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"We outnumber them! We can fight them!"

The painful memories turned into fear, and the extreme fear, combined with the overwhelming numbers, turned into recklessness. Some of the more hot-tempered individuals brandished their small shields and swords, howling as they tried to retaliate against the orcs.

"Don't fight head-on! Everyone retreat to the second line of defense! Anyone who rushes forward now, regardless of whether they die in battle, I will cancel everything I promised their family!"

Tannis's voice reached the ears of the human militiamen, who had already fallen into a state of semi-fanatical fear. It brought these rabble, who had almost gone up to be slaughtered, back to their senses. Then, several small flying vehicles flew over the charging orcs, locked onto their targets, and crashed down.

"What a pathetic piece of trash!"

Gadar spotted the drones out of the corner of his eye, but instead of dodging, he swung his axe fiercely at the swooping drones.

"Splash!!"

To Gadar's surprise, the drone he chopped up didn't explode like the goblin gadgets he remembered. Instead, it gushed out a bunch of sticky liquid, which splattered all over his hands and face, sticking him 'perfectly' to his weapon! Meanwhile, the other orcs followed suit, hacking at the other drones with their weapons.

"do not touch!"

Gadar's warning came a little too late. With all the drones destroyed, the orcs at the forefront were treated with a strong adhesive, their flesh glued to their weapons, leather armor, or other random things on the ground, severely slowing down their charge.

"Those in the back, fire arrows! Don't let those humans retreat smoothly to the second row of vehicles!"

Although visibility was poor at night and the camp was filled with various obstructions, Gadar didn't care. He knew that if he didn't do something to delay the battle, it wouldn't be long before he and his elite troops would fall into the fighting rhythm of the camp's master.

"Yes!"

Several skilled Blackrock orcs took down their bows, nocked arrows, drew them, aimed at the crowd, and then...

Although Gadal was very cautious after the first wave of attacks, he still underestimated the unbridled nature of Tannis's weapons once they entered their money-burning mode.

"Click".

Amidst the faint clicking of machinery, several stone-like objects that had somehow rolled into the midst of the orcs suddenly revealed themselves as weapons just as the orcs were preparing to fire. Thick smoke with a strong, pungent odor broke free from the compressed capsules and spread rapidly with the wind, causing the orcs to cough, wipe their eyes, and sneeze, significantly weakening their fighting ability.

"Cough...cough...If you have the guts, come out and fight me one-on-one! Don't...use such despicable tricks! You bitch, you slut, you piece of trash!"

Gadar tried to cover his mouth and nose, but having been tricked by the adhesive, he couldn't let go of the axe in his hand. So he could only endure the thick smoke in frustration, while frantically cursing Tannis, trying to drive her crazy.

no respond.

"You... cough cough cough cough..."

In an attempt to provoke him further, Gadar accidentally inhaled a large puff of smoke, which made his breathing difficult. The intense discomfort in his throat forced him to almost collapse to the ground, rubbing his throat with a stone.

Just when Gadar thought he might die from rubbing his throat open, the smoke concentration dropped to a level he could barely tolerate.

"Ha ha....."

Gadar gasped for breath and tried to stand up, but before he could even move his legs, a giant net enveloped him.

It was the militiamen; they were wearing masks and carrying nets as they returned.

The vast majority of orcs lost most of their fighting ability due to Tani's reckless chain chemical attack and obediently became prisoners of war. A small number of orcs who still had some fighting ability tried to resist, but they were turned into corpses by the militia's standard weapons.

——————————————Tannis's Carriage————————————————————

"That's it?"

Looking at the orcs lying scattered on the ground, Tannis, who had orchestrated all of this, suddenly felt a sense of unreality. She knew that both the adhesive and the paralyzing smoke were intended to hinder the orcs' first wave of attack, buying time for the truly lethal machinery to prepare. But what she saw before her eyes forced her to believe that this orc army, which would have given human forces a headache back then, had been defeated by her!

"These orcs... feel completely different from the orcs in the Second War. They're too weak and incapable of fighting."

A centurion from a former Redridge Mountains unit who was responsible for providing tactical support to Tanis also had many doubts; the orc soldiers he remembered were not this weak.

"Maybe they haven't had enough to eat? The orcs' farming techniques might be even worse than the dwarves'."

He took the burst hydrant in stride.

"Not full...that's impossible..."

Tannis shook her head and stood up.

"Let's go check on these prisoners; maybe we can find some more clues."

18. The Destroyed Orcs

"Are these really the orcs that struck fear into the hearts of the human kingdoms—even the dwarves and high elves—a few years ago?"

Inside the large tent that was being used as a makeshift prison, Tannis finally got her first close look at the orcs, a race that had nearly destroyed human civilization.

To her surprise, the bound orcs did not glare at her menacingly, nor did they hurl insults or provocations at her. Instead, they lay lazily on the ground or leaned against the tent walls like a bunch of salted fish who had lost their dreams, too lazy to even move.

"Their race must be orcs..."

The captured orcs left the goblins, including Bao Shuan, completely bewildered. As members of the Hot Sands Consortium, they knew all too well what kind of orcs were in the Second Orc War.

Who is their leader?

"That guy, he has the best equipment, he must be the leader of this orc force."

Bao Shuan pointed to Gadar, who was tightly bound in the middle of the orcs and yawning.

"......"

Tanis, who could not reconcile the current Gadar with the orc commander who had been hurling insults at her and demanding a duel with him at the start of the battle, twitched her eye and gave the order.

“Bring this guy to the inner ring road; I want to interrogate him.”

————————————Orcs——————————————————————

Gadar, bored, yawned and adjusted his position to lie more comfortably on the ground. After being choked by the smoke, he clearly felt the fighting spirit that had been burning within him vanish like the receding tide.

As a veteran orc, Gadal realized early on that since the orc tribe lost that war, his fighting spirit had been waning day by day. He also saw some of his people suddenly lose their will to fight and become lazybones who looked down on even laborers. Fearing such a future, Gadal tried to prevent that day from coming to him through battle and bloodshed.

However, now, Gadar feels that this is actually quite good. Why did he fight so hard before? He can't understand it, he really can't understand it...

Just as Gadar was lost in thought about the Crackhoof Bull, two goblins entered the tent and, without a word, lifted him up and dragged him out. His orc warriors watched in stunned silence as their commander was dragged away like a dead pig.

——————————————A few minutes later——————————————————

"Smack!"

Gadar felt himself being thrown heavily to the ground, and the bright light shining on him made him squint uncomfortably.

"Tell me, who are you cooperating with? What is your purpose?"

Seeing the orc lying on the ground, the centurion, who could no longer contain himself, strode forward with his sword and placed it against Gadar's neck.

"Purpose...? I don't know..."

As he said this, Gadar shook his head in confusion. He couldn't understand why he had listened to the advice of the humans who had come to him earlier that day and decided to break into the camp from the inside—why fight? Wouldn't it have been better to just lie there?

“Miss Tanis, there’s no need for interrogation. This orc is already crippled, just like the orcs in the internment camps in Lordaeron.”

The centurion sheathed his sword and spat in Gadar's face. Gadar chuckled twice, completely unconcerned about the insult.

"Mr. Scott, what do you mean by 'the orcs are useless'?"

Seeing Tanis's confused look, Scott, who had served as a sentinel in the orc internment camp of the Kingdom of Lordaeron for almost half a year, patiently explained.

"After the Second War, the Royal Family of Lordaeron defied public opinion and did not kill the captured orcs. Instead, they separated them and imprisoned them in different detention centers. Initially, Alliance soldiers worried that these beasts would try to break through the containment, so serving as sentries in the orc containment centers was considered a daunting job for the first month..."

As he spoke, a hint of disdain appeared on Scott's face.

"Then, we discovered that the orcs were completely different after being locked up in the containment camps compared to the orcs on the battlefield. On the battlefield, the orcs were absolute bloodthirsty beasts, and killing was the only meaning of their existence. But the orcs in the containment camps were... worse than pigs!"

Scott raised his foot and kicked Gadal hard. Gadal grunted as he was kicked, but did not make any further move.

"Like this, no matter how much we insult or attack them, they don't care at all, as if they are not the ones being attacked and insulted. When we tell them to eat, they eat; when we tell them to sleep, they sleep. When there are no orders, they just lie down anywhere, and often they lie there for the whole day. To be honest, if I didn't know that the Alliance didn't have any evil warlocks, I would suspect that the entire orc race had been robbed of its soul by some guy."

"What kind of beastmen are in the internment camp?"

"At least that's what I've seen."

"Then this phenomenon must have spread throughout the entire orc tribe...like a curse enveloping the entire race..."

Feeling something was amiss, Tannis crouched down and used her mechanical assistant to roughly scan Gadar from head to toe. Gadar, with droopy eyelids and lifeless pupils, stared at Tannis, motionless like a piece of wood.

After a while, the mechanical assistant produced a string of data. Tannis took the data, glanced at it, and frowned.

"This orc's basic physiology is completely normal; on the contrary, he's quite healthy. But why does this phenomenon in the orc remind me of withdrawal symptoms?"

The orc's languid appearance reminded Tannis of her hazy memories of her past life. On that blue planet, there was a condition called withdrawal symptoms that bore a striking resemblance to the orc's symptoms.

'Could it be that orcs maintain their fighting ability and ferocity by consuming certain chemicals? That would explain why the orcs are now crippled. But that doesn't make sense either. If orcs really maintained their fighting ability by taking drugs, then with so many orcs, this would have been exposed long ago!'

Realizing something was amiss, Tannis tried to deduce some of the issues hidden behind the orcs, but as soon as she started thinking about it, the fragments of memories in her mind began to scream wildly, making her feel a strange sense of crisis.

'Forget it, I don't want to think about it anymore. Let Stormwind Kingdom deal with the rest of the problems....'

Realizing she couldn't deduce anything, Tannis turned around and gave the order to Explosive Bolt.

"Boom, arrange for people to guard these guys. Also, notify the Storm Kingdom and have them take these prisoners away."

19. Ruins of Lakeside Town

After capturing the orcs, although Tannis didn't say it, some interesting changes clearly occurred in the human group she led. First, several people mysteriously 'disappeared,' and then the number of people voluntarily taking turns on watch every night doubled.

However, no new enemies launched an attack until they reached their destination, the ruins of Lakeside Town.

"Lakeside Town, my hometown... Dad... Mom... I'm back!!!"

As Bu Yi passed the road sign in Lakeside Town, which had been neglected and overgrown with mushrooms, Centurion Scott knelt down and began to cry like a child. His crying seemed to be contagious, and soon the sobbing began to spread throughout the convoy.

Several minutes later, Scott stopped crying. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and gave a somewhat bleak smile.

"Sorry, please excuse my poor appearance."

“It’s nothing, I understand. But Mr. Scott, the most urgent task right now is to carry out a thorough cleaning of Lakeside Town.”

"Ah, yes, this place has been uninhabited for so many years and ravaged by orcs. It needs to be properly cleaned before it can be settled again."

"No, I meant..."

Tannis's mechanical assistant opened, and a strangely shaped little machine flew onto Tannis's shoulder, aimed at the lake beside the road, and fired a light blast. Amidst the sound of waves, a fishman whose body had been blown off emerged.

"Fishmen, and gnolls."

——————————————Strange dividing line————————————————

"A small team, responsible for the former Lakeside Town market area, where about forty gnolls are entrenched. Your task is to kill as many of their personnel as possible, and to retreat if your lives are threatened."