Chương 187: 187：The Signal to Slaughter

"That one holding the staff is the [Province Oracle] of the Orcish Alliance's Blood Province. And that young man..." Cedric spoke in a trembling whisper, his throat suddenly bone-dry.

"I've seen that insignia. He is the nephew of the Governor-General himself—the supreme commander of the Blood Province!" Status this exalted... If this were the human nations, the death of either one would instantly trigger the collapse of diplomatic relations and ignite a war of vengeful fury! Down below in the mountain pass, the conversations of the high-ranking Orc officers drifted clearly up through the wind.

"Hmph! I truly don't know what that old fool Blackstone is thinking!" The young nephew batted away a poisonous vine in disgust with his riding crop, his tone dripping with the absolute arrogance of the ruling class.

"That Shadow Priest, Zagar, who only dares to hide in the dark, cooks up some bullshit infiltration and decapitation tactic, and expects us to travel all this way to this reeking mud pit just to watch?"

"You are absolutely right, my Lord!" A Ten-Thousand-Man Commander with a blue scar across his face immediately chimed in, his voice gruff and loud.

"The most glorious warfare of our Orcish race is to mass a hundred thousand warriors and bulldoze straight through their front lines with our massive heavy phalanxes!

"We should grind the walls of Boulder Fortress and the humans behind it to dust! Relying on sneaky assassinations... that's the filthy work of Goblins!" The Oracle also chimed in, complaining darkly.

"What's even more infuriating is this endless, multi-layered defensive perimeter Warchief Blackstone arranged along the route!

"Sweep, halt, sweep again! It's maddeningly tedious! This is nothing but a delay on our journey to the frontlines to enjoy human women and fine wine!" Just as they were voicing their complaints, the veteran Orc scout leading the vanguard roughly a dozen meters ahead suddenly raised his hand.

"Halt!" The scout Centurion sprinted to the base of the nephew's Kodo Beast, dropping to one knee in the muck, his expression grave.

"My Lords, this ravine is known as Soul-Sever Gorge. The terrain is as narrow as a thread, and the elevation gap on both sides is immense. It is an absolute death trap of an ambush zone.

"For your safety, I ask that you wait here for a brief moment. Allow me to lead my men up the steep cliffs on both flanks. Once we have conducted a thorough sweep, it will not be too late to advance." Hearing this, Leona's heart violently clenched from her high vantage point. This Orc scout's battlefield intuition was terrifying. If they actually let those men scale this high ground covered by the [Concealment Array], the seventy elites would be completely and utterly exposed!

"Insolent!" The Governor-General's nephew viciously lashed his riding crop against the Centurion's armor, sending a blinding spark flying into the air. His relatively handsome Orcish face twisted in rage. Covering his nose, he roared, "You blind dog! Can you not see that the miasma here is actively corroding my precious White Jade Direbear coat?!

"And you want me to endure the stench of this mud pit for another second?!"

"My Lord, military regulations state..."

"I am the Governor-General's own nephew! My word is military regulation! Deep within the heart of the hundred-thousand-strong Blackstone Warband, do you honestly believe there is a human army out there with the absolute gall to cross this natural barrier just to ambush us?!" The young, aristocratic Orc drew his sword and pointed it straight ahead, barking an imperious command:"Force the march! We accelerate through immediately! Anyone who disobeys will be executed!" The scout Centurion ground his teeth.

Unable to defy the absolute authority of the nobility, he helplessly waved his hand.

"Relay the orders... Collapse the formation! Double-time advance!" And just like that, this group of high-ranking Orc officers, who commanded thousands of troops, willingly abandoned their final safety window for reconnaissance. Entirely unguarded, they accelerated straight into Soren's line of sight, stepping completely into his meticulously laid ambush.

As the entirety of the inspection delegation's escort fully entered the kill zone at the bottom of the ravine, Commander Cedric, hidden above, looked deathly pale. A deep chill gripped his heart as he calculated the sheer disparity in military strength.

"This is madness..." Cedric lowered his voice, unable to hide his profound terror.

"Lord Soren, look at their outer defensive perimeter!

"That's three hundred Black Iron Orc veterans wielding interlocking iron tower shields!

"And those in the inner circle, glued to the Kodo Beasts? That is a hundred fully armed [Black Steel Orc Elites]! Their armor is so thick not even Troll fangs could pierce it!" Cedric turned his head, looking at the seventy frontline soldiers of Greywater Village lying prone in the mud beside him.

"I don't care how important these high-ranking officers are, we only have seventy men!

"This isn't a question of whether we can swallow them! The second they react and launch even a single, coordinated counter-charge, our meager numbers will be utterly annihilated!" Soren's expression didn't change in the slightest in the face of Cedric's warning. Moving with deliberate, terrifying slowness, Soren silently unslung the [Windwhisper Bow] from his back. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

He spoke coldly, his words laced with pure, unadulterated killing intent.

"Step one. The first arrow I fire will serve as the signal for the general assault.

"Do not hold back on ammunition. I want every single one of our heavy infantrymen to draw their heavy repeating crossbows and unleash a suppressive net of firepower into this narrow basin! I want their formation torn to shreds!

"Step two. During the brief vacuum when their defensive line collapses, we force the frontline forward by five meters. Chief Mage Victor will unleash wide-area elemental magic into the densely packed Orcs, inflicting catastrophic damage and completely shattering their morale!" Soren's gaze turned predatory and vicious.

"Step three! While their ranks are in absolute chaos, the entire elite unit will vault out of cover and form a phalanx with their two-and-a-half-meter armor-piercing heavy halberds!

"Using the most violent formation possible, we will launch our final melee charge directly at those high-ranking officials!" The bowstring was drawn to its absolute limit, emitting a low, thrumming hum. Visible currents of air violently compressed and converged upon the arrowhead. Down below, the Black Iron Orc Centurion leading the way seemed to sense the sudden, drastic drop in air pressure from above. He abruptly snapped his head up, his eyes bulging in alarm. Snikt! BOOM!! Soren decisively released his fingers.

The arrow, imbued with Wind-attribute mana, instantly broke the sound barrier the microsecond it left the string. Under the dumbfounded gazes of Leona and Cedric, this enchanted arrow punched clean through the refined steel helmet of the Black Iron Orc Centurion. It entered through his left eye, erupting in a gruesome shower of blood and brain matter from the back of his skull, before continuing with unabated momentum to completely penetrate an ancient tree behind him!

The Centurion didn't even utter a grunt before his massive frame crashed heavily into the muck.

"Enemy—!" Before the shrill warning could fully spread through the Orc formation, the lethal strike from atop the ravine began.

"Fire!!" Gary roared. Rustle! The concealed camouflage netting was instantly ripped away! The seventy frontline elites, surging with the formidable physical strength granted by the [Minor Troll Serum], rose to a half-kneel in perfect unison. They leveled their heavy repeating crossbows with both hands. Utilizing the immense elevation advantage, combined with the sheer gravitational pull on the heavy armor-piercing bolts, these repeating crossbows unleashed a horrifying level of slaughtering efficiency. Thwack!

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! A dense barrage of bolts rained down, forming an extensive, lethal blanket of suppressive fire. The frontline Black Iron Orc infantry, previously so proud of their iron armor, found it effortlessly pierced in this very moment. Squelch! Arghh! With just a single, instantaneous volley, vast swathes of the vanguard down below collapsed. The terrifying penetrative force even pinned a massive Black Iron Orc bodily to the stone cliff.

Crossbow bolts continuously punched through the armor and bodies of dozens of Orcs, inflicting catastrophic casualties on the frontline in a split second, leaving the ravine echoing with agonized wails. The Kodo Beasts panicked and stampeded. Their massive frames not only failed to protect the high officials but ended up trampling the already chaotic Black Iron infantry into bloody paste. However, Commander Cedric's fears had not been unfounded. This escort force was, after all, handpicked from the absolute best.

"Form up! Shield wall! Raise them above your heads! Protect the Lords!" After a mere five seconds of chaos, a shrill bone-whistle pierced the air. The surviving [Black Steel Orc Elites] displayed the terrifyingly high caliber of their individual combat skills. Without a shred of fear, they trampled over the corpses of their comrades, swiftly hoisting tower shields half an inch thick.

Forcing their way through the rain of crossbow bolts, they rapidly erected a fully enclosed defensive turtle formation beneath the cover of a broad rock overhang. Two Black Steel Commanders even drew heavy throwing spears. Using the crevices in the rocks as a fulcrum, they hurled their spears diagonally upward at the concealed positions, launching a fearless and ferocious counterattack.

"Trying to establish a defensive line? Keep dreaming!" Soren, who had been constantly hunting for the perfect tactical opening, felt his [Eagle Eye Perception] flare with brilliant intensity. Stepping entirely out of cover, Soren stood proudly at the edge of the cliff. With chilling composure, he drew back the [Windwhisper Bow]. Amidst the chaotic gloom, with enemy commanders cowering behind heavy layers of shields, blindly securing a target would be incredibly difficult for an ordinary archer.

But with the slow-motion processing and visual locking of [Eagle Eye Perception], this was completely reduced to a one-sided slaughter. Swish! An arrow flew out. Bizarrely, it threaded perfectly through a gap barely a finger's width wide between the interlocking shields above the Orcs' heads, burying itself flawlessly into the throat of a commander screaming at the top of his lungs to organize a counter-charge! Emitting a wet, hissing wheeze, the Orc clutched his throat and collapsed into the mud.