With a single slash Gerald cut down a salamander. The six warriors alongside him, including Damon stabbed their spears into the necks and legs of the four other salamanders to intercept them. This let Gerald finish them off with his sharp and merciless blade.

The salamanders near the other moat walls heard the commotion and frantically ran towards them. This time six salamanders and a crocodile surrounded the group. However, they didn’t face these beasts alone. Archers pelted arrows into the backs of countless amphibians and although the arrows rarely killed the beasts, they did slow them down.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough and a hunter at the right edge of the semi circle got his leg crushed by the giant mouth of these so-called salamanders. The warrior next to him lunged to stab his spear into the salamander's neck, however, at the same instant another salamander dragged him away by the foot.

In the back a scream could be heard, “No Valentin,” it was an archer and probably his wife.

At this instant the archers, no doubt disturbed by the recent event started to rain down arrows in the area where Valentin seemed to have been dragged. This in turn diminished the support Gerald received.

Damon used an earth spike to kill a salamander in front of him. However, if Damon didn’t move the next earth spike would come out at the same place and do absolutely nothing.

Next to him, Gerald continued to cut down salamanders. Yet without the supporting fire, his fatigue had started to rise quickly.

In the next five minutes, two more hunters fell and there were only four tribesmen left defending the wall.

Unbeknownst to them the giant frog in the back had identified the sword as their greatest danger. He took aim, fired his tongue which connected onto the sword, and retracted it all in the same instant.

Not only was Gerald shocked, but Damon as well. He planned on picking it up when Gerald died, but now that it was gone how would he escape? Perhaps with shadow agility he could climb the earth wall before the beasts took him down or make earth pillar stairs. Damon turned his head to the frog only to see it lying on the ground, lifeless.

What a fucking idiot. The blade had pierced the back of the frog’s throat.

Gerald looked at his hands. He no longer had a weapon in hand. Before he could do anything, a salamander dragged him into the horde. This time everyone yelled his name and started to shoot arrows into the salamander who caught him. Although this killed the salamander, it also ensured Gerald’s death.

Damon looked at the remaining beasts. There were probably ten or so salamanders left and three crocodiles. The three men with him would get eaten up in an instant if Damon didn’t do anything. Now that all potential leaders had died, he didn’t want to lose anyone else. They were his men.

“All hunters come down and avenge our chief. I will go take the sword to kill the crocodiles.” I screamed.

The five men now enraged jumped down the wall and began to frantically stab the remaining salamanders. Damon used shadow meld and lessen reflection to pass through the remaining salamanders without attracting too much attention, when some did try to bite his legs he’d poked them with the spear. Since most were already injured due to the arrows, they couldn’t chase him. When he got to the frog, he pulled his sword out of its throat. After wiping off the slime and blood, he almost hugged it.

The anxiety of losing a sword worth a hundred gold coins couldn’t be brushed off. But now, with his prized possession he could take charge without worry. As such, he went back to his tribe and started to cut down the salamanders which encircled the village. The crocodiles couldn’t be killed with stone weapons as such the hunters could only hold them at bay until Damon returned. When he did Damon made short work of the distracted lizards by stabbing their backs from behind.

In the end the village now counted eight hunters and twenty archers, and their population had dropped to fifty-three. However, this wasn’t the time to count his losses, but to seize power.

“Everyone, we must head back inside. This might have been a plan made by the purple mouths.”

Yes, Damon needed keep them in a panicked state until they recognized him as chief.

Damon pointed out to ten archers, “The hunters are tired, they need to rest in case of an enemy attack, bring the casualties back inside the village. Fabienne, take the lead.” She nodded. Damon felt relieved to see she listened to his orders now. No, they all seemed in too much distress to refute anything he said. The people who had died were strangers to him, but, to the tribesmen, these corpses were their best friends and family.

He crouched down next to the hunters who were at their wits’ end, sitting lifelessly in the bloody mud. “We’ll take revenge on our chief and for our tribe, but for now go rest on the walls. You can sit down but don’t let your guard down. They might launch a second attack.” The men got on their trembling feet and went to sit down on the wall. “All other archers bring the salamanders into the city. Don’t have more than four people out at the same time. Gabrielle, you take command.” She was the other competent leader other than Fabienne.

Damon headed back inside the village, heading straight for chief’s residence. There he found seven old elves around their former chief and his two children. They looked to range from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and sixty. Unlike the usual image one had of wise old elves. Their eyes were smoky due to cataracts, their skin seemed to be rotting, and their mouths trembled at the sight of the corpses.

This is what happens to humans or elves without healing magic or any form of alchemy to help them age with grace. Damon went to the end of the hut and sat down on the chief’s carpet.

“I’m sorry for your lost. We’ve all lost so much today. Gerald handed me this blade as he died. As such I will do my best to avenge our tribe.”

Perhaps the elders were still under shock; however, they didn’t seem to react.

“We should burry the warriors before enemies can come and desecrate their corpses.”

Damon went back outside and found Fabienne and called her over.

“We need to prepare for the next attack. Tell your men to prepare a proper funeral for them.”

She nodded and Damon gave her a small hug. “I promise you we will avenge them.”

If Damon could secure her support, he could guarantee his new position. Especially since she seemed like a rather respected figure. Plus, he was interested in her. Which wasn’t a small reason for putting her ahead of Gabrielle, who was maybe even more competent than her.

Anyhow, he’d confirmed that the elders were too shaken up to say anything, and the hunters would probably follow him, who was both the strongest and most assertive. Plus, he had magic which couldn’t hurt his chances. Two hours later a giant bonfire was built outside of the village, he guessed this was how they set their dead free. When the night came, they placed the chief and his son’s bodies on the tinder before setting it ablaze. Next, they threw the bodies of the other hunters into the fire. As the sun rose, they did not eat their usual meals, and this continued for the entire day. Such was their custom.

When the next morning came, they started to eat the meat prepared the other night. With the large number of salamanders and crocodiles, they built ten smoke houses and smoked the meat all day before storing them in baskets.

Before the sun set once again, each person received about ninety-four pounds of smoked salamander meat. An absurd amount for these people who lived day to day.

Damon who walked around with the blade on his waist went to sleep in the chief’s residence. No one spoke since they’d all implicitly accepted it. However, this wouldn’t do. Now that the tribe survived through the worse of it, they might turn against him. Plus, this wasn’t the time for a détente. With the number of men, they currently had it wasn’t enough to fight back the purple mouth. He’d have to find another tribe to exchange information with or even create a coalition against the purple mouth tribe.

The next morning Damon woke up, his back felt fresh, and his spirit was high. The chief’s bed wasn’t half bad, it was made from leaves but tied together with rope. This made it firmer and it didn’t lose its form as the night went on. When Damon went outside, not many people had woken up, most of them were the children and elderly. Unlike a week ago when they were happily throwing rocks around they now went to sit next to the great bonfire made to burn the corpses.

Damon went up to the dirt wall. The muddy ground still smelled of blood and guts. He decided to look at his status screen.

Damon Asmodeus LVL. 15 (1910/5620)

Charisma

Intelligence

Perception

Agility

Endurance

Strength

Mana

19

43

32

28

17

18

129

All humanoid language acquisitions Arithmetic’s Lvl.6/7 Black magic Lvl.3/10 Dark magic Lvl.3/10 Dark spirit communication Lvl.3/10 Detect diseases and viruses through smell Lvl.3/5 Earth magic Lvl.3/5 Improved memory Lvl.3/5 Medium disease tolerance Night vision Telepathy Lvl.3/10

Damon sighed; he’d gone through such a hard-fought battle but with the Exp sharing it didn’t amount to much in the end. Soon he heard steps coming from behind him. He turned around and saw Fabienne. She had her bow and quiver on her back and walked with steady steps towards him. Damon now realized that she was quite tall for wood elves coming at five feet.

“How are you doing?”

Damon felt touched that she asked such a question. However, he had been staying with her for the past few days giving out orders and seeing to the daily life of the village with her. But still, this was the first time she asked him any question. And although he came to like her cold demeanour, he also liked this new side of her.

Damon nodded and but kept on a troubled look, “It’s hard, this is the first time I’ve ever been accepted anywhere, and I’ve lost so many new friends and a family. It’s hard to bear.” Damon went closer to her and hugged her, “please stay with me.” He knew not to say too much.

To his great pleasure, she also wrapped her hands around him. Now that he could see her ears, he confirmed that she wasn’t that old for an elf. She was in her mid twenties. This meant she’d probably went through this period filled with skirmishes and losses since her childhood. Perhaps her interest in him was just her needing someone that she thought wouldn’t die easily.

Fabienne gasped.

“What is it?” asked Damon with visible concern.

Still in his arms she pointed towards the swamp, more have come.

“Shit, go wake up everyone and tell them to make haste. I’ll defend the walls for now.”

Fabienne squeezed Damon, “Be careful,” she said and left to wake up the tribesmen.

Yes, Damon had emptied the remainder of the beast attracting potion this morning. He needed to show that the purple mouth wouldn’t stop attacking unless they dealt with them directly. Damon would also use this to solidify his position as the chief.

He could see ten salamanders, and one crocodile. This felt relaxing, with his sword he could probably deal with half of them on his own.

A few minutes later twenty archers led by Gabrielle and Fabienne, and the remaining hunters appeared. Fabienne went to stand next to him.

“Gabrielle, I want your group to secure the other walls. Fabienne, your group will give support fire. If someone gets dragged out, don’t shoot. You’ll just hurt the person who got taken.” At those words everyone nodded as they remembered, Gerald’s corpse filled with arrows.

Damon pointed to the people who fought on the front lines yesterday, “you fought well yesterday, help Gabrielle’s group in securing the other walls. The last five will follow me.” They nodded. He didn’t want anyone to die. If he could show that under his rule, they would fare better. It would only help his bid. “Let’s go,” he said to the five hunters. “Your job is to make sure no salamanders try to flank us. Jonathan and Dominique, take my right. Nicolas and Victor take my left. Guillaume takes the back, we don’t want anything sneaking up on us, and if someone gets injured take his place.

Damon slid down the wall with the five other hunters. When they landed the salamanders attacked. Damon used an earth spike to take out a salamander which came at him straight on. Four salamanders tried to attack the group to the right of Damon. They held them back with their spear and Damon stabbed the closest one to him which let the others get rid of the three remaining salamanders. Three other salamanders in the distance got hit with five arrows each. They slowed down by a lot and Damon’s group finished them off. Finally, there were two salamanders who stayed on the sides of the crocodile.

Damon fired an earth spear onto the croc’s head. It tried to jump and bit Damon’s neck, however, Damon created and earth wall which let two hunters easily deal with a salamander each. Damon created an earth spike and removed the earth wall. As expected, the earth spike didn’t have enough strength to pierce the crocodile’s hide. However, now six against one, the crocodile didn’t know whom to attack which let Damon cut its muzzle in half when lunged at Dominique.

“Good job boys,” saida Damon.

The hunters had a complicated expression, both of resignation and anger.

“If only we had more magicians,” said Dominique.

Damon put his hand on his shoulder. “And I wish my magic was stronger. But I still promise you this, just like your previous chiefs I will do my utmost to protect you.”

Dominique nodded.

“But we have to do something about the purple mouth tribe,” said Damon.

Dominique looked up to Damon who stood nearly an entire foot above him. “How are we going to deal with them? They’re too numerous.”

“Then do you want to wait and slowly die.”

Dominique shook his head.

“We must go and speak to the other tribes. They too should understand that they must be stopped.”

On this point all five hunters agreed.

“With magic we’ll have a trump card. Since we killed everyone who attacked us yesterday, they won’t suspect it. Plus, there is something else I haven’t told you about magic.”

Dominique’s ears twitched, “what.”

“When you gain authority, like becoming the chief of a tribe you gain new powers. If I can become the chief of multiple tribes, I can gain even more powerful magic.”

To these people who had already accepted Damon as their chief, they had no reasons not to believe him. They’d only ever lived in a very small community which made them naïve.

“Let’s go back,” said Damon.

Back on the wall he called back, Gabrielle. She ran to him, her hair brown air swayed in the air, she seemed like a more cheerful person. However, Damon wasn’t interested in her. He’d keep her as a good commander. It seemed that her husband had died in the previous skirmish which occurred before Damon arrived.

“Are there any other beasts left?” asked Damon.

“There were three salamanders, but we dealt with them.”

“Good. Then we should talk about how to deal with the purple—”

However, before Damon could finish his statement Fabienne interrupted, “I think we should make the appointment of a new chief official.”