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It had been a few hours since the scouts returned, and word of the enemy's imminent arrival spread through the Blazebringer village like wildfire, while that was going on, Adana, the youngest daughter of the Blazebringer Village Chief, Tovak, was helping with the village's preparation for the incoming attack from the enemy that had wiped out all the small villages on their way to her home.
She and the other woman of the village were getting the women and children of the absorbed villages settled deeper within the more fortified center of the village, while all men, young or old, who were strong enough to pick up a spear were called to do so and prepare.
Hours later, as she was still working, she heard the voices of the Head Warriors posted on the walls shout at their archers to take aim and fire.
If so many Head Warriors, all in charge of their own group of warriors, were commanding their men to fire, that could only mean that the enemy was charging and would soon be at their walls. But the weird thing that happened, was that the archers shot two volleys at best before a cease-fire was called.
As she and others around her waited and waited for anything else to happen, Adana found it disconcerting that the warriors would waste so many arrows on what was told to be a long battle, or most possibly a siege.
Adana was no tactical genius or savvy in the ways of war, but she knew enough that the actions taken by the Head Warriors made little sense, there were no sounds of enemy warriors charging them, or banging at the walls, so she wondered what caused this.
She knew she could do little to help, but she still wanted answers, so she flagged down one of her servant girls and sent her to ask around.
An hour later, her servant came back with tales of a monster that ignored the Hex their Witch Doctors laid, blew through the Battle Blessed (drugged) warriors like dust in the wind, tore apart the Witch Doctors powering the Hex along with all the men guarding them with spear and magic, and survived the concentrated arrow volleys of all the archers at the wall with nary a scratch to show for it as it ran away.
When asked to describe this monster, Adana was told that it was the biggest man the warriors had ever seen, estimated a head taller than the invaders in their lands, covered in dark maroon armor and wielding a huge spear with a spearhead that was a disproportionate portion of the spear.
Adana did not know how to take this news, she had seen these invaders, some of them were sent here as slaves, and even slightly starved and malnourished, the captured male invaders were all bigger in stature than any man in the village, and she was to believe that this invader was a head taller than that? Preposterous.
She would sooner believe it to be the exaggeration of warriors who had returned from a failed hunt and brag that the prey that got away was twice the size it really was.
'Just like that idiot Lo'tan that is trying to court me. Father and my brothers pretty much gave me to him, just because he is an up-and-coming warrior. Luckily or unluckily, this war was upon us and the wedding was called off for now. Father is using this war as an opportunity to ask Lo'tan to get more achievements under his belt so it will be perceived as a future Head Warrior joining the family.' Adana thought as she imagined the warriors bragging to her servant as she asked around for information.
Adana was brought out of her thoughts as one of the assisting women asked where to bring a pile of supplies, this brought her back into focus as she threw all the news of what she could not control into the back of her mind and concentrated on what she could do while waiting for the enemies next move.
***
After the debacle with the Hex trap, Grud sent out scout parties accompanying shamans to scan for more traps like the Hexes. After knowing what to look for, it was easy to spot and safely dismantle. The Hex placed in the area amounted to animal bones and human entrails nailed to some trees.
After the scouts came back with the all-clear, Grud split his forces into a number of groups and sent them to surround the Balzebringer village. Even if they decided to flee, there would be nowhere to run, not without paying a steep price in blood. To ensure no escape, Grud decided to halt the attack for the moment and sent the men to cut down the trees needed to build simple barricades to box the Blazebringer village in, just out of firing range.
Naturally, the Blazebringers did not just sit around and let us do as we pleased. The moment night fell, they would send out raiding groups to shoot at Grud's men from the cover of night and some would try to light the barricades on fire if they got the chance.
After which, Grud's men would chase the raiders away, but as powerful as the people of the tribes were, the Blazebringers were confident in their speed and easily outrun their pursuers. Once Grud's men chased the raiders far enough, they would be fired upon from the Blazebringer's walls. This cycle repeated for two nights before Grud's people got everything set up.
On the third night of the Blazebringers trying to set fire to the barricades, everything followed the previous nights. Raiders would take potshots at Grud's men from the darkness, try to set fire to the barricades and if they are brave enough, use the fire illuminating the barricades to light a fire arrow to shoot at the closest tent.
But this time, the chase was somewhat different, less enthusiastic. It was not until the raiders were just about to enter the range of the Blazebringer archers on the wall that a figure draped in dark fur dashed out from the tribe's camp and melded into the darkness.
Grud was bolting toward the retreating Blazebringer raiders under the cover of darkness, he had to purposely go around a group of his torch wielding men who he had given instructions to "chase" the raiders, this was to not alert anyone watching of the dark figure running towards them.
When his men got to a certain point, they stopped and headed back while Grud was stalking his prey. While the Blazebringer raiders were walking in the dark, the guiding light they were heading toward was the lit torches in the village wall next to the main gate.
Grud crept just a couple of paces behind the last of the raiders, trying to fit in with the group to get as close to the village walls as possible.
They entered the abandoned tent city surrounding the village, passed the tents, and once they were at the village wall, one of the men shouted up to the wall, "We are Team 12, let down the ladder!" [AN: Speech written in Italic is Newland speech.]
A warrior looked over the wall and nodded. Soon the end of a rope ladder was thrown off the side as the warrior on the wall looked down again, "Good job on raiding those bastards, your group scored anything this time?" the warrior asked as the raiders closed in.
As the warrior took in the sight of the returning raiders, his eyes landed on the last man of the group, "Mighty fine fur you got on your way out, very nice." the warrior remarked while looking at Grud at the back of the raiding group.
This statement seemed to confuse the raiding group, they were pretty sure none of them went out on the raid wearing any furs. They looked around to see what the warrior was talking about, only to look behind them and see a hunched figure draped in dark furs.
"Thank you for the ladder." Grud said as he straightened to his full height. Before anyone could react, Grud dashed from where he was standing, knocking over a few of the raiders, and jumped up to grab the ladder.
To the credit of the warrior on the wall, he reacted quickly and drew his blade to sever the rope ladder, but it was too late. Grud had scaled the rope ladder in a matter of pulls with his arms alone and barely had a grip on the ledge of the wooden wall.
This gave the warrior enough time to sound off, "ENEMY ON THE Wa-!!" was all he could get out before his head was separated from his shoulders by the swipe of Grud's spear, but it was enough. Every warrior and archer on or below the wall was now looking at Grud and soon, arrows started flying.
Grud picked up the body of the warrior he had just slain and used it as a meat shield to soak up the arrows as he jumped down from the wall and started making his way to the main gate.
"Stop him! He is going for the gate!" someone shouted as warriors were converging on Grud, but with his superhuman physical and magical abilities, Grud had no issue cutting a bloody path of disorganized defenders, all the way to the main gate.
At the main gate, the only thing baring the main gate was a thick square beam that was reinforced with copper strips nailed onto it, to lift it was a four-man job, but Grud lifted it on his own and chucked it behind him to crash into some warriors, all the while, Grud was getting pelted with arrows, all of which had their impact dampened by the draped black fur and stopped by the centipede carapace armor he was wearing beneath that.
Grud then grabbed the handles on the gates and flung them wide open, and the moment that happened, a warcry broke out from the treeline where his men were ready and waiting for this moment.
"THE GATE HAS BEEN BREACHED! KILL THAT MONSTER! CLOSE THE GATES!!" an ornately armored warrior in the back shouted, and immediately, every available man rushed Grud with weapons drawn, even the archers dropped their bows and charged him with blade in hand.
'Got to hold the gate for my people to come, and they better make it fast!' Grud thought to himself as he saw men coming at him everywhere 180° in front of him.