It was the third day after the annihilation of Irk and the general of the demon army stationed in Ark was looking at a map of the region. Somewhere else Luna had just said goodbye to Carla and kissed her on her cheek. The report about smoke in the west were alarming. Was it possible that a human army has bypassed the coastal cities and their army to get farther inland? And if yes, what was their objective?
"General Arkor. Two of the arch demon rangers have returned from Irk."
"What are you waiting for! Bring them in!"
Two arch demons entered the tent and kneeled in front of Arkor.
"Speak!"
"Irk was destroyed. We found a human army camp south of Irk with at least 20 000 soldiers."
"20 000, hmm." mumbled general Arkor. "Ok. Colonel Nar!"
"Yes sir!"
"How are the preparations?"
"We gathered 30 000 horses from the civil population of Nark and Ark. We have now 60 000 horses at our disposal. The quality of the confiscated horses is of course mixed so we expect that they will be much slower than our trained cavalry."
"Good. Tell marshal Kar that he will lead the 30 000 soldiers on the civil horses while I will lead the cavalry corps.
Two days ago general Arkor had already began to prepare for the departure of his troops, while he had sent out arch demon ranger to confirm his suspicions about Irk. The demon army was originally composed 30 000 cavalry and 70 000 foot soldiers. General Arkor had ordered to forcefully collect as many horses as possible from the two nearby cities Ark and Nark. The local population wasn't very happy about this naturally, but only few dared to resist. Most of them probably expected to get their horses back in a few weeks or maybe some kind of reparation payment. The plan was to split the now 60 000 cavalry men in two groups. The faster professional cavalry men under his command and the slower soldiers on confiscated horses under Kar's command. 60 000 against 20 000 might seem excessive but there were several unknown parameters. First he didn't know whether there might be more human soldiers in other camps further inland. If they can secretly transport 20 000 soldiers in enemy territory they are also able to transport 50 000. Second the demons might need to split up to find them. So if they split up in two groups they would still have the advantage of numbers. The preparations were now complete. The rest of the 40 000 soldiers would stay behind under colonel Nar and wait fo further orders.
"You two."
"Yes sir!"
"I guess the other three stayed behind to observe the situation?"
"Yes sir!"
"Good. Nar, how many arch demons do we have?"
"92 sir. Excluding all higher ranked officials and army personal 27."
"That should be enough. You two take 7 arch demons with you to observe the enemy troops. Nar, call the other 20 and tell them to forms teams of two and search the surrounding of Irk and the region west of Irk along the Great Demon Road for human soldiers."
""Yes sir.""
"Dismissed."
---------------------------
It was the sixth day after the annihilation of Irk. Luna had just rescued Carla. While the two human girls had a touching reunion the mood in the demon army was completely opposite. Yesterday, while general Arkor and his troops were still one day away from Irk, a message from the vanguard - the nine arch demons - had come back. The three rangers were found dead and the human camp was empty.
Today Arkor and his army arrived at Irk. He ordered his troops to build an encampment nearby till he made a decision about what to do and walked through the burnt remains of Irk. The human troops had incinerated the whole village. Burnt corpses were lying everywhere.
'Such a small village had no chance against an army of 20 000.'
He looked around and saw the burned remains of a child. Undescribable anger had taken possession of him.
'This lower life forms! How dare they!'
He looked towards the soldiers who were riding behind him through the village. They all looked grimly at the remains of the demon village.
"You! Get enough soldiers and dig graves for this poor souls. We have to wait for marshall Kar anyway. You two come with me to the human army camp."
""Yes, sir!""
He then also visited the remains of the army camp to look for clues. But he found nothing. So he ordered his soldiers to examine the surroundings, but they only found the remains of the lord of Irk, a very powerful arch demon. It looked as if he had exploded from the inside. Arkor has never seen anything like that.
In the morning of the next day, seven days after the annihilation of Irk, reports came in that the next town, Kirk, along the great demon road was also annihilated. The arch demons that were sent out came back without investigating the details, since there might still be humans nearby and it was imperative that general Arkor would get the details about what they had discovered. A few hours later the rest of the troops arrived in the demon army camp near Irk. But the newcomers had no chance to rest at all. The camp was immediately broken down and the now 60 000 troops followed the Great Demon Road heading west.
'At least I know now that they are advancing on the Great Demon Road. That's good. There is no reason to split our army up anymore. Three ranger units haven't reported back yet, I wonder if something happened. But they were tasked with observing the region north of the road so it is rather unlikely. There is nothing there except the ruins of Nar and what should the humans want there? It's still possible that the humans left some troops behind to ambush my rangers. Let's wait ans see for now. Maybe they just found some important information and will report back in the next few days.'
---------------------------
Two days later they arrived at Kirk. It was the ninth day after the destruction of Irk and Luna's group were just leaving the ruins of Nar heading in the direction of Nark. Tomorrow the human fleet would arrive and commence their attack on Nark and Ark. General Arkor of course didn't know that. Otherwise he would have ordered his troops to immediately march back east. But instead he began to inspect the next town Luna had destroyed. Riding through the gate, passing two headless guards, he and his soldiers entered Kirk. A scene from hell greeted them. It had been five days since Luna's dance of blood and death and the bodies of her victims already began to compose. Incrusted blood covered the cobbled streets and thousands of flies and maggots feasted on the decomposing bodies. The smell was deplorable. The soldiers and even general Arkor himself covered their mouths and noses with their hands to not throw up. The once thriving city at the Great Demon Road has become a city of ghosts. Was there any chance that there was a survivor? He knew that this was very unlikely but it was his duty to search for survivors. He ordered his army to build a camp outside of the town. He couldn't ignore the town. Diseases might spread. Unsuspecting travelers on the Great Demon Road or looters might spread a plague from this city to the rest of Arkar. It was even possible that this was the main objective of the human army. He ordered 500 soldiers with respiratory masks to burn the corpses and search for survivors.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
A few hours later hundreds of funeral fires illuminated the ghost city with their gruesome light. The setting sun seemed to emphasise the light of the fires and smoke filled the air. The smell of burned flesh was everywhere and even the troops camping outside of the town felt sick. It was the most horrible thing general Arkor has ever seen. So many demons, even women and children, died here. Those despicable creatures! He was aware that this was probably the human revenge for the human farms in the west and their invasion two years ago. But he refused to acknowledge this. They were just lower life forms after all and it was the right of the stronger species to eat the weaker one. This was the right of the stronger! But deep inside his soul he was anxious. For hundreds of years no human had attacked Arkar, the demon continent. The demons felt certain that even the free humans were just cattle waiting to be eaten. It was just two years ago when the proud and arrogant demon king has amassed the biggest fleet and the strongest army Arkar has ever seen. General Arkor was still a colonel at that time. He remembered how the glamorous army had marched down the Great Demon Road. The army was so big that they needed several days to pass a town. Hundreds of flags were waving in the wind and dozens of trumpets and drums were playing music accompanying their march. All civilians were cheering for the troops. They were, after all, setting out to conquer the world for the demon empire. Not one of them expected their king and troops to walk to their death. The parade in a blaze of glory was in reality nothing more than a death march. The masts of the fleet anchoring between Ark and Nark was like a forest and the army camp at the coast like a new city. The civilians cheering the leaving fleet didn't know that they wouldn't see them ever again.
Has their hubris awakened something they couldn't control? Deep inside his heart Arkor suspected that the 20 000 human soldiers he chased were part of something bigger. What did the humans plan? Was the demon empire in danger? He knew that 20 000 humans were no danger to the emire but he couldn't shake off his suspicion that something was wrong. Horrible wrong. For now he ordered his troops to rest for the night. It was a long day and they would continue their march heading west tomorrow morning. But during the night he was woken up. An arch demon squad came back from the next village. Arkor already suspected their findings but he heard them out anyways.
"Speak!"
"General, the next village, Jul, was raided too but we found a survivor who buried the dead villagers. A hunter named Natar has witnessed everything."
"Good. What can you tell me about the human army?"
"Ehm ..."
"What are you waiting for, soldier?"
"Yes! There was no army. There was just a single female human warrior with white hair that destroyed the village."
"What!?"
'It can't be ... lure us out to this town? But why? It can't be! No, no, no!'
As if to answer his speculations a soldier charged in the tent.
"General!! There is a light in the east!"
Arkor stormed out of his tent. The whole horizon was glowing as if it has been inflamed by thousands of fires. Suddenly he understood his mistake but it was to late. The humans had already begun their attack on the coastal cities.
---------------------------
It was the fifteenth day after the destruction of Irk, the attack that has started the whole tragedy. The demon army was now in the grassland west of Nark preparing for the next battle. They had marched day and night expecting to find a besieged city but what they found instead was much worse. A human army encamped outside the city. All that was left of Nark and Ark were smoking ruins. The human army had made themselves ready to fight and were now standing in battle position on high ground near Nark. They had formed an elongated formation with foot soldiers in front and archers at the back. Cavalry was stationed at the flanks and several catapults could be seen behind the archers. A single female warrior with white hair was standing in front of the army and holding an emotional speech in human tongue. She was using magic to increase the volume of her voice. At the end of her speech the whole army was cheering ardently and dozens of trumpets and horns were blown.
'White hair? This is probably the female human warrior that annihilated the village.'
The only advantage of the demon army was that every soldier had a horse and Arkor intended to use this. He stationed the 30 000 professional cavalry men in the front and the 30 000 soldiers on confiscated civil horses at the back. His plan was simple. The professional cavalry would cut wide swaths through the ranks of their foes and the rest of the army would trample down the remaining human soldiers. The demon army began to ride towards the human army.
The human girl in front of the human army raised her hand with her sword. Trumpets responded and the catapults fired blazing projectiles through the sky at the advancing demon army.