Today is a cloudy day, and the figure of Shuangyue is tightly covered by dark clouds, and there is no trace of light.

Riptide Fort was silent at night, as if the whole city had fallen asleep, but in fact, under the cover of night, the syndicates of Uptown were not as lax as they seemed. They have sent additional guards today, and the soldiers on duty at night have their eyes wide open, staring at the lower city in the distance, not daring to take it lightly.

Because just today during the day, the Arashi sent at least six companies, and although they did not immediately launch an attack on the upper city, everyone knew that a great battle was already on the verge of breaking out.

The syndicate's top brass paid more attention to the Arashi than ever before, not only in the open and in the dark, but also in teams of mobile sentinels patrolling back and forth between the street corners, and the whispered passwords between the sentinels they met were constantly being heard.

But it is impossible for human nerves to remain so tense all the time without feeling tired, and as the night gets darker and deeper, the originally vigilant syndicate bandits gradually relax. Under the influence of the biological clock, many people began to take a nap, and in some dark corners, there was a faint snoring sound.

The time soon came to the early hours of the morning, the sky was like ink, and I couldn't see my fingers, and it was the darkness before dawn. A yawning patrol left Uptown and headed for Downtown. This is the last shift of the twelve-man squad tonight, and after this patrol, they can go to sleep with peace of mind.

They walked in a semicircle centered on the gate of the Upper Town, passed Diagon Alley, then crossed King's Cross and finally came to Tumbledown Alley.

This alley was once Fort Riptide's famous black market, but after the Arashi were driven out of Fort Riptide, the area was completely deserted.

On both sides of the dark street, the dilapidated houses with their bare black windows look eerie, and some of the door panels have not dripped oil for too long, and when the wind blows, they make a squeaky sound.

"Every time I walk down this street, I always feel my scalp tingle, as if someone is watching us from those houses." A soldier whispered with his head bowed.

"Damn, can't you say something pleasing to people?" At the front of the line, the captain scolded angrily, to be honest, he didn't like it either. Because when they attacked Fort Rapids, there were many Arashi who died in this alley, and there were always rumors among the patrol members that they had heard women crying in these empty houses.

"Hell!" Thinking of this, he couldn't help but shiver, and couldn't help but speed up his pace.

"Keep up!" He scolded again.

The alley was about two hundred yards long, and they soon came to the end of the alley, and they were about to embark on the road that turned into the upper town, but at that moment, a change of direction occurred.

Under everyone's horrified gaze, two green eyes jumped out of the empty house on the side of the street and blocked the middle of the street. Everyone in the patrol team was so nervous that they couldn't help but stop and clench their weapons.

"What kind of monster is this?" The captain subconsciously raised the torch in his hand and shone it in front of him.

Emerging in the light of the fire was a huge black panther, and in the face of the captain's gaze, the beast opened its mouth to reveal a fangs as sharp as razor.

Immediately afterwards, the team members who walked at the end also suddenly screamed.

"Hell, what is this!"

The captain looked back and saw that in the middle of the street behind them, a huge leopard had also appeared, but this one seemed to be yellow.

Before they could figure out where the two beasts had come from, there was a sudden sound of a sharp bowstring flicking in the houses on either side.

"Attack! Those Arathi have finally done it! ”

That was the first thought that crossed the captain's mind, and he opened his mouth to raise his voice of warning, but an arrow piercing his heart took away all his strength. A faint breath erupted from his throat, and only a sigh-like sound came out.

The attackers hiding in the darkness were astonishingly skilled, and none of the arrows they shot missed, all of them hit their targets, and one of the twelve patrolmen was divided into two arrows.

The battle ended surprisingly quickly, and a few minutes later, a group of black-clad humans with crossbows emerged from the shadows of the streets, one of them took out a broken troll spear, stuck it in the corpse a few times, and dropped the blood-stained spear on the ground.

"Let's go." In the darkness, a voice whispered.

They grabbed the corpse on the ground, dragged it to the ground, and walked out of the alley, the blood on the corpse gurgling down, pulling a long drag mark on the ground.

Silence returned to the alley, as if nothing had happened, and outside the street, there was no movement, and the Syndicate didn't seem to realize that they had lost a patrol.

……

Under the eaves of the roadside, the ogre Mullock seemed to hear a soft pop in the distance. But he didn't care, just rolled over and began to snore again.

"This hellish place is just not as comfortable as my own cabin!" Half-asleep, he dreamed.

But the next moment, he seemed to feel someone nudge him, and then push again.

Unbearable, he manipulated the big stick next to him and waved it casually like a fly, and he bet that it was indeed just a casual wave. But the next moment, he smelled the sweetness of blood.

He smacked his mouth, opened his eyes, and was confused for a moment before he remembered that he was guarding the gates of the city of Alatho's Tower.

"I'm so hungry!"

He muttered, then rolled over and sat up. In front of him was a shivering troll, and a few steps away, there was another troll with a bleeding head, who should be dead from the point of view of his twisted neck.

"What's going on?" Mullock said angrily. It was still early, the eastern sky was just shining, and it was not yet time to eat, and if the troll did not give him a satisfactory answer, he would not mind taking him for an appetizer.

"He tried to wake you up, but you beat him to death." The troll said tremblingly. He said he was a troll, but he wasn't "huge" compared to an ogre, and he couldn't even resist at all. In fact, this is how the Deadwood Trolls survive, and for decades, the Deadwood Tribe has provided hundreds of minions to the Stonefist Ogre in exchange for the latter's protection.

"Why did he wake me up?" Mullock asked in surprise. He wakes up with a lot of anger, and many trolls know it very well, and they even give him the nickname "Bone Crusher", which is the fate of the troll servants who told him to get up.

"We've found some corpses up front," the troll, feeling that his life should have been saved, pointed to the exit of the Tower of Aratho, before adding, "Human!" ”

"Check it out!" Mullock suddenly became excited. The syndicates always brought in some oats, corn, and the like, and he hadn't eaten meat for a long time, and he was about to forget the taste of meat.

According to Mullock's experience, among all the intelligent races, human flesh is the most tender and soft, and it is fattening down in one bite. In contrast, the meat of the dwarves is too hard, the meat of the goblins is too smelly, the fishmen have too many spines, the meat of the orcs is easy to stuff their teeth, and the meat of the minotaurs is too time-consuming to stew, and as for the meat of the trolls, forget it, don't mention them.

He drooled as he thought, and soon came to the city gate.

Outside the gate was a small cart with more than a dozen stripped human corpses stacked on top of each other, all of which looked like they had been shot to death, with clearly recognizable arrow holes.

"Is today the day the syndicate delivers supplies?" Mullock asked in a whisper as he swallowed.

There wasn't a single human around, Mullock was used to it, and those timid humans didn't even have the guts to enter the ogre's territory, and every time they delivered food, they always only delivered it here, and then turned around and ran, and even the cart was often pulled down.

"No, they should not be here until tomorrow." The troll replied cautiously.

"Huh?" Mullock looked at him with a fierce look in his eyes.

"Today! It's today! The clever troll said quickly.

"Well, that's what they sent!" Mullock patted him on the shoulder in satisfaction—the troll staggered, nearly knocked to the ground—and said.

They happily pushed the cart and walked back.

Mullock didn't dare to eat it first, because eating the spoils without the leader's consent was an act of challenging the leader's position in the ogre tradition, and he wasn't ready for it, though he had wanted to do so for a long time.

After more than ten minutes, the ogres of the entire city of Aratho's Tower gathered in front of the leader's house, because everyone knew that the lucky guy of Mullock the Bone Crusher had brought in a lot of fragrant people. Meat. As for how he got it, who cares about him?

But for the eighty or ninety ogre, twelve corpses were too little, so after the leader Ocalal took one corpse alone, the other ogres crackled without hesitation.

This is also the tradition of ogres, when wolves have more meat and less meat, they generally use force to decide how the spoils are to be distributed. This is also destined for some ogres to share more, and some ogres can only suck their fingers and watch others feast greedily.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to Mullock the Bone Crusher, the ogre shaman Ruel Boulder also received a lot of meat, and he got a whole thigh. However, as a rare two-headed ogre spellcaster, Ruel Boulder disdained the uncivilized way of eating raw meat by his compatriots, and he carried the leg back to his hut and set up a fire to cook it.

While the pot boiled, he rummaged through his cabin.

This ogre once read from a human cookbook that the Tranquility Flower and the Demon Emperor Grass can enhance the flavor and remove the fishiness, and adding a little when cooking the meat can make the meat more fragrant and delicious.

Just as he was searching for it, from the dark corner of the house, an inconspicuous pouch was thrown into the cauldron far away, and in the blink of an eye it dissolved in the broth.

After a few minutes, the ogre shaman came out of the house grabbing two handfuls of herbs and threw them into the pot, and the rich smell of meat quickly spread, and the greedy Ruhl Boulder almost swallowed his tongue into his stomach. He didn't even smell the faint smell of nightmare vines mixed with the aroma.

So, when the ogre shaman was satisfied with the meat and drank a large pot of broth, he could no longer support his loose eyelids and fell to the ground.