Catching

After setting aside the matter of iron for the time being, Guk prepared to increase gunpowder production. Equipping the boys with guns was still unrealistic, but stuffing a few bombs into their hands before a battle was pretty reliable. That meant he needed a great deal of gunpowder.

The other materials for making gunpowder were easy enough to acquire. Only those yellow crystals could be found solely in the volcanic region near Stone Fist Fort. For that reason, Guk specifically dispatched a squad of White-Helm Guards, leading around a thousand boys and even more Snotlings, to mine the stuff.

Things went smoothly at first, but after only a few days, the Guards and boys came running back in a miserable state. Half of them were missing.

"Bit by some big thing?"

After the Guards finished describing what had happened, Guk remembered there was still an old enemy lurking in that area.

The boys had only been digging for a few days when the thing started causing trouble, launching attacks from every direction. Each attack took the lives of hundreds of boys and trampled countless Snotlings to death.

The boys had no way to deal with it. After discussing it, the Guards decided to set an ambush, but that damn thing was slippery. It seemed to know danger was coming and stayed hidden for days. Once the boys relaxed a little, it came out again, and this attack was especially vicious.

Although the White-Helm Guards fought back with everything they had, the difference in size was simply too great. In the end, the boys were defeated.

"Damn it!"

Guk was furious. He grabbed his blade and rushed toward the volcanic region, followed by a sea of White-Helms.

When they arrived, they found heat haze shrouding the land. Ork remains and heaps of unidentifiable flesh lay everywhere. Tools had been scattered all over the ground, and even the cartloads of yellow crystals had spilled everywhere.

"Get out here!!!!"

His furious roar shot into the sky, but there was no response. It was as if this were a dead land, devoid of all life.

Guk narrowed his eyes and strode toward the lava pit. He knew the thing had to be hiding inside.

"If you've got the guts, get out here!"

Standing at the edge of the pit, he pointed his blade below, his expression utterly savage. Yet aside from the occasional bubble that rose and quickly vanished, there was no reaction at all.

The heat waves around them were suffocating. Many boys removed their helmets and could not help wiping the sweat from their heads. Orks did not sweat often, which showed just how terrifyingly high the temperature was here.

Knowing the enemy was causing trouble while being unable to do anything about it made Guk exceptionally irritable.

Suddenly, he noticed something strange about the surface. His legs instinctively carried him several steps backward.

ROAR!!!

With almost no warning, the lava lake erupted. Accompanied by a terrifying roar, the dark-red Beast leaped out, its fanged maw snapping straight at Guk.

Bang~!

But Guk moved faster. Retreating rapidly, he drew Dragon Tooth and slashed forward. A series of dull impacts rang out.

Both attacks missed. The Beast failed to bite him, while Guk's blade struck its hard fangs and sent sparks flying.

Having failed in one strike, the Beast did not linger. It blasted two streams of hot air from its nostrils, twisted its body, and plunged straight back into the lava. It remained deeply wary of the one who had injured it before. Though his appearance had changed, it still remembered his scent.

"Damn it! Damn it!!"

This made Guk so angry he nearly jumped in place, but the thing simply refused to come out of the lava. Every now and then, it even provocatively poked its head out.

"Boss, I reckon we oughta blast it with a cannon?"

A Guard boy popped up behind him and offered a terrible idea.

The moment Guk heard that, he turned around and punched him, sending the fool flying several meters away.

"A Snotling with its brains scooped out is smarter than you! Idiot! How the hell are you supposed to fire a cannon in this heat!"

With no better option, Guk could only lead the boys away for now. But they did not go far. He sent another group of boys and Snotlings to mine yellow crystals while he led the others into ambush nearby.

Yet that thing had grown smarter. Knowing danger was near, it did not make a move for days. Guk squatted there for so long that all he gained was a body full of foul sweat.

The problem was that he could not stay here forever. The moment he left, that thing would definitely come out and cause trouble again. For this, he had no choice but to summon Green Tooth. This fellow was now the tribe's beast-taming expert, and no one knew better how to handle large creatures.

"Boss, I got an idea."

After learning the general situation with the creature, Green Tooth's eyes shifted as he came up with a plan.

"That thing's nose has gotta be sharp. We'll use something to cover our scent, then do this..."

"Alright. Sounds solid to me."

That very night, Guk and his Guards vanished from the volcanic region.

The unaware boys resumed work the next day, tossing basket after basket of pungent yellow crystals out of the blazing pits. They were not working for free. Guk would reward each of them with a chopper in ten days, so most of those who came here were fresh boys who had only recently crawled out of the ground.

"I'm dead tired."

After hauling a full basket of goods onto a large cart, the boy, with barely a few scraps of cloth on him, took a deep breath and sat down against the wheel.

"Hey, got any water left?"

Wiping the sweat from his head, he held out his hand toward another fellow nearby who was slacking off just like him.

"Nope. Drank it all ages ago."

The other boy tossed his shriveled waterskin directly in front of him. He picked it up, shook it hard over his mouth, and only barely managed to get a single drop of liquid out.

"I ain't doing this ever again!"

Throwing the waterskin to the ground, the boy could not help grumbling.

"Too hot, too smelly, too boring!"

Another fellow beside them coughed dryly a few times and joined in.

"In a few days, I'm heading to Blackstone. I heard the fighting there is proper brutal, and you can pick up lots of good stuff too."

"You got a death wish? The lads at Blackstone fight to kill. I reckon I'll go to Blood Fang first and raise a few Squigs."

"Raise Squigs my arse. Fighting's way more fun. Come fight with me."

"No, I'm gonna raise Squigs, then... then fight."

As they chatted idly, the two boys suddenly felt the cart at their backs shake. They hurriedly jumped up, thinking a supervisor had caught them slacking off, but that was not it.

"What's going on?"

The cart was still trembling lightly. They exchanged puzzled looks, but the accompanying Snotling spotted something wrong and grabbed a boy's heel, screaming.

"Up ahead! Eeeek, eeeek, eeeek..."

Only after it spoke did the two notice that something seemed to be moving through the smoke in the distance, stirring the air into waves.

ROAR!!!

Suddenly, a colossal creature burst through the mist and charged toward them on all fours.

"Shit! Run!"

There was nothing else to say. The two boys turned and ran. Loving a fight and throwing away your life were two different things, and even boys fresh out of the ground understood that.

Once they ran, the other boys who had been working started running too. The scene instantly descended into chaos. The Beast rampaged through the camp, swallowing one Ork at a time and crushing one Snotling with every step, leaving corpses all across the excavation site.

"Damn it! It's coming for us!"

Before these two miserable brothers could catch their breath, the Beast had fixed its eyes on them and charged over at full speed.

"You hold it off! I'm gonna get the boss!"

Before the other could speak, the one beside him suddenly lifted his foot and kicked him to the ground, then turned and ran in another direction.

"Ow! You murderous bastard! I, I'm gonna..."

Still cursing, the unlucky boy was just about to flee when a huge bloody maw came crashing down toward him.

"Waaaahhh!"

Rolling away from the first strike, the boy was nearly scared pissless. But there was no way he could dodge the second one.

"Hahaha! Got you!!!"

A burst of laughter abruptly interrupted the Beast's meal. It warily lifted its head, only to find its great enemy standing before it at some unknown time, naked except for the huge blade in his hand, giving off a strange smell.

"Boys!"

"Yeah!"

With Guk's roar, rows of strong Orks burst out of the ground. Each of them held two yellowish-brown round objects covered in holes.

"Get it!"

In an instant, the boys hurled the things in their hands at the Beast with all their strength. The Beast's instincts immediately sensed danger, and it turned to run for its life.

Thump~

One ball landed on its back and instantly stuck there. It began to wriggle as though it had come alive, spraying a pale green gas from its holes.

ROAR!!!!!

A horrifying smell drifted into the Beast's nostrils, making its nasal passages feel as though they had caught fire. It let out a pained roar and ran even faster.

But all along the route back to its home, who knew how many boys had been lying in ambush? The meatballs fell like rain, covering almost its entire body. The originally dark-red Beast now looked like a Squig.

Rooooar~~~~~

The terrible odor ravaged its nerves. Its feet grew heavier and heavier, and breathing became increasingly difficult. The lava pool was already right in front of it. It only needed one small leap...

With a faint tremor through the earth, it collapsed. At the very moment it was about to return to its lair, it could no longer hold on and was forcibly knocked unconscious by that bizarre stench.

"Dead?"

Pinching his nose, Guk walked over to the thing and kicked it with his foot, but there was no movement at all.

That super-stinky Squig stuff really did reek. If Green Tooth had not prepared medicine for them to swallow, they would probably have dropped before this big thing did.

"No. It fainted."

While having the boys collect their Squigs, Green Tooth carefully examined the monster. His eyes gleamed as if he had found treasure.

"Boss, can you give it to me?"

"You sure you can handle it? Don't let it eat you."

"Yeah. I got a way to tame it and make it as obedient as a Squig."

Hearing that, Guk began to have thoughts of his own. Giving such a flashy thing to Green Tooth was too good for him.

"What way? Tell me. I'm short on a mount, and Squigs are too slow."

"Uh..."