CHAPTER 74: HOW MANY

They were standing on the battlements, looking at the armies that spread below them.

Beside Vacuse were Harkon and Lyra and some of the New Dawn and Dragon Guards.

Lyra frowned. "There’s about two thousand of them, but their numbers are constantly swelling. Seems the first wave was pulled together hastily while others joined."

The atmosphere was tense.

The outpost they were in is known as the Last Tooth Fortress, and it marked the real ending and starting point of the Vorrakyn’s territory.

It was built specifically for that reason.

Already, armies in red had filled the space in front of the fortress, the Dragon flag flapping in the air.

One thing Drenvar invested heavily in was the army, and it showed in the way they stood in neat rows. Soulbearers at the front while the regulars stood at the back.

With the Wing Brigade brought over, and the soldiers already stationed in the fortress, and the others joining them, they had already pulled close to four thousand.

It should have been chaos, but each Commander had firm control of their men, and the men themselves were strictly trained.

Each Commander’s men stood in their place, quietly watching. Waiting.

Vacuse frowned. "How are we able to bring this number of men together on such short notice?"

"Now that our territory is this size, we don’t have to worry about stretching ourselves so thin. Distance isn’t such a problem, so Dragon Lord cut the standard army into smaller sizes and then had each outpost train intensely to respond fast.

"This means that all the outposts were used to responding fast to orders. This is the secret behind it."

Vacuse nodded thoughtfully. In his past life, he wasn’t really someone who moved with the army and such. He was mostly in the wilderness, getting used as bait for monsters.

"Seems interesting," Vacuse said at last.

He watched the numbers of the other army swell rapidly. They carried a flag that was imprinted with red leaves.

They were Duke Frexon’s army.

The front of the army was organized while those behind were struggling to get into place. Dust rose up, and the air was already getting stale with all the people packed together.

Vacuse shook his head. "Kragthar is really in an unadvantageous location. There’s no natural defense."

Lyra nodded in agreement. "We didn’t really feel the sting of the open space until we became what we are now. Before, Vorrakyn needed no fear of open space. We just filled it with our armies."

Vacuse nodded. "They must have been nearby already because they sure got here so fast. It seems Duke Frexon came to Kragthar for more than negotiations."

Vacuse couldn’t help but smile at that. He wasn’t the only one that was caught off guard; even the Duke was met with his own. But he immediately stopped smiling.

With the army here, things might turn out for the worst, and he wasn’t even out of Kragthar’s territory yet. ’...I must reach the Capital before any war breaks out... I am, after all, the most precious Vorrakyn alive...’

He was very shameless about his own survival.

Soon, word reached Vacuse that Drenvar wanted to see him, and he immediately went down.

The Dragon Guards surrounded them, both the Dragon Lord and his heir. It seemed as if all the surviving members of the Guards were there, as they formed a wall between them and everyone else, clearing their path as they left the fortress.

Commander Skya, who was also with them, spoke. "Their body language does not seem threatening. But we can’t be too careful. You should just invite them over, Honorable Grace."

Drenvar snorted. The anger from before seemed to have filled him, and his eyes were blazing again. "They brought an army to my doorstep. I will know the reason. Even an old and wounded Dragon is still a Dragon!

"There is only so much disrespect we can tolerate!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The soldiers began to bang on their armor as the Dragon Lord passed, creating a metallic sound that rang in the air with sharp clarity, loud enough to shake the ground.

They stopped a short distance away from the other army, and the Dragon Guards opened up.

Soulbearers with shields that were etched with different runes stepped forward and slammed their shields into the ground in front of them, and the shields began to glow.

They did this at four corners.

While the remaining set up offensive positions.

Then servants came and set tables and chairs. Thus, Drenvar the Dragon Lord just made his intention of engaging those who brought armies to his doorstep known.

Vacuse sat as well, a few steps behind the throne-like chair that Drenvar was sitting on.

Commander Skya stood beside him stiffly.

When the opponents saw what was happening, they sounded out a horn and sent a messenger over with the message that they would be sending out their ’delegation.’

Drenvar accepted without a fuss, and soon the delegation made their way over.

What caught Vacuse’s attention was the man in the middle of what appeared to be elite guards. The man looked like Duke Frexon Sevrix, but he was tall, while the Duke was short and stocky. Also, he looked to be in his late twenties.

"That is Eldrin Sevrix. The heir of the Sevrix family and the title of Duke of Red Leaves. Those guards around him are the Bloodied Leaves. They are the elite, just like the Dragon Guards," Skya told him.

Vacuse watched them intently, and each step they took added to the tension in the air. There was a subtle shift, as if each army was preparing to attack within a moment’s notice.

The Bloodied Leaves stood close to their heir, their eyes hard, and their black armor with the red leaf patterns looked like freshly spilled blood.

As Vacuse watched them approach, he knew that things wouldn’t be as easy as he expected. ’...fuck... just when I thought I’ll just go to the Capital and put an end to all of this... the enemy moves even faster!...’