[Chapter Size: 2400 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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Both armies began to approach each other in the south of Cintra, as scouts came and went to report the enemy's movement on both sides. It was in a huge expanse of grass that already showed the army from one horizon to the other, signaling that it would be there that both armies would meet.
"My queen, what are your commands?" The exercise leaders approached the queen, concerned and seeking some guidance.
"Well... isn't it obvious?" She responded, narrowing her eyes towards her enemy. "Prepare for battle, there's nothing to discuss."
Immediately, orders began to be shouted throughout the army. It didn't take long for everyone to start organizing, stowing the carts and preparing for battle by donning armor and weapons on the infantry, while the cavalry and archers were not far behind.
The horizon was not just filled with a small handful of soldiers appearing, but began to fill the entire view for the army of Cintra.
"They are so many!"
"Can we defeat them?"
"How can we fight against this?"
These words began to be murmured throughout the army, as a group of 50,000 black soldiers emerged to fight against less than half of them. It was quite obvious from the desperation of Cintra's soldiers seeing their entire enemy.
Calanthe did not seem very pleased with this and turned back to the leaders. "Tell your men it's better not to cower now, otherwise, we'll be slaughtered by the enemy and Cintra, along with their families, will be exterminated shortly after that. They are the last shields against our destruction and it's better they keep that in mind." She growled, as the men nodded, beginning to organize the army to boost their morale.
Madara looked into the distance calmly, thinking about when he could fight against such a group and emerge victorious with the enemy completely destroyed. He was much better off compared to the initial amount of chakra, which was less than 100 chakra points, but now reached 20,000, comparable to an elite Jonin level.
He sighed, but at least he would end up killing more than anyone else here. Unfortunately, in an open field, he also couldn't reach the commander without anyone noticing. But that didn't mean he couldn't make his own way to this man. At least that would help Cintra a bit.
"Madara," Calanthe approached as he was lost in his thoughts with him looking at her. "I would like you to return to the capital," she said, and Mousesack looked at Madara curiously, waiting for the answer.
The boy shook his head. "No. You might not believe it, but even I in the midst of this chaos can still get out of here alive and escape if necessary. But you and your men still need all the help you can get," Madara responded firmly.
Calanthe was silent for a moment and then nodded at the end. "Alright..." She said and turned back to the entire army preparing a speech while keeping her voice as loud as possible to be heard.
"Prepare yourselves, men!" She began, drawing her sword from its sheath as she started to ride in front of everyone. "It doesn't matter if they are more numerous, it doesn't matter if they seem strong. Only Cintra has the most powerful, and we will show these people from the south that the north is no place for such people. We will destroy all their armies or make them regret ever thinking of invading the north. We will show the south and the north, no, the entire world what happens to those who become enemies of Cintra. We won the Battle of the East with ease, why couldn't we win this one too? So, with me, soldiers of Cintra!"
The soldiers began to roar, gaining morale, and Calanthe continued. "Roar like lions, for that is what you are. No matter the number of those enemies on the other side, we will destroy them," she exclaimed, raising her sword while the army began to gain the utmost morale.
"Cintra, Cintra, Cintra!" the soldiers joined their voices as they exclaimed for Cintra.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the general in the midst of the army looked at this with mockery. "It seems they are already quite agitated. Soon, they will see the power of Emperor Emhyr. I want to see if they will have the same will at this moment..." He mocked, looking at them from a distance.
As the armies began to organize, the negotiation, which was an initial contact as is standard in any war, was launched. A group from the Nilfgaardian army moved to the middle of the open field with a white flag. The group from Cintra did the same, while Calanthe commanded them.
Madara ended up being part of the group of high-ranking nobles. Among them were Meril Hugkil, his acquaintance, as well as the commander of the royal guard, Varys, 4 royal guards, and Mousesack, who accompanied Calanthe.
One group stopped 5 meters from the other, the general, a man in large armor standing out among the Nilfgaardians, exclaimed words in Nilfgaardian with a smile.
But Calanthe had no interest in learning the language of the southern empire, so she did not know what he was saying. She just looked at the man with a raised eyebrow without responding.
The general, who shared Calanthe's sentiment about the north and never wanted to learn its language, turned his face to the side, where there was an elven woman in mage's attire.
She nodded silently while sighing, before speaking to Calanthe, "He told you, it is an honor to meet the Lioness of Cintra in person. Your fame extends across the continent and the south is no exception," she said, translating the man's words.
Calanthe just scoffed. "Tell the general, Elf, that he will also have the honor of feeling my sword stabbing into his heart," she said.
Francesca translated to Nilfgaardian, and the man began to laugh, speaking a few more words in his native language.
"You roar more than you can bite, Queen Calanthe. This war will not be won by you, and you know it. So, just spare some of my men and surrender, while we promise to give fair conditions to Cintra, making it part of the Empire," the elf translated once again.
Calanthe felt immediate disgust and spat on the ground. She looked at the man and growled: "Don't you dare underestimate Cintra, Nilfgaard swine. Soon, you will see what we are capable of and we will make you return to the south like dogs," she said directly.
The elf translated once again and the man just scoffed, clicking his tongue. He seemed to give up immediately on convincing Calanthe to surrender, seeming to have known this would happen. Then he looked at the group of Cintra nobles, until his gaze stopped on Madara, and he smirked mockingly.
"I see Cintra is so powerful that it carries even children in its army. How many valorous warriors do you have of these boys, who aren't even men, this is even an insult against Nilfgaard and our glorious emperor Emhyr!" he said with a mix of disdain and anger.
Francesca was going to translate again, but Madara answered, interrupting her, since he already knew how to speak Nilfgaardian.
"Do you want to see this child kill you in the middle of the battle?" Madara began to speak in the general's language, while the man was surprised, looking at the boy speak calmly. "Mark my words, you fool from the south, I will carve a path through your army and kill anyone in my way. I may not destroy an entire army, but be sure of one thing: it will not be Calanthe who kills you, but me. I will cut off your head and bring it to the capital, placing it on top of Cintra's castle for all to see. No matter the outcome of today, know one thing: you will die, and you better ask your southern emperor to summon another general, as they will need a new one soon..." He said calmly.
"You talk a lot for a brat, but I admire your fanciful and brave words before me. I command an army of 50,000 and I will give the order to have you killed. I will cut you to pieces, boy. I will send to my emperor something like: 'Look at this fool, he believed he could challenge Nilfgaard. Not only that, I will find out who your family is and kill them all. Then, I will send to the emperor again and say: 'Look what happens to the family of a fool who dares challenge our empire,'" the man said, finding the situation very amusing, while trying to scare the boy with his whole group looking on with a smile, waiting to see the boy's face turn to fear.
Calanthe was a bit surprised and confused by this exchange of words, but she and her group looked at Madara with curiosity.
"You are funny, General of Nilfgaard." Madara responded calmly once more, disappointing the group in front of him by showing no fear, instead, he continued with a devilish smile when the subject was the Uchihas. "You think you can kill my family? You think you stand a chance against my clan? Neither you nor your emperor, I mean, not even the demons or the gods of this world can fight against the Uchiha, you fools do not know the weight this name carries. You are mere spectators. My clan destroys gods and demons. Humans like you are just walking meat to be cut, mere ants in our path." Madara spoke, while closing his eyes and reopening them, revealing his Sharingan, frightening everyone immediately. Even Calanthe looked at the boy, mesmerized, seeing for the first time those red eyes she had heard so much about.
"What are you?" the general said, surprised with a hint of fear at such words, and immediately looked at the elf.
"I've never seen those eyes..." The elf didn't know what this child was, and tried to find out immediately.
Madara felt something trying to enter his mind. His gaze returned to the mage as he quickly cast a genjutsu on her. The woman saw everything in front of her turn dark, while a giant hand grabbed her, as she looked bewildered forward seeing a blue giant with red eyes staring at her like a tiny ant.
'What is this?!' She exclaimed in fear immediately and tried to free herself from the illusion.
She managed to break away from that thing in front of her, returning to the normal world, but it didn't stop her from screaming in fright. "AHHHH!!!" Her scream caught everyone by surprise as she fell from her horse.
This caused all the Nilfgaardians to draw their swords from their sheaths, while pointing them at the men of Cintra, who barely had time to react with everything that was happening there.
Madara mocked as the elf seemed to have difficulty standing at that moment. "You, foolish elf, think you can enter my mind? As I said, so many humans and even elves are nothing compared to true power. You think you can fight an Uchiha? You think an army is worth an Uchiha? Listen to what I'm saying, general, and you'd better not try to attack us, because all of you will die here as soon as you try anything, and I will do it before any soldiers from that army of 50,000 even get here." Madara spoke. Once again, his heart was racing, he was overtaken by the thrill of battle and the desire for blood, something that resulted from the challenge this man before him incited in Madara when he blindly believed he could kill his family, and this made his blood boil.
The man looked at Madara for a while without his previous arrogance and saw the elf beginning to stand up, maintaining a look of fear towards the boy as well. She had managed to escape Madara's genjutsu, but it hadn't been easy. The boy had not only prevented her from controlling his mind, but had countered the attack, and she felt that she no longer had full control of her body as she trembled; she had never experienced something like this, and that blue giant was terrifying.
"Let's go, we have nothing more to talk about here," the general ordered in the end, as they began to return to the army.
The men of Cintra were surprised by the turn of events, while they looked at Madara with the enemy group returning to the Nilfgaardian army, Madara closed his Sharingan at that moment, while his group looked on with a hint of fear.
Calanthe quickly took control of the situation. "Let's go back, we need to prepare for the battle. We've had enough of talks with these Nilfgaardians, now let's start cutting them down," Calanthe exclaimed, trying to motivate her men.
As her group returned to the Cintran army, she approached Madara, around whom everyone maintained a bit of distance. "That was bizarre, boy, very bizarre," she murmured looking at Madara. However, she cracked a smile. "But I liked it," she admitted, after seeing that group quite scared and alarmed by what Madara did.
Then, the time to begin had arrived. Fifty thousand men lined up in front of the Cintran army, while the twenty thousand men of Cintra prepared for battle.
"Are you sure about this?" Mousesack looked a bit scared at the boy who was preparing with the infantry. He and the queen wanted Madara to mount a horse and join the cavalry, where it would be safer, since the infantry was practically a bloodbath with the first wave of men dying either from arrows or enemy swords.
But Madara shook his head. His desire to fight was stronger than his concern for safety against some things that were quite easy to dodge. "This is my wish, Mousesack, and I will do nothing else." Madara said calmly.
Mousesack nodded in the end, leaving the boy. Then, the time had come.
Madara wore black clothing, without any armor, with his two short blades at the back of his waist. He was filled with scrolls around his waist and had some seals on a bracelet on both arms. He might appear to be just a man with two blades, but anyone who knew Madara would know that he was a one-man artillery, with hundreds or thousands of projectile weapons. This was a battle he was going to face head-on, and he was excited to start reaping lives on the battlefield.