Max followed the blood trail directly. As it extended further from the location of the battle, it thinned out, becoming limited to a series of sparse and intermittent crimson blotches on the forest floor. Fortunately, Max was an experienced tracker from his time in Hero of Liberation and could have followed the trail even if there had been no blood.

Although the hillside dirt was tough and did not easily sink underfoot, orcs were heavy creatures so Max could still clearly see their tracks. It was apparent that over a dozen orcs had passed through here, so he proceeded quietly to avoid being discovered.

Some kilometres later, Max knew he had found his destination when he spotted pillars of smoke billowing into the sky ahead. Picking a direction with high tree coverage, he advanced toward the smoke and surveyed the area.

As expected, a large orc encampment protruded out from the hillside. There were no walls or palisades surrounding it, indicating that the orcs were probably highly confident, or not expecting any sort of attack. Either way, this was fortunate for Max, as it afforded him a clear view of the camp’s interior.

Large, primitive tents made from sticks and animal hides scattered the area, along with a few lit campfires which were being used to cook meat on long skewers. By Max’s estimation there were about forty orcs, plus any more in the tents and however many were not currently inside the camp.

“Hm... Troublesome, very troublesome...”

This presented a huge problem. There was absolutely no chance he could take on this many orcs in a frontal assault. Even if he could, the patrol squad guards might already be dead by this point, which would render his efforts pointless.

Right as Max was deciding to just bring back some evidence of the orc’s presence, he spotted a human man by the edge of the camp, flailing in panic as he was pinned down by a muscular orc.

“HELP!! SOMEONE! ANYONE! W-”

The screaming guard was swiftly punched and knocked out. Some other orcs glanced over momentarily, but quickly lost interest when they realised nothing of interesting was happening.

“Sh*t. What are they doing?” Max squinted his eyes to see what the orc was doing with the man.

The orc laid the guard on top of a spear and wrapped a rope around him. It looked as though it was attempting to tie a knot, but was struggling to do so, as the rope was too small to manipulate with its large fingers.

“Oh. Oh sh*t.” Max quickly got up and flanked around to the side where the man was being strung, grabbing some small stones along the way. He knew exactly what that orc was doing; it intended to use the spear as a makeshift cooking implement.

Advancing in cover, Max came as close to the camp perimeter as he could manage, before taking a stone from his pocket and throwing it at a nearby tree.

“What? What was that?” The orc stood and spoke gruffly. Upon scanning the area, only some trees and bushes could be seen, which swayed naturally in the wind. Appearing to think for a moment, the orc lowered its rope before slowly moving to investigate the source of the noise.

Thik!

Suddenly, an arrow shot out from one of the bushes and pierced the orc’s Adam’s apple. The orc choked and widened its eyes in shock, before a second shot swiftly followed and struck its eye. The orc died and disintegrated into particles.

‘That whole disintegration thing is really convenient, huh.’ Max didn’t think he could drag a body of that size, so it was good that he didn’t need to hide the corpse.

—??

—Um what

—???

—2 SHOTS?!?!

—Wasn’t this a lvl.20 area?

Max didn’t have time to look at the chat right now. After briefly waiting for an opportune moment, he took another stone from his pocket and hurled it high into the air, aiming for the opposite edge of the camp. Confirming some orcs were now looking away, he darted for the unconscious guard, quickly disentangling him and dragging him back to a bush by his armpits. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like he’d been spotted while doing so.

The man still hadn’t woken up, so Max gave him a few good slaps until he came to.

“Ugh? What? Where am I; am I alive?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Shh. You’re alive but be quiet; we’re still in enemy territory.” Max twisted his head so he could see the orc camp. “You narrowly avoided becoming rotisserie food.”

“Oh, thank-”

“Be thankful later, we haven’t escaped yet.” Max firmly controlled the conversation since he wasn’t sure whether the orcs would soon notice their friend was missing. “I have some questions to ask you: First, are you injured?”

“Me? No, I’m fine. But the others...”

“Are there more survivors?”

“Yes! They’re all in there.” The man pointed to one of the tents. “There were two sentries inside, but one of them took me away. If you killed that one, then there’s probably only one inside now. We can save them, right?!” The man looked at Max with a tinge of hope and desperation.

“Yes, we can try. How many alive? What are their injuries like?”

Max was familiar with this sort of rescue mission from his early days in Hero of Liberation. When it came to rescuing people from a large number of enemies, the most important thing was mobility. If the prisoners could not outrun their captors, they would not be able to escape far. This situation here was already grim, since these orcs were presumably stronger, faster and greater in number than the human patrol members. Some seriously good strategy would be needed to make it out alive.

“There are 9 of us, including me. 5 are relatively uninjured, 3 won’t be able to run and 1 had his arms broken.”

Max grimaced. From what the guard captain, Ken, had told him, he knew that 21 guards had gone out on the expedition.

“We spotted an orc stronghold to the north and attempted to withdraw so we could inform our captain at Novus Village, but we were caught by the orcs further south and brought here. I’m Esmond by the way. Did the captain send you?”

“Yes, he did. I’m M... Gun, a summoned hero tasked with bringing you back.”

“The hero summoning worked? That’s great news!” Esmond was ecstatic. “We might finally have a chance against the Demon Army!”

“That’s right. But I just arrived here today, so I’m in the dark. I need you to tell me everything you can about orcs; their weaknesses, strengths, et cetera; the essentials.”

“Of course! Orcs are a strong race with tough skin and high vitality, but low intelligence. They have no aptitude for magic but have a strong sense of smell which they use to track down their prey. They are also very agile. There are a few common strategies for dealing with them...”

Esmond spoke quickly as he described the various characteristics of orcs, making sure to stay quiet as he did so since the enemies were still nearby.

—Lol when did this become a soft-spoken ASMR video

—10v50 ez

—If they actually manage to escape then the earth is flat

Max formulated a plan while Esmond was speaking. According to Esmond, orcs typically had extremely well-developed tracking abilities, but the ones in this camp were new recruits in their early level 20s and were still in training. They also had a strong veteran leader who was above level 30; Max made a note to watch out for that one.

The enemies’ strong sense of smell and tracking abilities limited their escape options significantly. A few different ideas entered Max’s head: He could do something like attack the orcs or start a fire to create a diversion while the patrol team tried to retreat with Edmond, or he could go along with them as a bodyguard and hope the orcs were slow to realise their escape. He could also try to just kill all the orcs by attacking the camp with hit-and-run tactics, but the first two options seemed much more reliable since the orcs had hostages. Also, taking on 40+ orcs was probably not feasible with his current strength.

The first option depended upon Edmond not being discovered when leaving the tent with the prisoners. Unfortunately, there wasn’t even time to set traps, as the NPCs might be killed during that time.

Max cursed at his poor and limited options as he belatedly processed Esmond’s words, making sure he didn’t miss anything important as the guy was still talking.

“That’s about it. Was there anything else?”

“One last thing. How quickly can you start a fire?”

“Huh? A fire?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s midday, and hasn’t rained in a while, so probably 5 minutes, or less. Why?”

‘Quick!’ Max was very satisfied. “I need you to make a signal fire as a diversion before we attempt the rescue. If what you said was true about orcs being dumb, it should take their attention away from the prisoners, and they might even send a squad to check it out.”

“Y-yeah, that’s a good idea. B-but what about me?” Esmond seemed slightly concerned.

Max checked his map. “A few kilometres east of here, there’s a river that runs all the way down south. Set a fire to the northeast of here and then book it to that river. You can wash off your scent in the water, follow it for a little while and then hide your tracks when you leave it.”

“Right! Faul River! That’s a good idea.” Edmond nodded and approved of the plan. “Then, I’ll go now.”

“Wait.” Max motioned for him to stop. “Take this with you for protection.” He offered him the spear from the orc.

Edmond looked at it awkwardly. “N-no thanks. I’m not really interested in using the weapon I was nearly roasted over a fire with.”

“Oh. Well, it wouldn’t have worked anyways. That rope would have burnt and broke instantly if it was held over a fire. He probably would’ve just killed you the normal way after that.”

“...Right.”

—LOL Edmond

—Poor guy

“I’ll still pass.” Edmond shook his head. “The vice-captain is far more proficient than I am with a spear; it’ll be of much better use in the right hands.”

“Alright, noted.” Max put the spear back in his inventory. “Get going then. I’ll start the operation when the smoke is visible. See you back at the village hopefully.”

“Yes, Sir Gun!” Edmond gave him a salute, before taking off into the forest.