Bombardment

"Kill them!!!!!!"

Accompanied by the thunderous war drums and Agugu's roar, the massive mass of the Red Eye Tribe rolled into one huge clump and rapidly spread across the flat wasteland. The boys scrambled forward, kicking their legs into motion and forming a terrifying green tidal wave.

Guk and Agugu did not move. This was a battle that would decide their fates, and neither side was willing to commit its final trump card right away.

Waaagh!!!!

Savage howls poured from countless fang-filled mouths, filling the air. From afar, two enormous, bizarre green walls rushed toward each other at unbelievable speed, oversized feet rapidly closing the distance.

The ranged forces on both sides exchanged fire once again. Spears, arrows, and stones filled the sky, colliding in midair before falling into the charging horde below and knocking down the unlucky ones. Those who fell would never get back up, because countless huge feet trampled over them.

The earth trembled and the sky shook. The Orks in the front ranks could already see the murderous grins on each other's faces...

"Kill them all!"

"Waaagh!"

Through the billowing dust, like two enraged Squiggoths, the massive hordes gathered their strength and slammed viciously into each other. It was a collision of flesh and blood. Axes, choppers, sharp swords, and spears... all plunged into enemy bodies at almost the same moment. They glared furiously at one another, then died together.

As soon as the boys in front fell into battle, those in the rear immediately squeezed forward. No boy wanted to fall behind, and the battle line was quickly churned into a mess. The bloody melee began in full, the primitive command structure swiftly collapsing as every Ork fought desperately against whoever stood before him.

One boy had just chopped down an enemy when his own head was split open by a sharp axe. Before the axe's owner could pull back, another axe severed his arm. Pale green blood mixed with mangled limbs and spilled organs covered the ground, staining the yellow sand a grotesque color.

The blood-crazed boys could only distinguish friend from foe by simple totems. Instinctively, they gathered near familiar groups and fought enemies from every direction.

The battle cries drowned out every other sound, and the pungent stench of Ork blood drifted dozens of miles away.

"Waaagh!! Waaagh!!"

The intense fighting stirred powerful will. Flatface led the Weirdboyz as they were infected by it, drooling and shrieking madly while crackling arcs of electricity swirled around them and rapidly spread toward the boys on the battlefield.

Beyond the battlefield, the same arcs of electricity flickered in Guk's eyes.

As lightning and whirlwinds swept through the Red Eye Tribe, Agugu glared unhappily toward the fortress. Those lunatics had no idea what they were doing.

He summoned a boss.

"Go tell Bigtooth and the others! If they don't want me to chop off their heads, they'd better get to work!"

Before long, a few scattered bolts of lightning slapped into the White Hand Tribe's ranks. Compared to that dense web of lightning, it was practically a half-hearted joke.

Agugu was furious. He decided that once they won, he would teach those lunatics a proper lesson.

The battle had fallen into a stalemate. The Red Eye Tribe still held the advantage in numbers, while the White Hand Tribe's groups were stronger fighters. Both sides fought beneath all manner of "trash" falling from the sky, turning the entire battlefield into a vast grinder of flesh and blood. Hundreds or thousands of Orks died every second.

Green Tooth led the cavalry into battle against Red-Eye's riders. Though the enemy had fewer riders, their mounted combat and command experience was unexpectedly seasoned. They traded blows back and forth, neither side able to gain the upper hand.

"Chariots, move!"

The white flag swayed back and forth. Turok led the lightly armored chariots rumbling out, crossing the battle lines of both sides and charging into Red-Eye's formation from the right flank under cavalry cover.

"Quick, quick! Charge through! Break through!"

The nimble chariots sliced swiftly into the dense formation in groups of fifty, continuously weaving through the Red Eye Tribe's right-wing ranks. The blades fixed to their wheels kicked up sprays of bloody mist with every charge.

The high-speed chariot force was like a knife carving roast meat, steadily shaving down the Red Eye Tribe's right flank. If this continued, the collapse of that wing would only be a matter of time.

But things always had a way of getting worse. Just as Turok reveled in the thrill of speed and slaughter, several colossal beasts appeared before him. They had green hides, thick limbs, massive horns on their heads, and mouths full of fangs and sharp teeth.

The Red Eye Tribe's herd of gigantic Squiggoths had arrived. Agugu had played another trump card. Originally prepared to conquer human fortresses, these were among the few things he truly valued.

"Left! Left!"

These beasts stood a full ten meters tall and moved like mountains. Turok had no desire for an intimate encounter with them, so he hurriedly ordered the chariots to turn sharply. But the weakness of chariots was laid bare at that moment: even light chariots found turning at high speed extremely difficult.

"Turn, turn, turn!!!"

Turok nearly used every ounce of strength in his body before barely avoiding a leg as thick as himself. But a chariot beside him failed to evade it and was crushed into scrap, boys and all.

That single charge cost the chariot force a quarter of its numbers.

Worse still, in their attempt to evade those colossal beasts, many chariots plunged headlong into clusters of boys. Having lost their momentum, they could never pull back out.

Guk realized that things had gone beyond expectations. He watched those beasts charge straight toward his left wing, trampling the formation madly while the boys could do nothing.

"Big Boom-Boom! Focus fire on those Squig things!"

Though he gave the order, Guk felt that bolt throwers alone would struggle to truly hurt those beasts. The facts proved him right: short spears that could pierce boys only stuck into the beasts without even breaking their skin, merely making them more frenzied.

"Mangul! Take half of them over there. You have to hold the line!"

Seeing Bucktooth gradually failing to hold on, Guk had no choice but to send out half of his White-Helm Guards.

"Yes!"

Those heavily armored elites swiftly charged into the battlefield. Wielding massive steel swords and axes, they raised a rain of blood, stabilized the wavering formation, and began surrounding the terrifying beasts.

"Idea Guy!"

Noticing that the bombardment was growing weaker and weaker, Guk looked back. Of the original thirty-five catapults, only nineteen remained. The rest had been damaged for various reasons or simply fallen apart, while the once towering piles of stone ammunition were nearly exhausted.

"Boss!"

"Stop throwing stones. Throw Jumpies!"

"Yes!"

When Idea Bro ran back to the firing position, the burning boulders had been replaced by vicious red Jumpies with their tongues hanging out. The moment those savage things landed, they began madly biting everything around them.

But it was ultimately only a drop in the bucket. The White Hand Tribe's right wing also began to waver. A group of boys who followed orders strictly, dressed in uniform clothing and armor, had beaten Aluba into a miserable state. If he and a group of Weirdboyz had not been almost suicidally unleashing their psychic power, the right wing might already have been pierced.

Whenever Guk saw their assault, he could not help thinking of the human armies he had once seen...

"Haha! Looks like he can't hold on much longer."

Agugu saw it clearly as well. He knew Guk did not have many cards left.

"Go! Tell Big Bang-Bang to give them some color!"

Not long after the boy carrying the order scampered into the fortress, wisps of white smoke rose from a cave in the rock wall.

Boom!

The immense sound immediately put Guk on high alert. It was a sound he had never heard before.

On the central front, a White Hand Tribe senior guard had just raised his warhammer to finish off a fallen enemy when an immense force suddenly lifted his entire body. It was as if an invisible giant hand had thrown him away. Amid the bloody mist, he could still see his own lower half...

"What the hell was that!"

Guk roared furiously, his body stiffening and his eyes turning bloodshot. He could clearly see ten bloody lines gouged through the dense formation as though a blade had cut across a wooden board. The boys in their paths were either dead or maimed. The sight was horrifying.

Boom!

Not long afterward came the same sound, followed by the same cruel scene. Guk's bloodshot eyes fixed on the towering fortress.

He saw it. They were nothing more than small iron balls!

"Big Bang-Bang!"

The Red Eye Tribe actually had human weapons. Guk suddenly felt the urge to butcher Truf. That idiot had failed to discover something like this!

"Good, good, good!! Hit them hard!!"

Agugu laughed heartily. The Red Eye Tribe had sent boys and Snotlings to probe the human lines every day for far more than mere fun. They had never forgotten the terror those huge things inspired. Terrifying destructive power, extreme range—the things that stopped them had never been those thin fire-sticks, but these booming Big Guns.

For this, they had spared no expense in infiltrating the human side, trying every possible method to steal these huge weapons and the gunpowder needed to use them. It did not matter if they failed hundreds or thousands of times. They had plenty of time.

That Ork-style persistence had paid off. No matter how vigilant humans were, they would eventually slip up. The Red Eye Tribe had stolen them one by one, accumulating ten Big Guns of various calibers. The largest one could even fit half an Ork's head inside its barrel.

Agugu's grand gift for the humans was now being enjoyed by Guk in advance...

"What kind of thing is that! It's even better than my Big Throw-Throw!"

At the rear of the battlefield, Agum climbed to the top of a catapult and watched the iron balls roll and bounce madly through the crowds of boys. His eyes practically spat fire, and the burning heart of an engineer made him want to rush into the fortress and see what was inside.

The boys on the central front suffered terribly. Most were Guk's finest boys, yet now they were being suppressed so badly that they could barely lift their heads.

The fierce bombardment inflicted severe damage on the central front. Fortunately, there were not many iron balls, but if this continued, collapse would be inevitable sooner or later.

Guk glared viciously at the other side, and Agugu glared viciously back. But he did not know that Guk had never been watching him at all. Guk's gaze had remained fixed on the fortress.

He was waiting. Waiting for that moment...