There were no signs, nothing indicating what happened during close to two years in the Western Barbaric Lands. It started suddenly, but if it was anything, it was not the typical skirmishes that those Barbarians played between each other!

“Che,” Scoffed the baron in his mansion while reading the report about the recent changes that have taken place in those savage lands. They seemed to be up to something, yet the only thing they knew for sure about them was that the western tribes seemed awfully quiet lately!

He ran over the information, lamented about savage barbarians and stupid convicts and then duly forgot about them. His family might have been exiled here years ago, but he still hated that those smelly barbarians that mothers used to scare their children to obedience with were so close to his domain. He long realized that they were just pathetic and uncivilized brutes that could not even maintain a basic formation, and only had bronze weapons of all things. This reality, and that he has successfully sold several of them before made them a hundred times less scary for him, not to even mention their defenses against them. Those convicts and pathetic fools will at least make good meat shields if anything would happen.

His territory might have been the frontier one against Barbarian attacks, but there was a forward base on one of the biggest plateaus between two rivers that would easily repel any smaller raids. Not to even mention the speedy little boats they used that could relay him any message under a few hours' time! He was not worried, as the tribes were split apart years ago and they would not be able to cause significant problems anymore.

Or so he thought. And felt glee at the fate of those unsavory soldiers that soured his fun so many times. With so many convicts, it was only a time until they were killed and he looked forward to it! Not caring about anything but blood, and unfortunately that reflected upon his territory too, the Baron went down into his torture chamber to have some “fun” with his recently captured victim.

“”””””””

Meanwhile, at the forward base.

Soldiers loitered around the simple wooden fort they have been calling home for the last decade or so. At least most of them have been “serving” their sentences in this boring hellhole that did not have any importance to anyone anymore.

At least to them, it was just boring. The last raid against them could not even be called a proper one really, and the newer recruits only heard about it from those that were here when it happened over 8 years ago! But they had to stay, as almost all of them were criminals and there were professional soldiers with some experience even if only a few, it was enough and the punishment for desertion was death.

The savages just kept fighting against each other and did not mean any significant danger to them while they were behind the fort’s walls and the fast flow of the river surrounding them.

They were at a perfect position, right below a humongous highland so it secured their backside against any and all intrusions. Their walls were made out of ironwood up to around the height of one and a half men. They had one watch tower on the top of the highland that could easily signal them if anything was out of the ordinary.

But that was not going to happen, because that day the whole place was massacred in record time.

Bodies littered the ground at the end of the swift fight, and the smell of blood permeated the air. Only the commander and the professional soldiers were kept alive.

This, however, was already something that caused untold confusion amongst the surviving men. Barbarians were not supposed to show any mercy, not to even mention the phenomenal cooperation that was required to take the fort this easily. They wondered who these attacking men were.

“””””"””

He was looking up as he heard the sudden gong from the watch tower that signaled enemy attack.

He was just opening his mouth to bark out orders, when the sound of conflict reached his ears from the courtyard.

He was confused, yet as an ex general, he did not panic and ran out instantly! Unfortunately, when he reached the yard, it was already too late. All of the convicts were butchered like animals, and he only saw a few of his original soldiers fighting valiantly. He was ready to lounge into the battle when a sudden noise ceased any and all fighting within the compound.

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A deep and rumbling horn seemed to signal their attackers to cease the fight, so they regrouped and stood at attention near the entrance of the fort. He was amazed at their discipline, but did not dally and shouted at his disorganized troops to take up a formation at the entrance of the command building he just came out of.

It was a solid, stone and ironwood construct, and with his soldiers he felt that they will be able to give these intruders a good fight if it was needed!

However, when he could pay some attention to the entrance, he was flabbergasted!

Rows upon rows of big, muscular people took up positioning on the two sides of the road and stood at such a rigid attention, he would have thought they were statues if he did not just witness them massacring is convicts!

They were even wearing iron plates, if his eyes were not playing with him right now, and he might have been older but was still in the prime of his life!

He was so focused that when all of them placed their arms on their hearts with lightning fast speed and at the same time, that he thought his heart was going to jump out of his throat that instant!

If he could have paid attention, he would have seen that his troops were feeling the exact same.

They knew that their chances were zero already, yet the figure that strode in through the gate nailed the top on their coffin. At least that was how they were feeling at that moment!

It was a giant! And he was riding on top of a land dragon, for gods’ sake! If they were not checking their sanity between each other with shaky murmurs and pale faces, they would have really thought that they were under some illusion or something.

Yet, even him, who was a general has never seen something this ridiculous before. If those mages of the kingdom could conjure such realistic illusions, they would not waste it on something so unbelievable.

Yet, here it was. The more the beasts approach him, and the more those strange plated soldiers advanced alongside them in perfect sync, the more he felt his heart beat at a faster rate.

If he was surprised because of the sudden and swift conflict, and that was already hell of a surprise, then now he felt like when he had an audience with the king. No, he felt even more nervous!

When the giant dismounted his impossible mount, the feeling just increased. As the ferocious land dragon that could easily massacre the strongest of knights, submissively lowered its body so its master could dismount him more easily, he could not help but feel intimidated and awed!

Awe at this being in front of him, as he managed to do something that was right out from the legends, or could be easily the source of them in the future!

Intimidation by the disciplined soldiers and the bearing of this whole military organization, and it was one, that he was sure of. A military, not some raiding party of barbarians or anything like that, this was an unprecedent military power that his country was not prepared for.

“General Alistair! It is good meeting you. I have been looking forward to hearing your story from your own mouth. I have heard about your exploits, and even your unfortunate exile by some idiots in the higher echelons. It is a shame, really, come and we can discuss this within a more comfortable environment.”

Came the booming voice that would change Alistair’s life forever. Of course, he did not know that at first, yet still went after him. This stranger strode into his house like he owned it, maybe he did already, thought the general with mirth. As he followed after him, his soldiers kept standing and having a stare down with their previous opponents, but he sent them a sign to keep them from anything stupid.

They reached the lounge where they sat down at the small table that could only accommodate a few people.

He was not bothered by this strange giant taking the main seat, as he felt that it was only natural. He sat down on front of him and looked up, into his eyes that seemed to contain gargantuan amounts of power and charisma, gulped once and just waited.

This seemed to amuse the giant as he let out a good natured chuckle that managed to unnerve the still quite nervous ex-general.

“You do not have to be afraid, general! I’m a magnanimous person and will not hurt prisoners of war, not to even mention that particular bit of reality that you and your troops are not prisoners either in my eyes right now...”

Finished the huge man with a kind voice.

Alistair was quite confused, so he asked a question, just like he always did when he did not understand something. He was here for a reason, of course, and this was a main one out of them.

“Sir..., I am sorry but I do not know your name, my lord. If you could enlighten me about that and about what you mean exactly with us not being your prisoners, I would appreciate it! This whole situation is unprecedent, so I will do anything if you promise me to not hurt my soldiers!”

Said the soldier with a humble and genuinely curious but hardened attitude. And when he looked back up from the small bow, he used to show his genuineness, the smiling face of the giant greeted his eyes as he was leaning over the table quite close to his face.

He then heard that deep yet kind voice again and he could not help but feel that he did something right, only if he knew what...

“Oh, my dear general, you are just like I hoped you would be! Come, I will tell you about a dream of mine, the future that I will achieve no matter what. And the present that the once, and even still quite savage “barbarians” under my, Atos Dawn’s rule live!”

They slipped into a pleasant conversation after that, where Alistair even opened one of his prized wines, only for Lord Dawn to bring out an even finer one that he never heard about before. This seemed to be a pleasant relationship in the making, thought the ex-general, as he started telling his story from the start while this strange lord payed rapt attention to every one of his words. It was a strange feeling to be listened to this attentively, even more so by a Noble, but he liked it so he opened up like to no one ever before...