Gerald realized he just killed a high Silver Ranked monster, or perhaps it was already at the Gold Rank…
In any case, its body was full of natural treasures! He quickly took a few big bottles and filled them to the brim with Ogre blood. Then he discovered that it was not nearly enough and took a barrel that contained water for the mages, and filled it with blood instead.
The Earth Crystal he dug out of the Ogre's chest was the size of a basketball and could probably contain multiple thousands of MP! Too bad it was currently empty.
Gerald was happily humming a song as he dismembered the beast and took all the good parts when he heard screams coming from the other side.
That's when he remembered they were still at war!
"Oh, right… Almost forgot about that." He was surrounded by high walls and so he sort of forgot about everything else when presented with such loot!
His teammates were surrounded by beasts and they would surely have suffered if it was up to them to keep Orcs and Hobgoblins at bay. Luckily, the rest of the Dark Lions came and helped defend, stalling for time until the reinforcements came.
And what a sight that was. More than a thousand fully plated soldiers marched up to the city wall and engaged the beasts. Paladins of Innos were what they were called, and each of them carried powerful Rune magic.
Being the warriors of the Church of Innos, their strength ranked between high Iron and Silver so they could effectively fight with the Orcs one-on-one. And being the warriors of the god of flames, they were all in possession of Runes of Fire magic.
Despite great individual strength, they mainly utilized group tactics and systematically annihilated groups of invaders one after the other, pushing them back to the barrier.
"Fireball!"
"Flame Barrage!"
"Fire Storm!"
"Scorch Ray!"
"Fiery Tempest!"
The Paladins of Innos stood in line, with their shiny silvery armor reflecting the flames as they shouted the words of power for their spells. There were all kinds of different shapes and sizes of flames shooting at the beasts, but most were just a slight variation of each other.
There was even one that looked like a miniature tornado, engulfing an Orc and turning him into a burning corpse in no time at all.
Most likely that person knew Wind magic and enhanced his Fire spell with it, but Gerald couldn't be sure as it was too far distant to see. He was just happy that the soldiers came so he could rest for a bit.
Now that the Ogre was dead and he absorbed its spirit, he was expecting a painful few hours. He found an empty spot near his warehouse, which was miraculously still standing, and began meditating.
With so many faces and so many voices in his head, it was difficult to concentrate in such a state. Surprisingly though, among all the wild spirits of the dead, one stood out. It was the Ogre.
Its small eyes on the oversized head stared straight at Gerald with an unnerving gaze. It just sat there, in his mind, not doing anything except looking.
"What… Are… You…?" It eventually spoke in a slow, deep, seemingly tired voice. Gerald, of course, ignored it. Why would he even answer a question of the dead? That would be stupid.
Time went by and the spirits of Orcs and Hobgoblins dissolved into nothingness and became a part of him, growing his mind and spirit.
"You… Are… Not… Human…" The Ogre spoke again, this time with an angry undertone.
Gerald ignored it again since it was speaking nonsense and continued absorbing the dead.
He could feel his consciousness expanding in real-time. Everything became even clearer than before, more colorful, more... everything. He didn't even know that such clarity of thought existed before experiencing it for himself. Even the Potion of Focus could only achieve just less than half of what he was experiencing at the moment.
"Monster…" The Ogre growled with clear anger and bitterness in its voice. Gerald already devoured nearly all the spirits in his mind by now, and soon it would be its turn.
"You should not exist!" the Ogre suddenly roared and lashed out. "Abomination! You do not belong here! Your mere presence pollutes this world! Roar!"
"Look who's talking," Gerald snickered and started working on the Ogre. "Even in death, you are spouting bullshit."
"Death?!" The Ogre roared again and started thrashing around, but invisible chains of Gerald's mind held it in place. "This is not death! You Soulless creature who hold human form, you will be purged from this world like the rest of your kind and turned into tools for my masters!"
Gerald was slowly getting sick of listening to the nonsense of the Ogre and increased his absorption.
"Just shut up and accept your fate! What's the use of struggling, you are dead already."
Roars and screams of the Ogre became increasingly mad and sporadic, slurred and indistinct. After spending about half an hour on the Ogre alone, Gerald's mind returned to peace. It was so quiet, so peaceful…
He breathed out a deep and serene sigh and slowly opened his eyes. Immediately the screams and sounds of war entered his ears.
In his absence, the Orcs were pushed back by the Paladins of Innos, at least at their end, and many were looking for survivors among the sea of corpses.
Whereas the dead were counted in the hundreds around each watchtower, where Gerald and his group were stationed you could only find a dozen or so.
The destruction of the environment was much greater though. The surrounding buildings, with the sole exception of the warehouse, were basically leveled. Not even the ground was spared. The cobblestone was torn up and broken, craters littered the place, and especially where Gerald and the Ogre fought, you could now find only mud and gravel.