While the orc, confused about what hit him with the kick he took to his flank, glided down the cliff, the group by the fire jumped up in panic.
"She threw our brother down, kill the harlot!"
With the order of the person who appeared to be the leader of the group, ten orcs savagely launched an attack on Nafız.
"Stop! We will go our way, and you go yours."
Although Alyon hadn't acted very mercifully regarding the death of orcs until today, as a matter of principle, he didn't want his kin to lose their lives in vain.
"Shut your mouth, lout! My brothers, kill that ugly one first, then you can take turns tasting the female orc!"
While the orcs, riled up by their leader's words, increased their speed, Nafız hid behind Alyon with the air of a delicate young girl.
"Brave Knight, don't leave a young girl like me in the hands of these cruel men. My hero, please protect me!"
Alyon was laughing at his friend's actions while also waiting for the attackers' arrival. When the orc, swinging his axe while foaming at the mouth, hit him, Alyon responded with a punch that would dislocate his jaw.
The journey was full of unknowns. For Alyon, who donned his armor, it was enough to just puff out his chest against the attacking group. The orc's last enemy, who crippled the attackers with his fists without using his weapon, would turn out to be smarter than the others.
Seeing that his enemy didn't get wounded thanks to his armor, he had determined his target as his head. The laughter he let out as a result of his opponent not defending during the attack he carried out by jumping would get stuck in his throat along with his broken axe.
While the axe descending on Alyon's head shattered into pieces, he caught his opponent in the air with his hands like claws. As a result of the pressure five vise-like fingers applied to his windpipe, the orc was writhing in pain, asking for help from his leader with the weak voice he could produce.
"Damn it, what kind of orc is this!"
The leader was shouting as if he had lost his mind while running towards the other side across the bridge.
"Crunch!"
Alyon, breaking the neck of the orc he caught by the throat with his thumb, hurled him next to the other corpses.
"Scumbags, how dare you commit banditry in my lands?"
Taking a small mechanical bird out of his pocket, Alyon pulled its tail to make a voice recording.
"Kasaphaydo, I order you to find and kill those who commit theft and impudence in the lands under our control! Dispatch an elite unit to the entrance of the bridge as soon as possible!"
When Alyon released the bird after his message ended and started walking furiously towards the bridge, he saw that Nafız was already chasing after the fleeing bandit leader.
"Save me! Help! Help!"
The orc, reaching the other end of the bridge screaming, was looking back every two steps and shouting even more forcefully as he saw Nafız. After a while, when he couldn't run anymore and collapsed on his knees, he called out to the orcs gathering around him with pleading eyes.
"Where is Asiyürek? A murderer is after me, protect me!"
Nafız, mingling with the crowd and listening to the orc struggling on the ground as if nothing happened, exclaimed as if surprised by what she heard.
"Would you look at that, really!"
While the bandit leader speaking stammeringly begged the crowd, he saw that the female orc chasing him was calmly listening to him and started running on his knees.
"Here, the devil is here!"
The orc, captured by the feeling of helplessness, suddenly stopped while fleeing on all fours. He was hugging the feet in front of him crying as if they were his last hope.
"Asiyürek, save me! The murderer is here, save me!"
Nafız had figured out what was happening with the scene she saw. The miserable one on the ground was the head of the scout group. This person he ran to ask for help from must be the bandit leader. The situation couldn't be clearer; saying let's kill these and move on, she took her first step, but a sound echoing in her ears stopped her.
"Smackkkkk!"
Asiyürek, landing a solid slap on the orc hugging his feet asking for help, started shouting.
"You ignoble wretch! So you managed to survive across the bridge and returned here shamelessly!"
When the others, watching the orc who fainted due to the slap he took and the pressure of the fear he experienced for a while, started kicking him, Nafız was completely shocked. While the lynching she watched with blank eyes continued, Asiyürek, coming to her side, spoke in a calm tone.
"Ma'am, please do not worry; this person is a criminal we expelled from our community. You are safe here!"
While Asiyürek was dealing with the female orc he tried to calm down, a cry shook the ground.
"Leave the girl alone, man; I'll feed the carcasses of all of you to wild creatures!"
Alyon, activating the blood technique following his roar, hit the ground with his war hammer, and a rift twenty steps long and two spans wide appeared.
"Calm down, champ! I think these are good guys!"
With the tremor experienced, many tents collapsed, and half of the crowd lynching the bandit slumped to the ground. Until Alyon, throwing his hammer stuck in the ground onto his back, understood the situation, the area with a diameter of thirty steps had turned into ruins.
When Nafız felt the hands on her shoulder trembling madly, she spoke looking into their owner's eyes.
"Sir, please do not worry! This person is my close friend; you are safe here!"
Nafız, leaving the side of Asiyürek whom she tried to calm down and starting to walk towards her friend, said smiling, "What's up knight, did you have too much barley?"
Alyon had attacked without restraining himself due to the events they experienced on the other side of the bridge and the situation he saw Nafız in. Since the blood technique strengthened in direct proportion to the user's fury, in this case, its destructive effect reached its peak.
When Asiyürek recovered from the effect of the Warrior's Rage technique, he knelt in front of Alyon.
"Sir, the orcs here are not at fault; the whole blame is mine! I beg you, spare their lives!"
When the commotion ended, inside the small tent, Alyon and Nafız listened to what Asiyürek told as if they had swallowed their tongues. Although Nafız could digest what was told due to the textbooks she read in her previous life, Alyon was devastated by what he heard.
"I didn't hear wrong, did I? Did you say orcs are bought and sold as slaves in their own lands?"
When Alyon tried to speak after the long story he listened to, the words resisted coming out of his mouth. The orc pride passed down to him from his master, whose self he inherited, was broken in a way difficult to repair.
"Yes, my friend, unfortunately, what happened consists of this!"
Nafız, seeing that her devastated friend was not in a state to speak, intervened.
"So, what are you doing here?"
After letting out a deep sigh, Asiyürek continued to speak.
"After my birth, I was given from the tribe to a slave caravan going to the port city of Parthenia. When I reached adulthood, the caravan was attacked by wild creatures."
Meanwhile, Alyon, who had been able to recover, was also listening intently to the conversation.
"During the chaos, we escaped by blending into the darkness of the night. Since we couldn't return to the tribe, we started looking for a place to live. At the end of a long journey passed by hiding and being chased, we lost many of our brothers and were able to reach this desolate place of the region."
Since the story showed similarities with what their masters experienced, it touched Nafız and Alyon's hearts.
"Who was the person lynched today?"
Alyon asked remembering the morning's events.
"The person a group of bloodless ones we threw to the opposite shore chose as leader. After settling here, we tried to cross to the other side via the bridge, but the human soldiers waiting for us rained arrows on us before we even stepped on land."
While Alyon and Nafız waited curiously for where things would lead, Asiyürek continued his words breathlessly.
"We procure soldiers and food by organizing attacks on slave caravans. Unfortunately, sometimes the orcs we save can be in betrayal and corruption. So, as a death penalty, we force them to cross the bridge to the other side."
Nafız laughed bitterly but couldn't tell Asiyürek that they were the reason for the bandits' survival. When the Nikonya armies engaged in war preparations, they had recalled the unit stationed at the bridge, and a chance to live for a while longer had arisen for the bandits.
"It's time for dinner. Please, join us, my brothers!"
When Asiyürek headed for the exit of the tent, Alyon and Nafız stood up following him.