Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Plus, from the corner of his eyes, he could see that his army was hard-pressed. The betrayal of Belsea at this moment had dealt considerable damage to the morale of his army and they suffered repeated setbacks.

There was no doubt in his mind, even with the excellent leadership of Bellock and Belmarch, their army was destined to collapse before he could even bring down the orc king.

Did he have no choice but to take the help of that person? However, Berigard's intuition was telling him that person was by no means someone that would help them for free. They must have some ulterior motive.

"Oi…Oi…Oi— is it alright for you to get lost in thought? Did you forget already who you are facing?" came the shout of Belgarious snapping Berigard out of his thoughts.

the orc king narrowed his eyes, although he said all that, he was inwardly alert of the magic that Berigard threw out. Even though the latter wasn't a disaster class yet, his magic had already reached such a realm.

If Belgarious wasn't careful enough, he might get seriously injured. Berigard threw out a few more magic and a combination of Tremor and Tempest magic to create some golem soldiers. However, they all stood no chance in front of the mana augmented attacks from the orc king.

'Tch… I guess I have no choice but to use that' seeing that the last of his golem was broken apart by the orc king, Berigard was just about to ut his hands on his locket when suddenly his senses picked up multiple presences hurriedly approaching their way.

Given the way their scent smelled, they didn't belong to the orc tribe but from a tribe that was enemies with them.

It was not only Berigard, but even the orc king was alerted by this sudden presence and thus stopped his assault.

"Hmm? Grururu—what is this? The orc tribe is fighting amongst themselves? How foolish… to think that my king was concerned about a tribe who is going to destroy itself on its own?" A being well above five meters spoke out.

He had a hulky frame, muscles brimming with power, a reddish-brown body and was riding on top of monsters. He was accompanied by a group from his own race. At a glance, there was more than thirty of them each riding on a beast.

Another characteristic that was apparent on them, was the single horn each of them had that protruded out from their forehead.

Just like the diluvian high orc, each and every one of them was releasing a powerful aura. No, the aura they were realising was far denser and more powerful than the orcs. Even the beast they were riding on, were strong enough to put monsters living in the other region of the forest to shame.

—The Ogre tribe was here—

The armies on the plaza hearing the foreign sound, stopped fighting at the commands of their respective higher-ups.

"Ogre tribe?!" Berirock narrowed his eyes, this was the worst possible time they could have intruded when their entire tribe was in disarray.

"Given that you are fighting amongst yourselves, I guess we could wait. However, I find it unpleasant that the underlings we are soon going to have, are trying to cull down their numbers themselves. Which is why, I would like to ask you to stop your useless fighting".

The ogre who seemed to be the leader of this group stated. He had brought a total of fifty ogres with him who were each riding a powerful beast. Individually, the ogres here were all strong enough to overwhelm a couple of diluvian High orc warriors, with some even having the strength of orc captains.

A few were on the level of an orc commander not to mention the one that was leading them seemed to have an aura as strong as an orc general.

The words that the leader ogre said, immediately irked the orcs and the most hot-tempered amongst them, Berirock rushed towards their direction to meet them.

"The heck do you mean by underlings? And how the hell did you manage to invade this deep into our territory?" the orc general barked. His suspicions naturally went towards Berigard who in his opinion was trying to weaken their clan and was working with the ogres.

<strong>BANG…</strong> a powerful force strong enough to blow an orc general far away was released by the leader ogre as he punched out.

"Gruru... Who the hell do you think you are? A mere underling should behave like an underling".

"You!!" Berirock who got back up after suffering the unexpected blow, had an ugly expression on his face as if he had swallowed a fly accidentally.

This was the second time he had suffered a blow to his self-esteem today, how could he not be furious. However, that remark wasn't only directed at him but at every orc that was present in the plaza no matter which faction they belonged to.

Naturally, when given a common enemy, all the orcs united to eliminate that enemy first. The same was the case with the two armies that were fighting to kill each other up until just a few moments ago.

They were all eyeing the newcomers as if they were their arch enemies.

"This is not a place for you guys to be. For what reason did you intrude on my territory? Did Gil-Garna forget about the pact he made with 'that person'?" Belgarious spoke out confronting the ogre tribe. The duel was put on hold for the time being.

"It's lord Gil-Garna for you" the leader ogre stressed, he then revealed a condescending smile towards the orc king and stated.

"Grururu… that person might be powerful; however, do you think that our king is afraid of him. Besides the two leaders have already discussed it out and arrived at a conclusion. Do you want to know what decision was taken for your tribe by that person?".

A bad premonition suddenly struck Belgarious and his face became apprehensive.

"Grururu… yes, that is the expression you should make. At the meeting, the two leaders came to a new verdict. In exchange for something offered by our leader, that person will retract the pact of protection he has with your tribe. In other words, the fate of your Diluvian High orc tribe has been sealed. Grururu…" the leader ogre laughed, he seemed to be taking joy in the misery of another clan.

"T-That cannot be, 'that person' cannot abandon me. You are lying" the orc king was in denial. He had a shocked look plastered on his face.

'That person?!' Berigard who was not far from the orc king and the members from the ogre tribe, naturally picked up a few words in between. He did not know who they were referring to by 'that person', but he somehow felt like they had a hand into all of this and was somehow related to the orc king.

"Grurur… whether I'm lying or not, you can find that out if you ask that person. Anyways, I'm not here to tell you all that. I was sent here by my king Lord Gil-Garna as the messenger to declare war on you guys. Fight or submit, three days from now our army will march through the backfield" the leader ogre relayed that one-sided ultimatum and turned around to leave.

"Ah, one more thing, our king hopes that you won't make it boring by surrendering immediately. He wants you to struggle like ants as much as you can and entertain him. Grururu… if I was you, I would do it immediately, since it would at least ensure some of you surviving this ordeal… as a slave that is".

With that joke made by the leader ogre, the entire ogre group laughed and casually strolled out from the territory of the orcs.

"GUGA!!" Berirock succumbing to his wrath, tried to give chase but was stopped by Berimond. The latter finally moved when a foreign tribe got involved.

"Why are you stopping me Berimond?" Berirock snapped.

"Do you want to go chasing them? Even if you managed to kill this group of ogres it won't change anything. On the contrary, it will only make matter worse" Berimaond reasoned.

All the orcs in the plaza turned their attention towards the orc king, who in this dire time was their pillar of support. However, the latter did not have the mind to play that part right now. Belgarious hurriedly disappeared from the plaza and rushed towards his underground chamber.

Seeing this, Berigard silently mused his options from here on for a while before taking off towards his two commanders.

"My lord… what are your orders?" Bellock and Belmarch bowed their heads. Their army was ready to fight to the last person if given the order. But now that the situation had changed, they did not know what to do.

Should they continue fighting the orc king's army or should they go for a temporary truce? Whatever the case may be, they did not have the right to take that decision. Their previously thirty five thousand strong army, was now only under twenty thousand orcs strong.

Out of that, one legion which was led by Belsea, had surrendered in the beginning and others have died during the battle. Even then, their army still stood strong.

Each of the orcs were waiting for Berigard to make a decision. The latter took a deep breath, looked at the disorganised orc king's army before ordering a retreat.

Now that the threat of the ogre tribe was looming right near their throat, there was no point in fighting themselves and shortening their numbers even further.

'It seems like I was too late to make my move' Berigard thought internally. The Diluvian Orc tirbe was divided into factions and not at all united. Even without making any investigation, Berigard could tell that they stood little to no chance against the ogre army which was untied under one king.