42 days after the explosion - Fort Wagner

The general Rexford was taking his morning cup of tea like very morning. He always took a cup of tea every morning, no matter what, even when he was in the middle of a campaign or visiting the king at the capital.

It was his way of relaxing his mind and nerves for the upcoming stress that would come with a job like his. It was a habit he developed over the years, and he had no intentions of getting rid off

His habit of drinking tea every morning reached such extremes that he was more famous for his tea habits than his accomplishments as a general, even thought he was one of the most decorated generals in his Empire

The reason was simple, he went nuts in everything involving tea. He would go to war, just to get new herbs to try, or to get new lands for tea development, or to get a famous alchemist to force them to make him new recipes, etc. He even drank poisoned tea he knew it had poison, just because he liked the taste and thought it would be a waste to throw it away(he almost died that time)

Point been, he REALLY liked tea, especially his morning tea, so when a f-king idiot knocked on his door when he was in the middle of it, let's just say it didn't put him in a good mood

"WHAT!!??"(Rexford)

"Something important came up sir!"(??)

He could guess that. Everyone knew that disturbing his tea time could lead to the end of someone's military career, so he never got interrupted unless it was something important. Even so, he still would be pleased about the interruption, and if it wasn't something important.....

"Come in!"(Rexford)reluctantly said

And a moment later, the messenger came inside. What surprised the general was that the messenger was one of his colonel's, making it pretty important

"So? what is it?"(Rexford) mildly intrigued, but still sipping his tea

"A letter arrived from prince Julian?"(Colonel)

"The idiotic prince?Let me see!"(Rexford)

As a general working from the enemy kingdom, he knew the rumors and facts that came in the intelligent reports from the different spies working in the capital, so he knew a lot about him, and like everybody else, he wasn't impressed

He read the reports and knew he wasn't as bad as the rest of the kingdom thought it was, but Rexford was glad he was normal, unlike the rest of the family. If it wasn't for the explosion that took most of the family, he wouldn't even consider setting foot on their lands, unless he had a dead wish

Luckily for him and the Zergeit empire, all the dangerous people were dead and thanks to the duke, the kingdom was practically theirs without even putting a fight

The only thing he would have to worry about was the prince, bu it wasn't a big one. He received reports that the prince managed to survive somehow and even captured the duke a few days ago. Rexford was impressed on his achievements, but it was too little too late since he had no way of winning now

Not only they managed to capture almost all the forts near their border with their garrisons, the duke even managed to capture  almost half of their barracks around the country

If you count that they still have to defend against the elf, dwarfs and beats men, they have almost no troops left, while they have all their force intact plus all the enslaved soldiers

With no strategic places left or forces to fight back, there was no way they could win. Even if the monster were still alive, how could they fight against an army of thousands of seasoned warriors?

"Did you check for traps, colonel?"(Rexford)

"Of course, it is clean"(Colonel) confirmed

So Rexford finished his tea, and with a letter opener, he open the letter and started reading.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Hi! Prince Julian Griffon here sending my regards to the beloved enemy general Rexford. Since I am practically in check-mate, I want to propose a final battle to settle everything. The location is the Roswell Plains on the 27 of the month of Esmereld, two weeks from now. Please send your answer so we can start to prepare. See ya soon :)"

..................................

It was a first for Rexford

He had never seen something like this in his whole life. It reached such extent that he doubted if the letter was a joke or not and was tempted to rip it to shreds

Rexford read the reports that the prince was kind fo easy-going, but he never expected to reach such extends that he would send a letter like this to pick up a fight

And the worst part was that not only was the letter signed by him and the duke, it had the Griffon Empire seal, so he couldn't doubt the authenticity

How serious should he take it?

It was hard to say. It could be true or it could be a trap

The place he recommended was an open field, without tactical advantages. This meant that manpower was the most important aspect. There was some room for tactics in all battles, but in the end, numbers would be what matter the most

So it didn't make sense for the prince to choose that place for battle. Even if he used every soldier available in the kingdom, it wouldn't reach 1/2 the forces he could gather, making his chance of winning almost non-existence

This left the general with 2 possibilities to why he send a letter like this. It was either a trap or it wasn't

If it was a trap, the prince would take advantage of the diminished forces, and would try to take a fort or something. There were other options if he had more resources, time or allies, but sadly for him, there wasn't. He barely got back to the throne, so he didn't have the time to put traps all over the plane, he didn't have the troops for a pincer attack and the duke emptied a lot of their resources, making it hard to bargain tot he other countries. Basically, at most he would be able to take a fort or two with a trap and there was no way he would be able to keep them for long

If it wasn't a trap, it meant he thought he could win, or wanted to go with a bang. If the prince thought he could win, no matter what trick he had at his disposal, he wouldn't win. Rexford had more than half Griffon's army enslaved or dead, without suffering almost any casualty. If you take into consideration they were the most seasoned warriors since they were the one's that fight the most, the prince had no way of winning in a fair fight, no matter what trick he managed to pull off

The other option was that the prince wanted to go out in a bang. It wouldn't be so strange that this was his idea since it would be a way to surrender while looking like at least he tried. If he just surrendered like that, a lot of people would protest causing a rebellion sooner or later, losing a lot of lives in the process. But if he does it like this, he would get rid off the remaining war potential while looking like he tried to save his country from an unreasonable situation

And if Rexford had to be honest with himself, he really hoped it was the last one since it would mean that at least he did his job as a ruler

"Is the messenger still here?"(Rexford)

"Yes, sir!"(Colonel)

"tell him we agreed, and we will be expecting him on the battlefield

"Yes, Sir!"(Colonel)

"You are dismissed"(Rexford)

And with that, the colonel left the room, leaving the general alone

Rexford wasn't sure what was the prince thinking, but no matter what he choose to do, the Griffon Empire was on it last days, the general was sure of it