Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Mason stated highlighting the gravity of the situation.

Xandros nodded his head, he passed on some instructions to his subordinates who each were no less powerful than an elite and said "You said that there are survivors from the adventurers group that went on ahead to defeat the orcs?".

"Yes" mason immediately nodded and called Ruke out from amongst the adventurers crowding the bench.

"This is the guy who managed to survive the onslaught of the orcs from that group. There was however another person, but it seemed like he couldn't wait to rescue his teammates and dived inside the forest with a few others".

The one Mason was talking about was Bastian who was currently missing in the hall as he had already gone back inside the forest.

"I see, your name was Ruke right? Tell me what exactly had transpired inside the forest after your group went in?" Xandros asked Ruke many questions which the latter unwillingly complied. One could see from the expression on his face that he did not want to step outside of the town.

"If what you are saying is true, then there is a high possibility that those orcs have taken humans as captives. I don't know what they are planning to do by capturing humans but whatever it is, it cannot be anything good. I'm not forcing anyone to participate but since we are in the position to save them, we must do what we can".

"Those who agree with me, can follow us. Additionally, I have notified my guild and the guilds in the surrounding city. By now they must be sending teams of adventurers to assist us. So it is not like we are diving towards a battle that we have no chance of winning".

"I want you all to rest assured that we are not underestimating the enemy like the group that went ahead of did earlier. I know how strong a DIluvian High Orc can be thus I want you all to be on your guard until the reinforcements arrive".

Xandros and the Tyrant Mountain guild he belonged to, was currently the strongest guild in the tower. Along with his prestige and the leadership aura he released, he convinced the low levelled adventurers as well as the other strong guilds that came from the various regions of the kingdom.

Seeing that only a negligible amount of people were discontent with his decision, he further announced while donning his armour.

"It is already late at night and entering the forest now might be very dangerous. However, we must secure the perimeter around the town or else we won't be able to sit here in safety. My guild will be the one to take the lead, I want other guilds to follow after us and help us secure the place".

After a while, more than thirty adventurers gathered at the borders of the town fully equipped with their gears. They each emitted a powerful aura and just a glance at them was enough to tell people that they were veterans.

If it was this group, perhaps even an army of diluvian high orc led by a few orc commanders might not be a match for them.

The one that was leading this group was none other than Xandros and the tyrant Mountain guild. The group proceeded forward with care, the assassins sent ahead surveyed the surrounding, the warriors held their shields and weapons tightly while the mages in the centre cast a few spells to light up their surroundings.

Each of them were on their guard and were ready to act at a moment's notice. Time passed by; however, forget about an orc not even a trace of the monster could be seen around.

"What is going on?" Xandros muttered, his eyes narrowed. With the strong senses of the orcs, by now they should be besieged on all fronts. Then why was it that not even a monster could be seen around the vicinity of the town?

The group of adventurers who earlier might have wiped a few groups, however, they were taken out in the end. And according to the reports, many orcs were seen around the town just a few hours ago, they all cannot just disappear all of a sudden.

"Vice Master…" uttered a subordinate beside Xandros.

"I know…" there was definitely something going on inside the forest. 'Is it a territorial dispute between the seven kings? If so then this might even be out of my capabilities' while Xandros was thinking all that, the assassins that went ahead came back.

Seeing them come in a hurry, he realised that something was going on and thus asked "What is it? Did you find the trace of orcs?".

The assassin that he asked the question, shook his head, pointed at the direction ahead and said "vice guild master, I think you should come and see this".

The thirty or so adventurers while being cautious, walked towards the place where the assassin was leading them and stood rooted after seeing the scene that lay in front of them. A gory scene with blood and innards strewn everywhere, a foul stench of the dead assaulted the noses of the adventurers as they monitored the area.

As far as they could see, corpses of orcs littered the area and the place was in an absolute mess.

"What happened here?" Mason muttered in a daze, his Moonlight guild was one of the few guilds that were personally asked by Xandros to back them up.

"There was a fight here probably not very long ago" Xandros and his guild examined the corpses of the orc and said. The blood was still fresh, in fact, the body of the orcs still had a little heat on them which was evidence that whatever happened here, happened not very long ago.

"Who could possibly fight them? Was it Bastian and his group? But this many orcs is too much for even them to handle" Mason uttered in confusion.

"There are five Diluvian High Orcs in this group and more than twenty five High Orcs. What's surprising is that, most of the bodies or almost all of their bodies are in a worse condition. Some had their heads splattered, others had their abdomens blasted apart while others died in a bloody gore. I cannot exactly say what happened here but looking a the scene, whoever or rather whatever did this had the ability to overpower even the physical abilities of a Diluvian High Orc".

The assassin that brought them here analysed the bodies of the orcs individually and reported.

"Is there any other clue?" Xandros asked.

The assassin thought for a while before walking towards a corpse and tapping it with his knife. "This is the only intact corpse here. Though it has a leg missing and bruises everywhere, it was the only orc that survived or rather was allowed to survive the onslaught".

When Xandros and the rest of the adventurers heard that, they couldn't help but lock their brows in a frown. If whoever or whatever was behind this deliberately left one alive for the last, it definitely meant that…

"They are extremely intelligent. They left this orc alive to investigate some information out of it. I hope the person that did this is a human…" Xandros did not complete his sentence. Nevertheless, whoever heard it felt a chill run down their spines.

The one who did this must be extremely strong, it does not seem like they used some kind of magic or anything which means that they used pure physical prowess to beat the orcs into pulp.

"It looks like this orc was the leader of this troop… Hm? Vice guild master, there is something you must see" the assassin called out.

"What is it?" when Xandros asked, the assassin pointed a small stab wound on the orc's head. "This wound, the orc was killed by a sword or a knife. It's a clean stab and the quality of the weapon must be at least a [C] rank to pierce through the skull of a Diluvian High Orc".

"Hmm… are you saying that.."

"Vice guild master!!!" while Xandros was busy inspecting the corpse of orcs, an adventurer who was in charge of monitoring the area, ran up to him and urgently shouted out.

"What is it this time? Can't you see I'm busy". Perhaps, because he had something else in his mind, Xandros tone came out a little frustrated.

"I'm very sorry Sir Xandros but there is something that I must report to you urgently" the adventurer insisted.

"Go on what is it?" Xandros asked sensing that the situation must be urgent for the person to insist so much.

"We found survivors from the first group that were captured by the orcs".

"What?".

"Yes, they are over there. Currently they are being healed by healing magic".

"I see, good job" Xandros patted the man on the shoulder and walked towards the place where he could see a few new faces.

"It looks like you guys managed to run away somehow, tell me what happened" When questioning them, he was able to learn that someone or something did indeed attack the orcs and wiped them out in the blink of an eye.

"Did you not see what they look like?" when asked that question, all the survivors reported the same thing. They weren't able to see who it was that took out the orcs as they were too afraid of getting captured once again.

"Then how did you escape your bindings if you didn't see who it was?" Xandros inquired, he was quite curious to know who it was that was fighting against the army of Diluvian high orcs inside the forest in the middle of the night.