"Fall back, immediately!"
Boss, after giving the order to his men, withdrew his black energy from the enemy and directed it in front of himself like a shield. The flames were constantly hitting the black walls, but Tiger's own army was deprived of such protection.
The screams of the burning mercenaries had reached the leader of the army, Izumrud, but the man fighting with his two giant swords was in no condition to care about that direction.
"As you got older, the sharpness of your swords has gone too. Or is the mask you hide your face behind hindering you?"
Batu wasn't idle for a second; in moments he couldn't harass with his swords, he attacked his father with his words, and this attitude of his ensured that Lion, seeing the massacre Tiger created, stayed on the defensive. While one of the two generals had gone mad, the other was in the calmest state of mind possible, but the six members of the Elite Ten were increasing their pressure moment by moment.
"Father, our job here is done! We must take the leader and retreat all the way to the Emerald city!"
Even if Lion's Son didn't actively enter the battle, he saw everything going on. When he felt the need to come up to his father and speak, he was aware of the point things had reached.
"Take your soldiers and return to the Emerald City! You have to protect our people, our family!"
Lion's Son wanted to take his father, even Izumrud, and leave, but he was also aware that this was too fantastical a thought to become reality. While Batu was calling out to his father, he knew the old man couldn't abandon the battle and leave; his goal was to make him say fall back to his son.
After two traps, a dead general's son, and a general gone mad, he was reaching his goal; Lion's Son, returning to his soldiers, was leaving the battlefield.
"Traitor! Lion, neither you nor your family will get away with this easily!"
When Izumrud saw the five-thousand-strong force leaving them and going away, he roared; his anger was reaching all the way to the sky, but a breath later he came to his senses with the blow of the sword cutting his emerald mask.
"Never look behind you when you have an enemy in front of you! This was the first lesson you gave me!"
Batu, executing consecutive cross slashes, attacked to draw an X mark on the chest of the man taller than himself, but Izumrud, his mask falling, managed to defend with his heavy swords. While the fire of battle burned, no one from the mercenaries could turn and look at him, and his enemies didn't care what he looked like either.
When the Emerald Leaf Guild Leader, whose wound—his son's gift—was revealed, took a few steps back, he verified this with his own eyes too. In the place he came to achieve a ruthless victory, he was on the brink of ruin. He tensed his body, took a deep breath, and lunged forward.
He wasn't the only one switching to attack mode. Tiger, taking three tubes of potion at once with the pain of his son, had become stronger than he could ever be. His flames had long finished scorching his own soldiers and were targeting the existence of the person opposite him, Boss.
"No one interfere, I will kill this rabid bastard on my own!"
The order was given to his own soldiers, but the three Elite Ten members who came to the left flank for help also listened to his request. Moving away from where the fiery clash took place, they went after the survivors from the unit belonging to Tiger's Son.
"You cannot escape, you will die!"
"Shut your mouth, human scum!"
While Tiger attacked in a manner having lost his control, Boss finally decided to respond to him in his own way. The black pillar rising from his body and reaching the sky broke into pieces and charged towards where Tiger was.
When he swung his axe, these pieces were moving as if they were a part of it; when Tiger tried to counter with his weapon, he saw his flames that burned everything couldn't melt this darkness. He had to clash head-on, but this wasn't going to be a problem for him; one of the potions allowed the capacity of his physical body to exceed its limits by far.
Despite this, Boss's materialized energy wasn't taking a step back; a large crater had begun to form where the two men fought. The more savage they became, the deeper underground they advanced, and the deeper they sank, the more savage they became.
"I will avenge my son. Not just you, everyone you are with will die!"
Nothing came out of Tiger's mouth other than his son and his revenge. His own existence had lost its importance; his life existed only to achieve the meaning contained within these two words.
"Do you think your stupid son is this valuable? Will you kill everyone for him, aren't you making yourself out to be more than you are?"
Boss's eyes glowed with a black darkness, and at that moment all the black energy particles returned to his body. Tiger didn't miss this opportunity; he closed the distance using the acceleration feature of his boots. The cutting part of his axe was glowing red, and his target was Boss's defenseless neck.
The orc warrior extended his left hand and grabbed the piece of metal amidst the flames. The black energy restrained the red; the axe in his right hand came down on the enemy's armor. Tiger was about to be sent flying backwards, but thanks to Boss gripping his weapon, he managed to stay where he was.
"Years ago, a father had to send his son into exile because he was talented in a way not seen until then. Neither did he cry like you, nor did he chase after revenge; he was obliged to do this so his enemies wouldn't unite and attack to kill him."
Boss, throwing his axe away, hurled Tiger meters away with a single punch. He was approaching his enemy lying on the ground step by step, and the black energy was coming behind him like a cape.
"In order not to jeopardize the future of a whole nation, he sent his first and only son to the most remote place in the world. Dying? If only I could reconcile taking my own life or dying at the hands of someone weaker than me with my orc pride, but wouldn't this behavior be an insult to my father who made a sacrifice?"
Tiger had chosen the path of destruction to experience his pain, but this caused the things Boss held inside for years to surface. The orc warrior, whose past was to bow down and accept, couldn't take it anymore when he saw the human getting insolent in front of him now.
"Get ready to go to your son's side!"
Boss, his body covered in black rapidly turning to a crimson color, took a step forward, closed the ten-step distance, and landed another punch on Tiger's armor. The General, who had lived long enough to be considered old, swung his weapon, but the left fist bent the neck of the flame-covered metal.
Two large dents stood out on the general's armor, and this was just the beginning. When Boss grabbed his arm, the real show of strength began. The punches were raining down one after another, and a roar accompanied each one.
When Tiger realized he couldn't free his arm caught by the enemy, finger-length spikes shot out from over his armor covering his arms and pierced Boss's flesh. He thought maybe if he did this, the enemy in pain would let him go even for a moment, but his move backfired.
Even if one of his hands became unusable, Boss didn't stop; he continued to land his right fist on the armor of Tiger, to which they were completely bound. His body, working like a flawlessly operating machine, would touch flesh to flesh when it bypassed the breastplate of the specially manufactured armor.
No flesh remained on Boss's fist; his bones were penetrating into his enemy. Tiger understood his end had come; he wanted to make his last move to kill himself, but it was too late. Boss, bypassing his ribs and also piercing the soft tissue layer of his back, managed to blow up his upper body.
The power given by the potions or the superiority of his equipment was of no use. The black energy erased all of them and deprived Tiger of the things he had leaned his back on for years. Both commanders of the left flank were now on the ground, and seeing this, the Hyenas were rushing to the aid of the three members of the Elite Ten to kill the survivors.