"Hmm… you there with the wand, that was cool magic that you used earlier. Let see… let's see, you must be one of the so called orc generals right? What do you mean by those words?" the ogre called out.
The way he was so relaxed even while being inside the enemy camp, spoke volumes of his confidence.
"You…" Berirock pointed out, but even he hesitated to incite an enemy that was far stronger than him. They had guessed that the black ogre army was being led by a crimson horn; however, he didn't expect them to pop up behind them all of a sudden.
"Ah, what a blunder, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Giz-Mogo, the second lieutenant and in charge of this army. There is no need to introduce yourselves since I have a general idea of who you are instead of that, can you tell me what do you mean by your king is not here?" Mogo smiled flashing his two sharp fangs protruding from his jaws.
The orc generals were silent, they pondered on the information they just got from their enemy. It was just as they had thought, the guy in front of him was really the one leading the ogre army. If so shouldn't they use this opportunity when he was all alone to defeat him and close this war?
There were three of them here, if they counted the orc commanders who might have the ability to stand even after taking a few blows from the ogre, they might be able to bring the crimson horn. All the three orc generals were thinking in that line.
Just when Berirock took a step ready to engage with their enemy, Berigard stopped them. When glared at by their questioning look, he pointed behind them. There they could see the black ogre army stop their advance and come to a halt at this moment.
The ones on the front stepped aside for three ogres to step forward. Each of these ogres had a brown horn protruding from their forehead and were infamous by their names, the Gir brothers.
For what reason did the ogre army come to a halt when they were winning? There could only be one reason and that was because of the ogre that was sitting in their camp.
"You have a good judgement, I was the one who told them to stop. There is no meaning in needlessly killing ordinary soldiers who are just obeying their commands. Instead, I came here to find the corp of the army, show them the vast difference in strength between us and close this war".
"What do you say, let's bring out the strongest individuals from our tribes and let them battle to decide the fate of each side? If that orc king of yours wins, we will retreat and never step in here again. But if he loses, the entire orc tribe will surrender to us. How about that?" Mogo stated, his lackadaisical attitude seemed to invite others to attack him.
His words made the orc generals carefully deliberate over it. it was as he had said, one can avoid this needless bloodshed if the top brass of their army were to fight it out amongst themselves and decide the victor.
After all, a single powerful individual could easily turn the tide in a war where more than three hundred thousand lives were involved. All of it could be avoided if they were the ones to fight.
However, the ones that the ogres were looking for and the one that can claim the title of strongest in their tribe was not them but Belgarious who has already deserted his tribe. Plus they just cannot accept the words of the ogre in front of them willy-nilly after all he was just their second lieutenant and not their king.
Even if he said that they would not step foot in their territory in case they lost, they couldn't just believe him to keep his word. The one who were at a disadvantage was not the ogre tribe but them.
The orc generals knew that very well, if possible they too wanted to settle with their own power. they nodded at each other before Berigard stepped forward to speak out.
"That's a good idea; however, there is one problem, the orc king is not here".
Hearing his words, Mogo narrowed his eyes, a fierce aura started wafting off of him "what do you mean by that?".
"It means exactly that… the orc king has abandoned his tribe and fled" Berigard clarified.
Giz-Mogo glared at the orc general for a while, from how fearless and unperturbed the latter acted, he could somewhat tell that the orc wasn't lying. Though it did not mean that he could just accept the situation.
He had been given clear instructions to defeat the orc king and bring him alive to his superiors before the battle started. If he failed to do that, given the personality of Gish-Bagh, his fate would be extremely miserable.
"Is that so… if he is not here, then just call him. I'm willing to wait for a while" Mozo folded his hands and said languidly.
"You seemed to not have understood my words. The orc king has abandoned the tribe. No matter how long you wait, he will not be showing up. In his stead, allow us to take his place".
The three generals stepped forward ready to confront their enemy.
"Kuh… Gururu… So he tucked his tail and ran away leaving his tribe members to die here huh? How truly pathetic, well I guess that is to be expected from you orcs. I'm curious though, why aren't you all running? Your king has abandoned you and fled himself, nobody would blame you if you all drop your weapons and decide to flee too".
Giz-Mogo, said, his tone was laced with condescension and mockery. How could the orc not sense that, they all had an ugly expression on their faces.
The news about their king abandoning them was a spirit-breaking affair for them and now even the enemy was mocking them for it. Shame, despair and indignation, the orc were going through a multitude of emotions.
"Even though the orc king has abandoned us, it does not mean that we have lost. Our orc tribe is strong even without a king, there is not a single orc who is ready to discard their honour and flee away from the battlefield".
Berigard spoke out for the crowd in an attempt to reinvigorate their spirits a little. He knew that the enemy was trying to demotivate them so they drop their weapons and surrender. He couldn't let that happen no matter what.
"Heh, you say that you people are strong? Don't make me laugh. The only individual who could possibly stand a chance against us, is not present here. How do you expect to stop my subordinates and me who are eager to draw your blood? It is better for you if you listen to me and submit now while I'm still being compassionate".
Mozo laughed, though the next second his eyes narrowed when he saw the orcs raise their weapons against him.
"You can't be serious…" he couldn't complete his sentence before a wind bullet passed through his cheeks barely missing him.
Giz-Mozo was someone who liked suppressing others with his powers and enjoyed their misery as he trampled upon their hopes. He thought that he could play out to his heart's desire, but it seemed like there were a few headstrong orcs.
Since that was the case, Giz-Mozo wouldn't shy away from teaching them a lesson, after all, his ogre blood was itching to draw some blood.
"Alright, since you refuse my toast, I can only use a more forceful method. Gir-Rago, Gir-Rego, Gir-Rugo begin your assault, make sure that the orcs know their position well" Giz-Mogo declared, his voice thundering across the entire Blackfield.
With those words of his, the black ogre army which had pasued their attack temporarily re-engaged once again with even more fervour. This time though, even the Gir brothers had joined the war as they massacred hundreds of orcs that were in their way.
It was as if like a lion had entered the sheep's pen, the orcs had no way of stopping these hunters. The beast that they were riding on was also above level 350 and belonged to a race called Steel Panther.
Forget about the ordinary orcs and high orcs, even the diluvian High orcs were only just cannon fodder against them. Seeing that even the orc commanders were unable to stop them, Berigard asked Berirock and Berimond to engage the brown horns.
"Don't be stupid Berigard, if we move away from here, how are we going to stop that ogre? He is a much greater threat here and if we let him run loose, there won't be any army for us to command" Berirock retorted.
"He is right, Berigard we cannot do that. Even if that means sacrificing a lot of orcs, I can only hope that the orc commanders will be able to find a way to stop them".
Berimond agreed with Berirock in this case. If they had the orc king with them, they could have left the guy to him after all, only a disaster class or above can fight a disaster class. That is why they believed that it was foolish to spread their numbers when they haven't even reached disaster class yet.
"Listen to me for once. I can assure you that I am not making a hasty judgement. I have a plan, please believe me and leave that guy to me" Berigard responded in a voice that only the three of them could hear.
Berirock and Berimond glanced at Berigard for a while, they could see the light of resolution in his eyes. After hesitating internally for a while, they finally steeled their mind and decided to believe Berigard for once.