BOOM—!
Taking advantage of the explosion's light, Garrett crawled to the edge of the platform and peered down.
Two rounds of TNT bombardment had gone off in succession. As for the two orc war-bands, if not entirely obliterated, they could certainly be described as utterly annihilated. The entire area was now devastation. Everywhere the TNT had landed, it left behind massive craters that faintly revealed the bedrock beneath. The trees and undergrowth that had once covered the area had long since been blown away.
The destructive power of more than twenty TNT charges was terrifying. They had carved out a literal dead zone in the forest. Nearby trees, caught in the blast's aftermath, had ignited and were now belching thick smoke.
Looking at the scene before him, he couldn't help but marvel, "Now that's what I call shock and awe."
Total war had consequences. This would have earned him a life sentence on Earth.
Using the firelight for visibility, he observed for a while. After confirming there was nothing left moving on the ground, he pulled out a water bucket and placed it at his feet.
Shhh...
A stream of water flowed down from above, forming a small waterfall that reached the ground and extinguished the nearby flames. Only then did he take a deep breath and ride down along the current.
Don't ask why he didn't just leap down in a dramatic fashion, he had a serious fear of heights. To this day, he still hadn't tested whether water could really negate fall damage. If it didn't work and he died on impact, that would be an embarrassing way to go.
Once he reached the ground, he began scanning the area, both to check if anything had been missed and to see if there were any spoils worth recovering.
However, perhaps these orcs had truly been destitute, or perhaps the TNT had been too destructive. He searched for quite some time before he managed to pick up a few broken pieces of armor and weapons from the scattered wreckage, along with some scorched silver coins. He held them up to his torch, examining them for a while, but couldn't determine their origin.
Still, no matter where they came from, silver was silver, it could be spent anywhere.
With that, he finally had some actual currency, so he wouldn't have to produce ancient jewelry every time he wanted to pay for something.
"Hhhh!"
What?!
Just as Garrett had nearly finished scavenging the battlefield, a sudden, labored breathing sounded from nearby, making him nearly jump out of his skin. Turning quickly, he saw a tall, heavily wounded orc slumped against a tree. Missing limbs, covered in blood, and with the few scraps of armor left on him clearly shredded by TNT, the orc had a charred, massive war-hammer lying at his side.
In this condition, who else could it be but the orc chieftain?
The chieftain glared at Garrett with venomous hatred, chest rising and falling rapidly, but clearly drawing his final breaths.
Who would have thought that not long ago, this very chieftain had been arrogantly boasting outside the stronghold gates about coming in to slaughter Garrett?
"Sneaky, cowardly worm...!"
The orc chieftain's eyes burned with hatred.
From start to finish, he had no idea what method his enemy had used. Even when he finally saw Garrett, he hadn't realized it was Garrett who had been fighting them. It hadn't been a dragon that defeated him, it was a human. And those exploding things... must have been some kind of sorcery.
"You cursed wizard!"
"So noisy."
Garrett drew his longsword and drove it into the chieftain's chest.
-6.
[0/40]
The mighty orc fell silent instantly.
Seeing the empty health bar above the chieftain's head, Garrett couldn't help but whistle low.
Good grief, forty hit points? In a world where the average orc had only a dozen or so, this fellow was clearly elite among elites. No wonder he survived the explosion. With that kind of HP and armor, as long as he hadn't taken a direct hit at the blast center, he really might have had a chance at surviving.
Rustle.
Just as the chieftain drew his final breath, a bush nearby suddenly rustled. Garrett lunged toward it, and saw an orc fleeing in panic, as if being chased by a Balrog.
But there was no way he could outrun Garrett.
After cutting down this last straggler, he spent some time sweeping the surrounding area, finishing off a few more scattered orcs. Once he was certain there were no more enemies around, he returned to continue cleaning up the battlefield.
First up were the orcs' broken and worthless armor pieces, which Garrett collected to process in the salvage smelter later.
Next were the wargs. While they didn't carry any equipment, the beasts themselves were a kind of resource.
After being processed at the crafting table, warg corpses could provide three types of materials: warg meat, warg hide, and bones.
The meat, obviously, could serve as emergency rations. The hides could be used to craft leather-type gear, and the bones could be ground into bone meal.
You could say each warg had multiple uses.
Under the moonlight, with an inventory full of spoils, he made his way back to the stronghold.
On the way back, he even took a moment to rebuild the gate, removing the stone blocks that had been blocking the entrance.
---
"You're back."
Halbarad had been waiting at the gate for quite some time.
"What happened? I heard some tremendous sounds just now, and I saw flashes of light... was that your doing?"
As he spoke, the astonishment in his eyes was plain to see.
At first, he had been concerned about Garrett, after all, he had no idea what Garrett's plan was or whether it was feasible. All he could do was trust him blindly.
He had watched from atop the wall for a long time, but saw no signs of the orcs halting their construction efforts. Just when he was considering whether he should venture out to check the situation himself, a deafening boom rang out. Then came a towering blaze, and afterward, it even looked like water had poured from the sky, extinguishing the fire burning in the forest.
"That war-band of orcs has been completely dealt with. No need to worry," Garrett said.
"What?" Halbarad was stunned. "You mean you, by yourself, destroyed a war-band of over a hundred orcs, plus dozens of warg-riders?"
And that wasn't even counting the war-band leader, that massive brute wasn't easy to deal with. The ruined stronghold gate nearby was proof enough of that.
"Let me correct you."
Garrett raised a finger and clarified, "I didn't repel them, I annihilated them. I searched the area, there were no survivors."
Halbarad drew in a sharp breath, visibly shaken. "How... how did you manage such a feat?"
He was in disbelief. But soon, the Ranger seemed to recall something and muttered to himself, I once read in some ancient texts, wizards... some powerful wizards could command lightning and flame, summon wind and rain at will. They say Saruman the White of Isengard possessed such abilities...
With that thought, everything started to make sense.
That blaze, it had to be a fireball summoned by Garrett. The explosions and flashes of light, those were definitely lightning strikes he had called forth.
Magic, it had to be magic. Garrett must have used fire and lightning magic to defeat the orcs!
"Are you one of the Istari?" Halbarad asked.
"If you mean someone like a certain gray-robed fellow... then no."
"I don't believe you," Halbarad replied knowingly.
"If you possessed such powerful magic, why didn't you use it earlier?"
"...I don't know any magic," Garrett replied, exasperated.
"Oh? Then what did you use just now?"
"That was TNT. It's filled with gunpowder. When ignited, it explodes."
"Gunpowder? I've only ever seen it in dwarven firearms and fireworks. I didn't know it could be that destructive..."
The Ranger reluctantly accepted the explanation.
"What about the water that fell from the sky?"
"That was... a bucket of water I carried with me."
Halbarad instantly gave him a do-you-take-me-for-a-fool look.
Your bucket of water can extinguish an entire forest fire?
"I knew it, gunpowder is just a focus for your spells. You can channel it to unleash devastating attacks, can't you?"
Tch...
"Fine, let's go with that," Garrett muttered, giving up on explaining.
After all, TNT was something he crafted at a workbench, there was really no way to explain that convincingly.
Hearing Garrett say that, Halbarad nodded with a just-as-I-thought expression.