It seemed that the Black Lily units had not been a second late in implementing Galeno's instruction; their aim was to abandon their current positions and flee in the opposite direction of the enemy to unite at a single point.
"Another empty outpost! Jurij, how many of these are left?"
The grey-haired orc warrior's rage grew exponentially with every moment they couldn't fight; even though he wasn't aware of it, they were in front of the fourth outpost.
"There is only one left ahead of us after this; I assume our enemies are waiting for us there!"
"I hope so!"
Alyon was in a state of craving a fight; while pulling his harassing gaze away from the fox commander, he had also said his last word.
While his soldiers were destroying the military base, which was much smaller in size compared to a support headquarters, he would slowly separate from his units and walk toward the steep rocks nearby.
Unlike yesterday, the weather was windy; when he climbed to the top of the small hill, the hulking orc turned his face toward the Orc Steppes, his hair trembling slightly.
"How much longer do you plan to humiliate me?"
Alyon would speak in a tone that only he could hear comfortably, so much so that the sounds mixing with the wind couldn't even travel three steps toward their freedom.
Of course, he wasn't expecting an answer, but after taking a deep breath, he would stand silently before continuing; he had been waiting for this speech for a long time and had no intention of rushing.
"Clearly, you think you're helping me by doing this, but you're wrong, kid. You can't protect me every time I get into a tight spot, just as you don't have to protect all the other orcs!"
"Now let's make a deal with you: you will not interfere with anything related to me without my permission, or else I'll come there and break your head despite your mother!"
"Do we have a deal?"
The moment Alyon asked his question, the wind, which had been blowing lightly as if caressing his skin, would suddenly go berserk. The soldiers trying to destroy the outpost were unsettled by this abnormal change, but unlike them, the grey-haired orc warrior was smiling with pleasure.
How could the poor soldiers know that the person sitting on a throne miles away and the orc standing by himself on the hill in front of them had reached a silent agreement?
"You lazy bastards, is the work here still not finished!"
The orc warrior, his cheer restored, would lay into the walls of the outpost—which was still under demolition—with a normal axe he took in his hand. The soldiers, pumped up by the sweet-and-sour scolding they received and the actions of the disturbed man leading them, also accelerated their blows.
Unlike them, a state of tension prevailed in the units walking on a road in the interior of the region. Fearing their rapid advance, their enemies were slowing down their momentum by leaving kamikaze units along the way.
It wasn't that soldiers didn't die in these attacks, but the only thing Nafız obsessed over right now was time.
"This won't do; it's very clear why they sent you to the Wild Swamp! All you have to do is go ahead and clear the road, and you can't even manage that!"
"It's become clear that I'll have to do this job too, but if I sense you slowing down even a bit, I swear no one can save you from my hands!"
The words of Nafız, who disappeared from sight like a red lightning bolt, were coming from the empty space where her image should have been; when even this was enough to make their ears bleed, how could the soldiers under her command slack off?
The female orc would crush eight ambushes until the last support headquarters; there was no one among these warriors who attracted her interest, for they were the weakest and most expendable people of their units.
When she finally arrived at the target, Nafız was alone; although her units hadn't arrived yet, she wouldn't shy away from showing herself to the enemy. The moment she emerged from the dense forest surrounding her with calm steps, the sentries on the walls detected her; judging by the blaring horns, they weren't late even by a second to inform the entire headquarters.
"They're here! Everyone to their posts!"
"We will hold out until Lord Galeno returns!"
Although their numbers had fallen to a third of normal due to their commander's personal caprice, the last fortress possessed considerable manpower as a result of the two bases uniting.
All the warriors taking their places were as nervous as a tense bow; this would be the first large-scale battle they would experience in their ordinary lives spent on the Wild Swamp continent.
"I guess there's still time for our donkeys to arrive; I wonder if I should sit here and enjoy the view!"
Nafız was bathing in every kind of emotion overflowing from the headquarters she faced; anger, fear, fury, despair, and enthusiasm were flowing like a flood from under the large rock where the female orc sat.
When Dimitar, whose tongue was hanging out of his mouth from exhaustion, arrived at the desired location, it was almost afternoon, but the poor commander could calm down a bit upon seeing that the creature waiting for them was in high spirits.
Probably, it was the same dominant emotion that held the besieged warriors under its influence: fear! If not, how could they stand without attacking the female orc they had been staring at for hours?
"I give you one hour; rest well and get ready for hand-to-hand combat!"
The traitor commander who received the order would pause for a moment.
"Mistress, won't we need to besiege the walls first?"
Dimitar was asking his question in the politest way possible at that moment; how could it be possible to enter a hot conflict from the first moment in this place surrounded by high walls?
"That's on me, don't interfere!"
The last word again belonged to the female orc, who looked at the person opposite her with her two red eyes as if she would eat him; clearly, she wouldn't hold back from the war as the deadline she gave her friend was about to expire.
Speaking of her friend, Alyon had also reached the last outpost at the head of his units. He was scrutinizing the surprise waiting for him with one hand on his chin and a single eyebrow raised.
"Jurij, were you expecting this?"
Aware that the man beside him was much more experienced than himself, the hulking orc wouldn't miss the opportunity to chat while his units were positioning for the siege.
"I had the chance to see such a thing once; I believe its name was Mobile Fortress!"
Outposts were structures much easier to occupy and destroy compared to support headquarters; even if the soldiers of four of them gathered inside one, it wasn't possible to show long-term resistance.
"Tell the kids not to bother with a siege; have them all gather right here in front of me!"
The soldiers trying to surround the metallic structure, which had almost the height of a headquarters' walls, would rapidly gather at the desired location after this order. With the experience gained from another Mobile Fortress that Nafız had brought with her previously, Alyon had a different plan.
"Soldiers attached to the Mercenaries' Grey Hyena Organization, whose livers aren't worth five pennies, are you all here?"
The people, encountering the insults of an ugly orc at the place they came to in a hurry, were in shock; they were at a loss for how to answer the green creature looking at them.
"We had two small skirmishes before embarking on this journey with you; as far as I can see, you aren't bad men, but how should I say... you don't really have the type an orc would comfortably turn his back to!"
The atmosphere was slowly becoming tense; okay, they were following him out of fear for their lives, but this didn't mean an uncivilized orc could say whatever came to his mouth to them.
"As if you are different from us! We all know what you did to Gregoria!"
The experienced mercenaries had reached this age because they knew how to hold themselves no matter how angry they got; unlike them, one of the youngsters couldn't take it and would explode.
"You speak the truth, little human; I am also the navy blue of the same shit!"
Just as the soldier, who lost his self-control, was lunging forward not to be outdone, the vibrations coming from his ear to his brain were decoded, and he suddenly understood what the hulking orc said.
"Since the situation is such, I will make you an offer you cannot refuse. Everyone who survives this war will become a private of the Exalted Orc Army the moment they enter the Orc Steppes; you will taste the respect you have been deprived of all your lives and the pleasure of being a trustworthy person!"
Finishing his speech, when Alyon turned his huge back to them in defiance of the words he had just uttered, most soldiers couldn't believe what they saw; the grey-haired orc, lifting the giant weapon he took out of his inter-spatial ring above his head, was completely defenseless against them.
"I want blood from you today! I want you to make the enemies groan in pain today! I want you to stand behind me like true warriors today!"
"Are you with me?"