Chương 75: Chapter 74 Too Weak to Understand

The Warriorhearts orcs stared at Kaden. Dagon looked from him to Karath's axe, then toward the enormous Owlbear carcass being divided among the tribe. The explanation had sounded too simple. An Owlbear was a monster that normally required numerous warriors and carried a significant risk of casualties. Kaden had just claimed that five travellers encountered one during their journey and killed it without difficulty. More absurdly, he said Karath ended the battle with a single strike to the skull.

The silence spread as everyone attempted to decide whether Kaden was joking, boasting, or insulting their intelligence. Kaden merely looked confused. He had told the truth. Karath understood that this visit had already begun revealing the difference between the Bloodclaw Tribe and its neighbours. To the Bloodclaw warriors, the Owlbear had become little more than suitable prey and a valuable travel gift.

To the Warriorhearts Tribe, it remained a terrifying monster that demanded the strength and sacrifice of many warriors. The reason was not that Bloodclaw orcs had suddenly become physically superior. The tribes probably possessed similar natural strength. The true difference lay in weapons, tactics, training, and the accumulated changes Karath had introduced over fifteen years. The Warriorhearts warriors still viewed combat according to the old rules of the forest. A powerful monster required more bodies.

A stronger enemy demanded greater courage and greater sacrifice. The Bloodclaw Tribe had learned to approach the same problem differently. They divided roles. They surrounded enemies. They drew attention, attacked from blind spots, and trusted commands. Most importantly, they wielded weapons capable of surviving the full strength of an orc warrior. The Owlbear had not become weaker. The Bloodclaw Tribe had become stronger.

Dagon's disbelief offered Karath his first clear measurement of that progress from an outsider's perspective. Within his own village, every improvement had occurred gradually. Karath watched the tribe move from stone and crude bone to ogre weapons, then from ogre bone to drake equipment. The warriors learned numbers, maps, formations, and planned hunts one lesson at a time. Because Karath experienced each step, the final result felt natural. To someone seeing them after years apart, the difference was overwhelming.

This was exactly why visiting another tribe mattered. Karath needed to understand the present condition of neighbouring settlements before considering integration. He could not assume they possessed the same knowledge, organisation, or military strength as Bloodclaw. The early earthen house had already shown that ideas spread between tribes, but imperfectly and slowly. The Warriorhearts had copied a primitive version of Bloodclaw construction.

They had not inherited the later improvements to ventilation, wall strength, or ondol efficiency. The same would probably be true of every other innovation. Karath glanced around the settlement. The buildings were scattered without any obvious plan. There was no visible drainage system, organised warehouse, stone wall, or protected well comparable to Bloodclaw's. Weapons remained primitive. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Several warriors carried stone axes and clubs reinforced with ordinary monster bone. None possessed anything resembling drake equipment. Their food preparation, movement, and village organisation all reminded Karath of the Bloodclaw Tribe years earlier. That comparison produced two opposing emotions. The first was pride. His family had advanced farther than he realised. The second was responsibility.

If the Warriorhearts Tribe represented the surrounding settlements, then countless orcs still lived beneath the same dangers Bloodclaw had gradually escaped. Children probably died from contaminated water and cold ground. Hunters were likely lost because no one mapped the forest. Warriors probably sacrificed themselves against monsters that could have been defeated through traps and coordination. Karath had once focused only upon protecting his own tribe. The wider world now stood before him.

Absorbing neighbouring settlements would not merely increase labour and population. It could save lives. Naturally, integration would not be simple. Each tribe possessed its own chief, traditions, pride, and internal relationships. Approaching them with commands would create resistance. Orcs respected strength, but forcing submission through violence would waste the very population Karath wanted to preserve. He needed to understand what they desired and what they feared. The bride search offered an opening.

It created a socially accepted reason for warriors to visit, eat together, test strength, exchange information, and form relationships. Karath had no interest in finding a wife. He was increasingly interested in everything else the custom made possible. Dagon finally broke the silence.

"Brother Kaden means that Karath killed the Owlbear with one strike?"

"Yes." Kaden nodded without hesitation. Dagon looked directly at Karath.

"You struck it once?"

"After the others wounded and distracted it." Karath answered accurately. There was no need to pretend he had fought alone. Krog, Goldin, and Kurdan created the opening. Kaden approached alongside him. Karath merely reached the skull first. Dagon's expression shifted slightly at the mention of cooperation.

"How many warriors attacked it at the same time?"

"Five."

"And none were injured?"

"No." Another wave of murmuring spread through the settlement. The Warriorhearts warriors looked toward the Owlbear again. Some now focused on the deep wounds along its flanks, marks produced by the drake-bone axe and club. Their earlier attention had been directed toward the visitors' physiques. Now their eyes moved to the unfamiliar weapons. Dagon pointed toward Karath's axe.

"Is that weapon made from bone?"

"Drake bone." The murmuring stopped. Even Moldin, who had been eating beside the other elders, turned sharply.

"A drake?" the chief asked.

"Yes."

"You found a drake corpse?"

"Kaden thought Karath was going to say we killed it," Kaden muttered. Karath ignored him.

"The Bloodclaw Tribe hunted one." This time, no one spoke. The Owlbear claim had strained their belief. The death of a drake shattered it completely. To the Warriorhearts Tribe, a drake was probably not prey. It was a natural disaster. Karath recognised the same suffocating fear he once felt when the creature appeared near his home. Moldin slowly rose.

"You are saying the Bloodclaw Tribe killed a drake?"

"Yes."

"How many warriors died?"

"None." The answer sounded impossible even to Karath when spoken so plainly. The tribe had come close to losing several warriors, and Karath himself nearly died. Still, no one had been killed. Moldin studied Goldin, perhaps searching for confirmation that this was not the boasting of young warriors. Goldin nodded.

"The entire tribe prepared the hunt. Krog led the warriors. Karath delivered the final attack." Moldin's gaze moved toward Krog. The fifteen-year-old stood quietly beside the others. Then the chief looked back at Karath. The young orc appeared less physically imposing than Kaden and was younger than most warriors present. Yet he carried a drake-bone axe and had reportedly killed both an Owlbear and a drake. The contradiction unsettled them. Warriorhearts judged strength primarily through visible muscle and scars.

Karath did not fit the image their instincts expected. Dagon's competitive gaze sharpened. Until then, he had wanted to fight Kaden because Kaden looked like the strongest visitor. Now he was beginning to understand why Kaden had carefully called himself the strongest only in physical strength. The Bloodclaw warriors had not excluded Karath from their earlier conversation because he was weak. They treated his strength as something already understood. Kaden noticed the shift in attention.

"Karath is stronger in fighting technique," he admitted reluctantly.

"But Kaden still has more strength." Krog laughed.

"Kaden needs to keep repeating that part so everyone remembers."

"It is important!" The familiar argument eased some of the tension. Several Warriorhearts orcs laughed uncertainly. Dagon did not. He continued staring at Karath with growing interest.

"Then tomorrow morning, after Dagon speaks with Brother Kaden through combat, perhaps Karath will also grant him a match." Before Karath could answer, Kaden objected.

"Dagon challenged Kaden first."

"Dagon can fight both."

"You will be too injured after Kaden."

"Then Karath can fight first."

"That is worse!" The two began arguing over the order as though victory were already certain. Karath sighed again. This was supposed to be a bride search. Instead, the evening had transformed into negotiations over who would receive the privilege of being beaten first. Still, the challenge could become useful. A controlled match would reveal the combat ability of Warriorhearts warriors. It would also demonstrate Bloodclaw's strength without requiring hostility.

Orcs understood physical proof more readily than lengthy explanations. Karath looked toward Dagon. The warrior possessed a strong body and enough intelligence to analyse the Owlbear's circumstances logically. If he truly was the future chief, building a relationship with him would matter.

"Karath accepts." Dagon's grin widened.

"Krahahaha! Excellent!" Kaden looked betrayed.

"You were supposed to let Kaden fight first!"

"The order can be decided tomorrow." Karath had little interest in the argument. His thoughts had already moved beyond the duel. The Warriorhearts Tribe was weaker than he expected. Not because its people lacked courage or potential. They simply lacked the knowledge and resources that had transformed Bloodclaw. That weakness made them vulnerable. It also made cooperation possible. Karath had arrived believing he would merely observe another tribe and consider future integration.

By the end of the first evening, he had begun seeing something larger. The systems developed within Bloodclaw could spread. Construction, sanitation, maps, numbers, tactics, stronger weapons, and eventually magic did not need to remain confined to one settlement. The question was no longer whether Karath could strengthen neighbouring tribes. The question was how to do so without losing control of the future he intended to build. For now, he would begin with tomorrow's fight.