After a few day's of nursing and coaxing, I manage to "befriend" Barabas. Of course he is the silent type. I don't know what happened to him but aside from rage I don't get much feeling from him. Sad...
I released him from the constraint but stopped him from moving yet. I also channel power in him every few hour's. Which in turn makes me hungry. My ration won't last the two of us and my arm will take at least a week to remove the "cast" and another to move properly. Since I lost my spear I have no choice but to make new ones. I normally only need a few minutes really to hunt. But now, with my arm, it takes a few hours.
Like that a week goes by. Gary made it back. I'm happy to see him.
("No offence Barabas but you can never be as cute.")
-snort-
He doesn't even move to acknowledge.
("Hooo! You get me now. You were just ignoring me the whole week!")
("See what I mean Gary. You're the best.")
Of course Gary doesn't understand much, he's just happy on my shoulder hehe.
With his help, I manage to find all the herb's I need for a balm, with my guard up, and birds have an instinct against sneak attack. This speeds up our recovery a bit.
Now my two arm's have scar's on them. The right likes flames and the left... Well it looks like a crater. Maybe like a sun if it was yellow. But now it's pink since it's new skin. Luckily the girls gave me some power, I'm almost healed already. I feel stronger actually. I think it must be my new connection with Barabas. We were pretty banged up and I used all my power on him. Even if my soul is stronger than his, I must have gained something from it. Same for him since he seems to understand telepathy. I swear to you, it was hard shielding my thought's from Red at first...
Since he can now walk, we start our journey back. I think it will take us a week to go back. This is bad. My guts are tangled up for some reason.
I open the way for us and hunt with Gary's help. At night I channel my power inside Barabas chest until I fall asleep on his belly. I know it's stupid but I can't help it. I'm too fidgety. Once I close my eyes, I'm inside a volcano and Barabas is there sleeping too.
This happens every night. At first I had a hard time enduring the heat. But I can now jog around without collapsing. Funny, it's supposed to be a dream. But it's more than a dream, it's like our body and soul is an extension of the other party's.
Until Barabas got mad in the "Domain". I am too noisy... Well, I can train while I sleep. It's amazing. He tried to chase me out, but by reflex, I punched him and he bounced off the wall. The domain even shook. Once he admitted defeat, my soul sent some power inside him, and the same for me..? He says he feels a lot calmer thanks to me. Of course, I suspect there must be some law or contract at work here. His attitude doesn't seem better, but I feel absolute trust from him. I'm glad I could observe this, it's great data on the soul. I did not feel it as I just did now with the other's. Maybe they were obedient or trusting enough to begin with.
On the fourth day afternoon my nerves are tense. This feeling I had kept growing stronger. We are so close but I can smell fire. I did not cross paths with them so... I'm worried. I run...
-Tenka's P.O.V.-
It's been a week now since I started to feel like I'm in a fire-pit when I go to sleep. My power seems to slip from my body. It starts from my extremities and ends at my heart where Sam puts his hand when we sleep. I know it has something to do with him.
(I hope you're fine.)
The preparations are done. We are all tense, but with my mood these day's nobody dares to do anything reckless. Since Red seems calm enough, I'm ok. We have 15 warrior's over 32 people total. Five adult wolf's. Not too bad. With Red's help we can carry the rest of them.
He said there should be around 50 to hundred men. This is going to be tough. We never fought human's yet and Sam is still away. I can only remind them to be careful every day.
Today Eldo came back. I can understand him like Sam does with Red. Can't share his vision yet. He told me there are a little over a hundred men 50km east coming. This is too much. The traps won't get all of them.
I whistle with all my might.
"Get Ready For the Fight!"
Everybody knows the drill, The old young pack up while the warriors get to the trap field.
We divide into five teams of three. I tell Temate to make a speech. She looks at me oddly. I tell her it's a matter of life and death. She grit her teeth and makes a beautiful speech. I'm not the one to make a speech here so better train her well.
We have 200 throwing spears, 10 crossbows dart's and our metal tip spears, two by captains. Crossbow will be used against archer's. Still, there should be more than ten of them.
If we don't miss too many shot's, we can win without close quarters combat, but I doubt they will hold the pressure. The ten newbies have not been killed yet. Much less in a battle. At least I'm not worried for them because the generals will take the decisions for them. I will be with Red.
They should be here by the end of afternoon at the pace they move. It leaves us with less than five hours.
I don't want Berth to fight, in case he becomes an easy target. The damn pig snorted at me and just lay down. At least Red should be able to talk some sense into him. In the end we use him to carry our stuff. He's very nice once you get to know him.
Last check up, 200 traps check, 200 spears check, 20 metal spears check, crossbow and bolts check, the wolves on guard, berth sleeping errg...
-Beno's P.O.V.-
Inside a wooden office a man is leaning back on his chair, curing his teeth with a mini sword.
My men went for a "harvest" but they did not come back. After the scout reported back, he said there were only 8 skeleton's. Even some of the bones were gone. Clearly the work of a powerful beast. But where are the women?
Not important, that beast messes with the wrong man. Maybe it's that damn bear. I should have killed it a long time ago. Now it comes back and bites me in the ass.
-Smashes his alcohol glass-
"MARCUS!!!"
A shadow burst into the room, almost breaking every piece of furniture in Beno's office. But he miraculously manages to put everything back in place. The strange man, who clearly seems insane, is actually wearing a jester hat and red leather armor. Not very tall, red eyes.
Beno Is wearing beige cotton under a brown leather half-mail armor. Salt and pepper hair and beard. Tanned skin, Scar over his left blind eye. Right one is brown. Gives a dangerous feeling.
He grabs his Claymore.
"Get the men in the training area in an hour. tell them to pack what they need, we're going to war."
-An hour later-
Beno is on a stand addressing his men.
"I don't know what happened to the men I sent to the "End village" (end of civilization), but we need to find out. From the look of thing's it should be a beast that got them, but we did not find the woman's remains. So I'm bringing all of you. (150men) We can't let anything threaten our organization. That thing is strong for sure. Just be on your guard."
So the next day they set off. They should be around two weeks after the woman's group.(They don't know that)
they found the trail easy.
(Why did the beast let the woman leave? Or maybe they escaped thanks to my men? I'll just ask when I catch them.)
What took two months and a half for the woman took two for the men. It took around a month from the massacre in the village to get the news and march. They got there When Sam was Half a day away.
The first thing that welcomes them is the death of a scout. By the time they realize, its a bit late. What they hit is the second line of traps. The first is reversed to catch scared and disarrayed people and force them to advance.
Log's start to fall off the sky, branches with spikes at the tip wipe them from strange angles, ropes trip them over hidden reversed spikes and such.
In five minutes his vanguard is decimated.
(20 Men died in five minutes and we didn't even fight yet. This is the work of a human coward!)
(I can't even order that idiot properly, he might even make a mess. But he's the only one who could find a way through.)
"Marcus. You go make a trail for us."
Marcus-"Haaa hahaha. mmm okay. I just loooove the look on your face right now. Hahaahha."-
Think about the most annoying high pitch laugh.
Marcus-(These weaklings can never follow the great me.)-
"You heard it follow the jester."
(And I stay behind and watch his shit show.)
-Screams!!!-
-"hahahaaaa!"-
The first poor guy that follow behind Marcus Fall into a spiked pit.
"Fatso!! hahaha!"
-Tenka P.O.V.-
(They reached the second line.)
The generals and I walk our way in the fifth and fourth line to meet them halfway. This is suicidal for inexperienced people. For us, the warrior's Sam trained, we can run across it. We carry five short spears each. Our goal is to not be seen until we fall back to the defense line. We will set fire to the trap field while we retreat. The girls tamed some birds just for this moment.
With their feedback we can hunt them while staying hidden.
There is a crazy man wearing strange clothes that is avoiding all I can throw at him. He managed to see me and something strange happened. His red eyes glow and strange fire chains appear out of the shadow around me.
I dash forward with all my power, where I can avoid getting caught and appear a few meters from him. I take my knife(short sword) to my right and a spear to my left. I'm hiding my face and hair today with a black bandana. The only thing you can see is my golden eyelash and glowy emerald eyes.
On my guard I walk slowly to him, throw the spear toward his left and dash to his right with a lateral slash. I missed but the closest man paid the price and got impaled in his stead.
"Retreat!!!"
(The speed at which he evaded my strike means he is a bit faster than me. His chains are trouble by themselves. I can't fight him here or with his men around.)
-The men sound a horn-
We killed 10 before we had to retreat. With the fire we lit going and the remaining trap's, it should buy us some time. A personal battle is bound to happen.
We make it back in one piece and warn our people. So far, only one of them has his power unlocked. His aura is as strong as mine. I tell two warrior's to go with the second group and leave now before the fire dies down.
For a few hour's we stay at the defense line, waiting for them to pass through.
-Beno's P.O.V.-
(We already lost 40 men. In 30min 40 men! Not my first failure, but here in these backwoods, there is the law of the strongest. Things can change fast, just like now. Besides, the Brother's of chaos can't give me a lower position hahaha!)
(I don't even need to scold the idiot, he's too weird to care anyway. But he said this was done by a woman. This is trouble, big trouble.)
"Wait until the fire's out then rush all at once in tight rank's."
Canon fodder, let's see who survives this.
"If you make it out alive you get your own personal bitch."
-Hoooooo!!!!-
(Too easy.)
(I keep the 30 archers in the back. I can't lose them in case we need to retreat.)
Once the fire dies down, the men advance.
"Marcus you go too, hurry up."
-"No way. Let the fodder go first."-
I squeeze my sword handle.
(fuck it)
-I slash at him.-
My claymore leaves a white stripe of compressed air. The slash greased Marcus cheek even after dodging.
-He wipe the blood.-
"Okay Boss Man! hahahah!"
He runs away after teasing me.
(I can already tell this is going to be another failure. sight)
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