Chapter Five

Olivia

Two weeks had passed since John found the Demi-humans and the camp showed it. The carpenters had shifted their focus from housing. There was now a rough wooden barricade around camp. It would do almost nothing against a human siege, but against the demi-humans it was plenty sturdy. Behind the wall it wasn’t unusual to see farmers carrying pitchforks and cooks carrying pans just in case something managed to sneak in. Less work was being done and everyone was complaining more about having to do it. The situation was obviously not sustainable, so Olivia called for all the adventurers and sent them off to complete the removal of the demi-humans.

Ever since then Olivia had been pacing around, unable to focus on her other work. She had sent the adventurers off half a day ago and hadn’t heard a thing since. She knew they should be fine. John led some of the other adventures to scout out the enemy camp a few days ago. They managed to stake it out for an entire day, so they knew what they were up against. They only saw around fifty of the demi-humans. Considering the fact that they couldn’t tell them apart, and they had dwellings the adventurers couldn’t see into, they decided to be conservative and place the estimated number at one-hundred.

This meant that if they wanted to chase them out of the area near camp either the adventurers would have to fight ten on one, or the farmers would have to be conscripted. Conscription was a sure fire way to lower morale even farther, and the farmers were already going to be working long hours soon with the creation of fields and planting coming soon, so Olivia had decided on the ten to one odds. That may sound like a lot, but the demi-humans were small, poorly armed, and honestly pretty stupid. As long as the adventurers set traps and use their ranged superiority ten to one shouldn’t be an issue. With that in mind, the adventurers should all be completely fine. At least that is what she kept telling herself. It was getting to be a long time since they left and it really felt like they should be back by now. After thinking all that through, Olivia sighed and did the only thing she could do. Get back to work so camp would be a little better when they get back.

John

John wasn’t looking forward to this fight. He knew it had to be done or no one in camp would ever get a good night's sleep, but big fights were dangerous. No matter how good he was there was no way that he could avoid injury if he was surrounded by ten of the buggers. While that shouldn’t happen when they are there as a team, there was always a chance that something unexpected could happen. They could have underestimated the numbers or missed another settlement. Hell, there could even be a mage down there. He had heard tales about demi-human tribes having shamans that could use magic better than your average adventurer. He had always thought they were legends since magic was hard even for humans to use, but he had thought the weeping willows were legends too when he first got over here. John would have kept worrying about all those things and more, but he realized they were getting close to the demi-human settlement they were raiding and forcefully pushed the thoughts back and focused on his surroundings.

John and the rest of the adventurers managed to get to the edge of their archers range without being detected. Everyone did a final inspection of their gear and then they began the fight. The archers started by shooting flaming arrows at everything that looked like it would burn. This drove out all the demi-humans and let them start getting clean shots. Around the same time, the demi-humans started charging them. A lot of them were taken out by the arrows or thrown rocks, but there were enough of them that there were still plenty to fight. John stepped forward to make sure that none of the charging demi-humans could get at the archers, and then they were on him.

John drew on the earth to protect his legs from the short creatures, and then went to town. He felt like a giant. He would deflect their spears with his weapons and did most of his damage with his feet. Just as he was about to stomp on another unfortunate demi-human, he saw a glint from the corner of his eye. One of the creatures actually had a metal spear, and it had actually managed to impale the legs of the adventurer next to him. He was worried about the creature doing even more damage, so he ran over and booted it as hard as he could. The little thing tried to hold onto the spear, but it was John's best kick of the day. The creature went soaring and landed off who knows where.

John looked around for more enemies to fight, but soon realized they were all fleeing. Seeing that they were too far away to pose a threat, John turned his attention to the fallen adventurer. The spear had gone straight through one calf, before getting stuck in the other leg. Seeing that, he went over to his pouch and got medical supplies. He was worried about increasing the bleeding, so instead of removing the spear he just disinfected around the spear as best he could and then loosely wrapped the wound in gauze. Once they were back in camp the healers there could set about removing the spear the right way. He checked the wound once more before deciding that there was nothing else he could do.

He stood up and started surveying the battlefield. Two other adventurers were down, but they were already being treated so he did not have to worry about that. Seeing that they had multiple injured comrades he set about building stretchers. They were rough, just canvas tied between two particularly sturdy sticks he found, but he doubted anyone here could do better. After that he started to check on the dead demi-humans. He counted about forty of them in all. That meant there was still a decent number left, but they had driven them farther away from camp, and it wasn’t like they could go chasing after them while they needed to take care of the wounded. He went around the battlefield and helped collect the arrows that were still serviceable. After that the wounded had gotten all the field care they could give, so he picked up one side of a stretcher and started the walk back to camp.

Snud

Snud turned over and tried to ignore the growing heat. He was already sweating, and the female he had gone to sleep with still grabbed onto him. He was only successful for a moment, because before long she started to kick and scream at him instead of just pushing. He quickly stood up, ready to reestablish his majesty, but stopped when he noticed a problem. The hut he was sleeping in was on fire. He grabbed his spear from beside the bed, and sprinted outside ready to discipline whoever challenged his new position as chief warrior. But when he got outside, he saw that it was not a drybold challenging him. The giant was back and it had brought friends. He quickly changed his mind about fighting and started to run away, but then he saw the women and children being mercilessly slaughtered even though they tried to flee. The final straw was seeing his favorite concubine nearly impaled. He mustered his courage, and charged with the rest of the warriors towards the invading giants.

All around him his brethren were being taken out. Those who went slowly were hit by arrows or rocks, and the fastest among them were crushed beneath the giants feet. As he approached the giants line he saw a giant that was distracted by one of his allies, and held his spear out in front of him as he finished his charge. To his surprise, it worked wonderfully. The spear went straight through one of the giants legs and stopped in the other. He tried to pull out the spear to finish off the job, but found it was stuck. Snud braced himself and pulled as hard as he could without any results. Snud braced himself again, but before he could get another attempt in the original giant was upon him. It had run over with lightning speed and kicked him even harder than the first time. He was sent flying. He went so far that for a second Snud wondered if he was just going to fly away, but that thought was quickly stopped by the ground hitting the back of his head.

Snud woke up in the dark with aching all over his body. He was confused why for a second and then he remembered the battle. He looked around and realized that he was in a bush not far from the giants. He backed through the bushes as quietly as he could, and before long he was far enough from the giants that he was able to move less carefully. He started to search for survivors from the tribe. He managed to find a few stragglers, and had them follow him as they searched for any others. Before long they found the main body of the tribe but that was not enough to bring him joy. Everywhere he looked clansmen were weeping. Nearly all the warriors had died. Many children were still unaccounted for. Even the chief had been killed by an arrow as he tried to lead others to safety. Snud took all this in and came to a decision. He stood on a nearby rock and said “Snud chief now. Snud will protect. Follow to find new home. Protect Tribe now. Kill giants next time”

After giving what he thought was quite a rousing inauguration speech for his declaration as chieftain Snud started to lead the tribe away from the giants. It was a hard journey, with much hardship and danger, but Snud managed to lead them all through it. They found a protected valley. It only had one small entrance. Easy to trap. Hard for giants to get in. Once inside the tribe started to build their new home, but before they got far something strange happened. Snud was trying to direct where the new chieftain's hut should be built when an outside force started to enter his body. He tried to scream but his mouth was unable to move. All he could do was scream in his thoughts thinking “ No stop. Snud mean no harm. Snud just here to protect tribe, and have harem, but mainly to protect tribe. Please stop. Snud nice.” and to Snuds surprise, it worked. The outside force stopped trying to attack his mind. It still froze his body, but any further attack had stopped. After what felt like forever Snud suddenly heard a voice in his head. “You live here you protect territory.” After that the oppressive power freezing his body left, and Snud was once again his body’s only occupant.