SPELLBOUND

"Princess!!!" Zolan was the first one who noticed when Evie stepped out from behind the barrier and got a shock. Why was she out alone? Where was His Highness? He immediately approached Evie the moment she took one step away from the barrier, fully intending to protect her. But Evie could not even look at him as she had immediately sensed another surge of dark magic right after she crossed the barrier. Gavrael!

She turned to face the barrier immediately, lifting her hands towards it. Her heart was beating ferociously. And when the barrier hardened immediately at her touch, blocking her way of entry, Evie stumbled as she gasped. No!! 

Zolan who was already there behind her, quickly stretched out his arms to catch her, supporting her and preventing her from tumbling over. 

"Princess!" He cried out, but Evie's eyes remained fixated on the barrier, as if she did not hear his call at all. She already knew what had happened. This barrier was definitely cast by Gav the moment she turned to leave in order to keep her from going back in there. 

"Gav…" she could only call out with a weak voice.. Her palm landing gently on her still flat stomach. The way this whole situation had unravelled was still a shock to her. And she did not know what to do. She had sworn to herself that no matter what will happen, she would never let Gav fight alone again. Even if he ends up forcing her away, she had sworn to never give in. She would never back off even if she had to fight to her death, as long as she fights along with him. 

But everything just fell apart and crumbled. Her will, her fighting spirit, her promise made to herself, all off that seemed to have evaporated when she heard the news that she was now pregnant. And hearing the threat that their enemy was going to kill their unborn child just threw her mind into chaos. 

Now she can no longer fight fearlessly. There was now something else that is so precious inside of her that she must take into consideration and take extra good care of. The dilemma was getting to her, and her mind was thrown into disarray. What should she do now? What could she do now?

"Shit!" An angry voice sounded close to her ear before she felt herself being pulled away from the barrier to the side where it was safer. 

When she snapped back to reality, Evie finally saw the chaos that was happening outside the barrier. Her elite men were fighting ferociously and dozens of light faes were also there. The savage orcs were going on a rampage. 

"W-what's going on?" Evie finally asked. How in the world did these orcs end up here? 

Zolan glanced at her before he stood before her, protecting her as their comrades created a strong barrier surrounding her, made of vampires and light faes. 

"We don't actually know how this happened, princess. But it seems that these savage orcs are being summoned here. It is somehow that the dark magic from this barrier is calling out to them. So, these savage orcs are rushing over here. They're also pretty troublesome as they keep rising from the dead no matter how many times we kill them!" Zolan explained. 

Evie stepped to the side and took a good look at the intense battle. She saw light faes that had fallen to the ground and were seemingly lifeless, and her heart throbbed. 

"And for some reason, the moment you came out of the barrier they all suddenly began to attack like they've gone completely mad, or probably something is going on with the dark magic controlling them and now they're in their worse possible state." As Zolan was explaining, Evie could see that the orcs seemed to have lost whatever little intelligence that they had and now they were just there to slaughter everything in sight. And they were, obviously very strong. They seemed to have become even stronger now than before. It was as if they kept receiving more and more dark magic. Their bodies were even oozing with something that looks like black smoke.

Seeing these savage orcs in this condition, Evie immediately remembered how Thundrann's body was like when he was fighting against Gav. The same thing that was going on with Thundrann was now happening to these orcs as well, and Evie knew for sure that it was because these orcs were being forced to absorb dark magic more than their bodies could handle. They were now reduced to behaving like mad animals, with no minds of their own, in their very last rampage to desecrate and slaughter until their own death greets them. As savage orcs, they initially possessed a certain measure of intelligence and therefore, the way they fought reflected that intellect as well. However, looking at them going berserk and without a single trace of that shrewd fighting acumen they had used on Evie's men earlier before the arrival of their princess, all of them felt a shadow of pity for them. Though they were fighting for opposing sides, being made use of and then relegated to just cannon fodder truly was a disparaging thing for creatures such as them who were on a superior level compared to the common wild beasts of the Misty Forest in the Forbidden Lands.

"Look out!" Samuel's voice echoed out as an orc managed to get past the light faes and headed straight to where Evie was standing.

Zolan immediately moved to block the orc's attack, but he was completely overpowered. Despite that, he swung at the orc as fast as he could until his sword went slashing across its chest in a wide arc. But it was not enough, Zolan's next swing was blocked by the orc's strong and iron-like arms and was then thrown hard onto the ground. 

Panic surged within him as he immediately lifted his head to look towards where the princess was. 

A/N: We fell from the rank guys and we are now rank 2 in golden ranking. If we get back to top 1 again before reset (6 hrs from this moment this chapter is updated), I will deliver the promised 10 chapters mass release. ^^ 

P.s. second chap will come later.