Ares looked out to the large sea of human warriors. He began to count each unit of theirs and then sighed. They walked twenty wide by five and there were fifty of such units. Some were a little smaller, but such a discrepancy was insignificant to Ares. They were close enough to five thousand that Ares may as well have chalked it up to five thousand.

“Wow… there must be at least ten thousand.” One Marching Blade had said.

“Just under five thousand.” Ares replied back as he watched the enemy march over to them, though they were still fairly far away. “Send for more archers, even those that are not pure archers. We’ll need more arrows too… Tell Morak that there are almost five thousand soldiers here, and tell Rori-kin that Ares was the one to count.” He waved a hand as an oxfolk left to go and bring the message.

The human army stopped about a mile or so away, though some units continued to move forward, until only three of such units were nearby. Then the soldier with a floofy helmet walked up, flanked by ten soldiers with equally heavy armour.

“You there! Boy!” They called out to Ares.

Ares glanced back and around, motioning a hand to one of his youngest Marching Blades, who stood up quickly, though they were a little confused.

“No, no! You, the demon with the mask of a human!”

“Oh!” Ares chuckled as he walked forward, motioning a hand for his Marching Blades to remain behind. “Excuse me. I am King Ares, Master of Waters, King of all Riveans. Who do I owe the pleasure?” Ares asked.

“Commander Leoni. I had not expected to meet you here, for we had sent others to come and speak with you.”

“Oh! Is that so? Perhaps I missed their message?” Ares smiled knowingly.

“Indeed, perhaps you did.” Leoni laughed and the ten behind him couldn’t help to hide their laughter. “A shame, Faltain was rather eager to see you.”

“Faltain? Ah! I do recall meeting a man named Faltain.” Ares called out, which quickly silenced any laughter from the humans. “A rather handsome man if I recall. He brought about a thousand soldiers to come and say hello, did he not?” He turned back to look at Gantal. “If I recall correctly, he had come to make a deal with me about getting back the other Commander. What was his name? Arteon, was that it?” He asked Gantal.

“That is true, Ares-kin.”

“Right, right. What ever happened to Faltain?” He asked Gantal as if he were genuinely confused.

“You killed him, Ares-kin.”

“I did? Oh! Yes! I did, didn’t I?” Ares then looked back to Leoni. “I did kill him. Wait a second, Gantal, weren’t all of you there? How many human soldiers did you kill?”

“Forty.”

“Ah, for- what? You killed forty?” Ares asked, genuinely surprised. “Oh right, we slaughtered a few of them right at the end…” Ares continued to think. “Still, forty? No wonder you are the captain.” He rubbed his forehead. “Well done.”

“Thank you, Ares-kin.” She replied with a smile on her face. Her cheeks had turned slightly red as Ares looked back to Leoni, still a little surprised.

“Right, uh. Right, I killed him. Did you need to speak with him? I would have kept him alive if I had known.”

“Cease your endless chattering, what lies do you speak? A beast like that killing forty men? Couldn’t you have made something a little more believable.”

Ares smiled in response, he had a very easy way of proving such a thing, but he kept calm. “Ah, perhaps you are right. Maybe there were only a hundred or so, forgive me, math isn’t our strongest suit.” Ares chuckled. “So, Leoni, why are you here?”

Leoni inhaled deeply and calmed himself. They ran their fingers through their hair and then smiled. “I have come to offer you salvation. Kneel before us, and accept your place as slaves happily, and we shall treat you fairly. These are the orders that we have been given, to offer even you such beasts a place of slavery within our society. We would have slain you all if not for the mercy and the wisdom of our General, be glad.”

“Oh?” Ares smiled. “Oh what good fortune!” Ares chuckled. “That is most well, for you see, I too have an offer for you. I shall offer you the chance to kneel and surrender, so that you may be slaves to Rivea. I shall treat you fairly, as slaves should be, and offer you a chance to become a Rivean eventually, through enough work. If you refuse, well, I shall not offer you such mercy again, such are the words of King Ares.” Ares raised his arms out beside him as if to accept all the praises and applauding the humans could muster.

Leoni began to laugh, a wild and hearty laugh which then continued through the soldiers behind him and then the army. Five thousand soldiers began to laugh and Ares smiled, glancing back as the number of such a foe began to finally sink in to the oxfolk and his Marching Blades.

“Marching Blades! Rally!” Ares called out. They all rushed up to his back with their shields and weapons at hand. “Salute your enemies!” He exclaimed as the Marching Blades then saluted the enemy in tandem with one another. Ares puffed out his chest.

The human soldiers watched and then began laughing once more as Ares then motioned with a hand and the beastfolk began to move back to take the positions for battle, Ares covering the rear. The laughter continued to echo and the oxfolk that Morak had offered to him seemed a little shaken.

Ares waited until the laughter had died down and the human soldiers began to get into their positions, Leoni going back to their soldiers to order them. Finally he began to speak.

“Five thousand men.” Ares called out. “That is our enemy, five thousand of them.” He looked out to everyone. “That’s how many they sent to fight us, to take the mountain and to slaughter your family. Five thousand!” Ares sighed. “To think they would show us such dishonour. Five thousand? Why would they send so little! Are they underestimating us?” Ares furrowed his brows, obviously annoyed. “They laugh at us, believing us to be weak. Yet soon the sounds of their laughter will be drowned out by the sounds of their screams and they will know that they should have brought more men. There are what, two hundred and fifty of us, not even? Morak will send what, a hundred, maybe two hundred more? Five hundred against five thousand. Do you know what that means?” Ares waited as he looked out to everyone.

“It’s simple.” Ares smiled. “Each of us must kill just ten soldiers. Just ten. Now I will ask of you. How many of you will get out of your tent to slay but one man? I wouldn’t. Ten? I might sleep for a little longer. No. I want to kill twenty, twenty men. That’s the price I ask for if one wants me to get out of my tent. Hell, if I’m sleeping with my woman, I might have to ask for fifty.” Ares laughed. “What about you, Gantal? Would you get out of your tent for less than twenty soldiers?”

Gantal shook her head. Ares looked out to the rest of the Marching Blades and asked them the same question.

“No! Ares-kin!”

“How many then? What is the price?” He asked each soldier. There were many twenties and then one began to speak much more, twenty five, thirty, fifty, and one had even said a hundred.

“A hundred?” He asked as he looked into Omata’s eyes.

“Two hundred if I was with my woman.”

Ares held in a snort of laughter and began to tear up. “Is that so, Omata…”

Then he looked up to the oxfolk and found Ilton. “What of you? Would you allow Omata to kill two hundred before you?”

Ilton narrowed their eyes. “I would kill three hundred.”

“Three hundred!” Ares laughed. “So three hundred from you, two hundred from Omata. Well, I cannot allow anyone to kill more than me, I am the King after all. I suppose I will take on five hundred. So between the three of us, a thousand will die. That leaves four thousand, can the rest of you manage that?”

“I will kill a thousand myself!” Called out a random oxfolk from afar.

“A thousand?” Ares furrowed his brows. “This is not your dreams, at least keep it somewhat realistic.”

All went silent. Then Ares laughed, so hearty was his laughter that he began to cry from the force of it, with the rest joining him. The sounds of their laughter bounced off the mountain walls and surprised even the new archers that had arrived.

“Armal, brief the new recruits! Tell them I expect each to kill at least twenty men, and once they kill twenty, they may return home.” Ares continued to laugh.