Ch.123123. Elandia (2)

The day after the serial deaths of high-ranking Legion officials.

Today was originally scheduled as the monthly special meal distribution day at the Orc Detention Camp, so the breakfast supplied to the camp was a porridge made with blood and barley.

In truth, they would normally provide pork to boost morale, but… hadn’t there been several suspicious deaths by poisoning just yesterday?

Because of this, they hurriedly changed their food supply source—specifically for meat and other side dishes. They had just signed a contract with a wolf ranch and bought cheap blood in bulk to at least feed them something.

Naturally, with only vinegar and a little salt for seasoning, the disgustingly fishy blood porridge made even most of the orcs in the communal dining hall grimace.

But they had to eat to survive.

For the enslaved orcs who constantly suffered from hunger due to insufficient rations, this nauseating blood porridge was at least nutritious enough to fill their stomachs.

So they frowned like wild boars while shoveling the blood porridge into their mouths with crude spoons, and…

“Work starts today! First group, follow me!”

Immediately after, without even a moment’s rest, the orcs had to follow their escort to move to their assigned farmland for agricultural work, but…

“…What’s going on? What’s wrong with them?”

Today, something seemed off about the orcs after breakfast.

While walking with clanking chains, they suddenly collapsed, began convulsing, vomiting dark red blood clots, and collectively screaming in pain.

“Hey, hey! What’s wrong with you guys?!”

If it were just one or two, the escort might have dismissed it as exaggeration regardless of the truth, but… with most showing such reactions, even the relatively inexperienced escort fell into panic, not knowing what to do in such an emergency.

Of course, this panic equally affected the veteran soldiers, and as they approached the orcs in confusion—right then.

“””■■■■■■■■■───!!!”””

It happened suddenly.

“Wha, what—”

—CRUNCH!

One of the collapsed orcs abruptly rose to its feet, let out a bestial howl, and tore out the throat of an approaching soldier.

“Ah, AAAAAAHHHHH───!!”

CRUNCH! GRIND!

Moving so quickly the other soldiers had no time to intervene, the orc violently broke free of its chains and began devouring the soldier’s neck with its massive jaws.

“S-stab it!”

“”Yes, sir!””

The veteran soldiers, finally regaining their senses, gathered together with spears aimed at the orc and stabbed frantically.

CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! SQUELCH! SLASH!

THUD!

The orc, wounded so severely that its spine was visible through its wounds, only collapsed after a veteran soldier pierced its brain with a spear.

“Hey, hey?!! Are you okay?!! Stay with us!!!”

The soldiers rushed to help their comrade who was bleeding profusely from his throat, but…

They had forgotten something.

Besides the orc that had attacked the soldier, dozens more collapsed orcs remained.

“””””””■■■■■■■■■■───!!!!””””””

“W-what───”

———CHOMP!

Like the orc that had died with a hole in its head, the other orcs lunged at the distracted soldiers.

“”■■■■■■■■■■───!!!!!!””

These howling orcs had strangely bloodshot eyes and moved like beasts, ignoring the heavy restraints that should have limited their movement.

Their somehow sharpened claws tore out soldiers’ entrails, and their elongated snouts bit into succulent necks.

The thought that even rabid dogs wouldn’t be this vicious crossed the mind of one victim, as the orcs moved like feline predators, slaughtering about ten soldiers before rising from their positions.

The orcs, covered in soldiers’ blood, looked completely different from their earlier convulsing state.

“Grrrrrrrr……”

“Awoooooooo──!!!”

“Bark! Bark bark!!”

They howled like wolves through elongated snouts filled with more fangs, their normally green or yellow eyes now blood-red with feral energy.

Their limbs had grown longer, with grotesque hook-like claws forcibly protruding from the ends, and reddish fur sprouted sparsely across their green skin.

But the most disturbing element of their appearance was the metal fragments from their restraints, which had melted and fused to their skin.

The metal, resembling scale armor, had completely merged with their skin and flesh, becoming part of their bodies.

This transformation affected anyone who had eaten even a bite of the morning’s blood porridge, turning all approximately 20,000 orcs in the detention camp into these monsters.

The restraints that had kept them from rebelling were gone, and since they were being escorted to the farmland, the internal passages were open.

The main gate, protected by magic, remained firmly closed, so these beast-orcs couldn’t easily escape the city, but…

Looking at it another way, the city had become a sealed slaughterhouse.

“Everyone, form up! Point your spears—”

“GRRRRAAAARRR!!!”

CRUNCH!

“””S-squad leader!”””

The first victims were the soldiers escorting the orcs in ten-man units. Outnumbered three to one, they were picked off one by one.

“KYAAAAAAAA───”

CRUNCH!

After slaughtering the nearby squad of soldiers, these beast-orcs scattered in all directions and began massacring civilians within the fortress.

One might wonder why civilians were present in a military facility that served as both a prisoner camp and a granary, but this was actually common in this era.

People were needed to clean the city, prepare meals, handle administrative tasks that soldiers couldn’t do, plus there were soldiers’ families and merchants who served them.

For these reasons, the ordinary people staying in Elandia were slaughtered one-sidedly.

GROWL!

CRUNCH!

Even soldiers with years of combat experience and magical training found it difficult to defeat these transformed orcs in single combat.

The soldiers’ advantage came when they could form battle formations—groups of about a hundred could rescue civilians and join with other soldiers.

But ordinary citizens without such protection were either ambushed and killed or discovered in hiding and turned into meals.

As the chaos continued within the city, the tide gradually turned in favor of the Legion soldiers.

The surviving Thousand-Commanders rallied their troops, and Deputy Legion Commander Tinel Segtus temporarily assumed command as acting Legion Commander.

Taking advantage of their defensible position, he had soldiers guard the passages, using the Legion’s specialty shield formations to hold back the beast-orcs who were drawn by the scent of survivors.

“Push! Thrust!”

CRUNCH!

“Once more! Push, thrust!”

CRUNCH!

By blocking narrow passages and exploiting terrain advantages, they overcame the numerical disadvantage. If they started to falter, the mid-tier Thousand-Commanders would step in.

The superhuman capabilities of these commanders, which the beast-orcs lacked, changed the battlefield’s dynamics. The Thousand-Commander of the 3rd Thousand-Unit single-handedly held a collapsing barricade and cut down 300 orcs.

After more than ten hours of holding their ground, as the sun began to set, the orcs started exhibiting strange behaviors.

Some orcs froze mid-fight, others bit themselves, and some tried to tear off the metal fused to their skin by ripping off their own flesh.

The soldiers seized this opportunity, sending out their cavalry reserves to devastate the orcs.

Before long, all orcs within Elandia were annihilated, and cheers erupted.

“”””””WAAAAAAAAAHHHHH───!!!””””””

Joy at survival, grief for lost family and comrades, rage toward the orcs—a mixture of emotions echoed through the blood-soaked Elandia.

———WOOOOOONG!!!!

As if mocking the soldiers’ joy of survival,

With a strange sound, a black sun rose in the sky.