"What the hell humans are doing here?" Uncle fulminated and pounded his fist on a nearby tree. He has a nasty expression on his face that I have never seen before.

"humans?" Darg said as he also started looking in abhorrence. He was probably seeing them for the first time, but he still hates them. Until now, I don't feel any attachment to humans, but I'll have to watch my words while speaking about them.

"Why are they here? Don't we have a treaty between the Guzan kingdom and the human alliance?" I asked confoundedly to show how annoyed and surprised I was.

"You know about that?"

"Yes. a little bit." I responded with a nod.

"I am also confused about their timing, but we must get out of here before we are discovered. We are in no shape to face them all." Uncle said and started nimbling away without waiting for us. We raced to catch up.

"What do we do now?" I asked uncle Uuk. Still running, he said, "We must get back to the tribe as soon as possible." He replied

"But what about our hunt? We just started?" Darg leveled up and asked. Uncle shook his head. "Our hunt is already over. Most of our team is injured, and some have even been killed."

"We must not let these little fucks leave this area. They are gonna die by my hands." he snarled. "But first, we need to tell Umok about them."

He generally acts as a respectful and loyal warrior in front of father, but in desperate or happy times, he calls him by his name.

Soon we reached the cave. Even though we have good eyes, it has become challenging to see even a glimpse of what's going on, let alone find direction. Finally, Rizu and other orcs lit a fire, so we got a hint of our cave's path from far.

"Rizu, pack up. We'll have to go back to the tribe. We have spotted an orc tribe nearby." Uncle blasted into the cave with his announcement. Rizu, with his broken hand stoop up, immediately gave us a perplexed look. "Orc tribe? Here? Is it Soumaira?" There was a hint of fear on Rizu's face.

"Unlikely, it was a tribe, maybe a hundred orcs. However, there were few humans present in there." Even Bimu, who was struggling for his life, flinched. "Hundred? And How many humans were there? and can you tell how strong are they?" Rizu bombarded uncle with questions after hearing about humans.

"Not much, maybe dozen. As for their power level, it is hard to tell." Uncle responded calmly. "Hmm, then we shouldn't take them on for now." Rizu said.

"Take them on? You sure are something. Does anyone else also have some idiotic thoughts? first, We need to report this to the chief, and we are returning to the tribe." Uncle ensured that no one else had any other thoughts.

After that, we started assembling our hunt and weapons.

"Light few torches. Traveling in the night is dangerous." Uncle ordered. We lighted up few torches with fire. I checked we had enough fats to burn. With that, we left the cave in the dark.

***

We reached our tribe early morning. There was a little commotion when we returned, but soon after watching the condition of our party, it turned into whimpering. Some were concerned, while some complained about our low kill count.

"You kids, go and freshen up. I'll arrange an emergency meeting right now." We went straight to our rooms as uncle directed. After getting a wash-up, I laid down on my bed. I just catnapped as I heard someone entering my room.

"Mother?" I said with half-open eyes just to inquire. "Sleep... I'll just stay here for some time and leave." She said. I sat in bed, retracted my legs, and made space for her. She ignored the space created and came directly to embrace me. Her coat felt cold. I resonated with her embrace.

"I heard you fought with an lvl2 orc." She said as she stroked my hair. "He already talked about everything?" I reverted. "First, answer my question." She didn't budge at all. " Darg was missing, so I lost control over my thoughts on one orcs incitation." I explained the situation to her.

"That's not good, Uric. You can not react to every provocation on the battlefield. You need to maintain your composure during such times. Your one mistake can endanger several other lives on the battlefield." She started nagging me. I wondered if everyone feels annoyed when they are scolded by their parents.

"How did you manage to defeat an lvl2 orc?" She took a little pause and said. "I saw that technique in the human book. I couldn't understand but tried following the drawings."

"Before departing for the hunt, I practiced it but never succeeded. I don't know how I succeeded in a real battle. I think I can use it when I use my core energy." I didn't hide anything from her.

"So you accidentally used it when you lost your mind?" I nodded in reply. "That's good. It's an effective technique, then. You'll get more clarity in a few months when you get more control over your core energy." I thought I'd have some more Q&A about this, but she was incredibly chill. She got up from my side and started to leave.

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"Leaving already." I protested. "Already? It's been hours since you all came. I came here to pick you up for the meeting that is being held." She smiled as she turned to answer me. "It's already that late?" I wondered for how much time I dozed off. "Are you coming? You can sleep if you are tir..." I jumped down from my bed before she completed. "Let's go to the meeting." I said.

Who's gonna miss this exciting meeting?

***

This time there was one more chair for my mother beside my father. Even Darg and I got those square cushions to sit on this time as few people were missing. There were only two commanders present as of now in the tribe.

"Uuk's hunting party has located another tribe near our territory." father took a pause while speaking. "They have reported seeing humans in that orc tribe." murmurs started in the whole room. Few faces were pale, few were in anger, and there was not one orc who didn't raise his eyebrow in shock.

"But what are we going to do, chief? We are not at our full strength right now." Puru, one of the commanders, spoke. "We need to kill them. Both orcs and humans." the murmur got louder as the elder Shaman said this.

"Uuk, how many humans and orcs were there in that tribe?" Father asked uncle.

"Around hundred orcs and maximum dozen humans." Uncle said. father nodded slowly in response. "My chief, we don't know their strength, and even if there is one human warrior like Duke Montfort, then it'll be suicide to attack them with our strength." Puru once again whinged.

"No, there can't be a human warrior of that level. Sending someone like him is directly declaring war against the Guzan kingdom. So they must be some low-profile humans who have entered the forest independently." This time mother spoke. "Even so, must we attack them? Maybe they will go away in some time?" Junior Shaman said. Indeed, there was much uncertainty because of humans. Otherwise, they would have departed by now to annex that tribe.

"We have to act now. They are less than a day away from us. Do you really think we won't be discovered by them?" Mother said abruptly. No one dared to say anything after that.

"Judging by their numbers, there can't be any strong orc in that tribe. But, Uuk, do you know anything about those humans' strength?" Father asked.

"I can't tell with confidence, but there shouldn't be any strong one in them." Uncle replied.

"How many warriors are present right now?" father asked after pondering a little.

"Around twenty-five, my chief." Elder Shaman said.

"We'll have to take this risk. We can't wait for everyone to return." Mother said there were few who agreed with her.

" Prepare for war. We'll move tomorrow morning." father said.

"But chief, we should...." Puru and the other Shaman tried to say something but father showed his hand to stop them.

"Don't worry too much, Puru. I'll move myself." Puru's face had an instant relaxation. The presence of their leader indeed affects his army's morale.

The tribe got busy for the rest of the day. Finally, an announcement of the war was made. Few were excited, and few were scared. The armory was opened to stock on weapons. Some were already filing their blades with a whetstone. Hobgoblins were preparing food and other supplies for the journey while all the shamans were enchanting father and commander's sword.

***

At night time we were having dinner in our garden as usual. Light from the bonfire covered the whole garden area. It was quieter than regular days. No one was breaking the ice.

"Are you going to take Uric and Darg along with you?" Mother asked my father. I had already told my mother and uncle to talk about this with my father in the afternoon.

"Yes, I think I should. I heard from Uuk how well they did during their hunt." He nodded. "Do you want to come with us this time?" He turned and asked us.

"Yes" I said with a determined face expressing my desire.

"It's good that you want to learn, but don't take this as practice. It's a real war. So many will die tomorrow, and if there is any hint of us losing, you should run back here and take the tribe away from this place."

My heart began to pump rapidly. A sweep of adrenaline rushed through my brain, which prepared me more for the battle.

"Umok, you are taking children with you. Are you confident?" My mother asked him. She did ask father to take me with him on my insistence, but she is still reluctant inside. I can feel it.

"I am confident about that orc tribe. Their chief can't be too strong and lead only a hundred orcs. What I am worried about is humans. You know, right? You can't say anything about them with surety." Father said with a serious face as he stopped eating.

"If you don't see us by evening the next day, you should immediately prepare to leave this area." father said. Mother nodded slightly. The mood was heavy, so we ate our share quietly. Twins didn't fuss around this time.

"Father, I wanted to say something." I said as we were wrapping things up and were about to call it a night.

"Tell me, what is it?" He said with a flat face.

"If we win tomorrow, can we just capture those humans instead of killing them?" Everyone gave me a befuddled look.

"Through them, we can learn about human movements and other things. Also, as you know, I accidentally used one of the human techniques. But it was an accident. So I want to know more about that technique, and maybe those humans can help me." I justified my position. Everyone relaxed back. Suddenly I made some sense to them.

"Hmm, good. We'll do that. They'll be more useful as captives when I think about it." Father said, still contemplating the pros and cons.

"Yes, it's good if we can make good use of those bastards. And if we can't, we can just sell them to Guzan for weapons." Uncle Uuk said with a laugh. Everyone dismissed him with a half-laugh. With this, we called the night.

The night went passed as I was changing from side to side. The whole night I envisioned the scenes of war and how I was going to fight in them.

In the morning, we left early. By noon we were already at the cave in which we had stayed back. As we knew the path, it didn't take long to reach there. After eating and a little rest, we were already preparing for war. Shamans continuously chanted something, and other warriors gave the last filing to their swords before the fight. Soon, we completed the formalities and left for the orc tribe.

I saw their security lacking as we approached the tribe. The entrance was broad, and there was no tree house to defend. This gave me a bad feeling. Are they too perplexed, or they are too confident in defending? The guards who were guarding the entrance scampered in towards a particular hut. We didn't make any moves while waiting for someone to show up.

Soon, a dozen orcs and the same number of humans came from within. Within them, there was a blonde middle-aged man in a white robe. His Balbo beard and cheekbones indicated that he wasn't much old. He was in the front leading the group. I saw the confidence of both sides grow as they examined each other. Finally, both groups saw their chances of victory, and now they all are itching for a fight.