The sun had reached its peak as Nimura and Skald lead the attack towards Gandor’s army.

Without having the possibility to take out their most dangerous foes they would have to work to defeat as many soldiers as possible.

‘’My, my aren’t you all eager to die.’’

‘’Sir, the enemy is approaching fast, please give us your commands.’’

‘’…’’

‘’S-Sir Seroku shouldn’t.’’

‘’Silence!’’

While still in the middle of his sentence Seroku grabbed the face of the man next to him and threw him of his horse. After hitting the ground everyone around Seroku started to mumble as they looked over at the man on the ground.

Not paying any attention to his men Seroku continued to look at the approaching Nivalis army.

‘’…There you are.’’

After a few seconds off looking at his approaching foes he set his sight on Skald. A fire started to burn in Seroku’s eyes, he decided beforehand that he would be the one to kill Skald. Just the thoughts of the his upcoming fight made Seroku float a terrifying smile on his face.

Holding out his spear Seroku started advancing towards the Nivalis army, with his men following him.

Closer, closer let my spear pierce you!

At the moment the two armies clashed a spear was thrust from Skald’s right side.

He made his horse skillfully avoid it, and with a strike of his axe knocked it back to its wielder.

‘’Oh ho, not bad, though it would be disappointing if that was all it would take to bring you down.’’

‘’Those are quite some skills you’ve got there, being able to wield such a heavy spear so gracefully would take a lot of practice. Though it’s unfortunate that you’re not the one I’m looking for so I can’t spend too much time on you.’’

‘’Now there’s no need to leave in such a hurry, after all you are the one I’ve been looking for.’’

Skald clenched the handle of his axe as he looked at Seroku’s eyes. Seroku looked like a starving animal who had cornered its prey, he was determined to test Skald to the best of his skills until he would kill him.

Meanwhile the leftwing army was trying to flank the bandits from their side. But this was to no success, as the sides were covered by heavy units.

‘’Damn, arrow won’t penetrate those shields and we can’t get any closer, or we’ll be the once getting shot.’’

Nivalis was known for fostering some of greatest archers in the world, thus they would be able to attack the bandits without being under fire themselves.

But even though the Bandits were fewer in number they made up with by having greater weapons and armor. Though even in the wrong hands these would be unable to bring out their full potential.

‘’Tell the commander of our situation, we won’t be able to advance without reinforcements.’’

Suddenly tremors could be heard coming from the bandits back army.

‘’Huh, do you hear that?’’

‘’Look over there, something is coming at us with incredible speed.’’

Bandits were jumping out of the way for the approaching animosity. Those who weren’t able to get away were crushed under the staggering force.

‘’Shit looks like we drew the short end of the stick.’’

Breaking it’s way through the bandit army was an ogre, though one couldn’t tell the expression on its face everyone could tell he was famished.

Terror struck the hearts of allies and foes alike, normally the ogre would be handled by at the least ten men. But right now it was free, the fact that it hadn’t attack the bandit army from within was nothing short of a miracle.

Saliva dripping from its mouth the ogre set his eyes on the people in front of him. The beast cold stare pierced through the soldiers very soul.

‘’Eh? …Ahhh!’’

As the ogre drew closer it started to break into sprint, doing so caused fear to take over the Nivalis soldiers. Multiple people soiled themselves while looking at the approaching threat.

Some people ran away while others prepared their weapons. Standing in the back of the army were archers who readied their arrows, though they weren’t regular arrow heads. They were called bodkin points, though it has a simple form they are known for having incredible penetrating capabilities.

While they would be reserved for the heavily armored bandits, the leftwing commander decided that this would be of better use.

Ordering his men to retreat to the back of the army the archers took aim.

Seeing the dispersing soldiers the ogre grew weary, but it did not slow down its pace. After the soldiers got out of the ogres sight he finally stood in front of a squad of archers. The cavalry had led the ogre to about one hundred meters towards the archers, making well within their range.

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Standing in the middle of the archers was the leftwing commander who had made his way to the front of the army. He was holding his hand up and made a motion to signal the attack.

After the commander gave his signal all archers released their arrow. The arrows gave off a high pitched air cutting sound as it flew towards its target.

*Thunk, thunk, thunk.*

A silence fell on the battlefield, neither the bandits nor the Nivalis soldiers dared to make a move as they look over at the ogre.

Its entire body was covered with arrows. The large shadow of the ogre appeared motionlessly on the ground. Unlike previous times when the arrows would just scrape it’s skin the arrows this time were able to penetrate the flesh.

‘’Uuuugh.’’

Hearing the ogres prolonged groan the soldiers knew that he was releasing its dying breath.

After having finished releasing its last breath the its body fell onto the cold earth.

Unlike last time, this time we were prepared. No matter how though its skin is, there is nothing in existence that can’t be broken.

‘’Attack!’’

Not wasting a single second the commander made his troops advance.

Making use of the hysteria that the bandits had lost an ogre was the breakthrough they had been waiting for. But even so they had used nearly all their bodkin arrows, so they had to strike while the irons hot. Before the bandits were able to pick themselves up.

‘’Looks like things are going well, we might not even need to fight after all Kaze.’’

‘’…Don’t get your hopes up yet, you heard the reports from the other armies right? Even before using their ogres they were able to hold up well against our army.’’

Pointing towards the battlefield Kaze started to lecture Rentaro.

‘’Even though the leftwing is able to make a little headway, the bandits already reformed themselves and are starting to push back. While the middle and rightwing army have been at a complete stand still since ever since we started the battle. We might have the numeral advantage but they are able to keep us at bay.’’

Rentaro’s mind was working on overtime trying to figure out why they weren’t having the upper hand.

‘’But our leftwing was able to push forward wasn’t it?’’

Kaze shook his head at Rentaro’s thoughts.

‘’Though there was a slight change in the flow of battle it was almost immediately changed back. The leftwing commander did something that changed the flow but it wasn’t enough to make any significant impact. Even if he were to try it again it would end in the same results.’’

Rentaro’s face grew more sour the more Kaze explained why they weren’t winning.

‘’So what you’re saying is there are people commanding them so well that no matter what we do we can’t get anywhere.’’

‘’Exactly, whether we’ll be able to win depends on how fast we can defeat those commanders.’’

At this point Fubuki decided to join their conversation, with a worrisome look on his face.

‘’It seems the tides have turned once again, look at the rightwing.’’

Every soldier present turned the way Fubuki told them to look.

‘’What the hell is going on!’’

Rentaro was unable to restrict his rage. The rightwing was getting completely pushed back.

What they didn’t know was that in the commotion of battle two ogres had steadily approached the Nivalis army.

When they had arrived at the front of the army the bandits had started to retreat, leaving the ogres to fend for themselves. Though the Nivalis army had prepared special weapons to fend them off, at such close range they were unable to put these to use. Resulting in the rightwing needing to retreat.

‘’Shit, Kaze we need to go right now!’’

‘’…’’

‘’Kaze what is there even to think about, people are dying out there!’’

Kaze managed to keep a calm composure though things were taking a turn for the worse.

‘’Even if we canceled our plan thirty soldiers won’t have even the slightest impact on the battlefield. Right now all we can do…’’

Stopping in the middle of his sentence confused Rentaro which strangely seemed to calm him down.

‘’We’re going.’’

‘’Huh?’’

‘’We’re going, our mission starts now!’’

Though no one understood the reason behind it they all obeyed Kaze’s command.

Heading towards their horses and carriage Kaze was determined to turn the tides of battle.

After a few minutes a messenger arrived and gave his report to Gandor.

‘’Sir almost everything is going according to your plan, one of the ogres was sacrificed to give them a false sense of accomplishment. And the enemies rightwing is being pushed back as we are speaking. Though the main battle is keeping us at bay, sir Seroku will certainly be able to defeat them without a doubt.’’

Sweat was beading up on the forehead of the messenger after he was awaiting his master’s response.

When Gandor assigned Seroku to lead the main army he expected him to make fast work of their enemies. Since no one else held greater military strength after Gandor than Seroku. And now hearing that they were able to keep him from advancing made Gandor’s previous mood turn into anger.

‘’Unless there is anything else to report get out of my sight.’'

After Gandor turned his back the messenger started to speak once again.

‘’This might not be of any importance to you sir, but our scouts have found a group of merchants passing through the mountains. They appear to be loaded with goods.’’

Hearing this news Gandor floated an evil smile, and called out to one of his men.

‘’Take fifty soldiers of my soldiers and capture half of those merchants, and take an ogre with you to feed the other half too.’’

Anxiety floated on the face of the man who was assigned to be the leader for this task.

‘’Sir taking men from your command post is one thing but to depart your ogre as well, I beg you to reconsider your decision.’’

It seemed that Gandor did not appreciate the back talk from a lowly soldier. For when the soldier had finished speaking veins started to pop up on Gandor’s face.

‘’Do you dare to defy me! Do not forget that I am the one who allowed you to live when Falak turned their back on you!’’

The words Gandor spoke were only partly true. It was true that he and his soldiers were banished from Falak it was all due to Gandor’s orders. But there was no one who dared to defy him, for those who defied his orders awaited a fate worse than death.

‘’Y-Yes sir I’ll make preparations right away.’’

Mere minutes had passed since Kaze and his men had started their separate mission.

They were moving at a slow pace so as to not draw suspicion onto themselves.

As they left the mountain path, Kaze’s group entered a forest area, the paths leading forwards were wide enough for carts to pass through.

While going into the woodlands multiple horses could be seen approaching. Among them was a creature which was nearly twice the size of a full grown man.

‘’It seems they’ve gotten on to us, they might be about twice our number not to forget they even brought an ogre with them.’’

With worried expression the soldiers continued forwards, even those with many years of experience ran in the face of this beast.

‘’Keep pushing forwards, Fubuki are you ready to prepare the fire arrows?’’

‘’At your command.’’

‘’Good, Rentaro how’s the cart looking?’’

Rentaro gave a thumbs up to signal everything was alright.

‘’Just tell me when to drop it.’’

Kaze glanced at the men he had brought along. Though only half of them belonged with Andor’s sight he was determined to bring everyone back alive.

‘’Remember if they get to close to the cart we won’t be able to release it properly and we’ll need to fight for our lives. If this happens I can’t guarantee that each of you will get out of here alive.’’

Kaze had pondered about this plan ever since he first came into contact with the first ogre.

Thus he placed all his hopes on this, the men who had heard its full detail also decided to place their fate in Kaze.

This time I’ll make sure to be of use to everyone.