Our forces regroup… I can't believe my failure… I'm on the verge of tears at my mistake. Hundreds of lives are going to be lost because of this failure. Thousands if you include the pirates who's lives would have been spared if she was dead… I have failed… My mission has failed… My group escorts the children back to the ships…

At least… At least something good came out of it… Nami is in bad shape… Missing her arm, several scars now cover her face… She was knocked unconscious from continuous fighting. They barely made it back to the ships. Leon, Nargzar and Fast had luckily made it to the other group and fight off the remaining pirates before they were overwhelmed. She was being carried by Nargzar and one of her followers fortunately just learned white mage or...

Nami fended off the majority of the pirates attacking her group by herself. The automaton I had made for her has already been destroyed… The gear I had made for Nami was torn to pieces… Even the chest piece which would automatically repair itself was still cut to pieces... The groups had killed 80 pirates while retreating with the children… Combined with the pirates I killed making it to Gold and the 10 inside their room… It is equal to 100 pirates altogether.

We make it back to the ships… There is some cheering but also a somber feeling in the air… We won the battle but now there is a war ahead of us… Some people are passing out now from fatigue. The night had gotten dark. There is still a few hours before daybreak… I call in all my generals… We need to go over a list of casualties and kills… Where is the other black turtle…

We head back to the fortress. Their ships are mostly destroyed. With maybe 5 remaining for them to flee off the island if they decide to. If they head towards us, even without any generals here. Our forces would be able to defeat them… I let out a quick yawn before beginning the casualty count. Hilda had snuck away from her children to listen in on the meeting and check to see if Gobber was okay. We begin the meeting.

“Alright. Let's go over each persons mission. Starting with Nami… Did you manage to get all the kidnapped children back?”

“Yes… All because of the help of your generals… We couldn't have done it without their help. Even the distractions you had set off helped in our escape. Some of the men rushing passed us to get to the main room where the leader was. I would like to speak to you more later but for now, I need to make sure all of them get situated back in the village.”

“Alright… Before you go let me heal your arm.”

I spit some numbing poison on my claws and pierce them into her arm. She almost goes limp from the amount of poison I just injected into her and the fatigue she had. I cast regrowth and her and her arm starts to regrow before everyone's eyes. Some of my generals haven't seen this power of mine yet. Her healed arm is hairless now… I doubt she cares much, she was willing to sacrifice that hand to save the children. I let out another yawn before proceeding to the next general.

“Fayeth. How did your mission go?”

“We managed to raid all three buildings of their supplies with no issue, tomorrow when they take inventory they are in for a surprise.”

I see a giant smile go across her face, one I've never seen on her. It looks almost mischievous. Like she is happy to get one up on the enemy like that… I knew I picked her as a general for a reason. I don't really need to go over Darkclaw's mission but I do need his estimated kills to get an accurate measurement of how many enemies were killed tonight.

“Darkclaw. How many enemies did you kill.”

He starts to do some math in his head. It looks like he has a quick conversation with Greed and then he says.

“I killed 12 groups of 5 people so… 60 people. I also injured about 100 on top of that.”

“Good to hear. Next up is… Where is Shikki? Is Shikki still making his way here?”

Trice only looks on sad… What the fuck happened? She finally speaks.

“He… His ship was in bad shape and… He blew himself up...”

I can see tears forming in her eyes now. She was the closest to the explosion… She might feel she is at fault because of it was also her job to destroy the ships… With two targets, Shikki's ship would have been less likely to be singled out and attacked… I still call out.

“I… Why didn't he listen to my warning!? The entire reason we have these stupid slime communicators is to communicate! I warned him twice! WHAT A FOOL! WHAT A DAMN FOOL!”

I slam my fist down on the table… I shake from the loss. An entire ship… His crew was 50 men… I lost one of my generals in a surprise attack… How much of a failure of a leader does that make me!? I start to cry, I wipe my tears away I ask Trice for more details. Her response is.

“I… I was watching and he… Drove close to some ships and… Blew himself up… Only 10 of his crew made it to our ship where we could help them… That means most of his crew is dead or MIA...”

DAMN IT! That brings our total loses up by a total of 40 men… The number of ships destroyed by Lance, Shikki and Trice was approximately 45… Most people would see that as a victory… I can only see that as a failure… If I had prepared more… The casualties wouldn't have happened… If I had made another black turtle to help with the assault… There is still too much to go over to get distracted by what I could have done differently. I wipe the tears from my eyes again and talk to Lance.

“Lance… Your mission was a success right?”

“Y-yea. We had no problems defeating the ships that attacked.”

“Zergnar… How did your mission go?”

“Smoothly. We wiped out the food storage and most of the gear and other supplies as well. We lost a few griffin riders in the process but after bombing them we still managed to rake up 30 kills ourselves against the enemies.”

“Gobber… How many casualties on both sides?”

“We wiped out a group of 300 to start with. The next group was more difficult. The main building was firing on its own troops to push us back… We lost about 20 men to that but managed to kill another 200 pirates in the next few waves.”

“So… Doing some quick math… We managed to destroy 45 ships at the cost of 1 of our own… We managed to kill at least 690 pirates at the cost of around 60 men… We've injured hundreds more… That will be a burden on their healers… We also freed around 50 kidnapped children… Why does it feel like we lost then?”

Zergnar is the one to ask a question… The question is the answer to why it feels like we lost.

“How did your mission go?”

“… I killed her but… She transformed into a lich… We barely escaped before I ran out of mana. That would have meant I couldn't use my dragon form to run away… We ran with our tails between our legs against Gold… I… I should have done better against her… I should have known it was too easy.”

Hilda steps forwards now. “Are you kidding me!? Your army won this fight! And you're sad because you didn't know that the enemy was a lich!? How are you supposed to know shit like that in advance? You've done… Far better as a leader than any of us could… Kite… Listen… If you weren't here… Most of us wouldn't be alive.”

I wipe the tears away from my face again. “Yea… B-But at what cost is my leadership doing? We lost valuable men fighting a battle we didn't have to wage. We could have waited for them to attack Shienta and fought with even numbers if we waited.”

Next Trice is up to talk. “Yea. We could have waited. But then what? If they had invaded. Who is to say that we would have won then? The casualties would have been far higher if we brought weak citizens into this war.”

I can't stop myself from crying. All my generals are looking at this person who should be the strongest of them all. I should be the last one in this room to cry. I can barely get another sentence out of my mouth.

“Y-ya b-b-but who cares if other p-people d-die? I w-wouldn't mind sacrificing a few hundred citizens to save my own t-troops.”

Leaf steps forwards this time. Slapping me across the face. I look at her shocked before she finally speaks.

“Kite, that is an outright lie. There is no way you would be willing to sacrifice a village of weak, innocent people to save some of your men. We all follow you because you are so kindhearted. No one expects to live forever. We're following you because of what you are trying to do. You could have ignored all those people in trouble. You could have not mentioned the pirates invading. You could have left the demon folk to die on the front lines. You could have killed off all the gnolls and other people… But you didn't… You built up this army of friends… Of the little people of this world who keep getting stepped on by everyone else. That is why we follow you… Even to our deaths we'll follow you.”

I wipe the tears away again. Gods I must be a mess right now. I'm so tired…

Gold's point of view

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!? All this planning and preparation was thrown away at the last minute!?”

I'm beyond mad. A group shows up and barges into my throne room. Killing me! Sending me into my lich form decades before I am prepared to enter it. So many plans were just destroyed tonight! I've been planning this since childhood, forcing myself to learn necromancy as my second class for the sole purpose of lengthening my life. I yell out.

“BRING ME THE HEADS OF THE CAPTAINS WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO GUARD THE SHIPS!”

A young pirate, visibly shaking speaks up. “T-t-they are a-all most likely dead. The ships c-chased after a tiny ship a-and haven't returned ma'am.”

I kill him for giving me a poor answer. I feel slightly better by his death. DAMN IT! What useless pawns my men are! I ask more questions.

“So… How many of our men have died?”

The next captain steps forwards. I think his name is Pyrius... He is fairly attractive and confident so I do like him more than some of my other captains. “We're still counting them commander.”

...So many deaths that they are still counting over an hour later… What an expertly laid attack against us. To be able to cripple us so thoroughly. I can't believe this. Another pirate comes rushing into the room. Kneeling in front of me. He speaks quietly.

“All the prisoners are gone commander. All of our storage buildings were also attacked. They had taken everything from the west buildings and burned everything inside the east buildings. Barely anything is salvageable.”

“WHAT!? HOW! WHEN COULD THEY!?”

Years of planning destroyed! How was my army routed so completely at every turn. I had stolen the murine folk children so I could brainwash them into being obedient soldiers. With their life expectancy much longer than humans they would make better troops for an undying lich. All of my plans were formed from the idea of world conquest… You need to have longevity in mind. After this war with the south continent, I had plans to head east and learn automaton creation. That way I could make an army that would never die of old age. I need to rethink some strategies for now... Longevity isn't going to happen if I'm killed here... I'm going to have to sacrifice a few pawns to beat an enemy this strong...

I've been making backroom deals my entire life to get myself where I am and all of that has been destroyed in a single night. I question the man that is still in front of me. He is one of my captains but he is so average I haven't bothered to remember his name. I point at him.

“YOU! Why haven't we started preparation on chasing them with our ships?”

He starts to look afraid as well… Like the boy who had started this line of saying the wrong things.

“Please don't kill me… Almost all of our ships were destroyed in the attack. Only 5 managed to escape sinking.”

I pull my scythe back and swing it at him. He yells out.

“PLEASE DON'T KI-.”

I cut him in half. ARE ALL MY MEN SO INCOMPETENT!? AAAAHHHHHHH!!! I turn to my husband. One of the only men I can trust. I don't love him for his looks, I love him for his power. He is the reason I am the leader of this army instead of my foolish sister. I must be visibly shaking now from frustration because he places one of his hands on my skeletal hand.

“Do all my men think I'm so foolish. Foolish enough to fall for this elaborate prank? There is no way we could have been so thoroughly defeated in a single night. It has to be a prank, that is the only reasonable thing to think is it not?”

He grinds his teeth together thinking it over. He looks to be just as frustrated as me.

“Pranks don't kill their leader… Prank's normally aren't that strong… I think we've got a bigger problem than just a little prank…”

“I know dear, I was just trying to be cute… I have to in order to not kill all of my men on the spot for how little difference they make against a strong enemy. They would be more useful as cannon fodder corpses then as troops.”

This set's a lot of things in motion… I have to start working on a strategy to beat them now since they've made the first step. I'll start putting pieces into place to finish them off quickly. If we can't… Our deal with the north eastern continent will fall through. That will set my plans back decades if it happens.