The next few days were tense as his squad could feel his emotional turmoil, but he did not care all he had left in his mind was his mission, they had crossed the glacier and were on a hill overlooking an unassuming town. It was noon at this point so their sabotage would soon begin as soon as the night fell they would wreak havoc. The fire in his soul was growing and the baby dragon seemed to reflect that as she had gone from the size of a large rat to the size of a small cat, but her aggression had grown as well she would attack anyone who was not Cornelius, so his squad mates had learned to keep their distance from her.
When the time arrived for them to make their move Cornelius was the first to advance, he snuck up all the way to a weak point in the simple wood walls surrounding the town they had spotted from their previous observations. This time they would not be doing prolonged sabotage such as poisoning their water wells no, he would be burning them to his as his wrath demands, he climbed up the wall and looked around, there were no lookouts present, good.
Cornelius and his squad mates made their way further into the heart of the village, they had been observing the village for four days so they knew the position of every single warrior within the village so they knew where to go. They split up to accomplish their individual goals, for Cornelius, this meant he had to go slit the throat of the village chief and his entire family, he would be lying if he said he was not going to enjoy this for he finally had an outlet for his anger. He made his way into their house without making a sound and he moved to their rooms, the first room belonged to a ten-year-old kid he quickly put his hand over the kid’s mouth as he slit his throat, that was one.
He periodically made his way through every single room and killed everyone inside, this did not make him feel better but it was still an enjoyable experience for him, although this was his first time taking human life he felt nothing but a feeling of the greatest euphoria, I guess those old soldiers were right there is no greater feeling than taking the life of the enemy. After he finished slaughtering the chief and his family he went on to the next house, and the next until there was no one left alive but him and his squad, the next step was quite gruesome as they gathered all the bodies in a pile and periodically cut off their heads and placed it in a separate pile.
The pile with all the bodies was set aflame while the heads were placed on a pike there were fifty people in the village thus there were fifty heads on pikes in front of the village gates, after that was finished they set ablaze the rest of the village so it could all be turned to ash.
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Strom approached him he looked sick at what they had done, but Cornelius did not care, “Are you sure this was the right course of action?” he asked sick to his stomach. “This sends a message and induces fear, fear is what will win us this war,” Cornelius said in his monotone voice devoid of emotion as he watched the bodies burn in grim satisfaction. The next morning they set off to the next village that was about a week away on foot.
They did this again, and again, and again until there were only the major settlements left, at this point they had slaughtered hundreds of warriors and hundreds of innocents but Cornelius did not care, and neither would this cruel world so he kept on with his grim work. It was finally time for them to make their way to the position of the main army, as all other units had also finished with their assault on the smaller villages, thus all that was left was to assault their greater communities.
When they arrived they saw an outpost bustling with activity with soldiers moving to and fro to accomplish their tasks, some were preparing the ballistae, others were setting up other siege weapons were some were doing more mundane tasks like taking stock of the rations and armory. Needless to say, everyone was busy, Cornelius separated himself from his squad and made his way to the command tent where the other ranking officers were already preparing for the initial assault, all eyes turned to him and the dragon sitting on his shoulder but they wisely chose to ignore her presence as she seemed to be tame enough.
“Welcome back Captain,” General Myers said as he took his seat on the far left of the table, “How has your progress been?” he asked curiously.
“We succeeded in the elimination of all our pre-determined villages, we only had one casualty from the harsh environments as opposed to falling to the enemy,” he said in his monotone voice, the change in his demeanor caused the general to raise his brow but wisely chose not to remark on it.
“Good, now let us proceed now that everyone is here. We plan to invoke the Drukai so that we face only one enemy instead of an army, but in doing so we need to select a champion,” after General Myers said this all eyes turned to Cornelius. “We suggest Cornelius do it, it is his plan after all,” Captain Zagreus said the contempt in his voice clear. “I agree,” Cornelius said off-handedly, shocking everyone present “Do not be hasty, it is not necessary for it to be you,” General Myers said trying to dissuade him.
“It does not have to be me correct, but this is something I want to do,” some of his wrath leaked out in his voice, his eyes daring anyone to challenge him, but no one did “Then it is decided,” General Myers finally said and the meeting ended shortly thereafter.