Just hours before the battle with the elves...

[Blood sealed - augmentation]

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[Augmented target required 80 blood essence, proceed]

[Orc Grunts]

[Battle power 35 - 78]

[Targets successfully evolved into Orc Champions]

This was the strategy he had painstakingly prepared for this battle. The secret behind his confidence and determination.

His blood seal augmentation ability had the capability of pushing the power of a mere orc grunt to the level of a champion's with over 100% increase in battle power.

But the best thing about this was the fact that using this ability on the orcs required a far smaller amount of blood essence in comparison to using it on a human.

Knowing that they all had a difficult fight ahead of them, Tristan didn't hesitate to use all of his remaining blood seal pool to strengthen the group of orcs that had volunteered to help him with the task.

With an average of 75 points of blood essence per orc, Tristan augmented 30 orc grunts into orc champions. Leaving him 600 blood essence points left to use on the 4 champions within the group.

[Augmented target requires 150 blood essence points, proceed?]

[Orc Champion]

[Battle power 80 - 108]

Similar to Karra, the orc champions only received about a 40% increase in points.

Although it was not as effective and efficient of an increase in comparison to the grunts, the 30 battle power increase would still make the difference between fighting on the same level as the elves or actually having the capability to overpower them.

With that, Tristan now had 35 orc champions within the group of 100 that came to the mines to face off with the elves.

Upon seeing this, the elder was confused. One of his elf warriors could fight 10 orc grunts. But when it came to the orc champions, their level of strength was about the same. Which was what made the presence of the orcs that were now trailing behind Tristan so alarming.

Normally, a standard tribe of about a hundred orcs would only have one or two champions in their midst. This made the fact that Tristan was able to find a tribe with over 30 champions even more impressive; seeing it with his own two eyes left the elder at a loss for words.

While the elder was still baffled at the sight of the group before him, the white haired elf on the other side had already commanded his men to charge.

"Attackkk!!" He roared.

As soon as Tristan gave the order, the high orc Karra shouted out her innate ability, [Battle Cry], which instantly gave the orcs' strength another 10% boost. This was a special ability reserved only for high orcs such as herself.

"Chiiwwiiikk!!!"

All one hundred orcs began to charge through the group of elves, whose numbers were merely a little more than 40.

The elves took out the blades and bows that were resting on their hips. Arrows began to rain on the orcs, but unless it hit any critical points on their bodies, the green creatures were still advancing, remaining mostly unharmed. A few may have fallen when the arrows pierced their heads, but the others managed to plow through without any issue.

"Yess!! Kill them all !!" Shouted Tristan, high in spirits.

Tristan, the one with the highest battle power out of all of them, becomes the first to encounter the wood elves. He didn't waste any time before quickly slashing the elf that was closest to him with his blade.

With just this one charge, Tristan could see that the orcs managed to overwhelm several unprepared elves with sheer force alone.

The poor elves were being swiftly dissected with the orcs' huge axes and swords.

After the first charge, the rest were already able to cast their spells. Tristan could see that many of them utilized [Stone Skin], a spell that made their skin tougher and more resilient to any attacks. Some used different, more defensive spells that incorporated wood, such as [Oak Flesh].

With those protection spells, Tristan could see that the high swing of the orc ax was only able to throw the elves around without killing them, nor make any marks on their bodies.

On the other hand, the elves' fast movements were able to dodge the attacks that were directed towards them, as well as striking the orcs' thick skin.

With high speed, Tristan helped the orcs that were closest to him and cut apart the elves with his Mithril longsword.

Tristan grabbed the elven saber that one of their opponents had dropped and threw it to Astrid.

"Use this!"

It annoyed him that the orcs were unable to maximize their strength because of their low standard of equipment.

The battle quickly turned into a huge brawl where the orcs were able to outstrength the elves and overwhelm them, but were hardly able to kill any of them. In addition, the orcs' body resistance and stamina were being tested as well.

Tristan grabbed another elf by the collar before cutting his head off. Finally, he saw the elder standing in the distance, about to cast a spell.

The elder was in a trance; it appeared he was casting a high tier spell. Tristan rushed in and tried to stop the wrinkly elf, but he was suddenly held back by another opponent whose body was cast in [Stone Skin].

Not wasting much time, Tristan used his blade art and managed to land a huge cut on the elf's chest. His powerful Mithril sword successfully cut through the stone skin layer, and elf blood poured out from his chest.

Being hindered, he could now only helplessly stare as the elder floated in the air, with a wave of green spiritual energy spreading from himself towards all the elves around him.

To his surprise, the elf he had just cut before instantly regained his strength, and even the gaping wound on his chest had suddenly closed.

It was a mass healing spell.

"Dammit!" He yelled.