One of the great capabilities of warriors was their ability to not get lost, after all, by sharpening your senses, you also improve your perception of the surroundings. According to the information given by Redwig they were 12km (7,4 miles) from one of the non-human settlements identified on the map.
However, there was a big problem with Geoffrey's plan. The orcs could just lose interest and disperse before they even arrived at the settlement. For this not to happen, they must suffer massive losses so that they chasse the squad to the settlement where the non-humans will be attracted to fight among themselves.
"Such a large army in a region like this. It is not possible that they have so much food and maybe they are already hungry. They will fight anything that moves even though it is peaceful." That was what Redwig had said to Gremory, and with that in mind Gremory started a quick assault on that segment of the army to cause as many losses as possible before retreating.
All adventurers began an attack while war cries began increasingly. Redwig was first in the line of attack despite his position as second in command, an admirable attitude until the front lines of the squad and the orc segment collided.
Redwig didn't care about the comrades at his side, he was in battle ecstasy as he ripped apart orcs everywhere, despite his huge shield he didn't seem to be attached for defense as the orc's weapons simply broke when hitting his armor while it was getting tinged with red from the blood of the orcs who were unlucky enough to find him on the battlefield.
"A leader can make more of a difference by fighting like an army instead of just a soldier on the battlefield." It was what Gremory was thinking at that moment he saw Redwig fighting the orcs with all his might, but beside Gremory was also the members of Hjmar. Since rank C warriors will be the first to die on the battlefield, Gremory decided to keep them as "protection".
Although these actions were seen in a bad light, it was clear that this coordination was affecting the battlefield, but these warriors soon began to submit against the large numbers of orcs.
"RETREAT!" Gremory shouted, and Cerberus accompanied him with a deafening cry that was heard by all despite the noise of the battle. Some warriors stayed behind in this process and were simply abandoned while the orcs devoured them.
Redwig was one of the fastest there despite all his armor, and so he quickly reached Gremory while the rest of the adventurers ran together in the direction of the non-human settlement. "Are you sure this will be enough?" Redwig asked Gremory.
"I honestly don't know, but I have a way to make sure that they will follow us." Gremory spoke while he drew his sword, a black aura began to form around him until it covered his entire body and converged into his hands and then his sword until it formed a mass of energy so dense that it distorted the light around it.
"ABYSS VOID." Gremory screamed and a spell just like a black fireball was launched forward, at first it didn't seem like much of a deal until it reached the middle of that segment of orcs.
A large explosion was seen rapidly expanding, killing everything in its path and leaving only a crater in place. With just one attack hundreds of orcs died.
This was Gremory's greatest attack, but it also meant that he had exhausted his mana, and with that Cerberus also began to disappear like the hundreds of dead orcs.
Even Gremory's shell faltered for a second and what he saw was paradise. Although the extreme destruction of Abyss Void wiping out any trace of the dead orcs, there was a sea of black energy there. Without thinking twice, Gremory absorbed everything and the feeling was as good as feeding on humans.
Gremory began to twist with pleasure as he was overwhelmed with energy. Which was a shock to everyone present.
Redwig could only think of one thing when he saw this. 'Monster!'
A child full of battle marks had just eliminated hundreds of orcs with a single attack while contorting with pleasure. Not even Danton, Claire, or Rudo could think anything different from Redwig.
But it only infuriated the orcs who started to run even faster. Gremory seemed barely conscious so Rudo threw him on his back and started running along with the rest of the adventurers who had stopped after hearing the explosion.
'Oh, I want more ...' Gremory thought as the energy started to disperse.
Although Gremory knew this was an irrational attitude, at that moment all he wanted to do was return to the battle even though it costs the lives of everyone present.
"Hey, if you're conscious then start running." Rudo spoke when he saw that Gremory was returning to normal.
'Coming back now would be suicide.' Gremory thought while he controlled his addiction and started running alongside the adventurers, luckily for him, 12km (7,4 miles) was an easy thing for his current level.
The running pace of the adventurers at that time was relatively low, as they wanted to make the orcs think they were close to catching them.
The plan was to go through the settlement, since this species is peaceful it would not attack until some hostility was demonstrated, and they did so while running through the streets of the settlement.
The information provided about this settlement said that here was the home of a kind of blue-skinned farmers with a height slightly above humans but who did not show any hostility. They did not have the physical form of warriors due to their extremely thin composition, their strength came from magic and they used it for various war machines.
But there were no trace of magic or war machines when they arrived at the settlement, just physical mechanisms for generating energy as seen while Gremory studied the mechanisms of runes.