The city surrounded by high walls, both protected by the desert and deprived of the rest of the world, was living the most peaceful days it had experienced since the day it was founded. Thieves who could pop up at any hour of the day, trickster tradesmen whose eyes shone the moment you approached their stalls, and beings pursuing the satisfaction of their sexual urges regardless of men or women, had somehow suddenly disappeared.
New faces, some weird things barely resembling humans, entered the city almost every day, but somehow, not the slightest unruliness was experienced inside the Heart of the Sand. For some this wasn't pleasant at all; those living like scavenger fish used to swimming inside a mossy aquarium were dying off on their own, and some trying to resist the change were becoming food for the big fish newly added to the aquarium.
Someone who didn't know its previous state could have thought this was a Trade city on the Orc Steppes until they felt the tremor that started at midnight. Weird things were happening in one of the far corners of the city; it was very hard to withstand the energy overflowing from the house that looked at least as neglected, old, and about to collapse as the structures around it.
Fortunately, this place too had gotten its share of the wind of change that started seven months ago; the structure with a little light inside was at the center of the tremor, and there was no other sign of life within a distance of at least two hundred paces. After Wind of Death made the leaders of the three factions partners in her plan, she had completely cleaned the area and given the properties of those she destroyed to the deserving.
Tonight, she was seeing again how right a decision she had made because she had bitterly learned at her very early ages, during the Two-Year Wars, that it wouldn't be known when or what would happen during a war. She was eye to eye with the person she was allied with, whom she had gotten along with smoothly for seven months, and their unique energies overflowing from their bodies were constantly clashing.
"You couldn't have scared Number Eight with this little energy. If you're going to come to my place and challenge me, you have to do everything you can!"
When Wind of Death moved to the second level of her Lineage Power, Warrior's Wrath, Chief's Wrath, the ordinarily built roof shattered and flew into the air because it would never rain. Even if the moon, trying to get ahead of the clouds out of jealousy of their beauty, threw off all its excesses and shone brightly, it was impossible for Boss, whose hands glued to the table started trembling, to pay attention to it.
"I wouldn't expect any less from the Commander-in-Chief of the Orc Empire Armies either, but even when my race was trapped on a tiny piece of land, warriors this powerful lived among them."
When his trembling hands, twitching eye, and hunched back returned to their former states, a river practically started flowing from Boss's body. A wild, fearless energy, sworn to destroy whatever came its way, was spreading in all four directions like a volcanic eruption.
First, the table they had caught from its two sides for a while, then the walls left roofless, and finally the floor under their feet were smashed to smithereens. The energy they emitted was so dense that despite this, when they dropped to the lower floor, they could maintain their stances as if nothing had happened, but in the face of her opponent's last move, Wind of Death seemed to have started having hard times.
She knew Boss was strong, she had also had the chance to discover a preview of what he could do during the small show inside the Grand Bazaar, but judging by his raised eyebrows and the arm muscles whose veins became prominent, it was obvious she didn't expect this much.
"How interesting, did you gain this power after being exiled, or were you this strong before too?"
No matter who was before her, the name at the very top of an army consisting of billions of orc warriors couldn't show weakness. Maybe she would die, but after she passed away, no one could say even a single bad word behind her back.
A black pillar of light rose to the sky from where Wind of Death was; those waking up from their sleep thinking it was an earthquake might not know what it was, but the warriors of the Elite Ten knew what their commander was doing.
"Lord's Wrath!"
They were directly tied to her; it was impossible for them not to feel the power filling their bodies in every single cell, but they weren't pleased to know their commander was pushed to her limits either. When Soul Stealer looked into the eyes of each of them one by one, she could see the cold glimmer of knives ready to be unsheathed; if they attacked now, there might not be anything tangible left of Boss.
"You can't know how lucky you are to be able to have such magnificent subordinates. I can feel their killing intents targeting me to my bones, but they can suppress this in order to obey your command. The Orc Society has changed a lot since I haven't seen it. You have turned from a dog growling from where it knelt, to wolves splitting their enemies in two with a single claw strike.
Still, if you think you can give me orders, you have to prove yourself first. You know, there cannot be two heads in orc tradition! If you want to be the commander of us all when we get out of the city, here is your opportunity!"
Boss, letting out a laugh that leveled the houses in the vicinity after his long speech, didn't hesitate to respond to the move of his opponent, the female orc. Along with the presence of the crimson pillar of light rising from under his feet and reaching the sky, the real destruction began.
Whatever was within the hundred-pace diameter distance was shattering; the black energy flocking from Wind of Death's side was so dense that it could be seen with the naked eye rising like a wave and marching on the enemy.
The opposite direction was no different; Boss's crimson energy had become aflame and was flocking towards the black wave like a rapidly spreading forest fire. Wind of Death's eyes hadn't opened this much since the day she was born; there was not a single hesitation left that the power the orc she clashed head-on with used was now a Lineage Power.
The person before her wasn't someone who managed to use Lineage Power thanks to the serum made with her child's blood. He was an orc warrior possessing his own lineage power, possessing equal power with her, and Wind of Death would continue to treat him as he deserved.
"I don't care at all who you are or by whom you were exiled here; if you are an orc and are going to fight alongside the Orc Empire, you will be under my command. Let alone you, even if the Orc Emperor Khan himself descended to the battlefield, this wouldn't change!"
The black waves began to foam; even though they were referred to as waves before, they were no different from a tsunami right now. The Elite Ten, aware of the danger, had long evacuated the area and were at work to keep the forces trying to come to the scene away.
Chief Engineer Clemens Holzmeister, seeing the handspan-wide crevice on the ground, had understood what was meant. The limit drawn for them was exactly here; if he got to know the orcs even a little within these seven months, he knew standing behind it would be the best choice that could be made.
After him, merchant Dona Gracia appeared with his dwarf servant, who didn't leave his side even when he went to the toilet and whose duty was to clean up his mess when he was done. He wasn't wandering with a flashy caravan like before, but the golden yellow color of his clothes he wore, inside which ten normal people could comfortably fit, managed to catch the eye.
Even though they continued to bear the traces of the destruction they experienced during the daytime on their bodies, the Hyenas hadn't given up coming, in fact, they were the only group attempting to cross the drawn border, but the arrows brushing past their faces before they could even set their steps were saying this wasn't a smart move.
When they scouted the surroundings, they saw all of the Elite Ten around them; if they knew their Boss, they knew what was happening was a challenge, and they realized his opponent responded to him with the same valor.
From the distance they were at, they could only see the energies pressuring each other; the struggle between the two orcs was done solely by using their energies. This method had replaced taking turns punching in the old times in the new generation orc society, and it seemed the beginning of the end was happening for one side.