Hello everyone,

I had some rough times writing this, due to work and also trying to figure out how to go on about some parts of it.

I have been debating on how to go on about it, and how the result of it. After going through my thoughts writing this part, this is the end result. Hope you all enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 5: The Truth about Battles
The following day, Bell was wearing just his usual long black sleeved shirt and black pants, walking around the halls of the palace. To him, it felt like those stories that his grandfather read, where the courtyard is filled with flowers, armor statues standing up, and the paintings of landscapes and leaders.

He stopped for a moment and checked outside of the window. On the right was the courtyard, but noticed the familiar Celestine, carrying the garden. He couldn't stop looking at her. She seems so pure, but the lack of near modesty, can leave a man with a handful of imagination. Her locks of golden white hair, looking silk. Her eyes, green, remind him of the forests that he has gone with Lilli to collect the eggs for Naaza. Her elven ears are beautiful. A part of him wanted to touch them, but he shook that thought. Thoughts that shouldn't have invaded him in the first place.

Then those thoughts were replaced with Ais on elven ears. Then Ryuu on how cute her ears look.

Wait. What was wrong with him?

He shook his head and kept walking. Ever since he left, his thoughts have been invaded with nothing but women. He had no problem finding the attractive, but sometimes it would be overboard.

He then accidentally bumped into Asuka. "Oh, I'm sorry!" He was holding close to her, making him turn a little red.

She turned red, knowing who it was. She looked at the man that saved her, still forever grateful. However, her nights haven't been easy, nightmares of the monsters just to hold her down and wasn't saved this time. She would awake and would hug herself, wishing it would go away. "Sorry….just going through a lot in my mind…"

He had a concerned look "Oh…ummm….sorry to pry on it, but is it about that night?"

She nodded and looked ashamed. "I wish….I wish I was stronger than night, or stayed close…."

He cut her off "Hey, it wasn't your fault. In the heat of battle, things happen." He placed his hands on her shoulder gently.

She still looked down "Even then…..I made mistakes."

"We all learn from our mistakes. Including me. Just know you have people here that will help you, okay?"

She nodded and smiled a little "Thank you….Bell."

He then scratched the back of his head "Oh, it was nothing. Happy to help out."

Then they heard a few footsteps as Mikoto appeared "Oh, there you two are. Hestia is telling us that the Black Dogs will be heading over here in a few minutes."

They both nodded and headed with Mikoto.

In another room
Hestia and the others were sitting down, with some looking at the map, while others were just waiting patiently for the arrival of the Black Dogs. She looked over the map again and saw how vast the land is and how the battles are going, whether they are gaining or losing ground.

From the markers, it showed winning more ground.

She saw Bell, Mikoto, and Asuka entering, making her smile "Alright, we have our group in. We are just waiting for the Black Dogs to arrive."

Bell nodded and found a place to sit down. He looked at the map and saw a few flags and figurines in the map, letting him know how the battles were going.

A knock was heard and Hestia answered "Come in."

In came a tall, muscular man tanned, wearing pieces of heavy armor on him with a large broadsword on his back. He had a calm expression, and looked around the people in the room. With him was a younger man with glasses, a heavy cloak and holding a book of sorts. The last man was slim, wearing a vest, yet had a few scars on him.

The gods knew something was off about them, but didn't say anything. They would hear what they had to say.

"Hello. I am Vult, leader of the Black Dogs. My companion here is Kin" the man in glasses nodded "And this is Hicks, my right hand man." The other man waved.

Bell went forward and had his hand out "Bell Cranel, leader of the Hestia Familia."

Vult shook his hand with a smile. The handshake was firm as Bell returned it.

He smirked "Interesting grip there."

"Thanks."

Both let go and went to look at the map.

"And I would assume you are part of the Hestia Familia."

Lilli answered "No. Lilli from the Soma Familia."

"Welf of the Hephaestus Familia."

"I am Mikoto and my friend here Asuka is from the Takemikazuchi Familia."

Asfi adjusted her glasses "Hermes Familia, and our companion with the green cape is a hired hand."

The girl looked at them. The men felt a small shiver on that look.

Vult then focused on what the tasks are "So far we are getting close to their big defense line on Olga's dark castle" Vult pointed "however, we ended up with a problem."

Kin then pointed three parts of the tower that is around the castle in question. "Based on my magic, there are three wards within those towers, but they are guarded by their strongest enemies. We are planning to go for an attack and break the ward stones."

"Do you think you all will be able to handle these guys?" Hicks said.

"We should be able to handle it." Mikoto said.

"We will see. For now though, we are heading to a village, which is about 4 miles from here" Vult pointed at the map near the defense line of the enemy. "The place is neutral, but there were rumors the monsters are getting close."

Jin answered "Very well. We will head there."

Then, Vult added another task "We will however have another task. A scout got back to us that a number of monsters are heading to this village, a few miles away, so we will need one of your groups to go ahead."

Lyon stepped forward "I will."

Vult nodded and looked at her, along with the other girls. "Good, then we would be able to make sure those women and children won't end up being used by them."

Ryuu felt something about his stare was wrong. She felt dirty about it, and yet, his words say otherwise. Reminded her of some men that wanted to do something to her years back.

Hestia and Hephaestus felt dirty and his comment felt there was a lie. They decided not to say anything for now.

Hermes had a suspicion that something was wrong about it all. He would wait after the meeting to talk to Asfi.

"When do we head out?" Welf asked.

"In one hour, prepare what you need."

They nodded as they left.

Bell then looked at the others "Well, who is heading with who?"

Welf smirked, "You know I am heading with you."

Lilli stepped forward "Lilli will be there for sure."

Jin smiled, "I will join you in the village."

Ryuu looked at the rest of the group. Mikoto went up to her and said "I'm going."

Asuka nodded "Same here."

Asfi said "You already know my answer."

Princess Catue smiled, "I will give you a hand."

Vult smiled, "I will have Hicks accompany you, Miss Lyon."

Hicks smirked "Don't worry, I have been in numerous battles in the past, so this isn't anything new to me."

Ryuu nodded "Got it."

They went their separate ways and headed out, not before Hermes went to place his arm on Asfi "One moment. Let me talk to my captain here."

Hicks shrugged "Make sure she doesn't fall behind."

He nodded and pulled her someplace private.

Hestia could pray that Bell and the others return back soon.

Hephaeustus could hope that Welf comes back alive.

With Bell
The ride from Ken to the village took a while, but they were making fast progress to the village in question.

"So tell me, kid, have you battled monsters?" Vult asked.

"I have sir. I fought monsters for a while now, large ones, small ones." Bell replied.

"Any orcs?"

"Plenty in the past."

He smirked, "Good. These guys shouldn't give you much problem, but keep your wits up as they tend to get numerous."

"Numerous?"

He nodded "Yeah. All thanks to them, kidnapping and raping women until giving birth to half orc children. Some are placed on the frontlines, while others are kept to be bred if they are female."

He grew a little green hearing that "I….see…"

He turned a little and said "Have you dealt with monsters like that?"

He shook his head "No. Just monsters that would either eat us or kill us."

Vult was surprised to hear this. Monsters that kill or eat a regular person. "I see. If you see any, start putting them down. Don't try to push yourself too much, and don't be too much of a hero."

Bell looked at him oddly.

"I lost a number of men trying to fight for glory, only to end up dead."

Bell had a sympathetic smile "Will do sir."

They arrived at the village, only to find it was in the middle of a fight with monsters. A few women were running away from the monsters. Vult shouted "Black Dogs, let's ride!"

They loudly cheered and they went straight to the danger.

Bell and his friends went in as well, and they began to fight their way through the various Orcs and other monsters. Bell jumped off his horse and sliced off one of the Orcs that was going to rip off the blouse of a woman.

He looked at the woman and said "Get out of here!" He ran right up to another monster, slicing them into two.

Welf, with his broadsword, sliced two imps into two. He then went for another swing and took out another Orc.

Jin dodged each attack easily, and then sliced the enemies off without any problems. He kicked one of the monsters as the monster fell on its knees. He then sliced its head off and continued fighting them, while allowing the people to escape.

Lilli shot two flying imp, then used one of her magical swords against two large orcs, disintegrating them. She then saw a few enemies on the right, and looked sick at what they were doing to the women. She shouted at five members of the Black Dogs "Monsters on the right!"

Five of them saw and charged at them. It was a dead even fight, until Lilli managed to blind two monsters and they were able to kill them.

The Black Dogs fought on, while pushing forward against the monsters and beasts. They were successfully beating them. Vult, with his large broadsword, killed off a few more enemies. He looked around and kept pushing forward.

For Bell, he kept pushing, until he saw two wagons with women and children. The orcs saw Bell and they wanted to take them out of the place for themselves.

The white haired teen ran and managed to get on with one of them and killed one of the orcs. "Welf! I need you here!"

Welf heard not far off and went to the direction and saw the women and children.

"I need to go after the other one!"

"Got it!" Welf went to release the bound girls.

Bell ran for the other one as it was trying to get away.

"Come on!"

It was getting further away.

He raised his hand, ready to release his Firebolt, when a few large one-eyed looking creatures appeared. He dodged the large club that was going to hit him. He aimed and shot an attack at the head of the enemy. Then he sliced the club in half, and then stabbed the enemy. He saw Welf slicing the last head of the enemy.

Bell then tried to run in the direction of the wagon and it was getting too far. "No….I can't just give up…" He kept running.

"Stop!"

He turned as he saw Vult, having a stoic face.

"They are getting away."

"It will kill you. They are taking them to a location where there is a large number of monsters" He walked right at Bell as the battle was dying down. "I know you want to save them, believe me, so do I. However, that is also how I lost more of my men."

He then placed his hand on his shoulder "I wouldn't worry. Once we capture the queen, we will find them and rescue them. Without the queen, those monsters will have a hard time winning battles."

Bell sighed. His feelings felt conflicted. On the one hand, he felt that he didn't do enough to rescue them. On the other hand, he understood the aspects of caution.

"Sir!"

They turned to see one of the members of the Black Dogs reaching toward them. He had cut on the top of his left eyebrow. "Looks like the village was targeted to cut through the supply lines, and then trying to get into Feoh. They were going to pillage and then try to find a way to get into Feoh."

"I see." Vult frowned hearing what happened.

"In a way, it was a blessing in disguise that we went here. 10 soldiers are dead. 3 were violated, a few women villagers were hidden in some places, thankfully."

He had a look of relief "Good. It wasn't a total loss."

Once the person was gone, he then turned to Bell "Ten dead, but we slaughtered more of our enemies."

He nodded. Yet, he felt saddened by the death of ten soldiers who may have had families or friends behind.

"Don't be down, kid. Those soldiers did their job, fighting and defending this country from them. That's what they signed up, so let's not have their deaths in vain."

Bell just nodded and looked at how much the village was left.

He wondered how many more suffered the same way.

How many more women and children suffered?

Jin appeared and stared at the forest. He had a frown on his face. He took a sniff and sighed "Damn….too far…."

He knew he had to fight better, but the numbers are always great on the side of his enemies. However, they will dwindle eventually, and he hopes that in the future, they could find a way to exterminate them all.

For now, he would have to let his fiancee know what happened.

In Ur
Beasly was writing a document,as part of the report for the supplies. He hears a knock. "Enter."

In came a familiar member of the Black Dogs.

"Yes?"

"Sir, we have a problem."

He looked at the man and said "What problem?"

"It seems that five of our men, and two of our noblemen allies are found dead."

He raised his eyebrow "Dead?"

"Yes….no wounds like the last ones, but it looks as if their life force is being sucked."

This was concerning. "This is our 6th nobleman that is dead…."

"Indeed, sir. I am letting you know about this. We are concerned that something mischievous is going on, or someone knows what is going on."

He didn't like hearing this. Then the door barged open, seeing a familiar older man. "What is it, Grave?"

He had this look of annoyance "I heard what happened. Any ideas?"

He responded "No….however, I believe we do have a traitor amongst us, using magic of sorts to kill them. I will try to fish out the one who did it when we start our operations."

"Do so, and make it discreet."

"You know me. Although we have kept it in the dark, we know sooner or later someone will know. We have to keep any rumors suppressed, and move on with our lives." He then looked at him "Aren't you heading to meet with the girl that beat you in a duel?"

He rolled his eyes "Oh, I know. I will head there to see how strong she is."

He had a sly smirk "I would assume you are after our elf guest and your daughter-in-law?"

He got close to his face, making Beasley nearly wet his pants "Not now…we will discuss this some other time."

He gulped and answered "Very well, you both may go."

Both left.

"Phew, stupid soldiers" he wiped his sweat that was building up "Barging in when they please."

He felt a draft of cold for a moment and looked around. "Huh…" He noticed the window and said to himself "Weather is nearly unforgiving, but close to summer time I suppose." He closed it and went back to work.

To be continued….

A/N:
That is the chapter. I wanted to cut this part, as the next chapter would be Ryuu and her team dealing with some of those monsters.

I do believe maybe a few chapters more, then we will get to the part of the Dark Queen Olga meeting with Bell and Vult. Those few chapters would more or less establish a few pieces here and there. For now though, I will try to figure out that part.

I may add a few extra scenes with characters. Which character you guys want me to focus on, let me know and I will see what way I can add it in those chapters. Until then, take care everyone.