There was a soft resounding thumping. It had a rhythm to it, a march. This was the sound of the Sanctuary orcs as they advanced through the orc thickets and drew closer to the Bloodrain tribe.
There was however a stark difference in the number of orcs Ed brought with him currently. That was because they had gained an added 46 to their number of about 20 armored orcs.
These orcs had obviously been acquired in their travel towards Bloodrain. Ed originally believed getting to the tribe would be easy and quick but as it turned out, Dakgu was not a living map.
He had never even visited the area so to expect him to lead them there in one go in the pitch black was a pipe dream. It was also impossible for the orcs to remain energetic after trekking with heavy armor through a forest past their bedtime.
Ed had to call it a night but before that happened, they did manage to come across two tribes and a wandering group of orcs. The group was captured, while the tribes were attacked and taken over.
Unfortunately, Ed did not have the capacity to take all the people in those tribes however. His current entourage was not the entirety of the populace he had snatched this time.
This created a problem. If he wanted those orcs not to escape in his absence, he needed to leave someone in charge.
"Shel, please stay and keep a leash on them" Ed ended up leaving Shel at one of them.
"Dakgu…" The same applied to Dakgu who understood the message without Ed needing to say much more.
Since Dakgu only knew the general direction of the Bloodrain tribe, there was no point in forcing him along.
'It would have been good to give him some battle experience but…" With the branding room, Ed could power him up and then allow him to safely gain experience. The same applied especially well to the likes of Shel who had the experience but lacked strength. Having them take risks was unnecessary.
Although, this implied that leaving them in a foreign tribe was not risky and to Ed, it certainly was no issue. After he summoned a couple of anti-skeletons and commanded them to protect Dakgu and Shel all the prisoners of war were left terrified.
Ignoring the killing intent of the undead towards the living, the mere fact that Ed could summon such things terrified them into submission. So what if they successfully killed and escaped from Ed's subordinates? They'd be easily killed and turned into those cursed beings!
With no obstacles, Ed was able to march confidently towards the Bloodrain tribe. Although all he had was a general sense of direction, it was still morning when he came across some different weeds.
[Orcweed Amaranth]
{ An edible weed that can grow even in disturbed soil. }
[Dandy Lion]
{ A posh weed that boasts various different styles. It can also boast the bitter taste of its leaves }
These weeds were found sparsely in the thicket but they were just the beginning. Soon enough Ed started to encounter not just different weeds, but even exotic variants of those same weeds.
It was plainly obvious that such things didn't magically pop into existence. They were getting closer and closer to a tribe knowledgeable in botany and perhaps even adept in plant magic.
Finally, the march stopped.
Ed stood at the forefront of his small army of over 60 orcs and looked up at the settlement's walls.
'Interesting' The walls were coated by vines which seemed stupid at first but it was actually impossible to climb them under normal conditions.
[Poison Ivine]
{ A thorny vine with invasive growth that has the capacity to greatly irritate anyone that touches it }
The vines were placed there for a reason was the conclusion that Ed had reached. Unfortunately for the placer though Ed had no intention to touch those walls.
He instead turned towards the wooden gate doors that allowed entry into the Bloodrain tribe. Next to them were two orcs of which one took a side door into the settlement.
"Hmph, why are you here alone?" The orc snorted after Ed approached it.
"Ummm, I wanted to ask if you intended to surrender" Ed replied seeming quite causal.
"Su- Surrender?!" The orc asked back noticing a problem with those words. They weren't in combat so they weren't suffering any losses. What reason could there be to surrender?
After a mere moment, the orc realized something and had a change of attitude.
"Hahaha! I will fall for your taunt!" The orc declared pointing at Ed briefly before brandishing their long axe and slashing down towards Ed. The latter simply watched the axe come closer to him and thrust his hand out.
"Huh?" The axe came to a stop after Ed got a grip on its handle. The orc was confused but this confusion was soon overturned by disbelief.
Ed crushed the handle splitting the long axe into two uneven halves.
"You should have surrendered" Ed said before lunging his palm forward. It wasn't an attack, Ed's palm hugged the orcs face. Before the orc could think to retaliate, his body fell to the ground lifelessly.
To be exact, consciousness-less. The body was then taken into Ed for storage and finally, lots of noise could be heard behind the tribe gate.
'It looks like they hurriedly gathered some orc warriors' Ed commented before starting to materialize large objects
"What are those? Bones!?!" One of the Sanctuary orcs exclaimed. The other orcs next to him had similar reactions since Ed had never summoned such large objects before.
In no time at all, a giant skeleton was on the ground in front of Ed, and not long after, the giant was standing in front of Ed.
The skeleton was at least four times taller than Ed currently. Ed had increased the size of this version of Lofty.
'Lofty, take down the gate' Ed commanded to Lofty. The giant skeleton who after reconstruction shone an eerie dark gray turned towards the wooden doors. For orcs, it might be a gate but for Lofty, it was just a door waiting to be opened.
"ROOOOARRR!!!" Lofty did its signature hate-filled scream before wrapping its metallic arms around itself and charging at the gate.
"Intruders!" "It's an attack!" All of these sorts of shouts could be heard behind the gate. That was at least until the gate's doors were broken right out of their hinges.
The doors started to immediately fall towards the Bloodrain orcs that were stationed behind them and while some were quick-witted, some were unfortunately placed close to it and others too slow.
The door managed to squash over ten orcs in a single sitting.
"Wh- What the hell!" The orcs that survived were terrified of the Lofty's figure but what was behind him was not much better.
"Sanctuary orcs! Let's go!" Ed shouted to the small orc army behind him.
"YEAH!!!" """LET'S GO!!!""" "Make 'em bleed!" The typical battle cries resounded as the orcs started to charge into the settlement through the now bust gate. This included the captives who had integrated themselves almost seamlessly into the tribe.
If it were not for the fact that they wore no armor, one could easily believe they were original residents of Sanctuary going to battle for their tribe.
This was horrible news for the Bloodrain tribe.
"F*ck! It's hopeless!" Lofty's mighty figure kept on making threatening gestures but at the behest of Ed it was forced to stay on the sideline.
All Ed intended to do was to let his orc army gain some merit yet it also showed that to his enemies that he didn't take them seriously.
"DIE!" One of the captives shouted brandishing their dungeon spawned axe with much vigor. Their expression was smug and their adrenaline was at an all-time high.
This was what it felt like to be on the winner's side! To have the momentum in battle-!
"U-" The captive was suddenly struck by a flying axe and collapsed on the spot.
"RAAAAWRRRR!" A battle cry not unlike that of a beast spread throughout the battlefield.
"It's Morn!" Someone cried pointing towards their tribe leader. The orc woman in question had two short axes in each hand and jumped straight into the fray of Ed's orcs.
This caused the morale of the Bloodrain tribe's people to swell almost instantly and before Ed knew it, the battle found itself slowing down. His side no longer claimed the lives of enemies by the dozen but rather, by the couple.
Morn was obviously at fault, she was quite quick-witted. As soon as she realized that fighting the armored orcs would take longer, she switched targets to the captives. They were a motley crew of three different groups of orcs without any armor and therefore easy targets.
Ed however could not let the Bloodrain's leader get away with that, and neither did he have to wait for casualties to stack up to make a move.
"Aaah!" Morn cried nearly pulling her entire leg off her body. The pulling force was caused by her sprint being interrupted by the earth as it hugged one of her legs. Before she knew it, the earth was about to consume her body whole.
"B*stards! Curse you all!" Morn shouted in a fit of anger.
"HUH!?!?!" But before Ed could make the earth bring him Morn, the Sanctuary orcs noticed a flurry of attacks.
"This…" Ed recognized the attacks within moments. The earth which had risen to encapsulate Morn quickly shot further up into the sky to form a wall
This hasty wall was then bombarded by a volley of elemental arrows. They ranged from ice to fire but regardless, they all started to cascade onto Ed's spell and holes were formed.
"Argh!" The orcs unlucky enough below were hit by some stray arrows.
"Humans!" Ed shouted almost instinctively.. Why were there humans!?! Was this why he was summoned? Ed had a bad feeling about their origins.