Rewinding to just as our two companions began their assault the chief of the orc village was not actually in the valley. No he was somewhere deeper and darker. He was within the cave at the end of the valley, otherwise known as the cave of death.
It was a strange space, somewhat reminiscent of the various elemental valleys that made up this part of the Endless Forest except on a smaller scale. The cave itself was only around 50 meters deep before it opened into a medium sized chamber. It was what was housed at the end of this chamber that was important however.
Sitting atop a throne of bones sat the legendary Litch, Kalzork the Cruel. The Litch was in actuality a skeleton of an orc which gave credence to why it preferred to use orcs as its living subordinates.
But currently the orc chief was being berated by the Litch for its lack of initiative to tackling their current problem. "How are you unable to get rid of whatever pest is attacking your tribe. After everything I have done for you? Do you wish to become on of my eternal servants so much?"
The giant orc chief stood taller than any of its brethren at almost 9ft tall but before the mighty Litch which had bound his soul in a slave contract he shuddered and knelt fearing that punishment worse than anything else. "N-no my lord I-I promise that we wil be able to defeat this foe please just give us some more time and we will secure our victory!"
Letting out a sound reminiscent of a snort the Litch seemed uninterested in whatever excuses its subordinate may be presenting. "I care not how you achieve this so long as you do." Then just as the Litch was about to continue on they were interrupted by a rushing scout and skeleton who relaid the news of the attack. And more importantly about who was doing the attacking.
"H-how is their another Snow Leopard Beastkin alive! You said they were wiped out to the last! How much must you fail me!" The pitched voice boomed with barely suppressed rage and the emerald green fires burned bright within its otherwise empty eye sockets.
The orc chief was pushed backwards by the wave of death mana that erupted from the Litch, the orc hissed in pain as some of its skin blackened as began to rot just from that brief exposure.
Seething in rage the Litch decided that since its minion kept failing it it could instead serve its final purpose in eliminating that damn Leopard. "Go to the artifact and bring 20 orcs. You are to activate it, I will controll the rest. Just make sure the others are in the same room as you. Now go!" It bellowed.
The artifact that the Litch spoke of was what allowed the orcs to reproduce at a much faster rate. By sacrificing a singular orc to the artifact 10 eggs could be formed which would hatch in a matter of hours. The hatchlings would even be born at level 10. Now if that is all the artifact achieved it would be a wonder of the world. But that is not all that it did. Whilst it could quickly produce numerous soldiers at a rapid pace the orcs born from it were stupid even by orcish standards, but most damning of all they would only ever be able to achieve a singular evolution. And would forever be capped at lvl 30.
The the chief arrived in front of that artifact with 30 of its remaining subordinates the Litch activated the artifact and instead of sacrificing 1 orcs to create eggs it instead sacrificed all 20 of the orcs before imbuing the chief with all of their power. This act overloaded the artifact causing it to explode and leading to the brutal battle that our companions had just won.
Now the Litch realised that maybe these two invaders might be more trouble that it was able to deal with. It recalled all of its skeletons and ordered them to hide within the cave and hoped that it was not discovered. For whilst its knowlage was vast its strength was quite minimal thanks to its rebirth and the price it paid to redirect the Storm Titan.
Now at this time our two companions were unaware of the finer details of what was happening, but they knew one thing. Their was still fighting to be done. After all if their guesses were correct their should be at least 60 orcs left to kill. And so they traveled deeper into the valley in order to hunt them down.
Whilst they were both tired and a little banged up from the continuous battles they knew that they had to finish the fight off properly or else their was a chance that some may escape to cause issues later on. So the soldiered on and stalked deeper into the valley. Whilst they had before been in the area near the entrance their was still quite the distance to the central part where the orc village lay. So it took them a little while to travers to it.
When they eventually arrived they bore witness to quite the scene. The central building was destroyed with damage also dealt to all surrounding buildings, it would appear that the red beam of light they saw earlier was quite destructive indeed.
But perhaps more importantly to our companions they saw the remaining orcs of the village all gathered together in one space. Their was just over 30 orcs gathered before them, nearly all of them looking either old or being hatchling. But every last one looked over at the dragon and girl with a mix of fear and hatred.
Whilst Luna may have started this battle with hatred in her heart by now she was beginning to feel hollow after the amount of death she had dealt today. But regardless she was hear for a reason and she would not be denied her revenge. So she started forward with the intent to end this feud, her companion and closest friend staying right by her side as they charged once more into battle.