Chapter 165: Come to the Orc Forest!?

“Og is everyone’s Captain!?”

Surprisingly, the Captain of the guards we saved was Og.

“Hey, I know it’s not our place to ask such a thing, but could you save Captain Og?”

“Og?”

“Yeah, partly because we have to go report to the Lord, but more than that, we’re no match for that monster orc. It’s frustrating, but we’d only be a burden to the Captain.”

The guard punches the ground in frustration.

“But if it’s you guys who easily defeated these flying orcs, you might be able to rescue Captain Og from that monster orc!”

“I beg of you too! I’m well aware it’s not our place to ask such a thing, but we don’t want that person to die!”

“Everyone…”

The guards asked us to rescue Og with serious expressions.

“…It’s okay.”

I grasp the guard’s hand and float a smile.

“We just happened to come to this plain to fulfill a request too. If we happen to find Og by chance, we’ll definitely save him. After all, adventurers help each other out!”

“You guys…!”

The guards stare at us with deeply moved expressions.

“Can’t be helped. We don’t owe that old man anything in particular, but I am interested in that ‘monster orc’ guy.”

“Right, there’s a high possibility we’ll encounter that monster orc while searching for the request target monster. Adventurers act on their own responsibility, but that doesn’t apply to a former adventurer, after all.”

“That logic is way too forceful.”

“Shut up!”

” ” “Hahahaha!” ” “

Thank goodness, it seems everyone will play along.

“Liliera too…”

“Don’t even ask ‘Do you mind?’. We aren’t in a relationship where we have to be reserved anymore, right?”

Oops, she beat me to it when I was about to confirm with Liliera.

“Either way, if we intend to complete the request, the probability of encountering that monster orc is probably high. Fortunately, by receiving a request from the guard corps, we can say the worry of getting into trouble with the Lord’s forces is gone.”

Yeah, the existence of understanding comrades at times like this is something to be thankful for.

“Alright, then we’ll do the request while searching for Og with top priority!”

” ” ” ” “Ooooh!!” ” ” ” ” “

◆

Parting with the guards, we were flying toward the direction they fled from.

“The guards encountered the monster orc inside the dense forest up ahead, right?”

“That forest, huh, quite large.”

“The trees are dense so it’s hard to search from above, so it might be better to land at the forest entrance for a bit and search from the ground.”

“That’s right.”

“Ah, there’s an orc!”

Just as we were talking about landing on the ground for a bit, Meguri spotted an orc.

“Is that the ‘monster or… c’ in question?”

Staring at the orc, Meguri‘s voice trailed off midway and she tilted her head.

“Hmm, that looks like a normal orc… wait, huh? Isn’t something strange?”

“Umm, it looks like a normal orc in the forest, but…”

“Right, looking from above, it’s a normal orc.”

Heading towards the single visible orc, we tilted our heads at the strange sense of incongruity we felt.

“Huh? Wait a minute? Visible from above?”

At that point, Liliera raises her voice.

“What’s wrong, Liliera?”

“No, I mean, that’s a forest, right? So why can we see an orc inside the forest from high up in the sky?”

” ” ” ” “…Ah!” ” ” ” ” “

At Liliera‘s words, we realized the reason for the incongruity.

Right, now that she mentions it, it certainly feels strange to be able to see an orc from above that dense forest…

“Eh? Then what? Is that orc bigger than the trees in the forest!?”

“B-But the trees around there should be quite tall…”

It was at that moment.

The orc in question noticed us and let out a roar.

“It found us from this distance. It has quite good eyes.”

“This isn’t the time to be saying that!”

Furthermore, the next moment, the orc pulled out a tree growing nearby and threw it towards us.

“Uwaaaaa!?”

“Dangerous!”

Everyone hurriedly dodges the flying tree.

“Wait, what a size! It threw something like that at us!?”

As Mina says, the tree the orc threw was very large.

“To throw something like that like throwing a stick… that orc really is of a considerable size!”

Judging from the size of the tree, Norb screams that the orc in the forest is of an outrageous size.

“Guooooooo!”

Not ending there, the giant orc continuously pulls out trees and throws them.

“Toh!”

“Uwah tatata!?”

“Quite dangerous.”

We approach while dodging the giant orc’s attacks.

“Looking up close, it really is huge…!?”

“Bigger than an Orc Emperor… practically a giant.”

By closing in, the exact size of the giant orc becomes clear.

With this size, it’s about 20 meters. It’s the size of a small castle.

“As expected, this size is…”

“Y-You guys, don’t be scared! We defeated a dragon, you know! Besides, Megalo Whale was totally bigger in size!”

Jairo reprimands everyone who is overwhelmed by the giant orc.

Jairo, who can properly behave like a leader in situations like this, truly has the makings of a big shot.

“Well no, it’s certainly smaller compared to Megalo Whale, but…”

“A humanoid of this size has a different kind of intensity…”

Well, I somewhat understand everyone’s feelings.

Because I was really surprised too when I saw a giant for the first time.

How should I put it, you feel like a child facing an unfamiliar adult.

“Don’t say such pathetic things! This thing is just big!”

That’s right, just as Jairo says, being big doesn’t mean it’s strong.

Above all, Og is waiting right now, so we have to finish this quickly!

“You’re in the way! MANA BURST SWORD!”

Swinging the greatsword woven from magic power, I cut the giant orc in two with a single strike.

“Watch this, you guys. I’ll take that guy… wait, one striiiiike!?”

“Kyuu!”

Mofumofu dives toward the giant orc.

I already defeated that guy, so it’s okay.

“The fact that an orc like this was here means it seems there are still survivors of the Orc Empire.”

While storing the subjugated giant orc in the magic bag, I infer the current situation.

“Kyuu!?”

“It’s my first time seeing such a giant orc, but I’m glad it wasn’t that strong.”

“Kyuuuu!!”

“No, it was a big deal, really.”

“Being that huge is a threat in itself, isn’t it?”

“That’s not true. For everyone here who can use attribute enhancement, it’s not a big deal of an enemy. Even this guy was just a deceptively large opponent.”

“No no no, as expected I think that’s wrong…”

I don’t think it’s wrong, though.

“More importantly everyone, let’s go look for Og! There are probably other Orc Empire survivors too, so be careful!”

“A-Ah! Got it!”

“Kyuuuu!!”

By the way, Mofumofu, why have you been smacking your front paws against my leg since earlier?

◆

Having defeated the giant orc, we start searching for Og from the ground as is.

First, we use detection magic to investigate inside the forest.

“…There are many monster reactions.”

“It’s true… or rather, no matter how you look at it, isn’t it too many!?”

Just as Mina was surprised, the number of monsters operating in this forest was surprisingly large.

“This number is abnormal. As expected, survivors of the Orc Empire… no, maybe the main force is here…”

“The main force of the Orc Empire…!? Don’t tell me there’s a greater number of orcs than last time!?”

“If all the reacting monsters are orcs, there’s that possibility. But even if they aren’t, the number of these monsters compared to the scale of the forest remains abnormal…”

It seems the danger of the Orc Empire hasn’t passed yet.

No, rather, that Orc Empire we encountered before was too small.

I thought it might be the case, but having such a bad premonition hit the mark doesn’t make me feel good.

I concentrate my consciousness and search for human reactions.

And I confirmed a human reaction very nearby.

“…There, there’s a human reaction over there! But it’s considerably weakened!”

The human life reaction detected by detection magic is considerably weakened.

We have to hurry and save them.

“Alriight! Let’s go, Big Bro!”

We dash through the forest using Body Enhancement Magic.

“Reactions of a monster group ahead! We’ll make a preemptive strike and charge right through!”

” ” ” ” “Roger!” ” ” ” ” “

“This time I’ll definitely scatter them!”

“Kyuu!”

Our enhanced legs quickly capture the outlines of the monsters.

“Alright, now… is it?”

Running while taking aim, the moment their figures became clearly visible, we were about to unleash magic… however.

” ” ” ” ” “What is that!?” ” ” ” ” “

Seeing their figures, we unintentionally stopped our attacks.

“Eh? Horse!? Pig!?”

“Lower half is a horse… centaur? No, upper half is an orc!?”

“That one’s lower half is… a squid!?”

“L-Look at that! There’s a bird-like orc over there!?”

” ” ” ” ” “What is thiiiiis!?” ” ” ” ” “

The orcs that blocked our path were an abnormal group, all having different shapes.

“Ehh!? What is this!? I’ve never seen orcs like this!”

Not just me, everyone is wide-eyed at the never-before-seen orcs.

I’ve never seen orcs like this even in my previous life or the life before that.

This is practically…

It was at that moment.

“Kyuuuuu!!”

Jumping over us who had stopped moving, Mofumofu lunged toward the bizarre orc herd.

“Ah, Mofumofu!”

” ” ” ” “Bumooooooo!!” ” ” ” ” “

Noticing Mofumofu diving towards them, the orcs raise roars and intercept Mofumofu.

A horse… Centaur-orc raises both front legs trying to trample Mofumofu.

Then Mofumofu smoothly slips under the Centaur-orc’s torso, bites off its hind legs, and passes by.

“Munch crunch kyuu!”

“Bumooooo!?”

Due to the pain of having its legs bitten off and becoming unable to maintain its balance, the Centaur-orc falls over.

“Bumomomo!”

Seeing that, a Scylla-orc with a squid lower half whips its many legs like whips and assaults Mofumofu.

The continuous attacks from the massive amount of legs blow away the soil on the ground as if gouging it out.

“Kyu kyuu.”

However, Mofumofu completely read all those attacks, and while dodging magnificently, bit them all off and devoured them.

“Guni munch kyuu!”

On the contrary, he ends up beckoning for more.

“Bumooooo!?”

The Scylla-orc tried to flee, overwhelmed, but with nearly half its legs bitten off, it couldn’t even flee properly… or rather, a squid can’t move properly on land in the first place, can it.

“Kyukkyukkyu.”

“Bumooooooon!”

Pitiful Scylla-orc had all its legs devoured by Mofumofu.

“Kyuffuffuffu.”

And with a gaze as if saying “You are the main dish,” Mofumofu stares at the winged orcs.

” ” “Bumo!?” ” “

Stared at by a predator… umm, these are Harpy-like orcs, so Harpy-orcs? …shiver their bodies.

” ” “Bumooooooo!!” ” ” “

And the Harpy-orcs tried to fly away and escape, but they were far too unlucky.

Because this is inside a dense forest, and the tree branches above were in the way of escaping.

And another reason is that Mofumofu could fly in the sky.

Above all, the last reason was fatal.

“Kyuuuuuuun!!”

Mofumofu loves wings, you see.

” ” “Bumoooooooooon!!!!” ” ” “

Pitifully, the bizarrely shaped orcs all became Mofumofu‘s meal.

“M-My turn…”

Ah, Jairo, who missed his chance, looks lonely.