บท 473: A tribe's desire
As they walked through the burning outpost, Hera was glad all the people here had dissolved, and she wouldn't have to see the bodies. This wasn't the best option since the whole point was for her to lose the fear of killing people or at least lessen it. Yet, a large part of her was happy with the situation. The time she had to be happy was short-lived. When all the ice popped out of nowhere, arrows started to fly from the city below. Not that they were able to do anything, the volcano tribe's army was too high up in the mountain for the projectiles to even get close to hitting them.
"Releon, can ice do anything to you?" Hera poked one of the shards of ice coming from the ground with her glaive. Doing so didn't cause anything. It only showed that the ice was real and extremely cold to the point where not even being close to the volcano tribesmen was enough to make it melt.
"It can't hurt us. But it will slow us considerably. More than being made out of fire, we are made out of heat. If we cool off completely, it would be the same as dying," Releon stepped away from the ice.
Hera walked in front of the army and used her fire spray to make lines of fire around the road, using her court as a starting point for some of them to cover a wider area. Her idea was that by doing so, it would fight back against the cold and allow the volcano tribe to move without a problem.
"That's a good idea. Can you make that spell on my cloud?" Blue was walking by Hera since she wasn't doing anything. During the first attack, Blue barely had anything to do. The plan was for her to fight against any of the stragglers, but there were barely any who came out through the front. Most people who tried to run ran to the back of the outpost, and only a couple went through the front. The army quickly dispatched those two without even getting an order from the controller.
"Are you sure that's the best plan? Didn't we try this before, and your cloud ended up being a literal rain of fire? It's fine for them, but we would get hurt by that," Hera said.
"That's true. Maybe we can figure something out."
"What are you trying to do?" Releon got closer to the duo.
"I can make a storm that is affected by some spell. We thought about using the spell that Hera is using, but that would make it harder for us," Blue explained.
"Oh, what about this?" Releon created a small ball of fire in his hand and expanded the flame, making it vanish. There was no fire, but the area became several times warmer, almost like they were by the side of the volcano.
"That would work great!" Blue gasped, and in a few moments, she had a new cloud covering the entire area where the army was located. For Hera and the others, the place felt like it was a scorching desert.
"Damn, I'll stay close to the ice then," Hera walked closer to the side of the road while the rest of the army was mainly staying in the middle, closer to the areas where she had set up the lines of fire. Fighting with those kinds of restrictions would be something very complicated and it seemed like things would be even worse in the city.
After Blue started using her cloud to keep the army's temperature, Hera warned Alex about the new development. Hera left the command of the army to Blue and went to join Alex and the scouts to check for the next possible trap. It didn't take long for her to find it. It quickly became apparent that, despite their best efforts, the people of Bonpei were set in their ways. The next three traps, located between the first and the second outpost, were exactly like the first one. Long patches of discolored dirt hid a pit and a spell circle made to create water. The only difference was that now, there was another spell circle that would freeze the water after the hole was full.
"Guys? They're getting a bit restless here," Blue called through the communicators.
"What do you mean? They're nervous?" Alex asked while Hera was busy taking care of another trap.
"No. They're saying that this is taking too long and they should just rush the city and kill everybody," Blue sounded exasperated.
"Are you serious? Are they that dumb?" Alex gasped angrily.
"Apparently so. I'm trying to say that they should wait and that we are in charge, but they're not listening. I don't think I can hold on much longer before they just start running toward the city," Blue explained.
"Hera? Can your command skill reach them from here?" Alex asked.
"I honestly have no idea. Let me try," Hera cleaned her throat and spoke loudly in a commanding voice, "Releon, you and all the captains have to wait for our clear before moving forward. Tell Blue that you understand this order."
She couldn't actually tell if people had heard her orders or not, But she hoped that blue would speak up, telling them that things had calmed down. Unfortunately, what happened was the complete opposite of it. There was some yelling coming from the volcano army, and the ground started to rumble. The entire mass of warriors was running down the road heading towards the second outpost, not caring if there were any traps, enemies, or anything else. They just wanted to reach their target and then attack.
"What is the meaning of this, captain? This is not the plan that we agree to follow!" Alex yelled to the incoming army.
Releon scoffed, "What is the point of following a plan made by a cowardly human? We are mighty warriors from the volcano. We don't need to fear any traps or tricks your kind might try. All we have to do is to kill those who have betrayed us. You're free to do whatever plan you're trying to do, but the army will march on."
"Why the fuck did you even ask for help then?" Alex gasped and started to run along with the scouts, who now had become the actual vanguard of the attack.
"You had a chance to prove your worth, and you squandered it by being overly cautious with petty tricks. You even allowed the people of Bonpei to create those ice shards to hinder us. Now we shall take matters into our own hands," the captain of the scouts replied as he dashed forward.
Hera didn't want to be left behind, so she started running alongside the army. Despite their change of tactics, the warriors of the volcano tribe followed Alex's suggestion. They had two battalions in front with the line of ranged attackers behind them, and Blue was right in the middle of those two groups. She was trying to get ahead to join the vanguard, but, unfortunately, the controller wasn't as fast as the tribesman, and she didn't want to use her cloud to move around since being in the sky would make her a huge target. Even though this wasn't the plan, Blue was actually happy about it. She wasn't one for the slow and steady approach. She would rather dash head first into an army than make sneaky or complicated plans to circumvent the opponent's strengths. She could see the value of it, but she wasn't very good or interested in things like that.
Luckily for Blue, it seems like that plan had unraveled. Before even reaching the outpost, the tribesmen ended up triggering another trap. Five or so members of the vanguard ended up falling to the pit and were frozen to death before they managed to get out. Yet, The rest of the army didn't seem to mind, or they decided that those who fell into the traps were already lost causes. Hera tried to stop to help them, but Releon told her to let go. Waiting around would only bring more damage to the army since the people from Bonpei would be able to attack them more easily. With a frown, Hera had no choice but to do as she was told. The army was walking on top of the trap that was now frozen, meaning that any attempts to change had to wait for the entire force of the volcano army to pass before she could even have a proper look at what happened. Hera started walking again after meeting up with Blue, since she was already far away from the vanguard.
When they were starting to get closer to the outpost, Alex jumped in front of the army and started running alone towards the structure. Before she reached where Bonpei's forces were located, the assassin seemingly vanished in thin air. Hera and Blue weren't sure what to make of it, but they decided to trust their friend for the moment. The tribesmen kept going forward at a steady pace, and the army in the outpost seemed to be getting restless. Some arrows and spells were flung towards the flaming creatures about to attack them, but they were easily blocked by the vanguard, who was covered in igneous rock. The few projectiles that went far enough to be a threat were stopped by one of Blue's clouds still floating around them, ensuring that no aerial attack would hit the group.
It didn't take long for the attacks to become more frequent and threaten the entirety of the army, but Releon didn't seem to mind. He commanded the troops to press on even faster, ignoring Hera's orders to focus on blocking the attacks. Maybe due her proximity to the group, but Blue seemed to still have some sort of hold on the range battalion, and that was enough to tell them to intercept the incoming attacks.
Suddenly, some yelling came from the outpost. There were cries of pain, and people were asking what was going on or where the attacker was, but apparently, no one could find them. In the middle of the road, Hera could see some odd greenish energy floating around. When a person got close to that energy, countless slashes and cuts appeared all around their body. Then, a shadow appeared behind them, plunging a dagger into their heart. During that quick glimpse, Hera could recognize that this figure was, in fact, Alex doing her best to thin the numbers inside the makeshift fort.
When the rest of the army arrived, about two-thirds of the forces in the outpost were already dead. When Alex saw her friends getting closer, she appeared by their side, "You know. I expected a lot more from Bonpei's forces."
"Holy fuck, can you not do that? You are going to give me a heart attack," Blue jumped to the side when the assassin suddenly started speaking by her side.
"If you're going to have a heart attack because of that, you really should invest a bit more in endurance," Alex rolled her eyes, "But seriously, they are really weak."
"Are you thinking they are more of the strength in numbers kind of army?" Hera asked.
"Probably. I got curious, so I used observe. I remembered this time," Alex smiled at Hera, "Anyway, they were all level 18, and everyone in the tribe army is level 23 and up."
"Really? This feels kind of mean, then. Like, we are kind of bullying those people," Hera scratched her head as they walked inside the outpost with the rest of the army. The volcano tribe was dealing with any remaining warriors without any issues and lighting all the buildings on fire. It became even easier since Alex had already killed all their commanders. However, some were still trying to deal damage to the army in order to help those defending the city.
One of them was an assassin who was trying to reach any of the high-value targets of the army. The captains, the chieftain, or one of the humans working against their own kind. That assassin noticed the three humans talking and slowly started to approach the one closest to him. It was a woman with blond hair that seemed to be talking without a care in the world even while walking through this battlefield. Witnessing someone so carefree, even when surrounded by death, filled the assassin with rage. Seeing this as a chance to kill one of their generals, even if it was at the expense of his own life, the assassin dashed through one of the burning buildings and emerged right behind the blond woman. But, before reaching the traitor, two floating hand axes came out of nowhere and parried his dagger. As a loud metal banging against metal echoed through the area, the woman turned around with her glaive and decapitated the assassin with a swift motion. During the few seconds it took for the man's head to hit the ground, he could only think of how there was no hope left. His city would fall.
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