As a wave of sparkling lights washed over my men like a strong sea wave, they were filled with absolute power.

Their muscles were bulging, and their eyes were bloodshot with adrenaline being pumped through their veins.

"CHARGEEEEE!"

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The amount of bloodlust in the air already alerted the den of orcs, and as more began to crawl out of their slimy caves, my soldiers only smiled even wider.

With more blood to spill, who couldn't be happier than a blood-thirsty soldier.

"Should we help?" Cora asked as I stared off into the distance, seeing both of your armies completely obliterate the den in a matter of minutes.

At first, they tore through the first layer of soldiers, but the rest continued to pile on until they couldn't move anymore.

All of their movements had been restricted, leaving them as sitting ducks waiting to be slaughtered.

"Nah, they're fine. Should we have pork for lunch?" I asked as the sun was slowly creeping to the center of the sky.

"Fufufu… Sure,"

Once we had cleared out the entire den, some soldiers came out with a mix of enslaved tundra snakes—men and women.

The men looked to be starved and beaten to the bone while being forced to work endlessly until their minds had become numb to essentially everything.

The women, on the other hand, seemed to have been ravished until their minds broke, a more merciful yet not end for them when compared to the men.

The women probably had more trauma, and the men probably wouldn't be able to walk or run or fight again a single day in their life from here… of course, if they chose to live, though.

"Please… kill us… kill us…" One of the men begged, and the others soon echoed that back at us.

They were so pitiful that most of the soldiers could barely even lay their eyes on them… they didn't do anything to them, yet they felt guilty for something like this happening.

"All of you have three choices. First, you join our collective army. The second choice, you can return to the dukedom which you used to call home… And finally, we can offer you peace. You can have a swift and painless death from my blade," I announced while forming a sword of ice that erupted from my hand with icy blue lightning.

And… just as I thought, almost everybody requested death, so I immediately gave it to them, so they didn't have to suffer from the fear of dying.

They might've wanted it, but deep down, I could tell there was a sliver of hope of them wanting to live… though I didn't want to see their expectations get crushed when they return to a place that will reject them for being "dirty."

"And you three would like to return to the dukedom, so I will give you my extra map, and you must return on our own. We will give enough rations for you to survive until you get back, but none of us will help you,"

Their faces melted with fear, but that was the harsh reality.

I wasn't about to take the risk of potentially losing a battle due to a minute difference in human resources.

"Then, would you like to come with us?" I asked, but they immediately shook their heads side to side.

"I thought so… Okay, well, we wish you good luck," I said as some of the soldiers split their rations amongst them, and I tossed them my extra map.

"Th-Thank you," They meekly said, and with a cold goodbye, we split ways, the singular woman staying behind.

"And you… You're quite brave. Plus, it seems you've retained almost all of your ego and mind… how interesting," Cora muttered as she hopped down from her horse and lifted the woman's chin with her finger.

The dark elf pouted from only a few feet away, but Cora continued to ignore her as she inspected the woman's body.

"Were you a warrior? I must say, you're quite toned,"

"Indeed. I was the captain of the imperial knights before, and my comrades betrayed me, leaving me to get captured by those filthy things… though, I'm glad they made me go through labor instead of the usual process women would go through,"

She was a hardened warrior with white hair, deathly pale skin, but strange black scales that crawled up and down her body.

"Interesting… so that's how you kept this muscle. But don't think we'll give you a high position just because you were the captain of the imperial knights,"

"I was hoping you wouldn't do that as well. Though, I must request some armor and possibly a weapon. This might be a bit selfish of me to ask, though,"

"Fufufu… it's fine, it's fine… We have some extra weapons… Porters! Get this woman some of our finest gear! I want her to display this imperial knight captain power!" Cora shouted before hopping back onto her horse.

As the woman suited up under the cloak of the dark elf's shouted, we heard the light clinking of the metal scratching and slamming together.

And, as she stepped out of the shadows, we felt her almost royal presence.

"Hmmm… Very nice. Now, go join the ranks and try to impress us," I said, and the woman bowed deeply before walking into the crowd of soldiers.

She was quite the humble specimen, and once we couldn't see her anymore, we traveled even farther into the forest.

There were some scattered monsters around, and we even ran into a few adventurers who complained about us taking their prey… though. It seems our new recruit dealt with them very swiftly.

Whenever anybody would even so much as approach our army, she would step in between and use her powerful and noble presence and scare them off.

And when they weren't scared off, she would force them away with her raw strength and power.

She had very minimal attack skills, but her stats were very high… and I could tell she was hiding some of her power.

"No need to act any weaker than you are right now. We told you to impress us, and we'll only be more disappointed if you hold back in front of us," I said, and the woman's eyes widened a bit as if she was already underestimating us.

"How rude…" Cora muttered.

"Forgive me, Commanders. I was insolent and underestimated you two… please forgive this lowly soldier," She said.

"*sigh*... We forgive you, and no need to lower yourself to the standards of the people around you. You're strong so flaunt it with all your might," Cora smiled.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be sure to impress you,"

"I like that confidence… now, let's focus on this new monster den,"

In front of us was a new and second monster den filled with dire wolves. And normally, these things are weak, but there are way too many of them for us to even try to underestimate them.

We had to formulate a good plan; otherwise, we would all be overwhelmed in an instant… they were that dangerous.

"ALRIGHT, MEN! SPLIT UP INTO TWO GROUPS OF FIVE! YOU ALL WILL COVER EACH OTHER'S BACKS, AND IF I SEE ANYBODY IN A GROUP OF FOUR BY THE END OF THE RAID, THE ENTIRE GROUP WILL RECEIVE FIVE HUNDRED PUSHUPS FOR EACH PERSON!"

"YES, MA'AM!" They all shouted back, and after Cora hyped up her own army, we all sent them forward into the den with us at the front, leading the charge.

[Aurora Borealis] [Glacier Wall]

A stream of sparkling lights intertwined itself with my army, boosting not only their morale but their strength, speed, and battle intelligence.

They all stayed in their groups of five, and I could see our new recruit at the front forming a spear made of ice with ice magic.

FWOOSH… BOOOOOOOOM!

All of a sudden, the den was flattened by my glacier wall, blocking off anymore from escaping, letting the initial wave of wolves to completely become a pile of corpses.

Without their insane numbers, they were practically nothing against my men and then their metal equipment.

Though, my freshly made glacier disappeared after about ten minutes, unleashing the rest of the wolves who had stacked up into a large army ready to devour the men in front of them.

"DON'T LOOSEN UP JUST YET! STAY STRONG!" I shouted before activating [Necromancy], scaring most of the soldiers, but after seeing they were on their side, morale surpassed its peak and overflowed onto the wolves.

They were now becoming fearful and were less motivated to defend their den… eventually leading to their downfall as they escaped this snow and blood-ridden battlefield.

"ALRIGHT, MEN! CHARGEEEEE! SPLIT UP FROM YOUR GROUP AND CHARGEEEEE!" I shouted as I had already killed the dire wolf king, meaning this wasn't some type of run-away tactic where they could sneak attack us.

Without a leader, none of them could come up with this on the spot.

Snow, soon began to fall.

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