Chapter 4 part 5 The calm before the storm

The Egyptians had all prepared for war the army was not as grand as it would have been expected consisting of only 400 hundred cavalry.

The supplies were extremely limited we had several weeks of preserved rations and enough gold amongst us to buy the supplies for the rest of the journey.

The commoners were equally motivated to ride to their deaths as the attack had wiped out most of the people of Phoebs.

This was no march for victory it was simply a march to vengeance and death despite knowing what I knew there was nothing I could do to stop them, my only hope was forcing the army to use their light weapons against me in close quarters and blowing us up continuously till they damaged their armour.

I had so much riding on me in this fight that you could say the weight of all existence rested on my shoulders.

The ride had gone on for 2 days and we had stopped to rest the horses and have scouts move out deeper into enemy territory the scouts would ride on for an extra day rest and start to setup forward camps 30 men had been set as scouts.

The army progressed almost effortlessly for the next 2 months without meeting any resistance our numbers were extremely tiny for an army so it was easy to buy up rations that would normally fill 3 caravans as they travelled plus our fast paced travel meant we advanced a lot faster.

It was only now that we saw the evidence of what we were chasing.

We had come up on a town that lay on the route to China and all that was left of it were large spikes of glass.

The ground showed no signs of panic they were simply obliterated without any discourse or warning with what likely was a single full power blast the likes of which I had countered.

The army rested here this night and while everyone slept I would investigate the glass spike.

I had snuck out in the middle of the night and as I arrived at the glass spike I noticed that Rameses was already here.

I gave up my stealth and called out to Rameses saying "I see I'm not the only 1 wondering what we have to look out for."

Rameses looked at me with tears rolling down his face and asked "Is this how you felt when she died? Is this what my sister went through when Alexander killed her husband? How could I have stopped her from taking revenge?"

I embraced my friend and said "The pain never fades it gets worse as time goes on, but we have to live on we have to live for them no matter how angry we are because when we disappear so does their memory."

Rameses cried harder as he looked up at me and said "Is revenge worth it?"

I wanted to lie to him and say that vengeance solves nothing but that was a pointless lie had his sister been allowed to kill Alexander all those years ago the immortals would still rule and the technology would advance with almost no end.

I still held Rameses and replied "We take vengeance to stop the cycle repeating on the next person and in so doing we feel guilt and pain easing the next person's problems."

Rameses stepped back and gave off a sad chuckle then said "I never expected to be lectured with new wisdom from 1 so young. Immortals truly shock me."

The 2 of us investigated the spike and all that was clear to me was under no circumstances should I allow the full power blast to hit the ground around me first.

The next day the army set out early and as we progressed we noticed that the army we were chasing was walking and had horses drawing the carriages of supplies.

This was surprising but it meant we could catch up with army a lot faster then would be expected.

The trampled earth gave us hints to their numbers and once the inspection was concluded we found the army was 100000 strong.

We had continued the ride for another day however this time when we setup camp we decided to hold a nobles council once more.

The tent was lit up poorly and the tent had holes all around however this meeting was extraordinarily important.

The nobles had all gathered and unlike the usual chatter they were as silent as the grave, Rameses and Russell were in the centre of the room and so was I.

The 3 of us knew what had to be said and finally Russell broke the silence saying "The enemy appears to be 100000 strong and to top that it seems that their men are in that heavy armour.

The next problem is they haven't been using the shields while walking so the armour likely isn't burning through power at a fast rate meaning they will be extra ordinarily hard to fight. Horas may intend to fight them but 100000 armoured men will simply destroy his chances in an instant."

Rameses finally spoke "We can not retreat in fact we have no choice but to attack and point out who the heads of this army are so Horas can kill them.

If this army makes it to Egypt all who are left behind will be slaughtered."

I finally spoke "It isn't going to get easier from here on out, my fight will only be a prelude to your deaths if you have family to live for we encourage you to consider this suicide march once more. You will have no vengeance only death."

The words seemed to sting at those standing in the room, some had a relative or 2 left behind in Egypt and from what was said staying or leaving may not make a difference but every chance we took towards killing Alexander and his cohorts increased the chance their families had to survive.

Those here for vengeance were denied that very chance of vengeance by their own hands and promised that their vengeance would be passed to me to exact and worst of all they had to hope that this army would be stumped out in China so that they could not carry on with their endless destruction.

The Egyptian army had gathered at the dawn and before setting out Russell, Rameses and myself repeated our words.

Tears flowed from the eyes of the men as despair set in most men's hearts.

Unlike the nobles the common men were simply throwing away their lives to give the nobles a chance at finding the culprits to this war.

The death to come had no bearing on these men as every commoner had no family left.

The army had not moved and finally a soldier scream out "Lord Horas how long will you fight these monsters do you not feel pain?"

I scream out to the army "I feel pain and I will fight no matter the pain I suffer, I will fight these monsters till I no longer can."

The men all suddenly shout "Hail lord Horas!"

The army marched forwards and now the only thing left was the moment the scouting party found the enemy.

The army was now half way between Egypt and China and all signs indicated that battle was quickly approaching my greatest battle would be at hand.

The army had setup camp near a lake when suddenly several scouts came riding in bearing news the enemy was 20 hours out and this simply meant I would be entering battle in the next 2 days 2 scouts had been left ahead 1 was 6 hours ahead of us and the next was 12 hours ahead allowing for my forward charge to be reported allowing the army to enter the battle.

The battle strategy was planned in 4 phases first would be my rapid assault on the army where I would get as close as possible and blast the enemy with their own attacks second would be me forcing the army to strike at me in waves to deplete their energy sources considering my physical abilities I may be able to put up an extremely tough fight.

Thirdly I had to force the army to deploy backup power to all units and lastly was an all out slug fest attacking with all my might to try and impact the army as they had no defence or attack.

I had never been this terrified in all my life I would have to leave soon to catch up with the scouts so that the war could begin.

I departed in the night and rode out with as much speed as my horse could handle half way through the day I met the first scout and exchanged horses with him while pushing forward.

I had reached the last scout and after this was battle and it was no joke if Hephaestus was difficult this likely would be 100000 times more difficult worse still was how unsure I was that I could use that power once more.

My primary kill was set to be Hephaestus followed by Alexander unfortunately Rameses had no pictures of his brother however I figured that he would be easily noticed as he seemed to be an extremely self absorbed imbecile.