'It's just a dream.'
Ryze places his hand on his chest while calming himself down.
'How typical... I've died in the dream.'
Looking down on both of his hands that is not littered with his blood, Ryze couldn't stop himself from sighing.
'Sigh.'
Ryze continues to lie motionlessly while thinking about what he wants to do.
'I need to avoid standing out. More importantly, I will not let anyone know about my identity. I do not want to die.'
'What shall I eat...'
Ryze tries to walk out of his room but subconsciously flinched and slams the door back upon seeing someone that appeared in his dream slowly slicing his throat.
After a few seconds later, Ryze slowly opens the door.
"Do you need anything?" Ryze's voice went dry as he slowly opens his mouth to speak.
The person before him shakes her head as she opens her mouth.
"Good morning priest. Do allow me, the daughter of the night sorrow to apologise for the troubles that happened last evening."
'I rather you disappear from my sight.'
"It's alright. Nothing happened yesterday that you need to apologise to me for."
Elizabeth reply with a nod telling Ryze that she understands his intention. She proceeds to walk away out towards the canteen.
Ryze slowly closed back the door, he staggers and falls to his knees.
A blinking red light suddenly envelops his sight.
A level 8 ogre entered the player's range of detection.
'Shit'
Ryze reveals his map function. He feels relieved once he realizes that the Ogre doesn't seem to be heading towards the kingdom.
'A good time to take a rest.'
After sending other generals except for general Elizabeth to defeat the monsters near the kingdom he went to the nearest bar to get himself a drink.
"Do you have any recommendations?" Ryze asks a middle-aged man with a deep scar etch on his face.
"Hahahaha young man, is this your first time coming here? Welcome! Welcome!" The man laughs heartedly while hitting the counter multiple times with his palm.
The sound the man makes attracted the whole crowd. At once, everyone turns to look at Ryze.
'What's wrong with him?'
Ryze didn't expect his first time coming to the bar is to be embarrassed by the owner. He is about to give up and walk out, that's when the owner opens his mouth.
"We only have ale and beer for drinks as for food, I promise you, we got everything that you haven't tried before." The owner throws a wooden board towards Ryze
"Ah..." The owner didn't expect it would land on Ryze's face.
Ryze glares at the owner while rubbing his nose. Ryze's expression changes upon seeing the menu. He sub-consciously smiles and is about to order.
"RYZE!"
The bar door opens up. Ryze turns around to see one of his seniors in his platoon. The man widened his eyes while making a sigh.
"Come on! We got to go!" The man wave at Ryze
'A deployment?'
Ryze frowns. He turns to the owner.
"I will be back." After the owner gives an acknowledgment, Ryze gets up and follow the man
"What is wrong with you? Drinking while you are on standby?" The man did not continue to nag at Ryze after seeing that Ryze did not reply to him.
"Ryze, you will receive punishment after we are back from this deployment. Are you listening?"
"Yeah." Ryze opens and closes his list of generals and sees the list of deployment.
'I should wait and see.'
General Elizabeth is upfront, discussing with her captains. She seems to be in trouble while her captains are voicing out their opinions. Ryze's body froze up after accidentally locking eye contact with Elizabeth. Elizabeth did not give away any sign and continues to listen to the captains speaking to her.
"You got to stop staring at her every little time. Someday a fan of her will kill you."
'I know.'
"Are you one of them?" Ryze turns to glance at the young man before him.
"Who knows, you will only know seconds before you leave this world." The young man smirks and pats Ryze on his shoulder before he walks off.
'Hopefully, she gets to you first.'
It didn't take long before the whole platoon sets off towards the direction of a destroyed village. Ryze checks the map of the territory in case the Ogre is near them. The short journey often meets with level 1 - level 3 enemies that barely gives Elizabeth a warm-up.
A surprising amount of 20,000 troops to an unknown coordinate.
**
'Seeing that a priest is disguised as a transporter, this is not an ordinary mission after all.'
Elizabeth takes a short glance at Ryze that currently struggling to keep up with the march.
'Great acting.'
She unfold the instructions given by the kingdom pope. An order from the royal king to march forth to a neighboring village. Informed that the earth continues to shake without stopping. Elizabeth frown before she shakes her head.
**
Ryze forces himself to keep up with the marching. No matter how many times he had ventured out, he still unable to endure the lifestyle that these people had. Marching and only stop to rest. A Waterbag and a handful of dried jerky are all he is given to survive the entire march.
3 days later.
The troops come to a stop, in front of a village. It should have been a village. A strong smell of rotten meat hit the troops causing some of the inexperienced soldiers to gag.
Ryze immediately covers his nose but it didn't matter, he uncontrollably vomit out what little he has eaten.
The reason?
He saw an elderly woman hugging something unrecognisable that had formed with her lower body. As if something had flattened them.
'Her grandson?'
Ryze avoids eye contact with the rest of the bodies lying around. The cause of death is mostly similar, either they were flattened or tear up in half.
He knew all along, who was the culprit. An Ogre, a level 8. Knowing how deadly it is, he couldn't help but shiver in fear.
'The monster should be somewhere around here but there is no sign of it.'
All Ryze could see on the map is that the monster is directly on top of them. The soldiers that he had eye contact with, all smile and laugh.
'These retards, sooner or later they will regret stopping me.'
Thinking back to what he had tried to do.
--
"Guys! Why are you holding me back? I need to inform the general to turn back! It is too dangerous to continue!!"
[A wheat village has been destroyed by a level 8 Ogre.]
A notification continues to linger on his mind as he tries to escape from the team of transporters.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed? Never mind that, you are going to get our department leader get punished!"
Three transporters were holding Ryze down, stopping him from going towards the general. Their actions gain the attention of the soldiers up front. It didn't take long before the words got spread to everyone. About a coward from the transporter wanted to retreat so badly.
--
'So much about being a god, I can't communicate to my generals.'
Ryze filters out the cards that can be used in the situation.
'Get stone, iron... I need something that allows me to stay alive.'
[Summoning 1,000 mercenaries to the location]x15
[Increase the strength and vitality of the entity by 50%, the user needs to touch the entity to activate the buff.]
'15,000 level 1 mercenary... Are they sufficient?'
'As a sacrifice.....'
Ryze covers his face while trying his best not to tear up as he continues to hate himself. Meanwhile, the soldiers clear up the bodies to one side while they put up tents to rest for the day. Presumably planning to march back to the kingdom
He starts seeing flashes of death and hears cries for help.
"Ryze! Ryze!!"
Ryze looks up to see his team leader staring down at him worriedly. He subconsciously nods as he looks around.
"Leader, is he sick?"
The transporters continue to chatter within themselves while Ryze immediately checks the time and the map. Ryze frowns and stands to find the general.
'This is bad.'
Ryze clumsily tries to get out from the crowd of transporters around him. Not before long, he got stop once again.
"GODDAMMIT DON'T STOP ME! THERE'S AN ENEMY INCOMING!"
"Hold him down." The leader gives out instruction as he approaches Ryze.
"Ryze stand down! There's no enemy around...…."
Even before the leader had finished talking. The ground shakes, it continues as if an entity is walking towards them, step by step.
'It is here.'
Ryze used up all fifteen mercenary cards. Unfortunately, he is unable to make them spawn near him. At most, it will take at least half an hour before they will reach him. The transporters that are previously holding him down, unconsciously let him go.
Ryze takes the chance to run towards the soldiers, unfortunately, general Elizabeth is nowhere to be found.
"The general is out scouting for clues, she hasn't get back yet."
"Which direction!?"
"Over there but wh-hey! Where are you going!?"
Ryze runs as fast as he can towards the direction that the soldier has pointed to.
'Please be in time, please!'
General Elizabeth is the only person that could turn things around but if she is out of the circle this early, Ryze would immediately give up and retreat. What would 35,000 troops do if they do not have the strength to deal damage to it. It would just be a slaughter.
--
"Ryze shall we have a bet? Which side do you think would win? 50,000 level 1 troops or 1 level 8 ogre?"
"Hmm that's hard, what hero are you sending?"
"Blitz but this is a new account so his level is 1."
"Then of course 1 level 8 ogre will dominate. But..."
"Hahaha you do not have to worry these troops will not affect my kingdom that much, they are supposedly baits but now that we had won the war, they are cutting in too much into my food, that's why I rather give them a second chance."
"Merciless as ever aren't you? You could have disbanded them."
"Hey, it's my account I do whatever I want."
"So... What's the outcome?"
"No survivor, sigh. There goes my general, oh well I am not planning to use Blitz anyway."
"Hah! Lunch on you!"
"Oi, we never even decide on what are we betting it on."
"No taking it back! Hahahaha, see you at the cafeteria."
--
"As expected, the priest is not wrong."
Elizabeth turns to the soldiers that followed her. They are staggering while shaking in their boots.
Elizabeth knew something bad is up when she previously heard that the priest wanted to meet up with her. It would be bad if their relationship is exposed but seeing the entity right in front of her.
'I should have known how serious the situation when even the priest breaks his disguise.'
"You! Run back to the main and get them to help us while I delay it."
"EEH?"
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? GO!"
The soldier immediately turns around and runs as fast as he can.
Elizabeth unsheathes his one-handed sword while grinning to herself.
"This will be one hell of a fight."