Xiao Chen just spent the entire night translating all his blueprints into Orcish. He blinked his eyes a few times to ease the stinging pain in his eyes and hoping to somehow chase his drowsiness away. Staring at the bulk of scrolls that he still had to translate, he gritted his teeth. “Argh! When will this end? Me and my over excited brain.”

He set aside the quill that he was using as his pen and closed the small container that holds the ink liquid. Stretching his fingers throughly as they make audible cracking sounds. “Ah… That feels great.”

His fingers have been stiff all night long and their joints have been locking at some points when he was scribbling due to how long he has been writing. He even had to slam his palms straight on his table a few times to straighten his fingers whenever their joints locked and malfunction.

He rubbed his eyes, which further reddened the color of his eyes, which were obviously lacking proper sleep. Covering his mouth while yawning, he made his way out of his tent.

Xiao Chen raised his head with his hands covering his eyes as he was blinded by the brightness of the day. It took some time for his eyes to adjust to the sudden change of brilliance.

Gur’kan stood up from where he was seated and approached his chieftain with a look of worry as he saw Xiao Chen covering his eyes after getting out of the tent. “Chief, What’s wrong?”

Xiao Chen glanced towards his first and most loyal subordinate and smiled wryly. “Well, I spent too much time in the dark and my eyes were accustomed to the darkness, but here outside, it is all bright, which forced my eyes to readjust to the intensity of the light. It’s nothing serious, don’t worry.”

Gur’kan just nodded in understanding and waited patiently for the chief to regain clarity in his vision.

After a few moments, Xiao Chen’s eyes finally have adapted to the brightness of the surroundings and he moved his hands out of the way. “Where are our guest? Call them, I have some important matters to discuss with them and also call Trot’thar, Sakh’arran and Draegh’ana.”

“Yes, chief.”

Gur’kan saluted, then went to do what his chieftain tasked him to do with quick large strides. Where he passed, orcs, ogres, taurens and trolls stood still and saluted.

The only ones who aren’t around the village in plain sight would be the goblins and kobolds who rarely come out of the mining tunnels. They have been totally dedicated to finding metal ores and other minerals that their chieftain has requested them to find.

Haguk nodded in response after being told by Gur’kan that the young chieftain was looking for him. He picked up his unconscious friend and slung him on his shoulders like a sack and walked towards the gathering place.

Aro’shanna snorted then turned away and behind her was the now tamed Grogus who only had food recipes in his head. His thoughts of seeking freedom was no longer there after the many times that he tried and was caught again and again by the vengeful female orc who seemed to be intentionally giving him opportunities so that he would try to escape and she could chase after him and punished him.

Xiao Chen knitted his brows while staring at the sleeping Dug’mhar, who was on Haguk’s shoulders. “What happened to him?” He asked while pointing a finger at the drooling chief of the Rumbling Clan.

Haguk glanced to his right shoulder where his friend was currently at. “Well… How should I say this… Uh… He somehow manage pissed someone who he shouldn’t have. A female orc carrying a battleaxe with a goblin in tow.”

Xiao Chen can’t help but shake his head in helplessness. It seems that their new ally is addicted to being forcefully sent to sleep, first by him, second by Galum’nor and now by Aro’shanna.

Haguk threw Dug’mhar towards the hard ground, but his unconscious friend was still out cold even after being thrown. Haguk approached his friend’s unmoving body and nudged him a few times in the cheeks with his right foot.

At first it was all just gentle nudging, but it wasn’t effective at all. Haguk got annoyed and increased the forced behind his nudging until it became kicks instead of just simple nudges.

Dug’mhar finally returned to the land of the conscious and stared at the brightly lit sky. He blinked his eyes a few times and tried to remember what just happened, but was disturbed by a kick on his cheek.

He quickly rolled to his left to evade if there was a second one and caught sight of Haguk’s right foot swinging forward, which would have surely hit him again if he didn’t roll away. “Did you just touch this one’s perfect face with your filthy foot again! Are you that jealous of my perfection that you are using your foot to express your jealousy against my perfect self?”

Haguk just shook his head and ignored the nonsense that his friend was spouting. It also disappointed him that Dug’mhar woke up too soon, for he was planning to kick him a few more times to knock some good sense into his brains.

Xiao Chen coughed loudly to catch the attention of those around him. “Ahem! Ahem! Alright! Settle down… We have some serious matters to discuss.”

Xiao Chen drew a long line on the ground with a spear and a few triangles away from the walls. “This is currently where we are at. The wall that we are defending.” He said while pointing at the straight line that he just drew. “And this is where our enemies are camped at.” He continued while moving the tip of the spear towards the multiple triangles.

“We will assault them with our combined forces. Dug’mhar, you and your Rumbling Clan will be up first once our enemies form their battle line to meet ours.” Xiao Chen raised his head and looked at Dug’mhar to make sure that he was listening.

After confirming that he was indeed paying attention. “You just have to run through their battle line and disrupt their formation. Just run through them with your… ugh.. what do you call your mounts again?” he asked, while raising his head.

“Rhakaddons”

Dug’mhar answered quickly.

“Yes… Right, Rhakaddons. Just run through them and don’t engage in close combat or you’ll get yourselves surrounded. Get all your clansmen who have mounts here as quick as possible to get themselves accustomed to the weapons that you’ll be wielding into battle.” Xiao Chen continued.

“And Haguk, you and your wargs would anchor the left flank of our formation and act as a reserve and pummel our enemies when the opportunity is presented.” Xiao Chen looked at Haguk.

“Trot’thar, Sakh’arran, Draegh’ana and Gur’kan. Get your warriors prepared for the upcoming battle.. Give them some proper drills to warm up since they have been idle for a few days already and also inform our ogre friends about the upcoming battle.”