A scream tore itself from the great orc - who himself was torn in two. With a spray of blood and viscera that pained the already bloody battlefield even more crimson, I continued slaughtering my way through the sea of green bodies and metal.

Neither the screams nor the chaos unfolding all around really registered as my mind ran on a different track entirely from my body which was busy animatedly causing carnage in the ranks of the army.

Even my magic had a mind of its own as it constantly drew on the blood of the fallen to both fuel my ruthless onslaught and the building army of blood puppets rising to fight the enemy every second.

"S-stop this instance! By the command of warl-!" One of the retreating generals screamed as I closed in on him, but was cut off the same moment his head was removed from his shoulders.

But despite the generous EXP and flooding into me from the battle and kills, I couldn't find myself pleased in the slightest; my mind only one thought.

"Of all times, why now?"

Fraught with worry, anger, and trepidation with everything that had come down on my shoulders since Mia becoming pregnant, I had found myself working as a mindless machine the last twenty-five days.

Only three days remained until the trials started, and that deadline had hovered over my head like a guillotine since the announcement. With every day passing, it had been like a punch to my confidence for each as they rolled by.

First, there was the looming threat of winter that Ursa had warned me of. After further questioning, it was apparent why the basin until now, and besides just its obscure location, had been as deserted by monsters as it was. There was in fact another reason other than Ursa posing the threat that she was, that most never managed to secure the basin as a place of power.

The winter beasts.

From tunnels running through and beneath the colossal mountain range encasing the basin itself, a species of ferocious and numerous beasts resides. Emerging only during the peak of winter to hunt and wreak havoc on the land above. During this time, even Ursa herself would hide and wait it out, which definitely didn't bode well for us.

While the threat of these snow beasts really did weigh heavily on my mind, I was confident in myself and the many capable minds that had decided to follow and ally themselves with me to help the clan prevail through it all.

But as that had muddled my thoughts during the days right before I was to re-enter the jungle to hunt, Mia's proclamation of her being pregnant and the abrupt announcement of the trials being less than a month away crashed through all thoughts and caused me a great deal of turmoil.

However, not even that was the end trouble for me.

With the days going by, I had plunged myself into the jungle to get myself ready for the trials like nothing more than a machine, worried for not only the clan but also whether or not I'd even be there for the birth of my child. After just two weeks, Mia had already begun to show, which definitely proved that her pregnancy would not last as long as a human's.

With all of those things weighing on my mind, I had not been ready for the chaos that would come next and unfold in the lowlands just outside the basin.

At first, it was just reports from the scouts stationed outside the basin, detailing an increase in activity and warbands moving through the lowlands. But before I even got word of this, returning to the clan for a day, the outside had already escalated into full-on war.

Luckily, Ruela and Frenn had sent word explaining the situation, though the news was all but good.

Warlord Mordrenn, the ruler of the western lowlands and the one who lorded over the warchiefs, of whom one of Frenn and Ruela was under, had engaged in a sacred war between Warlord Tol'zeroth, the iron tyrant and ruler of the northern lowlands.

Being conscripted into the war, Frenn and Ruela had already sent war parties to join up with some of their warchief's armies who had warred on the border, of which we were incredibly close. This had of course spiked a lot of worry, and the only relief in this was the fact that this frontier was one of the least contested ones, essentially meaning much less conflict and attention from the warlords.

However, before we knew of all of this and could act on it, the basin was within the conquered territory of Warlord Tol'zeroth.

The border had fallen back to Ruela and Frenn's clans including a dozen others, who were all now a part of the war frontier. With communication practically non-existent, our ears on the situation and the war as a whole were cut off, and we had no real idea what was going on outside.

For almost a week like this, we had somehow either been deemed as something to take care of later or simply gone unnoticed during the chaos of war. But now, the trouble brewing outside our little home had finally come to our doorstep.

Already being back from hunting, displeased by both having to cut it short for the clan's safety and having barely made progress towards level forty-seven, I and a thousand of the strongest fighters and beasts at my command immediately went outside to the rolling hills of the lowlands where a war party of one of the rivaling warchiefs was advancing on the basin.

We engaged in communication to try our best to remain a neutral party and hopefully be left alone, but that quickly broke down into the slaughter and absolute carnage laying bare now before me.

[You have slain 5723 different creatures!]

[4.2m You have been rewarded with points of EXP]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 47]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 47]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of 356 different creatures!]

[380436 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

I summoned a cloth, wiping away the grime from my face that I couldn't do as well with the blood. As I walked through the sea of bodies lying at my feet, I didn't need to tiptoe as with just some simple blood manipulation, I made the corpses part the way for me.

"My Lord," A captain under Rena and Grul saluted as I approached the re-grouping army.

"What are the losses?" I asked with a deep frown.

"A little less than two hundred, sir." He reported with a relieved but grim face. "If not for you milord and the council's strength, I'm afraid we would've lost the entire army, let alone losing just two hundred casualties."

Frown creasing even deeper, I just shook my head and walked past the captain.

"Still too many," I grumbled, knowing that was two hundred potentially great elite warriors less to work with.

Sighing at all the carnage and the trouble that would inevitably follow, I at least took comfort in knowing that every single fighter under my rule was immensely strong.

The enemy army that had accosted us was an entire ten thousand strong, consisting of mostly orcs, with a couple of thousand great orcs and other similar greenskins. But still, with just a little more than a thousand strong warriors that could easily contest multiple great orcs alone, it proved that while our faction was incredibly outnumbered, we still held an immense qualitative advantage against our new foes.

But not just that, with fighters like Bob, the twins, Roc, some of the newly enlisted blood orcs, and various other figures of the council that made up the strongest and most influential individuals of the clan, we could've easily taken care of this army without a single casualty.

I had initially just wanted the army as a sign of strength and a deterrent, but as negotiations descended into fighting, the army joined in and we ended up with unnecessary losses - each a great orc or monster of similar strength with the potential to become the elite of the clan.

"Master, what will you have us do?" The twin warleaders of my military, Rena and Grul, asked as I approached.

"Conflict was inevitable, but now that we slaughtered one of their subsidiary armies we don't have any more opportunity to stall their advances," I sighed, looking at the bloody and torn-up battlefield. "Priority goes to those with the gravest injuries, have them taken back to the clan by those most capable. All others who are still in fighting shape, have them collect the spoils to bring back to the clan."

"What about further conflict?" Grul asked. "We made sure that no stragglers remained to spread the word, but it's still only a matter of time before they know what happened and muster up enough forces to assault the clan. My guess says that we will have fighting at our doorstep in a little more than two months, considering that this was newly conquered territory, weeks march from the nearest enemy fortification."

"Get Mar'v and halt all construction on the settlement," I paused, squinting at the mountain range in the distance. "All the essential construction have already been built, so now have him direct all effort, including enlisting extra labor from the fighters, towards fortifying and securing all mountain passes into the basin - double time."

Seeing that they listened to my orders intently, I nodded satisfied.

"Dismissed."

"Yes, Master!" They echoed, running off to yell orders at the monsters all around.

Looking around and taking everything in, I pulled up a prompt.

∼[The Trials]∼

[Canditates qualified - Adequte]

[The Gates have opened!]

[Time remaining: 3-cycles]

I frowned deeply, barely stopping myself from sneering at the blasted timer that had caused me quite a few sleepless nights.

"Goddammit..." I muttered, beginning to make my way back to the clan so I could prepare it for war in my soon-to-be absence.