Chapter 102

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As Grud dashed through the dense foliage, his presence was barely detectable, his movements swift and calculated. His tall, muscular frame blended seamlessly with the shadows cast by the dense foliage, his every step deliberate and silent. The urgency of the situation spurred him onward, driving him to push through the thick underbrush with determination.

With his supernatural senses, Grud navigated the terrain with ease. His sharp eyes scanned the surroundings, detecting even the slightest hint of movement. The scent of danger lingered in the air as he made an effort to stay away from the marked territory of predators in order to avoid making any commotion, relying on his acute sense of smell to warn him of approaching threats.

As enemy patrols came into range of his senses long before they could detect him, Grud would either lay low and let them pass or take to the trees depending on the patrol's spread. He moved with the grace of a predator, effortlessly evading the watchful eyes of the invading warriors. Each patrol he passed fueled his resolve, driving him closer to his goal of reaching the besieged Riversong village.

By the time Grud got to the Riversong village, it was already evening and the sun was setting, in the evening sun, to get a better view of what he was dealing with, Grud found the tallest tree in the area and scampered up it to see a multitude of tents pitched well out of arrow range surrounding the Riversong village.

As for the state of the Riversong village, its walls were still in one piece, but all over its surface were scorch marks from many attempts to set the walls on fire. With his enhanced vision, Grud could see a few heads popping up from over the wall to keep an eye on the coalition of villages currently besieging them.

Seeing that the wall held eased Grud's worry of the village falling before he could bring reinforcements to break the siege.

Just as Grud was going through a rough headcount of the enemy forces, which he rounded to just over 2000, he spotted wooden cages in a well-guarded area. In those cages, Grud saw his fellow tribes men and women, stripped bare and bound by their hands and feet.

Just as Grud was hatching a plan in his head to make a daring night raid to free the prisoners, without any the wiser if possible, the enemy camp started to buzz with activity.

Grud saw a warrior decked out in copper armor adorned with bright red feathers shout "Bring forth the animals!"

At his command, a few of the cages holding the bound prisoners were emptied as men, women, and children were roughly dragged toward the Riversong village but still out of firing range.

"I am Borak, the firstborn son of Voka, son of Bodrak, proud warrior of the Blazebringer Village. You, filthy Riversong traitors, are a bunch of honorless scum associating with these animals" Broak shouted as he kicked a tribe's man knelt in front of him.

"Your deaths are already decided. Come out to fight and die with what honor you have left and I promise a quick death. Or even better, if you kill those filthy animals within your walls I will let you live. Why do you even protect them? They are just a bunch of invading animals, and should be treated as such!"

Borak then unsheathed a short sword and slashed down on the back of the man he just kicked, as the man fell to the ground, a young girl cried out "Father!" as she tried to get closer to the bleeding man. "And animals are there to be used!" Borak then hiked up his tunic and started raping a tied up young tribe girl who was squirming over to her father.

Along the line of prisoners, there were mostly men in armor of lesser quality materials but still adorned with bright red feathers, following Borak's example of atrocities. The males were tortured and killed, while the females were tortured and raped, it did not matter how young.

From his perch in the tree, Grud was fuming in rage, he knew this act of savagery was an act to demoralize the defenders, but that did not help his emotional state. His face flushed crimson with rage, veins pulsating prominently against his temples like swollen rivers ready to burst their banks. His eyes blazed red with bloodshot veins filling his sclera, while his jaw clenched so tightly that the muscles stood out in stark relief.

Grud was sorely tempted to charge the camp there and then to end these poor excuses for men, the only thing stopping him was knowing that as strong as he was, he was not strong enough to take on an army on his own, he learned his lesson from almost dying while buying time for his people to escape from giant ants.

As he watched, his fellow tribes people get defiled, Grud cussed hatefully under his breath, the word that escaped his lips dripped with venom, each sentence punctuated by a guttural growl of frustration. His fists clenched and unclenched, the knuckles turning white with the force of his grip, his grip was so powerful that he gouged and splintered the part of the tree he was holding for support. His chest heaved with each labored breath, the fury within him threatening to consume him whole.

In his mind, Grud was fighting with himself, a part of him knew the rational thing was to go back and gather the men to take revenge. While another part of him saw the enemy right in front of him, this part of his mind was rationalizing to himself reasons to attack now.

'They are so weak compared to me, I could butcher many of them before they force me to retreat. All I need to do is-' Just as Grud was about to have a good excuse for himself to start butchering people, out of the corner of his eye, he saw 2 men in bright red feathers leisurely walking away from the camp while chatting. When they soon stopped some distance away to take a piss on a tree, Grud saw an opportunity to sate some of his bloodlust while doing something productive.

Just as the men were about done with their piss, Grud was standing between them. "Hey, nice weather for a walk isn't it?"

The 2 men that were caught with their dicks out, turned to the huge man suddenly standing between them. Before they could utter a sound, Grud grabbed the back of their heads and smacked them against each other until they knew no more. 

When the 2 men woke up from being slapped rather violently, the sun had set and they were suspended by their arms from a tree somewhere in the forest.

They looked around frantically for what slapped them awake only to find the dark outline of the surrounding foliage. When they called out to each other they were grabbed by the neck from behind and choked.

It was then that Grud's guttural, almost bestial voice came from behind them, "I have some questions for you two. If you do not answer to my satisfaction, I promise your pain will be long and I will leave you to the beast of the night to eat you alive."

After an hour and change of questioning and torture, Grud got the information he wanted.

Turns out, the 4 big villages are using this war to not only get rid of the competition, which was the mainlanders and everyone allied with them, but also as a show of might to keep other villages in line, and properly blood their young warriors from the notable families in the big villages.

Of the 4 big villages, the Blazebringer village called dibs on Riversong village due to them being the nearest, the Stoneclad village had dibs on the Whisperwind village, and the Swiftwind & Greatlake villages got the leftover Fangfall village due to them being further away. 

When asked about the people who were captured, Grud was informed that besides the ones who were being tortured to demoralize the defending villages, the rest were given away to the smaller tribes that willingly agreed to help in this war.

After getting the names of the villages whom his people were given as slaves to, Grud walked away from the beaten, broken, and flayed men to relay the information to the rest of his people, "Wait…" one of the men wheezed weakly, "We told you what you wanted… end us…"

Grud looked at the caricature of what once looked like men and walked away while saying, "You and your people do not deserve a swift death, suffer as you have made my people suffer.", Grud left them to succumb to exposure and the beast of the night who most likely caught the scent of their blood by now.

When Grud got back to the Thunderfoot Tribe, he gathered Chieftain Thagrak and all the Elder hunters around to explain his findings. By the end of Grud relaying the information, every man in the room had veins bulging from rage.

The first one to snap was the hot-blooded Thagrak as he brought a hammer fist down on the table, shattering it. This caused a chain reaction of the men around breaking a number of chairs and punching the walls to vent their rage.

With a last roar of rage, Chieftain Thagrak flung a broken half of the table he smashed at a wall and shouted, "This is no longer just a war of territory dispute! I, Chieftain Thagrak of the Thunderfoot Tribe, declare a Blood War against the Swiftwind, Blazebringer, Stoneclad,

Greatlake villages and all other villages involved. Go! Spread the word of what has happened to our kin! Let all who agree with my declaration march with me! What they did to our kin, we will return 10 fold!"

Thagrak then turned to Grud, "Chieftain Grud, I know you to be mighty, while the word spreads, will you and your men join me in breaking the siege?"

Grud nodded to Thagrak, "That is why I gathered so many people for. You need not have asked."

Within the hour, runners were sent in all directions to inform other tribes of the news, and men were roused from their slumber to march out for a night attack.