Chapter 24 Bloody Border
On a beautiful midnight setting, a full moon shone down upon a small encampment of Amazoness where the successful huntresses fully embrace their lovers who were once prized prey and trophies now loving husbands as they gave into their lust further alluring the senses by the moonlight. Those who have yet managed to successfully hunt down a man for themselves are memorized by the acts of ecstasy, making some of them envious, those who are more perverted fondle themselves and getting themselves wet. Not all of the single Amazoness are there to feast or indulge themselves in other ways as some had sentry duty tonight or rather their last one.
By the camp entrance, a pair of guards listening or trying not to the joyful cries and moans prompting the youngest guard to speak, "Ahhh, why is it every time there is a celebration, I'm the one always getting stuck on guard duty!?
The young Amazoness puffs her cheeks in protest which makes her look rather adorable, her body smaller than the rest of her tribe but still very athletic and appealing. Her B-size breasts confine with what barely counts as clothing further making her look sexy as her hair flows freely in the breeze.
Her partner on the other hand is taller, more ripped, and far more mature in both appearance and mind as she slightly angles her head to the whining girl. "You know full well why you are picked for night watch every time we have a grand feast and celebration Naytalia. Be grateful our leader didn't give you a harsher punishment after your foolishness cost our tribe to lose over half our captured men!" The older woman snarled at the end of her sentence to show her personal disapproval towards Naytalia.
"But Messica, that was a great many moons ago, surely I've been forgiven by now." Naytalia counters but Messica shakes her head in annoyance and sighs.
Messica explains, "Naytalia the way you are behaving right now is still the reason you haven't been forgiven. You are still acting childish as the day you let a merchant man who was in his cage safe and secured outsmarted you. You fell for that man's tricks and promises that he promised to make you into a real woman in front of all of us and you believed him."
"But he sounded so sincere and his words gave me hope that'll get what I craved for so long Messica. Also, whoever checked him for weapons and magic items when we captured him and the other in that caravan, failed to check him thoroughly, for I wasn't suspecting him to be throwing sleeping dust at me." Naytalia trying to shift some of the blame off of her but Messica was having none of it.
"That's what Merchants do Naytalia! Half the words they say are lies and the other half are half true. Besides him being a merchant, I think he is also a smuggler because I've checked him myself and I saw no hidden pockets inside his coat. Lastly, dear sister, you've let your guard down since we haven't broken them into our tribe with our love, rules, and our way of life. Your naivety allowed him to take advantage of you and once he put you to sleep, then that man broke nearly everyone else out before the alarm was sounded. At the end of the whole ordeal, we've managed to capture a quarter of them before they came across a hero search party that was looking for them too."
Naytalia is at a loss for words but after a moment of thinking she exclaims, "Is that why you're also on guard duty too sister? Maybe if you've done a better job at checking them then this whole mess wouldn't have/SILENCE!"
Messica's sudden outburst made Naytalia shut up real quick as she flinched away from Messica in surprise, fearing she may have greatly angered her sister.
Naytalia speaking in a soft, fearful tone asks, "Sister I/QUIET sister! Do you hear that?"
Naytalia now seeing Messica is focusing strongly towards down the road so she does the same and listens for anything out of the ordinary.
"Help!" A voice from afar cries out and after a moment another yell for 'help' is heard but more clearly signaling the distress owner is getting closer to them.
"Messica do you see anything?" Naytalia asks in concern as she struggles to see who is yelling for aid.
"There!" Messica shouts as she points to the suspect running on the road toward them. Both Amazoness focus on the runner but Messica having keener eyesight due to her experience as a tracker and hunter is able to point out a few subtle differences. She sees the person carrying something large in their arms and the person's head seems to have horns probing from the sides. The person's frame is small and their legs is somewhat off but as the person gets closer some of the details are becoming clearer. The thing the person is carrying in another person but can't quite see if it's a male or female. The next thing Messica sees is what she initially thought was hair is actual fur but seems more like wool…wool, then it suddenly occurs to her that runner is a Weresheep.
"Is that a/it's a Weresheep Naytalia and she is carrying someone in her arms." Messica finishes Naytalia's question then takes on a more serious tone as she turns to fellow Amazoness, "Naytalia go inside and find Healer Kormarkia, tell her that there is someone coming here that might need healing."
"I-I ok sister, I'll go." With that Naytalia runs inside the camp to find Kormarkia and a minute later the Weresheep runs up to Messica while Messica eyes the person being carried by the Weresheep. She is both surprised and disrupted to see a young Human man who is very much injured and judging by the wounds all over his body it seems he had been mauled by a bear or some large animal.
"Please help me, I beg of you!" the Weresheep cries as tears streak down her near-flawless face while holding her more likely husband close to her chest.
Messica now trying to calm down the Weresheep, "Its ok, its ok! Please calm down, one of my sisters is getting a healer now. Please tell me what happened to you both?"
"My husband and I were walking on a small dirt road, admiring the beautiful moon tonight then out of nowhere an Order knight attacked us and my dear love tried to fend him off but was gravely injured by him. I grabbed my husband before that knight could deliver the finishing blow and I've running ever since." The Weresheep explains the event unfold and when she finished, Messica looks up and sees another figure down the road.
"AHH! That's him!" The Weresheep shrieks and starts panicking.
Messica turns the frightened Weresheep and grabs her by the shoulder to turn her to face her as she says, "Please calm down! My tribe and I will take care of him but for now, go in and wait for a healer to see you. OK!?"
"O-ok." Messica gently pushes her inside then Messica grabs her blowhorn that is tied around her waist and blows long and hard, signaling all of the danger that is approaching.
Inside the camp, in the middle of the feast sat the tribal leader, she is the oldest and strongest of her tribe, and for many years she'd experienced the sweetest victories to the soul-crushing defeats to finding and subduing the love of her life. Her is a former Order Captain, he was charged with hunting down a roaming group of monsters near some town and he was successful in finding them however he failed to end them. The leader of that roaming group was impressed with him and decided he was worthy enough to be her husband thus he was blissfully joined the tribe after a lengthy 'talk' of the benefits of joining the tribe. Now today, he and his powerful wife embrace themselves in compassion and desire while eating and drinking on a glorious night.
"Oh, Shivera what a truly wonderful night this is and to share it with you and everyone!" the man says then goes in for a deep passionate kiss with Shivera. She closes her eyes and gracefully accepts as she thinks this moment is absolutely perfect until she hears the one person she doesn't want to hear.
"Kormarkia! Kormarkia!" Shivera opens her right eye, looks out of the corner of her eye, and immediately frowns as she mentally speaks to herself, 'GRR! I thought I'd assigned her guard duty tonight.' She observes Naytalia running towards Kormarkia and her mate and the expression on Naytalia's face piqued her curiosity. Seconds later, Shivera hears a horn going off in the direction of where Naytalia is supposed to be thus it suddenly dawns on her that there is going to be a fight.
She breaks off the long kiss and quickly stands up as her husband is somewhat confused but he soon understands when Shivera starts yelling, "SISTERS HEAR ME!" Shivera's demanding voice got the attention of most of her tribe and they soon start noticing the horn as well.
"Looks like our night is going to be even more lively as it sounds like our entertainment is here. Grab your weapons my fellow Amazoness for some of you might be the lucky ones in finally grab a man for yourself. Now go to the camp entrance and prepare! May the Fallen God watch over us in this joyous night."
Shivera's words inspired her tribe thou it was mostly the ones who are still single as they were the first ones to leave the center area of the camp. Full of hope and desire as they race one another for the first shot at acquiring their future lover. The ones who were stuck dreaming inside their heads quickly snap back to reality as they see some of their sisters arming for battle and running somewhere then they hear the horn blurring close by. They cursed at themselves as they scrambled to find their weapons and catch them before they lose the chance of finding true love.
Shivera grabs her great sword as she prepares to walk out to the camp entrance but her husband wanted to deliver some quick words, "It's been a while since we last fought someone, my dear."
She turns to her husband and sees he has grabbed his old long sword and a small shield strapped to his left arm. She slightly smiles but quickly gets serious as she says, "My love, there is no need to put yourself at risk, not when there are so many of my sisters eagerly waiting to battle to find love and glory. You should stay and watch to make sure none of the children here fool hardy attempted to get involved with this upcoming fight. Will you do that for me, Logan?"
Logan slightly drops his shoulders in rejection but he does nod in acknowledgment without any more to say besides, "Do be careful out there."
Shivera's smile gets a little bigger as she nods in acknowledgment and starts walking towards the camp entrance. Five steps later however she stops as she sees Kormarkia escorting a Weresheep carrying a young man covered in cuts and blood.
'Did that poor man have a terrible run-in with a boar or a pack of wild wolves?' Then she sees the Weresheep is armed with two daggers, one on each side of her hip. 'I've never seen a Weresheep with any kind of weapon before!' Shivera thinks to herself but doesn't dwell on it for too long, for she is needed at the camp entrance.
After a very quick jog, she arrives and sees an entirely different sense than the one in her head. She sees a lone Order knight wielding a massive sword which she thinks is a claymore and he is defending himself very well with it. But then she mentally asks herself, 'This doesn't make cents! That boy from before, his wounds couldn't have been from that weapon, if anything he would have been cut in half. This is becoming a very strange night.' She returns to her observations and sees the knight covered in gleaning silvery armor from his helmet to his pointy boots with the Order signa everywhere in between. The claymore itself looks absolutely beautiful in its polished state with no specks of dust or dents in it but also very threatening as the edges themselves seem to be sharpened to the best degree for the swiftest and cleanest of cuts.
She watches her sisters fight this lone man even though he is outnumbered by at least twelve to one, he is holding his ground very well. She then sees Naytalia making a risky move as the young Amazon charges for a frontal assault which the knight notices and braces for the incoming attack. Naytalia swings from above and the knight responds by raising his claymore above his head but Naytalia's attack is a feint for she does a quick adjustment in motion and the blade curves down towards his exposed left side. The gambit move seems to have worked as her blade approaches without resistance but something will soon occur that everyone including Shivera hasn't seen before.
Just before the blade touches the knight's left side, the knight releases his left hand from the claymore then leashes out and grabs the incoming blade. Naytalia stunned by the seemly impossible feat that she didn't see that man wasn't done moving as his right holding the claymore comes down and in a split second went through both her arms. The blade of the claymore digs into the ground and Naytalia soon screams in pain and disbelief as she looks at her handless arms, waving them around as blood sprays everywhere.
"ARGHHH! AHHH!" Naytalia falls on her rear still screaming while the knight takes his claymore out of the ground and readies himself for the finishing blow. The knight swings horizontally, aiming to amputate Naytalia's head but someone stops the attack.
"You won't be killing any of my sisters tonight knight! You'll now be facing me!" Shivera stepped in and saved Naytalia. Messica quickly gets up to Naytalia and pulls her back as Naytalia finally passes out either from blood loss or sheer shock.
Shivera watches them get away from the knight and thinks to herself, '*Sigh*, I've never wished you to be this severely wounded Naytalia even if I was this mad with you. But I'll avenge you and see to it, that knight becomes your husband as punishment for hurting you this much.' Shivera looks directly at the knight and asks, "What is your name knight and why are you trying to kill a Weresheep and her lover?" Shivera getting serious as she readies her blade, waiting for the knight's reply.
"My name is irrelevant since you all are going to die and for the two sinners, they were my initial quarry but they led me to a nest of troubling pests. May the Chief God witness me as I purge this infestation from the world." The knight steps forward and raises his claymore high in the air and before he brings it down upon Shivera he yells, "NOW DIE!"
Back inside the camp, Kormarkia led the Weresheep to her medical tent and says, "Put him over there on that table and tell me what happened." The Weresheep obeys and puts the wounded man on top of a clean wooden table while Kormarkia grabs various clothes and herbs in jars.
The Weresheep starts telling her story, "My lover Brian and I were on a midnight stroll through the open fields admiring the beauty of the moon and stars but as soon we were about to head back home, a knight appeared out of nowhere and attacked us. Brian, my ever-courageous husband tried to stop the knight but that knight simply toyed with him and started physically torturing him." The Weresheep's eyes started to tear up but continues with her story, "I managed to get behind the knight and tackle him which made him drop my poor Brian. I grabbed him and ran away from that knight as far as I can until I found you all." The Weresheep finishes her story, now sniffing and trying to hold back the tears.
Kormarkia listening to the entire tale of what happened between the two as she approaches the table with the necessary medicine to treat the bleeding. She gets down on one knee as she grabs a wetted brown cloth and brings it to a large bleeding wound. She presses it then slowly release it and swipes up to remove the dried-out blood and any dirt around the wound. She looks at the wound but to her surprise, there is no change on the wound, she looks at the brown cloth and sees no blood stains or any dirt. She tries again to clean the wound but again nothing happens so she tries a different wound but the result is the same.
Perplex, she looks at the table top which adds more confusion to her as the table top is still clean as it was before. Not a single drop of blood on top of the wooden table then she noticed something; no smell of iron in the air. Kormarkia decides to take a more direct approach by poking the first wound she attempted to clean with her right index finger. After she poked the bloody wound, she looks at her finger but didn't see any blood on it.
Wondering if there was any magic involved in the fight between this man and the knight, she turns around while asking, "Did that knight have-"SPLICK!
Kormarkia couldn't finish asking her question because a spike entered her right eye socket and pierced her brain effectively killing her. The owner of that spike belonging to the Weresheep as she looks down upon the Amazoness with a neutral expression before she retracts the spike to her belt. The Amazoness's body falls to the floor and the Weresheep looks at the wounded man on the table.
"You ready to go William?" The Weresheep asks to which the man sits up and looks back at the Weresheep.
"Yes."
"KORMARKIA! KORMARKIA!" A panicking voice outside the tent shouts and a blurbist figure shadow is seen approaching the occupied tent. A person's face bursts through the tent flap, "Kormarkia we-" Messica's panicking words come to a very sudden stop and drops the unconscious Naytalia to the ground as dozens of needles enter her face and exit out back of her head then the wires attached to the needles wrap around Kormarkia's head like a metal net. William quickly retracts his wires which bring Messica's body into the tent while the Weresheep walks over to Naytalia and picks her up.
"What should we do with this one?" The Weresheep asks, slightly lifting the bleeding Amazoness.
"Hmm." William hops off the table and gets closer to Naytalia then says, "Let's take this one in alive for questioning and possible experimentation." The Weresheep nods her head in agreement. William extends his hands toward the ends of the arms that are still bleeding as he says, "But first, let's stop this bleeding before she bleeds to death and becomes of no value to us."
He grabs both wounds then a purple light envelops the affected area follow by a slight hissing sound then the smell of burnt flesh permeates the tent. After ten seconds have passed William lets go and the purple light fades away revealing the wounds have been cauterized as both ends of the arms are now all black and charred.
"There, Doc can deal with her while we can now finish this operation. You ready Widow?" William looks at the Weresheep or was since the appearance of the Weresheep changed to the Widow's true appearance.
"Yes."
Outside of the camp, Shivera and the Knight are still dueling as the many Amazoness gathered into a crowd rooting and cheering for their leader to win. The Knight has been on the defensive throughout the whole duel while Shivera trying to get past his defenses until she starts to notice how the duel has been playing out so far.
'Hmm…odd, he hasn't been very aggressive so far. All that talk about killing us with such determination in his eyes but so far I'm doing all the offense while he has been doing nothing but blocking my strikes. I wonder if he is waiting for me to make a mistake in order to wound me? Let's find out.' Shivera bursts forward and swings her sword in a diagonal slash however the swing is purposely somewhat slow compared to her other swings as she observes the Knight's reaction. The Knight evades the slow swing then recomposes himself and slowly walks in a circular path to which Shivera does the same.
Shivera confused as she tries to piece together what just happened, 'Ok, he had at least a dozen ways of wounding me or turning this battle to his favor instead he chose to evade and unnecessarily regain his posture. Is this man truly a fool?!' Shivera locks eyes with his and still sees the cold hardened and calculated glare. 'No, he isn't a fool but why is he fighting like this? This doesn't make sense? Could it he maybe be stalling until some Order forces show up and join the fight.' Shivera quickly glances around, looking for anything out of the ordinary but when she does that, the Knight lunges forward with frightening speed. The sudden attack catches Shivera on the back foot as she blocks the overhead swing, many of the cheering Amazoness immediately stop cheering as they now become very concerned for their tribal leader's safety.
'Ok, he attacked when I wasn't really looking at him so what is it he doesn't want me to see?' Shivera now struggling to match the knight's increasing strength as he continues to push his claymore down towards Shivera's head.
Near the camp entrance Widow and William are slowly creeping along the wooden spiked wall towards the gathered Amazoness crowd and when they reach the edge of the wall, they look at each other and nod their heads in unison. Widow changes her appearance to appear as Messica then she walks into the open and joins in with the other Amazoness while William simply crouches down and waits.
Widow passes through the crowd until she is in the first row, gaining a complete view of the duel and she sees the Order knight putting the pressure on the chief Amazoness. Widow focuses her gaze on the knight before her eyes change color to purple swiftly then back to normal green. The knight looks away from Shivera for a split second at Widow then he jumps back giving the struggling Amazoness some room to move.
Shivera is confused at the knight's choice to give up on the power struggle which he was starting to win. She takes in a deep breath to study herself and readies her blade. One other thing she noticed before the knight questionably backed off was his eyes suddenly changed from brown to dim purple then back to brown. She shakes her head and must have imagined it, 'By the fallen god I need a drink after this ordeal.'
The knight starts walking in a circular motion again, pointing his claymore at Shivera as he speaks, "So have you decided to surrender yet, or do you want to be slayed in a tired, pathetic state?"
Shivera chuckles then replies, "Like you'll beat me, HA! I've been toying with you my little foolish knight, soon you'll be part of this tribe and to be a husband to one of my sisters you've injured. Now will you surrender to your well deserved fate?"
At that point, the knight has his back towards the Amazoness crowd and Shivera away from the camp thus the end begins. Widow suddenly charges at the knight and leaps into the air with her hands balled into fists with the right one reared back to strike. Shivera eyes widen at Messica's reckless sneak attack and wanted to open her mouth to say something but no use as the knight rotates on the heel of his left boot. Shivera sees Messica's attack missed by a hair and unfortunately, the knight grabs her by the neck with his left hand while the right brings up the claymore.
"NO!" Shivera screams as she dashes in to stop the impending death below to Messica however the Knight along with Messica makes a very high jump over Shivera and lands on the dirt path. Shivera and the rest of the Amazoness gather together as all of them see the knight bringing the sword's edge against Messica's gut.
"Let her go NOW!" Shivera snarls while the rest ready their weapons to save one of their own.
"I will not, for you all will do this.." the knight starts delivering his demands while William comes out of his crouched position and silently deploys all of his razor wire needles. With all of the Amazoness completely focused on the two, William is able to stand behind them all and maneuver his wires into place. The wires hover an inch above the ground, slithering towards their targets and avoiding being stepped on as the first wave of the needles rises up on the back row of Amazoness. The needles stopped at the base of the skulls and in one second they all shot off into all back row Amazoness's heads, effortlessly ending them. All of their weapons were caught by the other wires and carefully laid to the ground without making a sound. The next row of Amazoness unaware that their sisters behind them had died will soon share in their fate as another row of needles is rising up while those embedded in the Amazoness's bodies slowly lay them down. The next row of Amazoness are quickly silenced but this time a spear-wielding Amazoness lets go of her spear due to suddenly losing her life hits an Amazoness in front of her which causes that one to turn around. Once she turns around and sees all of her sisters either on the ground or suspended by strange metal wire, she screams out in fright.
"AAHHHH!"
The remaining Amazoness startled by one of their own screaming, quickly turn around but for some of them, they met their end as a dozen needles pierced their faces. Shivera and now half a dozen of her sisters remaining are staring in fright, anger, or a mixture of the two as they see a figure in black clothing with several dozens of razor wires coming out of his long selves and purple glowing eyes staring right back at them.
"W-what!?" Shivera mumbles to herself in shock then she hears 'FLICK' followed by the sound of two things falling to the ground with an audible thud. She and a couple of others turn to see what fell and more to their shock and grief is two more sisters dead with each one having a spike entered at the back of their heads. They look back to the Knight holding Messica but instead see Messica free from the Knight and her hands extend as if she had thrown something.
Shivera in absolute disbelief asks, "M-Messica did you just kill your own sisters!?"
"Yes, however, I am not Messica, for she has already perished a while ago." Widow drops the act as Messica's appearance distorts and dissipates in what can be described as black smoke revealing Widow's true form. Widow speaks but in Messica's tone, "It'll be in your best interest to surrender yourselves now before the Dark Guard. Resist and you'll die."
Once Widow finishes her warning, the Knight's appearance suddenly distorts and fades in smoke and that person's true appearance coming to clear view is Michael. he looks directly at Shivera and says, "You said you were toying with me but in reality, I was the one toying with you but now I'm getting serious." The claymore in his hand also changed to its true form as the black single-edge claymore.
William moves his needles to form a barrier preventing the remaining Amazoness from retreating into the camp as Widow and Michael put space between them as they prepare to finish this fight. Widow grabs two more spikes from the back of her belt and Michael continues to focus on Shivera. Shivera returns the gesture and the other four Amazoness glare at Widow with furious hate.
"SHIVERA!" A male voice calls out followed by numerous other male voices calling out the names of both the dead and living Amazoness. Both the Dark Guard and Amazoness turn to the source of the shouts and see a small crowd of men at the camp entrance.
Michael starts a telepathic connection to Dexter, "Doctor, did you require demonic infected men and completely transformed incubuses?"
"The demonic infected men I'll take but for the incubuses, no. If you encounter any Mamono children, I'll take them too."
"Understood." William closes the connection and deploys more needles but these needles having a slight purple aura around the needle tip. These different needles quickly enter the ground and start burrowing towards the men.
Shivera and a few Amazoness spotted those needles, and started yelling out, "Don't come closer, Logan! Get the rest of our tribe out of here! FLEE!"
Logan and the rest were confused by what their tribal and some of their wives were saying but what they were warning about soon became apparent as a few of those needles burst through the ground. Some of the needles stab some of the men in the leg or gut then soon the entire person just vanishes in sudden smoke. A few needles simply killed the ones who were full incubuses by puncturing their brains from below.
The rest of them either listened and obeyed or out of fear retreated back into the camp to get ready to leave. Logan is the last one who hasn't fled as he still wanted to get his wife out of there.
"Logan, please! Get our daughter out of here! Run my love!" Shivera pleads as she sees him defending himself from the needles trying to poke him.
Logan hears Shivera's request then hears another voice behind him, "Daddy, why is everyone running? Where is mmommy?"
Logan turns his head and sees his teary daughter slowly walking towards him and before he can say anything, the needles strike again forcing him back. Logan leaps all the way back to his daughter and quickly picks her up as both of them take one more look towards Shivera who is smiling but also slightly crying.
She calmly says, "I love both of you but you need to go. Go while I'll hold them off. GO!" Shivera then dashes towards Michael and both of them clash blades. Two Amazonesses armed with a sword and axe charged at Widow while the other two Amazonesses armed with spears try to get around William's barrier.
Logan helplessly watches and his daughter starts crying but he knows he needs to go as voices inside the camp signal the evacuation has begun as the men carry their crying daughters and any supplies they can take with them. With a heavy heart, he runs away with the survivors into the forest, away from Order territory.
The battle between the remaining Amazoness and the Dark Guard is a short one as the two spear-wielding Amazoness fell to the barrier as all the needles making up the barrier suddenly swarmed them. The needles pierce the arms, legs, bodies, and heads in every direction.
Widow dispatched her two opponents as she deployed her chain hooks that entangled both the sword and axe wielder's weapons, stopping their swings and thus leaving them exposed. Widow flung her spikes with perfect accuracy, penetrating both their hearts, and giving them a swift death.
For Michael, dueling Shivera is a downstep compared to his duel with Scarlet as this Amazoness isn't as powerful or graceful but rather a desperate one as Shivera's swings were furious but somewhat sloppy. Not wanting to prolong this fight, Michael ignites his claymore's edge in a bright purple light and when he clashes blade with Shivera, her blade gets cut clean through. Shivera stunned to see her weapon cut in half, the one she had since childhood was now ruined leaving her vulnerable. Michael still in a swinging motion comes around and delivers the kill blow. His blade decapitates her as both her head and body fall to the ground and when Shivera's head finally stops rolling, a final tear rolls down her face.
Now the fighting is over, the three victors turn their attention to the camp and proceed to walk in without any resistance, and by the time they enter the center of the camp, they see a lone figure standing in the trees. The figure holding a child looks back at the Dark Guardsmen as tears run down both of their faces before turning around and disappearing into the forest.
After ten minutes of examining the camp without seeing another Mamono or demonic infected man, they've concluded that this site is now clear and the threat eliminated. They sent a telepathic report of the operation to the Commander before they vanished.
Back in the King's chamber, everyone watched the entire situation reach its' end then see the view blur and twist back into the map and see the eight green dots disappearing among the blue-lit area that had started expanding against the red.
"As you all saw, three of my fellow guardsmen have successfully beaten that tribe of Amazoness, and the survivors will spread the tale of their defeat along with how they were defeated. They'll never come back again as long as that memory remains in their minds." The councilmembers talk among themselves in hush voices until the Commander speaks again, " As you can see, your borders are now secure so now we can focus on the Royal Makai and their defeat. Any questions or concerns?"
Many voices speak but not to the Commander but rather among each other or to the king as if every person is having a separate meeting. The Commander looks around the room, seeing all the chaotic talks happening but remains silent until…
"There is one issue we are having in which your assistance is most needed." Commander sees the king talking to him and listens intently to the next problem.
To D.J. Scales: The rats better watch themselves or else fall prey to their own stupidity or fear. Haha, anyway glad you liked that chapter.
To rst64tlc: I'm happy to hear you like my story and I hope it'll stay to your liking. As for your question without spoiling too much, yes, there will be neutral/Mamono friendly villages and cities but what'll happen shall remain a mystery.