Chapter 35 Bison Herding

"Orcs, Line Up!" Mige gave the signal and the orcs lined up.

"Today we will target the bison colony, driving them away from the big river and towards the Tall Grass" Mige explained the purpose of hunting that day.

Tall Grass is the name they give to the Glittering Meadow area which is already covered with tall grass due to the absence of their predators.

"We will create a Swan Flying Formation with the Center Team as the nodal. The PF Team serves as the chain and the PG Team and SG Team as the escorts.

I want you to focus on herding and not overkill the target. Remember the purpose of our hunt this time is to lead the target into the Tall Grass.

When the target enters the Tall Grass, I want the Center, PF, and SF Teams to form a Phalanx Formation and stay in position until the SG and PG Teams finish making the barricades.

Any questions?" Mige finished his explanation.

"Wait! What should I do? Where my position is? What is the Flying Swan Formation? What is the Phalanx Formation?" Anna raised her hand and asked many question in confusion.

Mige glanced at Moku "Nevare will be in the SF Team!" Moku said.

"Ooohhh!!" the orcs nodded.

"SF? What is—" Anna was still confused, but her question was cut off by Mige, "If there are no more questions, please return to your respective teams and Center Team immediately take the positions!".

"Wait! Wait!" Anna waved for attention but the orcs quickly became busy and gathered in their respective teams.

"Nevare, see you later, we have to get together with our team and make the plan" Swa said and went away.

"Ehh wait, who's my team?" Anna wanted to chase after Swa and the others but a deep voice came from behind her, "Nevare where are you going? Come here quickly!"

Anna looked back and saw two orcs standing and waving at her. Anna came closer and saw their figures more clearly.

The orc on the right, wearing knee-length pants with songket tied around his waist. Like other orcs he was shirtless. He carried a spear strapped to his back. This orc was named Yagnar.

The orc on the left, wearing only leggings with a songket slung over his chest. He holds a large club in his right hand. His name is Olru.

There is no requirement that the songket must be tied around the waist or head. Moku has not had time to give the songket to Anna, due to their quarrel the time to give it is lost.

"Yagnar, Olru, are you guys also the SF team?" Anna asked.

"That's right, I'm the leader of the SF squad. There's only the two of us in this team, plus you then there is only the three of us!" Yagnar answered and Olru just nodded.

"Then what is our task?" Anna asked.

"Actually our team is the most free team. We are tasked to read the situation and make our own decisions for the success of hunting.

Usually we are tasked with helping the Center Team or the PF Team to repel the target, but because the purpose of this hunting is to lead the target to the Tall Grass, there are slight changes in plan.

We will surround the formation and help any team that is overwhelmed and quickly kill all the targets that managed to escape the accompaniment. any more questions?" Yagnar explained.

"Hmm.. what is Flying Swan Formation and Phalanx Formation?" Anna hesitated to ask, because it seemed to be basic knowledge of orcs and she had heard it when Artur told her about war strategy lessons.

But Anna quickly forgot about it because it had nothing to do with mana and mage.

According to him, combat formations were only used by a bunch of weak ordinary soldiers, mages who were able to fly and shoot fire would only be hampered if they joined the formation.

However, it seems that the orc races also use it for hunting. That's why Anna hesitated to ask because she didn't want to be seen as stupid.

"Well, don't humans also know this? Actually we also only found out after being taught by Moku.

The Flying Swan Formation is a formation that mimics the way flocks of swans fly when migrating.

The troops will line up like an inverted triangle without base and surround the target in the middle." Yagnar crouched down and drew an inverted triangle with his finger and then drew a circle in the middle as the target.

"The Center Team will be in the middle and block any targets that try to fight the dribbling current" Yagnar point at the sharp end of the triangle.

"PF will serve as a chain linking the Center Team and the other teams." Yagnar points to both sides of the triangle.

"PG and SG teams will be spearheading, their task is positioning the target to make it easier to dribble" Yagnar pointed out both ends of the line.

"While our team will be tasked with destroying all targets that managed to escape the swan flying formation.

Even so, our small number will make our reach short and make one side become overwhelmed.

Therefore I will divide our squad into two which will be placed on the left and right sides. Nevare and I will be on the right side and Olru on the left" Yagnar drew a line that bisected and moved on the right and left sides of the inverted triangle.

"Once we successfully lead the target into the Tall Grass, we will form the Phalanx Formation.

Phalanx Formation is a position where troops will line up lengthwise and aim to keep the enemy from approaching or holding back enemy attacks.

The number of orcs is too few to keep the thousands of bison from staying in the Tall Grass, so our team, Center team, and PF team will hold the target, while the PG and SG teams will set up a barrier barricade." Yagnar finished his explanation.

"Hmm.. why do we have to lead the target into the tall grass and create a barrier?" Anna asked.

"Well, I don't really understand either, but it looks like the Hunting Division thought of a way to make the animals think of the Tall Grass as a safe haven when they are hunted and make it a place to live" Yagnar scratched his cheek.

He rarely spoke to Anna so he didn't know if she liked to ask questions.

"Hmm then why don't you try to domesticate these animals instead?" Anna asked again.

"Eh.. Domesticate?" Yagnar did not understand.

"Yeah, you guys just tame these animals. Then if the distance between the tribe and Glittering Meadow is too far why don't we just move here?" Anna added to her question.

"Eh.. move?" Yagnar grew confused.

"Yeah then why don't you guys try to eat wheat or rice?"

"Eh? wheat? rice?" Yagnar didn't even understand what animal it was.

"yeah, planted grain—"

"Orcs, Line Up!" Mige gave the assembly signal.

Yagnar feels saved by Mige immediately invites Anna to line up.

the orcs again lined up in front of Moku, "Godspeed everyone!" Moku said.

"Yes, Ku!" Answer the orcs in unison.

They set off for their target for the day, the Bison Colony.

They walked a few kilometers until they saw a colony of over 1000 bison grazing and relaxing in the middle of a lush meadow.

Anna watched the number of bison and go wide. 'How do they would herd 1000 bison with only 16 orcs?' This made no sense to Anna at all.

"Orcs, take the position!" Mige gave the signal.

The line of orcs broke into several squads. They each took a position as they had discussed. Their fast and smooth movements make them seem to understand the plans of each team.

There was no further discussion or confirmation between the teams. They already knew what the other teams were going to do so they could predict what would happen.

This is actually very dangerous because there could be miss information or a misunderstanding of the position. But the orcs had been trained every day to cooperate and move like one individual.

When viewed from afar, the orcs seemed to be able to read the minds of other orcs, but on closer view, they were simply doing their job to the best of their ability and trusting their brethren to do the same.

They just need an outline of the mission and decide how to act directly on the field.

Moku places great emphasis on this because in battle there will be no leader who will control their every move. The orcs must be able to decide for themselves what is best for the success of the mission.

"Nevare, we need to move too" Yagnar said.

"Okay!" Anna nodded.

They parted ways with Olru and ran around the orcs formation to the right side. Anna looked back and saw Center team consisting of Goku, Gul, and Vakgar getting ready.

It wasn't long before Yagnar stopped and told Anna to hide. He took off his songket and waved it in the sky.

Anna lifted her head and saw another songket flick from several other positions.

Anna wanted to ask Yagnar what the songket waving meant but the silence from him indicated that they were currently hiding and shouldn't make a sound.

She was curious about how orcs actually hunted. Anna's curiosity did not last long, she saw a black shadow that was getting closer to the bison colony.

Then.. BUMMM!

A large rock fell right in front of the eyes of a bison who was busy eating grass. He was wide-eyed before screaming frantically, "MMOOOOHH!'.

That bison ran helter-skelter followed by other bison.

The bison colony dispersed, but this did not last long, several other black shadows approached and fell around them.

BUMMM! BUMMM! BUMMM! BUMMM! BUMMM!

The panicked bison colony dodged it and ran away. The other orcs began to appear.

"GRRAAHHH!" They screamed savagely at the bison colony.

The panicked bison colony didn't realize that their opponents were just a few orcs. They thought that there were too many enemies and ran away.

Seen the bison with the largest body running and butting all the bison in front of him.

He arrived at the front row of the bison colony and took the lead. The other bison followed behind him. It seems he is the leader of this colony.

Boku didn't waste his chance and leapt over the bison gracefully, as if his large body was as light as a bird's feather. He reached the top of the bison colony leader and held tightly to its large horn.

The bison tried hard to knock Boku off his back, but Boku was too strong and he could only give up. Boku moved the bison's head and turned it towards the Tall Grass.

The panicked and frightened bison colony leader could only run towards the Tall Grass with his colony following behind.

The other orcs, quickly surround this colony herding them to continue in the right direction. Anna couldn't help but gape at how fast the orcs were to herd 1000 bison.

"Nevare we must also move quickly. You follow my orders and help the other teams who are overwhelmed" Yagnar's voice woke Anna from her shock.

"oh..o..okay!" Anna could only nod with her eyes still wide.

The two of them ran quickly to follow the bison colony which was being herded by the orcs.

From a distance, Moku was seen sitting on a large rock and watching the orcs. He smiled at the orcs' extraordinary cooperation.

Moku stood up and took a deep breath.

"It's time for me to hunt too"