"Brogan, do you even realize what you're doing?"
"I am Thundar, the chieftain of the Ironbone Tribe—your chieftain!"
Thundar's breathing was labored, his face contorted with anger and disbelief. He never imagined that someone from his own tribe would dare to take him hostage.
"Chieftain Thundar—oh wait, I should say Elder Thundar now!" Brogan sneered. "From the moment you submitted, the Ironbone Tribe no longer has a chieftain."
"At this point, I might as well come clean. It was my idea to lead the tribe on that cross-border hunt, and it was me who got Kael killed."
"But I did it for the tribe, to hunt more resources. Sure, I was a bit greedy, wanting a Bagbird's stomach pouch for myself."
"I just didn't expect that during that hunt, we'd run into Orion by sheer bad luck!"
"Orion, I think we can—"
Whoosh!
A gust of wind swept through, and Brogan's body collapsed backward, lifeless.
It was a headless giant corpse.
Where his head had been, a trident was now deeply embedded in the ground, its shaft still trembling from the force of the throw.
Thundar, who had been held hostage, was now drenched in blood and bits of flesh, his face splattered with the remains of Brogan.
Orion stepped forward, pulling the trident from the ground, inspecting its sharp tips with satisfaction.
The Bloodthirsty Trident had a built-in explosive effect, and Orion was quite pleased with this new discovery.
"If it had only been about cross-border hunting, and you had escaped, I wouldn't have cared. After all, we're all just trying to survive."
"Brogan, you died without ever understanding the real reason I wanted you dead. It wasn't because of the hunt—it was because you abandoned your tribe and forsook your faith for your own selfish gain."
Orion's voice was calm, but to every giant present, it was like a thunderclap.
Abandoning the tribe means death.
This was the message Orion conveyed to every giant, a rule that would be enforced without exception.
With the Bloodthirsty Trident in hand, Orion leaped back onto the head of the Abyssal Dragon, his voice echoing through the forest.
"I, Orion Stoneheart, acting chieftain of the giants, hereby appoint Thundar as the sixteenth elder of the giants!"
"Thundar, you have half a day to gather your supplies and bring all your people with me back to Moonshadow Valley!"
"From today onward, we will unify the Black Forest. This forest will become the territory of the giants!"
As he spoke, Orion raised his trident once more, unleashing his Alpha-level aura without restraint, sweeping over the entire area.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
At the same time, the Abyssal Dragon let out a series of deafening roars, its Alpha-level presence causing the bloodline warriors of the Ironbone Tribe to tremble in fear.
"An Abyssal Dragon?"
"An Alpha-level…"
"Giant knight!"
"Praise the Titan God! Your glory descends upon the Black Forest and the giants!"
"Orion!"
"Orion!"
"…"
The bloodline warriors of the Ironbone Tribe, who had initially resisted and opposed Orion, now looked at him with awe and reverence.
Orion, through sheer strength, had successfully subdued the Ironbone Tribe.
---
Half a day later, the entire Ironbone Tribe emerged from the cave.
The Ironbone Tribe was a community of about 2,000 giants, but their numbers had been severely reduced. Many of their bloodline warriors had perished during the dark beast tides of the winter, and most of the survivors were injured to some degree.
Despite this, the tribe still had over 600 bloodline warriors capable of wielding weapons. Given time to recover, the natural resilience of giants would allow these warriors to regain their full strength. With these warriors, along with Orion and the Abyssal Dragon, the Blackstone Tribe would have enough power to sweep through the other races of the Black Forest.
---
A few days later, on the journey back.
"Thundar, how many elite or hero-level warriors did the Ironbone Tribe have before?"
"Orion, we had eight. One is severely injured, two are lightly injured, and including myself, only five are still able to fight."
Orion and the other giant elders walked at the front of the group. Orion didn't bother to conceal his aura, and the beasts of the forest had long since fled, making the journey peaceful.
"What did you face during the winter?"
"We faced a large number of dark creatures. Blind Spiders and Subterranean Beetles were our main enemies."
"How many dark creatures did you kill?"
"Not many. We held the cave entrance, only fighting when the creatures breached our defenses."
"And what happened to the bodies of the dark creatures?"
"We threw them outside. The meat of Blind Spiders and Subterranean Beetles is poisonous, so we couldn't eat them."
Orion felt a pang of disappointment. Aside from the dark source crystals, he had hoped to collect some of the dark creature corpses from the Ironbone Tribe's battles.
But to his dismay, the Ironbone Giants had discarded the valuable corpses.
It was a shame—like finding a mountain of gold and not realizing its worth.
Given the greed and savagery of dark creatures, those corpses had likely been devoured by other beasts the very night they were discarded.
This bad news left Orion feeling somewhat disheartened.
The Blackstone giant elders walking behind him also sighed inwardly.
During the latter part of the winter, the Blackstone Tribe had distributed the dark source crystals they had hunted, which had significantly boosted the strength of their bloodline warriors. Many had even advanced to hero-level, though they had yet to earn enough merit to be promoted to the council.
Thundar, walking behind Orion, could sense that many of the Blackstone Tribe's bloodline warriors were hero-level, though most were newly advanced.
The sheer number of hero-level giants left Thundar astonished.
"Orion, is it true that Clymene has also reached Alpha-level?"
Thundar found it hard to believe that the Blackstone Tribe had suddenly produced two Alpha-level powerhouses. It was unheard of.
To be precise, there were three Alpha-level beings, as the Abyssal Dragon was also Alpha-level.
Orion glanced at Thundar and replied calmly.
"My sister took half of the bloodline warriors with her. She was summoned by Lord of the Four Domains Gareth to participate in the myriad races invasion."
Thundar froze in place, as if turned to stone.
The names Lord of the Four Domains Gareth and myriad races invasion were secrets known only to a few chieftains of the tribes. After all, the giants of the Black Forest hadn't produced an Alpha-level warrior in centuries.
Hearing this news from Orion, an Alpha-level giant, Thundar had no choice but to believe it.
"Thundar, tell your former elders that the Black Forest will soon be unified."
"If they want to keep their positions as elders, they'll have to earn it through battle merit!"