For Glory!

After hours of cultivating, he finally stopped to rest and gather his strength, just in time for Kudret to knock on the door, a smile blossomed on Jun's face as he went outside.

"It's finally time, sir."

They walked to the gates where he saw the men, equipped with swords and wooden shields; there was also a rise in their number since the last time.

Jun whistled as he heard galloping, Icarus running towards him as the wind made his hair flutter. His head turned towards the soldiers, their faces filled with valour and excitement.

He got on top of Icarus quickly, his spear in hand as he felt the oncoming battle, his body shivering in excitement, it was his first time leading soldiers, he had seen countless wars and battles in his old life, but he had not participated in any of them, he was a solo-player, but that was all about to change.

The soldiers turned around, facing a certain direction. He got in the front of them, raising his spear he pointed forward.

"Soldiers! March forward! To find your destiny and your glory!"

"For Glory!"

A huge smile appeared on Jun's face as he heard them shout.

{Damn...that feels awesome.}

The sound of steps spread towards the forests and the hills, paving an unknown road for their future empire, for their descendants.

After hours and hours of walking they set camp, as tents rose from the ground, Jun and Kudret got in theirs, to set the strategy.

"All right, how much do we know?"

"What we know is that it is filled with bandits, controlled by them, and the population is a mess, every 4 days they go out to hunt, today is that day."

"Do they have any fortifications?"

"None, only some guards that patrol the gate."

Kudret observed Jun, waiting for his plan, he knew that this was his lord's first battle and was waiting for his plan, to see if there were any mistakes he could fix, a mild sketch of the strategy had already appeared on Jun's mind.

"All right...it has been 3 days since we discovered them...we will use bait to lure them out to hunt and we will split up and ambush them."

Kudret immediately raised the question on his mind.

"We don't have any bait, so that plan seems impractical..."

Jun smiled.

"Who said we don't? We are going to use my horse."

Kudret's eyes widened as his head flicked towards Jun's, surprise and confusion in his eyes.

"We are going to kill him? Sir, he is a rare breed, at least take one that isn't."

Jun shook his head as he looked at Icarus, resting.

"No, we are going to let them see him, and then he will run, and they will run after him."

"Sir, still it's dangerous to let him go there, he might get slaughtered immediately, let's send one more normal."

"No, he will survive, he is the only one that can do it, trust me."

Kudret sighed as he thought about the problems that might occur, but couldn't find any so he just shook his head, his lips curving upwards, reaching his eyes.

They both nodded at each other, the plan was set, now all they needed to do was rest, and wait for tomorrow, after a long day of walking the soldiers had gotten tired, so they immediately went to sleep, since Jun and Kudret had been with horses they were the least tired, so they decided they were stay on watch.

Naturally, the soldiers opposed to it, they couldn't just let their lord keep watch while they were sleeping, but Jun was firm in his position, he told them to rest as they were needed more tomorrow than him, in the end, the soldiers obeyed his decision and went back to their tents.

It was summer in real life, and it was the same in the game as the stars were revealed in the sky.

Kudret came up to him, holding a black cloth with a hood attached to it, Jun took it from him as he wrapped it on his shoulders, complimenting the night as he turned almost invisible.

"Sir, you can go ahead and rest, I'll watch."

Jun turned towards Kudret with a smile hanging on his lips.

"No, I'll stay here, watch with you, it is my duty now as I have promised the soldiers...and after all, a man must keep his word."

Kudret chuckled as he looked in front, his eyes filled with excitement, it had been a long time since he fought a battle, he thought he had gotten rusty.

As they kept conversing about strategies and Kudret's past life and what he had seen, the sun slowly appeared on the horizon, shining down on their faces.

The soldiers woke up and slowly packed their tents, Jun's brows furrowed as he looked at them.

"Kudret."

"Yes, sir?"

"Have them do drills that will make them pack up faster; I want them to be ready at all costs, for if an enemy ambushes us in the future...at this pace we would already be dead."

Kudret nodded as he looked at them, it was quite slow, he already had some drills in his mind, but they had to wait.

After they were done, they got in formation as Jun told them the plan, they naturally agreed. He got on top of Icarus, the black robe still on his shoulders.

"Forward!" Jun shouted.

Time passed as they walked slowly when they finally saw a camp, filled with filthy air, the army hid inside the forest, it was the enemy camp in front of them.

Everybody's arms tensed as they grabbed on to their weapons, Jun got off Icarus as he ordered it to run in front of them, it started running with unimaginable speed but left in enough time for the guards to see it, immediately they told the camp, and started running after it, leaving some behind to look after the camp.

The troops started splitting up in the forest into two groups, both taking a side of the forest. Jun and the troops waited deep in the forest as he saw Icarus running towards them going through the middle, leading the bandits to their doom, the soldiers hands started shaking, thinking about how they were going to kill someone for the first time, their pupils contracting and expanding.

The bandits hollered as they saw Icarus stopped, thinking they had finally caught him, when suddenly sharp metals appeared from the bushes, impaling them, blood spurting in all directions of the forest, getting on the soldiers as well as Jun. It took great effort for the soldiers not to vomit.

Jun saw their faces and shook his head as he opened his mouth talking to all of them.

"Men, taking a life is hard, I know because I have done it, it ruined me but fortunately I had people close to me to help me, but you guys are soldiers, you are supposed to kill for your country, die for your country..."

Jun sighed as he looked at the camp.

"...looking for glory is a hard thing, you have to shed blood and take lives, but what can you do...except be numb to it."

He sent Icarus again to do the same thing, the soldiers got in their positions, their eyes slowly stabilizing. After a while a new batch of bandits came, hollering and shouting, only to be slaughtered without knowing how.

This went on for about 2 times before the bandits realized something was off. He sent Icarus one last time before it came back, luring the last batch of bandits, but this time the bandits were a more careful as they came slowly, waling to the forest. Jun ordered his soldiers to make a horizontal line, walking close to the forest as the bandits came close.

When the bandits were close enough, the only thing they saw was eyes filled with rage before they got killed, Jun smiled, the soldiers had finally grown numb to the blood.

"Intruders!" The guards bellowed as the gates were opened, bandits rushing out like a torrent.

"Shield wall!" The soldiers raised their shields in front of them, marching forward, Jun and Kudret in the middle of the formation, the only ones with spears.

The bandits crashed into the shields, getting impaled, some tried jumping over it but were quickly impaled by Jun or Kudret, making them porcupines.

"Forward!" Soldiers started stomping the ground as the pushed the enemy with their shields, walking on their dead comrades.

"ONE!" Pushing the enemy they suddenly raised their round shields over their heads.

"TWO!" Extending their arms, they thrust their weapons into the enemy, killing a whole line of them, and then quickly lowered their shields, their cold eyes filled with killing intent, looking towards them at the bandits.

The bandits had never seen someone have those types of eyes as strength left their legs, one immediately dropped his weapon and started running, screaming.

With one leaving, it was a chain reaction as weapons started dropping, faces full of horror running in all types of directions.

A smile blossomed on Jun's face as he sighed, he stood up straight, pumping his fist in the air.

"For Glory!"

Smiles appeared on their faces as they copied his movement.

"For Glory!"

...