This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

Richard was on the city wall at the time and witnessed firsthand the entire process of thousands of prisoners being disemboweled and then "drenched" by the orcs. The marquis's mind collapsed on the spot. He shouted, "I don't want to be eaten!" Then he pushed aside his retainers and ran as if fleeing into the deepest room of the castle, where he locked himself inside and refused to come out.

However, Richard's madness wasn't necessarily a bad thing; the army besieging Ideide was taken over by his own retainers. Fueled by a strong will to survive, they've managed to hold on until now.

However, no matter how hard they tried, the city's defenders had reached their limit. Their food supplies were about to run out, and the remaining soldiers were on the verge of collapse due to low morale.

After discussing it, the key retainers decided that their only chance of survival was to try to break out of the encirclement.

While the orcs surrounding them outside the city were fierce and a breakout might be extremely risky, anyone trapped in the dilapidated city of Ideide would certainly die.

So everyone decided to give it their all!

It must be said that although Richard himself was not very good, the retainers around him who inherited from his father were truly capable and loyal. The core purpose of their breakout plan was to safely send Richard out. As for the tens of thousands of soldiers remaining in the city, they were all cannon fodder prepared in their plan to cover Richard's escape.

The plan was to split the city's 30,000 people into three groups and break out in different directions, with each group having a Richard disguised as a suicide soldier. After these three groups left the city, the "mole" lurking in the ranks would deliberately fire a signal flare into the air at an opportune moment to expose their position and attract the attention of the orcs.

Once the orcs are drawn to the three groups of people, the real Richard will escape amidst the chaos, protected by his personal guards. To this end, they have specially reserved two hundred of their best warhorses, which, if galloping eastward at full speed, can reach Earl Hoffman's territory in just half a day.

Richard and Ramon will both begin their "transition" that night.

Chapter 153: Following Closer

In the howling cold wind of the wasteland, thousands of cavalrymen were moving swiftly. Dick flew high in the sky, acting as the "early warning aircraft" for the entire army, always on alert for any unusual movements in the surrounding area.

After splitting up with the fleet, the three thousand cavalry had been traveling on land for two days. Although small groups of orcs occasionally observed from the vicinity or even launched surprise attacks at night, no large-scale pursuers appeared.

This surprised everyone who had expected to fight their way back.

In fact, Dick and his group underestimated the fire they set and overestimated the orcs' level of organization.

The orc capital was still burning, mainly because the orcs had stockpiled a lot of firewood and dried pack animal dung around their tents in preparation for the winter. These were highly flammable and long-lasting fuels, and with the wind fanning the flames, the fire quickly spread out of control.

Meanwhile, the elders who stayed behind made a series of blunders. They first ordered firefighting, but they overlooked the fact that the orcs had no experience in extinguishing such large fires. As a result, the hastily organized firefighting teams became like ducks lining up to be put into an oven, one team after another, resulting in the loss of many manpower.

Later, seeing that the fire was out of control, he ordered the city to be abandoned, which caused major organizational problems and led to the city suffering greatly from poor planning. Many refugees flocked to the narrow main roads, causing severe traffic congestion, and many more were burned to death by the spreading fire.

The elders, who had fled to the outskirts of the city in a panic, were only thinking about gathering troops to protect themselves and didn't arrange any pursuers at all. The fall of those three Saint-level experts had truly terrified them.

It can only be said that the "Great Wilderness Khanate" had just transitioned from a primitive tribe to a feudal society, and its regime itself was a makeshift organization. Perhaps the future was promising, but it was really not going to work out at the moment.

Of course! Not all the orc high-ranking officials were so incompetent. Some elders felt that they couldn't just let the enemy swagger away. However, most of the orcs' mobile forces had gone with Ramon to fight on human territory. The troops left behind in the orc capital were mainly infantry. They could outrun humans on two legs, but they couldn't outrun four-legged warhorses.

In the end, this pro-war elder could only cobble together five hundred cavalrymen, and then personally led this force in pursuit.

It is worth mentioning that Nege and Shahu, who survived the fire, also volunteered to join the hastily assembled pursuit force.

The orcish pursuit force first followed the hoofprints to the seaside, where they found the piers that Dick had built with magic and many abandoned orc caravans.

They then realized that the human cavalry had come from the sea, which explained why they had been able to appear in the orc capital without anyone noticing.

Orcs lack awareness of coastal defense, or rather, the coastline in the eastern part of the wasteland is too long, and even if they wanted to defend it, they simply didn't have the ability.

“Your father was right. Humans are far more powerful than we imagined.”

The elder who personally led the pursuit was named Zorn, the chieftain of the powerful Blood Banner tribe of the orcs, and an elder whose stance was relatively inclined towards Ramon. He supported Ramon's centralized authority, recognized Ramon's strength, and believed that he was a leader capable of leading the orcs to prosperity. However, he also opposed Ramon's hybridization plan, not wanting to introduce human blood into the orc race and turn all orcs into half-orcs.

After the pursuit force set off, Zorn quickly noticed Neg in the group, since orcs differed significantly in appearance from pure-blooded orcs. So he called him to his side and temporarily appointed him as his second-in-command.

Some traditionalists within the orcs dislike these hybrids, privately referring to them as "Ramon's little bastards." However, it is undeniable that half-orcs are indeed more intelligent, emotionally stable, and less irritable than pure-blooded orcs.

There are intelligent people among pure-blooded orcs, but the proportion of "smart guys" is very low. On the contrary, those "hybrids" with half-human blood are almost all smart guys.

Zorn acknowledges this, but he simply cannot accept Ramon's idea of ​​hybridization of the entire race, because he feels it is a bit too extreme.

After pausing to observe for a moment at the seaside, Zorn's scouts reported that, based on the hoofprints left on the ground, they discovered that a considerable number of cavalrymen had fled south by land. In other words, not all of the human forces had left by boat, but had instead split into two groups.

Nege immediately realized that the humans had rescued the prisoners he was escorting, probably to make room for these people, which was why some of the cavalry had to withdraw by land.

Nege immediately shared his speculation with Zorn, which was good news for them.

Even after suffering losses, the pursuing force was still no match for the human cavalry, especially with the assistance of several Saint-level experts, making the battle even more difficult.

Even so, they did not give up. Instead, they followed the retreating cavalry, recruiting soldiers from the small tribes along the way and sending messengers to Ramon's main force.

The elders had already issued orders for the frontline legions to retreat, even going so far as to divert opposing legions from the border, bypassing Ramon's own forces. With their own people constantly hindering their progress, Ramon, however unwilling, had no choice but to withdraw.

Ramon's main force is not only strong and well-equipped, but also has several Saint-level experts. They are returning from human territory and are heading from south to north. They might be able to intercept this retreating elite human cavalry.

They followed behind at a distance that wasn't too close, and Dick quickly noticed the sneaky "little tail," so he immediately turned around and caught them off guard.

However, the orcs were also very cunning. Knowing they couldn't win, they would decisively run away. Once the humans stopped chasing, they would turn around and follow them back. This back-and-forth went on two or three times, which annoyed the humans. Dick wanted to personally intervene and increase the intensity of the pursuers, but Count Banner decisively dissuaded him.

“You Saint-level experts are our greatest and last resort. Don’t waste your magic on those small fry. Since they dare to keep chasing us, they must have Saint-level experts helping them. You should save your power for when you need it.”

And so, the cavalry continued their retreat with their pack of hounds. The orcs, almost all of them possessed hunting dogs, which meant that with a force of nearly three thousand, they simply could not conceal their movements across the wasteland.

On the fourth day of the retreat, the expeditionary cavalry received a message from the convoy that they were on their way at full speed and had found a suitable beachhead for evacuation, where the two sides would meet.

However, at that moment, Lucoa, who was flying in the air on a guard duty, suddenly warned that a large number of orc cavalry were rapidly approaching them from the south.

The author says:

Author's note: I'm experiencing a relapse of costochondritis, and I've reached the age where I can sense changes in the weather through my bones.

Chapter 154: The Majestic Dragon Roar

At this point, the Northern Expeditionary Force was less than ten kilometers from the evacuation point, while the enemy was rapidly approaching from their southwest. The two sides were roughly equal in distance from the evacuation point, so it was a race to see who could get there first.

Dick immediately ordered the entire army to accelerate their charge, as the energy that had been deliberately conserved for the horses during the earlier steady march was to be used at this moment.

As he ordered the acceleration, Dick and his mentor Behemoth flew off from the group and headed straight for the enemy. They would be responsible for slowing down the enemy's advance and buying time for their side.

After reuniting with Lucoa in the sky, the three brothers flew out together to engage the enemy, while Black and White Gunner and Rita stayed behind to guard the main camp.

In particular, the two female heroes can provide buffs to all knights when leading an army, effectively increasing morale and marching speed.

From the air, Dick, who was heading to meet the enemy, could see that the enemy force numbered at least three thousand cavalry. The dust kicked up by their charge resembled a sandstorm, and there were more than one Saint-level expert among them. At this moment, neither side concealed their auras and they went all out to prepare for battle.

This orc cavalry was the interception team that Ramon dispatched immediately after receiving the message. The team included not only the four Saint-level experts who had accompanied Ramon on the expedition, but also Ramon himself.

Suddenly, a figure flew out from the orcs' ranks. The figure transformed into a cloud of black mist in mid-air, and then into a giant dragon-headed bat, which was none other than the legendary "Ominous Dragon," long since extinct.

This is a sub-dragon species, said to be most adept at mental attacks; its cry can turn even the most determined warriors into cowardly timid cowards.

However, the ominous dragon before them was clearly not a true dragon, but rather a shapeshifting form created by an orc druid. Since a druid's shapeshifting ability cannot transform into a creature stronger than themselves, the fact that it could transform into an ominous dragon meant it was undoubtedly at the Saint-level.

The ominous dragon, leading the charge, flew straight toward the expeditionary force. Its sonic attack had an unimaginable effect on multiple targets. The impact on the soldiers was actually secondary. The real problem was that with just one roar, it could cause the cavalrymen's horses to all lie down and lose their mobility. Therefore, it was absolutely crucial to prevent it from getting close enough to attack.

But when Dick and his companions tried to intercept them, the Nightmare Dragon also had teammates by its side. Two figures dressed in black robes suddenly appeared in front of them, and a gust of wind blew up the hoods of their robes, revealing purplish-red skin, snake eyes, and horns on their heads. They were actually a pair of identical demonic twins.

Legend has it that the Daedric Princes were warp creatures who invaded the world in ancient times. They slipped in through unclosed spatial rifts when the dragons left the world. At that time, the Elves were at the height of their power, and a protracted war ensued. The Elves ultimately emerged victorious, but were severely weakened, allowing the humans to rise to prominence.

Although most of the invading demons were wiped out in the war, a small number of demons survived by chance and were taken in by some forces because of their unique and powerful strength.

The profession of "sorcerer" is an art brought by demons.

As soon as these two demons appeared, Behemoth whispered a warning to Dick to "be careful," clearly indicating that their strength was extraordinary, so much so that even Behemoth, a peak Saint-level being, had to be cautious in dealing with them.

But at this moment, the Ominous Dragon had already flown past under the cover of the demon twins. Dick suddenly remembered that Lucoa was a dragon, and she was definitely a professional at dealing with sub-dragons, so he gave instructions to the dragon girl beside him.

"Lucoya, you go and intercept the Nightmare Dragon. My master and I will deal with these two demons."

"No problem, leave it to me."

As Lucoa spoke, she turned and flew toward the ominous dragon, while Dick and Behemoth dealt with the incredibly arrogant demon twins in front of them.

As extradimensional beings who escaped from the warp, the demons' power system is completely different from the magic and martial arts of this world. They can draw energy from the negative emotions of other beings, and therefore enjoy torturing others. To them, it's like cooking, making food more delicious by "refining" the ingredients.

In contrast, succubi, who also come from the subspace, are creatures that feed on emotions (both negative and positive), but their methods are much gentler.

From a mage's perspective, the energy emanating from these two demons was filled with a repulsive stench, which was a characteristic of demons in their prime.

Without any verbal exchange, a battle was about to break out.

Dick exposed some of his weaknesses when he faced the Orc Sword Saint. Apart from ambushing Hanmuladi, he had never faced a Saint-level expert head-on. After entering the Saint-level, the intensity and logic of the battle would change. Therefore, Dick immediately humbly asked his experienced senior master for advice. He didn't expect to have the opportunity to practice so soon.

On the other side, the druid, transformed into a monstrous dragon, was flying at full speed toward the human cavalry. His dragon roar could resound for hundreds of miles, but the effect of his mental attack would weaken with increasing distance. He needed to get within a thousand meters to have the best deterrent effect.

A distance of over ten kilometers is covered in the blink of an eye, thanks to the dragons' flying speed.

Just as the monster was about to open its mouth and spew, the black and white gunners immediately raised their respective "holy lances (empty shells)," but before they could throw them for a ranged attack, Lucoa, who had broken the sound barrier, flew in front of the ominous dragon and took a deep breath and shouted.

Ominous Dragon: "Roar!"

Lucoa: "Meow!!"

Despite Lucoa maintaining a human form, she is a genuine dragon, even if it is an avatar created from her true form. She is at the same Saint-level as the Ominous Dragon opposite her, but the dragon race is a race where bloodline theory is truly useful. In many ways, she is far superior to the sub-dragon species.

With both sides evenly matched, Lucoa's "Dragon Roar" could completely negate the Ominous Dragon's mental attack, thus ensuring that the cavalry behind her were unaffected.

The only problem was her shout just now. Because she couldn't remember how she should shout as a dragon, she just blurted out "meow" in a moment of inspiration, which made it sound less majestic than a dragon should be. But at least it still achieved the desired effect.

But the ominous dragon on the other side was truly dumbfounded. He didn't know Lucoa's true form. He only saw that his proud "Soul-Suppressing Dragon Roar" was actually canceled out by this strange woman's meow. This scene really shattered the experience and common sense he had accumulated over the past hundred years of cultivation.

Chapter 155: Charge

In the sky, Lucoa faces the Nightmare Dragon, while Dick and Behemoth face the unknown twin demons.

On the ground, the human and orc cavalry had almost formed a head-on confrontation.

The two armies together numbered nearly ten thousand cavalry, and those leading the charge were all Saint-level experts. It seemed that an extremely bloody clash was about to be inevitable, but at this moment, the sound of cannons suddenly came from the sea to the east. Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen six-inch high-explosive shells flew to the front of the orc cavalry, abruptly interrupting their charge.

At the critical moment, Belfast, who was escorting the convoy, acted in time. Using the coordinate parameters sent to her by the three female ninjas on the shore with signal lights, she accurately suppressed the enemy's firepower. The orc cavalry were caught off guard by this sudden attack.

Many orc cavalrymen tried to force their way through, but their pack animals were frightened and out of control, ignoring their riders' commands. Some collided with others, while others threw their riders off their backs, creating a chaotic scene.

Meanwhile, the cavalry of the Northern Alliance Expeditionary Force took the opportunity to reach the evacuation point first. The mages who were traveling with the army immediately dismounted and ran to use earth magic to repair the evacuation pier.

However, considering that it would take several hours to get more than three thousand cavalry and nearly four thousand warhorses onto the ship, Belfast's bombardment would probably not be able to last that long. So the two knight kings, Black and White, immediately raised their arms in front of the formation and shouted, "Mid-rank and above, follow me!" They then led several hundred men away from the main force and turned to charge towards the enemy in the southwest.

At this moment, the enemy was still struggling under the artillery fire. Every shell that Belfast fired would kill or maim any creature within a radius of twenty or thirty feet around the impact point. However, compared to the killing effect, the chaos caused by the explosion was far more deadly.

The first round of shelling lasted about fifteen minutes. Belfast's ship equipment needed to stop firing to cool down, and the other four ship girls traveling with her did not have her range, so they could not take over to maintain the continuity of fire coverage.

This made Belfast think that her master should summon some more ship girls, preferably main force ships like battleships and aircraft carriers, otherwise relying on her, a light cruiser ship girl, to carry the load would still be insufficient in terms of firepower.

On the ground, as soon as Belfast's artillery fire ceased, Black and White Spear's elite cavalry, positioned on the artillery emplacements, charged forward while the enemy was still in a daze, giving them no chance to regroup. Several hundred elite cavalrymen, each with at least mid-level strength, used two Saint-level experts as their blades, cutting through the orcs' already chaotic ranks like a hot knife through butter, utterly annihilating them.

Despite outnumbering this elite human force by more than ten times, the orcs were utterly powerless to resist. Many orcs were so dizzy from the blast that their ears were still ringing before a human cavalryman swept past them and slit their throats, dying without ever seeing who killed them.

Amidst the chaos of battle, Ramon was trying to reorganize his troops, which had been thrown into disarray by the artillery fire, when he saw a human cavalry charge towards them across the earthen slope along the riverbank. He immediately thought to himself, "This is bad!" Just as he was about to lead his personal guards to meet them, the Saint-level warrior who had been protecting him suddenly swung his warhammer and smashed it down on Ramon's head. Ramon reacted quickly to dodge, but he was slightly slower than Ramon.

However, the attack did not hit Ramon; instead, it blocked a scythe that moved with lightning speed.

The moment the two weapons clashed, the orc warrior's warhammer suddenly unleashed a powerful impact, sending the scythe and the attacker flying. The unusual impact sent the attacker flying backward, sliding several meters on the ground before finally regaining his footing.

"That hammer of yours is something else!"

With an elegant scythe, Rita, whose surprise attack had failed, ignored the orc soldiers who surrounded her, stared at the orc general protected by a Saint-level expert, memorized his appearance, and then disappeared on the spot, showing no intention of continuing the fight.

Ramon frowned as he watched the human woman disappear like a ghost. That woman clearly possessed strength comparable to a Saint-level expert. Including her, the human side had deployed at least six Saint-level experts, which was far more than he had previously learned from intelligence reports.

"Where did they all come from?!"

Just as Ramon was wondering what was going on, a huge figure suddenly descended from the sky—it was the Ominous Dragon, its mouth gushing blood—and crashed directly into the orcish army.

In the sky, Lucoa was panting heavily, moving her slightly sore wrists.

Dragons and sub-dragons possess incredible magic resistance, making them virtually immune to damage from ordinary magic attacks. Therefore, true battles between dragons are primarily melee combat. If you see two dragons exchanging magical attacks, it's essentially a case of "playing around."

So, in order to deal with the Ominous Dragon, Lucoa did not use magic, but used his fists to smash the Ominous Dragon's jaw, then grabbed its tail and slammed it to the ground, tearing off all its scales!

The Ominous Dragon was actually transformed by a druid using a shapeshifting spell. He was unaware of the inner workings of the ancient dragon race and only felt that he had encountered a terrifying monster with the appearance of a human woman.

Seeing that one of his own Saint-level experts had already fallen, Ramon realized that the enemy's high-end combat power was probably even stronger than he had previously anticipated.

He originally thought that the enemy had launched a surprise attack on the orc capital and killed three Saint-level experts. Even if no one else sacrificed their lives, they would be severely weakened. He personally led the main force of cavalry to intercept them, and with four Saint-level experts by his side, he was sure he could get back what he had lost and kill at least two or three Saint-level enemies.

But after actually fighting him, we found that he was freaking overpowered!

Ramon probably never dreamed that his opponents had four female Saint-level experts who could quickly replenish their mana through deep connections, thus recovering their condition exceptionally fast.

Now that the druid's ominous dragon form has been defeated, the scales of victory have begun to tip in favor of the humans. Ramon thought for less than a second before decisively ordering a retreat to quickly disengage from the enemy.

Losing face can be made up for elsewhere, but the beastmen cannot afford to lose any more Saint-level experts.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

Ramon shouted and immediately led his personal guards to rescue the druid who had returned to human form, to prevent him from being trampled to death by the pack animals in the chaos of battle while he was unconscious. Then he turned around and headed west.

Seeing this, Black and White Gun also led his men to break away from the enemy and quickly retreated back to the shore.

On Dick's side, before his battle with Behemoth and the demon twins had reached a conclusion, they received the retreat signal from their respective allies. Upon seeing this, the two demons stopped fighting, one of them even throwing in a couple of trash-talking remarks.