These men, these… soldiers had come to my sanctuary armed with steel and threats.

I had long decided that I would not allow anyone lay their hands on my new home and so I raised an unshaking hand and…

“Capture them.”

Han jumped over the wall and landed with a thud. His dark armour loudly cried as the cold plates of darkness clashed into each other.

His men followed closely after as he stood up.

He then unsheathed his black blade and pointed it Timí.

“Surrender-“

“OK! We surrender!” Timí cried before falling to his knees.

“Heh?” I sounded.

“We were just sent here to tell you that a force of five hundred is coming and that you should surrender.” Timí cried as his small body quivered.

Han looked up at me, but even I didn’t know how to respond.

I made my way to where Timí and Han were before crossing my arms.

I couldn’t sense any light or dark magicians, but we couldn’t be too safe.

“Everyone raise your hands.” I instructed.

Timí looked at me before looking at Han, who simply glared at him.

The small soldier sighed before standing up and raising his hands along with his companion.

I then bound them in dark chains.

“Who is leading the vanguard?” I asked.

“Vanguard?” Timí asked with a frown.

“Yeah. The Golden Prince is sending his armies here, right? Aren’t you part of the vanguard?”

“No. We all mobilized under the command of Lord Petrus.”

“Oh? That guy. Mmm… why is he moving so far ahead of everyone else?” I asked.

“It is not my place to hold such information.” Timí said.

“Understandable. How far is everyone else?” I asked.

“Err…”

“If you don’t tell me, we’ll chop of your legs-“

“They’re a few minutes north! The rest of our force is in a camp near Startton lake!”

One of Timí’s men cried prompting Timí to click his tongue.

“I see. You said there are five hundred men… how many silver and golden knights were present?”

“Huh? Just the one Lord Petrus himself.”

“I see. Han. Put these guys in a hole there and send someone to fetch Yna. I’ll go check if all the gear is ready.”

Han nodded before barking several orders to his men.

I, on the other hand, made my way back into Coh.

I knocked on Shiru’s door and she quickly opened the door allowing me to enter.

Inside her house was Farin, who was busy writing, Erna, Ndlo and a few other Rendaro.

“Is something wrong?” Shiru asked.

“An army is headed this way.” I said.

The house fell silent and even Farin raised his head to look at my small self.

“But worry not. We will defend this place. Although as you all know I like to be cautious. If we lose, head to the throne room and hide.”

Everyone nodded or hummed in response.

“Good.” I said before noticing that Shiru’s skin was completely healed.

Part of me wanted to ask whether she had finally caved in to Ndlo’s begging, but I didn’t really wanna involve myself in their whole… thing and so I didn’t.

I instead exited the house and made my way to the south via Coh’s now empty streets.

I made my way into a building that was as large as the facility next to it.

Within it were a handful of Rendaro who stood in front of hundreds of pieces of gear and weapons.

These would be the tools we would use to defend my sanctuary.

.

..

“And there.” Yna said as she fastened the last of my armoured plates.

My suit of dark armour was far smaller than every else’s. It had smaller plates, but was still strong enough to stop me from being one-shotted.

I looked into Yna’s eyes and we sat in her cabin.

She too was dressed in dark armour.

Coh was eerily quiet and the dimming light of the sitting sun barely illuminated our bodies, but we could still clearly see each other.

Yna lowered her head to a point just above my forehead.

I tool a deep breath before pressing my forehead against hers.

We then stood up before exiting the Cabin.

Yna then picked me up with one hand while carrying her black blade in the other.

We made our way towards the northern wall were several armoured men and woman stood in two neat lines that led to the gate.

We passed them all in complete silence and I looked to find several more soldiers atop the wall.

We exited Coh to find a force of two hundred Rendaro.

Their training had yet to complete, but even then, they looked beyond ready.

They all stood in neat rows and wielding weapons that varied from swords to spears, hammers to bows and more.

Embedding all of their equipment was the crest of Coh.

Yna placed me down in front of the army and after deeply sighed I looked at them all.

“The time has come. Should Petrus decide to attack us, those of you who are Foph will get a chance at revenge against the man who ravaged their home time and time again, the Ia will get an opportunity to state their place in the world and Coh will be established as the home of the free.” I said as the Rendaro all stared at me.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

It was quite scary, but this wasn’t the time to cave in.

I turned to face Yna, who’s eyes were glowing their brightest as the sun finally set.

“Don’t kill him. I’m sure Calëb would love that honour.”

Yna nodded before turning around with me as something appeared in the distance.

It was a single soldier at first. Dressed in rags and holding a simple sword. The man also had rather pale skin, but I couldn’t be too sure due to the darkness of the night.

Ten more soldiers then emerged from the forest.

Then fifty.

It wasn’t long before the treeline was filled with soldiers and sitting between us was Timí and his men. They were half buried in the ground without any of their equipment.

The soldiers in the distance were all armed, although just barely and only a few of them had metal armour on.

It seemed as though someone stingy was put in charge of their equipment.

Most of them wore old looking leather armour and wielded basic steel swords and wooden shields.

I sensed a few darkness users here and there, but they were extremely weak. Weak in the sense that their cores weren’t even absorbing darkness passively.

That being said, it may have also been a trick, so I kept my guard raised.

One soldier walked out of line and walked towards where Timí was buried.

He was more heavily protected by a suit of steel armour.

Yna and I did the same and we stopped about ten meters from Timí.

“What happened?” The soldier asked.

“They said that they won’t submit.” Timí said with a lowered head.

“Is that true?” The soldier asked as he looked at Yna.

I couldn’t see much of him due to his armour, but the way he talked and moved made him seem very weak. He dragged his feet whenever he moved and his voice was hoarse, almost as if he hadn’t had a drink of water for days.

“Yep.” I said.

“Very well.” The soldier said before turning to leave.

“If you lower your arms, we could all just part ways and forget any of this happened.” I said prompting the soldier to stop.

He glanced at me with a tired eye before looking at Coh’s walls, which stood high in the darkness.

“Impossible.” The soldier said before walking back towards the treeline.

Yna and I returned to the many ranks of men who stood to defend Coh. They were all part of different teams which served different purposes. The Foph Troops were the most heavily armoured and most heavily armed. Each troop had ten soldiers in it and they were the ones in the front. The Eimval Divisions were lighter, but equally armed soldiers who served a support role, although they could function on their own. The last were the Cohnite Corps. These served a purely defensive role. If we lost this battle, they would be Coh’s last hope.

Each sub faction of our army was led by Yna’s students with Han being in charge of the Cohnite corpse. He also served as the general of the armies.

I turned to face the treeline and waited for our opponents to make the first move.

This was more of a moral thing than anything else.

We were defending ourselves with this coming battle.

The sound of a horn filled the air and the many soldiers in the distance began charging towards us.

“Yna!”

“Got it.” She said as she raised her hand.

A brilliant orb of light appeared above the grassy field and it brightened by several degrees before it got so bright that the entire field was lit up.

I took a deep breath before erecting a dark wall behind the treeline.

The invading force got ever closer and I counted about two hundred or so men.

They carelessly charged towards us and with closed eyes, I raised my hand and summoned a fog of black smoke onto the field before me.

The investors all fell to their knees as the violently choked.

It’s here that I noticed that all of the properly armoured soldiers were still standing by the treeline. Although it looked like they were going to run away soon.

Yna seemingly read my thoughts because she pointed her sword at the treeline before barking several orders.

“Squads one and two, capture those soldiers by the treeline! Troops one and two, gather all of the unconscious around that hole!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Her men said before rushing out of formation and as expected, the soldiers in the distance turned and ran into the forest.

I didn’t blame them.

All of our soldiers wore clad in armour that was pitch black and they probably looked far scarier in the night.

And as for how the squads were numbered: A “squad” was made of four “teams” of four, so sixteen Rendaro in total. This would make them operate as a small army that had its own leaders who would then report to Yna and her students, their commanders. We adopted the ranking system from the Foph so a captain was a Lesser Arcus (captain) or just “Arcus” who led a team of four while a lieutenant was a Greater Arcus who led four teams as a squad.

As for the Foph Troops: a troop was made of ten Rendaro and those ten were led by a lesser Arcus… that’s is. Greater Arcus was a rank reserved for Foph elites and so any highly skilled or renowned warrior could become a Greater Arcus and lead their own troop.

I dispersed the smoke in the field allowing Yna’s men to work.

“Troops three, four and five, make your way further north and kill anything you find hiding in the forest!” She yelled and several more Rendaro broke out of formation before running into the forest.

One of our soldiers ran up to Han before telling him something that made his eyes widen.

He nodded before walking up to me.

“Sir… the soldiers down there are Rendaro.” He said.

“Mmm. Bring one of them here?”

Han nodded before rushing towards the soldiers from before.

They eventually brought one of the Rendaro and my face twisted upon seeing the Rendaro’s state.

His skin was covered in bruises and his sword was kept in his hands by a rusty iron chain.

His black hair was thin and covered in clumps of dirt and what looked like manure.

The only thing that covered his body was a sack.

“Are… are they all like this?” I asked through gnashed teeth.

“Most. Some look far worse.” Han said as the Rendaro sat before me with a lowered head.

I closed my eyes before creating a large shelter at the foot of the plateau.

“I just created a safe place for them. Take them all there, but keep them guarded. I know their in rough shape, but we can’t be too safe.”

Han nodded before ordering his men to carry the Rendaro towards the path to the east that led to the edge of the plateau.

While that happened, Yna’s men brought over the human soldiers who had tried running away.

They were all forced to kneel in front of me and I counted about fifty of them.

If the ratio between humans and Rendaro was constant, then there were two hundred more Rendaro being held captive by Petrus and his possibly fifty men.

I could’ve asked the captive soldiers to just tell me, but there was a chance they would lie and I also didn’t wanna watch anyone get the information tortured out of them.

One of the soldiers looked up at Yna and everyone else before breaking into laughter.

“You’re all dead! Once lord Petrus learns of our deaths he shall rain his golden wrath on you all, haha!”

None of us moved or said anything as his body wildly swung back and fourth.

“You will know true terror, I swear it by the light of Summus.” He muttered, but I could tell from his trembling dry lips and frightened expression that he probably didn’t fully believe was he was saying.

Petrus was strong and he would probably be pissed that we’d defeated his men, but I don’t think he cared about any of them.

I glanced at my Rendaro soldiers and saw that they were glaring at our human captives.

I had to make a decision.

If I spared the humans, the Rendaro would definitely take it the wrong way, but if I ordered their execution… I’d have their blood on my hands.

I… I needed help.

I tugged on Yna’s index finger and she looked down at me and her eyes brightened slightly after seeing my expression.

She placed her hand on her head before placing her sword on her shoulder.

“Get to work, sixths and sevenths.” She said prompting fifty two Rendaro to line up in front of the humans.

These were members of the sixth squads and troops who were all healers and seventh squads and troops who were all death magicians.

One of them being a certain ash wraith.

They all raised their hands and wisps of green light began leaving the bodies of the humans soldiers.

“What the-?”

“What’s happening?”

They asked as their hair whitened for all to see.

Their skin wrinkled up rapidly before darkening just as quickly.

“No! Please stop!”

“Spare me! I’ll swear allegiance to you!”

“Don’t beg, you traitors! They probably won’t kill us.”

Such things were said by the humans, but the healers didn’t stop.

“AH!”

One of the humans asked as his now white hair fell.

They all started loudly panicking, but the black blades of Coh made sure they didn’t move from their spots.

They all shrivelled up into dark husks and just as they died, wisps of white light rose from their bodies.

The death magicians then absorbed their deaths before standing attentively before Yna.

She told them various things, but I couldn’t focus on anything.

My stomach twisted into a painful knot I stared at the unmoving husks before me.

“Err… ma’am. There’s one left.” A Foph warrior said while pointing at one of the human soldiers-

Timí?

He was still on his knees although he looked like he had aged quite a bit.

He stared at Yna with quaking eyes as she knelt down to face him.

“W- why isn’t he d-dead?” I asked.

“He’s a space magician.” She said.

“No I’m not, I swear!” Timí cried while avoiding Yna’s gaze.

“He’s got a thin barrier around him and… damn.” Yna said as she stood up.

“What?” I asked nervously.

“It’s extremely dense yet is also so thin its almost undetectable.” Yna said before clicking her tongue.

“Everyone stand back.”

We all did as Yna asked.

She then raised her sword.

“Wait! Please don’t kill me! I swear I hold no ill will for the mud crawlers! So please-“

Yna struck the top of Timí’s head and although we all expected him to be split in two, we all gasped as Yna’s sword sat on his head with seemingly no effect.

“Mmm.” Yna droned before placing her sword on her shoulder once more.

“Take him to the dungeon.”

Two blades grabbed Timí and dragged him towards the path that led to the plateau he yelled various things, but I ignored him and focused on a narrow eyed Yna.

“If he is capable of creating such a strong barrier, why didn’t he just teleport himself away or something?” I asked.

“That’s my question. Maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe he really isn’t a magician. Well, he doesn’t know he is one. Chances are that the barrier is a subconscious creation. I’ll have to investigate this further.” Yna said as her eyes narrowed to a slit.

I pitied Timí before returning my attention to the treeline.

“How should we deal with the rest of them?”

“We should launch a frontal attack on their camp while sending a smaller team to gather Petrus’s attention. The frontal attack will give them men much needed experience while the smaller team, comprising of you and me, will look for Petrus.”

“Got it.” I said as Yna picked me up.

We then gathered the remaining squads and troops before beginning our first march as a unified force.