"Thank you young master Ron. This old man will never forget this debt." Marshal Cesar watched his men apprehend the opposition and Carson dismounting from his War Horse to duel Kaiser who acted like a mad man once his scheme failed then watched while Kirston, Kyrin, Kain, and Kaling were getting killed one by one.
Aaron waved it as nothing but he looked towards the old man and asked : "Is it alright for you to lose that much men? Especially when there's an Army heading your way?"
Cesar looked left and right and saw his men already descending the walls into the fortress to chase after the ones who escaped, "I would've been a lot more worried if me and my men were stranded outside the walls, now if you'll excuse me there's still a few things left for me to do." The general urged his War Horse towards one of his Lieutenants and shouted : "Send a messenger to our men, order them to hurry back to the fortress as fast as possible! Whoever dares be last is getting 50 flogs."
*Screech* *Kuk-Kuk*
The killing and the fighting didn't bother Nina or Lucas at all while Pio and Sherry were uncomfortable seeing this battle, the Red Squirrel was probably the only one feeling excited by the action it was seeing.
"First time seeing a battle between Armies?" Nina asked while looking towards Sherry and Pio.
"Uh-huh." Both of them nodded while trying to emotionally toughen up in front of their young master Ron who watched everything happen without seeming to be emotionally affected at all.
Both the young man and the teenager girl were unaware that Aaron was treating everything around him like some sort of action movie which is getting performed live just for him!
The woman shook her head when she noticed how this maid and this bodyguard are trying to hide their complex emotions in this situation just because this kid is able take everything in stride, "Don't look if it gets a bit much for you to handle, not everyone is an emotionless monster like this little one." Nina scrunched her nose and gave Aaron the stink eye which was a cute sight to see.
'I'm not emotionless you silly woman, I'm admiring the beauty of war!' Aaron rolled his eyes at Nina who's trying to get under his skin, probably because she saw his lack or reaction and cold response when she mentioned Snow, and Sherry who found it funny and giggles while hugging her pet.
"It's probably going to take Marshal Cesar and his men a few hours to take full control of this fortress, I reckon it'd be around dawn when things start to calm around here." Lucas said before pointing East while asking : "Should we go to Rotten-Swamp Village and rest until then young master Ron?"
The kid nodded and Nina's pet moved North then East around the fortress until they reached the stone-walls of the Village, the noise of battle could be heard everywhere on the Village's stone-walls as well as inside Rotten-Swamp Village itself.
The Centipede raised its head up and everyone on its back could see fire eating a dozen or so of the houses inside this Village while an Army of soldiers in Black Armor was pushing seemingly in a hurry against a group of soldiers in Silver Armor which is protecting the gate and preventing them from opening it.
"Commander Rhinne." A man riding between a dozen Black Armored Knights looked up towards the woman standing on the wall above the gate with almost 100 more soldiers wearing faded-brown Leather Armor like Rhinne herself and most of these soldiers were actually beautiful looking women.
The woman stared at the one who called her with hate burning within her eyes before opening her Bow to the max like a moon and shot one of her Arrows at him but one of the Knights jumped in front of him and took the Arrow on his Shield.
*Heh*
*Humph*
"Gerand Specter... I've known you to be a man of great ambition but I never thought you'd dare extend your hands so far, I always thought it'd be one of your two siblings who'd be the first to dare bring a fight to the General." Commander Rhinne spat before loading her Bow with another Arrow.
"You were quick to escape Kaisar's trap but you were mistaken when you choose to occupy Rotten-Swamp Village with your group of loyalists because my Army was already here hiding and waiting for this opportunity to happen since long ago." Gerand Specter smiled before glaring at Rhinne and her followers before adding in a stern, harsh and cruel tone of voice : "I gave you the option to join me because I admire your talent and would like for you to become one of my Knights, don't mistake my patience for weakness now... I've allowed you to delay my men for so long until my Army clean the Village of Marshal Cesar's supporters.
"As you can see they're returning one by one after completing their mission and all that's left is your group of Archers plus these adorably loyal idiots which insist on blocking my way to the fortress."
Commander Rhinne grit her teeth and swallowed her worries for the ones suffering within the Village because right now she and her followers are in a difficult situation too.
"Looks like we can't rest here but I don't like that dude over there, he just admitted that he ordered his soldiers to go murder and terrorize civilians."
Right when the soldiers in the Black Army were licking their lips and getting themselves ready to pounce on Rhinne's followers and the shallow remnant of the General's soldiers, everyone stopped and looked towards the boy which appeared next to Gerand Specter.
Among the entourage of Knights and soldiers of the Black Army not a single one of them could help their leader once the kid put a hand on the man's shoulder, a blink of an eye later they both vanished.
"Ugh!"
*Blurgh* *Cough*
"Wh-"
*Hueck*
But the sound which Gerand made once he found himself surrounded by Rhinne's followers and the panic he felt was drowned by his coughs and the sickening urge to empty his bowels!
"Hey. Your name is Rhinne right?" Aaron greeted the woman while taking a few step away from the puking noble to avoid getting sprayed by any gut acid.
Seeing Rhinne nod excitedly while ignoring the nasty liquids and stand behind Gerand while pointing her Arrow at the back of his head which was more than enough to deter the soldiers of the Black Army and stop them in their tracks, "I'm Ron. I came here with old man Cesar and he's handling business back in the fortress."
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Really?" Rhinne asked while squinting her eyes once she looked at him seemingly to study every single expression on this kid which is a complete stranger to herself and every single one of her followers.
Aaron nodded before waving her goodbye while saying : "You just keep that fellow a hostage for now and wait for some good news from that General of yours, I was planning to visit this Village to rest but I'm not feeling like doing so anymore. Until we meet again then."
Afterwards he jumped and everyone could finally see that while they were fighting there was a creature of that size right next to them and on top of it there's some people watching them play war and listening to them narrate how they schemed against one another.
"Order your Army to surrender or be the first to die! I'm not asking Gerand Specter." Commander Rhinne felt a lot more excited and it seemed like she was fueled with courage once she saw the Poisonous Stone-Centipede which the boy and his group are riding.
*Cough*
"Quick! Drop your weapons!" This member of the noble Specter house was clearly more worried for his own safety than his people's lives and didn't even care about his own image at all.
Nina looked towards Aaron who seemed a pit pale and uncomfortable and asked : "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." He answered while taking a seat.
The woman sat next to him and looked at him from up close while asking : "Sera didn't mention that power of yours, so you're able to move and appear wherever you want huh!"
The kid looked at Nina and raised an eyebrow then asked : "Was that demonstration not enough to satisfy your curious self?"
"Indeed. I thought you can only do it alone but you proved me wrong earlier!" The woman looked towards Gerand Specter which was in a bad condition ever since he experienced the boy's Movement-Technique.
"Don't let appearances fool you." Aaron muttered while thinking : 'I almost failed earlier and it would've been impossible for me to do it twice, I guess the bigger the company I'm bringing with me the harder it's going to get for me to actually succeed when Teleporting.'
Nina nodded but she felt like there's something which she missed but Sherry noticed it and glared at the boy who dares to throw a dirty joke in the mix and take advantage of this pure-minded Honorable Sister!
With the Black Army surrendering and commander Rhinne's followers watching over their extremely valuable hostage while keeping an eye on the soldiers which kind of looked bored mostly or annoyed with the lack of action after their leader got kidnapped from their midst by the kid.
An hour or so later Carson arrived with a battalion of soldiers to check on the Village after putting things on order back in the fortress.
"You little kitten still have some life left in you!" The First-Lieutenant smiled once he saw Rhinne safe and sound with most of her group of Elite Archers, "Who's this guy? I'm guessing he's the leader of the Specter's Army but how did you manage to get your hands on such a big fish while being in this ridiculous situation!" The man asked while looking at the Black Army which outnumber Rhinne's force more than 20 to 1.
Rhinne just rolled her eyes at this fellow which usually thinks less of her but decided to change his mind for some reason! "That's Gerand Specter. Dermoor Specter's 7th son and the City-Lord of Crescent-Lake City which makes him one of our lovely unwelcoming neighbors! Let's round his men and bag him to the fortress for the General to handle."
*Whistle*
Carson crouched next to Gerand and grabbed him by the chin then lifted his face up to look at him before saying : "You did well little kitten, I'm sure the General would give you something good for your contribution in protecting the Village in his absence, I think you deserve a promotion!"
"I never said it was me who captured him, it was some kid which said that he came here with the Marshal then handed Gerand to me and left." The woman said before looking around searching for the kid and his group but all her sharp eyes could see were the traces which the Centipede left behind.
"Was he riding a Poisonous Stone-Centipede with a Honorable Whispering Sister and a girl hugging a Buff-Tail Skipper with two other men?" The man asked while looking around before adding : "Any idea where they went?"
Rhinne nodded then said : "Yes and no! Let's go to the Marshal and get it over with quickly because there's a lot left for us to do back here in the Village." Afterwards she joined her group to Carson's battalion and rounded-up the soldiers of the Black Army then left the Village heading towards the fortress.
Marshal Cesar was standing in the spacious training grounds with his Army behind him overseeing the flogging of the last soldier to arrive.
Next to him was a hunchbacked old man which kept frowning deeper whenever he read another of the many reports on the table.
The casualties that happened in the fortress tonight alone were way more than what their Army lost in the past few years combined, not to mention that so far more than half of their Army members were locked in the dungeons and awaiting their investigation before their fate gets decided.
The worst of the news is how many high-ranking officers and captains did they lose which leaves a vacant gap in the chain of command.
"Report." A scout ran towards the hunchbacked old man and the Marshal and stopped a couple meters.
The hunchbacked old man raised his head and flicked the scout a glance before dropping his head to continue reading the stack of reports while saying : "Go on! Pouring oil on this fire is only going to keep it burning but it can't get any bigger than it already is."
"First-Lieutenant Carson and Commander Rhinne are here! They've captured the leader of the Specter's Army back in the Village and took all of his Army into captivity afterwards, they're on their way here now." The scout was so excited once he delivered this good news.
Marshal Cesar looked away from the laziest soldier in the Heavy-Infantry unit and said to the scout : "You're dismissed."
The scout quickly left Cesar and the hunchbacked man alone.
"What can you make out of this situation Dalair? The Specters ran rampant in our backyard then lit fires and massacred to their heart content and almost took our front porch too! How long do you reckon it'd take us to lick our wounds and build back our strength?" The old man was feeling a headache once he tried to estimate these losses.
Dalair let go of the reports and leaned his back to rest comfortably on his chair then stared in silence at the cloudy sky before sighing, "I'd probably be dead long before it happen, I'm getting too old for this shit my friend... whenever we take a step forwards this world finds a way to push us two steps back."
"Hahaha... I see you're still as spineless as ever you senile old coward." Marshal Cesar patted his friend on the shoulder before adding : "But I've seen hope with my own eyes, how else do you think we're here and having this conversation?"
*Tsk*
"I'm sick of waiting Cesar, maybe it's time for me to vacate my position as Strategist and take to useless role of Chief-Advisor instead." Dalair twirled his beard while spinning this tempting thought in his mind before adding : "I bet these bastards of students of mine would jump at one another's throat for this lucrative opportunity!"
Marshal Cesar just rolled his eyes at his friend before shaking his head, "You're in this position until you hit the grave you old fool, a promise of a lifetime's worth of service was made and I'm going to hold you to it until the day I die!"
"Fuck! I swear you're getting even more stubborn with the years... it's either that or you're a sadistic old bastard who enjoys slowly tormenting his best friends to death."
Cesar looked away at Carson and Rhinne which arrived at the training ground with the Black Specter's Army flanked in-between them.
"Gerand Specter!" Dalair squinted his eyes to confirm the identity of the person leading the Black Army.
"That's him, I've seen the brat a few times and he's still the spitting image of his father Dermoor back in the days." Cesar muttered before gesturing for Rhinne to bring him over.
"You can deal with that nonsense later old man Cesar, I asked you for a location where I can send you the products... did you forget about our deal or what?" It was then that Aaron interrupted everything that's happening in the training grounds and appeared in front of Cesar and Dalair.
"Long live young master Ron!"
"Our savior!"
Maybe Aaron was too used to spamming his Skills a bit too much but this time the effect Hero's Echo left on these soldiers was a bit too much!
The soldiers on the Marshal's Head-Reapers Army were acting like they were injected with chicken blood and fervently chanted words of praise or gratitude meanwhile the soldiers from the Black Specter's Army were shrinking and huddling together while joined in fear and worry.