Ch.165Chapter 165: Eastern Decisive Battle (33)

In response to Lisa’s shout, Valt bursts into hearty laughter.

“Hahaha, quite confident, aren’t you, Lisa? End the war?”

Despite Valt’s reaction, Lisa remains brimming with confidence.

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I be able to end it when such an opportunity has come? With you, Valt, we can finish this!”

“Heh heh heh, aren’t you overestimating me a bit?”

“Not at all. Without you in this war, we might not have lost, but we would have suffered tremendous damage.”

Lisa’s words were true.

The orcs she had seen through her artifact were indeed that threatening.

As she had explained to Valt, the orcs were operating very organically under someone’s command.

In war, what determines victory or defeat is organic movement. An army is like a living organism.

When it moves well as a cohesive unit, it becomes strong; when it becomes rigid, it weakens.

This is especially true for large-scale armies. That’s why command systems and communication become paramount.

Humans coordinated these through magic or other methods, but monsters like orcs were ‘originally’ incapable of such organization.

Yet these orcs were capable of it.

The way orc lords and general units were deployed to human weak points with uncanny precision convinced Lisa that the Orc King had some means of issuing commands to the orcs.

It was clearly demonstrating tremendous power.

Repeatedly striking at human weak points and concentrating on their own strengths, even humans couldn’t withstand the orcs’ offensive.

In fact, the orcs’ attacks were far more efficient than the humans’.

Humans, as an alliance with their own circumstances, often acted independently, while the orcs were a single group with one leader.

But Valt and Lisa, just the two of them, had shattered this impressive orc command system.

Moving freely underground, they provided support where humans were weak and neutralized orc strongholds with sinkhole magic.

From the orcs’ perspective, they thought they were attacking a weak point, only to be ambushed by Valt and Lisa, resulting in their defeat.

Given the situation, it seemed the Orc King himself had decided to join the battle, which meant the enemy was being pushed back.

Of course, these orcs were formidable.

Though not matching the Empire, the Eastern Alliance was one of the strongest coalitions outside the Empire.

That’s because the east never ceased to be at war.

The north might be better at dealing with monsters, but in terms of warfare itself, no one could confidently claim they could defeat the Eastern Alliance.

Yet now, mere orc hordes were fighting them as equals.

But it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say this was all due to the absolute existence of the Orc King.

Lisa was convinced that if they could capture the Orc King, the war would quickly come to an end.

“So, Lisa, how do you plan to end the war?”

After pondering for a moment, Lisa couldn’t come up with a good idea right away.

“Well… how can I use you to end the war, Valt? Hmm… this isn’t working. Should we regroup with the others first?”

“What about the diversion operation?”

“The moment the Orc King started moving, the enemy’s movements became more passive. They probably don’t want to take any more losses until the Orc King takes action. Besides, the orc lords have started joining the Orc King’s group. If we keep wandering around here, we’ll only face small fry.”

Valt nods at Lisa’s assessment.

“That makes sense. Then let’s go meet up with our friends. With Arias and Liris, we might create another interesting spell.”

When Valt mentions creating another spell, Lisa shudders.

“Ugh, are you planning to create another strange spell?”

“Pfft, strange? They’ve been quite effective, haven’t they?”

“…They’re too effective, that’s the problem. Being with you makes all my magical knowledge feel like garbage.”

“I was just lucky, that’s all.”

Exchanging such conversation, Valt moves to regroup with his friends.

Using Lisa’s Lepiron’s Eye to assess the surroundings, Arias and Liris also scout the battlefield with water magic to find the best meeting point.

They find a small forest on the vast plain.

It was hardly a forest, just several dozen tall trees clustered together, but it was the perfect hiding place for Valt’s group.

“Valt!”

“Lord Valt!”

Arias and Liris, having turned transparent with water magic, safely landed in the forest, while Valt and Lisa quietly emerged from underground.

“Phew! Being underground isn’t exactly comfortable!”

As Lisa shakes her head, the helmet of the magical armor Valt created for her comes off, revealing her face.

Seeing this, Arias and Liris look quite surprised.

“Huh? Isn’t that Valt’s magic? Can Lisa use it too?”

Lisa smirks at their question and answers.

“Of course not. Valt did it for me. Amazing, right? Armor that can be put on someone else.”

Arias was amazed by Valt’s elemental application skills.

“That’s incredible! You can use it like that? Just how high is your elemental affinity?”

Spirits are free-willed and often don’t listen to their contractors, so the idea of protecting someone who isn’t their contractor is something even elves, known as the masters of spirit arts, have never attempted.

Even among elves, masters of spirit arts, few handle earth spirits.

For elves who love nature, fire was too destructive, and earth didn’t suit the nimble elves.

Especially for archery, wind spirits were the most useful to elves, which is why they neglected earth spirits.

For Arias, who was familiar with water and wind spirits, the steadfast loyalty of earth spirits was refreshingly new.

“It’s all thanks to having good friends. Noise is quiet but very affectionate. Very reliable.”

“Hmm… I knew spirits all had different personalities, but I didn’t know earth spirits had this side to them.”

“I’m just grateful.”

In truth, this was a phenomenon resulting from Valt’s extremely high affinity with earth spirits.

While elves now have the highest spirit affinity of any race, after Valt earned the title of “Friend of Earth Spirits,” earth spirits would gradually come to love the Gerung-tu more than any other race.

Valt was simply the pioneer, receiving more love from earth spirits than anyone else.

“Alright, let’s think about this now. Arias, tell me what you’ve found out so far.”

At Valt’s words, Arias and Liris’s expressions become somewhat serious.

“You might have seen it through Lisa’s artifact, but about 8km in that direction, the Orc King’s group is growing larger.”

“Hmm… so all the nearby orc lords and generals are joining them?”

“That’s right. This is a full-scale battle. It seems the orcs are trying to reach a quick conclusion.”

Lisa joins in after Arias and Liris speak.

“What about our side? I only saw the orcs’ formation, not King Zerdin’s. Should I take a look now?”

As Lisa activates Lepiron’s Eye, her eyes glow blue again.

“Wow… that’s amazing! Lisa, why haven’t you used this before?”

“Well… I didn’t have a reason to, and I didn’t think of it. It’s not really useful except in large-scale wars on open terrain like this.”

“Come on, I don’t think that’s true! It’s an artifact, so it might have more functions?”

Lisa looks slightly surprised at Arias’s words.

“Huh? I hadn’t thought of that.”

Valt also offers Lisa some advice.

“When you get the chance, go see Lord Veron. He seems to know a lot about artifacts.”

“Oh… is that so? Oh! I can see it! I can see! Wow, this is really serious! This is fun!”

Valt, unable to see anything until Lisa describes it, becomes curious about the current situation.

“This won’t do. Let’s have our meeting in the air. Liris, please create a platform, and Arias, invisibility magic.”

Both women respond simultaneously to Valt’s request.

“Got it.”

“Understood.”

The now invisible group planned to strategize from the air.

After all, it was better to formulate a plan while observing the situation rather than thinking without seeing anything.

Plus, Valt’s group had two abilities for reconnaissance.

Having prepared scrying magic, everyone began to carefully examine the battlefield.

“Hmm… is this right?”

“I wonder? They have that over there?”

“Are they both aiming for something similar?”

There was a reason for their thoughts.

A rather long river flows through the eastern plains.

The east is fertile because this river occasionally floods, providing nutrients to the land.

Land without water would become desert, and then it couldn’t be fertile.

This war was taking place in these eastern plains, and with so many participants, the terrain was diverse.

What both the Orc King and Zerdin had chosen was the outskirts near the river, away from the main forces.

“Are they both planning to use the river?”

“I can understand King Zerdin, but how would the orcs do it?”

When Lisa asks this, Valt quietly says:

“That must be what will decide this war. If it works, we lose; if it doesn’t, we win.”

The greatest forces were gradually gathering at the edges of the armies.