Meeting the Orcs Again

Western Britain.

Anno had ridden all night, and his horse was nearly exhausted, but he finally arrived here at dawn the next day.

The Orcs had begun their invasion. Far away, a knightly order could be seen holding them off, but it was obvious that things looked grim for the knights, who were outnumbered and physically outmatched.

And only a small number of Orcs had engaged the knights. Farther back, a vast horde stretched across the land, eyeing Britain hungrily.

Anno sprang straight up, seeming to fly off his horse.

While fighting Vortigern, Anno had realized that something about his physical abilities was very unusual. He could easily lift and throw stones and building debris larger than a person. He had also displayed sudden bursts of speed while dodging Vortigern's breath, and later thrust a spear through dragon hide that King Uther had struggled to cut.

Now he had leaped nearly ten meters into the air.

His body seemed to have become absurdly powerful during his fight with Vortigern. More precisely, he had already been strong before, but had never noticed it. Only the sense of danger he'd felt in that battle had made him realize just how incredible his strength and speed were.

This was far beyond what an ordinary human could achieve, but Anno didn't think much of it.

When he landed, he was still about a kilometer from where the knights and Orcs had clashed, but no one had noticed his arrival.

He drew his sword and reached the front lines in just over two minutes.

A month had passed since Anno had last faced the creatures known as Orcs.

His blade flashed. Before anyone could react, Anno cut down nearly ten Orcs with a sudden, thunderous assault.

Anno had been fighting these creatures for half a year. He killed Orcs almost every day, sometimes more, sometimes fewer. On his most eventful day, he'd come across an Orc settlement by a river and left no one alive—not even the old, the weak, or the women and children. He killed nearly three hundred Orcs, until his wrists went numb.

Orcs bred rapidly and had a taste for human flesh. Anno had seen what happened to people captured by them, and had long since put the creatures on his permanent blacklist. Every one he saw, he killed.

Those six months of experience had taught Anno everything about the Orcs' habits and weaknesses.

Anno could have been called the most practiced Orc butcher around.

One sharp-eyed knight spotted Anno suddenly cutting into the enemy's flank and shouted excitedly, "Everyone, reinforcements have arrived!"

Hearing that help had come, the knights' flagging morale immediately surged.

Only the lord of the knightly order wondered, Since when did we have reinforcements?

The Orcs also noticed Anno slaughtering their companions. They clamored in alarm, but couldn't stop the assault of a single man.

Anno kicked one Orc behind the knee. As it bent over, he sprang up and brought his blade down hard on the back of its neck. The Orc's head fell straight to the ground.

With Anno's help, the knights unleashed a considerable fighting force of their own, driving back the several hundred Orcs who had been probing the order's defenses.

In the end, with the main Orc army behind them making no move to attack, the knights lost nearly half their number. Anno remained completely unharmed. Together, they killed most of the several hundred Orcs and drove the rest back.