A force of roughly 200 or so local human villagers, who were all poorly armored and equipped with weapons, blocked the path of Kodria’s combined cavalry and mobile infantry force.
“Stop where you are!” shouted a demigod who stood behind the army of humans.
“You have trespassed into the Begus Dekus dukedom’s territory. Leave now!” shouted another demigod who was similarly standing in the rear of the army.
Akira did not bother with talking and just slashed his arm down.
The rest of the werewolves and Garg’s all let out fierce howls and then the cavalry force split into three with Akira leading the arrowhead toward the center of the human army with the others swinging around to the left and right to bypass the humans so that they could all attack the rear in a three-pronged attack.
“You idiots! Don’t just stand there! Shoot them!” yelled one of the demigods angrily smacking a few of the nearby humans with his unsheathed sword.
The few demigods that were in control of the human army started shooting skills into the air aimed at the charging werewolves, but with so few of them, they were unable to do anything to stop the three-pronged attack. Still, their targets that were unable to dodge the skills and those that took several hits were forced to retreat to the rear to receive treatment for the wounds.
The human villagers were quaking at the sight of the Akira leading a force of large Gargs right at them causing most of them to fall or try to jump out of the way.
Those that did so were ignored by the cavalry as they rushed past them not bothering to stop. Their target was not the humans but the demigods, but the humans who tried to block their paths were shown no mercy and were trampled by the Gargs and cut down by the cavalrymen who were riding on their backs.
Seeing this, the majority of the humans all parted to the sides creating a path for Akira and those behind him to rush through. The left and right wings of the attack were unhindered by the humans.
“Useless! You are all useless!” shouted an angry demigod as he lashed out at the nearby humans that were cowering at the sight of the charging Gargs.
“AH!” Several humans cried out as they were cut down from behind by the attacks from the angry demigods.
The small human army no longer stayed still and ran forward to get away from the demigods. The escaping humans ran in between the large Gargs causing even more chaos as the Gargs and cavalrymen had to slow down and tried to navigate toward their targets.
The demigods were also using the commotion to hide behind the unorganized human mob to block the cavalry from reaching them while taking potshots at Akira and the other cavalrymen.
With more and more werewolves and Gargs getting wounded, Akira made the hard choice and howled out a command for everyone to push forward, even if the humans were in the way.
They pushed forward knocking through the panicked humans blocking their path and were finally able to reach the demigods who were in charge of this small army.
“We may have lost this battle but you will not win against our main force!” shouted a demigod as she launched her last skill before she was torn in half by two pouncing Gargs that played tug of war with her body.
The other demigods managed to get off a few more attacks before also disappearing into light particles.
“Round up the humans for questioning! Heal those that can be healed,” growled Akira. “Everyone else that was wounded go seek treatment. We will be moving out as soon as our interrogation of the humans is complete.”
Akira frowned as he looked at the wounded werewolves and Gargs. This was a small skirmish and although no one died… the demigods’ attacks were growing in power and able to cause serious damage to them. If it was a larger force he was sure that there would have been a few deaths.
While Akira was lost in thought when an older male human tried to get close to Akira but was stopped by his guards. The old man did not care and shouted out to Akira.
“Are you the leader of this force?”
“I am. Why?”
“Please allow us to join you!”
Akira’s gaze sharpened as he inspected the man.
[Orud mun level 60]
“Don’t misunderstand me! We do not want to fight against you. Our families are being held hostage by the demigods who forced us to come here and fight. We do not blame you for the few of those people who were killed. All we ask is that you allow us to join so we can rescue our families!”
“… I’ll have to talk with my officers about this… after we figure everything out. You can go wait over there,” said Akira as he pointed at the group of humans that were being corralled.
***
“Are you guys giving me false scouting reports? Look at that army out there!” shouted an angry demigod who stood on the newly built rampart walls of the large fortress.
“We have only passed you the reports given to us from your own kind…” said a one-eyed Ogre slowly. The Ogre who spoke was standing on the ground and not the wall and he was still almost able to look over the 8ft (2.4384 meters) wall.
He, along with over fifty-plus ogres all with similar height and bodies made of nothing but muscles, stood there looking at the demigods with pained looks of worry and hurt that they were being accused of some wrongdoing.
Normally these ogres, who were not the sharpest members of the demon race, liked to cause trouble and show off their strength by rampaging and fighting in the wilderness. But now they were all quietly looking at each other hoping that the demigods were not angry. If they became angry that would be bad news for them!
“They don’t have just a cavalry force! There’s a large force of human infantry with them! They can not be allowed to get close to the fort! You guys go hold them off while we wait for the reinforcements to come in a few days!”
The Ogres although not that smart, knew this was a suicide mission and were hesitant to leave the fort.
“Go! Or you know what will happen!” ordered the demigod angrily pointing out towards the approaching army that was hidden from their view by the wall.
They silently gave up resisting when they heard this threat and slowly crouched down and exited the fort’s gates. When the last ogre exited the gates, they were slammed shut behind them and the sounds of the thick pieces of lumber being slid into place could be heard as the demigods secured and locked the gates.
***
The cavalry force, which was not at 100% of its fighting force, moved at a slower pace toward the new fort that was in the distance. The reason was to allow the gathered human warriors to keep up with them.
After interrogation of the other humans they all gave similar statements of being blackmailed by the demigods and they all wished to join Akira in fighting the demigods to rescue their families. Some of them went as far as to demand Akira allow them to fight as compensation for the few humans that had been killed in the short skirmish.
Their individual fighting power was not enough to fight on the front lines so they were given a supporting role of using ranged attacks for now. They were split up into smaller packs and each one had a heavily armored werewolf infantry commanding them to better keep control over them.
“Raar!” Fluffball alerted everyone to the presence of the large ogres that were walking out of the fortress.
Akira knew that there were Ogres around this area but had never seen them. Generally, they liked to hide in the mountains and deep forests to ambush or play dangerous tricks on those that stumbled into their territory.
The large Ogres charged forward and stopped within shouting range of Akira and those around him.
“Leave this area or else we will be forced to make you leave!” shouted an Ogre with a red handprint paint on his armor.
“Hold up! We are all victims of the demigods! We should work together!” shouted Orud Mun from the rear.
The Ogres all looked at each other confused about what was going on for several seconds. They did not want to fight but they must to ensure that their families would not be killed.
“Do not try and fool us!” shouted another Ogre.
With that shout, several of the more hot-headed Ogres charged forward with their weapons held high.
A dark mist covered Akira’s entire body while sounds of ripping and stretching muscle and skin could be heard along with a scary bloody aura blasting out of the dark mist. A few seconds later the black misty aura covering his body thinned.
Although Akira’s body was hidden by his new armor, you could now see his black fluffy tail now sticking out and the upper half of the tail was armored.
The ogres had not noticed him before but now with such dense killing intent seeping out of his body, plus the nightmarish wolf armor he wore, a few of them slowed their steps upon seeing all of this.
Only the most hard-headed warriors of the ogres continued their charge.
Akira met them head-on and exchanged several blows with his sword and shield. Their size differences were vastly different. But even with their massive muscles, they were unable to unseat him from Grarr’s back.
Fluffball and the royal guards did not interrupt Akira’s show of force but they were all close enough to jump in if needed so that he would not be harmed.
In the quick fight, each of the Ogres was bested and received wounds. Coming to their senses all but one of them stopped attacking Akira and retreated to the other ogres that were just watching the fight.
The Ogre who had led this charge and would not give up, received a sword thrust through the heart. Which was no easy feat as his armor and thick skin were quite tough to pierce for any regular soldier.
At the end of the duel, the rest of the Ogres slowly walked forward with their weapons sheathed or hanging on their leather belts.
“I am the leader of Red and also the champion of these warriors!” shouted Red the Ogre with red hand prints on his armor. “You have shown your strength to be strong enough for us to talk. Are you the champion of your force? Can you speak for everyone?”
“Champion? No, I am not a champion fighter. I am the Duke of Kodria and the leader of this force, my word is law in all of Kodria.”
“Yap!” said Fluffball with a grin at Akira.
“Be quiet Fluffball, that’s personal life stuff. It doesn’t count.”
The large ogre looked at Akira and Fluffball for a second before making up his mind. He quickly explained their predicament.
“Please help us save our families!”
“If you are serious about asking for help and willing to join us, then we will help you take down those demigods! But… I hope there are no grudges formed from the fight and death of that warrior that just died.”
“There is no need to worry. He died as a warrior should, in battle for what he believed in. We will join you and win our honor back by leading the charge!”
“Wait, hold up! What is the enemy’s fighting force like inside that fortification?” asked Akira, halting the ogres from charging right back at the fort.
“Only several dozen demigods are inside the fortress along with a large force of human villagers.”
After a quick meeting with the officers, Akira issued the orders to everyone.
“AWOOOO!”
With his howl, the mixed army began its charge towards the fort with the Ogres leading the charge. Each time their heavy feet slammed into the ground, a thundering drum noise was heard. As they ran, large plumes of snow shot up in the air. Even though their bodies weighed over 500 pounds(35.7ish Stone, 227ish KG) with most of that from their muscles, their speed was not slow at all.
Akira led the cavalry charge right alongside them on both the right and left wing.
As the distance to the fort lessened Akira activated his skill [Darkness domain] to help obscure the area and mess with the demigods’ accuracy. But even with this, their skills still managed to hit several of the charging ogres, humans, and werewolves.
When they reached the fort, the Ogres with their large bodies, slammed into the dirt wall causing large cracks to appear.
A demigod on top of the wall tried to repair the damage by filling it with an ice attack. But with each large Ogre body slamming into the wall the damage was too much.
Bam!
One of the large ogres managed to break through the weakened wall and charge into the fort.
Several of the demigods and a few humans that were standing on that part of the wall were sent tumbling onto the frozen ground where they groaned in pain.
Before the demigods could get back onto their feet the random villagers that were hiding behind the wall made a decision and instead of attacking the ogres that were now swarming in, they jumped on top of the demigods trying to kill them.
It was a bloodbath as the demigods who were still laying on the ground each launched several skills and killed tens of the weaker villagers before succumbing to their wounds received by the mob and turning into light particles.
The situation for the remaining demigods was bad. They had thought that the threat of killing their captive’s families would be enough to keep control of them.
It had worked in the past but now everything had unraveled and they were being mobbed from the inside by the low-level humans who were being slaughtered by skill attacks. But focusing on the small fries the Ogres and Werewolves were able to enter the fort and climb onto the rampart walls to fight with them directly.
The fight continued with one demigod after another disappearing into light fragments. Still, they did not give up as they had no fear of death even though the situation was hopeless and they would not be able to escape the inevitable, they decided to kill as many people as they could.
Even when the last demigod was surrounded he fought even harder, wounding several dozen warriors.
Akira had to step in and with a quick use of his skilled sword slash a blue light slashed out and severed the demigod’s head from its neck.
Ding!
-
Oger and human forces have been rescued!
The Begus Dekus fort has been conquered and added to Kodria’s territory!
Akira let out a sigh. With the capture of the fort, there was one less place for the demigods to show up again.
Now with the battle over, the sound of pained screams and moans was all that could be heard throughout the fort.
Akira inspected the grim battlefield and saw several piles of dead and wounded humans where the demigods had been standing.
“Klyn, see what you can do for the wounded while I talk with the leaders of these new forces. We need to assess our strength and how we are going to go forward, now that our fighting force has multiplied by a large number,” said Akira as he watched one of the werewolf cavalrymen raise the flag of Kodria on a makeshift flagpole making sure that everyone inside and outside of the fort could see who it belonged to.
“Even if they received treatment some of them will not be of any use out on the battlefield,” said Klyn.
“They can stay here and hold down the fort until reinforcement comes. It will be a great spot to fall back if needed. We’ll have to leave a few people behind to help repair the walls and clean up the mess.”
