even reaching the city," explained Colere. "Usually, they manage to drive them away, but on occasions that they do fail, they slaughter all of the Sonstwelters and the village will be victimized like all the others."
Smoke helplessly watched the Ork Horde leave to wreak havoc on their unknown destination. He hoped that a powerful Sonstwelter group was there to greet them, wherever they were headed.
After the Ork horde left, Daniel suddenly spoke out. "Maybe, they were headed for Newt Village?"
"Never heard of Newt Village before, where's that?" asked Colere.
"It is a new village," answered Daniel. "Cynar created it from an OrkElf Settlement much like this one."
The young noble sighed loudly. "But there, he has set it up as a gambling hub. Cap Sa, Brag, Cribbage, Tong-its, Skat, Faro. Name the game and Cynar has it running in that place."
"Hm. Let me guess, the UrukHai have caught a good whiff of all these lucrative activities?" asked Colere. "And they want to cash in on it."
"Yes, how did you know that?" asked Daniel with a raised eyebrow. "Cynar even trained more than a thousand OrkElves."
Daniel paused, looked at Esper and Colere before cautiously proceeding.
"Of course, the weaker OrkElves could do nothing against the Orks, but it was because of Cynar's underhanded tricks that caught the Orks in a trap."
Colere looked annoyed. "Alright, I give up. How did Cynar supposedly defend against an Ork Horde?"
"Why, by the help of Sonstwelters, of course," replied Daniel with a superior look. "In fact, he even had Jack and myself send out a recruitment letter to Sonstwelters."
Daniel reached for a piece of paper inside his aristocratic robe, and raised it up for everyone to see.
"But I never recruited anyone. I don't want to make Cynar even more powerful than he already is," elucidated Daniel further. "Not only that, he also had the help of a powerful Terra Magi, then. But now, I doubt his village of sin could withstand an Ork Horde like this one."
"Why do you say that?" Smoke asked Daniel.
"Well, because Ayert died," answered the boy promptly. "And the recent number of Sonstwelter recruits has been dwindling."
"And who in the world is Ayert?" asked Esper, crossing her arms and asking with her raised voice.
"The powerful Terra Magi, who catches the Orks inside his earth-traps," replied Daniel, keeping his conceited expression. "Haven't you been listening to what I said at all?"
Esper was about to shout something back, but Smoke quickly stopped her.
"Alright, alright. That's enough!" strongly interjected Smoke. "Colere, Esper, can you please bring Daniel back with you to the settlement. By the way, Daniel, can you give me that piece of paper that Cynar uses to recruit Sonstwelters?"
* * * * * *
Nash stepped out of his game pod and did his ritual reach for the heavens, as soon as he stood on both his feet.
'You think I'd get used to this by now,' he thought to himself as he watched his room. His mind began wondering why being in Zectas and the real world felt no difference to him at all.
It was two in the morning, and he thought that everyone in the house was already asleep. However, as he was about to begin his Eskrima stretching exercises, he heard a loud cry coming from his Mima's room.
"Aaaaahh!" cried out Daphne, his grandmother.
Nash quickly ran for her door.
"Mima, Mima, are you alright?" he called out from behind her door. "I'm coming in, okay?"
After bursting through, Nash found his Mima sprawled on the floor. He hurriedly ran to her and tried to help her up, but she forcefully pushed him away.
"Stop, it hurts!" she yelled out. "Don't touch me!"
"But, Mima, what can I do to help?" asked a worried Nash.
"Just get me a glass of water," she said weakly. "Walk and don't run. I don't want you spilling water on the carpet."
It was clear how difficult it was for her to breathe. Nash understood that the glass of water would not help at all, but that his Mima only
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