Chapter 100

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As Grud, Tala & Kaya, and his army of 300+ men traveled to assist their allies in the Newlands, they were constantly updated on the status of the front.

After the raids were successfully fended off, the 4 big villages opted for a full-on simultaneous attack on the 3 allied villages. This resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, but mostly the attacker's side.

With the failed attack, the enemy decided to try siege and starve the allied villages. The siege went on for around a week, the villages' fields were plundered and trashed, and there were around-the-clock attempts to set the villages' wooden walls on fire which were only thwarted by drenching the walls with water from the local wells the villages were built around.

Just as villages were about to run out of food, outside help came. A coalition of hunters from newly formed tribes struck the rears of the sieging forces. With the sieging forces distracted, warriors and hunters came out of the villages to pincer attack the sieging forces and link up with the coalition of hunters. 

Together, and at great cost, they pushed the attacking forces back enough for the enemy to call a retreat, giving the 3 allied villages some breathing room to mourn their loss, bury their dead, and gather and prepare food and supplies in case they get sieged again.

And when it came to preparing for future attacks, the tribes were more than happy to help the 3 allied villages. Over the years, some of their tribes' people married into the village and vice versa, so by now, they were practically family. So in what little time they had before the next attack, the tribes got together and helped fortify the allied villages.

When Grud got a more in-depth description of how the battles went, besides the tragic loss of life, he found it ironic that his people who called themselves hunters took to the frontline with their more powerful bodies while their Newlander allies who called themselves warriors supported the frontline with their bows & arrows.

When Grud was less than a month away from the allied villages, even more bad news reached him, it was reported that the 4 big villages started another offensive against the allied villages and pulled in more small villages to be forder in the war with promises of wealth or threats.

They also tried to rope in the medium villages but the medium villages were wise to their power plays and promptly told to fuck off. Unlike the smaller villages that practically had no leverage and could be easily crushed even if a few of them grouped up to resist, the medium villages were big enough to be more trouble than they were worth, especially if they allied with other medium villages to resist the big villages' pressure.

The forces of the 4 big villages clashed with the allied forces and despite having a home ground advantage, the allied forces were slowly but surely being pushed back by the sheer force of numbers into the fortified villages.

Once totally pushed back into their villages, the 3 villages were once again sieged.

Less than 2 weeks to the front, bad news became worse news. After the encirclement of the 3 villages, the attacking forces utilized their superior numbers to simultaneously launch an attack on the young tribes near the 3 allied villages while most of the hunters were held up in the 3 sieged villages and unable to defend their tribes.

The results were devastating, 7 tribes and counting were wiped out, and a call for help went out to the surrounding tribes.

Hearing the call to action, in Grud's passing through the Newland tribes, almost every male old enough to wield a spear joined his march and Grud's army bolstered from 300+ men to close to a thousand, with more following in his wake.

A week later, Grud and his army were about to arrive at a sizable tribe that used to be Chieftain Dhun's main outpost during the expedition. That outpost was now called the Thunderfoot Tribe, and from what those around him were saying, this Thagrak of the Thunderfoot Tribe was a mighty chieftain.

When Grud reached the Thunderfoot tribe, he noticed that the walls were bristling with arrows embedded in its wooden walls and some spots looked like they had caught fire. The men on top of the walls were vigilantly looking out into the clearing and seemed ready to fill the first thing that moved with spears and arrows.

Just as the Thunderfoot tribe's heavy wooden gates started opening to welcome them, Grud decided to see what the men on the wall were so weary against.

Grud looked out into that same clearing and the trees beyond. As he panned his head from 1 side of the clearing to the other, he did not notice anything out of the ordinary, so Grud flexed his eye muscles and activated the infrared vision he got from eating a snake.

On his 2nd pass of the treeline, Grud noticed a heat spot. At first, Grud assumed it was an animal foraging around, but on a 2nd glance, he noticed it was still… too still. As Grud focused in on the heat spot, his now slit pupils started dilating as his enhanced vision zoomed in on the heat spot.

Once zoomed in, Grud could distinctly make out a pair of eyes and a mouth, the rest of the facial features were obscured by a shrub, but from the gaps in the shrub, Grud could make out the form of a crouching man.

Just as Grud spotted the peeping tom, a boisterous voice came from the opened gate, "Ahh! Chieftain Grud! I have heard much ab-"

"I'm sorry, give me a moment." Grud interrupted the voice that just greeted him and flooded his legs with mana as he dashed off in the direction of the peeping tom.

As Grud rappidly approached, the peeping tom scrambled backward on all fours before getting to his feet and running away, but before he could get too far, Grud's huge hand grabbed the back of the man's neck and lifted the man off the ground.

The man immediately drew a knife and tried to plunge it backward at Grud. 

Grud did not bother to release his spear to grab the dagger that was plunging towards him, before the copper dagger could even touch his armor, a tendril of mana seized the dagger along with the arm that was holding itit.

When the man noticed he could not move, his other hand dropped his bow and all but 1 loose arrow. That loose arrow was also jabbed backward in an attempt to stick Grud with the pointy end, but like the dagger, it stopped short of touching Grud by another tendril of mana.

Seeing that his attacks were thwarted, the man jerked his body and kicked his legs wildly while cussing at Grud in his native tongue, "Curse you Demon! Just accept your fate and be crushed by the might of the Blazebringers!"

Hearing just about enough of the man, Grud tightened his grip on the man's neck to silence the man, 'That is about enough out of you.'

The man sputtered and gasped for breath as Grud used other mana tendrils to pick up the dropped bow and arrows, and hold his spear while he disarmed the man of his weapons.

Soon after, Grud came back out into the clearing and back to the army and a gruff-looking man who had a body build more akin to a standing rectangle than a normal person. 

"It seems like we have a spy." Grud said as he loosened his grip on the man's throat.

After catching his breath, the man looked around at the army of men who were almost twice his size and muttered under his breath, "Damn Demons…"

Seeing to shut the man up, Grud smacked his captive upside the head, making him cuss more, which caused Grud to keep smacking him until he got the message.

While Grud was smacking the man whenever he made some noise, Grud looked at the muscled rectangle of a man and said, "You must be Chieften Thagrak, I have heard only good things about you"

Chieftain Thagrak: "And as I was saying before you ran off and caught your prey, you must be Chieften Grud! The tales of your bravery precede you, just as the aroma of victory follows a successful hunt."

Chieftain Grud: "Haha, spoken like a true hunter! I see the rumors of your powerful stature were not exaggerated."

Chieftain Thagrak: "Well, Grud, I've always believed that a powerful body can be just as important as a sharp spear."

Chieftain Grud: "Indeed, Thagrak, but let's hope we won't need either on this occasion. Me and my men have traveled far and need some rest. But that may not be possible with this shit stain here."

Grud said as he smacked his captive again even though he did not make a sound.

"Agreed, but all that is for later, leave the captive to my men, there are some updates of happenings that just came in this morning." Thagrak said with a serious face.

Grud nodded and entered the Thunderfoot tribe.

Naturally, there was not enough space to accommodate close to a thousand extra people, so the army had to make do with camping outside and doubling the guard after being informed that they were no longer on the way to the front line, they were on the frontline, that means a higher chance of enemy attack as proven by the man Grud just captured.

The first thing Grud notices as he enters the tribe is the suppressed and tense mood, there was no levity in the air nor children playing, and everyone was running around to help prepare things and take care of the multiple wounded lying around.

Seeing the opportunity to be useful, Tala and Kaya hopped off their cart and went to do their duty as shamans and medicine women.

Soon it was just Grud and Thagrak at a table and they shared a drink before they got down to business, "So what's the update?" Grud asked.

Thagrak slammed his mug on the table and growled out, "5 more tribes were attacked, as of now, that makes a total of 12 tribes gone. And from what the scouts say, besides a few corpses laying about, the rest of the people are missing."

"What?! I did not hear that from earlier reports, could they just have run away to other tribes for help?" Grud asked hopefully.

Thagrak shook his head, "That's what I thought, but we have checked with their family and friends from tribes close to those who were attacked, and they did not. We suspect they have been captured."

"How long ago did the attack happen?" Grud asked as he rubbed his beard while thinking about which of his abilities would help the situation best.

"The hunters who investigated said it was around 2 days ago." Thagrak leaned forward and asked, "What do you have in mind?"

"Oh, I'm sure I can think of something." Grud said, "I just need to get a hold of that prisoner I just caught."