The Nikonya city troops, approaching the tribe while kicking up a cloud of dust, stopped their advance and switched to battle mode. The sun was shining overhead. While Kızılayı watched the situation, the Hunter Chief was beside him, and Kasaphaydo had taken his place in front of the defense line.
Kasaphaydo was a commander who fought at the forefront of his troops instead of staying behind and commanding his army. While watching his enemies with the large shield in his hand, he shouted furiously.
"My warriors, today is the day we will shed the blood of the ignoble humans attacking our tribe in streams."
"Heyyyyyy!"
The warrior orcs, whose enthusiasm increased with their commander's voice, shouted in unison.
"You were born for this moment, you lived for this moment, and now the opportunity to do what you have wanted all your life has come to your feet!"
While the Orc War Chief continued his speech, he didn't know he was being watched from a mechanical device located in the Nikonya army.
"How much fuss he made, the hole-headed orc! Finish the job before the sun sets; I don't want to waste any more time in this place."
The person who was the reason for the attacking side showing this audacity spoke, and everyone around him nodded their heads obediently. When the news of the events in Nikonya reached the Lands of Light, Godfrey's father had sent one of his students to his son's aid.
"Those dogs are living it up in the fellowship, while I'm here babysitting the master's snotty son!"
Adhemar, complaining unhappily, was dying to scorch the enemy with a single area attack, but the order he received from his master not to reveal his identity tied his hands.
"What are you waiting for to attack?"
"Soldiers forward, no one from the orc tribe will remain alive!"
While the heavy armored soldiers starting to advance with their purple alloy equipment shook the ground, the orc chief's voice echoed through the desolate steppe.
"Form the shield wall. Archers, wait for them to enter shooting range!"
While steel clashed against steel under the heavy fire of archers, a bloody war was going on at the tribe's front defense line. The orcs, trying to cover their equipment deficiencies with their numbers, were able to stand quite vigorously against the attack directed at them.
While Kasaphaydo's core team stubbornly resisted the assaults crashing against the shield wall in waves, the hunter orcs were waiting, forming a wide circle for the chief's safety.
"My Chief, as you can see, there is nothing to fear about the enemy. It seems Kasaphaydo deliberately exaggerated the situation to drag my hunters into the war."
The Chief of Hunters, following the war from a vantage point with Kızılayı, continued to spew poison. While warrior orcs were fighting tooth and nail on the front line, he was busy spinning intrigues to solidify his position.
The shield wall was pushing the invaders out of the tribe's border step by step, and archer and spear units were following them, inflicting heavy damage on the enemy. Kasaphaydo, sensing that the pressure from the enemy had decreased, felt a knot in his stomach. Looking back, he would realize in an instant that they had moved a hundred steps away from the tribe.
"Why didn't this idiot Gölgekurdu warn us? My warriors, we are retreating step by step."
The War Chief, relaying the retreat order to his brave soldiers beside him, realized he was too late when thousands of arrows coming from the enemy front blocked out the sun.
"These are war machines! Archers and spear unit, retreat at full speed!"
The two units, retreating in coordination with the shielded warriors in front, retreated from their positions with all their speed the moment they heard Kasaphaydo's order.
The next few ten-breath periods passed as if to prove the accuracy of the war chief's premonition. Thousands of arrows passing over the orcs forming the shield wall fell on the spot where the retreating units stood just a moment ago. Kasaphaydo took a deep breath.
"Assume castle formation; we are calmly returning to our initial position!"
The orcs, lined up in a straight line, formed a shape to protect themselves against attacks coming from four sides and above. Adhemar, sipping his wine from his crystal goblet with pleasure, smiled calmly after the last defensive position the orcs took.
"Drive the machines on the flanks to the front!"
The distance between the rapidly retreating orc units and Kasaphaydo advancing in castle formation had widened considerably. The War Chief, taking this precaution to prevent heavy losses his units might experience, would fall into a great impasse in the face of what would happen to him a little later.
Three defense-type war machines entered through the gap formed between the two orc units and blocked Kasaphaydo's retreat path. At the same moments, four assault-type war machines moving from the front lines of the enemy front approached the orcs protecting themselves with shields, trapping them inside a circle.
While Kızılayı watched the latest developments with astonishment, he was shouting a mouthful at Gölgekurdu standing next to him.
"None of these war machines were mentioned in the intelligence reports. What is going on here!"
Gölgekurdu was as surprised as the chief at what he saw. As far as he knew, the city of Nikonya should have only five war machines, three of which were supply types. Moreover, in the report of the reconnaissance team he sent to Ayıboğan's tribe, although he didn't tell anyone, he knew quite well that there were two supply-type machines turned into scrap on the battlefield.
"Sir, in the information we have, it is stated that the enemy has three supply, one defense, and one attack type war machine. I also don't know how so many war machines appeared suddenly."
While Gölgekurdu listed his excuses with a sad tone of voice, Kasaphaydo was sweating bullets inside the circle of fire.
While the war machines behind them blocked their way, the machines attacking from the front were spewing flames onto the orcs who had formed a small community with their shields.
The high-model devices, by mixing the flammable substances in their tanks with the oxygen they sucked from the air, could continuously spray fire on their enemies from the holes on their surfaces.
While the skins of the orcs trying to block the flames with their shields were boiling, they couldn't lift the shield wall they formed over themselves due to the ceaseless arrows. The condition of the orcs, whose windpipes burned with every breath as the trapped air inside heated up, caused their commander's eyes to bleed.
"Gölgekurdu, rush the enemy from the flanks with your hunters. Otherwise, our tribe will be destroyed!"
Despite the situation they were in, Kasaphaydo had figured out that the enemy was using all its attack power to destroy them. With a sudden attack to be made from the flanks right now, great damage could be inflicted on the enemy, and they could escape this circle of death.
"Immediately, start attacking the enemy front with your hunters!"
Seeing that the course of events was progressing towards a great defeat, Kızılayı responded to Kasaphaydo's cry for help.
"How did it come to this? No, it shouldn't have been this way!"
Upon the immobility of the Hunter Chief muttering to himself, Kızılayı shouted once more with anger.
"Gölgekurdu, you are descending to the battlefield with your units! This is an order!"
While the Chief listed his orders furiously, there was no way he could know what was going through his assistant's mind. Although Gölgekurdu showed no signs, he wanted this war to happen even more than Kasaphaydo.
The time had come to bring glory and honor to the strong foundation he had built for years by using the weakness in the chief's heart. After the war, where he thought both sides would retreat taking heavy damage, it wouldn't even be hard to start a rebellion with his intact hunters and take control of the tribe.
When he saw the face of the chief shaking him by holding his shoulders, Gölgekurdu, understanding that the plan he prepared and the dreams he built were destroyed, drew his dagger and let out the grudge he held inside for years.
Kızılayı's eyes, wide open with panic, couldn't see where the dagger slitting his throat came from. While looking at the person he leaned on for all this time, his arms could no longer hold the shoulders they gripped, and his head slid down from Gölgekurdu's torso and fell to the ground.
Unaware of everything, Kasaphaydo, watching the death of his warriors he lost one by one, would practically be destroyed by the voice ringing in his ears.
"Hunter units, we are leaving the tribe!"
"Güçlükazma, you follow us along with the logistics orcs!"
The warrior orcs, trying to endure until their last strength with the hope that help would come, heard this voice just like their chief. In the moments when a new one was added to their dead friends on the ground, the warrior orcs called out to their chief.
"My Chief, we will create an opportunity for you to escape through the machines behind us. Even if we die, you must take our revenge."
The orcs, agonizing in the area where they were packed like sardines, gave up on their lives and focused on saving their chief from the trap so he could pursue those who betrayed them.
"Shut up! I am an orc war chief! How do you expect me to live after leaving my comrades and fleeing the field of honor?"
While Kasaphaydo did not leave his warriors alone even in the moments walking on the path of death, the hunter and logistics orcs were rapidly advancing towards the outside of the tribe.