Small tribe after small tribe, and even the vocational medium-sized tribe that happened to be in Grud's path, they were all raided by the Rock Claw tribe and their inhabitants killed or enslaved with relative ease.
And with each tribe conquered came new additions to Grud's harem… that he did not know about. As it turns out, Mita and some of Grud's female shaman children, who tagged along, volunteered to inspect the female slaves, tagging and reserving them behind Grud's back. And with all the caged wagons full of slaves, the one holding the one Mita reserved did not pull Grud's attention, aside from the fact that those wagons had the most beautiful slaves, but being surrounded by outrageously beautiful wives at all times, Grud barely noticed.
Naturally, after raiding so many tribes, it was an eventuality that some people got away before they were captured, so news got out and reached the Rising Horn tribe, and by the time they rounded up a force big enough to challenge Grud's army, Grud had raided and enslaved enough people to run into the good problem of not having enough people to secure the number of slaves they captured and was already making they way back out of Rising Horn lands.
A few Alliance chieftains were tempted to stay behind to secure conquered land, but when scouts reported that they had spotted a second force of Rising Horn warriors chasing them, they changed their minds quickly when Grud said he was not going to get into an unnecessary fight when they had already gotten what they wanted.
The Rising Horn tribe saw this as a stain upon their honor and made a token attempt to free the captured slaves, but they were doomed to fail. Having made their attempt, the Rising Horn leadership ultimately decided to let Grud and his army walk away with the captured slaves. No point in weakening themselves further after losing a whole army, only to potentially lose another when the enemy is already leaving.
When Grud's army made it back to the contested territory that kicked off this whole conflict, Grud called for the border Alliance tribes, who requested the Rock Claw tribe's help, and told them to hold and guard the land. But with their reduced numbers due to Orin forcing them into battle, they tried to make the excuse that they needed help to secure the borders of their newly conquered land.
Not having any of their nonsense, Grud reminded them that the agreement was only to help them push back the other power blocs contesting the old Thunder Strider territory. When they still contested Grud's decision, Grud threatened that he could easily go without the mines and pull Voro's army back, letting the Frozen Fang army become their problem. That quickly shut them up.
While back within friendly territory, Grud took the opportunity to offload the slaves along with those who were too injured to fight, breaking off a portion of his army to escort them back home. Those who volunteered to escort were mainly those who had either gotten their fill of fighting or loot, or both.
When the logistics of sending the slaves and injured back home were done, Grud made best speed as those on foot could head towards Voro's front.
***
Days later, Voro was well rested and commanding the defense of the barricade. Aside from the usual probing attacks, the Frozen Fang forces did not dare commit a large offensive after the Rock Claw shamans rained fire upon them.
What they did do was increase their efforts to infiltrate and kidnap Rock Claw shamans in hopes of learning this new magic that had essentially caused all large-scale offensives due to the fear of losing a large portion of their men.
While Voro was looking out over the barricade defense, watching for any suspicious movements from the Frozen Fang forces, besides their men blatantly looking back at him just out of arrow range, when a messenger ran up to him. "Commander, your father and brother Orin are arriving. The lookouts are escorting them here."
"Finally, the time has come to end this battle." Voro said as he calmly got up and walked off the wall, making it look like he was just going for a piss or a break so as not to tip off the Frozen Fang lookouts that something was happening.
Due to space constraints, most of the army had to make camp in the narrow ravine itself, while Grud's carriage and the rest of his present family came long to greet their sibling.
Naturally, Mita was there, cleaned up, prim and proper, with only enough of Grud's cum in her womb to keep her feeling warm inside, but not show a bloated belly.
As before, Grud did not get to greet his sons before Mita ran forward, tits bouncing with every step, and began hugging and kissing her fighting boys with motherly affection.
Only after Mita was done fussing over Voro, did Grud get a chance to come over and give him a hug, "You have done well, son, I will take it from here."
***
When Grud asked to be briefed on the situation, Voro found that, besides the attempted kidnappings and the probing of their defences, there was not much to brief on. Ever since the shamans showed up and rained fire on the enemy, the Frozen Fang forces have been very conservative with any big actions, but Voro was sure that they were planning something.
When the briefing was over, not wanting to waste any more time since it was still early in the day, Grud cut to the chase and asked Voro about his options to deploy his army, specifically because the barricade was not something that could be opened at will but had to be torn down if an army was to move smoothly through it. But Voro had a solution at the ready.
During the weeks of holding the ravine, Voro had commanded his men to build hidden stairs into the sides of the ravine to cut time for reinforcing the flanks. "You may not be able to get horses up there, but the barricades at the flanks are easily removed, and the army would be able to quickly exit the ravine." Voro said.
Grud rubbed his beard as he considered Voro's suggestion. "That is doable. Especially when the Frozen Fang does not have any cavalry, that makes us fight on even ground."
Within the hour, Grud and his army were at the top of the ravine. But before they could march into battle, they had to have a battle plan. The only downside in this current situation without their horses, was that the side that made the first move was at a disadvantage.
If the Frozen Fang made the first move, they would be pelted with arrows and magic, only to ineffectively crash against the barricade. Meanwhile, if Grud's army made the first move and advanced on the Frozen Fang, they would face an entrenched enemy with arrows raining down upon them, and there was no doubt that the Frozen Fang had trappped the area, making Grud's army pay for their advance.
In a way, things were at a stalemate. So Grud leveraged on what the enemy did not have, himself. "As we planned, rush the Frozen Fang position on my signal." Grud said as one of his men was double-checking the straps of his armor.
When Voro, Orin, and the various commanders nodded in acknowledgment, Grud hefted his long-bladed spear on his shoulder, donned his helmet, limbered up, then leaped forward.
When Grud landed, his legs caught up to the initial burst of speed and started sprinting down the ravine flank in broad daylight. This naturally caught the attention of every Frozen Fang warrior keeping an eye on the barricade.
Immediately, shouts of alarm and arrows started flying at Grud, only for him to dodge or swat the arrows out of the air with his spear or free hand. And as he got closer to the nearest bunch of Frozen Fang warriors, the only thing on the Frozen Fang warriors' minds was panic, and trying to come to terms with seeing someone of Grud's size moving at a speed someone his size should not be able to.
The first unfortunate group of five Frozen Fang warriors that Grud reached did a commendable job of dropping their bows and getting into a defensive stance with their melee weapons, but they were all cleaved into pieces by two swipes of Grud's mana-empowered spear swings that he did not even need to stop to do.
Just as Grud was done butchering a second group of warriors, the other warriors realised that this display of strength was anything but normal and started shooting whistling arrows into the sky to warn the others while preparing to sell their lives dearly.
Within ten minutes of Grud engaging the enemy within the cover of the woods, the Frozen Fang warriors were in disarray. They all knew they were under attack, but Grud's pattern of killing one group, then disappearing into the trees and passing on a few other groups to strike another, was starting to throw the warriors into a panic.
When Grud thought that the Frozen Fang forces were in enough disarray, he conjured the Fire symbol with his mana and pointed his hand to the sky, releasing a ball of fire that exploded well above the tree canopy.
That was the signal for the rest of the army to make their move.