When Voro saw the fireball explode in the air above where Grud was fighting, he gave the command to charge, and when he shouted, teams of men manning the portable barricades at the flanks lifted the heavy barricades and moved them to the sides, allowing the rest of the army to run downhill, across the clearing, and toward the treeline where the Frozen Fang forces were entranched.
As the Rock Claw army charged across the clearing with shields raised and no regard for formation, they were fired upon by the Frozen Fang warriors, but not as heavily as initially expected due to the commotion Grud was making, causing them to react more slowly to the Rock Claw army closing in on them.
Before any of the Frozen Fang archers could get three volleys of arrows out, the Rock Claw army had already reached the treeline, forcing the archers to drop their bows and engage in melee.
The Frozen Fang warriors, despite the confusion from Grud's butchering, managed to form pockets of resistance along the treeline, but as more of the Rock Claw army joined in the melee, they were quickly overrun.
But despite being overrun, the Frozen Fang warriors did their job, which was to warn the main body of the Frozen Fang army that made camp deeper in the woods and to buy time.
***
Ko'Rune, Head Warrior of the Frozen Fang tribe, was having a small nap after lunch. It was once again another uneventful day. What he was actually waiting for was night to fall, that was when he would execute another of his plans to capture one of the Rock Claw shamans.
He had seen their destructive powers of raining down fire upon his men, and even pulling water out of nothing to extinguish the fires on their barricade, and he wanted that power for himself, or more specifically, his family.
Ko'Rune had been fortunate enough to have sired many children with his three wives, and from his many children, two of them had the talent to be shamans. If he manages to capture a Rock Claw shaman and extract the knowledge of this new magic for his talented children, not only would his children be powerful, but it would also bring prestige and honor to his family.
All he had to do was make sure the captured shaman had an 'accident' after extracting his secrets, then this new power would stay within his family. Then, if his chieftain or tribe elders wanted that precious knowledge, they would have to either go through his family or go fight the Rock Claw tribe again in hopes of finding a shaman capable of the same feats. And as Head Warrior, he and his family had more than enough influence and power in the tribe to ward off anyone trying anything too drastic.
Just as Ko'Rune was about to doze off into a deep sleep, he heard the faint yet distinctive sound of a whistling arrow, then another, and another, followed by the shouts of alarm from the rest of the camp, and one of his commanders bursting into his tent. "Head Warrior! Alarm from the front!"
Ko'Rune was already rolling out of his cot, blearily-eyed, almost falling to the floor, but he caught himself as he started throwing on his armor while shouting commands.
When Ko'Rune came out of his tent, a warrior ran up to him and reported, "Head Warrior! Rock Claw warriors have already taken over the treeline and are making their way toward us!"
"What?! How did they get so far so fast? What happened to the men defending from the treeline? They should have been able to hold off the Rock Claw longer than this!" Ko'Rune shouted as he was practically shaking the warrior who reported this to him.
Getting a chance to get a word in while being shaken, the warrior responded, "I am not sure, Head Warrior. I was not directly there at the front, but from what I heard, a giant man in red armor and a spear almost as tall as two men charged us alone and started killing our men. Only when we knew we could not stop him did we signal the alarm. Before we knew it, we were overrun by the Rock Claw."
While listening to the report, a few parts caught Ko'Rune's attention. 'Giant man… red armor… huge spear… it can't be.' Ko'Rune thought to himself. He had heard of Grud, chieftain of the Rock Claw tribe, and all his larger-than-life exploits. Ko'Rune had even seen Grud when he was but a boy before The Long Winter at one of the tribe gatherings during those peaceful times.
Ko'Rune knew that Grud must be in his forties or fifties by now, long past fighting prime by normal standards, but he had also heard stories from the Thunder Strider warriors that were absorbed by the Frozen Fang, who were there when the Thunder Strider chieftain fell. Despite his age, Grud was not to be underestimated, and Ko'Rune was not one to put himself in danger for such a thing as pride. He was going to throw everything at Grud.
Just as the warrior who gave the report was about to run off to join his group, Ko'Rune grabbed him and said. "Call all the commanders to me, now!"
***
Within the woods, beyond the treeline, Voro was just done beheading a Frozen Fang warrior when Grud dropped down beside him. Voro did not see Grud and thought it was an ambush from above and swung first toward the sound, only for Grud to catch his hand, stopping the blade from hitting Grud.
"Good reflexes." Grud said with a small smile, knowing that he had caught his son off guard, but still managed to react with commendable speed.
Seeing that it was only his father, Voro relaxed as Grud let go of Voro's blade. "Thanks." Voro replied. "The men are forming up a defensive line, and I have already sent scouts to check on the main bulk of the enemy. There's no way the Frozen Fang army consists of so few men."
"Agreed." Grud said as he looked in the direction where the scent of men was, excluding present company. "While you organize the men, I will do as I did before and attack them alone to keep them off balance. Don't keep me waiting too long, I tire of the battlefield and want to go home to your mothers." Grud said before speeding off toward the Frozen Fang army before Voro could say anything.
***
Grud took to the trees, toward the Frozen Fang army with barely a scratch on him from the previous fight. The only thing that marred his appearance was the sweat from his exertion and the blood splattered on his armor that was not his own.
As usual, fighting got his adrenaline going, which in turn made him horny and prepared to fuck. This meant that Mita's womb was in for a pounding when he got back to the wagon. So instead of waiting around and having blue balls around sweaty men, he would rather go and do something productive with his time that only he could do.
Instead of running through the woods on the ground as any normal man would expect, Grud jumped from tree to tree. This, on top of his senses that exceeded human limits, allowed him to spot Frozen Fang warriors hiding behind the trees ahead of him, ready to ambush the Rock Claw army, but what really impressed Grud was what he felt through the vibrations in the trees that led to the ground.
What he sensed was fuzzy and unclear, but what he sensed was hundreds of foxholes covered with sticks and leaves, each with three to four men inside, ready to burst out and fight.
Grud was tempted to just rain fire down upon them from the treetops, knowing that the dry leaves that hid the men in the holes would easily catch fire, burning them out, but decided against it. That would be extremely shortsighted of him, due to the fire easily getting out of control. Sure, it would kill the enemy, but more than likely, it would also hurt his men.
This left Grud with few options to expose the hidden danger than to do it the old-fashioned way.
Grud jumped around the trees, circling the Frozen Fang army as well as a man weighing north of 200kg could. Unsurprisingly, he failed when he jumped to a tree that was not thick enough to properly support, causing the whole trunk to sway, rustling the leaves, and shaking off some dead branches.
This obviously caught attention, and as some of the Frozen Fang warriors looked up, Grud knew that his cover was blown and threw his spear at the first man who spotted him.
The spear went straight through him, pinning him to the ground, but to Grud's and everyone else's surprise, the man did not die on the spot. It took the man two seconds of looking at the spearshaft sticking out of his chest before letting out a bloodcurdling scream, alerting the rest of the Frozen Fang army that something had just happened.
Before anyone could recover, Grud had already dropped down from the tree, straight into the camouflaged foxhole.
When Grud landed, the twigs and sticks he crashed through were not the only things snapping. Grud had landed on a man, most likely crushing whatever bone he had just stepped on. And before the rest of the men could react, Grud's hands went flying out to strike the men down.
In his right hand, we wielded his long knife, hacking a man from shoulder to hip in one swift chop. With his left hand, he threw a hard hook that connected to another man's temple, fracturing the man's skull and killing him immediately. The last man in the foxhole managed to draw his knife, but Grud had already brought his knife to bear, gutting the man and jumping out of the hole, leaving him to die.
The moment Grud jumped out, the men surrounding him had the same look of fear on their faces as if they were facing down a monster on their own, and in a sense, they were.
It began with one of them shouting a warcry to hype himself up before charging, with the rest following, while one of the archers shot a whittling arrow into the air while shouting "GRUD IS HERE!"
It did not take long for the message to spread, drawing in every Frozen Fang warrior, especially the elite of the Frozen Fang warriors.
As Grud was butchering every man he came across, while going from foxhole to foxhole, killing every man within, or at the very least, giving their cover a good kick to expose them to the coming army, Frozen Fang warriors that were armed and armored a lot better than the others started making their way towards the ruckus that Grud was kicking up.
These were the elite warriors of the Frozen Fang tribe, and when they reached Grud, they did not jump in to face him immediately. They let the other warriors engage Grud while they waited for other elites to join the encirclement.
When ten of the elites arrived, one of them nodded to the others, and they started closing in on Grud, treating him like he was big game that they were hunting.
As Grud twisted the neck of the last warrior who dared to recklessly charge him, he looked with contempt at the ten, no, thirteen elite warriors and counting. "You would bring so few to face me? I find this insulting." Grud taunted the men, but they did not react. The only thing Grud noticed was them tensing up and gripping their weapons harder, but they did not charge.
Grud looked at the number of elite warriors streaming in from the rest of the woods, 'They are just buying time so all their elites can surround and chip away at me like I am some prey.' Grud thought to himself.
Grud took a step forward, and the encirclement of elites followed his step, maintaining distance. Grud took a few more steps, and the encirclment followed. Grud saw the game they were trying to play and decided to take it up a notch.
He dashed forward faster than those before him could step back, aiming to grab one of the elites, but they were elites for a reason, and Grud was met with a wall of spears, most aimed at center mass, but Grud noticed a few that were purposely aimed at his joints.
Grud was forced to stop before he could impale himself on the wall of spears, but Grud would not be denied his prize. With an outstretched hand, Grud used a tendril of mana to wrap around the foot of the man he was initially aiming for and dragged him kicking and screaming into Grud's clutches, where he was easily manhandled and died from a twisted neck.
But even with Grud showing that he could pick them off one at a time, the elites did not engage while waiting for their numbers to bolster. The only change that happened was the command to huddle closer together so they could assist one another if Grud tried to pick someone off.
"Fine, if you will not come at me, I will just burn all of you down." Grud said as he raised his hand, and the Fire symbol started forming.
Near instantly, Grud saw the panic in the elites' eyes, and finally, one of them broke, charging at Grud to try and interrupt him. This caused a chain reaction, and the rest of the elites charged spear first.
A predatory smile formed on Grud's face as spears closed in on him from all sides, making the adrenaline in his body spike, and making him perceive time in slow motion.
Grud had not felt this alive in years.