*Click* *Clack*

‘’Alright, done.’’

‘’Kaze are you, oh you’re already up.’’

Kaze stood in his tent all armored up, fully energized to head into battle.

‘’And here I thought I would finally get the chance to wake you up.’’

Setsuna’s gentle smile greeted Kaze into a new morning.

‘’Sorry to ruin it for you, but I can’t stay asleep today. Not knowing if the enemy might attack, I have to be ready at every given moment.’’

Seeing Kaze’s determination to fight made Setsuna’s face turn slightly red.

‘’Well then shall we go?’’

Nodding at Setsuna’s remark Kaze stepped out of his tent, and after a hearty breakfast it was finally time to gather around the main army.

On a quickly made podium, Nimura stood valiantly above his soldiers as he was about to speak.

Rentaro who was standing next to Kaze was shacking in his boots.

‘’K-Kaze is that r-really our commander.’’

‘’Yes he is, don’t worry he’s a really nice person.’’

Kaze gave Rentaro a thumbs up to say everything’s alright.

‘’Even if you say that.’’

‘’Now, now Rentaro don’t judge a book by its cover.’’

Fubuki was lecturing Rentaro but when they looked at his face it was clear that he was doing the same.

‘’I don’t think your one to talk right now Fubuki.’’

After Kaze was done laughing at his friends, Nimura started to speak.

‘’Listen up men, today will be the final battle in the bandit subjugation. Our enemy is a former commander of Falak who goes by the name of Gandor. I’m sure many of you already know of his deeds, so you can guess just how important this mission is. If we don’t stop him here he will surely try to raise an army, and cause more destruction to Nivalis. Houses will be destroyed, fields will be burned and your family and friends will be either killed or sold off as slaves. Now I ask to each of you lend me your strength and protect your country, protect your family!’’

‘’Raaahhh!’’

Nimura had risen his soldiers moral to the point where the ground vibrated just from their battle cry.

Proving to everyone present the reason why he had been chosen as head commander for this mission.

The young men who were previously scared of his rough face, were now making their voices heard.

This is the influence of a commander.

Kaze looked up at Nimura with a sense of admiration, wondering if one day he would be in such a situation.

After taking one hour to fully prepare, the Nivalis army headed towards the eastern mountain side.

In the meantime the bandits had not shown themselves yet.

After advancing further into the mountains Nimura dispatched a recon unit and set up base camp.

Though he had already sent a recon unit yesterday night they were unable to spot the enemies.

Due to the rough paths and dense woods inside the mountain range, and it being night time the recon unit were not able to make a lot of progress.

To prevent a possible ambush from his enemies Nimura prayed for fortune.

In the mean while Skald and the other commanders were called over to his tent.

‘’We still haven’t heard any word about the enemies whereabouts. But at our current position we’ll be able to keep a keep a close eye on our surroundings.’’

‘’Be that as it may we still won’t be able to take it easy.’’

Skald being who he is wasn’t afraid to talk back to his superior.

Nimura quietly nodded as to agree with his statement, and again took up the conversation.

‘’If Gandor and his army finds us before we do them, they’ll have the upper hand.’’

‘’And even if we are able to find them first there is still the possibility of an ambush, unless we scout out the entire area first.’’

As tension rose in the room a voice could be heard from outside.

‘’Please allow me to talk to commander Nimura.’’

The voice belonged to Kaze, after hearing him Nimura called out to the guards outside to let him in.

‘’Thank you for letting me in commander.’’

‘’What is this about Kaze?’’

Nimura quickly got back to business, Kaze’s presence of course raised questions for everyone in the room.

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‘’I had a request regarding the upcoming battle.’’

Everyone held their breath wondering as to what he could possibly ask.

‘’I know that there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the battle, so I have thought up of a counter action.’’

Skald who was curious as to what his son thought up off asked him to explain.

‘’With the uncertainty of when our reinforcements will appear, we will be forced to keep the bandits at bay. Captain Skald being the only one who would be able to keep the ogres at bay, time would play a major factor. So I thought of a way to buy us more time if it were to be required.’’

A pained expression started to grow on Skald’s face.

‘’My plan is to disguise thirty soldiers as a group of merchants, knowing Gandor’s personality he would most likely try and capture us.’’

Tension rose on the faces of everyone present in the room.

‘’Hold on Kaze, what you are requesting is extremely risky.’’

‘’But if he is able to pull it off it could turn the tides of battle in our favor.’’

The person who told Kaze the plan was dangerous wasn’t his Skald but it was Nimura.

Nimura himself looked at Skald when he had said that this plan could work out.

‘’Skald you can’t seriously send your own son to use this kind of strategy.’’

Nimura was unnaturally hostile towards Skald.

But Skald answered with his usually logical and calm mind.

‘’On the battlefield we’re not father and son, we’re soldiers with each or own mission.’’

‘’…you’re right my apologies for speaking in such a manner.’’

After calming themselves down Nimura and the other commanders started discussing Kaze’s plan, before coming to a conclusion.

‘’Very well Kaze, select thirty soldiers who will be dispatched to your command. When to preform your operation will be all up to you.’’

Kaze bowed down towards his superiors to express his gratitude.

A few moments later the captain of the recon team had arrived, and gave his report.

‘’Sir we have found Gandor’s camp at a distance of four kilometers from our current location. The area surrounding it is mostly and open plain with a few small forests around it. Other than that there were no strange movements from their side.’’

‘’I see good work, take your men and get some rest for now.’’

After the recon captain left the meeting resumed once more, this time Kaze joined in as well.

For about ten minutes the meeting went on, after which a commotion could be heard.

‘’What is going on out there?’’

Nimura questioned the sudden noises.

‘’Argh!’’

A sudden scream could be heard outside of the tent, after hearing it everyone rushed outside.

Setting their eyes upon the source of the sounds everyone held their breath, not being able to believe their eyes.

‘’T-That’s.’’

One of the commanders was unable to speak a proper sentence, so Skald finished it.

‘’That’s an ogre.’’

Beads of sweat started flowing down each of their faces.

As the ogre crushed the head of a man between his teeth, blood of the dead soldier formed a pool around the floor.

‘’Argh!’’

Now at the other side from where they were standing another scream could be heard.

‘’Waah, two of them!’’

A terrible occurrence had happened, two ogres had somehow made their way into the Nivalis camp.

Without taking a second to breathe Skald rushed over towards the closest ogre and muttered ‘’Blood of Titans’’.

With a single slash of his axe carved the ogre in half, after which he immediately made his way towards the second one.

After striking it down the soldiers were filled with joy and anxiety.

‘’Father did you just.’’

‘’Yeah, I used my blessing. I canceled it out immediately but it will still take a toll out of my body.’’

Kaze’s got an expression of fright on his face, as he knew now that Skald had used his blessing he won’t be able to properly fight for quite a while.

‘’You made the right choice Skald, if you hadn’t used it who knows how many losses we would have had.’’

As things played out fifteen soldiers were killed by the ogres. Were it not for Skald the amount of casualties could have leapt up to a couple of hundred.

‘’Looks like we’ve run out of time, assemble all soldiers, we’re going to battle.’’

Having been attack by two ogres Nimura decided to move out as soon as possible.

Nivalis’s army of about fifteen hundred versus Gandor’s one thousand soldiers plus the five remaining ogres.

Originally the plan was to take out the ogres using Skald’s blessing. But due to the ogres which Gandor had sent he would now be in no state to use it without risking his life. Even if Skald would try to use it, everyone would do anything they can to stop him.

Several minutes of traveling later the Nivalis army was met with Gandor’s army.

Nimura split up his forces in groups of three.

The left wing and right wing both consisted of three hundred men, and the main force of about nine hundred.

Gandor on the other hand seemed to keep most of his men together, except for about a hundred men who guarded the command post. It seemed he was confident that no one would come close to him.

His ogres where kept in the back of his main army so that they are easily deployable, of course he kept one of them close to himself. The man who commanded Gandor’s main force was Seroku, as he himself would rather save his strength for the final.

The way up to Gandor’s camp was up a steep hill, meaning that the bandits had a height advantage.

Nimura looked at the enemy army with determination in his eyes.

‘’Feeling nervous or something Nimura.’’

Calling out to Nimura was Skald, he and his forces were placed in the main army close to Nimura.

‘’Hehe, speak for yourself, sending your own child to do such a dangerous mission. I bet you are worried sick about him.’’

A smile floated on Skald’s face.

‘’My son won’t fail, nor will he allow anyone under his command to perish.’’

Nimura looked at Skald with a feeling of disbelief but also with joy.

‘’You sure are confident in his abilities.’’

‘’Of course I am, he’s my son after all.’’

The two men made their way to the front of the army.

‘’Think you’ll be able to keep up with me after what happened earlier?’’

‘’Who do you think I am, even after using my blessing I’ll still be ahead of you. Now how about we have our usual contest.’’

‘’Sure, how about loser has to take a bath in the middle of camp.’’

‘’Do you really want to make your own men see you in such a state.’’

After reaching the front of the army Nimura and Skald drew their weapon. Nimura pointed his sword towards Gandor’s camp.

‘’Charge!’’

-A few minutes earlier over at Kaze’s group-

Kaze and his men had arrived on the outskirts of the area. They were at a distance where neither friend nor foe could spot them, thanks to a set of small forest covering them.

‘’Alright from this position we’ll have a good look at the battlefield.’’

Alongside Kaze were his friends Rentaro and Fubuki along with twenty-eight other soldiers.

‘’I know this isn’t the right time to say it but didn’t you tell Setsuna that you wouldn’t go through with this unless it was necessary?’’

Rentaro still seemed a little skeptical using Kaze’s plan.

‘’Thanks to those ogres earlier it was already decided that the plan was a go. Now that captain Skald is unable to use his blessing, all we can do is stall until reinforcements appear.’’

‘’Quite, now come along then, we’ll need to keep a close watch and decide when to strike.’’

Clouds of dust could be seen appearing in the distance.

They’ve started, stay focused, don’t miss any change in formation. The moment we decide to engage could turn the tides of battle.

‘’But I still don’t get it Kaze, how will taking away a few men change the battle. I get the whole buying time part, but how will such a small change have an impact.’’

Even though Fubuki was the first to agree with Kaze’s plan he couldn’t help but feel a sense of agreement in Rentaro’s words.

‘’Gandor will not take regular soldiers out of battle, he’ll use the reserves he kept close to him because he is confident. When he does this his defenses will thin out and provide an opening to attack.’’

‘’Wait a second do you mean.’’

‘’We’re not just trying to distract him, we’re trying to take him out with this. When he dispatches a group to come after us the commander will send out a separate group to go directly after Gandor.’’

‘’And if that is done all we need to do is take out the ogres?’’

‘’Exactly, hopefully we’ll have bought enough time for reinforcements to arrive. All we can do now is wait for our moment to come.’’