On the march, the leaders began discussing amongst one another, speaking of plans of how to attack the camps.
"I suggest we surround their camp and begin slowly marching towards them, to lessen our risk of losing organization if we begin losing." One of them suggested.
"Though it may work, with our numbers now, a rapid and sudden assault is what we need." Another retorted, none minding Cadin's presence while they continued conversing.
An hour passed, passing through the forest, away from the main path, they spotted one of the camps, people donning leather tunics and basic clothing, all carrying shorter blades with them as they worked inside their short wooden walled camp, forging weapons to farming to simply walking around.
The advisors all moved together, peeking out from bushes and trees while their army waited silently behind them.
They began speaking to each other in whispers.
"What must be done for this one?" One of them asked, holding his sword.
"Perhaps a quick assault."
"Perhaps killing the leader first may work." Cadin finally spoke up. One of the advisors scoffed.
"These barbarians can give less than a care if the leader dies, they are but simple minded killers, i would go as far as to say that they will work far better without a leader."
Cadin became irritated at the advisor's words, feeling the pride from his words.
"The mission is to take the entire camp whole and intact with as few deaths as possible. Thus the attack needs to be quick, the death of their leader will break the morale-" Cadin was cut off by an advisor, "We have faced brutes like these for a long time, we know what must be done. And we won't simply trust the words of someone with little to no experience on such matters."
Anger slowly rose, the overconfidence biting into Cadin's mind as he became more annoyed by the advisor, but decided to keep quiet.
"These fighters seem more like glory seekers than actual advisors." He thought. The advisors soon went back to their men, Cadin continued staring at the unsuspecting people of the camp. Exiting out one of the tents was a man, wearing armor of iron and steel compared to the fur donning soldiers around him.
"Must be the leader, if memory serves, it would be best to make the death as public as possible for them to see. Those advisors though will hinder that from happening, nevertheless I still need to try, losing these soldiers is wasteful." He continued looking at the walking armored man, longsword in hand while he observed the people working.
Soon, the advisors headed back. Behind them, the soldiers began moving around the camp, hiding in the trees away from sight.
"This plan will surely work, you should learn from the experienced advisors." An advisor mocked.
"He's getting rather on my nerves, but I must stay on task, I must rise higher in rank. Even if it means having to endure this annoyance, perhaps joining the battle personally may change their thoughts."
The silence was suddenly broken with the shouts of men, all yelling at the same time, deafening the forests and shocking the people inside into a scramble for weapons, preparing to fight.
The wave of men ran in all directions towards the camp, the fighters inside were stunned, but soon charged to protect their camp, yelling in rage while carrying their large shields and an assortment of weapons to fight, all standing just behind their wooden wall.
The wave collided, soldiers of different tribes clashed with the slightly outnumbered warriors, getting pushed back and forth while they continued defending, the leader stayed behind them, ordering more to join in the fight.
"Once enough of them die, the rest shall run." The advisor commented while they all watched from a distance.
"They really are just glory seekers, hopefully this does not lower my chance of getting a better rank or standing." Tired and annoyed at the advisors' constant bickering and strategies, Cadin ran full force, heading straight to the clashing soldiers.
Cadin slammed into the line of clashing warriors, pushing through, slashing as little as possible as he squirmed through the compact line.
As swords stabbed through him and blades slashed at his body, he finally broke through. The soldiers were unable to pursue him as their positions were being pushed back.
The battle raged on, but the soldiers on Cadin's side began losing more men, slowly becoming the outnumbered.
A quick clash ensued with the leader, alone but still fighting. Slamming his sword at the leader's, Cadin quickly overpowered the man, sending him to the ground.
"Just need to get the people's attention." With little remorse, Cadin drove his sword through the man's chest, causing him to let out a loud shriek of pain able to be heard by the rest.
As he looked back, the one hundred men they set out with were now reduced to half of its power, being overpowered as well as becoming encircled by the enemy.
Their attack stopped, the enemy fighters looked in horror at their wounded and screaming leader, dying on the floor. Cadin continued moving the blade through the man's wound, causing more and more damage.
Horrified, the fighters stopped their attack, frozen, staring. In a few seconds, the leader's eyes soon turned lifeless.
A single fighter stepped out from the crowd of warriors.
"You have bested our leader, we are now at your mercy." They dropped their weapons on the ground.
Cadin looked shocked at the act, confused as to why they surrendered so quickly.
"Men, start tying them and bringing them back to the camp, we need more soldiers for our army after this disaster." Cadin gave his order, and allied soldiers started tying the wrists of the unarmed fighters, still standing frozen, continuing to look at their dead leader in anguish and defeat.
"Cadin!" An advisor, the same one that had berated Cadin earlier, marched angrily at him past the soldiers.
"This was not your call, now we have lost half of our army!" He shouted in rage, holding his sword in one hand.