A day before the attack, many orcs had gathered to discuss an alliance. There were four people that sat next to each other. They were each a leader of their respective tribe.
Managing a tribe is a tough job. The leader must watch out for the health and safety of their entire community while still keeping up with any personal matters. It is often a thankless and tiring job. It becomes especially hard when plagued by famine, how do you feed the whole populace? Do you give especial priorities to those that follow you or with special skills? Or do you split it equally amongst your tribesmen? Each person chose differently. There was no right answer.
"I think we should offer a war of tribute to our god" Said the husky voice of a burly orc. His bulging muscles were akin to a work of art personally chiseled by god itself.
"Yeah" "Agreed" "That's right" Said some other less impressive orcs who sat near him, they were his lackeys.
"Whatever you say Slug~" Said the strong woman in an enamored voice, it was Murbol the newly appointed chieftess. Her followers didn't acknowledge her decision nor did they refute it, they maintained their silence.
"I am not sure quite sure about this..." Said a scrawny orc who wore a dull robe with a concerned expression, "It would result in a pointless sacrifice if God doesn't hear our plea."
"Are you saying that God would ignore us!" Said someone in an angry voice. It was a tall and strong orc, also a chief of his own tribe. He always carried a rustic belt that held various throwing axes.
They were all currently performing a secret meeting inside of a poorly crafted wooden building, the four tribe leaders and their lackeys were sitting together. While none of the tribes ever declared to be against each other, they weren't too keen on others allying either thus the secrecy.
Under the starving circumstances, they couldn't afford to not attack someone especially if that would prevent god's blessing. So how did this meeting come about?
"I am just saying it might not be the best way to fix our food problem!" Answered the scrawny robe-wearing orc.
"Enough, Pascal" Slug shot down their disagreement before it had a chance to proliferate. But it actually didn't help...
"And who made you the leader, huh?" The strong orc brandished his throwing axes as he stood up from his seat. Slug only raised his eyebrow in response.
The orc turned livid seeing Slug's questioning glance. He was clearly being provoked! How dare he look at him as if it was a bad idea to challenge him! Just as he was about to throw one of his axes towards Slug he found his arm stuck in place, a thick vine was coiling around it firmly.
"You are such a simpleton Duma" Said Pascal disdainfully. Duma couldn't help but glare at him with bulging eyes before finally sitting, only then did Pascal release his hold on his arm.
"It doesn't matter. The problem will resolve itself." Said Slug, responding to Pascal's previous fear.
Slug might seem like a muscle-bound idiot but in reality, his thinking capacity was not in any way smaller than some orc shamans. He was only unable to pursue the path of magic due to his lack of magical affinity.
"Are we supposed to just fight amongst ourselves?" Pascal found it weird to form a meeting just to annihilate each other. Then again, they did go to other tribes to form small skirmishes.
"We will invite others to form a formal skirmish but if they are to refuse, it wouldn't be a real problem to get rid of a couple of mouths to feed." Slug's words were realistically strange as none of the other tribes were under him and therefore not his responsibility. Perhaps his ambitions were greater than on the surface.
***
Back in the present, Ed was temporarily amazed by the visage of the well-chiseled orc who stood atop his newly sprouted earthen wall. The main reason was that he felt a small hint of strength.
'Is it some sort of aura perhaps?' It somehow reminded him of his own power to instill respect in others. Still, it was extremely subtle. Ed shook his head and snapped out of his thoughts, he was still in a precarious situation.
He remembered the injured Shel and the injuries on the other orcs as well. He couldn't afford to waste another second. The moderately flimsy earthen wall was being shaken by enemy attacks and the figure atop it was also ready to jump down and create slaughter.
Given that he knew that to a certain degree of certainty Ed stopped stalling and rushed forward, creating steps out of the dirt as he ran. Using the earthly steps he managed to lunge towards the chiseled orc with the intention of cleaving him apart.
His fierce swing missed the mark however as the seemingly heavy orc managed to nimbly move aside. Not only that but Ed received a powerful counterattack in the form of a sharp fist! The straight jab looked like it would be able to injure his shoulder but...
'As if!' Ed thought to himself as the earth beneath the powerful orc shifted.
[Instict has leveled up]
The loose footing made the orc fall off into his allies' side. Nonetheless, his expression didn't show a tinge of worry as he simply regained his balance and fell safely on the ground. Although his moves were simple and dexterous, His landing shook the earth beneath him and pushed back some of the injured orcs.
"You are much better than I expected" Said the husky voice of the muscular orc. Slug initially had no plans to participate in battle as he felt that three tribal leaders were already overkilling. Surprisingly enough though, not only did the small tribe hold on but after the appearance of a tall and strong orc, the Skull tribe's chieftess nearly died!
"Stop talking and just die!" Ed jumped off the wall before any of the enemies of the other side had a chance to attack him with their ranged weapons and conducted a downwards axe swing toward the orc. Slug wanted to look at Ed with contempt but the power backing his attack was indeed fearsome.
He instead decided to take a prompt step back with leisure. But he didn't anticipate finding one of his legs being held back by grass! Ed had quickly chanted the entangle spell while falling on one of Slug's legs.
Slug showed a grim expression as he was caught off guard, he then quickly regained his composure and swung his leg back with tremendous power. The grass was then cut apart but It was too late! Ed had already reached him! The battle axe dug multiple centimeters into Slug's left shoulder. He grimaced for a short second before reaching forward and punching out with his other hand. The fierce right hook hit, Ed who had just landed, straight on the face.
"Urgh!" He involuntarily took a couple of steps back and savored what seemed to be blood in his mouth.
[You've been dealt a direct hit!. -37 hp]
The direct hit to the head hadn't actually done much damage but caused Ed to become dazed for a quick second, he even nearly lost the grip on his axe.
Slug took advantage of the opportunity by sending another jab at his nose! The axe was still lodged in his shoulder so the strike didn't hold its usual speed, however. This gave Ed enough time to recover and move his head aside barely the dodging the strike. He then hurriedly dislodged his axe sending Slug into another short bout of pain.
They both took step-backs following this short exchange. The allied orcs were about to surround him when Ed yelled back at them.
"Get the injured inside!" He crumbled a bit of the gate's wall to allow in the injured orcs. Vorgarag should be almost done with the improvised array Ed thought. He felt that he should try to avoid needless casualties.
"You have a lot of petty tricks but that won't be so easy" Getting the injured inside? Wasn't the orc before him ignoring him too much!? Although his chiseled bod did resemble that of a sculpture he was in no way a statue, nor were the enemies behind the wall. As a matter of fact...
A loud sound burst and bits of dust, mud, and dirt flew everywhere as a hole appeared inside of the earthen wall. The top part of the wall above the hole crumbled as it couldn't support its own weight anymore creating a small hill of muddy debris.
A robbed magician was the first to climb the small hill and appear through the broken section. Pascal then started chanting another spell as more enemies flooded into the diverged section behind him.
Seeing this, Slug involuntarily smiled. He looked over at Ed who he expected to show a hopeless expression but he instead saw that Ed was revealing an odd smile. He couldn't help but frown and wonder... Why? At the now open gate appeared Vorgarag with a pale complexion, nonetheless, Vorgarag took out a dazzling piece of a fire crystal before quickly casting a spell.
Bright orange flames formed in front of him. One fireball, two fireballs, three fireballs, Vorgarag pushed himself to his limit as he launched the blazing balls of fire at the opening in the earthen wall.
They might have thought themselves clever by targeting a section of the wall but all they did in the end was tunnel themselves.. When all of the enemies gathered together like that how could Vorgarag not release multiple area of effect attacks? The robed magician, Pascal, paled mid-chant and Slug glared fiercely at Ed in front of him. How devious!