Long time ago, or three hundred thousand years ago, there is a country in the central part of Asili Continent, the most powerful and prosperous country at that time, even now no country able to reach or surpass this country’s greatness. Almost all aspects of their technology, government and culture are somewhat foreign to this world, or to be exact cannot be found at that world’s early ages.

There government system is not monarchy type or lead by the strongest man or by royal family, it is a democratic system, where people select their own leaders, like the system use in modern days. They invented various technologies to make their lives easier and more comfortable; they invented water mills, wind mills, wells, deep wells, irrigation system, high and sturdy structures and many more. They invented the very first wheel in this world, because of that they build animal driven carriages, spinning wheel and any wheel related inventions.

They are the ones who introduce currency or money for trading, they are the first to use cavalry in war, they are the ones who make the very first metal armors and weapons in early ages where sticks and stones are the most popular weapon at that time. They are the ones who discover sewing and cloth making. We can call that this country invented the ‘first’ things to make life more comfortable. That time, all people have jobs, eat three times or more in a day, has a house to live in and every one was full of hopes and life. We can say that time is so prosperous that all people can afford the basic necessities in life.

At that time, no racial discrimination between races because the elves, dwarves, beast men, werebeings humans and other races work together with the guidance of high humans. Yes, this country is led by high humans, the Tahas Country, a country that leads all races for prosperity. High humans have high physical and magical abilities unlike humans that are the frailest in this era. They are direct descendants of angels, making them the wisest of all races and the most dangerous race when confronted in battle or the deadliest race if engage in war. Well even they are angel descendants, they have no wings sprouting at their backs, and they are slightly taller or bigger than average human, they don’t age or the aging stops when they hit the age of 40 and their golden hairs, is the most distinctive feature that separates them from normal humans.

They establish a country to unite all races which constantly in conflict or engage in war for useless or small reasons, for example if the other race steals a single fruit from other race’s territory, they immediately declare war to settle that matter, that’s how naïve or bloodthirsty they are, especially the beast men. The elves are second in terms of beauty, they are the race that has the best affinity in magic especially nature magic or they are the closest race in nature aside from dryads and has close to immortal lifespan and they stop aging at age of 25. The high humans teach them the proper use of magic and also teach them archery since they have good eyesight.

The dwarves have similar appearance to elves but slightly degraded in terms of beauty because of their thick beards, muscle heads and one of the smallest race in terms of height but they are the most crafty race. Crafty means not a schemer or plan something in the shadows but good in designing or making things. When the high humans know about their unique ability regardless of their bearded stout race, they teach them blacksmithing. And that’s the start where dwarves becomes the master craftsmen and producer of the most beautiful and the most durable items and weapons.

Beast men or humanoid creatures with animal features, they are the most hot headed bastards, they always engage in battle to settle disputes, especially during mating seasons. Well, not all beast men are the same depending on what animal feature they have. The rabbitkin are the fastest and most coward of all, they don’t fight, they just run, the tigerkin, buffalokin, lizardkin and those top predators are always engage in combat like wild animals either for food or mate. They give the high humans the most headaches but high humans are wise, they invented a collar that suppresses their wild instincts. As the beast men with collars that suppresses their animal behavior, they can easily negotiate and trained, it’s like the demon who possess in their individual bodies are now gone and they become more rational or more humane towards others. They are not put in slavery, their animal instincts is just suppressed to some extent. Since high humans know about their high physical ability and endurance, they teach them building their own kingdoms and farming to reduce their nonsense disputes.­

The humans, the most fragile of all, they are the race which the high humans teach the longest cause they need to teach them almost everything since they have average or low physical ability, average or no magic affinity or in other words, they are the most average of all races but at the same time the weakest. Despite of being the weakest, they can easily adapt to their own environment. The high humans are slightly surprise of their adaptability and because of that they started to educate these humans. Like they expected, humans can have multiple jobs. They can fight other race on almost equal terms if properly trained and also they are good designers and craftsman, they can learn almost any magic type as long as it’s not beyond intermediate level. Just like they thought, humans are jack-of-all-trades but masters of none.

The werebeings, have the same appearance of humans or elves but they have the ability to transform into werewolves, werebears or weredemon depending which clan they belong. Like the beastmen, the high humans teach them to build their own kingdoms, unlike beastmen again, they easily establish their own since they live by clans before. Werebeings are known for their high resistance either physical or magic, in other words, they are hard to kill and they can use dark magic which was secret to every clan.

One day, there’s a huge incident in werebeings’ territory that shock everyone in Tahas. The weredemons declare war to other werebeing clans, the result, the opposing clans became weredemons’ slave or transformed into savage demons like a werewolf become a weredemon wolf or a werebear becomes weredemon bear, it’s like they went into state of madness or devour by the darkness, the demon. It’s like they devour other clans to forcefully join them. Afterwards, they declare war to other races while stating that ‘We are the true descendants of Gods, we are the strongest, we will rule the weak“

The high humans immediately confronted the weredemons but they have numerical disadvantage, the ratio is like 1 high human to 100 weredemons. This is because high humans have a limit of two in giving offspring whereas werebeings have no limit in producing their own offsprings. Even they are outnumbered, the high humans successfully defend their home country by using their own strengths, physical and magical ability and using mithril armors together with their effective battle formations. The first confrontation was successful but with the cost of hundreds of dead high humans, even they effectively repel the invasion force of thousands of enemies, they are still mortals, they feel tired and they also die and the most shocking of all is that all the invading weredemons are not normal weredemons, they have reddish black aura around them making them almost immune to damage.

Because of high number of high human’s casualties, the high humans mobilize the elves, dwarves, humans and beast men armies to confront the incoming second invasion force. They didn’t deploy them at first invasion because they underestimate the weredemons and they didn’t expect the huge number of weredemons especially the transformed ones to join the attack as the invading force. Like in the first invasion, the transformed weredemons keeps charging the battlefield without battle strategy wreaking havoc to weaker races in the frontline and this time there numbers increased to tenfold.

Even all the races are in battle defense formation where shields are held in front and spear to stab a charging enemy and raining magic attacks from the sky, it seems it won’t work to transformed weredemons where high resistance in both physical and magical. The result, one side slaughter of the defense army, thousands of dwarves, humans and beast men were slain defeating only few hundreds of weredemons. The commanders in each army only grit their teeth and clench their fists to the slaughter before their eyes. After brief of silence, the commanders decide to retreat towards their home country’s gates.

As soon as they reach the Hout Passage, the weredemons that are trying to chase the retreating soldiers are blocked by four hundred high human elites together with one thousand people from different races, their goal is to buy more time for the retreating soldiers to prepare their counterattack even these weredemons are so powerful, they will stand in this passage and fight for their country. The weredemons tries to overwhelm its enemies but they are easily killed by these heavy armored elites. In open battlefield, weredemons may have the advantage but when you narrow down their frontline numbers just like in this passage, the weredemons cannot use their numerical advantage forcing them to send wave after wave to deal its enemies. The Tahas elites use the terrain to their advantage.

Two hours and the frontline are still intact but their shields showing cracks and their spears are dyed red in blood and they don’t know if they can still hold the line. The elites are showing that they are tired from battle which was a sign that they can only last only in few minutes. The remaining thousand people use their long range magic to bombard their enemies, sending countless corpses flying here and there. Even they weredemons having high magical resistance, it doesn’t mean that they are invincible or immortal, they suffer from continuous bombardment resulting to the weredemon’s deaths. Even with their casualties, the weredemons are still fighting, charging and charging. A weredemon is a perfect tank and at the same time damage dealer because of their claws and fangs and their high resistance plus that strange reddish black aura. The weredemon’s chief and generals are frustrated in this situation and they decided to join the battle. The tides of battle turn to the weredemons favor because its generals and their chief killing, biting and slicing the tired elites.

As the battle goes on, more and more elites fall on the ground, even they have a will to fight, their bodies are tired making the frontline getting thinner and any moment will collapse now. The weredemons are still relentless and fierce, they are really demons. The commander of the elites gives the signal to the thousand troops behind, the signal to end this suffering, the signal to delay these bastards for few years, the signal to show these weredemons that these, elites, will continue to fight to their very end.

Boom Boom Boom

Consecutive explosions can be heard, it is the sound of rocks falling from the top of the passage towards the frontlines, elites, and the weredemons. The size of the rocks and the law of gravity squashes every man’s bodies whether high human or weredemon. The elites die with a satisfying smile and the weredemons die with a face of agony and pain. The weredemons started to panic and retreat and also the thousand man troop escapes. Their final plan is to block the passage by using the rocks on top of the passage, to gain more time.

Why they didn’t block the passage from the start? It’s because they want to lure the weredemon’s chief and bury him together with his generals hoping that weredemons will take years to find another chief and its generals. The weredemon chief tries to escape but his tail was caught by huge boulder, he tries to slice or move the boulder but it didn’t budge. The rocks in this passage are not ordinary rocks, they are rocks that mostly made of high pressured carbon, or like a diamond, making it hard and heavy. As the chief was busy, the elite commander comes closer in his side and stabs his bloody iron sword at the chief’s neck at the back. The chief just groan, his vocal box was destroyed by the iron sword and both of them die from raining hard giant boulders. The generals and chief of weredemons are now dead. The surviving weredemons goes back to their hometown to bring its sad news.

This passage is in between by two volcanoes and mountain ranges, it is hard to climb and if you do, the surroundings temperature gets hotter as you get close to the twin volcanoes. This passage is the only known road between Tahas and werebeings, making it a natural borderline between them. But unfortunately there are werebeings that can fly, making the delay time of brave 400 from years to 6 months. Yes it takes 6 months to deliver troops and troops of weredemons from the other side. The preparations now are complete and they started their third invasion attempt.

The third invasion was successful because the humans decided to surrender as to lessen their casualties and avoid bloodshed. The elves and dwarves are already gone in their separate ways after the war. They declare that they will go back home, in their ancestral home. Their respective leaders have mixed feelings to abandon this central part of the continent, where they learn how to become civilized or the start of their own civilization. The hot blooded bloodthirsty beast men choose to stay together with the high humans to fight and die in this place while some go back to the wild. The high humans are glad that they become independent and respect their decisions. As nearing in the final day of Tahas, young high human children are already evacuated and their destination is by following the fate of their feet.

When the weredemons step foot once again to the country who enlighten and teach them, they felt something was wrong, some weredemons asking why they do this? why the hell they fight their teachers? As to erase that doubt a giant weredemon moves forward emitting a black aura, that aura envelops all weredemons turning their doubts into rage. Standing before them are the remaining soldiers and warriors who will fight until they die, they are the high humans and beast men.

On the day, where the Tahas country falls, is the rise of chaos between people, between brothers and sisters and between races. War and conflicts starts to emerge everywhere just like its old times. But that is also the day where people remember the brave four hundred for their heroic actions.