Chapter 368: Orc Thought : “Why Did a Monster Like This Appear Here?!”

"Elgrun, should we intervene?"

One of the C-Rank Orcs turned toward the Shaman, whose expression had grown increasingly ugly after watching Luke slaughter hundreds of D-Rank warriors within such a short period.

Elgrun remained silent for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"No, let him continue. The more he fights, the more tired he’ll become."

He tightened his grip around the staff in his hand while continuing to watch Luke from the top of the earthen wall.

"That young dragon is only releasing a D-Rank aura right now, which means he still hasn’t revealed his dragon form."

The other C-Rank Orcs immediately understood what he meant, because if Luke truly was a young dragon, then the moment he transformed into his true body, he would gain flight along with whatever racial abilities his dragon bloodline possessed.

If they attacked too early and failed to surround him properly, even the slightest mistake could allow him to escape into the sky, so exhausting him first was undoubtedly the safer choice.

With that decision made, the higher-ranked Orcs continued observing while the battle below dragged on.

Nearly an hour passed.

"Hah..."

Luke released a long breath and slowly looked around the battlefield.

There wasn’t a single corpse lying near him despite the number of Orcs he had already killed, although bloodstains covered patches of grass, broken roots, and sections of the churned ground.

Any blood belonging to someone Luke had killed had already been pulled back into its original body before that existence was refined into a blood pill, which meant the remaining blood belonged entirely to the Orcs who had been wounded but were still alive.

Luke himself remained almost completely unharmed.

No D-Rank warrior present possessed enough attack power to properly damage a body whose physical durability had already reached C-Rank, so although his upper clothes had been torn apart during the prolonged battle, exposing his chest and several shallow marks left upon his skin, none of those attacks had caused any real injury.

Fortunately, his pants had somehow survived the battle in one piece, although several sections had already been ripped.

"This monster..."

The Orc who had first attempted to steal one of the blood pills was still alive, although that survival had more to do with caution and luck than strength.

Unlike many others, he had rarely attacked Luke directly from the front and instead waited for opportunities to strike from supposed blind spots, which had allowed him to survive despite the numerous wounds now covering his body.

The remaining D-Rank Orcs weren’t in much better condition.

Their earlier confidence had disappeared after watching thousands of their own warriors vanish one after another, because of the original eight thousand D-Ranks stationed in the outpost, Luke had already killed more than three thousand.

Only around five thousand remained.

Until now, the Orcs below D-Rank had stayed away from the battle, since throwing weaker warriors against someone capable of slaughtering D-Ranks so easily had seemed pointless, but Elgrun had finally decided that numbers themselves could still serve a purpose.

Even if those weaker Orcs couldn’t injure Luke, they could force him to expend more stamina.

An order soon echoed from the outpost wall.

"Everyone, move out! Kill that young dragon, and whoever contributes the most will receive a reward!"

"HAAAAH!"

"HE’S MINE!"

"CRUSH HIM!"

THUD! THUD! THUD!

DUDUDUDUDUDU—!

CLANK! CLANK!

"RAAAAGH!"

The outpost erupted into another wave of war cries as the remaining D-Rank warriors charged forward, but this time they were joined by thousands upon thousands of E-Rank and F-Rank Orcs carrying clubs, swords, axes, hammers, and whatever other weapons they could obtain.

Their combined footsteps rolled through the forest like continuous thunder as weapons struck against shields and pieces of armor, while the sheer number of bodies pouring through the outpost entrance quickly spread across the surrounding ground.

None of them appeared frightened despite having already watched Luke slaughter thousands of their stronger warriors.

Orcs were a race raised around battle, where retreating from an enemy was easily interpreted as weakness, and very few Orcs willingly accepted being considered weak.

Luke watched the new crowd approaching and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

The problem wasn’t their numbers.

It was their realms.

"The Eternal Origin Zero" could currently only refine beings at D-Rank or above into cultivation resources for his present stage, which meant the E-Rank and F-Rank Orcs rushing toward him were completely useless for his cultivation.

"Sigh... I should finish this quickly. I still have more outposts to deal with."

His casual words immediately caused several nearby D-Rank Orcs to tense, because the calmness in Luke’s voice gave them an unpleasant feeling that he had never considered this battle particularly difficult in the first place.

Up on the wall, however, Elgrun and the other C-Rank Orcs reacted differently.

Their expressions brightened.

"He’s finally going to transform."

Elgrun leaned slightly forward, convinced that his plan had worked.

He was right about one thing.

Luke was indeed going to transform.

Unfortunately for them, what emerged wouldn’t be a dragon.

Luke lowered Paragon slightly while looking toward the approaching army, then spoke in a quiet voice that was nearly drowned beneath the Orcs’ war cries.

"Cosmic Heart Titan."

The instant those words left his mouth, his body rippled.

Golden-white light spread across him as Elythos formed over his changing physique, wrapping his body in the Armor of the Cosmic Heart while his height rapidly increased.

His limbs lengthened, his frame expanded, and within only a short time, the human-sized figure standing before the Orc army had become a twenty-foot-tall Titan covered in shimmering gold-white armor.

Then his aura changed.

BOOM—!

The pressure spreading from Luke no longer belonged anywhere near D-Rank.

Early B-Rank.

The transformation was so sudden that the Orc army’s charge visibly faltered, while those standing upon the walls stared at Luke with horror.

Even Yarvokh, who was still seated deeper inside the outpost and watching the captured serpent women dance, abruptly stopped drinking when the distant B-Rank presence swept across the camp.

"What is—"

Outside, Elgrun tried to speak as well, but his words stopped the moment another phenomenon appeared above Luke.

Space seemed to distort across the sky as several celestial bodies manifested one after another, forming a miniature cosmic system above the battlefield.

Among them burned a crimson star that resembled a condensed ball of fire, while the surrounding celestial bodies began moving into orbit around it.

"What kind of sorcery is that young dragon using?!"

Several C-Rank Orcs shouted from the wall as they stared upward.

Elgrun didn’t respond.

His feet had already dropped firmly against the surface of the wall as he looked at Luke in disbelief, because as a Shaman who had spent much of his life studying magic, he couldn’t understand what he was witnessing.

A being emitting a D-Rank aura had suddenly transformed and reached B-Rank combat power, yet that wasn’t even the strangest part.

The same person was now manifesting celestial bodies above an entire battlefield as though stars and planets were simply another form of magic he could summon.

Then Luke’s voice reached them.

"Cosmos Manifestation..."

The celestial bodies overhead shifted.

"A Solar System."

RUUUUMMMBLE—!

The entire battlefield sank.

The moment Luke completed the technique, every manifested celestial body released its gravitational influence at once, and the combined pressure slammed downward across the battlefield with enough force to instantly break the weaker Orcs beneath it.

The charging F-Ranks and E-Ranks didn’t even have time to scream properly before their bodies were crushed against the ground, flesh and bone collapsing beneath the sudden gravitational force until many were reduced into bloody paste.

The D-Rank Orcs resisted for slightly longer, yet their knees still slammed downward before their entire bodies were forced flat against the earth.

Some tried desperately to push themselves upward.

None succeeded.

Their faces pressed into the soil while their weapons slipped from their hands, and several stared forward in disbelief as they realized they couldn’t even lift their heads.

The C-Rank Orcs fared better, but not by much.

Elgrun and the others were forced to their knees upon the outpost wall, while several cracked sections of earth beneath their feet as their bodies were continuously dragged downward.

Even their crimson tattoos reacted instinctively.

The markings covering their bodies blazed with red light as they attempted to amplify their physical strength, yet the increased power did little against the gravitational field pressing over the entire area.

Their tattoos continued burning brighter, but their bodies refused to rise.

Elgrun planted both hands against his staff and tried to force himself upward, only for his legs to sink deeper into the earthen wall.

It was then that the same realization appeared across the faces of nearly every Orc still conscious.

’Why did a monster like this appear at the edge of the Dragon Continent?!’

Above the battlefield, the Titan spirits watched the scene with considerably different expressions.

Luke’s transformation itself wasn’t anything surprising to them, yet the precision with which the gravitational force had spread across such a wide area immediately caught their attention.

"His control over gravity has improved."

Nyx spoke while watching the Orc army pinned beneath the manifested Solar System.

Sevaroth gave a small nod, while Caelith looked particularly pleased as she studied the way Luke maintained the gravitational field without allowing it to affect the area where Emberlyn was sitting.

For Caelith, seeing Luke improve his control over a power born from the Cosmic Heart Titan naturally carried a different kind of satisfaction.

Emberlyn, meanwhile, had become completely silent.

She was still seated upon the thick tree branch overlooking the battlefield, yet the suspicion that had filled her mind only moments earlier had been replaced by disbelief.

She had heard reports that Luke possessed some kind of giant transformation.

What she was seeing now was entirely different from what she had imagined.

Luke hadn’t merely transformed his body.

His combat power had jumped across two major ranks, and the gravitational field spreading beneath the celestial bodies above him was strong enough to suppress thousands of Orcs simultaneously.

"And this gravity..."

Emberlyn could feel the force pressing over the battlefield even from where she sat, although her own aura prevented it from affecting her body, while the same protection naturally extended over the tree branch beneath her.

She remained silent for another moment before looking toward the twenty-foot figure standing beneath the miniature Solar System.

"Not even demonic cultivation should be able to give someone this kind of strength."

Her earlier theory suddenly seemed far less convincing.

If Luke’s rapid growth had truly come from some crude sacrificial method similar to those used by Demon Whisperer cultists, then how was he producing power like this?

Emberlyn continued staring at him as another question replaced the suspicions she had formed earlier.

"Then how did Luke obtain this power?"