“Lord! We've spent all of our ammunition!” shouted the Omega officer of the Busters.

“We've done all we could to stall them and whittle down their forces. Let's hope that Varbu, Prince Gobbers, Captain Wullcot, and the wall commanders have finished their last-second preparations,” said Akira.

“Did we kill enough of them?” asked Klyn. “It looked like we only managed to kill a few hundred of them.”

“Why worry about such things? Everything was mostly ready when we left so it should be fine, we just have to smash these guys when we see them again!” said Zundar as he slammed his two fists together.

Akira stood up in his stirrups, his sword arm held high in the air as twirled it in a circular motion and pointed back towards Kodria.

“Awoooo!”

With his order, the Garg cavalry turned around and headed back to Kodria to join the others and await the Ratman army.

Akira felt more confident now that he had a general idea of what they would be facing.

***

The howl rang through the cold air and reached the ears of the ratmen.

Rechee shivered almost uncontrollably for a few seconds, not from the cold... but the chilling fear that swept down his back freezing him along with the thousands of soldiers he commanded.

They had been unsure who was attacking them since they would escape before the soldiers could reach the concealed area that had fired upon them. But now they knew who it was.

“REEE CHEE RE RE!” ordered Rechee when he regained his senses.

Due to the many ambushes, Rechee had surrounded himself with his most heavily armored troops to help block and shield him from the attacks that always seemed to be flying around him.

The entire ratman army quickly followed his orders and moved into a defensive formation with Rechee at the centermost protected area.

The Ratman army braced themselves for the attack they thought was coming but... after a half-hour of standing still in the cold wind, Rechee wondered if he had misheard the wind for a howl.

Although werewolves had only killed a few hundred soldiers the constant sneak attacks had broken a nerve in Rechee as well as the ratman warriors which was further exacerbated by their lack of sleep due to having to be constantly on guard for an attack.

The death of a few hundred ratmen was nothing to them. Currently, there were an estimated 20k younglings back at their offshoot nest network. It would be considered extremely lucky if 10k of them reached adulthood. The rest would be used as supplies to make the rest of the ratman clan stronger.

That number did not even include the many nest hive networks that housed all the many tens of thousands of adults.

That ratman race was truly one of the most populous races, but being such a recluse race with a high population they had a rabid cannibalistic nature to supply the needs of the race.

The high mortality rate was nothing new to them. The ratman demon race as a whole was normally secretive and recluse, rarely showing themselves above ground.

This was partially due to their small size and overall weak bodies when compared to the larger races. The other part was they did not like the sun preferring the dark months. Although the south was dark for many months of the year... It was too damn cold for the ratmen.

So for the majority of the ratman in the moving army, this was the longest and farthest they had ever been away from the main nest network.

Ever since the sneaky black cloaks muttered their words to his father, the ratman demon race was set onto a new course that would allow them to expand and possibly grow even more numerous and maybe even stronger with the land they would acquire.

***

Ding!

Kodria's security has dropped 3%.

Each day an enemy force is camped near/ or attacks Kodria there will be another 3% drop.

When the security falls under 50% the local monster population will start causing more problems by attacking the city and the citizens will start to lose morale at a higher rate.

“What are they doing?” asked Mileena as she strained to look at the Ratman in the distance.

Akira stood atop one of the outer city towers along with Varbu, Klyn, prince gobbers, and the commanders of the IsKald force that was stationed inside the outer city.

“Either bo's estimate was off or they got reinforcements. It looks like there are nearly 20,000 of them,” said Akira as watched the ratmen trying to build up a quick base out of the attack range of the towers.

“We can't let them have the time to set up their defense,” said Varbu.

“You're right, Prince Gobbers, Snuwball, Breezard. I'll leave you three and the warriors under you here to guard the walls against any unseen attacks. Varbu, Zundar, Klyn, let's go.”

“Gii gii gii,” said Prince Gobbers, nodding his head and thumping his chest like he saw Varbu normally do.

Akira, his guards, and battle companions exited the tower and headed towards the gates where the combined allied armies were waiting. Akira looked down the long main street which was jammed packed with fully equipped soldiers.

The large force was reassuring to both Akira and the citizens of the outer city who were silently watching them from their windows and doors.

Akira looked at the many faces that were filled with worry both for themselves and their loved ones that would be fighting on the front lines. The sooner they could defeat the enemy and completely drive them off, the better it would be for Kodria and its people.

Akira reached the main gates that were now slowly opening and hopped onto Grarr's back. As he did so...

Burruuuu!

A warhorn rang out from the east river fort followed by a howl!

“Awooo!”

The Ratmen seemed to not have any plans of letting them interrupt their setting up the forward camp and had already launched an attack!

A black mist covered Akira as he transformed on top of Grarr growing taller and bulkier. The sight and the aura that seeped out from him surprised the watching citizens of the outer city.

The attention of everyone centered on him. Tanner stood next to Akira with the flag of Kodria flapping in the wind.

Akira stood tall and strong and pointed his thick furred arm towards the advancing ratman army.

“Awooooo!”

The werewolves soldiers all transformed as one and replied to Akira's howl with their own that echoed through the air!

“AWOOO!”

The orcs banged their fist on their chest armor and the goblins let out high-pitched screeches.

As a unified force, they moved forward to intercept the Ratmen.