The soldiers still stayed in the cover of the bushes. The remaining fighters inside the camp dwindled quickly as the unrelenting conqueror only hastened his attacks, driving his sword through their armor to slashing parts of their body, trying to kill the last fighters as quickly as possible.
In minutes, one lone fighter stood, the bodies of his allies strewn about, the scent of copper and iron filled the air. With little hesitation, he charged straight at the lone soldier. In an attempt to block, the warrior raised his sword and shield up, both shattered as the sword met them, breaking through the attempted defense, the sword slashed across the fighter's entire body, sending him down to the ground.
As the camp turned silent, and the soldiers that populated the camp were now massacred, Cadin checked for any wounds on his body, only his armor was damaged and pierced, but he couldn't feel the wounds nor their presence on his body. Looking at the trees, the leader's men emerged out of cover, approaching the massacred camp.
They arrived at the inside of the camp, seeing the scale of what Cadin had done.
"Excellent Cadin, this now makes you an official of not only our tribe, but also a warrior of our army." The soldiers began plundering what they could find, removing the armor and weapons from the dead soldiers, others ransacked the tents taking whatever was inside.
Food, jewelry, more weapons, all stored inside crates as they continued stripping the camp bare of all it had.
Cadin breathed a sigh of relief, his passage into the camp itself now complete. But suspicion soon took over as he thought of the leader.
"At this current state he's possibly using me. I need to get to a higher rank, in case he tries to backstab me like those before." He pondered to himself.
"My lord." The leader turned around, shocked that Cadin would address him as such.
"Do we have any other tribes that we need to attack or other tasks for the day?"
"Well." He took out his map, skimming through it for a few seconds.
"There's another camp nearby, but I was planning on letting them join us. You can join as an escort, due to the tensions of different tribes in this forest. Who knows, perhaps you can learn some diplomacy from it." The leader let out a quick chuckle.
"Alright, we can head there after this."
"Hey, remember the superior, you're a soldier and member of the tribe."
"Apologies."
The two watched the soldiers finishing their raid, moving past dead bodies, their armor and weapons taken as more soldiers removed it for their own use, despite the damage on it.
As the last group of soldiers came out with their fill of plunder, the army began making their way back home, carrying a large bounty with them. They marched faster than earlier, weary of a possible ambush, especially with the riches and food they managed to take.
"The armor of the soldiers is rather unkempt and weak compared to those fighters." Cadin spoke to the leader, turning slightly to him after speaking.
"How so?"
"Their armor was more kept, looked to be newer in appearance, the swords and weapons share the same quality."
"We can only do so much with what we have."
"But with the plunder, we can just repair the damages and let our soldiers wear it." The leader thought for a second.
"I must remind you, you have helped us and i have gained more trust in you, but any aspect that is not battle or fighting will be handled by me, even then we cannot supply our entire army, less than half at best with the bounty we took, furthermore the armor will take time to repair and we are already as resource scarce as it is." The leader replied.
Soon they returned to the camp with the plunder. The people rejoiced in their arrival, helping the soldiers carry the newly acquired plunder of their attack.
"I must say Cadin, we were once in a very unenviable position, losing so many men while we struggled to even give leather armor. But now, perhaps we can continue this stream of victories." The leader spoke to Cadin. The two walked with an escort just behind, all heading for the large tent.
The leader took out another map from one of the shelves, unfurling it. The map contained the locations of other tribes around the area, more than what the map before contained.
"Our predicament is dire, and it will take time for us to repair the armor we took, along with this we cannot spare another soldier to die in combat. Although you don't have any power above me nor my subordinates as you are still on the rank of a common soldier, your suggestion may benefit us, if we manage to make it function."
"Perhaps if you continue taking out more camps and I align those who wish to join us, we can get out of this predicament." The leader explained, looking down at the different encircled parts of the map, all with names written under then, a few of which were crossed out.
"The tribe of Josek lies nearby from us, they are said to be masters of the forge, perhaps if we can align them with us we may gain resources from their cooperation." Cadin observed the leader, analyzing his words as he thought on the plan, keeping his mouth shut due to his status.
"The main issue however is we do not have any excess of any resource that we can trade, our main camps as well do not bear any specialties." The leader continued, slightly frustrated.
"Perhaps if we can try performing a certain skill of something such as farming or fishing, maybe we can-" The leader raises his hand in dismissal.
"I may leave you to the combat aspect, but the other matters are of my choice and decisions, you may only suggest but it is up to me whether i agree with it or not." He replied, irritating Cadin.