A week has passed since the guards invaded his home and tried to take his family. Felina and Kazu registered the Kobold with the Hunters Lodge as one of her familiars the day after she tamed it.
Tara and Ari have spent most of their free time visiting Kazu and his girls. They both have grown very fond of movie night and the ice water from the refrigerator door. Even the males from their team came by 2 times during the week. The girls sleep at the house most nights, but the guys always head home after their visits. This morning is one of the days when the girls stayed the night before.
While Kazu and Anna are getting ready for the day, they hear a knock on the front door. Heading downstairs to see who it is they are met by Lina as she turns to go up the stairs to get them.
"The Guard Commander is here to talk to you." She informs him.
"Thank you, Lina," he says as he pats her head.
He puts his arm on her shoulder then they all three walk to the front door. As he gets to the door he sees the Commander with two guards waiting patiently at the door.
Kazu asks, "Would you gentlemen care to come in, if the discussion is expected to take a while we can sit in the dining room."
The commander nods, "The dining room will work for this discussion."
Kazu leads them to the dining room, Lina breaks off at the kitchen door to bring refreshments for the discussion.
The Commander asks for all the hunters in the house to join them, and Anna runs off to go get them.
As they sit down at the table, the guards pull out a stack of papers, and some maps and then hand them to the commander. The Commander takes a few minutes to sort through the papers and makes several stacks in front of himself. Two separate maps are placed on either side of his paper stacks. As he is finishing laying out his information, Anna arrives with the rest of Kazu's hunters, including Tara and Ari.
Once everyone is seated at the table the Commander begins, "I am Lord Behlah Bon Chevalier, I am the Guard Commander in Touren Village and the son of the Lord of the province. Over the last week, we have been interrogating the guards that invaded your home. The information Kazu gave us from his interrogation led to others talking and giving us more information on Warlord Ozul Casimir and why they wanted you out of the way. What we have gathered over this time is not promising."
Moving the map on his right to the middle of the table, he points out an outlined area. "This is the Area he currently controls, and this area here." He points at an area 10% the size. "This is where we live, about 10 kilometers away from the edge of his domain. All reports and interrogations tell us that the Kingdom of Albion is next on his target list and that Touren Village will be his first conquest in this province. If the kingdom sent all its soldiers and all the Hunters, we would have about 12,000 troops, but by current intel, he has almost 50,000 troops. We are currently looking at delaying tactics, to train more troops, but neither the King nor my father is optimistic."
"If you want to delay them, destroy their supply lines," Kazu says. "It takes a lot of food to feed that many soldiers, plus the horses and the support personnel. Take down two or three shipments, and they are left with 2 options, pull back or send troops to guard the shipments. Either way, it slows them down."
The Commander ruminates on Kazu's suggestion. "How many people would we need to send in for the raids? 100? 1,000?"
Kazu smiles, "Just a small strike force is needed. Since it appears that they'll have to go through my property to get to the village I'll volunteer. This is the warlord that took over Anna's hometown, even though it allowed me to meet her, his warmongering must end... My family has always been the most important thing to me, and we will disrupt their supply lines before they can even get to my home… my family, especially the ones that will be left here. I'd much rather do that kilometers away where I know they will be safe from stray arrows, and overactive libidos. Our main goal will be to destroy transportation equipment, and injure the soldiers guarding the transports."
The commander asks, "Injure them? Would it not be better to kill them?"
Kazu answers, "Conventional thinking would make you think so, kill a soldier and there's one less to fight you, Injure one and two have to drag them away. Injured legs work best, not generally life-threatening, and sometimes it gets as many as four people off the battlefield. Anna once told me that they forced the men in her village to join or die. I'd hate to kill someone who was forced under threat of death into his army. When this is all over I'd like for them to be able to go back to their old jobs and homes, if they can."
The commander nods his head, indicating his agreement with the tactic and his reasoning. "no was for why they were here in your home. According to the former guards, Casimir pays for his wars by enslaving women and children and then selling them. The children that you saved from them were supposed to go to that cause. When you stopped them and threatened them if they did it again, well it put a bullseye on you. They thought with you out of the way they could take your girls and the beastkin children. Apparently, they were dumb enough to think you would allow yourself to be arrested for something that is not even illegal." Commander Behlah starts gathering his papers. "When you are ready to head out, promise me you'll be safe. I'll send someone here to keep an eye on your place and the ones you left behind."
Tara says, "If we are not going with you, we will stay here and make sure your girls are protected."
Commander Behlah nods in appreciation at her for volunteering.
Kazu smiles at her, "Thank you, Tara, I know I can trust you and your team to keep them safe. As an added layer of security, Felina can you transfer control of your sentries to Rask?"
Felina shrugs, then says, "I'll try. I've never done it before, but it should be possible to put her in as a second in command, or something to that effect."
Kazu smiles, "Excellent. As for the rest of us, gather up everything we will need for at least a week of camping and battle, food, clothes, weapons… whatever you think you will need. We will put it in my bag, so it doesn't matter how much you bring. We leave in one hour."
45 minutes later, the girls and Felix have finished bringing Kazu the items they feel they will need. Lina, Petal, and Felina are in the kitchen and have been cooking up a storm, making sure they have plenty of food to put in Kazu's bag. Kazu spends most of the hour setting up inconspicuous defensive fortifications inside the property, and enchanting handheld voice-operated magic devices. The devices are much larger than the matchsticks, but they also use a higher class of magic. He also creates two more rings similar to the ones he gave to Anna and Felina. One ring is given to Tara, the second is for Arwain. He gives everyone a quick instruction on how to use the new magic tools.
After all preparations are completed and Kazu finishes loading everything into his Spatial Bag he makes his rounds hugging those who are staying behind. After a quick round of goodbyes, the team sets off from the back corner of the property for their mission.
Six hours into their journey while walking along a game trail a squirrel hops onto Felina's shoulder. She motions for the group to halt. After spending a few moments listening to the squirrel squeak she says, "The squirrel is telling me that there is a large group of metal-clad humans… soldiers camping about a kilometer ahead. He does not know how to count, but he seems to indicate that if they were nuts he would eat well for a month."
Kazu laughs, "Anyone want to crack a few nuts?"
Orolfie and Orelfa, bored by the walking smile at the thought of battle. As they continue towards the soldiers, Kazu puts away the 'cut everything' weapons they were carrying and replaces them with some 'break everything' weapons. The sisters get some War Hammers, the twins get some black steel Tonfa, and Kazu and Anna get steel-tipped Bo Staffs. A few minutes later they arrive just outside of the camp. There are approximately 100 soldiers and 20 supporters at the camp. Just before the attack, Kazu reminds them to only injure a third of the soldiers. Five soldiers each is all they need to injure, then they retreat into the safety of the forest.
They quietly sneak up to the camp, Felina using her shadow magic to hide her presence, while Kazu and Felix use light magic to hide everyone else. Felix, Felina, and Anna move to the opposite end of the camp and get ready for the signal to attack. A minute later they hear Orolfie's battle cry and every one of the soldiers turn to face the roar. The twins drop their magic and begin their attack. With the soldiers facing away from them, they easily break six legs before anyone knows what's happening. As a few soldiers turn towards their now-injured comrades, Kazu's group springs into action. With measured strength and quick movements, they start their reserved injury spree. Orelfa spends half of her time breaking wagon wheels.
The battle was quick and decisive, in just over a minute Kazu's group retreated into the forest before the soldiers could even mount a decent defense. Thirty soldiers are crying out in pain as they leave.
Five minutes later Kazu's and Anna's groups meet back up. They move through the forest, erasing their tracks as they go. They continue until they are over a kilometer away from the enemy camp to make a camp of their own. Felix, Anna, and Felina set up camp as Kazu and the sisters patrol the area for threats, and for Kazu to set up a perimeter defense system.
Once camp is set up Kazu and the sisters return to the camp and he pulls their dinner out of his bag. They sit around talking with each other while they eat dinner.
Once dinner is finished Kazu excuses himself and walks into the forest back towards the enemy camp. Letting everyone know he will be back shortly.
As he gets close enough to the camp he notices the tents are still up, but no horses, and no people moving around. He gets closer to the camp, and everyone he sees is dead, thirty-six soldiers in total. He cautiously moves into the camp to examine the deceased. All but six have broken legs, but all thirty-six have fatal sword wounds. Three of the deceased with broken legs have a rank badge on their chest. Kazu collects all the weapons and usable supplies from the wagons and tents and then places them in his bag.
Wanting to give the men the burial they deserve, using his earth magic Kazu creates a grave for each of them. Carefully he places them in their final resting place. The last one he buries looks to be no older than sixteen years old. As he is carrying him he gets upset about the senseless loss of life and his eyes start to glow. He says to the soldier he is carrying, "I'm sorry this happened to you, I wanted to make sure people did not die. I wanted everyone off the battlefield, not buried under it. Why did they kill you and the other five uninjured soldiers?"
Behind him he hears, "We did not want to kill the injured," Kazu turns to face the speaker, "Three of us protested, so the commander and his officers killed us to keep everyone in line. The other three were chosen as a lesson to the others that they have to protect officers or they will be killed like they were. We are expendable to them, and we were the reminder of that fact."
Kazu asks, "I understand many of you were conscripted into this army. How many of you were forced to be here?"
The spirit answers, "Two-thirds of our unit is forced conscription, we were farmers, tradesmen, fathers, and sons... We just want to go home to be with our families, see our parents, my little sister… my brother… If you take out the officers, the rest of us that do not want to fight will surrender, if you let them know that they will live."
Kazu places his hand on the spirit's surprisingly solid shoulder, "Thank you, son, rest now, and may you all be reborn into a better, happier life."
The spirit turns into a glowing orb and flies up into the sky then veers off towards Albion, a second later the spirits of those Kazu already buried fly out of the ground and into the air some veer off towards Albion but most go in other seemingly random directions. He watches as they disappear over the horizon. Kazu continues burying the soldier, once he finishes he creates a headstone for each grave. On 33 stones, he engraves, 'Brave man of Vayna laid to rest due to the madness of Warlord Ozul Casimir. Your sacrifice will be remembered and honored.' On the officer's gravestones, he engraved 'Willingly followed Warlord Ozul Casimir's madness, your folly will be mocked then forgotten.' Kazu bows to the soldier's graves and then turns to leave.
Heading back to his camp, Kazu uses the ring he gave Tara to relay the information the spirit gave him. He also asks if she can ask him to send a detachment to the current border to welcome any saved soldiers or refugees. Tara assures him she will relay the information and the request to the commander first thing in the morning.
A little while later Kazu arrives back at his team's camp, and informs his team about what he found. They discuss the ramifications of what Kazu learned, and they come up with a plan to deal with them in the future. Their collective decision, take their supplies, send the unwilling soldiers to safety, and decimate the officers.
Anna and the twins go to bed as Kazu and the sisters keep watch. Four uneventful hours later they wake the sleeping trio and switch places with them. The sisters cuddle up to him as they fall asleep.
Four hours later Felina wakes them just before the break of dawn. Without a moment's thought, they all begin breaking down the camp like they have been camping for years. A look of determination on each of their faces. Kazu places everything in his bag as soon as each piece is ready. From waking them up to loading everything into his bag It takes less than 10 minutes to break down their camp.
They head back to the now-empty enemy camp. Following the very noticeable hoof and boot tracks of the retreating soldiers, they head deeper into enemy territory. They continue following the trail until they see multiple different tracks joining together. The new trail includes several wagon tracks along with hundreds of bootprints.
Several hours of walking later they see campfire smoke over the hill. The twins and the sisters move away from the road as Kazu and Anna continue walking towards the campfires. Halfway to the camp a dozen soldiers stop them, three of the soldiers have rank insignia on their chests.
A soldier with rank speaks to them, "You are a big bastard, who are you and what are you doing here?"
Kazu answers, "We are merchants heading home, we were on a delivery that took us over a month. Who might you be? That does not look like Albion uniforms."
"This region is under Lord Ozul Casimir's rule now." The ranked officer says with a hint of pride. "If you are merchants, where are your goods?"
Kazu looks at him with annoyance on his face, "When I tell you we delivered our goods and are returning home, how stupid do you have to be to ask where our goods are? Sweetie, when we deliver goods, are we supposed to leave them with the buyer or take them back home?"
Anna answers, "Oh… well anyone with a brain knows that you leave delivered goods with the buyer, otherwise they are not delivered."
Several of the unranked soldiers are hiding their smiles and trying not to laugh. The ranked officer steps into Kazu's personal bubble and says, "Maybe I should teach you a lesson on how to treat your betters."
Kazu leans down to talk eye to eye with the soldier, "Since when is the ignorant smart enough to teach anything to anyone? You might be able to teach a slug to be slimier, but you are still not better than it."
The angry officer reaches to pull his sword, but Anna is faster. Her wide beam water shot slams into his knee, bending his leg backward. As he goes down she knees him in the face breaking his nose and knocking him out.
Kazu turns to the other two officers and sends mini-tornados into their faces. As they begin to yell orders the air in their lungs gets pulled out by the mini-tornados. Gasping and running around trying everything to lose the mini-tornados, but less than a minute later the officers are lying unconscious on the ground. The unranked soldiers stand around unsure of what to do, or more precisely what's going to happen to them.
As the Officers lay passed out on the ground, Kazu addresses the soldiers. "I understand that you do not want to be in this army, am I correct?" Without taking their eyes off of Kazu they all answer with an affirmative reply. "Albion is a couple of dozen kilometers in the direction we came from. A detachment of Albion troops is at the border, head that way, disarm when you see them, and they will give you safety until the war is over. Unless you want to go back to their army, it is in the opposite direction. What do you choose?"
Every one of the soldiers walks past Kazu and Anna, saying "thank you" as they pass. The rest of his team joins them as the soldiers walk towards the border.
Kazu asks, "What do we do with these three?"
Anna smiles, "Let's see what happens when we take them to their camp. Will they be interested in getting them back or will they also be expendable? We already know they will most likely kill the one with the broken leg, but what about the other two?"
Kazu contemplates for a moment, then responds. "Alright, but if they kill them, the officers from now on are 100% killable. No more being nice to them, and no second chances. If they will be ruthless to their men, we will treat them the same. I guess you can say it's an eye for an eye type of thing." Everyone nods in agreement.
As they begin walking towards the camp, Kazu carries the officer with the broken leg, and the sisters carry the other two.
Anna walking beside Kazu says, "I think I bruised my knee on his face. Could you look at it later?"
Kazu smiles at her, "Absolutely, anytime you want me to inspect your legs just let me know. I'll look as much as you want… then I'll kiss your boo-boos until you feel better."
Anna blushes at the obvious flirting, then responds. "Do not give me that option, we'd never leave the tent."
Orolfie moves closer and says, "I have some boo-boos too, you are welcome to kiss them as much as you want."
After a few more minutes of walking and some mild flirting about boo-boos, Kazu, Orelfa, and Orolfie arrive just outside of the camp. A dozen soldiers stop them on the road. Anna, Felix, and Felina had already split off to watch from the tree line. Examining the soldiers he can see running around, Kazu estimates that there are approximately 1,000 soldiers in this camp.
Kazu says, "We found these men on the road and saw the smoke from your fires, I figured they were related so we brought them to you. Seeing that your uniforms match, it looks like I was right."
One of the soldiers runs off, and a moment later comes back with a highly ornamented officer. "Who are you, why do you have my men? Where are the rest of the men they were with? Why are you traveling with orcs?"
Kazu responds cordially. "As I was telling your men, I am a merchant. We were returning from delivering some goods and found these men lying on the road. We saw smoke from your fires and assumed the men were from here so we carried them here. These three are the only ones we found. As for the Orcs, these lovely Half-Orc ladies are my bodyguards. I never travel with goods or money without protection."
The Officer asks with a smirk, "If you are a merchant, where are your goods?"
Kazu looks at him disappointed, "Did you just ask why a merchant that just got done delivering goods has no goods? Please just take your men before you say anything else stupider."
The officer angrily eyes him as the soldiers take away the unconscious men.
Five minutes pass, then ten. Kazu tells the Officer, "Well, since I am bored of standing here, I guess we are going to head home now, bye."
The officer and six of his men stop Kazu and the sisters before they can get far. "You are going to stay here until we know what happened to them."
Kazu stands around with the girls for a few more minutes, then a soldier runs up to the Officer. The soldier talks quietly to the officer. Halfway through relaying the message the officer erupts, "What do you mean that some little brunette woman and a guy took out 12 soldiers? Get rid of those useless people, slowly. I want them to feel how disappointed Lord Ozul is with them."
Kazu asks, "Is everything ok? Are the three we brought in going to be ok?"
The officer looks up at Kazu's eyes, "They failed Lord Ozul, their lack of courage will be paid for with their lives. Worthless officers like that do not deserve to live, they were beaten by a merchant… and a girl… Is there anyone else you are traveling with?"
Kazu asks, "So anyone beaten by an enemy is expected to die? Must be horrible for a soldier's morale. I always treat my people with respect, especially my cute little brunette…"
The officer moves to grab his sword but Kazu moves faster. Kazu covers the officer's mouth with one hand and snaps the officer's wrist with the other hand.
Kazu leans closer to the officer, "I told my girls that if the injured officers were to be executed, all officers in this camp would die before we leave. Congratulations, your viciousness has led to your death." With that, he grabs the officer's head with the hand that was covering his mouth and snaps the officer's neck. Before he hits the ground, Orolfie and Orelfa take out the other two officers who are standing behind him. They punch them hard enough in the face to shatter their skulls and push the bones into their brains. The soldiers run away, heading back towards the camp. Halfway back to the camp, the soldiers stop and dive onto the ground. Three officers heading towards them drop face first into the dirt, two were hit with throwing knives, the third with a narrow beam WaterShot.
Kazu yells out, "If you are not an officer, you are not our enemy. Lay down your weapons and you will survive, fight alongside or defend the officers and we will have to kill you too."
As the six of them make their way through the camp, everyone that tries to fight, or has an officer's badge dies one after another. Kazu uses his spear, The sisters use their hammers, the twins use their stealth and knives, and Anna uses her WaterShot, a few fireballs, and her boe. They all make quick work of the officers as they come across them. They continue moving deeper into the enemy camp.
As Anna slices through an officer, a hidden officer lunges at her swinging his sword at her head. Anna notices just in time for him to barely miss her. She quickly turns her attention to the threat and fires off her narrow beam WaterShot. Her attack is blocked by his sword, cutting more than halfway through his sword in the process. He swings the sword at her again, the blade bending where she had cut into the blade. Finding his sword useless he throws it at her, missing her by more than a meter. He grabs at Anna trying to bring her to the ground. She twists to the side as he tries to overpower her. When they hit the ground she is next to him not under him. She fires a wide beam WaterShot directly at his neck. His head flies through the air, eyes still blinking as it lands on the ground.
As Anna gets up she says to the deceased officer, "Only Kazu gets to be on top of me, you grabby pervert." She then hits the body again with her wide beam WaterShot as she walks away.
As the team makes their way through the camp most of the soldiers throw their weapons down and yell out "Not an officer".
Ten minutes in Felix notices over thirty soldiers running from the camp towards the Warlord's territory. He and Felina move to cut them off before they can get away. Being faster and more agile than the soldiers they easily outpace them and cut them off.
Once they are in front of the soldiers the twins verify that they are all officers attempting to escape. As the officers become aware of some people in their way they stop and get into defensive stances. Seeing the small Neko's standing in front of them they grow overconfident.
Felix and Felina begin their attack on the officers.
Felina starts by using her shadow magic to obscure the vision of all the officers. Then with a smile, she summons her SteelClaw Lion.
Felix uses his earth magic to entrap the officer's feet, limiting their ability to move. Once everyone is stuck in place he starts firing metal spikes into the group.
Less than a minute later their battle was over. One-third of the officers were killed by other officers swinging blindly at the noises they heard around them. The SteelClaw Lion killed twelve of the remaining officers, the twins finished the rest.
Heading back to the main fight they find the battle over. 684 soldiers are sitting in a group 100 meters down the road with four people walking around them.
As they get closer they can hear Kazu talking. "... waiting here for my people to get back. Oh, looks like the last two just showed up. Good now we can process you all… until the Warlord is dealt with, all the regular soldiers will be sent to Touren Village where the Guard Commander will help you out. You will follow me to the road in a single file line, and a few of you will stay with me for a short conversation. The rest of you will follow the road until you meet the guards at the current border approximately twenty kilometers away. Once there you all will lay down your weapons, anyone who does not make it to the border will be considered as rejoining the army of the Warlord and will be treated as an officer. Understood?"
The soldiers give varying degrees of agreement, most replying "Yes sir."
Kazu starts walking towards the road, soldiers start filing in line behind him. The rest of his team stands spread out watching the soldiers. Kazu stops just on the other side of the road and instructs the soldiers to continue walking. Every once in a while he asks a soldier to join him on the roadside.
As the last soldiers pass Kazu the rest of his team joins him and the 16 soldiers sitting behind him.
Kazu turns around to address the soldiers. "Greetings, I'm sure you officers are all familiar with each other. Removing your rank was a good idea for you, it gave you several more hours of life." One of the soldiers starts to say something, but Kazu motions for him to be quiet. "I remember every face I have ever seen, plus their names and their clothing, so do not claim you are not an officer I saw each of you before you removed your insignias. Each of you is also sending out waves of bloodlust at us, whereas the soldiers we sent on their way were just happy to be free again. Now... which one of you is the highest ranked here?"
The officers look around at each other, six of them point to one of the officers. The officer they point out looks surprised.
Kazu nods at them, "Ok, so he is the one that gets to live?"
Immediately an officer stands and declares himself the highest ranked, then another, and five more after that.
Kazu, annoyed, tells them to sit down. After seeing what happened at the camp they all comply.
Kazu points at one of the officers, "You had the most junk on your chest, I'm guessing that means you are ranked highest out of the ones left. Stand up and come here."
The officer does as Kazu says, and a moment later he stands nervously in front of Kazu. "I want you to pick an officer to relay a message to Ozul. Anyone but yourself."
The officer looks at the others and picks one.
Kazu tells the officer to sit with the rest and calls the one he pointed to to join him. Once they are separated from the rest Kazu tells him the message he wants to relay to the warlord.
Once he is finished, he embeds a piece of metal into his neck then hands him a sword and tells him to go. Once the officer is on his way Kazu returns to the other officers.
Kazu looks at them contemplatively and then turns to his team. "What do we do with these 15 officers?"
Anna answers, "Well it feels wrong to execute prisoners, but we can not let them go. Let's take them to Touren Village and put them on trial for war crimes, I'm sure the soldiers have plenty to share about them."
Kazu smiles at her, "Sounds good, plus it will let us go home for a bit. I know it's only been a day, but I miss the rest of the family. Let's bind them then head out."
Just after sundown, they run into the makeshift border checkpoint as the soldiers they sent ahead are being processed into the province. After explaining the situation, the guards let Kazu, his team, and the officers pass through. As they get through the mass of former soldiers Commander Behlah greets them.
Kazu explains why he is back so soon and why these soldiers are bound by ropes. Lord Behlah calls for some guards to escort them to the jail as they continue talking. After half an hour the debriefing ends and Kazu and his team excuse themselves to head home. Heading a little deeper into Albion territory brings them home.
As they arrive home, the ladies in the house rush out to greet them. A long round of hugs later and they can make their way inside. Tara and Ari were the last ones to take their turns hugging and greeting everyone. Arwain was conflicted with who she wanted to be carried by, eventually, she ended up choosing Orelfa.
Once inside, Orolfie and Orelfa declare it to be bath time, and pull Kazu upstairs with them. Everyone else follows them into Kazu's bathroom. A mound of clothes ended up growing near the sinks as everyone got undressed to bathe. Kazu fills the tub, then everyone squeezes into the bathtub. Some of the girls had to sit in someone else's lap, Felina and Arwain chose Kazu's thighs. Bath time ended up becoming an impromptu debriefing with each of the team telling their parts of their short adventure. Naturally, the bath took much longer than normal, between the conversation and the fact that a dozen people were in a bath designed to comfortably fit up to six people, they all ended up getting a bit pruned in the process. Eventually, they finish and everyone heads out to their rooms.
When Kazu and Anna are about to head to bed, there is a knock on the bedroom door. When Anna answers Petal, Lina, and Rask are standing in the hallway. Anna motions for them to come in. They follow her to the bed where Kazu is now lying. Once Anna is settled they crawl into bed. Lina cuddles Kazu opposite of Anna mirroring her, Rask lays on top of Kazu's chest, and Petal cuddles up to Anna. Everyone wishes everyone else a good night, and eventually, leaving Kazu with the TV show The Waltons' "Goodnight John Boy" echoing in his head begging to be said. Eventually, they all settle down and fall asleep.