Chapter 172

“Be careful! They aren’t your average fighters.”
I didn’t need Dyle’s warning. Nehyor and his entourage had all the aura of vicious killers.

“Now, Golan. How far will you go this time? I’m looking forward to finding out. …Just so you know, you won’t be able to win.”

Nehyor waved his hand, and three sets of black armor stepped forward.
They were taller than me. And they had broad shoulders and chests.

They looked like some kind of giant, monster armor. But were they really as strong as Nehyor said?
I gripped the Deepsea Dragon Sword and shouted to those behind me.

“I’ll deal with them. I want all of you to run!”

This chaos would die down soon.
I wasn’t sure how the enemy army would react, but I didn’t see why we should all indulge Nehyor and fight these black armors.

“Golan, you’re the one who should run. Even I would have…trouble against them.”
While he had been demoted, Dyle had still been a Corps Commander. And these were either equal or above him in strength.
That was not something I wanted to hear.

“Nehyor. He just had to prepare something like this.”
There were three.
Nehyor was surrounded by others, but it seemed like he had no intention of using them.

“I’ll tell you in advance. They are Ghost Generals. After all, I thought you might win if it were against Ghost Knights. So I’m being extra careful.”
Nehyor’s carefree voice was incredibly irritating.

“They’re evolved Ghost Knights.”
Dyle explained.

While there were only three, that was still more than me and Dyle.
We were definitely at a disadvantage.

“Well, I guess that means we can have the one on the right.”
“That’s true. It’s also the closest!”

Saifo, Bekka and the other Ogres prepared to fight.
Even the Reapers were there.

“Hey, I told you all to run! You can’t beat them! Not even if you fought together!”
I didn’t want any pointless deaths, but they wouldn’t listen.

“But it’s going to be all of us against just one of them.”
“Yeah. I think you ought to trust us a little more, Golan.”

It was true that they might be able to manage if they went against the enemy in large numbers…but that was only if they took bold strategies that resulted in half of them being sacrificed in the process.

In the end, they weren’t strong enough even when together.
They would be killed individually, and that would be the end of it.

“I could have returned as soon as the war started. And I just happened to get caught while I was looking…this really isn’t my lucky day… But then again, I get to see you fight, Golan. So maybe I am lucky?”

“Nehyor. You orchestrated this war, didn’t you?”
I understood it now. There really had been someone pulling the strings from behind.

“Ahaha…of course. After all, I didn’t want this Flying Dragon General to come to the west. The west is currently in a great storm of chaos. And it took quite some effort to move Janius’s General here.”

It had all been Nehyor’s plan.
“I had heard that the Wild Hunt were hiding in this area. What are you trying to do!”

“Me? Why would I tell you that? By the way, Golan…”
“What.”

“Why don’t you evolve, Golan? The evolution of Ogres is something that’s already been made clear. And it’s quite strange that you haven’t already.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“So you don’t know. There is only one thing an Ogre needs to do in order to become a High Ogre. And you already did it, Golan. And yet you haven’t evolved. I wonder why… I wonder why…”
“…?”

A battle was about to begin, and yet Nehyor talked in a light-hearted voice.

“Oh, I might as well tell you now, Golan. What an Ogre needs to do in order to evolve, is to defeat one of the high-ranking species. Giant-killing. And you’ve done it more than once now. So I would have assumed that you would have evolved. Why haven’t you?”

Nehyor tilted his head as if he truly felt this to be a great mystery.
“I don’t know. But more importantly, know this. As soon as I’m done killing all of your men, you’ll be next.”

“Oh, how frightening. I love it. …Alright, Golan. I know you won’t survive this, but do your very best.”
Then the Ghost Generals started to move as if they had been waiting for those words.

They swung their swords, but they were still not within range.
Their greatswords were thick and long.

Of course, they would not reach us from that distance.
However, the blades tore into the ground, causing a crack to appear that shot towards our feet.

“…Ah! I can’t be hit by that.”
I moved out of the way before it caught me. Still, these greatswords were more dangerous than I thought.
Had it hit me, I would have likely been pushed down by its power and cleaved in half.

And their black armor.
Could I even cut through it with my sword?

“You can’t destroy the armor of a Ghost General. It’s like a block of mana. They are spirits, much like Wraiths, after all.”

“But…doesn’t that mean they’re immune to physical attacks?”
Physical attacks were completely ineffective against Wraiths. They were mortal enemies of Ogres.

“No, they do work. But just a little.”
Dyle muttered the hopeless words.

If you wanted to kill a Wraith, the most effective way was to use direct attacks with mana.
Which meant using magic.
Magic that was pure mana.

Another way was to envelope your body in mana and attack.
It could be your claws or fangs. Just coat them so that you could carve away at the enemy’s mana when you attacked.

You could also do this with weapons, but they dealt less damage.
It was still possible to unleash powerful attacks this way, but you had to be especially good at using mana.

Obviously, it was just more efficient to use magic attacks.
What was important here, was that Ogres used their incredible amount of mana to build stronger bodies.
For instance, in the arms.

That’s why we couldn’t use magic or add mana to our attacks.
Anyway, my point being…

“…We’re done for.”
How the hell was I supposed to fight them?

Next Chapter

Makai Hongi