Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Berirock was unable to respond, he glanced at the orc king and getting the cue, he pressed the other party with more arguments.

"Seems like we are getting nowhere. I'm glad to know that my fellow generals are concerned about this matter. However, why not drop this issue for now and discuss the other topics at hand? Maybe we will arrive at a decision about this matter later" Berimond offered.

The orc king accepted the proposal, and nodded towards his general who moved onto the next topic. A couple of minutes passed by like that with various topics being raised. Just when it seemed like the meeting will come back to the issue of deployment of the army, Berigard tapped on the desk to gather the attention of everyone around.

"What is it? It's not your turn to raise an argument now" Berirock stated displeased by how Berigard acted.

"GUGA… Please excuse my behavior but I believe that we haven't finished discussing all the issues concerning our diluvian high orcs race yet. There is still the topic of the orcs missing from our territory".

When Berigard raised this issue, all the eyes and ears in the plaza focused on him. the topic had been raised in the previous meeting many times, however, just like every other time it was dismissed or turned down as nothing but baseless.

This time, Berigard was hellbent to arrive at a solution for good.

"Not this again, how many times have I told you, there are no orcs missing. The orcs that you think are missing, have either deserted the territory or were killed by some other tribes in the forest. So stop spouting nonsense about the mysterious disappearance of orcs" Berrirock like always swiftly dismissed the issue while the Orc King narrowed his eyes.

"I'm not spouting nonsense. In fact, the most pressing concern is not the openly hostile ogre race but the mysterious disappearance of our comrades. I'm sure that you all have doubted this once or have experienced one of your friends going missing".

"This has been happening for quite a few years, there is no way you guys haven't noticed yet. Every year I raise this issue and every year it gets shot down. I know it sounds far-fetched, but I believe that the mysterious disappearance of our comrades is not just simple disappearance".

"What are you trying to say? As I have told you before, the disappearance of the orcs is nothing but you overthinking stuff. There are many orcs on the frontlines who are dying or have disappeared somewhere. I don't see you raising an issue for each and every one of them?" Berirock snickered.

"This and that issue are two different things, the disappearance of the orcs in the frontlines is because of other enemy races who have captured or killed them" Berigard reasoned.

"Then how do you know that this issue is not related? Do you have some kind of proof?" Berirock was ready to dismiss the issue once again when suddenly the words that Berigard said, made him widen his eyes and not utter any sound.

"I do. In fact, I had this proof with me for a while but I doubted that things weren't as simple as it looked thus I delved deeper into the matter and investigated every leads that I could find".

Of course, this was a lie. Berigard had already known who was behind it from the start, there was no need for him to investigate anything. The only thing that he was lacking was evidence that he finally got his hands on now.

HE looked at the orc king for a split second before continuing—"To my surprise, things were much more complicated than I had thought. Our comrades weren't just mysteriously disappearing, but were being trafficked away".

BAM…

"Nonsense!! What are you saying? Do you even know what you are implying?" Berirock could no longer take this anymore and slammed his hand on the table.

"Yeah, I do. There is a traitor among us who is supplying our comrades to a foreign human kingdom in exchange for resources and supplies for themselves".

"Blasphemy!! Berigard, even if it's you, you should choose your words more carefully. Do you know what will happen if a general like you starts spouting such nonsense?" Berirock roared, he was just about to grab Berigard when the orc king stood up from his seat and walked towards the crowd.

"Hohh— that's some interesting lead that you have managed to find. Since its one of my trusted generals who is speaking this, we should hear him out. So tell me Berigard, according to you, who do you think is the traitor who is doing such a heinous crime as to selling out a member of their own race?".

The onlooking diluvian High Orcs in the plaza were silent, all eyes were drawn towards Berigard who made such a bold claim.

Of course, for a person of Berigard's status to say something like that, he must have some definite proof. All the orcs were waiting for Berigard to continue but the next moment when they saw the person he was pointing at, they stood rooted in their place in shock and bewilderment.

Not a single soul present in the plaza other than Berigard's faction was able to believe what he was saying. After all, the person that he was pointing at was none other than the orc king, the one that their loyalty and faith were tied to.

An uncanny silence descended onto the plaza before it was drowned out by the laughter of one person.

"GUGAGA… What kind of joke is that? Berigard are you saying that I'm that person?" the one to speak out was none other than Belgarious the orc King. He had an unfazed expression on his face even when pressed against a charge by one of his own generals.

"Berigard!!! Even if you are a general, accusing something like that to your own king, is a serious crime. You won't go unscathed for it" Berirock bellowed and immediately took out his weapon to personally deliver the punishment.

His actions immediately set the orcs in the plaza into a frenzy. Two generals about to duke it out… a scene like that was something that did happen a few times in the past night of the moon dance.

However, it would always be a verbal confrontation and never came to an actual physical fight. After all, if two generals were to fight it out for real, the scale and devastation caused would be too big.

Plus it did not look like the orc king has any intetnion of intervening or mediating the situation between the two parties. The other general was the same, both of them looked at the situation with a passive stance.

"Punishment?! Well, if it's something that I deserve, I will naturally not run away from it. However, the one guilty here, is not me but the person behind you. Today, I shall prove it to everyone here that the bastard that sold his own tribe to humans for his own gains was none other than Belgarious".

Berigard did not back away, he was determined to bring down the orc king the moment he decided to attend the meeting today.

Belgarious narrowed his eyes, a faint killing intent was starting to radiate from his body. Nevertheless, he did not make his move yet and simply observed the situation like he was some outsider.

<strong>BANG…</strong>

The Orc King was able to hold himself back; however, that couldn't be said so for Berirock who along with Berimal was one of the loyal dogs of the orc king.

When his subject of worship was being slandered like that, how could he keep himself calm? The moment he heard Berigard discard all forms of respect for the orc King, he erupted out in anger, rushed towards Beritgard, and drew his large axe in an overhead motion in an attempt to chop the latter in two.

The power of a general was second only to the orc king and amongst the four generals, Berirock could easily rank in the top two. His level was above 450 and he was one of the orc warriors that specialised in dealing heavy damage.

If he were to be compared to an adventurer, he would be like a berserker whose entire skill set focused around offensive skills.

Berirock did not waste time a nd directly activated a skill called the [Executioner's Cleave] which was also one of his most powerful skills.

He in his attempt to punish Berigard, did not regulate his power and the skill had about ninety percent of is power imbued. If it connected, Berigard was sure be severely hurt; however, before Berirock could come closer, he was assaulted by a blast of wind that was powerful enough to metastasize from a small wind to a powerful tempest in the blink of an eye.

<strong>BANG</strong>… the orc general was slammed far back and drew a long ditch in the ground. A silence that was fundamentally different from the previous one, permeated the plaza.

The orcs that were watching the face-off from the distance, drew long breaths of air after seeing general Berirock who was regarded as one of the most powerful generals, get easily blown off by a single attack from Berigard who was ranked the last out of the four generals.

It was not only he onlooking orcs, but even the orc king and the orc general Berimond were astonished by this scene. Although Belgarious knew that Berigard had leveled up quite a few levels in these past few months, never did he expect the rate of growth of the other to be so drastic.

Added to the fact that Berigard was also an orc shaman, a constitution that rarely appears amongst the orc, made the general even more dangerous in the orc king's eye.