Chapter 32: Conflict
Faruth led his forces deeper into the forest, as if to avoid the burning midday sun above them. With every step that they took, the battle ahead drew closer, causing the air around them to grow dense and heavy. A choking sensation was present in all of them, yet none of them felt fear. Under the leadership of their chieftain, they had absolute confidence in their victory, even if they might not make it out alive themselves.
Soon, Faruth had led his forces to the edge of the forest, just a stones throw away from the enemy village. Luckily, the enemy were completely unaware as they had suspected, not a single one had caught sight of Rose or Wulfarth. Faruth felt pride in their skills.
By now, every member of the village could see the Lizardmen. They patrolled around the village with weapons seemingly much lesser than their own, filling Faruth's forces with even more confidence than before. But what really caught their attention was similar to last time, the cages in the middle of the village.
Every member had listened to what occurred in the village from the mouth of Faruth himself, but even then, seeing it personally effected them much more than only hearing of it as a tale. Just like Faruth and the others, the sight of their own brethren being tortured and mistreated was the final nail in the coffin. The pride and confidence they felt before lessened somewhat. What replaced it, however, was unfathomable rage causing even their own skin to crawl around them. The air around seemed as if it had thickened twice over, maybe even more.
As this was happening, Faruth had stepped to the forefront of their ranks and turned to face them, before speaking to them once more.
["I now how you all feel... I know what it's like. I feel the exact same way. So lets show these bastards what happens when you piss us off!"] {Faruth}
Before the crowd could break into cheers this time, Faruth opened his mouth to speak again.
["Right, it's about time we get this going! Alneth, Rath, Drath, you're with me. Wulfarth, take Marth with you and strike from behind, don't forget about Alice. Grimanth, I'm trusting you to follow up from behind. Make sure to give us any aid that you can. Hoki, Droki, you'll lead the rest as a ranged team. Remember, don't move too far from the tree line, you never know what might happen. And all of you, most importantly, kill every last one!"] {Faruth}
Finishing his sentence, Faruth threw his fist up into the air, causing roars and shouts to erupt from his party. By now, the Lizardmen must have heard them, he could see them looking towards one another in confusion, but it was too late. Their death had already been set in stone.
Answering their confusion, Faruth burst from the undergrowth, his vanguard following swiftly behind. The Lizardmen seemed to mock their lacking numbers, Faruth could hear them breathing sighs of relief and sending mocking laughs their way. But this only brought a grin to his face.
'As foolish as they are weak, eh?'
What brought the Lizardmen from their delirium was the rain of support from the ranged unit at the back. Though they couldn't see their enemies, what they could see were the arrows and stones raining down on them, led by bolts of bright blue magic crashing into their already scattered forces.
Though it wasn't the most effective way of killing them, it was the best way to confuse and scare them, leaving an opening for the vanguard to catch. In the background, Grimanth shouted the name of his skills as he activated them, leading to a greater fear factor.
He cast [Breath of the Wind] and [Warriors Heart] onto the charging forces, causing them to suddenly pick up speed as they ran. [Breath of the Wind] gave the receiver +10 Agility for 20 minutes at level 2, whereas [Warriors Heart] gave +15 Vitality and +5 Endurance for 10 minutes at level 1. Even with his old age, [Warriors Heart] was a skill that Grimanth had only picked up recently. As he was training the mages to better use their magic, he told Faruth that he had gained an enlightenment, before creating the skill himself.
Now, the vanguard was only a few metres away from the cowering Lizardmen that were on the brink of fleeing already. As they continuously drew closer, the Lizardmen began to gather together, forming small groups. Whether this was out of fear or tactics, Faruth had no idea. But at this signal, he stopped limiting his strength to that of his soldiers and shot into their ranks, sword in hand.
The first group that he came into contact with attempted to resist, they put up their makeshift spears in an attempt to block. But for more theatrics, Faruth used [Slash] as he struck down, cleaving not only the two Lizardmen in front of him in half, but their morale with it.
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[[Congratulations! You have slain a Lizardman Warrior:]]
[[You gained 125 XP]]
[[You gained: Lizardman Tooth x 3]]
[[You gained: Lizardman Scale x 1]]
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[[Congratulations! You have slain a Lizardman Warrior:]]
[[You gained 125 XP]]
[[You gained: Lizardman Tooth x 4]]
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Without paying attention to the notifications, Faruth dove right back into the combat, taking a Lizardman head as he did so, the skills [Swordsmanship] and [Precision] that he gained during the fight with Fulbash helped incredibly as he cut the the tide of enemies. By the end of the fight, both of the skills had risen a level on their own.
At this point, the rest of the vanguard had caught up with him, diving into the combat themselves. Alneth began smashing the heads of the Lizardmen with his stone gauntlets, but even then, it was quite a nice ending in comparison to being killed by Rath and Drath.
In their hands, were 'sticks' about 1 and a half metres long, with large rocks attached to the end through the rope that the villagers had weaved. Faruth knew that they reminded him of a hammer belonging to a certain old king, but he couldn't quite remember the name of it. As they swung the hammers, gusts of wind blew along with them. Despite their strength, even they couldn't quite control the hammers perfectly, occasionally getting dragged along with them as they danced about the battlefield.
With the momentum that they were being swung at, the 70-80 kilograms of weight turned into several hundred, blowing their enemies away. Though they may have gotten their bones broken and died from the fall, they were still the lucky ones. Once in a while, a Lizardman would push his back against a building in an attempt to retreat. As the hammers struck the building, the walls behind them shattered into thousands of fragments, the Lizardmen also followed suit, turning into a blood red paste that pooled on the soil below.
The conflict continued and the vanguard continued to ravage their forces. The ranged troops continued to pepper the battlefield with bolts of metal rain and the shaman continued to cast buffs and the occasional curse. But it didn't end. Th only thought raging in Faruth's head was.
'30 or 40, don't you mean 300 or 400?!'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Shakin_Bacon
Shakin_Bacon Author here! This is the chapter for reaching 30 spirit stones last week, so thank you to all of the people that gave power stones! The first ratings chapter is coming later today. And as always...
Thanks for the support!
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