Future Knight

Chapter 22

Hurricane Blade Urkanta.

He was the Orc Lord who led the vast hordes of the rough orc tribes, and he was the deity representing the orc race among the five deities representing each race.

The number of elven and dwarven warriors that had fallen under his Hurricane Blade was countless, and both races had been long-standing enemies for generations.

“No! That despicable bastard dared to come here without fear. Fine, today I will surely show him the taste of my hammer!”

As Gafeld von Cracksion, the dwarf lord, picked up his cherished giant hammer and tried to rush out, Arteon hurriedly stopped him.

“Lord, please stay calm. He must have come here alone for an important reason. How about we try to talk to him first?”

“What conversation could we possibly have with that rogue? Do you know how many of our dwarf villages have been ravaged by those rogues?”

“Even so, you must be patient. Lord Cracksion, I don’t like him either, but I think now is the time to have a conversation.”

“Damn it! Fine!”

Reluctantly, Cracksion put down his hammer roughly at Arteon’s continued persuasion, causing the heavy hammer to shake the conference room.

Boom!

Cracksion, who had returned to his seat, nervously gulped down a strong fruit wine.

“Orc chieftain Urkanta wishes to see Lady Arteon.”

“Let him in.”

“Yes.”

After the elf guard left the conference room, the sound of heavy footsteps and loud metallic clashing began to echo after a while.

Then, the door to the conference room was pushed open as if it were going to break, and Hurricane Blade Urkanta, the orc lord, entered.

“Shak! Long time no see, Arteon. Krrrr, oh? Who is this? Isn’t it the hammer of the gods, Cracksion?”

Urkanta, with his gleaming, mad eyes, was a high orc, unlike the other orcs who were about 1.6 meters tall. He was over 2 meters tall with a muscular and imposing physique.

His body was covered in numerous tattoos, and above them were countless scars, making him look so terrifying that anyone who saw him would swallow dryly.

Arteon and the dwarf lord Gafeld von Cracksion’s expressions were dark as they looked at him.

The orcs, who were not known for their gentle temper, had always had friction with the two races since ancient times.

It was common for the belligerent orcs to raid the villages of the two races for plunder.

Given this, it was no wonder that Arteon and Cracksion looked at Urkanta, the orc lord, with disdain.

“What brings you here, Urkanta?”

“Krrr, what do you think? You must have heard the news?”

“What news are you talking about?”

“Shak! Don’t pretend you don’t know. I’m talking about how our orcs helped the humans and achieved a great victory in the first battle against the green elves. Krrrr.”

“Oh! Did you achieve a great victory? Congratulations.”

“Kuwaak! I didn’t come all this way to hear such nonsense! Krrrrk.”

At his roar, loud enough to shake the ground, the elf guards were terrified, but none of the people gathered in the conference room were weak enough to be scared by such a roar.

“Then why did you come here?”

“Krrrrk, you must join the war! How long will you hide in the forest like cowards?”

“Cowards?”

Arteon, who had never shown anger to others until now, felt fury rising in her eyes, and the mana around her began to surge violently in response to her emotions.

“Shiiik! If you’re not cowards, prove it by fighting the green elves with pride! Krrrk!”

“Hmm! Hmm! Arteon, getting excited won’t solve anything. Calm down.”

“Let go of me!”

Cracksion, the dwarf lord, grabbed Arteon’s arm to restrain her, but she shook him off roughly. It was an ironic situation where Cracksion, who had been so aggressive earlier, was now sweating nervously trying to stop her.

Cracksion, who had been struggling to calm Arteon, raised his voice as he glared at Urkanta.

“Don’t speak out of ignorance! Urkanta. We dwarves and elves have prepared hundreds of high-performance Gigantes for the war against the green elves!”

“…!”

Everyone in the conference room looked at Cracksion in shock, as if they had eaten something wrong.

‘We’ve only produced fifty so far, and he’s boasting like that…’

Urkanta, who was rendered speechless by the claim of hundreds of high-performance Gigantes, finally spoke in a trembling voice.

“Cr-r-rk! Hundreds of high-performance Gigantes, really?”

Even the dimmest orc knew the terrifying power of the Gigantes possessed by humans.

Hearing that they had produced hundreds of such Gigantes, Urkanta’s face was filled with astonishment.

The elf lord Arteon, who had been furious, looked at Cracksion with a pale face and a desperate expression that seemed to say, ‘How are you going to handle this?’

But Cracksion, ignoring her desperate gaze, looked at Urkanta with a confident expression.

“Shiiik! That’s truly amazing. High-performance Gigantes are worth the price of a castle, and you’ve prepared hundreds of them? When will you join us then? Cr-r-rk.”

Hundreds of high-performance Gigantes would be more than enough to turn the tide of war.

“Our elven knights are still learning how to operate them. We are waiting for the right time. When the time comes, we will fight together.”

“Shiiik! Very well then! Train them thoroughly and trust us. In the meantime, we and the humans will somehow hold them off. Cr-r-rk!”

Just as he had arrived, Urkanta left the conference room like the wind after saying those words.

As soon as he left, everyone’s gaze turned to Gafeld von Cracksion, the dwarf lord.

“Lord of the Dwarves, what will you do now?”

“Well, we’ll just make them, won’t we?”

“But we don’t have the materials.”

“Actually, I can make about five more with the materials I secretly stored in my personal warehouse without my wife’s knowledge.”

Everyone was shocked to hear that he had stashed high-quality materials worth five castles in his personal stash, but they were still far from the hundreds he had boasted about.

“Then what about the rest?”

“We will have to make them one by one with the materials we will mine in the future…”

Arteon felt overwhelmed.

“Why did you boast like that?”

“Well, I lost my temper and said it without thinking.”

“Now we have no other choice. We need to find the mithril mine as soon as possible.”

“Hmph! Hmph! Then I will hurry to find the mine.”

The once hearty laughter of the lord was gone, and Cracksion left the conference room with a feeble voice, looking for the mithril mine.

* * *

Kang Chan, who had left the waterfall and returned to the village after almost a year, exclaimed in amazement as he and Jaina observed the line of orcs and wyverns gathered in the clearing in front of the village.

“My goodness, such gigantic reptiles.”

“Wow, wyverns!”

The monsters resembled the gigantic reptiles called dinosaurs that once lived on Earth, and Kang Chan’s expression was slightly flushed as he looked at the wyverns.

Encountering such a fascinating creature for the first time, he was impressed by the strong presence of the wyverns, befitting the kings of the sky.

The masculine and powerful appearance of the wyverns was enough to captivate the soldier in Kang Chan.

‘A special forces unit with wyverns…’

Thinking about a special forces team with wyverns as mascots, Kang Chan smiled contentedly.

“Impressive.”

While Kang Chan was lost in his own thoughts, Jaina, who was next to him, shook her head in disbelief as she looked at the wyverns.

“My goodness. I can’t believe wyverns are this big…”

There were no wyverns living in the elf forest. They had been exterminated long ago by the elves, who specialized in long-range attacks.

Thus, young Jaina had only seen wyverns in books, and today was her first time seeing one in real life.

She had a unique fondness for reptiles, so the enormous wyvern, with a body length of 20 meters, was enough to captivate her completely.

Seeing Jaina, who had a peculiar liking for lizards, looking like she couldn’t wait to see them up close, Kang Chan smiled.

“Do you want to see it up close?”

“…”

Jaina nodded enthusiastically.

“Really? Then shall we go closer?”

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous to get too close?”

“Look over there. Someone is riding it. It’s probably tame, so it should be fine.”

“But suddenly approaching might be a bit… Besides, the one riding it is an orc…”

Even though it was a lizard, the wyvern’s presence was akin to that of a monster, making Jaina a bit fearful. Moreover, the orc riding it was from a race that had a very bad relationship with the elves, which added to her fear.

Unaware of these facts, Kang Chan wanted to interact with other races living on this planet, so he decided to approach and ask politely.

“Then let’s ask the owner first and take a look. If it gets dangerous, I’ll protect you.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Jaina held onto Kang Chan’s hand tightly, and Kang Chan, leading her, slowly approached the wyvern and respectfully addressed the orc riding it.

“Excuse me, but may we take a closer look at the wyvern?”

“Kr-r-rk? Kyar-r-rk!”

In response to Kang Chan’s polite request, the orc suddenly threw an axe.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Kang Chan, now angry, glared at the orc.

“Shiiik! That was a warning. Stop bothering me and get lost! Kr-r-r.”

Infuriated by the orc’s hostile words, Kang Chan felt his anger rising.

Such a lowly creature was dismissing his polite request with such disrespect, and it made his blood boil.

“When someone asks politely, you should respond politely.”

“Kr-r-rk! I said there’s only one warning.”

“Let’s go! He doesn’t want us here.”

“…”

Filled with rage, Kang Chan glared at the orc as if he wanted to kill him, then turned to leave.

Just then, the orc rider exchanged glances with the other orcs and grinned cruelly before hurling an axe at the back of Kang Chan’s head.

Despite the orc’s impressive skill in aiming directly at his head, Kang Chan was not someone to be struck so easily.

Clang!

Kang Chan deflected the incoming axe with his blade, and with a murderous glare, he spoke to the orc.

“You crazy pig, you dare attack me from behind?”

“Kw-e-eek! Pig!”

Hearing the word “pig,” one of the orcs’ most hated insults, the high orc rider’s eyes turned red with rage.

It was the orc’s berserk rage, Blood Dust.

“Kr-r-rk! Die!”

As the orc lashed the wyvern’s back with a whip, the gigantic wyvern, almost 20 meters long, roared and spewed flames at Kang Chan and Jaina.

Fwoosh!

“Hah!”

“Aaah!”

When the giant lizard unexpectedly breathed out a massive flame breath, Kang Chan was taken aback.

The wyvern’s breath came at them with no time to dodge.

Kang Chan quickly expanded his suit like a ball to protect himself and Jaina from the flames.

Thanks to the fireproof suit, they were safe from the wyvern’s flames, but then the wyvern’s tail attacked. Kang Chan grabbed Jaina and leaped away without delay.

Boom!

The wyvern’s massive tail struck where they had just been, creating a deep crater in the ground.

“How dare a lowly creature attack a human! Take this!”

A high-frequency blade extended from one of Kang Chan’s arms, and he unleashed a mana sword at the wyvern.

After a year of intense effort, he had reached the intermediate level of a Sword Expert capable of releasing a mana sword.

This was the result of Kang Chan’s blood, sweat, and tears.

To master the mana sword, he had spent a year throwing himself under a waterfall every day until he collapsed from exhaustion, wielding his sword until his muscles were paralyzed, and reducing his sleep to practice mana techniques.

Through such relentless training, Kang Chan had reached the level where he could unleash a mana sword today.

It was truly a remarkable growth that would astonish both elves and humans.

Normally, reaching the intermediate level of a Sword Expert would require a talented swordsman to devote over twenty years to the sword under a good master.

Kang Chan had achieved this in just two years.

His powerful attack was aimed precisely at the wyvern’s neck, but unfortunately, his mana sword only managed to draw a bit of blood from the wyvern’s tough hide.

The strike only served to enrage the wyvern.