Chapter 253 – Orcs Spilling In.

“My dear Rusty, I’m not sure that was wise. We might have to abandon this city.”

“He had no choice. We have to help the children and the other residents of the slums.”

“There is always a choice, hero.”

Aburdon replied to Alexander as Rusty moved through the empty streets. He could see people glancing through cracked shutters as he rushed past, their eyes curious but filled with fear. Doors were nailed shut, along with some windows, as residents refused to leave their homes, probably worried that thieves might use the chaos as an opportunity to rob them.

Rusty turned his helmet but did not slow down. He had summoned his guides because he was unsure how bad the situation was. They could be useful in the coming fight, both by using the puppet skill and by helping him form a plan.

Aburdon was right. His current choice had not been well thought out. While his new mercenary leader was covering for him, he did not know what would actually happen. For all he knew, even with her support, he could still be punished, and prison was not an option.

Humanoid prisons did not allow anyone to wear heavy armor or carry weapons. The moment he was captured, they would try to strip him of his gear, and then his secret would be exposed. Beneath the armor, he was nothing more than a hollow suit with a dead head inside.

Rusty pushed the thought aside as his boots struck the cobblestones in a steady rhythm. The risk of exposure, of being dragged into a cell and stripped of everything that kept him functioning, was real. Yet it felt distant compared to the image of the children, and of Gleam lying dead after the orc attack.

“We will deal with that later. For now, focus on the battle.”

“Whatever you say, my dear Rusty. Do not worry, I have already memorized all the current maps. Reaching another location will be quite easy. How about we head to the demon realm next and leave these pitiful creatures behind?”

Aburdon chuckled. It was obvious that the demon lord disliked Rusty’s plan. Living among humanoids, whom he considered inferior, was something he despised. He constantly urged Rusty to travel to the demonic lands, to conquer them and claim the throne as the new demon king, but to Rusty such titles held no real value.

“Focus on the present. If the breach is recent, there is still time.”

“But would Gleam signal me if the situation were not dire?”

Rusty responded to Alexander, and after a brief pause, his guide answered.

“That is possible, but we will not know until we get there.”

Alexander was right. There was no way to judge the severity of the situation yet. The signal enchantment was basic, able to transmit only a blinking pattern that could mean several things. Only when he arrived would he understand the true extent of the damage.

As he moved deeper toward the slum district, the silence began to change. At first, there was nothing, just empty, deserted streets and a few people watching from abandoned buildings. Eventually, he noticed smoke drifting with the wind, accompanied by humanoid screams. Beneath it all came the faint clash of metal and the unmistakable roar of orcs.

Rusty quickened his pace but maintained his current form. He wanted to switch to his Wraith form to move faster, but with eyes on him from different directions, he could not risk exposing his true nature. For now, he had to remain a mercenary heading to reinforce the forces near the western gate.

The streets grew narrower and more uneven, the buildings more cramped. Then, finally, there was movement. Ahead of him, people were running. Slum residents who had failed to reach the church and were barred from entering the noble or merchant districts.

“Run!”

“How did the orcs get through the wall?”

“I don’t know, just keep running, we will hide somewhere!”

It was a small family. The father carried a child as he ran alongside his wife. When they saw Rusty rushing toward them, they hesitated in fear, but he did not slow down. He sidestepped them and kept moving. Soon he passed more fleeing figures, confirming he was close.

“So it was true. The orcs made it inside.”

A loud bang suddenly echoed through the narrow street ahead, followed by the sound of splintering wood and a monstrous roar that no human throat could produce. Rusty turned the corner and finally saw it.

An orc had smashed through the side of a small shack, its massive frame forcing its way inside as if the walls were paper. A moment later, it stepped back out, dragging a struggling man by the leg. The man clawed at the dirt, screaming, but the orc only laughed as it lifted him like he weighed nothing.

Without slowing, Rusty drew his sword and lunged. The blade cut cleanly across the orc’s arm. The bone cracked, and the limb holding the man dropped uselessly to the ground. Before the orc could react, Rusty pivoted and drove his sword straight through its throat. Instead of a roar, there was only a wet gurgle before the creature collapsed.

“This orc…”

For a moment, he paused, looking at the system message that showed the experience he had gained. It was more than expected and clearly indicated that the creature had been a D-minus rank.

“T-thank you… thank you…”

The man scrambled back in panic when he saw Rusty, then forced himself to calm down as he noticed the old emblem of the Black Hound Mercenaries. Rusty said nothing. He simply moved deeper into the slum district, where growling echoed from all directions.

The farther he went, the clearer it became that this was a true breach. In the cramped alleyways and neglected buildings, he found them. Orcs, and humanoids fleeing from them. His blade moved without hesitation, decapitating some and stabbing others in quick succession.

He did not look back at the people he saved or listen to their words. Instead, he pressed forward toward the lair he had created. Memories surfaced in his mind of when he first claimed it and how much effort it took to repair. Even if he had not been here long, to him, a creature not so long ago, it mattered. The people living here mattered as well.

“They made it this far? What are these idiots even doing!”

Alexander’s voice echoed in his head as he complained about the city’s ruler. Rusty had already slain four orcs along the way, and it seemed more had slipped through. The city guards had ways to signal for help, yet they had not used them. No signals. No magical flares. Nothing to indicate that anything was wrong.

“Why would they do anything, hero? It is just a few commoners and beggars here. Inconsequential. This fat pig noble is not entirely foolish.”

Aburdon seemed to approve of the nobility’s actions, sacrificing a few to maintain stability. Relocating troops was possible, but they would clearly rather risk the lives of slum dwellers than allow orcs to break through the main gates.

Rusty did not respond. He continued forward, and at last he drew closer. The sounds of battle grew louder. His home lay near the eastern gate and wall. Then he saw it. Bright flashes of light, and something buzzing in the sky.

“It is Gleam!”

“( ` ᴖ ´ )”

His companion hovered above, sending bursts of magical energy down onto the orcs below. Without a break, Rusty surged forward and burst through an alleyway. An orc charged at him, but he did not hesitate. Instead, he increased his speed and drove forward.

His shield slammed into the creature, along with another that tried to intercept him. Both were sent flying backward, crashing into a heap of shattered crates and splintered wood. The impact echoed through the wider street that led to his lair. Several orcs were already there, and more were pouring in from the path that led toward the western gate.

“( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و”

“Good work, Gleam. I got your signal.”

The first thing he checked was the entrance to his lair. It was still holding, with multiple orc corpses scattered around it. It seemed Gleam had managed to protect everyone and was now in the sky, trying to lure the monsters away from the entrance. Her tactic was working. The monsters were busy throwing rocks and weapons at her, but none managed to land a proper hit because of her speed.

“Let’s do it together, Gleam. I’ll draw their attention like always!”

Gleam wiggled her antennae as she readied a more powerful spell. Rusty, on the other hand, held out his shield and began striking it with the flat of his longsword. The noise immediately caused the orcs to turn their heads toward him.

For a moment, they stood still. Then one of them let out the usual battle cry and sprinted toward him. The others stopped throwing at Gleam and quickly charged in his direction, just as planned. There were exactly six of them, and one stood out as larger, a proper mid D-rank.

The monster’s body rippled with muscle as it pushed through the front line. Thicker armor was strapped over its shoulders, and crude metal plates were hammered into its skin. It did not rush like the others. It advanced slowly, like a predator assessing its prey.

Rusty shifted his stance the moment he saw it. The smaller orcs behind the brute spread out instinctively, trying to cut off any escape routes. They forgot about one important thing: Gleam above them.

The ant’s mandibles opened wide as a ball of prismatic energy formed between them. She lowered her head, and the magic burst, raining down streaks of energy that pierced the bodies of the lesser orcs.

As the monsters screamed in agony, Rusty moved forward to confront the large brute. His opponent swung its massive axe at him, only to meet his shield. The impact rippled through his metallic body, but he did not react. With his increased weight skill, and shield technique, he dispersed most of the force and took no damage.

His blade moved with precision as he drove it into the monster’s thigh. As the brute tried to recover, Rusty’s body blurred for a moment as he activated his dash to create distance.

“You’re slow…”

He muttered as a flurry of blows came at him. He blocked or parried every strike. The brute was already injured, which slowed it down, but not for long. The blood quickly stopped flowing, and Rusty noticed something new. A self-regenerating ability he had not encountered often before.

“Be careful, Rusty. This orc has strong self-healing. Shallow wounds will not work. You need to finish it quickly.”

Alexander called out as the clash between the two monsters continued. Rusty used his dash skill to create some distance, then exchanged his weapons. While no one was looking, he brought out his favorite weapon, the halberd. It crackled with electrical energy as he moved in for a swift kill. If inflicting wounds and draining the fleshy orc of its vitality would not work, then he needed a single brutal strike to bring it down instantly.

His halberd shot forward, the point piercing the monster’s leg again and stopping it in its tracks. As the counterattack came, he activated his dash skill to evade it, repositioning himself to the side. The creature turned its head away, and Rusty followed with a chopping motion, swinging his weapon forward.

The enchantment was not even necessary as the axe-like blade sliced cleanly through the creature’s neck. The monster fell at once, its own momentum carrying it forward as it tumbled into the body of another orc.

“Down, now time for the… oh?”

“( •̀ ᴗ •́ )”

To his surprise, in the time it took him to defeat the D-rank orc, Gleam had already dealt with the lesser opponents. Their bodies were riddled with holes from her magical prism missiles, a spell she had become quite proficient in.

Rusty lowered his halberd and scanned the area with his life detection skill. The street had gone quiet again, but in the distance he could hear shouting and the clash of blades. The wall was still under siege, and he needed to decide what to prioritize.

“You did well, Gleam. Now tell me what happened.”

“(• - •)ゝ”

Rusty nodded as she relayed the information.

“So not much time has passed since some orcs broke through… I see.”

It seemed the attack had lasted only fifteen minutes and had not been a full breach. Thanks to her ability to fly, Gleam had seen everything. A group of orcs had taken part of the wall and forced their way through using a few ladders, while the guards and adventurers fell back. Even now, they were trying to reclaim that section but had not succeeded.

The orcs had spread out afterward. Some attacked the gate, trying to open it, while others moved into the city to cause chaos. In a way, this worked in the defenders’ favor, as the orcs had thinned their own forces by roaming through the slums.

‘The children are safe, but if this continues, it will only become more dangerous.’

He could stay and defend his lair with the children inside, or head toward the gate and help the remaining defenders push back the siege. From his earlier assessment, he knew there were D-rank enemies among them, a threat the guards would struggle to handle alone.

“( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و”

“Are you sure?”

“( •̀ ᴗ •́ )ゞ”

“Good. Then I’ll leave it to you.”

After a brief conversation with Gleam, he nodded. She had already proven herself a capable defender, so there was no reason to doubt her skills. To resolve the situation, he needed to deal with it at the source. The western gate.

“Take care, Gleam. If anything happens, use the enchantment again!”

Gleam nodded and landed on the roof of his home. Her body, along with her armor, shone for a moment as she began chanting. It was a protective spell, large enough to cover the entirety of his lair and shield it from the various projectiles being hurled amid the distant battle.

“Then I’m off!”

He took off running again, this time toward the source of the breach. The moment he stepped onto the main road leading to the western gate, he saw the battle unfolding. The orcs were pushing forward, and the defenders were struggling to hold their ground. Like a bolt of lightning, he surged ahead, gripping his halberd with both hands, ready to cleave through anything in his path…