The dragon's harem

Chapter 2098: Too Many Orcs

Arad watched as Arlo’s group loaded the Yetis in the back of their ATTR and drove away, and he sighed. ”That was a Void Step.”

”He is a void dragon?” Gamond asked by his side, unable to believe that since the aura she could feel from Arlo was far too weak.

”No, he has a bloodline. In terms of power, I’d say he is stronger than Matilda, but has less mastery than her.” Arad crossed his arms. ”This is troubling...”

”You’re going to space them since he has void blood?” Gamond looked at Arad with a smile, and he laughed. ”Of course not, I don’t care about what blood he has. What I’m worried about is that a void dragon or drakaina could be hiding with the orcs. I doubt they have the power to kill one, so the situation might get even more complicated.”

The problem wasn’t Arlo himself, but the possibility that his ancestor might still be alive and assisting the orcs, which meant that Arad going through the rift to stop the orcs could end up with a massive clash with another void dragon, one that could be older than him.

Of course, there could be another possibility. Arad could already tell by scent that Beatrice had elvish blood in her, which means that there are some orcs with strange blood mixed in them, probably picked up from the countless worlds they invaded. This could mean Arlo’s family picked up someone with a draconic bloodline, and this is how they got to this point.

”I should probably check the other orcs.” Arad scratched the back of his head, and Gamond nodded. ”That will be wise. I’ll keep watch over them.”

Hearing her, Arad smiled, ”I sent an incarnation to Isdis. I’ll stay here with you.” As she heard him, she leaned on his arm with a smile. ”Ah... I love staying alone with you.”

Far away, Arad landed on Kory’s back and approached Isdis. ”They are still spilling out?” He asked, and she nodded. ”Yeah, I’ve been freezing them, and it’s a good exercise for my magic. Did you find anything interesting?”

”The ones that escaped, one of them has a void bloodline, and they are stronger than Matilda. I came to check and see if there are any orcs like that with strange bloodlines mixed in?” He sat by Isdis’s side and stared down at the spilling orcs.

”They have been getting harder to freeze in the last few waves, but I doubt it has anything to do with bloodlines.” She spoke and pointed at what was now a seal of frozen orc corpses beneath them. ”They are doing something. At first, I could freeze an orc in less than ten seconds, now it takes them a whole three minutes to freeze, and some even survived for an hour.”

”Since they know that they are going to freeze, they are probably using a spell or some potion to protect themselves.” Arad replied, and he was right. The orcs have developed a drinkable, anti-freezing medicine that they were taking before jumping into the rift.

The pill overheated the orcs’ bodies from the inside, allowing them to resist Isdis’s cold for longer, but the effects were so extreme that if the temperature was just 0c outside, they could overheat and die. They could only survive for long in the freezing blizzard of Isdis.

Arad took a deep breath and watched the orcs by Isdis’s side, yet, even after a whole hour, he couldn’t sense anything. Those were orcs, just regular orcs. He couldn’t even find someone else like Beatrice who had elvish blood. It seems that Arlo’s team was pretty unique even among the billions of orcs... or they are just hiding the rest for a later surprise attack.

”Millions already died...” Isdis looked down and sighed. ”Won’t they realise they can’t win and retreat?”

Arad looked at her for a second and then spoke in an even, calm tone. ”Would an army of 100 thousand soldiers retreat after ten deaths?” His gaze then turned cold, cold enough to make Isdis fear for her life. The one looking at her now wasn’t human, but a cold, merciless dragon.

”I suspect those deaths are helping them a lot.” As he spoke, Isdis felt a chill going down her spine. ”What are you talking about?”

”Less mouths to feed. They are both securing food and tripping their population down. I bet they have a death target that they won’t even consider retreating before achieving, and even if there weren’t any deaths... they could abandon that chunk of the army and close the rift.”

Arad was absolutely right, and to make things worse, even he had no idea about the horrific scale of the orcs’ overpopulation. The world they were coming from was larger than the mortal world by quite a bit, but it was still far too small to sustain their numbers.

On that planet, crammed into countless packed cities that covered every usable inch of land by a thousand-story steel fortresses, the orcs’ total population was a bit over seven quadrillion heads. A quadrillion has a thousand trillion in it, and one trillion has a thousand billion.

1,000,000,000, this is a billion and this is a quadrillion 1,000,000,000,000,000.

For every human on modern earth, there are a million orcs in their world, and they were far bigger than humans, standing at around ten feet tall. The millions of soldiers that Isdis had just killed won’t even shift the needle, and their spreadsheets are still as filled as before. She had literally just scooped a droplet out of an entire ocean.

”Are you saying that the deaths are a part of their goals?” Isdis growled, and Arad nodded. ”Yes, and we can’t even blame them. They probably have more mouths to feed than they could ever hope to support.”

”So, they’ll just send them to die in wars?” As a queen and one who handled armies before, Isdis understood well that sacrificing soldiers was sometimes the only way to save the majority, but not like this, this was far too much even for her.

”This is probably for the best.” Arad pointed at the corpses. ”Imagine if all of those orcs died of starvation in their world? Where they are probably living like goblins in a tight hole. The rot, the diseases, and just the smell alone would break whatever resemblance of society they have.”

”There has to have been another way... how did they reach this point? Where did it go wrong?” As she growled, Arad gave her a strange stare. ”And how am I supposed to know? I only know what I can conclude from what I’ve seen, nothing more.”

It was then that Kory spoke. ”I once heard Empress Isbert speak of them. She said the orcs have a gestation period of a month and can grow to full adult size by the age of five. But the worst part is that they give birth in litters of six to seven, and what’s even scarier is that even without a male, some of their women can spontaneously get pregnant on their own.”

”So that’s why...” Isdis mumbled, and Arad gave Kory a stare. ”Can’t they just... do something about it?”

”I don’t know, but the Empress seemed to imply that the orcs did many things to try and slow their growth, but all those attempts only ended up accelerating it.” As she shook her head, Arad rubbed his face. ”Ah... damn it.”

^It’s probably my fault, isn’t it?^ As he growled internally, Nyar’s avatar laughed.

^Not exactly, when you made the orcs, they did give birth to litters, but they were stable. At some point in their history, they sought immortality and modified their own bodies, which resulted in the disaster they are suffering from.^ As he spoke, Arad sighed.

^How do you know?^

^We had some abomination hiding within them.^ He replied with a grin, and Arad felt even worse.

^So even the abominations aren’t bothering to mess with them since they are already doomed... it is really my fault.^ He stood, and Nyar inside his head kept laughing. ^I said not exactly for a reason, you made them, and the way you made them is what made their failed modification possible. If a blacksmith makes a kitchen knife, and then someone uses that knife to kill, is it their fault?^

^Probably not...^ Arad gave Isdis a smile. ”I’ll scout the ground for a while and see what I can find. Keep freezing them as they come out, and if you get tired, switch with Gamond or Undine.”

”Got it...” She nodded, and he jumped off Kory’s back.