The Orc King had eaten the slave trader Bareas’s ring—and the Dominion jewel within it—and gained its power. He’d sought that divine power for so long. With its power, he could augment his innate ability to lead and bend even more breeds of orc to his will.
“Charm.”
The result was this brand-new ability, Charm. He decided to test it out, to see what kind of power it held.
As it turned out, it was the ability to get all females of any race to submit—or rather, to bewitch them and make them submit of their own will. He was a little dissatisfied. If it had worked on males as well, he could’ve turned the tide of this battle in an instant. However, because it only worked on females, its effects were significantly more potent, so he really should’ve been grateful.
Controlling females would be enough. There were many within the enemy’s forces, including the one Bareas had called “Karina.” She would be the key to the Orc King’s victory.
He had realized that the Death Serpent’s demise hadn’t been the work of the human trio running amok on the battlefield. He didn’t know the source, but he could tell it had been done with magic—and from the wounds on the snake, an incredibly powerful spell at that. And when he’d traced the spell’s trajectory back to its caster, he’d spotted a female human standing on top of the town wall. Bareas hadn’t noticed at all, but that female had been none other than Karina.
However powerful a mage she might be, as long as she was a female, the Orc King could use Charm to place her under his command. With this newfound power from the gods, the Orc King would never lose to a woman. In fact, he would just use the woman to gain even more power!
“Your orders, O King?” the orc general asked. He was likely asking whether to continue fighting or to retreat for now.
“We continue. And we will win!” the Orc King said with a smirk. There was food in the town, and there were females. Once they were victorious, they would all belong to the orcs. He could already clearly envision that future.
With the power of Charm, he was sure he’d win. He could see the shining path to victory laid out before him, so there was no reason to retreat. “Women, kill the human males. If you do, you will earn your king’s favor!”
The Orc King didn’t hesitate to use his new power to charm the females and order them to slaughter the men of the town.
#Side: END
“Oraoraora! Die, you monsters!”
“Guh! Kuh... Aaaaa!”
“Oh...the sky’s so pretty today.”
The Sun Bacchus trio continued to kick monster butt. Apparently, Sekko even had the leeway to admire the blue sky while dodging attacks to and fro. It looked like Shildon was moving so vigorously he ended up biting his tongue when he spoke, though... Hm? There was a round-headed goblin over there shouting, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Then, at that moment, a fireball came flying from the town wall toward Sun Bacchus. Whoa, be more careful, fellow mages! I quickly slid them to the side so they’d avoid it. The fireball hit the ground and exploded with surprising force.
“Well, it was just one fireball, so it was probably a mistake. Wait— Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
However, the first fireball was only the beginning. Several more projectiles hurtled from the town wall, clearly aiming to kill the trio. Sure, they were smack in the middle of the front lines, so they’d be easy to hit, but you couldn’t pass this off as an accident!
“Hail to the king!” a female warrior cried.
“Guh?! Gurk...” an adventurer burbled.
“Eep! What’s— Gyack!” another said as he was stabbed.
Whoa! And now even the warriors on the front lines were fighting among themselves! What’s going on here?! Actually, correction—it looked like it was female warriors stabbing the men! Did those guys cheat on them or something? You’re the worst, you scum! It’s because of two-timing trash like you that the women are all taken, leaving none for me! I spit on you! Ptooey! I won’t let you die since we need all the forces we can get right now, but after this battle, you’re done for! Your abilities to reproduce, specifically! I’ll tear ’em all off!
Jokes aside, isn’t this situation kind of bizarre? The allies on the front lines were fighting each other like they’d had a confusion spell cast on them. Wait— Whoa, whoa! Why were the archers firing upon the front lines now?! If I don’t move them out of the way, they’re all gonna die!
There, I diverted the arrows’ trajectories to hit the enemy forces instead. Phew.
“But really, why is this all happening?” I said, puzzled. But it wasn’t like I had any other choice, so I tried to quell all the infighting first. Humans all have the same pressure points, right? So I just decided to press down on their carotid arteries with spatial magic and...there they fell.
“H-Hey! The attackers collapsed all of a sudden! It’s probably poison—stay on your guard!”
“Poison?! That’s not good... What’s going on?! Is it the orcs’ handiwork?!”
“There was that strange-looking goblin from earlier—it looked like it was chanting something out loud! A curse?!”
Uh-oh. Because I was working from the shadows, it looked like they’d mistaken my interference for an enemy attack. Not like I was going to speak up and admit it was me, though.