The battle was finally over, with the conclusion of the barbarians’ complete defeat.

Chiwwilkkk!!! Chiwwikll! Chiwwikkl!!

The surviving green-skinned orcs were shouting their lungs out, roaring their battle cries to the skies, as they celebrated the victory of today’s battle. From the clamor and raucous coming from them, one could tell they were extremely ecstatic about their victory.

Tristan returned to the line with a figure following right behind him, his newest addition to his collection of blood puppets, the barbarian woman.

Some of the orcs watched Tristan with weird gazes when they saw the enemy unexpectedly following calmly behind him, but most of them did not really care. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be shouting like maniacs at the moment.

They had seen what Tristan did in the battle, and his prowess were worthy of their admiration. Hence, they began chanting his name, in their own language.

“Golug!! Golug!! Golug!!”

Tristan didn’t know how to receive such a treatment, therefore he could only stand there and nod his head around. Karra walked over to him and saw his reaction to the chanting.

“That’s the black speech… It means ‘worthy elf’.. You deserve it, warrior.” she said.

“Golug!! Golug!! Golug!!”

Tristan was about to say something when something suddenly happened. 

Another shout could be heard from out of nowhere, one that was deeper and more aggressive. Throwing his gaze over to the source, he found that this time the shout came from Grawl, the Orc Warchief.

The loud shout caught the attention of everyone, causing the excited orcs to stop their craziness. 

Then, with just a few words from the warchief, the surviving Grunts began to disperse while dozens of Gretchin came out of the fort to check out the bodies scattered on the ground. They started to scour the entire battlefield, killing the surviving barbarians and carrying back the wounded orcs.

While Tristan was enjoying his time watching those Gretchin doing their jobs, Grawl the Orc Warchief walked towards him and said some words, which once again he couldn’t understand.

“Kha zug! Great Thu Kad!! warrior!”

After taking a few moments to digest the words, he finally got the gist of it. 

The warchief apparently came to give his admiration and respect to Tristan, for the deeds and contribution in the battle earlier. This made him think that these orcs were quite a simple race. They were straightforward, liked to fight, and respected the strong.

A moment later, Tristan saw a group of people come out of the fort, and one of them in particular was rushing towards him. It was his sister and the others.

“Tris!” shouted Layla loudly as she sped up her run. “You look like a mess! Are you hurt?! Where can I heal you?!” said Layla as she spun Tristan’s body left and right, trying to see if there were any wounds on it.

Tristan let out a gentle smile seeing the concern his sister showed to him. He began to check out his body, which was completely covered in blood, and was glad when he saw his pierced shoulder had started to heal up by itself.

It was apparent that he had to put the word ‘high regeneration rate’ as part of his body’s special power. Knowing that his body was alright, Tristan stopped Layla who still continued to spin his body around and said,

“Don’t worry about me, sis. I’m fine. In fact, I think I only need a shower and I’ll be as good as before.” said Tristan with a smile. “Honestly, you guys better find Borin as I have no idea where he is right now.”

Alas, Layla didn’t even have the chance to do so as Seth shouted at the same time Tristan finished saying that.

“Borin’s here!”

Tristan approached Seth and saw the man was carrying the unconscious Borin. It appeared that the guy was fine and was just knocked out during all the chaos. Hence, Seth, with the help of Barry carried him back to the fort.

“Brother, this one is?” asked Layla when she realized there was a woman standing right behind Tristan. She was curious about who she was.

Tristan didn’t know what to answer his sister. Hence, he turned around and asked, “What’s your name?”

The barbarian woman opened her mouth and answered calmly, “My name is Astrid.”

Tristan quickly returned to his sister and said, “Alright, she’s Astrid.” Layla rolled her eyes at her brother’s antics, but what Tristan said next surprised her.

“Astrid, for now you will follow this lady. Her name is Layla.” The barbarian woman, Astrid, nodded her head at Tristan’s words.

Seeing the familiar scene, all the people who accompanied Tristan knew what he did to the woman, and that still made them amazed and scared at the same time. Well, all of them except Herrera, who was frowning as she looked at the beautiful brown-haired woman.

Noticing the looks they were giving him, Tristan waved his hand and said, “You all should leave. Do what you have to do. I still have something to do here.” added Tristan as he walked away from the group towards the battlefield.

The thing that Tristan needed to do was none other than extracting Blood Essences from hundreds of corpses that blanketed the ground.

[Blood Extraction]

Tristan continued to walk around the battlefield while he kept activating his skill. As a result, clumps of red mist could be seen swirling in the air and following his figure before they were absorbed into his arm.

[Received 700 mixed blood cells]

[90 Blood Essences extracted]

[Received 280 mixed blood cells]

[42 Blood Essences extracted]

[Received 450 mixed blood cells]

…

It was a sumptuous feast for Tristan.

He could clearly feel his body’s needs were fulfilled with every Blood Essence he absorbed.

The battle between the barbarians and the orcs took many lives from both sides, with a staggering number of 300 from the former while an ample 112 of the latter. From them, Tristan received more than 2000 Blood Essences in total.

The blue-tattooed warriors gave him around 50 Blood Essences each, while a corpse of Orc Champion yielded 90 Blood Essences for him. All in all, the system enumerated all the Blood Essences he had extracted and showed him the total number in his mind.

[Blood Essence : 2102]

That seemed to be a comfortable number for him, one that would allow him to relax for quite some time. Thus, Tristan walked back to the fort with a wide grin plastered on his face.

–

Just when Tristan thought that the enemy had been defeated and the job was done, a piece of information from Astrid completely obliterated that idea out of existence.

Apparently, the female barbarian was just one of the many captains under the leadership of an Earl.

Tristan was not surprised that there were more barbarians coming, but what he didn’t expect was that there were so many others beside her.

“Five Earls decided to come and join the battle this year, and there were more than 20,000 warriors that accepted the call.”

Hearing this information, Barry’s face immediately turned pale.

“This is no raid! This is an invasion!” said Barry loudly. “And with that number, their target must be Arcadia!”