There was screaming and shouting from ahead of Ares. He raised his hand and then exclaimed out. “Enough! Take another step forward and I’ll slaughter the lot of you!” The darkness around them had kept the strangers hidden, and their campfires nearby had illuminated their little group of seven.

There was another horn blown from afar and Ares raised his hand up. The whistling arrows disappeared once again before he raised the walls ahead of them. He turned to see that the camp was already beset upon by some kind of beastfolk. He raised a hand and then shot out a few spears to stop them from approaching the tents.

It was then that they were revealed, the strangers. Most of them were women, but every single one was a lionfolk. His own crew were soon out and ready to fight. Apparently it was Ares and Azzo on first watch, and they had done quite a poor job.

Ares slipped his way through the lionfolk, dodging and weaving between their attacks before arriving at his own tent where Emerli had taken refuge with a probably nude Saykkera.

Yet Saykkera was not nude, Ares surmised as she had stepped out of the tent with her talons ready to rend a lionfolk woman that had appeared ahead of her. She gouged the woman with ease and tossed her aside as though she was a ragdoll.

‘Sheesh…’

Ares was rather glad she was on his side. He ducked under another lionfolk woman, though they had begun to now go feral.

“Fine then…” Ares raised his hands and then started to raise walls around them to create a single pathway for them to funnel in, though they had started to climb the walls instead. ‘Ah…’

He summoned a spear to his right hand and then waited, looking around to see if his own were alright. A few of them struggled, but they managed to hold up a couple each by themselves, with Saykkera slaughtering large numbers of the enemy, going to help whoever it was that was in need.

“Well..” Ares said as he continued to look around. He didn’t even need to do anything as the lionfolk began to retreat away after half of them had been dealt with. Ares watched as a few tried to escape from his own, but he raised the walls so they couldn’t, trapping about six of them with him.

“Hey there,” Ares said. “Why don’t you stay a while so we can have a friendly chat, hmm?”

The lionfolk growled at him, ready to pounce. His own group, the Storm Seven, clutched at their own weapons. Ares raised a hand. “Relax,” he said. His voice was low and clear. “I’ll handle this.” After all he hadn’t done much and his pride had been wounded.

Two of the lionfolk women pounced at him. He speared through one of them with his spear and then kicked the other down, pinning them down to the ground. “If any of you move, I’ll crush them,” he said.

However two had come around to charge at him. Ares sighed. He snapped the woman’s neck under his foot, wincing himself as he did so. He grew colder as he then roared out, cutting the woman in half with his spear, flinging her aside with ease as her blood splattered across the air.

The lionfolk that charged at him froze in horror, unable to step forward to the terrifying creature known as Ares.

“What? Cat got your tongue?” Ares tossed the pair of bodies aside. “I told you that I’d do it. Why are you so surprised?”

The lionfolk stared at him in terror, remaining frozen as they didn’t move.

“There’s four of you left. You understand your position, so don’t make this difficult for me. Surrender, or die a slow and painful death.”

The lionfolk dropped their spears and Ares nodded. “That was a good choice.” He smiled towards them. “Now tell me who you are and what you were doing here.”

They remained still, glancing between Ares and the others. One of them stepped forward, a woman perhaps in her thirties or so.

“We are Leonta, you are in our lands, trespasser.”

“Well, Leonta…” Ares turned to look at Kask. “Are we in their lands?” He whispered.

“These lands are no ones, they are free from what I know,” Kask said.

“Well, Leonta, my friend tells me they are free lands,” Ares said.

“They are not free lands! They belong to us!”

“What claim do you have?” Ares tilted his head.

“It is our lands, by right of Leonta!”

“Who is Leonta?”

“He is our leader.”

“Aaah. Right of might, alright. Well then, I am quite sorry. If you had checked on us nicely so many of you wouldn’t have died.” Ares smiled. “Don’t you think? It’s rather annoying to constantly get attacked.”

The lionfolk winced at the words, no doubt wishing to pounce on him, though they gathered that the difference between them was too much.

“What to do with you… we can’t go around with slaves or anything. I guess I would like to speak with your leader, so how about we sleep and then you can lead us to meet with Leonta. As long as you listen, I won’t kill or hurt you.” Ares glanced between them all. “Understood?”

“Very well,” the woman said. She was apprehensive, but Ares nodded. He then began to shift the earth around them so they were protected better. He even formed tiny holes they could see out of just in case.

“Go to sleep, all of you. I’ll be taking watch through the night.” He said as he looked to the oxfolk. “You’re going to have to be tied up, just in case.” Ares brought out some rope. “Tomorrow in the morning we’ll eat and you can lead us back to your leader. I just want to chat with him.” He smiled as they allowed themselves to be tied up.

Ares then lay against the top of the wall, creating a small area for him to relax on to look between the outside of the camp and the outside.

The lionfolk seemed to give up quite easily and Are was glad they did. He didn’t want to kill more of them, it still left a foul taste in his mouth. Though then again, if they had hurt any of his allies… then that would have been a very different scenario.

The others slept rather quickly, apparently giving Ares a rather large amount of trust. He smiled to himself. The lionfolk had been growling away quietly to one another before Anka peered out to growl at them to shut up and then she went back to sleep.

After a long while with the silent darkness Ares heard some shuffling off in the distance. He looked out to see a small group shifting around in the distance. They continued to move around as silently as they could. There were a few of them, maybe a dozen. However, every so often, more of them appeared. Dozens at a time.

Ares continued to pretend to not notice until then pre-dawn arrived, with the sun about to come up and the horn blared. As the sun peeked through from the horizon, the rays of light soon covering the land, he could see that a few hundred lionfolk had surrounded the camp.