Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"You are up leader?" a man called out to him.

"Huh? Bargo, you are here too?" Bolan looked at Bargo who was his teammate and also his friend.

"We are here too" the other members of his team, Norr, Ken and Dridon said from the sides.

"Huh? You all?! where are we?" Bolan asked pressing his hand on his head that hurt very much.

"You don't remember leader? The alliance we were in, was ambushed by multiple groups of orcs in the middle of the forest. Most of the members were killed while the rest that were injured and unconscious were taken captive. The Alliance lost, quite horribly that is and no we are in the enemy's camp".

Bargo restated the events that had happened after the alliance made of multiple groups of adventurer teams and guilds, went inside the forest to defeat the orcs that were threatening the safety of the town.

"Kuh… how did we lose so badly, I remember defeating some of the orcs when… ahhhh!!" Bolan jolted in pain when he tried to sit back up.

"Leader, please stay still, your body is heavily injured. If you move too much, your wounds will open up again" His teammates told him not to move too much.

It was only now that Bolan realised that he was covered in bandages, with a hideous wound over his stomach. The blood was still fresh which meant that no healing potions were applied to him.

"All of our things were taken, we do not have our weapons and armours nor do we have any potions to heal our wounds. So leader please do not try to move as much as you can" Being told such, Bolan gave up on trying to move and looked around him.

"This is their camp? How many of us survived?" as Bolan was knocked out for most of the part, he did not know much.

Bargo, Norr and the rest of the teammates who heard his question, flashed a depressed smile.

"Our alliance that was initially about two hundred men strong, was massacred. Some fought, some escaped others were killed on the spot. Only a few numbers of us remain alive who were brought back after being captured. If I have to say, there was around forty of us inside the prison".

"Was?" Bolan asked back.

His teammates did not reply and glanced out of the prison. Bolan matched their gaze and immediately realised what they meant by 'was'.

Bolan creased his brows and looked away from the bloody scene outside. He then turned towards his teammates, he was just about to move his gaze away when he realised that their numbers didn't add up.

Including him, there was only five of them inside the prison! His old teammate were all here which meant that—

"Where is the newbie?" Bolan asked even though he knew the answer.

They were [D] rank adventurers with levels around 150, if they grouped up against a single orc they might be able to triumph against it albeit facing a little challenge.

However, the newbie adventurer that their group recently added to their team was different. His level was below them and more so, he was lacking in experience. His chances of surviving against a monster such as an orc who were known for their powerful physique was already very low.

In the first place, it was already an incredible miracle that all of his old teammates managed to survive.

"Leader… please don't blame yourself like last time. It was nobody's fault. Everybody was given a choice and Lovis agreed to join despite that. I believe when you become an adventurer, you shoulder the responsibility of your own life" Bargo said in an attempt to not make his leader feel guilty.

"You don't need to console me. Anyways, tell me how we got here. Even if our opponents are an army of orcs, our alliance have people over level 350. We shouldn't have gone down so easily" Bolan asked trying to remember what happened to them after they got out of the town.

As far as he could remember, after getting out of the vicinity of the town, their alliance was attacked by multiple groups of orcs that came charging at them after finding their smell, typical of what orcs excel in.

Their alliance wiped out multiple groups of orcs, everything was going smoothly when suddenly orcs that were taller than your ordinary orcs came out of the forest in droves and a chaotic battle ensued in the middle of the forest.

Bolan and his group also fought one such monster but due to them outnumbering their enemy, they were somehow able to hold on. After that… his memory seemed to be jumbled up.

"Leader, do not strain yourself let me tell you what happened. After we engaged with a new enemy, we learned that the race of the monster is called High Orc. High Orcs are the evolution of orcs and are multiple times sentient and stronger than the latter.

There were more than fifty orcs that came out of the forest. Needless to say, our alliance was hard pressed, our enemies could see at night while most of us do not have the skill to do so. Coupled with the fact that they were exceptionally good at cooperating with one another, our alliance suffered some casualties.

Up until here, it was all fine. Even if some of the adventurers from the alliance died to the high orcs, the captains of the alliance that were leading us were all above level 350. Some of them were even leaders of their guild, thus they could easily command a large number of people.

The high orcs weren't a problem, even our team could barely keep a high orc that was above level 200 in check. That is before they came.." Bargo pointed at a particular kind of orc who was unique to be called even a high orc.

The orc that Brago was pointing at was head and shoulders tall of a high orc which already had a huge frame, not to mention their peculiar colour of skin which was totally different from an ordinary orc.

The moment, Bolan laid his eyes on one of them, his body started shaking uncontrollably as fear grabbed hold of his heart. Skin as red as blood, powerful muscles, terrifying looks and carrying a weapon made out of some entity's bone.

The orc released a berserk aura that made ordinary or low levelled people cower in front of it. Bolan was afraid; No, he was terrified and the reason for that was because there were not just one or two of those red orcs, but more than fifty of them.

Bargo continued eyeing the red orcs in fear… "Our team was able to fight against the high orcs; however, it all changed when they showed up. Each of those orc's power is so strong that forget about fighting them, our alliance was completely suppressed by them."

"The guild leaders of the alliance were able to keep a few in check but with more than fifty of them charging at us, there was no way we could have won. Our number advantage quickly dwindled, people were getting killed here and there. The high orc we managed to somehow managed to keep in check somehow got out of our formation and knocked out our team one after another".

"Sensing the situation, leader you tried to take on the high orc by yourself and ordered us to retreat. However, our opponents didn't seem like they would go easy on us for us to escape. You were severely injured while facing the high orc and were rendered unconscious".

"We tried to take your unconscious body with us and retreat but failed. Before I lost consciousness by an attack from the high orc, I saw our alliance scattered, formation broken and blood strewing everywhere. After that… you can just see for yourself".

An eerie silence descended, nobody said anything. The noise that came was the groans from the injured and despair filled words from the adventurers whose spirits were broken.

Bolan and his team knew, the outcome was obvious, their alliance lost, utterly destroyed. Those that were not here, were probably killed or ran away. And they too, would soon die or would be forced to experience a fate that was worse than death.

It was laughable that in front of absolute strength all they could do was sit here in silence waiting for their turn to be butchered.

CHATTER… CHATTER… suddenly, there was some commotion amongst the orcs. Every single one of them opened a path or got out of the way, thus clearing a path for a single red orc to walk in.

The orc that commanded such fear from its fellow red orcs was somehow different from the others. Its physique might be similar; however, it was distinctively different from the others.

To state it accurately, the aura it released was far more brutal and powerful than the others around it. It looked far more dreadful wearing pelts and armours made of bones and its eyes glowed with a human like intelligence.

That red orc, came near the prison causing the humans inside it to panic and instinctively back away. Seeing that, the red orc smiled, that smile was a smile of derision that one used when looking down at others. It then bent down in front of the prison and observed the prisoners.

"Tsk… tsk… it seems like the humans in that town were only this strong" the red orc opened its hideous mouth and spoke in a common language.

"Even though I sent hordes after hordes in that town, that guy is yet to show up. It looks like I need to destroy that town completely to bring him out. But before that, what should I do with you humans?".

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