EU: Chapter 032 | Pinaka Strikes

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The Officer in charge of the Ogre Gate, Nancho, had a foul expression. His dark eyelids were prominent with thick eyebags. He hadn’t slept much in the past few days, feeling extremely vexed.

Stretching before him, a mere twenty metres away from his reach, was the stone fort built by the Ogres. They had closed in on the Ogre Gate. There was a stalemate now, as both sides were within the Range Factor of each other.

“Dammit!” Nancho cursed as he spewed a sea of fire and turned the block of stone in his line-of-sight red hot. An arrow fired by a ballista slammed into it and shattered it into pieces.

But promptly after, another series of stone blocks filled up the gap, “Fucking cowards!”

The Ogres never exposed themselves, even in the slightest. They behaved like rats and hid themselves behind a series of stone slabs. And like a serpent, their stone fortress expanded towards the Ogre Gate, jaws revealed, about to crunch the gate shut.

“They came prepared this time. It shows their desperation.” Rachad commented from the side, seated beside a ballista as he carefully opened his Healing Potion and took a small sip. He then carefully closed it shut and stored it in a bag with multiple layers of protective casing. Once it was stored securely, he commented, “Well, it also gave us enough time to finish our preparations.”

“I want to rest once this is done.” Another Level 2 Human commented. A team of Level 2 Humans had gathered at the Ogre Gate, summoned from their respective prisons in the Elven Prison. They were all officers.

Right behind the Ogre Gate were a total of fifty trebuchets. Half of them were loaded with firewood, while the rest held massive containers of oil.

“You’re right. This battle has lasted long enough.” Nancho grunted as he recalled Pronto’s face, ‘All because of one guy’s actions.’

Pronto stole the Ogre Race’s Relic and fled to the Elven Prison. That’s why the Ogres targeted them. Nancho would have preferred Pronto had headed straight to the Human Kingdom. ‘The soldiers there would have been happy to fight this war.’

‘Still, Sir Pronto followed orders to steal the Ogre Race’s Relic. And I am only doing my job to protect the Ogre Gate.’ Nancho raised his hand and shouted, “MY SOLDIERS!”

He then brought his hand down with force, “Fire!”

The trebuchets launched the firewood and barrels of oil at the stone fort. Oil covered the fort’s surface while the fire piled up around the sides.

“Ready?” Nancho stared at his team of nine officers. Strapped to the bodies of each were small containers of oil, ten centimetres in length and two centimetres in radius.

“Let’s finish them all.” Rachad said as he tightened his boots and kicked once to check the fit.

“Then,” Nancho raised his hand and roared, “Shoot!”

The forty ballistae all focused at a point on the stone fort and fired. The wall shattered, revealing an inner corridor. Rachad brought out his Fire Whip and lashed at the closest surface of the stone fort, setting it on fire.

Barrels of oil continued to rain on the fort and covered it in fire. The firewood along the sides formed a barricade, trapping the Ogres within the fort.

The fumes began to suffocate the Ogres who began to retreat through the fort, drawing farther from the Ogre Gate.

At that moment, Nancho and his team of nine officers entered the fort through the hole they had opened up and raced through the corridor.

“There’s a blockade at the front,” Nancho commented and took out one of the oil cylinders strapped to his body. There was a cover at the bottom, which he pealed, revealing an adhesive substance. He used it to stick the cylinder on the stone blockade and retreated alongside his team.

Once they were at a safe distance, Rachad’s Fire Whip extended forward and touched the exposed end of the cylinder. The oil within was a special mixture that had the capability of expanding rapidly when exposed to fire.

The cylinder exploded, its force lodging the metal tip at the front—right below the adhesive layer—into the stone wall, cracking it.

“It’s working,” Nancho said and brought out a spherical container. The substance was the same, but this one applied force radially when exposed to fire. The cylindrical one was meant to deliver the force in a spot.

He placed the sphere within the hole that had formed in the stone wall and set it off. The explosion shattered the stone wall, revealing a wide-open gap for the officers to pass through.

In this manner, they sped through the corridor, bringing down walls that blocked their path.

“They are here!” One of the officers shouted when they blasted through a wall, spotting four Ogres.

The Ogres hurriedly morphed a nearby wall to form another blockade.

The officers burst through the wall and gave chase, “Kill them!”

Fire thrust out of their feet simultaneously as the ten officers sped through the corridor and closed in on the fleeing Ogres. Like a group of houseflies, they juggled around the four Ogres in sync. And then, the entire corridor went up in flames.

Graaah!

An Ogre screamed as it ran towards a wall, opened a hole and jumped through. But before the hole closed, a cylinder was thrown into the gap. It exploded, shattering a portion of the wall into pieces. Through the gap, the officers rushed in.

“Take out the ceiling!” Nancho roared as four officers set up the cylinders on the ceiling and exploded it. As the ceiling collapsed, oil dripped in. The trebuchets continued to launch oil containers that shattered upon impact and splashed the oil all over the fort.

“Get out!” At Nancho’s orders, the group flew out through the hole in the ceiling and circled it. They then pointed their hands into the hole and unleashed a sea of flames.

[Spell: Torch]

The sea of fire rushed into the corridors and moved like water under their control. The fire came in contact with the cylinders stuck across the place and caused a series of explosions.

“Good!” Nancho commented as a portion of the stone fort collapsed. Multiple floors had collapsed thanks to the explosions. Three Ogres had been burnt to cinders while the fourth lay beneath a pile of rubble, half charred, bleeding profusely.

“There,” One of the officers pointed at a section of the fort, “If we blow it up, we can access another corridor…”

“No, retreat!” Nancho commanded as spontaneously, the officers took flight. Spikes of rock jutted out from next to the collapsed section, targeting them.

A new set of walls emerged and began to replace the collapsed structure. A spot on the ceiling opened, revealing two Ogres carrying stone spears. They hurled the stone spears at the officers and quickly closed the ceiling.

A barrel of oil impacted the ceiling a few seconds later. The tip of a Flame Whip touched the surface and set it on fire.

“That was risky.” Rachad commented as he clutched the side of his stomach. A rock spike managed to nick him. Had Nancho been a tad late in alerting them, he would have been skewered in the stomach. “The Level 2 Ogres are being sneaky!”

Right as he spoke, a large wall at the top of the fort fell out, falling flat on the ground. Its sheer weight flattened the pile of firewood and snuffed out the fire. The gust generated from the impact sent the surrounding oil and firewood splattering farther from the fort.

One after another, walls from the top of the fort collapsed, clearing out the firewood encirclement. New walls stood in their place, keeping the fort structurally sound.

“We only managed to kill four of them this time,” Nancho said as he observed the fire on the fort dying out. “Unless we kill the Level 2 Ogres, this battle will never end.”

“We’ll just keep torching the fort then.” Rachad used his Spell of Torch and covered a wide area of the fort in a sea of flames. The flames sustained themselves as the trebuchets rained barrels of oil, “We can cook them, since we have brought enough barrels of oil now.”

“That we can.” Nancho said, “Disperse and torch the fort. But keep an eye out for the rock spikes. There are many Ogres with a Range Factor in the three digits.”

“Uhm…” One of the officers gulped in tension as he stopped his Spell of Torch. He pointed at a spot in the sky far away, “Something’s coming at us!”

“Hmm?” Nancho hurriedly took out his telescope and stared in the respective direction, dropping it a second later in sheer shock. “A…flying island?”

The Stone Race of Ogres—Level 3 (Relic)!

He turned around and roared at the soldiers on the Ogre Gate, “Summon the WARDEN! NOW!”

“Yes, officer!” One of the soldiers saluted and got on the Sun Stone equipped bike and sped across the bridge. Soon, he crossed the Lava Moat and entered the forest on the other side. ‘I need to hurry! Only the Warden can face a Level 3 Ogre.’

‘The Warden is so strong that no Level 3 existence can face him alone. There must be more than one Level 3 Ogres on that flying island, then!’ The soldier thought in a fluster and increased the thrust released by the Sun Stone.

Swoosh!

The soldier had never expected it and in his tensed state, didn’t even notice it. A flying arrow, made of wood, eighty centimetres long and a centimetre in diameter, pierced through his chest. He toppled and crashed into the ground, rolling for a long distance due to the momentum, “Gah!”

‘What happened?’ Blood trickled down his head as his vision was blurry. He opened his eyes and hazily noticed a humanoid figure walking towards him, holding a bow, ‘An Elf?’

“H-How…” An arrow punctured through his head, killing him.

The humanoid figure walked towards him and touched him, moulding his body. “Be one with the trees.”

His corpse was turned into manure and sprinkled onto the trees spanning the side of the ash road.

“I missed the mark with my first shot.” The figure commented, “I still need to train a lot.”

It was Pinaka!

“Now, I’ll be claiming this for myself.” He extended his hand towards the bike and yanked out its Sun Stone. He then pushed the bike into the forest and hit it within the trunk of a thick tree. “Unless they cut open the truck of every tree, they will never find this bike.”

There were traces of a crash on the ash road. Pinaka created and rolled a large cylindrical piece of wood over it, until the road was flattened properly, making traces of the crash.

He rolled it into the forest after splitting it into pieces and planted them into the ground, causing them to sprout into new trees. ‘It’s the easiest to hide a tree in a forest.’

Unless the Humans were counting and made a record of every single tree in the forest, they wouldn’t know what he had done, ‘And from what I read in their documents, they don’t maintain such a record.’

Placing the Sun Stone in a cloth bag he had made, Pinaka sprinted through the forest, ‘I hope the main body isn’t slacking off.’

The one who targeted the soldier was a clone, having been stationed within a tree adjacent to the ash road. The moment the attack from the Ogres increased past a certain point, the soldiers were bound to summon the Warden.

As long as the one sent for the summons was killed, the Warden would be delayed in his response, which would be enough for the Ogre Gate to be destroyed.

And while the Warden was busy with the Ogre situation, Pinaka could freely move towards his target.

Moving on an ash road en route to the Human Kingdom was a metal carriage. Seated within it were Pronto and his subordinates.

“Congratulations, Your Highness.” The Level 2 old man in charge of moving the metal carriage saluted, “You have succeeded in what no other Prince or Princess has managed.”

“We are still far from the Human Kingdom. Don’t relax until then.” Pronto said sharply.

“It’s a straight road to our home from here.” The old man commented, “No enemies dare come near here…”

Boom!

Suddenly, a log of wood five metres long slammed into the carriage with tremendous force and toppled it. A portion of its side had been dented from the impact.

“Enemy!” Pronto shouted, about to bark an order for the soldiers to get out and retaliate when another log of wood slammed into the carriage, producing a thunderous sound. ‘How can someone produce this much force? No Ogre I faced could throw with such…power!’

“Hmm…one more.” Standing at a spot two hundred metres away, holding a bow was Pinaka. He loaded an arrow that encased a clone of his spike and launched it in the air. As the arrow travelled towards its target, it created wood, growing in size until it slammed into the metal carriage, producing a thunderous sound.

As he heard the impact, Pinaka was already drawing a third arrow.

Authors Notes: Gangnea Daily: The highest stat in Control Factor attained to date is six.

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