Pale Emblem

Chapter 159: No Deception

Hansen was an outcast, a victim, and his fate was sealed from the moment he joined the cult and became involved in this matter.

The orc messenger must kill him to silence him in order to protect the real half-elf spy lurking within the Flame Tiger Legion.

When Hansen asked the two warriors why he had to come alone and whether they were going to kill him to silence him, Christine caught the inner turmoil of the two warriors.

However, Christine did not plan to keep Hansen. He was not an important figure in the cult, knew very little inside information, and was weak, not even qualified to be a puppet of the vampire.

Although the orc messenger also had to chop off the cultists' heads and bring them back to report, the death controlled by Christine was tragic and horrifying, with a full impact, and even Victor was frightened and angry.

In fact, these two barbarian fighters and the orc shaman were both ferocious warriors with sharp intuition. They subconsciously kept a distance from Christine, just outside the effective range of the charm power.

If Christine continued to approach, they would either choose to retreat or enter a state of rage where they could no longer be charmed, and actively attack the vampire who was repeatedly forcing them.

Violent warriors may not be smart, but they are always so difficult to deal with.

However, Christine was very decisive. She seized the opportunity to get close to the opponent and burned the soul fire of the puppet Hansen without hesitation, greatly enhancing the penetration effect of the violent charm and capturing three orc messengers in one fell swoop.

Otherwise, if the Barbarian Fighter and the Orc Shaman chose to jump off the cliff to escape, it would be difficult for Victor to deal with them.

  It was the middle of the night, how could they have time to hunt down three violent orc messengers in the valley forest?

Even if they were all caught, the vampire still had to charm and control them. If any messenger escaped, Victor's plan of "turning the table" would fail immediately.

The orc messenger failed to resist the violent charm of the vampire and became her enslavement, but not her puppet.

Christine once again reminded Victor that the enslaved people controlled by the violent charm would generally die of soul decay within two or three months. Of course, she could take the initiative to cut off the mental control of the charmed target and give them a way out.

The consequence is that the slaves regain their free will and develop great hatred towards Christine.

Victor certainly would not ask Christine to break the mental control over the Orc messengers. This also meant that the three messengers only had two or three months left to live. Victor planned to use them to influence the decision of the Orc commander, but this would only happen within these two or three months.

“Two or three months?” Victor laughed bitterly at himself. “In that long a time, I’m afraid only half of the mixed-race survivors in Echo Town will remain. We have to hurry.”

Christine nodded, indicating that she understood what her master meant, and began to ask her "new pet" for information about the orcs.

According to the explanation of the Barbarian Warrior and the female shaman, the Orc army is actually composed of three forces. The first is the Rock Breaking Tribe from the far north, whose leader is an Orc butcher named Quelngra. In order to avoid some indescribable powerful monsters, they were forced to migrate to the south, and along the way they brought with them many small Orc clans to form a large Orc tribe.

However, Chief Quel'Ngra has changed the Rockbreaker Tribe to the Rockbreaker Clan to show his submission and humility to Chief Blackfyre of the Dragon Kingdom.

The Rocksplitting Clan is the main force in the battle. They currently have more than 260 Orc butchers, 126 Orc Grandmothers, more than 600 combat shamans, more than 7000 Orc fighters, and more than 3000 Orc laborers.

Next are the Lakeside Barbarians, who were formed by the merger of several barbarian villages into a new clan called the Frostfire Blade, which means a sharp blade forged by silver skyfire. It is abbreviated as the Frostblade Clan, and its leader is the Sky Spirit Fighter Locke.

The total population of the Frostblade Clan is less than 3000, including more than 500 adult barbarian warriors, 110 barbarian fighters, 6 powerful sky spirit fighters, and 16 barbarian female shamans known as daughters of the sky spirit.

It is worth mentioning that the relationship between the Rocksplitting Orcs and the Frostblade Barbarians is very close, just like the same tribe. This is because the chieftain of the Rocksplitting, Quellngra, invented the system of ten brothers. The clan's major events are discussed by the ten brothers together, and a decision can be made when seven of the ten brothers agree. If the ten brothers cannot reach a conclusion after discussing something, they will ask the Orc Mother and the Daughter of the Sky Spirit to hold a bone burning divination before making a decision.

Although the Frostblade Clan was weak, Quel'N'Glar promised to let the five Frostblade Barbarians become ten brothers, and from then on they would be on equal footing with the Rockbreaker Clan.

In addition, Chieftain Blackfyre secretly dispatched 200 Blood Guard Wolf Riders, led by a Blood Guard Warlord under his command, to monitor the battle between the Rockbreaker and Frostblade clans. Although the Blood Guard Wolf Riders of the Blackfyre tribe did not participate in the battle, they brought some military supplies to the Rockbreaker clan, including 400 Iron Wargs.

Last winter, Rockbreaker and Frostblade captured the half-elf town of Braun and looted a batch of food. The amount was not too much, but it was enough for them to survive until this autumn harvest. However, they harvested the crops early this year, and just after they finished harvesting the crops, the army of Fallen Leaf City arrived.

This was all thanks to an accurate divination by the Great Orc Mother of the Rocksplitting Clan.

However, the Orc Mother did not predict that the Blackfyre Tribe would give them 400 Ironworgs for free.

The Rocksplitters and Frostblade Barbarians could not refuse this generous gift. However, they did not have enough food to take in the Iron Wolf.

Chieftain Blackfyre gave away equipment and wargs, but he was not doing this out of kindness.

As Victor expected, Chieftain Blackfyre demanded that outsiders storm Godorei Fortress and massacre the half-elves inside as a condition for them to join the Blackfyre Tribe.

In order to prevent outsiders from disobeying his orders and engaging in guerrilla warfare with the army of Fallen Leaf City to preserve their strength, Chieftain Blackfyre used 400 Branding Wargs to consume the limited food reserves of the two clans, Rockbreaker and Frostblade, forcing them to fight head-on with the half-elf army. Regardless of winning or losing, the Rockbreaker clan and Fallen Leaf City would be greatly depleted of their military strength.

The half-orc female shaman knew all this because she was a blood guard from the Black Fire tribe, and the two wild fighters belonged to the Frost Blade clan.

They came in the name of protecting the Blackfyre Shaman, but they were secretly spying on each other.

However, they are now Christine's slaves and must answer any questions their master has.

The organizational structure, force distribution, food reserves of the two clans, including the Blackfyre Chieftain's plot and the Blood Wolf Cavalry's surveillance, were all very valuable information. Unfortunately, the generals of Fallen Leaf City could not believe the authenticity of this information, let alone pay for it.

The half-orc female shaman has a peculiar appearance. Her facial features and body shape can be considered iconic even by the aesthetic standards of half-elf, but her skin is dark red, and she has a pair of small horns on her forehead. In addition, there are two pairs of well-developed canine teeth in her mouth, which clearly show the characteristics of an abyss demon.

Victor circled around the Orc Shaman with great interest, his icy blue eyes sparkling in the moonlight.

He made no secret of his curiosity about the Orc battle shaman.

This kind of humanoid intelligence possesses unique extraordinary powers. It is rumored that they can communicate with the Mother Earth through sacrificial rituals and obtain mysterious powers to curse their enemies. Maddie was once cursed by the battle shaman's cold heart, and for a long time she could not use the ability of the fourth-level dark hunter.

The Disa Alliance has sages who have studied all aspects of barbarians and orcs in depth. Unfortunately, although the Myne sage that Victor knew was knowledgeable, his understanding of combat shamans was not comprehensive enough.

It was rare that there was a real combat shaman in front of him, and she was obedient to her private slave girl. Victor really wanted to dig out all the secrets of the combat shaman.

Vampire Christine understood human nature, and even more so her master. She turned her eyes and whispered, "Great master, we don't have enough time to continue questioning Chieftain Blackfire... There are Orc butchers in the valley below waiting for the messenger to report back. If they don't return after the agreed time, it may arouse the suspicion of the Rock Split Orcs." Once the messenger was suspected, Victor's plan to use the Orc invaders to raid Echo Town would be stranded.

Christine added, "Master, I will catch another orc shaman and give it to you later."

Victor sighed regretfully and responded with a frown: "When you talk to me like this, it feels like you are coaxing a child."

"I promise, I never lied to the master." Christine smiled softly with her hands covering her mouth, her eyebrows curved.

Not to be outdone, Ranger Ruth expressed to Victor: "Jessica and I can also capture a shaman and present it to the master."

"Yes."

Jessica responded, and an inconspicuous gray squirrel jumped onto her shoulder, raised its fluffy tail, and held a nut in its little paws and stuffed it into its mouth.

Its name is "Chestnut", an animal companion recruited by Jessica. It shares the ability of "alert" with the female ranger. It is similar to the wild instinct of a ferocious beast, but does not involve combat-related content. It specializes in mental warning.

As long as Jessica carries "Chestnut", she automatically gains the gift of sharp intuition. She ignites a drop of secret blood every day to communicate with "Chestnut" spiritually, which can enhance "Chestnut's" spiritual perception and indirectly enhance her own early warning ability.

Ruth's surveillance partner is a small tree lizard that has the natural ability to change color for camouflage. It lives on Ruth's leather armor and is not easily discovered.

Although there are different types of alert companions, their functions are the same.

Jessica envied Ruth's tree lizard, thinking that it was quiet and hidden, and would not be easily targeted by enemies.

However, the ranger sisters' reconnaissance partners are all the same forest falcons, which have superb flying skills and can catch flying bats in complex dense forests. They also have sharp vision and hearing.

Rangers also have to contribute a drop of secret blood to their scouting partners every day to enhance their spirituality and strengthen their spiritual connection with their masters.

Finally, the ranger sisters have not found a suitable candidate for recruitment yet. They prefer to choose a bear with thick skin and flesh as their combat partner.

After a long period of secret blood communication, the ranger's combat partner will evolve in the direction of ferocity, becoming stronger day by day, with stronger combat instincts day by day. They will be able to communicate with their ranger master telepathically and fight in coordination, and the ranger's combat instincts will be endowed.

If they only valued the bear's strength and ability to serve as a ranger's meat shield, Victor suggested that the sisters broaden their horizons. After all, he had the Alchemical Snake Tension, which could be implanted in the ranger's combat partner, so any kind of beast could serve as a meat shield. It would be better to choose a big cat with stronger lethality.

Maddie's example has proven that implanting the Alchemical Serpent Tendon can make one immune to the Battle Shaman's curse. So a Level 6 Ranger with an animal companion, who is also Level 3, is fully capable of capturing an Orc Shaman alive.

Of course, their efforts were not as easy as Christine's.

The three private female slaves vied to please him, but they all knew that time was limited and business was more important.

  What else could Victor say?

He could only put away his curiosity and ordered Christine: "Tell them all the information and suggestions, and let them go back to report."

In fact, the female shaman and the barbarian fighter can understand what Victor says, but they will only listen to Christine.

So, Christine told the orc messenger all the information about the Fallen Leaf City army and her own suggestions according to the words she had prepared in advance.

Including, General Bartru of the Flame Tiger Legion has a discord with Clark of Silver Plate Corner, and the main force of the Flame Tiger Legion has retreated to Godore Fortress and Ironhelm Town.

Godore Fortress was well-armed and heavily guarded, with a military garrison outside to protect it. Even if the warriors of Rockbreaker and Frostblade could break into the fortress, they would eventually be annihilated.

The cult spies played by Victor and his crew could not sneak into the airtight Godore Fortress, but they had no problem infiltrating Echo Town.

Christine told the messenger to go back and tell the warriors of Rockbreak and Frostblade to prioritize raiding Echo Town, so that most of the troops in Godore Fortress could be transferred out, and then they could consider raiding Godore Fortress.

If Chief Rockbreaker accepts the suggestion, the cultists can work together inside and outside to create unrest, control the gate, and let them enter Echo Town.

The Blackfire Bloodguard Shamans and the Frostblade Barbarian Warriors nodded repeatedly. After Christine explained everything to them, they took the fortress defense map and the head of the cultist Hansen, climbed the steep cliff, and headed down to the valley below.

After the figures of the orcs and barbarians disappeared in the darkness, Harvey walked up to Victor and asked, "Sir, do you think Chieftain Quelngra of the Rock-Splitting is the orc butcher who killed the chief of the Steel Rock tribe?"

Victor nodded and said in a deep voice: "Well, it should be him."

Victor still vividly remembers the scene last winter when a large group of orc butchers and barbarian fighters surrounded and killed Gangyan, the leader of the Taku tribe.

The leader of the Steel Rock tribe gathered the power of the Earth Mother from the Tower Cave tribe and transformed into a half-lava and half-flesh extraordinary life form. He was so powerful that he guarded the town gate alone and killed invaders to pieces. He forced high-level Orc butchers, combat shamans, barbarian fighters, and sky spirit shamans to besiege him together, which resulted in heavy casualties.

Although it took the combined strength of everyone to kill Gangyan, no one could deny that he was extremely powerful.

Victor and Harvey always remembered the butcher's appearance and features, and immediately thought that the chieftain of the Split Rock clan, Quelngra, was the half-orc butcher who killed the leader of the Steel Rock clan.

"Oh... I think Quellngra is very cunning. When they surrounded Steel Rock, so many butchers and wild fighters died. And Quellngra had been conserving his strength until the last moment when he seized the opportunity to kill the leader of Steel Rock." Harvey paused, then asked, "Such a cunning guy should be hard to deceive, right? What's more, the Great Mother of the Orcs can use skulls for divination... huh?"

"Wait. The orc messenger is going to take Hassan's head back to report? Is Quel'Ngra planning to use the skull of the cult spy for divination?"

Victor's eyes narrowed, and he nodded, "It's probably for divination...Quelngra wants to determine the truth of the intelligence about the fortress, so he has to use the orc mother's divination ability."

"In that case...won't the Orc Chieftain know that we are lying to him?" Harvey asked anxiously.

Victor glanced at him and said calmly, "Did we lie to him? We didn't lie to him at all!"