I watched as the sun slowly rose, it’s rays of light bathing us gently in warmth.

The sun ever so slowly rose higher and higher into the air causing me to compare it to our own situation.

The sun would rise every day, with nothing to stop it.

Nothing could get in the way of the sun and stop its movement.

Nothing could command it to halt.

It was the same for us.

We rose higher and higher with each coming day.

Our ranks swelled, our power grew and our influence spread further and further with each passing day.

Nothing was our equal.

No army, no clan, no kingdom, no religion and no god.

We were unrivalled in Theciallia.

An orc in a dark clad robe slowly moved beside me atop his mount, a wolf.

Once he was side by side with me he looked at me with a dark smile.

Ghum’bil: “Champion, how much longer shall we wait here?” he asked me his tone excited.

Sighing I looked at him before gesturing to the forest inside of me.

Kaiser: “We have marched since last night and now we must pass this forest to reach the land of the Elves but there are over a dozen clans of orcs and beast men between us and them” I said, the irritation in my voice visible.

Ghum’bil: “Then we absorb them into our ranks or kill them, what makes you hesitate” he asked, his voice cold.

Kaiser: “There is no hesitation, I was simply stating a fact” I said, my tone sad.

I disliked killing randomly; it was not something I revelled in, unlike my subordinates.

Ghum’bil: “Then let us continue our march, champion, we have a lot of land to conquer before we reach the elves” his eyes once again shined with that disgusting lust for a brief moment.

Kaiser: “Of course we do, Ghum’bil, of course we do” and with that I raised my right hand into the air and roared “MARCH, HORDE OF DAMNATION, CONQUER OR KILL ALL WHO STAND IN YOUR WAY” and with that the ground shook as our army of 10,000 roared and begun to move.

I marched at the front of the horde, with them following closely behind me.

Every step we took caused the ground to shake, causing the native wildlife to flee from the mass of killing intent.

Ghum’bils subordinates began to move ahead of us and before we could reach the forest began to cut down and burn trees creating a large path.

A path large enough for a horde of 10,000 to walk through.

I glanced at Ghum’bil and he simply smiled at me.

I nodded to him before looking in front of us.

At the pace we were going, by the time we reached the entrance of the forest, Ghum’bils advance party would have already cleared a huge road out for us.

Ghum’bil had some ulterior motive for wanting to subjugate the elves and I could guess why.

Nonetheless we continued forward before entering the forest and marching across the burned road created by our foul magic.

We marched through the forest on a road of fire.

Barely a half hour into the forest, our advance party already identified 3 separate dwellings.

Two orc and one beast men.

I glanced at Ghum’bil and he smiled at me before growling at his subordinates.

Ghum’bil: “Lak’thras, Halia, Grobil” his tone dark and excited “Subjugate or destroy them” he said with a smile on his face.

The three orcs unlike me and Ghum’bil who were gray and unlike the rest of the orcs who were green, were red.

I noticed that not only where these orcs red but all of his lieutenants and commanders were red.

All of them looked battle hardened and cruel.

Which considering who their master was, made sense.

The three orcs Lak’thras, Halia and Grobil nodded to their master’s dark command and took a hundred men each and marched through the trees, each in a different direction before finally disappearing from view.

Barely 10 minutes since their leave, we heard roars of primal rage as well as combat coming from the direction Grobil had gone.

My horde began to walk faster as they had become excited from the sounds they heard.

They lusted for blood and war.

But I didn’t change my pace to suit that of the hordes and they slowed down once they realized I wouldn’t hasten my speed.

The sounds of fighting died out after a few minutes and then a few minutes from then, Grobil returned with the head of an orc in his hands.

He dismissed his men and made them rejoin the horde.

The look of happiness that dyed the faces of Grobils orcs made the rest of the horde more blood thirsty.

I pitied the elves.

This was not a war they would be able to win.

This was not even going to be a battle.

This was going to be a massacre.

Once Grobil made sure his men had rejoined the horde he walked up to me and Ghum’bil and bowed respectfully to us before presenting the head of the orc to us.

Grobil: “I have completed my task, masters” he said with a platonic face.

Ghum’bil praised him causing him to smile and I nodded to him which signified my approval of what he had done causing him to break out into a grin.

Ghum’bil dismissed him and he went and joined the rest of the commanders behind us.

Smiling at me, Ghum'bil looked pleased.

Ghum’bil: “Not every clan will join us Champion and we cannot just leave them be” his grin was primal and disgusting but I simply nodded to his words.

We continued our march and before long the orc named Lak’thras made his way out of the forest and with him he had nearly a thousand orcs.

Of course barely 200 of those thousand orcs were warriors and the rest were orclings, the elderly and the disabled.

Glancing at Ghum’bil I smiled.

Kaiser: “But many will join us” which caused him to grunt in understanding. He clearly wanted to massacre them all but he would never be able to as long as I was here. “Send a hundred of our men to guide the non-combatants back to the fortress and integrate the warriors of their clan into our horde” and with that Ghum’bil nodded and began to relay the tasks to his subordinates.

Within 10 minutes, the warriors were joined with our horde and the rest of them were being guided back to the fortress.

Our march continued for more than an hour and we heard no word from Halia and his men so I told Ghum’bil to find out what happened.

He created his ball of darkness, but this time it was a different colour and sent it out and before long his expression turned grim and he looked at me.

Ghum’bil: “The beast men have massacred Halia and his man” he said this as if it was a normal thing which caused me to raise my brow in a questioning manner. He looked at me and realized that I didn’t know what he was talking about and immediately began to explain things “The beast man belong to the Lionas Clan, undoubtedly the strongest amongst the beast man clans and only being barely rivalled by the Tigras Clan, Wulvas Clan and the Asaconian Clan, so it wasn’t surprising that Halia died” he said so in a bored manner.

Kaiser: “Then go and fix your subordinates mistake and make them submit to us. A clan that powerful will be useful to us” I told him which made him snicker.

He was beginning to piss me off with his attitude, but he’ll probably get better after the Invasion of the elves so I’ll try and ignore his attitude till then.

Ghum’bil: “They are amongst the most prideful of the races in Theciallia, they would never submit to us, they can only be killed” and with an annoying grin plastered on his face “And their woman enslaved. Understand what I mean, Champion?” he asked in a sarcastic manner.

That was it; it was time for him to be knocked down a peg.

I looked at him and grinned.

Kaiser: “Then go and enslave them Ghum’bil” my words caused him to look shocked “but if you so much as touch one of those females, I shall make it so you can never touch any again. Understand me, High Priest?” I told him in a dark and cold tone.

He simply paled before nodding to me and taking a thousand of our men and disappearing into the forest.

I smiled and congratulated myself on my immature victory.

Nonetheless a victory is a victory so it doesn’t matter.

I glanced at the road in front of us.

The long road of fire that defiled the forest and stretched out through it and into the distance.

I grimaced at what we were doing to nature itself but we had to defeat the elves as fast as possible so that we could focus on the Amiyan Religion and the humans.

Barely a half hour since Ghum’bil had gone; we heard cries of war and rage.

No, I shook my head.

Not cries of war and rage, but cries of fear and sadness.

The cries I heard were that of a massacre.

A massacre that I knew Ghum’bil was committing with a smile on his face.

We had been marching since yesterday and I, while not physically tired, was mentally tired.

I came to halt and everyone behind me stopped as well.

I turned around and spoke, no not spoke, roared.

Kaiser: “SET UP A CAMP, WE REST FOR NOW!” my voice echoed through the forest and within a few moments since I spoke, our horde was a bee hive of activity.

Tents went up, trees were cleared so that more space could be made, animals begun to get hunted.

I turned around and glanced in the direction the Elven lands were meant to be, before sighing and hoping for a fast and quick battle with minimal bloodshed.

But who was I kidding; this was going to be a massacre.

A massacre in the name of our god.

A massacre led by me.

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