Near the end of the great war, the Army of One found itself growing near the size of the Army of People. People who had heard about the great soldier who turned the whole war around by himself flooded in to join the Army of One. Brock was one of these people.

He was a young man that came from a family of farmers that had their crops and their land ravaged by the war. Before the war, his farm would produce a plentiful harvest every year that had them living life in luxury. However after the war started, Everyday he would tend to the crops and every month, soldiers would come by and tax his farm leaving his family with the bare minimum amount that they needed to survive. No matter how hard he would appeal to his king, nothing would be changed.

One day, Brock visited a restaurant that his family had a deal to deliver fresh produce in exchange for coins and currency. He would wait at the bar in the front of the restaurant and wait for his payment while the owners checked the produce. While he was waiting, he had heard two men talking about the war. Brock had known that the likely outcome of the war was going to be the loss of Mistelinn and eventually his family's farm and other assets would be seized by the other kingdoms. Knowing this, hearing about the war only made him sink deeper into depression. However, the men then started talking about one of the most recent battles where a young boy charged the battlefield with a small army and defeated the enemy.

"This is ludicrous" Brock had thought while sipping on some juice that the owners gave him. He thought that there was no way that the rumours were true, he thought that that had to have been a rumour that the army started to boost morale after a miraculous victory. However, after this initial visit, more rumours about this young boy kept popping up where ever Brock went. The rumours about the boy became more vicious and bloody the more they spread amongst the countrymen. Stories of major victories would reach Brocks ears to his disbelief. How could such a small boy turn the tides of war so easily?

As the victories of his countries spread, Brock's family farm was taxed less and eventually they had an abundant amount of crop like they used to have before the war. Brock would live life in luxury yet he could never sit still. Every time he would hear about the boy while he enjoyed his life to the fullest, he would feel shame. He was living a life of luxury because of the sacrifices of a boy at least five years his junior.

As a man who wanted to feel proud of who he was, Brock had made the decision to join the army against the wishes of his family. It took him weeks to prepare for his trip to the capital to enlist in the army but eventually, he made it.

His training started out normally where he would be drilled the basics of combat. After the combat training, Brock would find himself having a small meal before having to study up on the strategies of war. After finishing his studies, he would sleep in the barracks where dozens of other soldiers slept and this whole cycle would repeat every day. However, since there was barely any time to prepare the new soldiers, Brock found his way to the battlefield with only a month of training.

Every day was filled with bloody combat followed by a restless night filled with anxious anticipation of the next enemy attack. Because of the boy of the rumours, both army's had given up formation combat and the use of gorilla warfare became the standard mode of a fight.

Eventually, two years passed and the end of the war was reaching a conclusion. The Army of One had finally achieved a dominating status over most of the land. There was only one more place that was contested by each army. Before one of the last battles, Brock was placed into a unit known as the Lemmings.

After being told he would be joining the unit, he was not given any more details on the matter, telling him that it would be explained when he met up with them. However, he was curious so he asked around the army to get all the information that he could. Apparently, the unit was made of criminals that were forced to fight in the war or faced execution. In addition to the criminals, many veteran soldiers also were in the unit to keep the criminals in line and prevented them from escaping. These vets had the option of executing the criminals of who they deemed to be uncooperative.

Brock was chosen as a veteran soldier to keep these soldier in line but he had no idea what the unit did for the war. Apparently, The unit had the duty of sneaking pass enemy line to get a flanking position for the upcoming battles. The rumour was that joining the unit was a death sentence as most people that were assigned to this unit would find themselves dead because they would receive no help from the army once they started their attack.

Brock was already used to the war and had stayed to see the war to its end. He had no problems dying if it meant that the end of the war. However, there was one last rumour that made it's way to Brock's ear that made him almost excited to join the unit. The Boy of the rumours was the head of the unit, and his name was Luther Ruxil.

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When he had made contact with the unit, he saw many soldiers dressed like they were noblemen, and these men were ordering around people that wore rags and had collars on them like slaves. He thought that they must have been the veterans ordering the prisoners around. He was walking around camp when he came to a nearby river and the young man was lying on a giant rock right next to the river. The man was covered in the same, if not even poorer in quality, clothes as the criminals. Brock thought that one of them must have been slacking off as went to go tell him to get back to work.

Brock approached the man that was laying out in the open. He wondered why none of the other soldiers would tell the man off.

"Hey, what are you doing here." Brock had yelled at the man.

Brock now had a better view of what the man looked like. Both of the man's eyes were covered by hair that looked like it had not been washed in days. The clothes he wore were covered in grime and dried blood like the man recently came back from battle. And the only thing that was redeemable about the man was the jade green necklace that he wore that sparkled in the light of the sun. Yet the atmosphere around the man was surprisingly calm, everything around the man seemed like it went at a slower pace, so slow that a small bird managed to land next to the man.

Finally, the man turned his head while laying down to face the person that was calling him.

"Did you need something? I'm quite tired."

The man spoke to Brock like he couldn't care less about what Brock had to say.

"Shouldn't you be in the camp helping out"

Brock was a little upset over the man's nonchalant attitude he took towards him. The man, that looked more like a boy, was clearly younger than Brock who had enough of his attitude.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I just came back from a mission, leave me alone." The man turned back around and started to fall asleep.

"Look here you rat, even though I am new, I know that I am in charge of the prisoners."

"..." The young man started to sit up and turned to face Brock.

"If you don't get up, I will have no choice but to discipline you."

"You discipline me? A prisoner? pfft"

The man held down a giggle.

"Why you little..."

Brock drew his sword and started to walk forward but suddenly the man's necklace flashed and Brock found himself tripping on the rocks under his feet. But before he could stand up, the young man was already next to him staring down.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?"

The young man let out a sigh as he stood next to the fallen man. Brock tried to respond to the man's comment but one of the soldiers wearing a badge indicating that he was one of the commanders of the unit came and started speaking.

"General Ruxil, you are needed at the strategy meeting"

"I'll be right there, gather all the commanders. They will need to hear the details of what I found out."

"yes, sir!" The man saluted and walked away as the man he called a general turned and faced Brock once more.

"My name is Luther Ruxil, I hope you didn't injure yourself falling down." Luther wore a smile on his face while looking down on Brock who was still on the floor shocked from the news as the man in front of him was none other than the boy of the rumours.

"Hello, can you stand?" Luther tried to get an answer from Brock.

"M-m-my n-name is Brock Westly, I must apologise from earlier Sir Ruxil!" Brock got on all fours and begged.

"So your name is Brock huh? Don't worry about before, it's actually nice to see someone speaking up to me."

Luther said with a faint smile on his face.

"Well, I'll see you later."

Brock was still shaking in his legs with his encounter while Luther was returning to the camp. From the rumours, he thought that the boy was a demon that would kill anything in its way but Luther seemed so carefree and peaceful. It was hard to believe he was the boy from the rumours.

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After a few days, it was time for the unit to carry out their attack on the enemy. They were targetting a camp that many of the enemy's commanders had occupied. Their goal was to take out the heads of the army days before the conflict so the enemy would have no leadership during the next fight. Originally, the King had given the order to destroy the supply camps, therefore starving the enemy before the fight but Luther refused. The supply camp also fed the nearby villages and Luther would not stand for killing the innocent. The king was furious at Luther yet Luther came up with a better strategy days before his attack that calmed the king. Luther went to the nearby villages in disguise to gather information about where the enemies were housed and found out information about where the enemies' base camp was and who occupied it. They decided to strike as fast as possible so the enemy would not have time to prepare.

The next time Brock saw Luther, He was dressed in casual clothes that were unfitting for a general but somehow fit his personality. Brock was personally assigned by Luther to be next to him during the attack. Upon hearing about the news, Brock was scared that he did something to make Luther upset but right before the fight while they were in the bushes, Brock had asked him.

"Upset? No, it's nothing like that. You are new to the unit so I wanted to give you the full view of how we operate."

"How they operate?" Brock had thought they would all work their way to the middle of the camp and assassinate the commanders. After that, it would not matter what would happen after because they would have completed their objective and would guarantee the war's end. But the actual strategy was completely outside the realm of the norm for Brock. Instead of everyone charging in, they were assigned to the outskirts of the camp to capture any fleeing enemies while Luther charged in alone.

"General this is crazy, there is no way that this will work" he had screamed at Luther fearing that the plan would not work but Luther was smiling like he did back at the river.

"Don't worry, I'm a really lucky man" And before Brock could respond, the Lemmings had started the attack. He was assigned right outside the entrance of the camp so he could back his general if needed. But it was not necessary.

As if God was by his side, Luther charged into the camp alone while cutting down groups of soldiers like he was slicing through butter. The enemy soldier died one after another while Luther just kept running through. Brock could see the horror in the soldier's faces as heads chopped off and throats sliced open by his general. Blood was being spilt left and right while he stood there watching unable to do anything. Luther truly was the boy from the rumours.

"Hey what are you doing, stay alert in case someone comes"

One of his senior officers had told him to get ready but there was no need for it. Luther was already killing anything that came in his way.

"THE DEVIL IS HERE"

"DON'T LET HIM THR---- GAHH"

"THIS IS HOPELESS, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES"

Brock could hear the screams of terror as his general slaughtered them handily and eventually soldiers poured out of the camp where they found their enemy had already surrounded them. They were routed in minutes.

After a few hours of cleaning up the rest of the stragglers, Luther had come out of the camp holding the heads of the enemy commanders signalling the end of the fight. The Lemmings let out one big cheer before they went into the camp to scavenge. Brock kept staring at Luther but noticed two big changes in Luther that everyone else ignored. First, was the necklace Luther always wore, instead of being the jade green he saw back at the river, it was glowing a bright blue. Second, Luther's eye was void of light sending a shiver down Brock's spine. Yet he wanting to talk to his general looking for answers to Luther's change. He approached Luther.

"General, that was incredible! Congratulations on the successful fight"

"..."

Luther had already dropped the heads to the ground while staring up at the sky with a blank blood covered face.

"General? are you okay"

Brock became worried, pressing the issue further.

"Brock... please"

Luther finally responded to Brock

"Leave me alone," Luther said as he started to walk towards the direction of the forest.

Brock had wondered what happened inside the camp to make his general so upset. He went and asked one of the older soldiers about it.

"The general? Don't worry 'bout it, he does it after every fight"

"Why?"

"I don't know, I don't think anybody does."

"Did anyone ever ask?"

"Ask? Why would we ask that monster?"

"Monster" the word ringed in Brock's head. Seeing the fight that just happened in front of him, certainly many would call him a monster but the man Brock did not meet that description. He was a carefree and kind man that forgave Brock for anything he did out of line where many others would have punished him. He needed to find out what was troubling his young general so he chased after him.

When Brock found Luther, he was laying down on a near by boulder with his eyes closed.

"General..."

Brock approached Luther.

"Brock, I told you to leave me alone"

Luther got up to face Brock, but the face covered in blood was a face full of regret. The monster showed regret.

People killing other people was not an easy thing. When Brock took his first life, he found himself awake at night remembering the scream of the man that he killed. He sat in his bed crying and hoping that it would all be over. As he fought in more battles, he equated the lives he took to the peace that would come from them to justify his actions. Luther's face reminded him of the nights he spent unable to sleep, he saw the torment in Luther's face as he sat withered from the fighting.

So he asked,

He asked about his general's reasons for fighting. Surely he was a great asset to the army but Brocked wondered about his reason for fighting if fighting made him suffer. It took a while but Luther finally responded.

"I just want a peaceful life."

Brock had heard his general say the answer he had found for the senseless killing. But he also wondered, what motivated this young boy every time he would jump into the chaos of a battle.

But before he could get his answer, Luther got up and left.

After that, many more battles were fought, and Brock witnesses his general in every battle after fighting for the sake of peace.

Today, Brock stood in front of these small little children to defend them from the very general he served five years ago.