicker than Lizardmen.

“GUURRRAAAA!!!”

With a shout, Bash stepped in once again.

A storm of steel erupted around him.

All Orc warriors knew that Bash was the strongest.

They wouldn’t say it out loud, but many thought he could outmatch even the Orc King in a straight up fight.

Even the proudest, most egotistical of Orcs understood deep down that they couldn’t hold a candle to the Orc Hero.

Nobody could see Bash’s sword strikes.

His blade was just too swift.

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Even Boggs could perceive nothing but it’s afterimages.

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But the bugbears had not only their superior eyesight, but also their wild instincts.

They could feel the sword’s edge coming towards them.

And with their strength that surpassed that of Ogres and their agility that surpassed that of Lizardmen, they tried to fend it off. To avoid it.

Unfortunately, Bash was their opponent.

Even the Human Hero, Lord Athis the Titan Toppler, who could even crush Ogre skulls with his bare hands, could not defend against these blows. Even Dragons, armed with their tough scales, were knocked down by his strikes.

The Orc Hero, who defeated any opponents head on and was feared by all.

The true Orcish trump card.

Nobody could face his slashes.

Five more bugbears were sent to meet their maker.

“Urk… Ugh…!”

The deaths of Boggs’ comrades were reflected in his eyes.

Though they were magical beasts, he had spent years, both inside and out of the battlefield with his bugbears. They had shared countless moments of pain, suffering and joy together.

He was fond of them.

So why?

Why couldn’t he charge at Bash alongside them?

Why couldn’t he bring himself to die with then?

Why didn’t he at least take one more step forward?

Regret filled his soul for a moment, but his grief quickly turned into fighting spirit.

He was afraid of Bash.

He wanted to run away in fear.

He, who believed that fighting was all that mattered.

He, who even betrayed the Orc King and fled the country to pursue his ideals.

And yet, here he was, cowering in the face of the Hero.

He was angry at himself for being so weak.

“Aahh!”

Clenching his fist, Boggs brought down his hand, hitting his thigh hard.

He was punched the fear out of his body out of frustration towards himself, pumping himself up.

“BASSSSHHH!!”

But Bash was unperturbed.

He stepped forward once again.

This was all he had to do. This was what he was best at.

Keep looking ahead and kill the enemy.

“BOGGS!!”

The moment the Hero called out Boggs’ name, memories of the Beat Tamer came flooding back.

They had initially met on the battlefield.

It wasn’t too long after his first battle ever, when he was still too small and thin to properly wield a sword.

That day was the first time Bash had ever seen Boggs and his bugbears.

He remembered how reassuring it was to see the Beast Tamer and his magical beasts on his side of the war.

He remembered how overwhelmingly powerful Boggs looked, wildly swinging his mace in the midst of his bugbears.

He was utterly convinced he would never grow to be as strong as Boggs.

That’s how distant their levels were.

Yet at some point, Bash caught up with him, overtook him, and even stopped admiring him.

And now, they were facing each other down.

“GRAAHHH!”

“GUAAAAHHH!”

A flash of steel.

A deafening clang of metal on metal.

The two warriors crossed weapons.

The older veteran’s mace sparked, bent, and broke underneath the combined strength of both Orcs.

The Daemon forged greatsword, however, never strayed from its path.

It slammed into Boggs’ skull, just as Bash intended.

“Gut…”

Boggs’ head was reduced to nothing, his headless neck left spouting blood like a morbid fountain.

“…”

Boggs’ decapitated body fell to its knees, and then collapsed completely.

Never to move again.

He was not only a Beast Tamer, but also a Beast Master.

The most brilliant bugbear manipulator among the Orcs now laid dead.

“Fu…”

Bash exhaled and looked around.

There were no enemies left in the hall.

Fourteen bugbears had been slain in an instant.

There were no bandits left either.

And even if any had survived, they wouldn’t have been able to keep up their operations like they had when Boggs was still alive.

“Boggs…”

Bash looked down at Boggs’ corpse, and remembered a treasured memory from the war.

As a veteran who had been fighting even before the Hero was born, he was a well-known warrior and Beast Tamer.

In one battle, he had taken Bash aside, and said, “Bash, you are our pride. You are the very embodiment of the Orc ideal.”

The Hero also recalled honestly saying to the Tamer, “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have survived. Thank you.”

He was a fine warrior.

Bash had thought Boggs had died in the war’s final battle.

He had never expected to find him roaming around as a stray Orc in a place like this.

Something must have happened. Something Bash was ignorant of.

For that matter, Bash didn’t even know the meaning of the last words he had yelled out.

He didn’t dislike Boggs.

In fact, he even respected him.

“Is it over?’

While prodding at his wounds, Houston spoke to Bash.

The cuts had been inflicted by the bugbear’s filthy claws.

They were already beginning to swell, most likely from the bacteria.

“Yes. I killed all the bandits in the back.”

“What about Judith and the others?”

“I left them behind. They’re probably tending to their injured in the prison. I’m sure none of them are dead.”

“Ah, that’s good to head. Well then, let’s go fetch them and head back.”

Said Houston, as he rubbed his bruises.

Bash had just singlehandedly resolved this whole case without any casualties.

The Knight Commander knew that the Orc Hero was capable, and with that in mind he prioritized securing exit, but this was even more impressive than he had imagined.

A gang of thieves, a dozen bugbears, and a veteran Orc warrior, all taken out with minimal effort.

He was truly worthy of being called the mightiest Orc.

[…How the hell did I ever manage to run away from this man…]

Thought Houston as he breathed a sigh of relief.

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