Mad Green-skins
On that majestic mountain, the Red Dragon lay lazily in the cave, its massive body almost filling the cave, exuding an incomparably powerful sense of oppression.
"Gruumsh above"
For a moment, Nur was deeply shocked. He had never seen such a huge dragon. Even that hateful Ancient Gold Dragon seemed insignificant in front of this Embers of the Burned Emperor.
Seemingly sensing the arrival of the visitor, the Red Dragon opened its eyes and slowly crawled out of the cave. Its scarlet scales rubbed against the surrounding rock walls, making a cracking sound. Rocks fell from the cave ceiling, and the whole mountain made a dull sound, as if its every move was enough to cause a landslide.
The Red Dragon stretched out its enormous head, looking down at the orcs. Firelight flickered in its lava-like pupils, and its broad Dragon Wing slowly unfolded, enveloping the orcs in shadow.
"Father God above."
"How... how is this possible?"
Under the terrifying pressure of the dragon, half of the orcs in the delegation went black, fainted on the spot, foamed at the mouth, and even convulsed.
The other half of the orcs also knelt on the ground one after another, burying their heads low. They had lost the ability to think normally and were only kept conscious by their last bit of willpower.
Nur, who considered himself a tribal warrior, also knelt down with a thud, his forehead pressed against the dusty ground. His blood was rushing, and his heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was about to burst out of his chest.
As expected of the Embers of the Burned Emperor conquered North Aisel! He actually possesses such power! Even Lord Batu in the past could not defeat such a dragon. If we were to ally with such a being, what would that wretched Golden Dragon and that Dwarf king amount to? Even the sturdy Avendell Dan would crumble and become utterly vulnerable before such a behemoth.
In an instant, fear, shock, excitement and other emotions intertwined in Nur's heart. The bright future of avenging Batu and conquering the High Mountain Kingdom seemed to be right before his eyes.
Thinking of this, the orc warrior mustered all his strength and tried his best to recall the mage's earlier reminder, stammering, "Greetings, Your Majesty Keosius. We are envoys from the Red Blood Tribe."
We have heard of your conquest of Aisel and extend our respects to you, Soro Great Chieftain.
Keosius grinned, revealing a sinister smile, and slowly said, "Guests from the grasslands, there's no need to be nervous or afraid. After all, I'm not going to devour you alive."
"Huff, huff"
Nur and the other orcs felt a sudden lightness in their bodies, and the oppressive force on their shoulders vanished abruptly. They gasped for breath, finally recovering from their extreme fear and panic.
Nur forced a fawning smile onto his ugly, fanged face, using every word from the orc poems in his mind to flatter him. "Your Majesty Keosius, your body is more majestic than the mountains, your aura more expansive than the plains. Your Majesty, we are not afraid, but awestruck by your power. Your Majesty, only after witnessing your might did we understand why you were able to conquer North Aisel."
After the horses finished pausing, the beastman lowered his head again, pressing his forehead to the ground, anxiously awaiting further questions from the emperor.
After all, they were well aware that, unlike the Metallic Dragon, the Five-Colored Dragon were all evil beings, and the Red Dragon was an unpredictable tyrant. No one knew if they might accidentally anger the other party.
A thunderous, heavy voice came from above them. The Red Dragon asked, "Orcs of the Red Blood Tribe, what brings you here?"
"We want to form an alliance with the Embers of the Burned Empire," Nur said hastily.
Red Dragon's eyes flashed, clearly indicating that he had anticipated this. He softly repeated the two words.
"An alliance?"
Nur quickly raised his head, his voice excited. "Yes, Your Majesty Keosius, your empire has just conquered the North Aisel Plains, possessing formidable military strength and achieving great victories."
Your next conquest should lead you to the High Mountain Dwarf Kingdom of the Black Rock Mountains! There, you'll find abundant mineral veins and countless Dwarf artisans capable of crafting excellent weapons and equipment.
However, Keosius interrupted him directly, "Conquering the High Mountain Dwarf Kingdom is indeed a good idea, but the Embers of the Burned Empire is powerful enough, so what reason do they have to ally with you?"
Nur was clearly unprepared for such a statement. After a moment's thought, he hurriedly explained, "We orcs have been fighting the Dwarf for thousands of years, and have invaded Avendell Dan several times. We know their situation inside and out, and are absolutely the most suitable ally for the Empire."
Keosius interrupted him again, "But I've heard that you've never won, and that you were wiped out again a few months ago and fled north in panic."
"No, Your Majesty, we are just..."
The Red Dragon lowered its head, exhaling hot, Sulfur Scent white smoke, and grinned maliciously, saying, "What right do losers like you have to form an alliance with the Empire on equal footing?"
"Boom--"
Dust flew, gravel flew, and the earth roared.
Instantly, an intense pressure descended once more, crushing the orcs' shoulders and even causing the ground to collapse. Shallow pits appeared at their knees, and several more orcs fainted. Very few orcs remained who could withstand the pressure.
"No"
Nur muttered to himself, feeling countless cracks appearing in his heart, threatening to shatter his beautiful vision of conquering Avendell Dan and taking revenge on the Dwarf.
No, he had to persuade the emperor! He wanted to avenge Batu and change the tragic fate of the orcs for thousands of years! Nur lowered his head, his whole body trembling violently. He struggled to support himself, his voice hoarse, blood spitting from his mouth. "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, our Red Blood Tribe can definitely provide the empire with sufficient assistance!"
Keosius looked down at him, slowly spreading his Dragon Wing, and asked with a hint of mockery, "In my opinion, you orcs have neither strong bodies nor good equipment. Apart from your tenacious Life Force, you are utterly useless."
I'm very curious—where exactly does your confidence come from?
Your Majesty Keosius
Nur recalled what Chief Soro had told him before he left: if the other party refused to cooperate or even wanted to silence him, he must show the true power of the orcs—the blessing of Father God Gruumsh! He had to make the Red Dragon before him value and respect the orcs, and fulfill his people's millennia-long wish to destroy the High Mountain Dwarf Kingdom!
Thinking of this, Nur took out a pottery jar with rough runes carved on it from his fur pouch and put it to his mouth.
The earthenware jar contained a black liquid that emitted a foul, fishy odor; its color was so deep that it seemed to devour everything.
Chief Soro found these sap sap in the Bindler River and named them "Blood of Gruumsh," claiming it was a gift from the Father God and that only the bravest of the tribe were qualified to drink it.
"The orcs' faith comes from our ancestors, from the great Father God Gruumsh!"
Nur's voice was strong and clear. He raised his head and Big Mouth without hesitation. The black liquid rushed into his throat like a greedy beast.
"This is..." Keosius observed this strange scene without stopping it. He seemed to sense a familiar aura from these black liquids.
Abyss.
Chaos, madness, and distortion. The power contained within these slurries is remarkably similar to the Chaos Power of the Abyss, yet it is mixed with peculiar elements, which fascinates Keosius.
The mastermind behind these peculiar Green-skinned Orcs is likely not only the Abyss, but also some unknown mysterious entity.
Sure enough, after swallowing the "Blood of Gruumsh," the black liquid surged in its blood vessels, and the orc's body visibly swelled, becoming even more muscular and strong, with its fangs growing continuously.
Moreover, this change was extremely bizarre, not like biological growth at all, but more like the proliferation of fungi. Mycelia and clumps of moss-like, disgusting substance continuously grew on the orc's body surface, eventually coalescing into new muscle and skin. "WAAAGH—"
The orc roared to the sky, letting out a hoarse howl. His eyes flashed with a crazed red light. His body, which was originally less than two meters tall, swelled to more than three meters tall in a very short time and became muscular.
"Emperor, are the orcs now qualified to form an alliance?"
Nur grinned, revealing his menacing, protruding fangs, with a thick, black liquid dripping from the corner of his mouth, emitting a strong, fishy stench.
Keosius did not respond, but looked the orc up and down as if he were looking at a rare experimental subject, revealing an interested expression. "Is this the so-called Gruumsh's blessing? That tough green skin seems to be photosynthesizing, constantly absorbing energy from the outside world, and that huge body is also emitting tiny green spores to the outside world, and it has also generated a kind of violent force field that can distort reality."
"Hehe, what an interesting life form."
In Keosius's view, compared to the original brutal humanoid creature, this now uglier, green-skinned creature with sharp beaks and fangs is more like a combination of fungi and animals.
Receiving no response from the Red Dragon, the orc seemed enraged. He said with a ferocious expression, "Embers of the Burned Emperor, we have already demonstrated such great power, why are you still unwilling to form an alliance with the orcs?!"
"Powerful?"
The Red Dragon smiled disdainfully, flapped its Dragon Wing, creating an incredibly powerful gale, and descended before the orcs.
Even a fully evolved orc is like a tiny ant in front of a dragon that is over fifty meters long.
The orc, now much stronger and more robust, raised his head, feeling the hurricane rushing towards him, and looked up at the Sky-Shading figure, finally realizing that he had been too arrogant.
Even Lord Batu, who is favored by the Father God, probably cannot defeat the Red Dragon in front of him, let alone himself?
"You are nothing in the face of true power! You greenskins are more suited to be the Empire's experimental subjects than allies!" Keosius roared, extending his enormous claws.
The claw-shaped, shimmering magical field materialized in front of the Red Dragon, grabbing the three-meter-tall mutated orc in mid-air and crushing the unconscious orcs into meat patties.
Nur writhed and struggled in mid-air, letting out a hoarse roar, "Embers of the Burned Emperor, spare my life! We are descendants of the great One-Eyed God Gruumsh! Aren't you afraid of incurring the wrath of the Father God?"
"Would that Orc God care about the life of a mere orc? Besides, can you even be considered an orc anymore?"
Keosius sneered, increasing the force in his claws. The orc's body was squeezed and ravaged by the immense force, even his tough green skin burst open, spurting out murky blood full of spores.
"WAAAGH!"
The orc roared again, his entire body radiating a chaotic force field, trying to disrupt the Red Dragon's Scratch Spell.
However, as Legendary Sorcerer and Transcendent Caster, Keosius's spells were of extremely high quality, and even a zero-ring Scratch Spell was something this greenskin could not interfere with.
"Bang!"
Finally, with a crisp cracking sound, the orc exploded in mid-air, crushed to death by the Red Dragon, and Nur's dream of conquering Avendell Dan and avenging Batu shattered along with his life.
The green blood, the broken blood, the severed limbs were all splattered on the ground.
To Keosius's surprise, the spores in the orc's body began to take root in the soil, growing continuously and greedily absorbing the surrounding matter and energy.
If left unchecked, they might sprout mushroom-like things, creating new orcs, and just this one corpse could produce dozens or even hundreds of new orcs.
"They are reproducing."
As Keosius gazed at the severed limbs, he couldn't help but exclaim, "What terrifying reproductive ability! No wonder the orcs of my previous life were able to unleash the ' Green-skin Calamity ' that swept across the continent, destroying several kingdoms in succession."
The Red Dragon unleashed scorching dragonfire, burning the Green-skinned Orcs's corpse to ashes and completely inactivating the spores.
He gently hooked his claws and collected some black liquid and green flesh scraps, storing them in a sealed Dimensional Bag.
"We still need to send these things to Lang Pu so that the Empire's Technology Department can study them carefully." Keosius nodded in satisfaction.
Hundreds of miles away, the seven Lang Pu, engrossed in handling government affairs, were unaware that they were about to have a new job researching mutated orcs.
Northern part of the Ugo Great Prairie, in the Paris Valley.
In the shadows, an orc knelt on the ground and whispered, "Lord Soro, Nur and the others have been missing for days. According to the shaman's divination, they are most likely dead."
"I understand. What a bunch of useless trash." The incredibly burly orc slowly rose from his bone throne covered in green moss, revealing a hideous grin. "However, we don't need any more allies. The Red Blood Tribe is powerful enough!"
He is the current chieftain of the Red Blood Tribe — Soro Blood Drinker. But now he has grown to over six meters tall, almost like a giant covered in green skin. He is much taller and stronger than his predecessor Batu Shatterskull, who was Favored by the Gods, and fits the orcs' definition of "powerful and mighty" even better.
Soro raised the Bone Spear in his hand and shouted madly, "Under the protection and grace of Father God Gruumsh, the great orc race will conquer the whole world!"
"WAAAGH!"
Before Soro, countless orcs crowded together like a green tide, raising their weapons and shouting wildly, their cries echoing through the sky.
In the distance, in the damp, dark valley floor, huge green mushrooms have spread everywhere. They grow densely, occupying the entire valley and greedily absorbing the nutrients from the surrounding area.