“Your father died doing what he wanted to do most in life, protect you. There is no such thing as an empire that’s infallible, and your father knew this. He wanted to strengthen the power of the empire so you would never have to live in the fear or torment of the Fir Bolg.
He spent his life trying to make this place just a little bit safer for all of us, he stepped on a hellish battlefield, and even on that battlefield, he never lost his heart and still went out of the way to protect the young. Your father was a true man.”
Siobhán says, “My father was brave until the end.”
Touching her shoulder, I say, “He was a man worthy of all the love he has ever been given.”
She cries and holds Áine, who struggles to keep herself together, and soon some of the maids come, and say, “Please let us help you.”
They guide the both of them out of the way, and I crouch down with my face pointed towards the ground. Then I say, “Nothing I said was false, but did I truly lead him towards a death that actually helped the empire?”
Getting up, I slap my cheeks and say, “No time for this now. I got to make sure none of the others die so I can make my decisions.”
-Break-
On the fifteenth of the fifth month of the 132nd year of athbhreith beithíoch calendar, the great campaign of Brigid began.
A great campaign starting from Tir na n-iontas, all the way till the end of the continent of Victoria, to wipe out all of the disjointed humans who had lost their most important members during the battle of the shadow serpent.
A group of armies from many different red branch houses went to areas which have been known to have high human activity and were ordered to subdue and dominate their enemies.
The fourth battle of this campaign was the first battle of the Faoláins and was called the battle of the thunderous storm.
Location: Left Flank of the human army.
On his chariot, Setanta rides around with, Ibar, Laeg, and Ferdiad at his side, and takes account of his soldiers.
I have one hundred men, and each of them is split into groups of ten, which are led by one of my father's knights, with two of the groups being led by former soldiers who served under Cruadhlaoich.
Breaking my soldiers up like this allows them to better utilize their individual traits, allowing for greater mastery and teamwork. A small group of beastkin making the most of their traits could take out a vast amount of humans.
Many of the new recruits are rather strong and able-bodied, but they lack refinement, they are strong weapons but lack the incite or the ability to use themselves to their greatest potential, I am sure my father did this intentionally. But still, I don’t plan on not meeting his expectations.
We have a series of stellar beastkin on my side. The three Fanalis tigers of named Réaltaíogar, Gealtaíogar and the wonderbeast one Gréintaíogar. The grasshopper is named Obair, and the chameleon is named Fionn.
As well as a good group of outstanding soldiers. But not to forget the soldiers I have at my side, soon an arrow comes toward me and I knock it away, but before I can throw a spear and defeat my aggressor, an arrow is shot at it by Ibar.
Looking down at him, I say, “You finally got to use that boy you got a while ago.”
“I have been keeping up with my training so don’t doubt that I could get this done.”
Laeg then says, “Setanta, the left flank has been chipped away at rather nicely. It seems they thought the reinforcements they sent could keep us down, so they have forgotten about us. I don’t think there is any better time to charge.”
Ferdiad says, “You were able to keep up with all of this while riding? I guess the Lúcogadh’s becoming your patron wasnt for show.”
Setanta says, “You guys aren’t planning on leaving me right?”
Laeg says, “You’d probably just harass whoever our new master was anyways.”
Ibar says, “You got us for life at this point.”
“I see then let’s charge forward!”
Soon Laeg and Ibar lead Setanta chariot directly into the left flank and his men follow suit, and they burst their way right through the humans knocking down as many as they possibly can.
Then Setanta says, “It seems our little arrow has caught more attention. Me and Ferdiad are going to sneak off and take the general's head, will the two of you be safe.”
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Both of them instantly say, “GO!”
And I just smile back and lunge out into the ground of humans.
Using spirit energy, red branch battle arts, and my small size I move through the crowd of humans slashing the tendons of as many of them as I can find.
And soon I break through the entire army of humans and make it behind the human army, where I see the general.
One of the humans spotting me says, “ONE OF THEM HAS GOTTEN THROUGH!”
They all tense up but after seeing I and a child some of them relax, and I use this movement to lunge forward, and stab one of the general advisors through the heart while saying, “You put your army around you, not in front of you idiot.”
He looks completely unfazed as I say this and says, “Prepare to retreat, we will take the western escape route,” in a calm and collected voice.
Then I try to stab through the general's head but three humans holding swords deflect it. I see they are all covered in spirit energy, and I say, “I see that’s why you look so calm.”
His men push me back and he says, “Death has no hold on me because we have already bested your dogs. Our battle today has already been a victory and everything after that is merely child’s play.”
Annoyed I lunge forward and say, “I would like to hear what that really means.”
But his bodyguards intercept me, but using my smaller stature I dodge their attacks and then jump back. Ferdiad should be here in five, or four.
I lunge forward and pierce one of their necks, then I follow it up with my claws to rip through another of their throats. Three, two, one.
Then I turn towards the general and prepare to strike him, but then I am knocked back by the last of the men, turning my head I see Ferdiad still hasn’t caught up with me, which means the final of the three is still there.
So I quickly kill him with a signal blow, then turn my head to the general who is lying on the ground, together with the rest of his advisors.
I quickly move over to him, and hold his body then I notice he is drooling, and I say, “He poisoned himself.”
I bring out my claws, and say, “I am sorry for doing this to your corpse.”
I rip off his head, and then move over to the human army and shout, “YOUR GENERAL HAS FALLEN!”
Φ After Setanta's defeat of the enemy the humans quickly lost their morale, and the main army quickly destroyed the rest of the humans bringing an end to the battle.
Φ Sitting down, in front of his unit, Setanta says, “Good fight everyone. The Solasmionna unit is just as amazing as I hoped, take some time to rest because you are the heroes of this battle.”
As the army disperses, Ferdiad walks up to Setanta and says, “I apologis-.”
Cutting him off Setanta says, “Don’t bother doing that I just made a miscalculation in terms of your speed. I am not the best in the world with numbers.”
Jumping up, Setanta says, “I got to go report to my father, so please make sure everyone is in tip-top shape.”
As Setanta runs off, Ferdiad says, “You didn’t make a mistake.”
-Break-
The seventh battle of this campaign was the third battle of the Faoláins and was called the Battle of the Splinter Mist.
Location: Northeastern edge of the battlefield
Φ I stare down into a mist-ridden forest, and then start to dig up the ground beneath me and say, “It is all starting to come together.”
Turning to me Gréintaíogar asks, “Why are we all the way over here? Shouldn’t we be attacking with the main army?”
One of my father's former men, Síle says, “Watch your tone and respect the chain of command or I will remove your tongue.”
The rookies all seem to jolt back at her vicious words, and I say, “My father truly knows how to pick the best woman.”
She looks like she is about to cry, which scares the rest of the rookies even more and Ibar says, “Is she ok.”
Another one of my father's eight men named Bairre says, “We usually never got compliments directly from Lugh so it just moves our hearts to hear someone who sounds so much like our former master say such nice things. I even feel a bit emotional myself.”
Standing up, I say, “That's really nice to hear since my other retainers don’t seem to like my compliments.” I look at Laeg, Ibar and Ferdiad, who all look away.
Turning to the rookies, I say, “I know you may not like my methods but know now and forever more that I will always be looking out for your best interests, and the best way to make you all live a glorious life.”
Many of them seem to lose the agitation that they had, and then Obair walks up to me and asks, “So what’s the plan.”
Holding up mud, I say, “We will be covering ourselves in this.”
MY MEN SCREAM IN ANNOYANCE, and then they shout, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!”
I then say, “Well you Obair, and Aoibheann won’t have to?”
Obair then walks to my side and says, “You peasants dare question the divine wisdom of our leader.”
“Traitor!” my men shout.
And Laeg knocks me on the head, then says, “Stop playing with us and explain the plan.”
-Break-
Φ Through the forest a beaten human army consisting of two thousand men move, and a man riding on a horse in front says, “My men don’t lose your heart. Because if we manage to escape we will be able to warn the next settlement to evacuate in time so they won’t fall victim to these beast's rampage across our lands. Humanity will live long and be strong!”
Soon his horse stops, and he says, “What is wrong girl?”
From the distance, a blood bullet comes towards the general and knocks him off his horse, and the rest of the humans rush towards him, but he says, “Take cover we have some form of an archer!”
The bullets keep coming and the humans move closer to the ground and to the trees as covers.
And in the air, Obair says, “Looks like we did enough.”
The eagle beastkin, Aoibheann says, “With this, the battle should be completely finished.”
From the ground beneath the humans, weapons appear and stab them in and then from the ground covered in mud Setanta and his men appear and attack the disrupted human army.
They are able to defeat a great amount of them before they are able to regroup, and as they do the beastkin use the thick mist and their enhanced senses to gain the underhand and a group of a hundred beat over two thousand human soldiers.
As the battle ends, Obair who has been dropped from the sky says, “How did you know they would be here boss?”
These humans all seem to have escape paths set up everywhere as we have seen in the last two battles, and one thing I noticed is that the area with the least human scent tends to be the escape route. So I just set up here and waited for them to come through.”
Ibar says, “Sometimes I wonder whether you're just really smart and are playing a long prank on everyone.”
Setanta says, “If I was you all would never find out, now let’s meet up with the main army.”