Negotiations

A winding river cut across the land, its waters flowing peacefully along.

But the atmosphere on both banks was anything but peaceful.

On the north bank, war horses galloped back and forth in great numbers, kicking up clouds of dust that seemed ready to obscure the entire sky. The riders atop them were all tall, broad, and savage-looking orcs. They wielded weapons and constantly showed off their mounted skills, occasionally casting provocative looks across the river while making all kinds of strange cries.

On the south bank stood another army. Unlike the noisy orcs opposite them, they did not run about chaotically. Instead, they stood in neat squares, and from the officers to the soldiers, not a single one spoke. All of them solemnly watched the opposite bank.

One side was making a deafening uproar, while the other stood ready for battle. Both sides were filled with murderous intent.

Siegfried raised a hand to his brow and watched the orc army opposite with a frown.

Those barbarians looked as though they had no order at all, running about in a chaotic mess. It seemed that one charge would be enough to scatter them, like loose sand.

But Siegfried knew that if they rashly launched a charge, the orcs would retreat in a seemingly chaotic yet actually orderly fashion, luring them into pursuing step by step. Their army would stretch out during the pursuit and gradually become disorganized.

Sometimes, to create such a situation, the orcs would deliberately leave behind some valuables to tempt enemy soldiers into snatching them.

As soon as the enemy's defenses revealed even the slightest gap, the orcs would transform from loose sand into a pack of ferocious wolves. With the aid of their swift war horses, they would break through the gaps in the enemy's defenses