72 Chapter 72

There was no cheering like they had done after achieving victory over Earl Abery while the orcs fled down the avenue towards the shattered village wall. The elves made no move to pursue the fleeing orcs either, which Aerwyn assumed was due to the sorry state they now found themselves in.

"GIVE CHASE AND CAPTURE AS MANY ORCS AS YOU CAN!" Aerwyn yelled out once he was atop Erit.

"Wait!" Master Ferlin shouted as he came running over.

"What is it?" Aerwyn asked once the elf had reached him.

"Leave them be."

"What? Why?" Aerwyn cocked his head in confusion.

"You aren't only representing yourself if you chase them. Setrhyn cannot withstand another attack. Letting them leave unhindered may appear weak but the orcs will give us peace if we do so, it is their way. This attack was only an opportunistic raid, we've dealt with them many times before in the past."

"...If none survive how would the orc village even know what happened?" Aerwyn didn't want to just allow them to leave, it seemed foolish to waste such an opportunity.

"Their mounts are deceptively fast when they need to be and it's only about thirty kilometers to the orc's village. Are you certain you can catch all of them? If they reach the village what will you do then? Their population wasn't much less than Setrhyn the last time we checked.

Even if this force accounted for all of their village's warriors, there would still be nearly two thousand orcs there. They may not be trained but they're still orcs. It's one thing for the orcs to fail a raid but it's entirely different matter if one of their villages is attacked, they will retaliate in full force."

"Master Ferlin is correct, dear boy. Call off your undead, you are not ready to take on the orcs just yet. Doing so now will only result in both you and Setrhyn meeting their ends." Tylin appeared as if he had always been beside Master Ferlin from the start despite only showing up now.

"..." Aerwyn sighed and reluctantly did as he was told.

Calling his undead back left a sour taste in his mouth, he wasn't sure on the exact number yet but he had taken heavy losses in exchange for only thirty five new undead. He hoped to regain some of those losses now that the orcs were on the run but he couldn't refuse both Tylin and Master Ferlin. They knew the orcs far better than he did and Tylin was also well aware of Aerwyn's situation so he felt inclined to listen to them for now.

Still, he wouldn't simply do nothing as the orcs left. The jakku had proven their immense value to Aerwyn over the past few days and he decided to send three after the orcs. From this day forward he would have eyes on their village at all times, just in case they decided to come south again. He also gained a couple undead true orcs that would undoubtedly give him insight into their society and more importantly, the locations of villages and other points of interest that Aerwyn would one day raid.

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Master Ferlin had made Aerwyn come to the realization that Setrhyn would always be vulnerable in the future. He had to fight the orcs at some point and like the head ranger said, Aerwyn's actions didn't only represent himself anymore. Despite having very little to do with Setrhyn, as far as the orcs were now concerned, Aerwyn was a part of Setrhyn. Unless he wanted to allow Setrhyn to burn he would have to protect it when the time comes.

There was also the fact that Aerwyn had consumed nearly two hundred A Grade souls from the battle and since he resurrected so few orcs it meant that he would be able to resurrect more of the Abery men he had lock up back at the ships. He could even choose to leave the humans alone for now if he wanted to, instead resurrecting lesser beings like goblins or tenri. The energy given to him by an A Grade soul would allow him to create many more undead lesser beings than if he simply brought back the Earl's men.

While the undead humans fought well, Erit's new form had shown him a different path. If ten Erit's fought ten undead humans, the victor was clear. The only problem with that approach was the time and resources required for his undead to evolve but if he could find a solution, his undead army would become a powerful force to reckon with. Of course he wouldn't be picky with what he resurrected. No matter how powerful his undead became, in the end what he needed was numbers, so he wouldn't discount the humans and other races when they were presented to him.

Tylin and Master Ferlin left his side once he ordered his undead back. The orcs had since fled out of sight back into the woods and the elves were in the midst of cleaning up the battlefield. The square was in complete disarray with bodies strewn about wherever Aerwyn looked. He didn't see any other option for Setrhyn but to merge populations with Lyr at this point. Their losses were too severe and even if they added in Lyr's remaining population it still wouldn't reach the population size that the village had before.

"Let me down... Also change back into your human form before you end up doing more damage to the village."

"Ok master!" Erit sounded oddly cheerful, probably thanks to gaining her new form and being a 'little spider' again.

Once Aerwyn was back on solid ground, he looked for Nyris and Rorik. He hadn't checked on them since the battle and wanted to see how they felt considering one was sliced in half while the other was freshly resurrected. Nyris was now the first undead that he had known while still living and he was unsure on how the elf's personality would change. As he scanned the area he found Rorik first, the overgrown dog was standing quietly just on the other side of Erit who still hadn't changed into her human form despite Aerwyn's order.

"What are you doing? Change back into your human form already." Aerwyn scolded her.

"I'm trying master!" Erit snapped back at him.

"What?" Aerwyn watched as the twelve meter tall spider made noises like she was thinking too hard while the eight flames that represented her eyes flickered wildly.

"...I don't know how..." Erit used her voice magic in an attempt to garner some sympathy.

"Then how did you change in the first place?!" Aerwyn was no stranger to the difficulties in controlling powers but he felt as though switching from a giant spider into a human should be as easy as breathing for Erit's race.

"That filthy orc touched this little spider's beautiful face so he needed to be taught his standing in the world." Aerwyn couldn't even formulate a response as his hands were pressed firmly to his temple. It wasn't the fact that the orc had cut off her arm or backhanded her or the fact that she was sent flying as a result of said backhand. No, she finally achieved her giant spider form because the orc touched her and needed to be taught his place.

"...Just do the opposite of whatever made you change." Aerwyn parroted the advice that Tylin had given him when his flames grew out of control in the elf's guest room.

"How?" Erit's questioning expression was much the same as his when Tylin used those words.

"...Yeah, it didn't really make sense when Tylin said it to me either... Just figure it out and don't break anything in the village. In fact, don't move from that spot until you figure it out."

"Master!" Erit whined but Aerwyn walked past her towards Rorik and ignored her.

"How's your soul?"

"..I'm fine." Rorik's hostility was clear as ever which made Aerwyn wonder why he even bothered showing any concern at all for the ungrateful mutt.

"Good talk... Go and round up the rest of the undead, i want to do a head count." Aerwyn didn't bother waiting around for a response instead walking to the location where he had left Nyris's body but the elf was nowhere to be found.

Aerwyn got worried and scanned the area once more before finally laying his eyes upon the undead elf. He was standing over an orc corpse casting some sort of spell.

"What are you doing?"

"Ah! I'm replenishing my stock of death knights." Nyris appeared startled as the orcs body began to slowly sink beneath the black viscous fluid that appeared.

He looked uneasy, as if his mind was cloudy and lost in thought. Aerwyn had seen the look before in Earl Abery and the humans after they had been turned so he thought nothing of it, assuming it to be part of the resurrection process for more intelligent beings. Aerwyn tried to exchange some words with him but it was like trying to have a conversation with someone who hadn't slept in days so he left him be for now and waited for his undead to line up. It wasn't long until Rorik completed his task and Aerwyn was annoyed by what he saw.

The tenri were completely wiped out along with the brexil cats outside of Rin and Ren. Eighty three goblins, twenty nine abyssal spiders, sixteen zin beetles and even two freshly turned lesser orcs had fallen in the battle. What surprised him most was that despite the humans reckless fighting style only twenty two had perished.