Ben was up late into the night healing his troops who had been injured from the rogue mage's attacks. Princess Alessandra and Royal Cultivator Duven had already retired to their personal tents Ben had purchased for them.
When he had finally made it to his tent Ben opened the flashing notification icon as he got comfortable.
[Notice] [Skill: Hand to Hand Combat has increased! Hand to Hand Combat Level 5!]
[Notice] [Skill: Sword Mastery has increased! Sword Mastery Level 8!]
[Notice] [Spell: Enhance Form has increased! Enhance Form: Adept Level: 5!]
[Notice] [Spell: Mending Touch has increased! Mending Touch: Adept Level: 1!]
[Notice!] [Congratulations on your first military victory! You have defeated an enemy force on foreign soil! You have been awarded the Small Military Camp!]
[Notice!] [The Small Military Camp has been unlocked in your Build Menu!]
[Small Military Camp]: A square camp that contains 196 small wooden shacks. Each wooden shack can sleep, four soldiers. The camp is surrounded with a wooden palisade wall. The palisade wall has a small wooden tower on each corner and a wooden gate in the center of each wall. [Houses: 784 units] [Costs: 500g] [requires: 1000 units of wood]
[This camp can be built anywhere outside of your build zone and can be deconstructed]
'I was awarded a Small Military Camp for winning this battle? From what this description is stating this is a temporary camp that can be built anywhere. It will be useful if I ever have to remain in a hostile area with my troops. I can build this camp and have some defenses around the troops while they sleep.'
Ben closed his notices and began to cultivate while Athena set a perimeter alarm to warn him if any enemy came within a mile of their camp. There were still a few enemy soldiers stationed in the southern Aregard town so they had to remain vigilant throughout the night.
The camp was awoken a few hours before sunrise. The horses were hitched to the carriages and Ben led his troops along with the princess and the royal cultivator south to the sacked town near the Aregard border.
They arrived a quarter mile outside the town while it was still dark out. Before they attacked Ben split his troops into three divisions. General Victor, General Justinus and Ben would each lead a mixed team of units into the town from the north, east, and west.
Each of the three divisions had 33 knights, 99 archers, and six 6 magi each.
The sun was threatening to rise over the horizon as they attacked the town from three separate directions. Once they were in the town they began to silently dispatch the unsuspecting enemy units.
The Trareniel military was under the impression that the Aregard Kingdom was unaware of their surprise invasion. The enemy troops had not put out any patrols or guards around the town so they were dispatched as they woke up and began to walk around the town.
Ben was taking his men from house to house with the help of his map he knew where each enemy was staying. Any civilians he found on his map were brought out of hiding and escorted from the town by his troops.
As they were approaching the center of the town Ben stormed into a house where four enemy soldiers were sleeping. When they entered the home he was shocked to find the residents were all dead and their bodies still sprawled on the floor where they were killed.
Two women who looked to be a mother and older daughter were partially stripped nude and looked to have been raped before they were brutally killed. A beaten male body was nearby and Ben could only assume he was the husband and father of the two dead women.
Ben sent his troops outside, closed the door, and slid his sword into its scabbard. He was seeing red as he looked around the room and slowly walked toward the four stunned enemy soldiers.
These bastards had massacred this family and just left their bodies lying in pools of blood around the room while they ate, drank, and slept inside their home. Ben was enraged and disgusted at how these four men could treat innocent civilians like this.
The four enemy soldiers did not know what was going on they were startled awake by theses strangers and saw there were over a hundred armored troops surrounding the house where they had been sleeping.
Without a word, Ben unequipped his gauntlets and began to pound on the closest of the enemy stunned soldiers. He refrained from using any skill or spells and simply began beating them with his bare fists. Ben wanted to hurt them and make them suffer like this family did before they died.
The men were screaming in pain as their bones were broken by the impact of Ben's fists. There was nowhere for them to run the house was surrounded and they were at the mercy of this berserk young man. They could only cower huddled in the corner while Ben pulled them out one by one to slowly beat them to death.
As Ben began to approach the final man who was crouched in a corner he heard a wooden squeaking noise to his left. When he turned to see if a hidden enemy was attempting to sneak past him he saw instead a small hatch which was raised a few inches from the floor.
Ben walked over a flung the hatch open expecting to find more enemy troops but what he found was a young girl who looked to be around twelve to thirteen years old.
He instantly knew what had happened here. Somehow this girl was the first one to enter the hidden space under the home when they found out the town was under attack. Unfortunately, the rest of her family didn't have enough time to hide with her so they plausibly sealed the hatch as the enemy had entered the home.
The girl had a look of defiance on her face and simply was staring back at Ben without speaking. He decided to leave her down there for now and turned to walk over to the last enemy.
He began to mercilessly beat on him until he heard the girl called out from behind him in a raspy voice.
"Wait!"
Ben held his fist from hitting the bloody soldier and turned to see the young girl crawl out of the cubby space. She grabbed a dagger from a dead soldier's belt near her and walked toward Ben.
Her speech was broken and her voice sounded parched. "Please...let me... Kill him!"
Ben looked at her in surprise and simply turned the soldier to face the young girl.
As the girl came closer the soldier must not have heard her because he began to plead for his life.
"Please little girl! Please ask him to stop! I don't want to die!"
"My mother and sister didn't want to die but you all took turns raping them in front of my father and killed them all while they pleaded for their lives. It was all just a sick game for all of you. I was hidden but I saw the whole thing through the cracks in the floorboards. I will remember each of your faces until I die so of course, I remember your face from yesterday as you laughed and enjoyed the suffering of my family!"
By this time the young girl was in front of the beaten soldier and without warning, she plunged the dagger into his stomach while Ben held the soldier's arms with his Iron Grip activated.
The small girl was only a weak farm girl and her blade could only make shallow wounds on the enemy's stomach and chest. The little girl began to cry but she continued to stab him over and over as the man howled in misery. It took him a long time to die from those surficial stab wounds but he deserved his horrible death.
When the soldier was dead Ben threw his body into the corner and the girl collapsed to her knees. She grabbed onto Ben's leg to control her violent shaking as screaming sobs erupted from her cracked throat. Her heart-wrenching wails were only interrupted by her need to draw another breath.
The memories of Ben losing his parents when he wasn't much older than this girl came flooding back to him. As he looked down he couldn't hold back his own tears, he cried for the loss of his parents and for this young girl who had also lost her entire family in such a traumatic way.
Ben sat down on the floor and wrapped his arms around the young girl and they cried together. Ben stroked her hair as he held her close trying to give her some comfort.
The two of them remained in their own world until the young girl began to calm down. Ben stood up while holding her in his arms and he walked out of the blood splattered home.
Outside the house, everyone had gathered around and watched as he came out. Both his generals stood next to princess Alessandra and Royal Cultivator Duven. It was completely silent when Ben stepped outside and he could tell they had all been here for a while and had heard what happened inside the house.
"Is...everything okay?" Princess Alessandra had a worried look and was the first person to speak to Ben.
Ben looked up with tears still in his eyes and he simply shook his head as to say no.
He stepped over to the generals and verified the enemy had all been eliminated from the town and any remaining civilians had been escorted to the carriages. When he heard the town had been cleared of both they all walked back to the waiting carriages.
Ben was still carrying the little girl and when he looked down at her dirty tear-streaked face he found she had cried herself to sleep in his arms.
They all did the best they could to make room for the remaining survivors of the town and then set out to return to Goldcrest. Ben could still feel his anger for the Trareniel Kingdom brewing in him and he had thoughts of taking his troops down to the border to see if they could kill more of them, but he had to get these survivors to safety and return to the fortress to bury his dead soldiers.
The young girl woke up later on as they traveled north but she remained silent and lost in thought but her eyes never left Ben as she watched every move he made.
When they stopped for the night to set up a defensive ring the young girl followed behind Ben as he walked around the camp giving orders and listening to reports. After he had talked with his generals he began to walk toward the cooking fires to bring out the food for everyone's dinner.
"I want to become strong!"
Ben heard the girl speak up behind him for the first time since she woke up. He turned to look at her with a questioning glance.
"I want to become strong like you! Please teach me and train me to be strong!"
Ben now had an idea about what she had been thinking of all day. This young girl had seen her family killed before her and couldn't do anything at the time to stop it. Even her father couldn't stop those maniacs. Then Ben came along and beat all them to death with his bare hands and saved her.
She didn't want to be placed in a situation like that ever again. She wanted the ability to defend herself and those she cared for.
Ben let out a long sigh as he thought about her request.
"I can take you somewhere and you can live there peacefully without having to worry about going through a situation like this ever again. You can live happily free and safe there and everything will be provided for you for free of charge. If you chose to walk the path of a fighter though it will be a long difficult journey full of sweat, blood, and pain."
The girl looked down and shook her head.
"How can I live a peaceful and happy life now? My entire family died to protect me and I couldn't help them. I was too afraid and weak! I hid in that hole and watched as they butchered my family like they were livestock. I NEVER want to feel like that again!' She screamed as tears ran down her cheeks in a voice filled with pain. The small girl took a moment to calm herself down as her face changed from sadness to fury.
"I must be strong enough that I can kill any evil men I come across!"
The anger in her voice and on her face made this little girl look suddenly older than she really was.
'Wow! This little girl is serious! It is hard to blame her though, the Trareniel military invasion tore apart her happy family life. Her entire world has been shattered and now she wants a new purpose to live on. If I turn her down now she will probably end up doing something stupid to get herself killed but if I help her she would have plenty of resources to help her become strong.'
Ben shook his head and sighed again.
"Okay I will teach and train you, but you will need to listen to me and not run off to seek revenge on your own! One day your time for revenge will come and we will go to the Trareniel Kingdom and pay them back for the death of your family and my troops!"
The young girl kneeled down in front of Ben and saluted him like she saw Ben's soldiers salute him earlier.
"Yes, master I will follow you for the rest of my life!"
[Auto_Notice!] [You have unlocked a hidden Build Menu category!]
[Auto_Notice!] [The Cultivation SECT category is now available!]
[Auto_Notice] [The Cultivation SECT category is unlocked by accepting your first disciple!]
'...Disciple? ...Master? ...Cultivation Sect? ...Holy shit?!'