In one particular area of the town of Humec, a gathering had taken place, bringing together all available soldiers to listen to the speech of the lord who was about to arrive. The men present were peasants, soldiers and knights, all deployed in ranks with no distinction other than their equipment, which defined their roles.
The knights wore heavy gear and carried heavy swords at the waist, allowing them to charge into the enemy camp without fear of being killed in hand-to-hand combat. The soldiers mostly had iron equipment in the joints and for the rest of the body, a simple cloth protecting them from all attacks, they were not really strongly equipped for combat and for the peasants it was even worse, they only had long pitchforks allowing them to use it as weapons.
They hardly had any armour and were mainly used as cannon fodder or rear logistics. Unfortunately, in their day, they didn't have the means to equip every man because of the current shortage of iron and mines. They were still in the early days of the discovery of iron and didn't have enough skills or resources to extract it, so they had to resort to recovering it little by little.
The wars between sovereigns were already weighing heavily on their minds because of the disputes over the mines, but now they had to requisition various mines in order to recover iron so that the city's blacksmiths could produce as much as they could. The men didn't have any particular strengths, they weren't as talented as the elves with magic, they weren't as strong as the traditional dwarves, their only strength was their will.
An implacable will if well directed and controlled, their will alone could allow them to create a miracle. They were not strong alone but if their will was united then they could become a threat, protecting their families, their way of life and their nation was one of the things that motivated them.
Ron, watching the gathering of troops from afar, knew that the battle would be bloody, hard and cruel. Many would die at his hands, and the blood of his comrades would haunt him forever. His fists were as tight as his will, and he knew he had no choice. He had to lead his people to victory and survival, no matter what the sacrifices, even if they included himself.
He could trust his son to inherit his title and his wife to regulate the affairs of the city if he died. As long as he could protect his family and his nation, he could rest in peace even if he died in the worst possible way.
Not far from here, they could already hear roars in the air, and a few kilometres away hundreds of giant wolves were rushing towards them, cruelly trampling animals and trees as they went. No living thing was spared, everything was killed. It was the cruelty of the monsters that inhabited this world, he didn't know why they were there, or how they appeared, but he knew that if he kept thinking, he wouldn't find the origin of their species.
Their appearances were as mysterious as their own, but unfortunately for them, their ancestors had already been dead for a long time and they had no way of knowing how they had managed to be born into this world. Were they born naturally by nature... or by someone?
The iron door, made of an alloy of different materials, was completely closed from the outside. The massive door measured several metres in height, showing off its majesty to anyone who saw it. A door that would make any enemy want to go back in time to see such a behemoth standing for centuries.
Ron took his eyes off the door, and approached his right-hand man who was waiting calmly to one side, "Silvester, are the soldiers all in position?" he said, glancing at the soldiers who were tense because of the tense atmosphere.
Silvester nodded, and said, "Yes my lord, but..."
Ron, who had seen the hesitation in Silvester's tone, asked him to continue speaking.
"The soldiers are afraid, they don't have the morale to fight. The monsters outside the walls frighten them, it's the first time they've faced such a major threat in the history of our city," he said.
Ron could already see their legs trembling with fear from a distance, and he was also worried about the morale of his troops. If these troops were not prepared to fight for their lives, it would be detrimental to their battles, a soldier on the run could give the whole army the idea of a premeditated defeat and that was not what he wanted to expect from his army.
Taking his eyes off his troops, he looked up at the sky where stars could be seen from the ground. "Silvester, do you believe in God?" he said with a hint of melancholy in his eyes.
Silvester looked at him confused, "God?" he said surprised by his lord's question.
Ron nodded, "Yes, God. The one who, according to the ancestral legends, created our race, us humans, and set us free in this world to taste life," he said, closing his eyes, memorising the books he had read as a child all those years ago before opening them again.
Silvester was lost in thought, "God. I don't really know, they're not just legends written by writers?" he said as he continued, "Research has never been able to confirm the presence of this claim, no appearance of a being outside our cognition has been spotted in the last few centuries."
After all, for all those decades Edmund had been sleeping comfortably in his bed with Nishley, leaving no room for an apparition of any kind in all that time.
Silvester continued to open his mouth, "If such a being existed, then I'd like to ask him why we face so many hardships just to survive in a world where danger is everywhere..." he said, clutching his sword tightly in his hands.
Ron closed his eyes and opened them again, "Yes, it's true. If such a being really existed in the world, then I would beg him to give us the answer to our questions."
I beg God to give us victory in our desperate struggle, so that we poor humans can see our families again, our loved ones, our lovers who are patiently waiting for us to return.
Ron finished his inner prayer and stood up, followed by Silvester, walking silently towards the soldiers waiting for their sovereign to appear.
***
Ron's childhood story.
Ever since he was a child, Ron has been very interested in one area in particular: books. His mother used to tell him stories every time he went to bed. He had become something of a child, addicted to stories, especially those that revolved around legends or fantasy. On his 8th birthday, Ron was finally old enough to have access to his family's library, which had been storing the town's most important books for centuries in a protected space.
He had spent a lot of time reading books to educate himself, fairy tales, stories about the princess and the prince, and books on various management studies. Every day, he would come to the library, meet the librarian and learn for the benefit of his youth, but one day as he was putting away a book he had borrowed, he felt a book protruding from the pile of books on the shelf.
This intrigued him and he went over to it to put it away perfectly, but before he could put it away, the title of the book made him curious. As a child, he was naturally curious, so he looked to see if anyone was walking by, took the book from the shelf and his eyes automatically went to the title on the cover: "Does God exist in this world or is he just a fantasy of mankind?
At that moment, he didn't know why, but an irresistible urge to read it cleansed him. He took the book and hid it in his bag, then went off to a secluded spot to read it, away from people's eyes. He pulled up a chair and placed the book on his lap, opening the pages one by one. As he went on, he felt even more drawn to the writer's ingenious ideas. Ideas popped into his head every time he continued to read it, and it didn't stop there.
At first, he took his free time to go to the library to read books, but as time went by, the content of the book became more and more interesting to him, starting to drive him half-crazy at one point. He started missing hours of sleep in exchange for being able to read more pages of the book.
It didn't stop there, he skipped meals, missed learning time and even time with his family, and his health began to suffer seriously but he didn't care.
For centuries, the world remained unknown to man, truths were never explained or verified, only legends passed down through the generations by word of mouth about other races living on the other side of the continent or that a being outside his world was watching over them as if he were rearing cattle.
As he read the sentences that made him think about the meaning of his life, and the meaning of his world, he kept asking himself, "How did we humans come into this world?", "Who created the world system?", "Why can humans use a state window when animals can't?"
The answers were empty, and the questions that had been nagging at him began to build up inside him. In the book he had read, the author had explained that it was possible for a higher being to be the master of this world, that we humans were not biologically born of this world but of it. We were not animals, but intelligent beings, who could carry an awareness that other races could not possess.
He had spent hours, days, months, years trying to find an answer to these questions, he had searched for the author of this book for years, but he had not found him. He thought the author was long dead. He continued to search for answers, for the truth about his existence and his world, but each time there was no answer as he had hoped.
He had tried to pray to a god of his world but could feel no link to heaven. He was beginning to doubt the existence of such a being, thinking perhaps that he had gone mad from reading the book that had driven him to such a state.
This year, Ron was 16, his parents had died fighting against foreign rulers and he had finally been given the position of ruler of his town. He had taken responsibility for his people. In the end, he had to give up his research into the possibility of such a being and had turned to the paperwork that made him clean.
For the good of his farmers, he developed a three-year agricultural cycle; for the good of his blacksmiths, he discovered numerous mines full of minerals; for the good of his people, he introduced laws limiting the number of hours they could work.
He had devoted all his soul to his people, but he was tired, he didn't have the head or the strength to keep up the pace of work, he didn't know what else to do. Then one day, on an outing to clear his head, he found a young woman sitting like him under a tree. When he first saw her, he fell in love.
When he saw her, he felt all the tiredness he'd built up disappear from his body, he was just looking at her but, for him, he was able to live a second life, he felt just as happy to see such a person since the first time.
He moved closer to the woman, surprising her, and bowed with one knee to the ground and said, "Be my wife."
***
Standing in front of his soldiers, I reached the balustrade to prepare my speech. Silvestre was behind him, followed by a number of elite knights protecting him from the side. You could say that the elite of the Humec elite were now all gathered in one place, showing the superiority of the human race to the world.
I waited for minutes, under the ponderous silence of the soldiers, before we finally heard the noise I had been waiting for. The roars of wild beasts rushed towards us, sending a wave of fear towards the soldiers.
A moment later, a shrill sound slammed into the door, showing that they had finally arrived at the massive gateway to the great city. The gate shuddered in the face of the monsters' massive charge, but seeing that it was still fixed, I was able to take a breath, thinking that there was still time before the gate gave way by force.
Giggles could be heard throughout the red square, and the soldiers who were starting to get scared began to tremble at my provocative words.
I shouted, "Soldier! People of Humec! Who are you fighting for?!"
The soldiers stopped at my words and an uncomfortable silence appeared but I didn't stop there.
I repeated my words, "SOLDIER! Who are you fighting for?!"
And at that moment the soldiers who had been silent began to raise their voices.
"For my family..!" shouted a bearded peasant.
"For my wife..!" shouted a soldier.
"For the honour of our nation!" shouted a knight in armour.
I nodded and shouted again, "I REPEAT! WHO ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR?!"
And then all the soldiers started shouting at the top of their lungs, following the movement of the war cries.
"ROARR! FOR HUMEC!" roared the tens of thousands of soldiers at the top of their lungs.
Seeing such a performance I nodded, turned my gaze towards the door and activated all my available area-effect skills. War cry' 'Strength increase' 'Agility increase' 'Wisdom increase
The skill 'battle cry' was activated. [+20% strength to nearby allies]
The skill 'Increased Strength' was activated [+10% strength to the user].
The skill 'Increased Agility' was activated [+10% agility to the user].
Increased Wisdom' skill was activated [+10% Wisdom to the user].
Name of the race : Human [Ron]
Level : 34 [+10%] β 38
Wisdom : 40 [+10%] β 44
Strength : 55 [+10%] β 60
Agility : 44 [+10%] β 48
Age : 56
Title : [Sovereign]
Racial Ability : -Adaptability
Skill:
-Family Sword Technique: [Johnson]
-Sword Mastery : [Expert]
-Battle Cry : [Expert]
-Increased Strength: [Intermediate]
-Increased Agility : [Intermediate]
-Increased Wisdom: [Intermediate]
-Fireball: [Novice]
-Fire Spear: [Novice]
"For our families!
"For humanity!
"For the nation!"
The soldiers all shouted at the same time, forming a symphony of war, a sound conducive to the war that was to follow, a bloody war where no blood could escape. This is the day when the death toll will be as enormous as all the human deaths since the beginning of the war.
Suddenly a creak was heard behind him, the door was about to be kicked in.
"Get into position!" I shouted as I forcefully gathered my mana on my hands and sword, covering the entire surface of his hand and sword with a blue mana that began to ignite under his fire attribute.
The soldiers behind him all drew their weapons at the same time as my sword became a flaming sword. They were all positioned a few metres behind him, sticking together to fight and not letting them pass in exchange for their deaths. They were trading their bodies in exchange for being a meat shield for the good of the nation.
I felt a pain in my heart, but I couldn't think about it any more. The door was about to fall.
BOOM!
The door had been destroyed and the dust had blinded everyone, I had begun to see a silhouette approaching him dangerously.
For humanity!" I shouted as I swung my sword at the three-metre-high wolf that had jumped through the door. The giant wolf couldn't react to my flaming sword blow and was easily cut in half. After the first giant wolf died, dozens of giant wolves trampled the corpse of the dead giant wolf.
The giant wolves immediately met the soldiers standing behind me and a fight to the death ensued. I could hear behind me the clash of swords and the groans of my soldiers as they fought with all their might to repel the besieging monsters. Although we were pushed back little by little, we managed to maintain the status quo in the battle, but it did not last long.
The skill 'Scream of Fear' was activated. [-50% morale to nearby enemies]
As I was easily fighting 2 giant wolves, I heard a frightening roar from behind the door which was camouflaged by the rising smoke of the giant wolves' movements. Moments later, an 8 meter long golden wolf followed by several 5 meter long red wolves came out of the door. A few seconds later, the golden wolf instantly disappeared and appeared directly in our line of defense and instantly launched a claw strike decapitating the hundreds of heads of the soldiers flying high in the sky.
"Fireball! Fire spear!" I activated my fire magic skills to quickly kill the giant wolves blocking my path. I rushed as fast as I could towards the defensive line where the Wolf King was in order to reform the defensive line that had fallen due to the Wolf King's attack.
"The Wolf King and the Wolf General are out! Knights, follow me quickly! The soldiers are retreating again, deal with the giant wolves!" I said as I stood between my soldiers and the Wolf King and his Wolf Generals who followed their leader a little later, the knights who were hiding in the battle came quickly to join me.
There were 97 of us level 25 knights, including Silvester and myself, but as we charged towards the wolves, my instincts warned me dangerously that I was going to die. As my instincts screamed at me to be careful, I saw a claw quickly appear a few feet away from us and run straight for us.
"I screamed as I ducked, followed by Silvester, and closed my eyes in anticipation of what was to come, but unfortunately I was not surprised by the most surprising thing that was to happen. As I felt the attack graze my back, I heard a shrill sound like a branch breaking in two.
I opened my eyes, the eyes blurred by a viscous liquid, and the first thing I saw was the ground covered in a red viscous liquid. I stood up slowly and looked back with slow steps. When I looked up, I felt for the first time in my life a sensation I will never forget.