Chapter 235 A War On The Horizon

POV General:

The general stood in the middle of a large, white tent. His whole face was wrenched and red in anger. He was clenching his fists with his armoured greaves creaking and throwing sparks.

"What do you mean by infringement of money?! This is prosperous accusations without any proof." The general shouted at full of his lungs, his angry voice resounding throughout the camp.

His face was so red that he looked like he would pop and explode at any moment.

A man in a black gown that stood before him just narrowed his glasses and continued calmly, "Your excellency, I will see for myself if it is true or not. I will investigate logs of your legion, interrogate all important officers and make my conclusion. Until then, you are temporally suspended from the command. Please leave this area so, I can start my investigation."

The general turned towards the exit, his angry steps loudly hitting the ground, "Just wait, your Honour. I have powerful supporters who will not tolerate this misuse of your power."

"Do I understand this properly that you are trying to threaten me to influence my investigation." the bureaucrat looked straight at him, slightly lifting his glasses and revealing his empty, soulless and cold eyes.

"No, of course not. It's just a misunderstanding." the general turned meek and panicked out of the tent, almost running.

'I hate bureaucrats.'

Three years later:

POV Tanya:

A young woman sat in an oversized cushioned chair, maids standing all around her. She smiled meekly, but inside, her emotion was burning, 'No, I was wrong. I have won.'

"How dare you look like this upon my future wife?! Consider her word with the same weight as mine!" The shouting of her fiance was resounding from the neighbouring room.

After drinking the blood, he changed. He became much more temperament with a fiery, explosive aura around him.

But that wasn't what made her smile, 'His much less concentrated blood made him listen to my words with little to no objections.'

It was the natural hierarchy of the draconic species that made their society tick and work.

Tanya finally grabbed a letter from a small round table near her and tore the seal apart.

Her eyes scanned its content, and her face immediately warped with all of the maids shaking in fear and windows and furniture in the room vibrating as her anger manifested into a terrifying aura.

'So it has happened. Now it is all on her. There is nothing more that I can do.'

Six months later:

POV ???:

A young man in his early thirties stood on top of a tall wall, looking at the wast swatches of fields stretching under him.

'Such a calm and peaceful life.' it was years since he entered this world. He slowly learned the language of his captors and gained their trust.

He was no longer the same. Years of challenging yet rewarding manual work on the fields changed him.

At first, he hated that there was no adventure, but now he realised how calm and stressless it was compared to life on the modern earth, 'No dirty air. No looming debts or inflation. Only working on the fields and then drinking with friends.'

His only stress was the massive volcano behind that was smoking more and more with each passing year, the tremors occasionally shaking the whole town. Yet everyone looked like they didn't care.

'Hopefully, I am not in an alternate reality Pompeii.'

But recently, bad news sent him into a panic, 'War is coming. The city is arming itself up.'

He looked down at the collum of heavily armed kobolds marching down the road, the rhythmic sound of their armoured boots hitting the paved road reaching all the way towards him.

Ding!

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POV Alesia:

The young elf was looking at the large map of their whole surroundings. She had a terrifying smile on her face, 'Stupid mortals, they think that they can trample on the territory of my master? No, they will end up dying in my trap.'

The old count, their most experienced war veteran, pointed with the tip of his sword towards a narrow part of the river canyon that was the best path to cross the mountains, "When they reach this point, we will attack with a heavy infantry regiment from the ground and wyverns knights from the air."

Alesia curiously turned her gaze towards the spot where he pointed, "I guess we will attack during the night in tandem with the cursed most..."

"No, they will be on their guard during the night. But during daylight, after days without spotting any enemy during a day and long nights of fighting, they will be too complacent and tired to respond effectively to a sudden attack."

"Ehmm? Isn't it kinda too simple?" she looked at it, feeling like it lacked more maneuvering and feints.

"No, the more complex the plan, the more points it can go wrong. In the worst case, we can still use our forces in the kingdom to disrupt their supply chains from their flank."

One month later:

POV ???:

The rays of the light finally shone from behind the horizon, the scary glowing eyes in the distance vanishing as if they had never even existed.

The darkness slowly lifted from the long canyon with a river flowing through its centre.

After the entire night of fighting, the soldiers and priests finally lowered their weapons, their whole bodies covered in blood and sweat.

"How long is this cursed canyon? We have been marching for days, yet there is still no end to it."

"This place is evil? What is even to find here."

A voice of an officer in a feathered helmet and a blue cape on his back boomed across the canyon, outshooting all of the voices of discontent. "Soldiers, make tents! We will rest for half of the day and then continue marching! The sooner we cross this cursed land, the sooner we will rest!"

Suddenly, something whistled through the air, and the next second, a large harpoon burning in fire penetrated through the officer, pinning him to the ground as if he was just a bug. He couldn't even shout before flames exploded from the gaps in his lamellar armour, incinerating him from the inside out, leaving behind only a blackened and glowing red armour and a pile of ash.

"We are under..." before the soldiers could even organise, more fiery harpoons rained from the cliff, raining upon their disorganised lines, penetrating through their unenchanted armour as if they were made of paper.

The soldiers exploded in flames one by one, turning into human torches while the rest panicky got up on their feet, forming a defensive formation.

"Ahhh!" cries filled the canyon, the remaining soldiers quickly organising and forming a defensive ring under the protection of the glowing barriers of priests and battlemages. The harpoons kept raining, bouncing off them, leaving only minor cracks in their translucent blue surface.

The rain of harpoons stopped, the soldiers carefully observing the three stories tall cliffs around them, their bodies tense while the priests looked around in horror, finding out there were no injuries to tend to as they all turned into ash.

The black silhouettes moved on the cliff before jumping down. The soldiers shook, seeing the tall figures covered in enchanted heavy armour surrounding them from all sides, pointing their glowing burning polearms at them.

Each of them was so tall and imposing with golden glowing eyes and long black horns on their helmets that the soldiers slightly retreated backwards, their whole formation shrinking.

"You have trespassed upon the territory of the Vesuvian Draconic Kingdom! You have forfeited your lives." A tall armoured monstrosity with a long red cape shouted in a coarse, inhuman, cold voice.

The horns on his helmet were different. They didn't look like they were made of metal. Instead, they looked like real horns that were blazing hot.

"We surrender!" one of the soldiers shouted in panic, and more voices followed. They were all tired and almost out of mana. Their lines were devastated after the surprise attack, with only the molten armour sewn over the ground remaining of their friends.

There was no response. The armoured attackers kept marching forwards, the sounds of their armoured boots getting closer and closer, their sharp blades glinting in the rays of the morning sun.

Suddenly massive shadows descended from the sky. They were giant armoured beasts in black armour carrying the armoured knights. Their sharp and long claws glinted as they plunged towards the formation.

"They are wyverns!" someone shouted in panic while the enemy heavy infantry loudly cheered.

The first beast crashed with their claws against the shield with a loud scratching noise, the claws tearing at the barrier with blue sparks flying in all directions. Massive cracks spread through the shield, with a mage falling unconsciously towards the ground.

Then another and another followed, diving against the barrier with their long claws, the glowing blue shield falling apart under their dives.

At the same time, the heavy infantry in black armour advanced towards their formation.

"Quickly send a message. We must warn others!" one of them finally got out of the shock, and then a tiny wave of magic rushed through the air, vanishing in the distance.