He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 69

Of course, the Greenskins hadn’t abandoned their kin without a fight.

Strictly speaking, deploying 50,000 troops for a siege couldn’t simply be called ‘abandonment’.

Considering the Rangers inside the fortress numbered less than 5,000, and many were new recruits, the Greenskins objectively had the upper hand.

But that was only how it appeared.

Thwack!

“Keep firing without pause! Don’t let them climb!”

“Shoot the ones trying to climb up first!”

From the Rangers, delivering accurate and deadly fire without rest.

“Now’s the time! Pour it on!”

“Kkyaaaaaa!”

“Fire!”

Whoosh-

Just pouring boiling oil and setting it on fire caused the Greenskins trying to climb the outer walls to die in droves.

No matter how strong they were, the overwhelming height advantage provided by the walls wasn’t easily overcome.

Of course, some succeeded in climbing up.

Crack!

“Kuek!”

“Oops, hit that one good.”

“Disgusting green monsters.”

But whether they were Goblins or Orcs, the first thing they faced upon climbing was the flails wielded by the farmers.

Though called flails, the striking part had been replaced with iron, essentially making them military flails.

Even farmers with little combat experience could use them easily, and they were easy to make, making them ideal for the militia supporting the battle.

They couldn’t mount an aggressive attack, but they could easily smash the skulls of Orcs climbing the ladders attached to the walls.

It wasn’t really that different from harvesting grain.

“Kuwoooo!”

Thud! Crack! Crunch!

“The gate is breaking! Everyone retreat!”

But the Greenskins weren’t entirely without a plan.

Trolls and Ogres, large individuals with immense strength despite their small numbers, acted as living siege rams, pounding the gate relentlessly.

Even as they fell under concentrated arrow fire, the gate eventually showed signs of breaking, and Commander Van Horn immediately ordered a retreat.

The outer wall was only the first line of defense anyway, so there was no need to linger.

Maintaining discipline, they quickly retreated to the inner wall prepared on higher ground.

“Krr, damn humans! I’ll skin them all alive!”

“…Uh, Chieftain? There aren’t any humans here.”

“Krrk?”

The Greenskins, having spilled a lot of blood just to break through the outer wall, entered the fortress in a furious rage, but not even a rat remained in the lower residential district.

As planned, refugees and supplies had been evacuated to the inner wall in advance.

“Kaaaaa! Cowardly bastards! Come out and fight like men!”

This meant that the Greenskins, after all their trouble, would gain nothing and would have to climb an even more fortified and difficult inner wall.

It was enough to drive any Greenskin, who enjoyed blood and plunder, crazy.

But so far, it was still manageable.

In any case, they had taken the outer fortress, and their numbers still exceeded 30,000.

They thought they could win by either starving out the remaining enemies or overwhelming them with numbers.

“Good, now’s the time. Charge like the wind!”

“Charge! It’s time to uphold the Ranger’s oath!”

“Watch until the very end!”

But this was also a scenario included in the plan.

Endure in the outer wall to a certain extent, then retreat, and when the enemies entered the outer wall, the cavalry would charge.

In short, the plan was to trap the enemies in the lower outer wall and annihilate them.

“H, humans! Cavalry!”

“Watch your backs!”

Pahtzhtzhtzhtz- Kwaaaang!

[Mana Heart output has surged due to the Enhancement Potion!]

[Current Mana Heart output 400%]

I was at the forefront of the charge.

Having powered up with the Enhancement Potion, I scattered explosive aura-filled sword strikes, blasting the rear of the Greenskins crowded at the gate.

I had to drink all the remaining Enhancement Potions, but it was worth it to face enemies numbering well over ten thousand.

“Fire!”

“Push them in! Shove them into the outer wall!”

Following behind, the Rangers provided covering fire with bolts and arrows.

Some even attempted light cavalry charges with melee weapons.

It was a dangerous tactic for the Rangers, who didn’t wear heavy armor, but true to their Ranger traditions maintained even as the Empire declined, they didn’t fear death.

“They’re coming! Get out of the way!”

“Krrk! Don’t push!”

Unable to respond properly as they tried to pass through the narrow gate, they couldn’t withstand it and were pushed further into the outer wall.

Naturally, a massive bottleneck occurred with the group that had gone ahead.

Of course, some Greenskins, being a race with outstanding combat power from birth, formed ranks and counterattacked.

Kwang!

But leaping from my horse and diving into their midst, I planted the Holy Sword into the ground upon landing.

The Holy Sword acted as a lightning rod, channeling aura into the ground, causing explosions to erupt in all directions like landmines.

That alone easily crushed the sporadic resistance.

Of course, with my efforts alone, it would take forever to defeat over 50,000 enemies.

“Now’s the time! Set it on fire!”

“Remember where we left the tinder? Hurry!”

But this, too, was part of the plan.

Tinder like oil-soaked straw had been placed in advance throughout the area.

Since there were many wooden buildings to begin with, they quickly began to burn once ignited.

The Greenskins, densely trapped in the outer wall, were all set to be roasted alive.

Of course, the facilities within the outer wall would burn down, but the stone walls and the elevated inner wall would be safe, maintaining the fortress’s minimum functionality.

The burned buildings could be rebuilt if they could withstand the civil war.

“Kaaak! It’s hot!”

“This is insane! We have to get out of here!”

The Greenskins, beginning to be roasted alive, abandoned all command structure and began to flee for their own survival.

“I won’t let you escape easily.”

Shushushuk! Shushuk!

Kwang! Kwang!

“Keeeek! A, a monster of a human!”

Calling humans monsters when they themselves were monsters.

Of course, I couldn’t argue with being called a monster as I wielded the Shadow Blade and Holy Sword, dicing them up indiscriminately.

In any case, I had no intention of letting them escape easily, so those who tried to flee towards the gate were all killed by me and the Rangers.

“This won’t work! Flee to the walls!”

Even in the midst of all this, some found a way to survive and climbed over the walls to escape the flames.

Of course, the stairs leading up to the walls were narrow, so they were either burned to death or caught and killed while fleeing in disarray.

But even climbing the walls didn’t guarantee survival.

“T, the ladder is broken!”

The fortress walls were quite high, so falling often resulted in injury.

Still, the sturdy Orcs nimbly jumped down and succeeded in escaping…

“Just jump! Kuek!”

…Unfortunately, many of the Goblins, who made up the vast majority, died from jumping.

But true to form, the bodies of those who jumped first cushioned the fall, allowing the Goblins who jumped later to survive and escape.

“Now we counterattack! Rangers, charge!”

Van Horn, who had been holding out in the inner wall, also began to respond, completely cutting off the Greenskins’ retreat.

All that remained was a one-sided slaughter.

The Greenskins trapped in the inferno completely lost their will to fight, but since there was no reason to take prisoners, the mechanical slaughter continued until sunset.

“We won.”

“Waaaaaaa!”

“Rangers, hooray!”

We had won.

And the survivors, the Imperials, cheered.

But sadly, they didn’t cheer for the Empire or the Emperor.

They were Imperials, but they had long been exploited and marginalized.

“Hooray for Lord Shadow!”

[You have annihilated the vast majority of Greenskins, achieving a hero-level feat.]

[The ‘Shadow’ has gained a large number of followers due to those who witnessed the feat.]

[As the number of followers increases, the divinity as ‘Shadow’ grows.]

[More divinity is needed to unlock the Imperial Soul.]

But it was the moment when a new hero of the Western Territory, who could replace the Emperor, was born.

* * *

Golak, as an Orc and a Greenskin, had always fearlessly thrown himself into battle.

All Greenskins tended to do so, and even the weak Goblins didn’t hesitate to hunt at least the weaker ones.

But Golak thought. Is that really enough?

Is it okay to just fight, kill, and plunder?

“Thank you so much! You came just in time! I almost died at the hands of those loyalist bastards!”

If he were just a mere warrior, it would have been a pointless worry.

But he was now the Great Chieftain.

Whether he wanted to or not, he was now leading the Greenskins.

So he couldn’t help but worry.

“No need to thank me, human. You’re going to die now anyway.”

“Wh, what-”

Crack!

“Hmph, plunder everything.”

Born physically stronger than humans, except for Goblins, the limits of the Greenskins were clear.

That was the inability to overcome the limitations of tribal society.

It was a tradition that had been passed down for a long time and had the advantage of naturally fostering strong warriors, but unfortunately, a strong warrior was not necessarily a strong army.

Even against the Rangers, they were easily defeated individually because they traveled separately in tribes and focused only on plundering.

Perhaps the rival tribes who had been tasked with sieging the Ranger fortress in exchange for food were probably annihilated by now.

Of course, that was no longer Golak’s concern.

“However, spare the humans who seem useful.”

“Great Chieftain! Who are the ones who seem useful?”

“Hmm…”

He prided himself on being smarter than other Orcs, but when his subordinate asked that, he realized he didn’t really know the criteria.

But at least human warriors were unnecessary. There were enough Greenskin warriors.

“Just capture as many unarmed ones as possible.”

“Are we going to enslave them! Understood!”

Slaves.

Capturing human slaves was nothing new.