The sunbeams wanted to pierce through the wide plain cleared of trees like arrows, but the massive dome within which energy currents of every color played games had no intention of allowing this. Each of them broke after the collision, falling as feeble beams of light sometimes on the dirt, sometimes on mechanical devices, sometimes on tents, and sometimes on the orc warrior who had let her blood-red hair loose.
"Commander, we are under attack!"
When the voice of the soldier shouting at the entrance section of the khaki-colored tent reached the table around which the commanders holding a meeting in the middle section were arrayed, a shout rose from the far section.
"Use the communication mechanics immediately!"
"Yes sir!"
Mechanical pigeons, swallows, and mechanical hawks, rarely used due to their cost, took off from everywhere in the headquarters measuring a hundred paces by a hundred paces. The orc warrior, walking with large but calm steps, showed no reaction seeing this; she settled for smiling when they turned to ash and fell to the ground within ten breaths.
"Sir, all communication devices have been destroyed. The perimeter of the headquarters is surrounded by an energy barrier we cannot identify, we cannot communicate with the outside world!"
The four commanders lined up on the two sides of the long rectangular table looked at the messenger as if all the responsibility for the failure lay with him. The sweat easily streaming down the young soldier's hairless face was practically evaporating before touching the ground.
"Then, our only choice is to destroy the attackers ourselves!"
Along with the voice rising from the farthest point of the three-sectioned tent, the gazes of the four commanders hardened considerably; it was very easy to understand they had already entered battle mode. One of those who had remained silent until then spoke as he threw the wine-filled goblet in his hand to the floor.
"Tell me soldier, how many of them are there?"
The scout teams conducting reconnaissance had brought the news of the destroyed border units and the headquarters wiped off the face of the earth, but they had no idea how many people the orcs, whom they confirmed were on their lands, were advancing with. Now the danger had come to their door, and they wanted to know how many people they would have to face after drawing their weapons.
"One person!"
The messenger soldier stuttered so much that it took more than ten seconds for the two words to come out of his mouth, but the reaction the commanders gave to this was at the speed of light.
"What are you waiting for, kill him immediately!"
"Bring his corpse here!"
When they realized they panicked this much for just one person, they had used the table, whose legs were shattered into pieces from the blows it took just now, to take out the anger building up inside them, but the news the soldier was going to give wasn't over.
"Nafız!"
He said, and collapsed to the ground along with the blood arrow that entered from the back of his head and came out of his open mouth; it was obvious he wasn't allowed to mention her name. It took a few breaths for the four commanders to don their armors from head to toe, and they all had the weapons they used to take the lives of their enemies in their hands.
"East, West, North, South, go and lay the lifeless body of that wretched orc under my feet!"
The commanders shot up from where they were and scattered in four different directions. While each of them advanced towards the sections connected to their names, the owner of the arrow in the messenger's body was inside another tent.
"Have mercy on us! We were just following orders!"
These would be the last words of the soldier backing away on his ass. Unfortunately, the person bringing death to him had no plan to show mercy to anyone today. Until reaching here, she had left nothing but lifeless bodies behind her, and nothing was going to change now either.
She swung the matte black dagger in her right hand at the enemy's throat. At that moment, two soldiers who had previously hidden their presence launched an attack from the right and left at the same time. They were about to thrust their swords, whose lengths reached a meter, into the orc warrior's body; the soldier begging just a moment ago also threw the small-handled axe he hid behind his back.
Their goal wasn't to beg for forgiveness, but to act until they lured the enemy to the point they desired. When their friend, whom they placed as bait, brought the orc warrior to where they hid, they stopped using their equipment providing camouflage capability and chose to finish the job they started with their main weapons.
"Wow, I destroyed all those units, but this is the first time I've come across ones with working brains like you!"
Nafız was still calm when the weapons approaching from her three sides at the same time were a handspan away from touching fatal points, because the blood-red wings emerging from her back took her under protection in a second. When the cold metals hit the Orc Blood Techniques, they bounced off as if they hit a steel wall, and one of those using a sword couldn't keep his weapon in his hand.
When the two wings opened, the inside of the khaki-colored tent turned into a bloodbath; the wings consisting of sharp feathers stacking on top of each other tore the enemies into more than one piece. Her mastery over the technique, of which she was both the creator and the first user, was high; she could perform defense and attack synchronously.
Exiting the tent as the blood-red feathers returned to her body and fused with her flesh, Nafız saw that the energy weapons were aimed at the barrier surrounding the headquarters. She couldn't allow this to continue; if she could raid the headquarters alone and kill people as she pleased, this was entirely due to the technique created by the Elemental Ten. While they had to deal with the recoil they experienced with every blow, she too had to not stay idle and make their job easier.
The moment she took her eyes off the shield formed by the intertwining of various colors, her bow was in her hand, and blood-red arrows continuously shot out from where she stood. Some of these were for the weapons, and some for the soldiers trained to use them.
Mechanical weapons capable of making energy attacks didn't need anyone else's support to fire, but when their energy storages emptied, they needed to be reloaded, and an example that automated this hadn't been made yet. The weapon needed personnel for changing conditions, moving, and reloading, and Nafız's target was these soldiers.
Of course, the weapon carried protective panels for the people so useful to it. Even though the blood-red-haired orc's arrows managed to catch some without protection and kill them, this number barely constituted twenty percent of the total number.
"Do you think those tin cans you hide behind can protect you?"
As Nafız's words finished, the blood arrows embedded into the metal surface of the weapons began to explode one by one. Since there were at least ten on each of them, when they were destroyed, the mechanical devices became unusable, just like the soldiers they hid.
Nafız, who used arrows with special heads for such situations in the early days when she received Mora's legacy, only used the life energy she stored in her body after gaining the lineage power to create Orc Blood Techniques.
The duty of the arrows loaded with energy inside wasn't just to pierce through; if desired, they could also damage the enemy by exploding. Orc Blood Techniques provided exactly the scale of abilities suited for Nafız; flexible, strong, and ruthless.
Of course, this wasn't everything; her sharp senses that could detect the shadow appearing over her coming also played a leading role in her becoming famous as the Blood God. After changing her place with a swift roll, she looked back out of the corner of her eye and saw that the stick, the thickness of an adult orc's wrists, was right in front of her eyes.
If she hadn't thrown her body back and bent at an almost impossible angle, the weapon coming down on her neck could have severed her head from her body. Still, the danger hadn't passed; the bronze-colored stick kept coming. Even though Nafız managed to dodge it every time, when her back hit one of the khaki-colored tents, she realized she had nowhere left to run.
"Die!"
Not only her, but the person carrying out the attacks was also aware of this. The man, who was one of the four people at the head of the rectangular table and who braided his beard extending to his chest into two braids, put more power into his final blow than the others.
"Come on!"
When the weapon was halfway through the path it had to travel to reach its target, he heard his enemy, who hadn't opened her mouth once during all those attacks, speak. It didn't matter, he would destroy his attacker shortly anyway, but why had his weapon stopped going down?