บท 19: The rogue band

Listening the envoys speak in front of him, Tula could only listen with curiousity as he held his chin up with his hand, pretending to listen with interest and anger on the matter while in truth, was silently rejoicing as various plans started to form in his head.

Currently, he had a total population of 300 orcs in the settlement, it comprises of the female, cubs, old ones and a few adult orc warriors left by the previous chieftain to act as the settlement's garrison.

First of all, in order to proclaim himself as the rightful chieftain of not only the settlement, but their clan as a whole, he must eliminate any potential rivals with potential to become a chieftain.

And Reku was one of them, according to the envoy's words, he was the one to instigate a mutiny among their warrior's ranks and killed the chieftain and his sons just because he doesn't want to partake in the war against the Terkits any longer.

Tula couldn't comprehend why a battle maniac Reku would decide to change mind and starts a mutiny in the process, nevertheless it gave him a valid reason to depose Reku and his band of rogue warriors.

Although he had a nagging feeling that the Traku envoys might be making up stories just to steer Tula and his settlement on their side, he forced himself to believe in them since it would only bring him closer to his goals.

As such, he finally made his decision before announcing it for everyone to hear.

"Very well, I will send you fifty warriors and help crush these menaces once and for all." Upon making his declaration, the envoys smiled at this before bowing their heads towards Tula.

"On behalf of chieftain Yoro of the Traku clan, we thank you and humbly accept your aid." The short envoy spoke before rising his head and gazing at Tula who was eyeing them with a smug smile on his face.

Little did Tula know he was playing right into the Traku's hands, after all he was unaware that the Trakus were the first one to instigate this conflict in the first place.

Not only were the Trakus the one to kill theit chieftain, they were also planning to take advantage of the mess they made and backstab Tula once everything is over.

After the meeting with the envoys was finished, Tula quickly dismissed them, including his servants as he sat alone on a small throne inside his hut.

Afterwards, he smiled to himself while staring at the hut's roof above, all while thinking to himself...

'Reku, I'll wait for you on the battlefield, and when we meet, I'm going to make sure your head comes rolling down from your shoulders.'

Meanwhile, Reku and his band of orcs found themselves eyeing another Traku camp located at the entry point of a massive valley.

And as for how they knew it was a Traku camp, Reku just had an orc instinct that it was after all, a Traku camp.

Currently, Reku and his forces were hiding behind a treeline roughly a few kilometers away from the camp, the vast plains surrounding the camp makes it really hard for anyone to sneak in without being spotted.

Though the camp's distance is far, Reku and his band orcs could clearly see the layout of the camp, mostly it comprised of multiple tents and a large prison cage, but due to the distance, they clearly could not see whether there are any orcs locked up inside or not.

Not only that, the difference between this camp and the camp they attacked the other day was that this camp has a crudely looking fence built around it, not to mention there is also a single watchtower within the camp.

Clearly arriving at their settlement may took longer than expected.

As he withdrew his gaze from the camp in the far distance, Reku sighed before facing the orcs gathered around him.

"So what now?" Jan was the first one to voice his question for everyone to hear.

Hearing this, Reku slightly scratched his chin before responding the question that was on everyone's mind.

"If we ever thought of bypassing this camp by going around it, then we're fools to think such a thing, not only can the camp spot us sneak around them, it is also possible for them to send warriors to intercept us along the way."

Upon hearing this, Jan and the others looked at each other before directing their gaze to reku once again, motioning for him to continue.

"That's why instead of bypassing them... we'll go through them." After Reku said this, he noticed everyone was giving him a look as if he had grown a second head.

"W-what?... then how do you plan to do it?" Wuka was the first one to voice his confusion, then followed by Jan.

"Surely there must be some kind of plan, right?"

After hearing them out, Reku wasted no time and immediately told them on how to proceed.

"Yes, and I only need 10 warriors for this plan to succeed." After hearing Reku's words, all of the orcs gathered before him widened their eyes in disbelief as they stared at Reku with shock.

"10?! how do you plan to take down a camp with only 10 warriors?! surely there must be atleast a hundred of those Traku warriors inside that camp!" Jan was the first to voice out his thoughts as he rebuked Reku for his words.

Hearing Jan, Reku showed a slight smirk on his face before eventually responding to Jan's statement.

"I will launch an infiltration during the night and destroy that camp from it's inside." Reku announced his plan for everyone to hear.

Jan and the other orcs began to stare at each other and contemplate whether to agree to such plans, in the end, with no other choices to think of, they finally relented and agreed to follow Reku's plan.

Since Reku has already proven himself capable of leading them to victory during the skirmishes they had against the Trakus during the past few days, Jan and the other orcs found themselves agreeing to Reku's plan before the rest of the orcs could even come to a conclusion.

And thus, after hours of preparation, Reku and 10 orc warriors that were personally chosen by him to participate in the upcoming raid, are currently crouching behind a stack of tall of grasses under the cover of the darkness above, their whole bodies coated in mud and grime so as to act as camouflage.

Though the usage of camouflage is completely alien to them, they could not help but admit this new tactic of covering yourself with mud and grime could actually be so effective.

They have been crouching on the area for some time now and the watchtower hadn't noticed them yet.

In front of them lies the Traku camp, inside it, Traku warriors could be seen moving about inside the camp, some even has torches with them as they strolled around the camp, unaware of the eyes in the distance that were practically glued towards them.

Not only that, Reku could clearly see the orc on the watchtower shifting his sights around him at every few minutes.

After seeing the orc on the watchtower has his eyesights trained on something else, Reku and his 10 warriors immediately began to crawl towards the camp.

Since the clouds have blocked the light of the moon, Reku and his small team managed to reach the nearest fence under the cover of the darkness undetected.

Afterwards, Reku poke his head from the fence and began to observe the things in front of him, it did not take long for his gaze to reach the caged prison in the distance.

And as such, Reku could only smile as he saw multiple orcs sleeping inside the cage.

After seeing the vicinity is clear, Reku hopped on the fence and finally landed inside the camp, he was then followed by his 10 orcs behind him.

Afterwards, they began to make their way behind a small hut, and as such Reku and his 10 orcs found themselves huddling with each other as they discussed their next plan.

"So what now?" an orc asked very quietly at Reku while shifting his gaze at his surroundings every often, seemingly nervous at the prospect of a random Traku warrior walking in on them.

Hearing the question, Reku sighed before telling everyone of his new plan.

"We split up and make our way in different directions and kill and cause as much damage as possible, make sure to do it silently."

After receiving their orders, the group of 11 orc raiders finally splitted up, with some heading on random tents and began recking havoc inside.

One orc in particular has bursted inside the hut through it's thatched walls and suddenly began hacking at the sleeping orcs inside like a maniac.

Meanwhile, Reku found himself strangling an orc with his one good large arm.

After an entire minute of struggling and kicking, the orc finally went limp, and as such Reku lied the orc down on the ground below before making his way to another orc who was standing guard nearby, his back turned towards Reku, completely unaware of the fate that was about to befall upon him.

And just like that, a mere group of 11 orc warriors had began to devastate a Traku camp from it's insides.