Grovitch snorted as he glared at Renark. "You speak like you won't cut me down the moment I drop my ax. Don't joke with me." The disgruntled general brandished his ax at the traitor. "Come, Ragelock! I challenge you!"

Renark shook his head and replied, "I refuse." He ignored Grovitch's stunned expression and walked over to the Mokern and Ungund who had just put down their mana shield. A dark light danced in his eyes as he looked at the dwarfs. "I'm guessing the wisben put you up to this?"

Mokern's gaze hardened, but his son, Ungund answered before he could speak. "Yes, but I cannot believe we had to work with a mere orc." Ungund frowned as he gave the sized up Renark with his eyes. "Unbelievable. All that power and no brains to go with it. You chose wisely to work with us, or you wouldn't even be fit to carry our shoes in the future."

Renark's lips curled up in a smile, seemingly unoffended by the dwarf's insults. "Why? What's happening in the future?"

Ungund opened his mouth to gloat, but Mokern hastily clamped his hand over his son's lips.

Mokern looked at Renark and chuckled as he said, "Do not mind my son. He has delusions of grandeur. Our partnership was a success. It's important we focus on ridding ourselves of the external variables rather than worrying about the future."

"Oh? That's too bad, I am an orc of the future," Renark lamented, but although the words were apologetic, the smile still remained. "I often wonder about the future before making any decisions. For example, what will come of our relationship in the future and what's the goal of the wisbens that forged this partnership?"

Mokern's brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"What happens after we return with news of the betrayal? Both sides go to war. We both become the respective leaders of our races after the competition 'dies' in the war." Renark's smile intensified as a dangerous glint shone in his eyes. "But what comes after that?"

Mokern's gaze narrowed. "A mountain cannot contain two tigers. When the time comes, we'll battle it out for the winner."

"I see." Renark's expression fell as disappointment colored his eyes. "You're stupider than I thought. You still haven't realized that no matter who wins, the wisbens will be the ones to win in the end."

Monerk's eyes widened in shock. "What are you talking about!?"

"Go ask Durst," Renark spat and suddenly swung down his ax.

"What are you doing!?" Mokern cried as he hastily set up a mana shield. Crack! Unfortunately, his efforts proved utterly useless as the shield smashed to pieces under the orc's strength.

"Father!" Ungund cried out in shock and reached for his sword. Thud! He never got to complete the motion, however, as an arrow suddenly burst his head to pieces.

"Ungund!" Mokern's desperate cried out, but Renark's ax split him in twain before he could process his loss.

Mokern's guards met a similar end at the end of the orcs behind them. Within a few seconds, no living dwarfs remained in the town.

Grovitch's eyelids twitched as he stared at the massacre. Even though he hated the dwarfs, something did not sit right with him. He warily looked at Renark and questioned, "What're you planning?"

Renark leaked a grin as he looked at Grovitch. "You'll know soon enough. Now, drop your ax."

Grovitch shook his head and his gaze hardened. "You need me alive for some reason, don't you?" The orc snorted and pulled out a short dagger. "Goodluck with that." The orc strengthened his resolve, shut his eyes, and drove the dagger to his neck.

"Watch out!"

Grovitch instinctively reacted to the shout by opening his eyes, where he was met with the sight of a thrown handaxe inches away from his head. Despite wanting to die a moment ago, his body once again instinctively reacted, and he ducked below the thrown ax.

BAM!

Before Grovitch could recover, a pair of powerful hands grasped the back of his head and crashed his face against a sturdy kneecap. Blood burst out of Grovitch's nose and disoriented, but his attacker did not stop there.

Renark drove his knee two more times into Grovitch's face, then tackled the disoriented orc onto the ground. He then proceeded to pummel Grovitch with terrible torrents of punches that left Grovitch bloodied and unconscious by the time he was done. He instructed a group of orcs to tie Grovitch and take him to a previously discussed location.

Renark then looked toward the east, which was the direction Ragnaf had fled in. He assigned a few orcs to arrange the scenes to make it look like the dwarfs had launched an ambush and were killed in retaliation, then took a small contingent of one hundred orcs with him to chase after the only loose ends left in his plan: Ragnaf, but most importantly, Durst.

Renark would never rest easy without confirmation of Durst's death.

Tulpar Tribelands, Kirkcour Woods.

5:56 pm, 17th Banem 1092.

The Tulpar tribe differed from most other tribes in that their entire village was located inside a massive cave. A giant wooden gate blocking the cave entrance was the only entry point to the town. Massive tall trees shrouded most of the area around the cave save for a patch of grassland about 30 meters wide in front of the entrance, and a road that led away from the cave, towards other parts of the forst.

At this time, the wooden gate lay broken on the ground, and corpses littered the area, bearing testament to the terrible battle that was fought there. But, if one had been expecting the battle to have ended in the Tulpar Tribe's loss, then they would have been sorely mistaken as a peculiar sight was unfolding on the grassland surrounding the Tulpar Tribe.

It seemed the Tulpar tribes-centaurs had somehow managed to trap the monsters in a tight circle, and because of how bunched together the monsters were, it allowed the centaur army to easily slaughter them with little to no retaliation. Looking at the overall damage, such a situation made absolutely no sense, a sentiment shared by many warriors as they mercilessly cut down the monsters.

"Kill them all!" Darian shouted in excitement as he stabbed his way through the monster horde that previously surrounded the Tulpar tribe. Even as he hacked down the monsters, he could not believe how smooth this rescue operation had been. The centaur recalled how pensive they had initially been when they first arrived at Tulpar.

An hour earlier, when they arrived at Tulpar, they had paled at the massive number of monsters attacking the fort – they almost doubled the amount sent to attack the Lymar. It seemed that the mastermind paid particular attention to this town and wanted it taken down at all costs.

Kashi, at the time, surveyed the terrain then suggested a couple of unconventional strategies that, at the time, did not make any sense. If it were not for the incredible strength the daeben displayed in Lymar, they might have laughed him off or looked down on him as a glory chaser.

However, as it stood, the centaurs did adopt the daeben's crazy strategy. The first step was to split their forces into three units. The first unit, led by Shadow and Darian had 300 men and attacked from the north-west, while the second unit, led by Larsial and a commander under Gelarios called Casetes led a similar number of men, but attacked from the south-west. Shadow and Larsial's main jobs were to act as real-time communicators between Kashi and the two armies.

The final unit of 400 centaurs remained with Kashi at a location several hundreds of meters down the road, out of eyesight. As per Kashi's orders, Shadow and Larsial's troops interchangeably charged at the edges of the monster horde, shaving off at least a few hundred monsters with each attack.

Importantly, the charging parties never struck into the heart of the monster army, but patiently whittled away at the monsters at the rear guard. Initially, the monsters did not care about the loss of their companions because they could see the gates were about to come crashing down, but with every pass, irritation began to grow amongst the monsters.

Darian and Casetes' forces began to experience more resistance during their raids, as increasingly more monsters chose to continue to chase after them even after they had disengaged. Despite this, Kashi only instructed them to keep doing the same.

Eventually, a loud crash echoed throughout the forest, causing a visible stir within the monsters. The gate had finally fallen! The monsters excitedly charged at the soldiers behind the gate, managing to slaughter a few dozen within the short span of a second.

However, as if predicting this exact moment, Kashi and 300 soldiers suddenly appeared behind the monsters, and he immediately emptied his mana to unleash [Gilgamesh], disguised within several volleys of arrows shot by the accompanying soldiers into the heart of the monster army.

BOOM!

Terrible wails poured out amongst the monsters as several thousand were instantly routed in one second! This was the greatest loss they had suffered in the entire day, and it needed to be avenged!

Kashi, however, did not seem to care for their vengeance. He immediately turned around and fled down the road with his troops. As they fled the scene, the monsters instantly 'made the connection.' This army was the same one that had been harassing them all this time. They had ignored these 300 warriors because they counted for nothing in the grand scheme of things, but if the centaurs had enough firepower to wipe out thousands at once, then they could not be allowed to live!

Rooar!

The enraged monsters ignored their original target and chased after the fleeing daeben down the road.

However, the centaurs in the village, enraged at losing their brethren charged after the monsters, attempting to cut down as many as they could in this critical juncture. And so, a weird scene played out, with Kashi and his three hundred troops running ahead being chased by a horde of monsters, who were in turn, pursued by the Tulpar tribe warriors.

At some point down the road, Kashi's troops suddenly split in half, revealing 100 centaurs charging down the path. The monsters could not stop in time and could only miserably cry out as the centaurs crashed into them, and destroyed their momentum like a brick wall.

The monsters panicked and tried to dodge to the left and right, but 300 centaurs suddenly came charging in from both sides and boxed them in. Finally, the monsters attempted to turn back the way they came after realizing it was a trap, but they had even worse luck as they were faced with the sturdy Tulpar tribe.

The Tulpar tribe were a reclusive, defensive tribe as could be seen by their remote dwellings within a cave. This trait of theirs translated to their primary choice of weaponry, which consisted of massive heater shields as tall as they were, and a spear or halberd.

The shields proved handy, as the Tulpar tribesmen formed a wooden wall at the back and halted the monsters' advance. Recognizing the golden opportunity, several Tulpar tribesmen spread out and began to replace the Lymar tribe at the frontline, using their shields to block the desperate strikes. The Lymar tribesmen, meanwhile, fired arrows into the trapped monster army or stabbed through gaps in the formation, slowly but surely whittling down the monsters.

Eventually, as a result of the centaurs' constant pressing, the monsters were bunched so tight they could not even find space to move, let alone attack. It was at this point the true massacre began.

Kashi, Shadow, and Larsial jumped into the mess and began harvesting lives like they were wheat. Thirty minutes later, the final monster lay dead on the floor, allowing the centaur warriors to finally catch their breath.

After a few moments of rest and respite, Kashi was taken to the tribes chief. Kashi explained his mission plan to the chief, who, thankfully, did not kick up much of a fuss. He willingly handed a medallion to the daeben and contributed 1000 shield warriors to the cause.

Kashi thanked the chief, then once again set off with the new force. It was bound to be a very busy night for the daeben.

SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PATREON STARS:

Residents: Andrew Maurer, Eli Calabria, Rusty Reaper, Cobalt_Storm, Eli Romero, Niyeban, Sarah Kinkade, Gamma2626

Adventurers: Hyproxy, Merlin252, Michael Barton, OlusholaAbidakun, Mental_Napalm, Jamie Ibarra

Warriors: Caleb Ian Melton, Ragnaf, Cullen M Brewer, Paul C. Bergeson (@facemaster)

The High Council: Sly, Jacob Morgan, Antinium, StrikerPrince

You Guys are the Best!!!

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A/N: Testing out new border styles. Hope you guys like it!

Also, what do you guys think about this chapter? Lotsa mind games going on here it would seem.

What's Renark's end goal?

Will Grovitch survive?

Find out next time on...