This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

After completing the preparatory work for landing, Dick took out a folding table and chairs from his spatial bracelet and rested on the pier, enjoying the "warm" sea breeze that was only minus twenty degrees Celsius at noon.

To ensure that the expeditionary force would not suffer casualties due to frostbite while fighting in cold regions, Dick prepared 12,000 warming amulets in advance, ensuring that both men and horses had them.

This is a low-level magical item. The method of making it is extremely simple. Even a magic apprentice who has only been learning for half a year can easily master it. As long as you wear the amulet, you can effectively protect yourself from the cold wind. The effect of one amulet can last for one to two months. Therefore, it is very popular in the winter in the northern regions. People who have a little spare money and need to go out often will buy one.

A single amulet isn't expensive, but twelve thousand of them add up to a considerable sum.

Dick had stockpiled these amulets for the miners and convicts in his territory. He was a kind-hearted lord who couldn't bear to see his convicts idle in the winter.

The two sat on the beach for half a day, and finally, just before Lucoa was about to take further action against Dick, they saw the fleet.

This left Lucoa quite disappointed, and as she pulled her hand back, she didn't forget to lick her fingers twice.

Soon, the fleet arrived at the landing point. The ship girl team, led by Belfast, jumped onto the sea and temporarily acted as tugboats, pushing the paddle steamer to the pier to dock.

The sight of several beautiful girls gliding on the sea and effortlessly propelling a giant ship weighing thousands of tons amazed many people who were seeing ship girls for the first time.

"What kind of magic is this?"

"Could it be the legendary siren?"

"If all sirens looked like this, they wouldn't even need to sing; I'd just beg them with a flick of my finger."

"Sigh! Another day of envying Earl Best."

After the ships were moored, the soldiers and horses quickly disembarked from the pier. The first thing many of them did after landing was to find a conspicuous place to relieve themselves, an abstract act symbolizing conquest.

After Old Banner and the other lords disembarked, he immediately went to find Dick and asked if they should begin the march as planned.

According to the map, they are currently about 130 kilometers away from the orc city. Considering that the information provided by the prisoners may be inaccurate and the location may not be absolutely accurate, if they set off now, there is a certain possibility that they will get lost at night.

Therefore, Dick's plan was to have his troops wait near the landing site, allowing both men and horses to recover slightly from the negative effects of traveling by boat. He would then lead his elite troops out to scout and confirm the exact location of the orc city before advancing. A slight delay was better than a rash move that could lead to a bigger disaster.

The landing of the troops would take some time, and Dick, who had already rested, immediately summoned Lucoa to prepare for a reconnaissance mission inland. As the commander of the expeditionary force, Dick shouldn't have personally undertaken such a dangerous reconnaissance mission, but what could he do? He was now a Saint-level Archmage!

After setting off, Dick flew westward, occasionally taking out a map to mark prominent landmarks and constantly correcting and supplementing the terrain.

The two Saint-level experts flew hundreds of meters in the air. From the ground, they looked like two birds. Even with excellent eyesight, it was difficult to see them clearly without careful observation.

After venturing more than 30 kilometers inland, the two finally discovered some scattered orc tribes. These outlying tribes were all small in scale, ranging from a hundred to several hundred people, and lived in extremely simple tents.

It's worth mentioning that although the winters in the wasteland are extremely cold, with daytime highs reaching minus ten or twenty degrees Celsius, there are many unfrozen springs, which are an important water source for the orc tribes to survive.

According to intelligence provided by prisoners, Ramon had tricked many young orcs from small tribes into joining his invading army during his attack on the Empire. He promised these orcs that if they fought alongside him into human territory, they could keep whatever they plundered.

Ramon clearly viewed these small tribes as potential targets for recruitment and absorption. As a result, most of these orcs were drawn into his main army, while those "traditionalists" who disagreed with him were mostly assigned to sweeping legions, where the human army was used to weaken them.

Looking down at the small tribes below, Dick suddenly had a wicked plan. He wanted to add some extra "costs" to Ramon's rule over the entire wasteland orcs.

After flying for more than an hour, Dick and Lucoa finally saw the legendary "Orcs' Capital" in the distance. Although most of the buildings were large tents like yurts, it did indeed have the beginnings of a city. The nearby sacred lake was also larger than expected, which explains why the Orcs nicknamed this largest lake in the wasteland "Sea of ​​the Sky Mirror".

Unsure of how many Saint-level experts were stationed within the Orcish Capital, Dick did not risk flying directly above it for close observation. Instead, he cautiously observed from the perimeter to avoid alerting them.

By the time Dick and Lucoa returned to the coastal landing point, it was already evening.

By this time, all 6,000 cavalrymen of the expeditionary force had landed and set up camp to rest.

After Dick brought back reconnaissance intelligence, the group discussed their route of advance overnight. They not only planned to raid the orc city hundreds of kilometers away, but also intended to persecute all the orc settlements along the way.

Dick's advice to these small tribes was to avoid killing people as much as possible, but to kill all living creatures except orcs. He suggested burning the camp to the ground and not wasting any of the slaughtered animals, but throwing them into their springs. After soaking for three to five days, the water would be undrinkable.

Dick knew very well that they hadn't traveled thousands of miles to the wasteland for humanitarian reasons. From the moment the orcs disemboweled and cooked their human captives, the two races had become mortal enemies.

Mutual understanding? I'll give you a piece of my mind!

"We'll use every means and effort to destroy this place; we're here for revenge!"

Dick's words were unanimously agreed upon by the generals of the expeditionary force.

The next morning, before dawn, the expeditionary force started cooking, and after eating and drinking their fill, they began their march inland.

The medical team remained on the shore with the convoy. All participating soldiers were informed before the operation that it would be a blitzkrieg with rapid advances and retreats. The medics would not travel with the main force. Each soldier was issued a medical kit containing enough bandages and medicine to treat minor wounds. However, if someone was seriously wounded in the battle and unable to travel with the team, his comrades would do everything in their power to ensure that he did not fall into enemy hands alive.

What appears to be a ruthless finishing blow is actually the last act of mercy between comrades.

In addition to the medical team and the armed sailors of the fleet, Dick also left two sailing ship girls, Golden Deer and Royal Fortune, on the beach to protect the fleet.

Their muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons are not very powerful or have a long range. Even if they go to the Orc city with the fleet, they probably won't be able to provide effective fire support. It would be better for them to stay on the coast to protect the fleet.

Before the troops set off, the Golden Hind took the initiative to find Dick and gave him a passionate kiss as a blessing. Not to be outdone, the Royal Fortune rushed up with a "quack" and kissed Dick as well.

Next came two beautiful female doctors, Shizuka Marikawa and Natasha, who both kissed Dick in public. Shizuka even whispered in Dick's ear that when Dick returned in triumph, she would persuade the shy Natasha to join her in giving Dick a thorough "physical examination."

Dick suddenly felt as if he had been given a powerful buff that increased his damage and attack speed!

"Let's go! It's time to let the orcs' blood flow on their own land."

Chapter 149: A Long March In

At dawn, the white-bearded chief of the Bone Mountain tribe emerged from his drafty tent and, as was customary, first bowed and worshipped in the direction of the sacred mountain, thanking the gods for protecting him from the cold wind of the previous night, which had prevented his old bones, which were already beginning to decline.

The Bone Mountain tribe is a small tribe with a population of just over three hundred. Looking across the entire wasteland, it is almost impossible to find a tribe weaker than them.

Back when the various tribes of the Wasteland Orcs had not yet unified, the Bone Mountain tribe could only wander around. Because the fertile lands were occupied by powerful tribes, even if they tried to become vassals, the tribes might not want them. Therefore, they lived a very difficult life and were often bullied by other tribes, constantly teetering on the brink of extinction.

But Ramon's sudden emergence not only unified the wasteland orcs but also gave these small, weak tribes a way to survive.

Ramon conquered many powerful tribes and distributed their pastures and water sources to these weaker tribes. The Bone Mountain tribe obtained the source of this unfrozen spring. Although the spring was small and could only nourish a small patch of grassland, it was enough for the two or three hundred people of the Bone Mountain tribe to live on.

Because they had indeed benefited, the Bone Mountain tribe naturally became Ramon's staunch supporters. When they learned that the great Beast King was going to form an army to "hunt" in human territory, the Bone Mountain tribe responded enthusiastically, sending almost all of their able-bodied young men to Ramon's army.

They firmly believed that the incomparably powerful Lord Ramon would fulfill his promise and reclaim the "Promised Land" that originally belonged to them, the orcs, from the hateful but delicious humans.

After finishing his prayer, the old orc got up to check on his livestock, but suddenly he felt the ground beneath his feet shaking more and more violently, as if a huge herd of beasts was rushing toward him. He looked around and soon saw dust rising on the eastern horizon. He squinted his dim old eyes and stared for a while before he could barely make out what it was.

Oh no! Did I get too excited?! How come I saw human cavalry in the northern part of the wasteland?

The old orc rubbed his eyes hard, making sure he wasn't seeing things. The increasingly intense tremors had already awakened the other orcs in the tribe, who all rushed out to check. What they saw then was a scene they would never forget.

"It's...it's the human race!!!"

Amidst the orcs' gasps of alarm, the human expeditionary force's six thousand cavalrymen charged in the face of them in an instant, destroying the Bone Mountain tribe's camp like a howling tornado.

The old orc tried to resist. In his youth, he had participated in more than one raiding expedition to the south, dealt with the human army, and held his own against seven or eight human soldiers, even tearing several unfortunate souls apart with his bare hands.

But he was getting old, and the human cavalry he faced were no longer the weaklings he had encountered before.

A knight whose armor was clearly more ornate than that of the other cavalrymen had his head severed with a single sword strike. The orcs' pride in their tough bones was no match for the sharpness of the enchanted sword.

After the old orc's head detached from his neck, it flew several meters high. In the last moment before his consciousness was about to sink into darkness, he seemed to see the eyes under the helmet of the human cavalryman. The contempt and disdain in the other's eyes were exactly the same as when he looked at those human militiamen back then.

Banner's youngest son was unaware that he had beheaded the chieftain of this small orc tribe with a single sword. He rode on his horse, shouting excitedly, and was very satisfied with the sword in his hand that he had won from his elder brother the night before.

The expeditionary force, composed entirely of cavalry, rolled directly over the skull of the Bone Mountain tribe. Most of them continued their advance without stopping, leaving only a small force to carry out follow-up "dealing" with the tribe to ensure that the unfrozen spring could not be used as a settlement for the next few years.

The tents were burned, the livestock were slaughtered, the springs were blocked, and they wanted to shake the eggs until the yolks were broken, and dig out the earthworms from the ground and cut them vertically.

The expeditionary force aims to create a terrifying legend on the wasteland, making the sound of human cavalry hooves a nightmare that generations of orcs will never forget.

The six thousand cavalrymen swept through the enemy lines like a whirlwind. For the first two-thirds of their journey, they tried to avoid the scattered tribes to prevent alerting them.

However, with the latter third of the journey nearing the orc capital, there was no room for maneuver for the six thousand cavalrymen to bypass it. So, following the principle that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, they unleashed an unstoppable mass charge, utterly destroying all the tribes blocking their path.

Some tribes wanted to send messengers to the orc capital to deliver the news, but their messengers couldn't run as fast as the expeditionary cavalry, and were often caught and killed shortly after they set off.

As it turns out, carelessness and underestimation of the enemy are not limited to any race. The humans in the northern border of the empire suffered such heavy losses in the early stages of the war because they did not believe that the orcs could organize an army of 100,000 to launch a large-scale invasion. Now, the human 6,000 cavalrymen are galloping across the northern heart of the wasteland, which has also greatly surprised the orcs.

The expeditionary cavalry swept through the enemy lines with unstoppable force; no orc tribe could halt their iron hooves.

Unlike the 100,000-strong army organized by Marquis Richard through conscription, the Northern Alliance's expeditionary force consisted of elite soldiers and fierce warriors. Many knights had received formal knightly training from a young age, possessing strong physiques honed through countless trials and tribulations and superb martial arts skills. They were true masters capable of taking on a hundred men single-handedly!

There were several hundred such skilled men in the expeditionary force. Dick organized them into the spearhead of the cavalry, and they could easily tear through the enemy lines, creating an opening for the follow-up troops.

At this time, Dick and the other mages were in the middle of the army. Without any powerful enemies to stop them, the mages were required to conserve their magic as much as possible for use in critical moments.

It's worth mentioning that Behemoth can't ride a horse, but he has a magical flying carpet that is said to have been brought from a southern desert country. He is currently lying leisurely on the flying carpet taking a nap, so comfortable that he seems somewhat out of place with the cavalrymen marching around him.

How far are we from the orc capital?

We're almost there!

When the expeditionary cavalry arrived at the outskirts of the orc capital, the sun had not yet set. This city, which was of great significance to the orcs, was like a naked fat man bending over to pick up soap in the bathroom, completely unaware of a strong, muscular man sliding towards him from behind.

But fate, rife with misfortune, now has its eye on a half-orc prince whose destiny is cursed.

At the same time that the expeditionary force arrived at the orc capital, Neg, who was ordered to escort the first batch of human prisoners back to the rear, also arrived at the orc capital from the south.

It took Nege and his men more than a month to travel over a thousand kilometers from the human territory in the south, mainly to take care of the "delicate" human prisoners in their group.

These prisoners could be described as "carefully selected by Ramon," mainly consisting of healthy human women and skilled craftsmen, and even a few so-called "cultured people."

Nege knew the importance of these prisoners, so he dared not beat or scold them along the way, preferring to go hungry himself rather than let them go hungry. Under his careful protection and care, fewer than fifty of the prisoners died of illness along the way, and most of them were escorted to the orc capital unharmed.

Nege gazed towards the Orcish capital, his heart filled with excitement. He had fulfilled his mission perfectly, completing the task assigned to him by the Beast King. Next came Ramon's second order: to conscript soldiers and form the Fourth Legion, and to raise another army of 20,000 men to support the front lines within a month.

Nege, as the commander-in-chief of this legion, will personally avenge himself.

However, just as Nege was filled with excitement and preparing to unleash his full potential, a buzzing sound, distinct from the orc horns, suddenly rang out from the east of the orc capital.

This sound was familiar to Negri; it was the signal for the human army to launch a charge.

"Humans! Why are you here?"

Before Nege could figure out what was happening, a large group of cavalry had already crossed the hillside and charged towards the orc capital. Along with the surging black clouds, there were also bursts of loud explosions. Not long after the sounds, explosions occurred one after another in the city of the orc capital, leading many orcs who did not know the truth to believe that this was a divine punishment sent down by the gods in a sudden fit of anger.

The entire Orcish capital was called a city, but in reality it was just a huge area of ​​tents, with no proper city walls around it, only a wooden fence.

Such rudimentary defensive measures were utterly ineffective against the charge of the human cavalry, especially considering that there were quite a few mages in their ranks.

Without any preparation, six thousand cavalrymen, under the cover of extended artillery fire, charged directly into the orc capital.

Although the orcs were fierce and the entire population was armed, they were unable to organize an effective defense against the premeditated surprise attack by the human army. After all, an overall numerical advantage is not as useful as a local advantage on the battlefield, and once chaos breaks out, it becomes extremely difficult to quell it.

After the expeditionary force stormed into the city, Dick, Lucoa, and Behemoth took to the air. Instead of joining the regular battle, the three of them activated their full sensory abilities in the air.

The three were quite certain that there was indeed more than one Saint-level expert in this orc city with a population of hundreds of thousands. Although they had intentionally concealed their auras, there was a connection between experts of the same level, and both sides had actually sensed each other, but out of caution, they dared not easily reveal their exact location.

"Two... no, three. It seems there are no demigods, otherwise they wouldn't have hidden themselves first."

"Three? Then it seems we have a numerical advantage."

"Don't be careless. At the Saint rank, any mistake can be fatal."

As Behemoth spoke, he took out a black scroll from his spatial ring and handed it to Dick. Dick took it and found that the scroll felt like some kind of leather, and the magic contained on it was very restrained. It was obviously a "good product".

"What kind of magic is this?"

"You activate the high-level wide-area attack spell 'Fire Clouds' and throw it directly downwards."

Are you preparing to fry fish?

"No, it's about baiting."

A rather sly smile appeared on Behemoth's old face. Dick thought to himself, "I didn't expect you to be a fisherman too." He directly injected the magic scroll with the magic power to activate it and then threw it south of the orc city. Because a well-organized orc army was heading in that direction, and Dick did not want them to interfere with the Northern Alliance Expeditionary Force's "cleaning" operation.

Chapter 150: The Ultimate Showdown

Neg, who was leading his troops into the city to try to stop the human cavalry, suddenly found himself in a fiery red aura above him. Some orc soldiers looked up and saw a huge cloud of flames crashing down on them with incredible heat.

This top-tier, high-level, wide-area attack magic, in terms of destructive power alone, is actually comparable to some forbidden spells of the Saint rank. With this massive burst of flames, the area it covered was practically filled with familiar faces in an instant.

So in a sense, Li Mei is also a fire-type magic saint!

As a large expanse of fiery clouds descended, Nege was pushed into a roadside ditch by his bodyguard, Shahu, who then crushed a piece of emerald green crystal, creating a protective shield that enveloped the two of them, successfully blocking the scorching fire magic.

As the surrounding flames slowly dissipated, the two stood up and looked around. The magical shield was already on the verge of collapse, and the area around them had turned into a scorched inferno. The orc warriors who had just charged alongside them were all frozen in the last second before their deaths.

Two thousand people, and in just five seconds only two remained!

Dick, who witnessed all of this from the air, widened his eyes and turned to Behemoth to ask.

"Are there any more? Can this scroll be mass-produced?"

"That's all. These are made of dragon skin, and once they're used, they're gone. You still want to mass-produce them?"

Dick clicked his tongue in disappointment after being doused with cold water by Behemoth. Just then, two powerful auras suddenly burst forth from the north of the city, indicating that someone was about to lose their composure.

"Humans! You are courting death!"

As the blind man uttered his classic line, a cloud of black smoke rose into the air, transforming into a gigantic black skull that roared at Dick and the others.

Immediately afterwards, an orc warrior wielding a giant bone sword stood in front of the expeditionary cavalry charging left and right. With a roar, he swung his blade through the air, and the force of the wind generated by the bone sword alone cut dozens of cavalrymen and their horses into scattered pieces, leaving a deep slash mark on the ground!