If within the walls of Orma the situation was desperate, the same could not be said of the guard perimeter positioned outside the city. Groups of Trolls and Undead had been left to control the situation, tasked with getting rid of Goblins as soon as they saw one.

At first many Ormans had poured out of the walls like an unstoppable wave, some had been eliminated, others had managed to escape thanks to a stroke of luck, but after the first wave the situation seemed to have stabilized. It seemed that the population had been somehow decimated even before it could manage to get close to the walls to get to safety.

The situation was extremely calm.

A Troll and a Lich were resting with their backs to the walls. There had been no Auras approaching for a while. They stood there, in silence and frowned at each other.

It was stronger than them, the hatred that divided the two peoples was atavic and rooted in their cultures. The fact that Kari and Lostro had decided to join forces had not been enough for their subjects to get along.

The Trolls were huge, bulky, and terribly strong, but quite slow of wits. Most Undead, on the other hand, had superior intellectual powers, especially as far as lichs were concerned, while ghouls and skeletons mostly acted as front-line warriors. Despite this, the warriors of the two races had managed to endure each other in order to defeat the great common enemy, the Goblins.

Kari and Lostro had ordered their troops to mix as much as possible, to avoid the formation of racial groups. This way, their soldiers could communicate better and avoid misunderstandings on the battlefield.

Even the two Immortals themselves didn't really like each other, but they knew their collaboration would be absolutely necessary to defeat Cesar and his people. After all, the Goblin capital would be reduced to dust today. No one was going to stop them from their bllodbath, and they had no intention of leaving any survivors ready to retaliate in the future.

For this reason the Lich and the Troll had decided to put their differences aside, at least for the moment. One day, who knows, they would find themselves fighting against each other.

"The other patrols are on an clockwise loop, so we have to follow it too," the Lich reported, staring at the Troll and wondering if he understood.

The Troll grunted in response to the smug look. It was true that Trolls weren't the smartest creatures in this world, but that didn't mean they were totally stupid. Furthermore, the same rule applied to all races: the further one advanced towards Immortality, the more humanoid characteristics were acquired.

Therefore, a Seventh Phase Troll, like him, was not stupid. He was slow, yes, but only by the standards of beings who were considered moderately intelligent. He might not have understood complex military tactics and strategies, but moving clockwise or counterclockwise wasn't that difficult.

“The King said we should only engage the enemy if they are in the same Phase as us, or are in a lower Phase. If we find a Human it has been communicated that he must be eliminated at all costs,” the Troll said, reporting verbatim what his superiors had told him.

In a community not very intelligent like the Trolls' one, the key thing was discipline. The hierarchies were military and very strict. Each warrior had to obey the orders of his superiors. It was a teaching imprinted on their skin from a very young age.

The Lich snorted and took off, urging the other to do the same. "I can't wait for this war to end."

"Same," replied the Troll. “I'm tired of always eating the same shit. I miss my mother's dumplings."

Nodding, the Lich smiled and increased his flight speed. The Troll followed him.

After a few minutes, the Troll stopped in mid-air. “Looks like someone is coming this way,” he said.

Both warriors stopped on the spot, exchanging glances.

"Yes ... But it's not coming from the perimeter, it's going towards the perimeter." The Lich's voice was uncertain. He was wondering who ever wanted to set foot in a war territory just then, when a decisive battle was taking place.

“The orders are clear: no one should interfere. So we have to step in anyway and get rid of this hindrance,” the Troll said uncomfortably. Anything that fell into a gray area of the orders he received made him uncomfortable. The Troll did not like to think about what was right or wrong, he just wanted to obey the orders of his superiors.

The Lich shrugged, agreeing and following the Troll who had already sprinted forward.

…

An indistinct figure ran at super-human speed, leaping from tree to tree. With a somersault it leapt from the top of an oak tree down to the ground. For a few seconds, the figure slowed, making it possible to make out two large black swords, crossed behind its back. They were very large and looked terribly heavy. They didn't even look like two weapons to use together, as one would expect from a pair of identical, yet independent, swords precisely because of their weight.

As it darted through the trees, the figure's Divine Sense had already warned it of the presence of two incoming enemies, both in the Seventh Phase.

"Well, those should be the last ones," it muttered to itself with a satisfied smile on its face.

After a few seconds, two shadows appeared in the distance. They too flew pretty fast.

The closer they got, the more the Lich and the Troll thought they had mostly lost their sight or were hallucinating. But, they told themselves, it couldn't be a hallucination if they both saw it, right?

What was in front of them was a… Human?

They slowed down abruptly and stopped. So did the figure in front of them.

"Human! What are you doing here?" asked the Troll, even more perplexed than before.

That was a problem! If he had been a Goblin, they could have just taken him out. But a Human ... a Human was slippery territory, and any action they did threatened to drop them into a great deep mire of trouble. If the warrior had belonged to some great Clan or was an ally of the Human who had financed the expedition against the Goblins, they shouldn't have touched him even with a tought.

In response, a shrill voice reached their ears. "Finally the last ones, what a gruesome job!"

"Eh?" said the Lich and the Troll at the same time.

Before they even realized what was happening, their pupils narrowed to tiny slits. They watched in terror the Human in front of them disappear, even before they could get a good look at his face.

Swooosh

They then down at their hips and realized they had just been literally cut in two.

Skill Activated:

Flame of the Black Phoenix

Both disappeared, engulfed by two black flames, which consumed their bodies and reduced them to ashes in a few seconds.

Stretching its neck a little, the figure resumed moving at high speed.

Now that it had gotten rid of the patrols of warriors in the Seventh Phase, all he had to do was face the encirclement of warriors within the walls. The latter were up to the Fifth Phase, so it wouldn't be difficult to get rid of them. In fact, he was pretty sure that Helial had already eliminated quite a few and without too much trouble.

He regretted not having received any other news other than the flight of Helial and his companions from the owner of the Colosseum. Although he had never been a member of the Goblin society, over the years he had grown fond of some people, who reciprocated him with the same affection.

The latest communications had allowed him to return to Orma and find out about its state of war, but he hadn't discovered anything more. Now he had to deal with it alone.