KING OF BEASTS (Hiatus)

“I didn’t expect to see you here.” Ares narrowed his eyes towards Asyllia. “So, uh, why are you here exactly?” He asked as Asyllia then hoisted the sack over and then opened it up to reveal the contents inside.

Black armour made of black viper leather with the plates of metal that the humans typically wore woven into the leather. Ares picked it up and then slapped at the leather. “Now this is beautiful…” He whispered as he ran his fingers along the tough leather and then rubbed the cool metal. “Is this for me?” Ares asked as he threw a look up to her.

Asyllia bowed her head. “Roshe had asked the leather workers to use the black viper leather at his disposal to create an armour for you. When he had heard that you had left, he finished it as quickly as he could. Lana asked me to bring it to you.”

‘Ah!’ Ares smiled. “Thank you.” He said, smiling broadly. No doubt everyone thought he was smiling about the armour, but he was more so thinking about Asyllia listening to Lana. He had been a little worried that she wouldn’t have listened, but his worries were for nought.

“Do you wish to stay here, or would you prefer to leave back?” Ares asked as he started to strip down and then put on his armour. It was quite a snug fit, quite comfortable as he had expected. He smiled and then began to stretch inside his armour before then walking over to Armal, leading Asyllia as he did.

“I will remain by your side, until you wish for me to leave.”

“You may as well stay.” Ares shrugged. He had hoped nothing bad would occur during his time away, but what could happen in a few days? Ares thought about it for a few moments, realising he may have jinxed everything. He shook his head. 

“Armal, don’t fire on the human soldiers. They are our prisoners now. They have surrendered. If they do not comply to the surrender, then you may kill each one that does not wish to remain alive.” Ares nodded towards them. Armal did not reply, but he did place down his drum. 

“Send a message to Morak and call for him. We may as well go and help out Sohka in case he needs our assistance. It’s only been an hour or so, we should be able to get to Sohka to help him.”

Armal motioned a hand to a scout and they left. Ares waited to see if Armal needed anything from him, but when he remained silent, Ares turned to the archers that had helped. “Thank you all for your help, this plan would not have worked without out, at least, not without much more death on our side. If any of you are injured please see to a medic of some kind, I need to check on my own warriors.” 

Ares then turned and checked on the Marching Blades. Many of them had been injured during the various clashes at the end, though none seemed to be nearly dead. One Marching Blade was keeled over to their side. Ares approached them. 

“Soldier, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Ares-kin.” They managed to mumble. 

“Are you sure?” Ares asked as he then smelt something weird in the air. He then looked down to see that their trousers had darkened slightly. Ares reached out a hand and then splashed water all over them. “If you need anything, do call for me.”

The soldier turned to look at Ares, a little confused no doubt since they had just been doused in water, but Ares waved and then checked on the others that had sustained injuries. 

“Are they alright?” Ares asked Gantal. 

“Well enough to fight.”

“Good, though they can rest here for some time. If any other soldiers appear, deal with them in the same way that we had dealt with the humans just so.”

Gantal bowed her head and then went back to checking on the Marching Blades. 

The sounds of hooves striking the ground covered the area as Morak appeared riding on an oxen, along with another ten or so warriors.

“Your plan worked.” Morak said, though Ares wasn’t sure if they were surprised or if they were annoyed. 

“It worked well enough.” Ares shrugged with a smile on his face. “How was it on your end?”

“Nothing happened.”

“That’s good. I was thinking about heading to Sohka to assist him, would you care to join me?”

Morak thought about it for a moment. “I cannot. I was tasked with defending this place.” 

Ares nodded. “A shame, but that’s fine. If you have a few warriors that wish to come and help, I ask that you send them my way. I’m going to head out, but the Marching Blades will remain here to help out. They have their single task, please take good care of them though.”

Morak looked over to the walls. “What is that?”

“Those are our prisoners. I would like to discuss their treatment with you once I am done helping Sohka’s side. I ask that you leave them be. If you have any bread, I’d like for you to toss it over to them, but otherwise leave them between the walls. If any try and escape you have my blessing to mow them down as you see fit, but only those that are trying to escape. I’ll leave Asyllia here to assist you in such an endeavour.”

Morak nodded and then grunted something out to his oxenblut and five of them returned. Morak eyed up the walls. “You are going to keep them alive?”

“Yes. I don’t know how you deal with prisoners and such, but I’d like to be there to make sure everything is done in a… fair and decent manner.” So many words had gone through his mind. Works like kosher, halal, humane, but none of them quite fit in this world. He wasn’t sure if such concepts even existed, though Ares did have to wonder if any others from his world had arrived here. 

“Very well.” Morak replied back. He spoke few words, but spoke them with far less disdain now. Ares nodded towards them and then waited as about a hundred or so of his warriors arrived, with five of the oxenblut leading them. “You may lead them to help Sohka.”

Ares nodded and then shook Morak’s forearm. “Good luck.” Ares said as he led the hundred and five oxfolk away.

“I don’t need it, you’re the one going off to battle.”

“I don’t need it, I’m the one that will end the battle.” Ares chuckled. “Don’t think too hard about it, I know that it didn’t make sense.” Ares laughed.

Ares began to lead the warriors away, marching them out. It would take about an hour to get to the fight, though he increased the pace. 

“Oxenblut! Take twenty warriors each. Do with them as you please on the battlefield, as long as it follows my orders in a rough manner, I won’t stop you from taking the initiative. I’m going to go and scout the area ahead and I’ll let you know the situation. Otherwise keep marching straight.” Ares then waved at them and headed forward, almost leaping with each stride. 

He approached around the side of the hill to see the human army marching up to meet the oxfolk. There were about three hundred of them that were marching towards him to try and flank the oxfolk. He then returned back to the oxfolk as quickly as he could.

“Are you ready for some fun?” Ares grinned.