Akira stood there stunned at the last words that came out of Brutus’s mouth and for over a minute he continued to stare at the dead man who he had not seen in a long time.
While alive he had radiated an aura of a strong stern and impenetrable wall. But now looking at the dead man in front of him Akira could only see the face of an old man.
Akira regained his composure after he remembered what his main purpose in coming here.
With the main goal of their mission successfully completed he looked up at the moonlit sky and let out a long and loud howl of victory.
“Ahhhhwooooo!”
With the howl washing over the humans again several thousands of soldiers lost their bowls from the chilling howl.
What made it even more frightening than the howl from the day before was that the howl came from behind them.
The werewolf warriors all gained a boost to their morale as it could only mean one thing… the enemy’s commanding general had been killed!
The sounds of battle continued on for over ten minutes as the human army struggled to keep the werewolves at bay but were being constantly being pushed back and torn to pieces.
The low ranking officers started to grow panicked as they looked around for superior officers hoping for a way to turn this situation around. They had not received any orders in a long while and were forced to accept that they were now on their own.
Now that they were not receiving orders from the head officers the large army was behaving as several smaller armies as the lower rank officers fighting on the front lines were forced to give commands in response to what was happening right in front of them.
Then it happened… the first group of soldiers in the rear of the army started to run away. At first, it was only a few people here and there. Seeing some of their companions running away was like a deadly disease that quickly spread throughout the army and there was nothing the officers could do.
In less than a minute every soldier that was not engaged in combat started to flee from the battlefield.
Each fleeing soldier tried to be faster than the soldier behind them so that they would not be the tail of the retreating army which the werewolves would surely attack as the soldiers retreated.
The unlucky soldiers that were engaged with the werewolves were left to die as a diversion to let the rest of the fleeing army escape. Several soldiers realizing what this meant hardened their hearts and went all out and fought until their last breath trying to give the retreating soldiers even one more second to escape.
There were also soldiers that broke down crying or turned away from the werewolf warrior they had been fighting and tried to run away, but they were all killed immediately.
With the enemy in full retreat, the werewolf army chased after them all night killing nearly half of their original army.
When the sunlight started to light up the morning the werewolf warriors were given an order to stop chasing the scattered army and return to the armies fortifications.
“Why are we letting them get away?” asked Frang.
“We are far away from our supplies, and I don’t know if you noticed but most of us are not freaks like Akira. Fighting a battle all night in our werewolf forms is exhausting. If we don’t return now we will only give the enemy a chance to counterattack when we are in a weakened state,” said Klyn.
“Don’t worry now that the main army has been crushed we can clean everyone else up later,” said Ardolf.
***
When Rodger reached the left diversion army he found to his amazement they were just leisurely sitting around on several small dry islands that had been fortified with makeshift mud walls and trenches.
It seemed they either had not received the orders to break away from the enemy or they were willfully ignoring them.
“What are you doing guys doing? Where is your commander?” asked Rodger angrily as he walked onto one of the islands unchallenged.
“Who are you?” asked a lazy soldier as he looked over Rodger and glanced at the large group of soldiers that were waiting behind him.
“Are you our reinforcements? It’s about time that you came. The werewolves outnumbered us 2:1 if it wasn’t for the captain’s quick thinking in setting up our strong defense on these islands we would have suffered a huge defeat.”
“Hold your tongue! You are speaking to the crown prince! Kneel down and ask him for forgiveness or my sword will make you a head shorter,” growled Raimund the commander of Rodger’s personal guards.
Rodger didn’t care much for the rules and regulations of royalty but if he screwed up and word got back to the king there would be hell to pay, so he let Raimund continue to threaten the soldier in order to get information out of him.
Now knowing that he had spoken in such an unfriendly manner to the prince and also the next king of Beorin the soldier’s face grew pale. He fell to his knees, his face bowed almost touching the shallow swamp water.
“I did not know it was you, the crown prince. Please forgive me for my crimes,” pleaded the soldier.
Rodger waved his hand letting Raimund know to hurry things up.
“The prince has little time to deal with someone like you. So he will allow your crimes to pass today. Where is your commanding officer? Take us to him immediately,” said Raimund.
The soldier jumped back up trying to comply with the orders as fast as he could to anger Raimund but he ended up flinging fresh mud everywhere in his haste.
Raimund scowled at the soldier as the mud nearly hit him and the prince.
“So…sorry…” stuttered the soldier immediately trying to apologize after he saw Raimund glaring daggers at him.
“Move it!” barked Raimund as he kicked the soldier in the thigh.
“Yes!”
Rodger was soon led to the largest of fortified islands that was situated in the middle.
“Are you the commanding officer in charge here?” asked Rodger.
“Yes, and you are?” asked the captain.
“He is the crown prince,” explained the solder quickly.
“Oh…? It is a great honor to meet you. But if I may be so rude to ask, why are you here and not fighting with the main army?”
Rodger ignored the man’s question and asked one of his own, “Why have you built fortifications here on these islands? Your orders were to harass the enemy from the left flank creating trouble for the werewolf army. Why have you ignored your orders to just sit here doing nothing.”
“Prince… your words are a little harsh. I understand since you don’t know what led me to this decision so I will explain the current situation to you.
The werewolves that we encountered have a large force that outnumbers us 2:1. If we would have attacked them, we would have faced an utter defeat. Not to mention the hostile monsters that live in the swamp.”
“If you had done your job properly you would have known that it is you who outnumber them nearly 2:1. Your incompetence has damaged the honor of Beorin and its army. I hereby relieve you of all duty and will be taking over command,” said Rodger.
“Gather the soldiers! With over 6000 soldiers we can quickly crush the nearby enemy and return to the main army.”
The orders were sent out and in less than ten minutes the whole diversion army was standing in a sloppy formation waiting for orders. The soldiers were unsure of what was going on with the sudden change of tactics. Most guessed that a new officer had taken control of the diversion army.
“Begin the attack!” ordered Rodger.
The army of over 6000 soldiers started its noisy march forward… but when they reached the spot where the enemy was supposed to be, all they found was the ashes of old fires.
It looked like the enemy had left long before Rodger had arrived.
Rodger turned to look at the former captain not saying a word. His irritation at the man’s incompetence was starting to make him really annoyed.
“When we return to the kingdom you will have to answer to the king about your cowardice. That is the thing I can think of that would explain how you let a weaker force stop you from completing your orders. You even let them walk away making you and the rest of our army look like a fool,” said Raimund in an angry voice.
“I..I…”
“Enough, retrieve all your supplies and belongings we are returning to the main army immediately. Unlike you, they are currently fighting the werewolves,” said Rodger.
***
When the werewolves returned to their camp in the early afternoon they found the warriors that had gone to fight the left diversion army were already waiting for them. They were all fresh as they had not engaged in a battle with the enemy and had only watched them from a distance.
“Damn it why are you always getting the good orders!” complained Frang as he ate a late lunch.
All morning Akira had been feeling troubled by the looks of awe and reverence that was on his cousin’s face whenever he looked at Akira.
After spending many weeks of travel together and fighting numerous battles out of the several young warriors that Akira knew Frang was the one who had matured the most. Unfortunately, he still had not gotten rid of his annoying habit of complaining.
“With you killing the enemy general you will most likely get promoted to at least an Omega commanding officer,” said Klyn.
“It was a bunch of heavy sacks and boxes that killed the general,” said Akira trying to be modest.
“Cut the crap. From what I heard, it was you who cut the legs of support that caused those bags and boxes to crush him,” said Frang punching Akira in the shoulder.
“If you want to get some sleep quit talking and finish your food. The army will be packing up and moving out in four hours to meet up with the remaining warriors to crush the enemy’s right diversion army,” shouted Ardolf.
***
The right diversion army had no time to act before they were completely taken by surprise and nearly wiped out. Of the original 5000 soldiers, less than 1000 managed to escape into the swampy wilderness, and there was still no guarantee that they would survive the monsters that lived in the surrounding area.
The war was looking very favorably for the werewolves now as the enemy army was fractured into three scattered uncoordinated groups.
The werewolves could finish them at any time now so they decided to take a few days to rest and hold military funerals for the fallen warriors.
Akira watched the solemn process as the dead were put onto pyres and burned.
Just over a thousand warriors had lost their lives since the beginning of the war.
He guessed that it had to be around 10:1, For every one warrior lost ten soldiers had been killed. Most of the dead were the young and inexperienced warriors who had not honed their fighting skills. The clan hit the hardest with the most losses was the large clan Bloody-claw losing nearly 200 warriors.
When the solemn funerals finished a massive festive mood swept through the werewolf army.
With the enemy beaten so soundly, the war would soon be over. Everyone drank large amounts of alcohol celebrating surviving the war. Many speeches made honoring those who had passed while they drank and ate.
Akira celebrated with the troops that were under his commander for only a short time.
“Don’t get too carried away, and don’t forget that the enemy army is still out there it could regroup and still cause us problems,” warned Akira.
“If they want to come and fight us, we will crush them again! This time they won’t be able to escape!” shouted a soldier.
Everyone gathered laughed and continued to party.
“I wonder if the danger that the grand elders predicted was actually some nightmare that he had and not a vision,” said Frang who was nearby.
“Don’t let anyone from the Cold fang clan hear you talk bad about their grand elder,” said Dolph.
The warriors from 5th omega were mainly from the red and blue moon clans with some other warriors sprinkled in so that each clan would not lose all of their warriors if one unit were decimated.
“It is impossible for him to make such a mistake. I heard from my grandfather that all of his previous predictions were true. What most likely happened was with the grand elders warning, we were able to prepare before the humans could overrun us. Without his warning the other clans might not have taken the matter so seriously,” said Klyn.
“But their army was defeated so easily. Would they have been able to crush us even if we had not been fully ready?”
“Don’t ever underestimate your enemy. They may not have been able to kill us all but they would have been able to wipe out 1000s of other civilians before the army could form and counter them,” said Dolph.
***
While Rodger was leading the soldiers back towards the main fortification he encountered several scattered groups of soldiers and stopped them.
“What are you doing out here alone?” asked Raimund.
“Thank goodness we ran into a larger group! We are safe now!”
“Safe from what?”
“The werewolves used some underhanded moves and attacked during the night several days ago. All the high ranking officers were killed including the general!”
“WHAT!” roared Rodger, “How did he die?”
“He was fighting several werewolves on the fortifications walls and was doing well until a large menacing werewolf that was taller than the others by a head and had glossy black fur as dark as the night started to fight with him and drove him out of my view. A short time after that there was a loud chilling howl from the fort.”
“How accurate is this information?” asked Rodger.
“I saw it myself!”
There was only one werewolf that Rodger knew of that fit the description but there were many werewolves in the army that may have the same fur so he was unsure if it really was him.
No, he prayed that it was not him, because otherwise…
***
“AHHHH!”
A shout rang through the spartan stone room that grand elder Dùghall was using while he stayed at the clan meeting caves. Sweat was dripping down his forehead.
“Grand elder are you alright!” shouted his attendant who had been lightly sleeping in the next room and had been woken by the scream.
“The…. visions… they are getting stronger and worse every second I close my eyes…” said Grand elder Dùghall as he took several large gasps of air while grasping his chest trying to calm his racing heart.
“This is bad! Do you mean that the main army has suffered a Great defeat? What should we do?”
“Have the ships been loaded with all the supplies?”
“Yes, they just finished yesterday,” said the attendant.
“Good, go wake the other grand elders and tell them to meet me in the meeting hall.”
***
Ding!
Akira was woken up by the system notification in the early hours of the next morning.
He debated whether or not to ignore it until later, but after looking at the title of the message his groggy mind was cleared in an instant.
-
S-Grade information 1 of 1 has been used:
At the end of the year 701.
All over Halverold in small towns and large cities, the people are talking about something major happening.It is no secret to those who live there for if you walk into any tavern or shop you will hear the worried mutterings of the people.
Changes will be coming soon…
For the demigods have Returned!!
***
A man with an unremarkable plain face browsed over the cheap masks that a street vendor was selling and pointed to a black and white half face mask.
“That will be 1 silver, sir.”
The man paid the seller and immediately put the mask on.
“Ah! It’s Good to be back! This time for good!” said the man with a hearty laugh as he walked off in search of anyone that would give him a task or two to complete and earn some money for better equipment other than the shabby clothes he was wearing.
