Damon could see the dirt moat of the purple mouth tribe’s village. It wasn’t larger, taller, nor more imposing than that of any other village.

“Gabrielle, Dominique, Raphael, Elizabeth, come here.” These were his commanders. He assigned Raphael, a Picard as the head of the hunters from the Picard tribe and Elizabeth, also a Picard, as the head of their archers. “I will make a commotion in the village; I want Gabrielle and Raphael’s group to climb the south-facing wall. Elizabeth and Dominique take the east. When I say go, you scale the walls with the ladders we made last night and kill everyone on sight.”

Everyone nodded, Damon wasn’t going to spare anyone, this tribe had become too dangerous.

To do so he activated shadow meld and lessen reflection. He’d cast his support spells on his allies when the conflict started.

Before climbing the moat, he checked for guards. There were only four, yet they didn’t seem to be on guard. It seemed that these wood elves weren’t very retaliatory and only increased their defences if ever attacked. Well that or the purple mouth tribe didn’t know how to do anything other than attack. Anyhow, Damon scaled the dirt wall without bothering to take care of the patrol. Although he may be nearly invisible to them and could easily take care of them. If they notice a guard disappear, bells would ring, and his head would roll.

Now on the other side of the moat Damon noticed that this village had more huts than his and the Picard tribe. Since the population seemed constant for all villages, this further convinced Damon that they incorporating tribes into their ranks. Damon went straight to the chief’s hut. After having entered it, he erected a dirt wall in place of a door to prevent any unwanted visitors or escapees. In the absolute darkness of the hut, he saw two shadows. One male wood elf about six-foot-five sleeping next to a woman.

For these elves without the ability to level up, their strength was purely based on their physique, no differently than back on earth. He now understood why this clan had rapidly expanded. A chief who stands as tall as this one must be like a titan to the others. Before anything happened, Damon cut of the chief’s head with a swift slash of his sword and did the same to his wife before she woke up. Blood pooled around their bodies and the night remained as quiet as before. He remained there standing in the silent night. Perhaps he was waiting for an alarm, an indication that someone would come find him and take revenge for their master, yet nothing happened.

For the first time since coming here, Damon felt real disgust. Not at the world, but himself. He vomited in the corner of the hut. It was almost as if he had killed a child. These people without magic or the ability to level up had no chance in life. Their only salvation came from the fact that the monsters in the area lacked magical abilities. And now he had come to snuff out their life.

But he couldn’t stop now. Like a drug, vengeance would only grow stronger and more addictive to these elves. He had to end that chain. He went to the next hut; however, when he saw a little child in the corner, he left that hut alone and went on to the next house inhabited by a sole archer. He swiftly cut her head and proceeded in that manner for half an hour until he’d killed seventy percent of the village’s population, only leaving behind parents with babies.

When Damon left the village, he went to his men waiting outside, “I’ve already dealt with them. I did not know creatures without magic nor martial skills were so weak.”

Although they were confused, the wood elves weren’t a bloodthirsty race, as such they did not mind leaving after doing nothing.

The sun would rise in four hours, as such Damon’s group would be long gone when the purple mouth would send out troops to find the culprits. He would let them search for him. He could not kill them all, it was too cruel, too inhumane, and too self-serving.

When Damon reached the Picard village, he handed Clarice back his men. Seeing that they all came back safe and sound, he thanked Damon profusely and told him to come back whenever he wanted.

Next Damon continued his few days’ march back to the Lotus tribe.

#

Matthieu turned to Sacha. “How many elves do we have left?”

“About ten hunters, and twenty archers?” Sacha scratched her cheek, “I don’t know why those beasts suddenly congregated and rushed towards our target but, even if the Lotus tribe was wiped out, we lost ten men to beasts so I can’t say it’s beneficial.

“Well, at least we survived. I doubt that the Lotus tribe still stands. And if they did manage to fight them back with the use of their wall, we should still be able to deal with them and have a place in the purple mouth tribe after.”

Sacha nodded, “Well-worst case I’ll just run away.”

“Run away, run away where? To the bottom of the swamp.”

“Ah, you worry too much, for a beauty like myself I’ll find a village with one or two single male elves and seduce them.”

“Sure bud, instead of testing your charm how about dealing with that village.”

When the sun rose, the elves sent to subjugate the Lotus tribe arrived at the village.

When Matthieu arrived at its gates he saw an archer call out to someone and another archer, probably in a higher position came to see what was happening. Matthieu spoke, “We come by the will of the purple mouth tribe. Either bow down to the great chief Maurice or be—.”

Without a second’s hesitation the elf released and arrow which pierced Matthieu’s eye.

Sacha waved to the ten remaining hunters to scale the wall. Since the walls weren’t tall, the enemy archers could only release one volley of arrows before her men scaled it. In the initial assault six hunters died, however, the remaining four hunters made short work of the enemy archers, who couldn’t do anything now that they were within a spear’s thrust. Although Sacha wondered where the Locus tribe's warriors had gone, she didn’t mind it. Even if they had set up a trap, she could probably just break through it without issue. Anyhow, they had probably just lost all of them against the beasts.

When her hunters on the wall waved to her, Sacha told her archers to scale the defences as well. When they reached the top of the wall, more arrows started to rain down on them. It seemed that all the archers hadn’t stayed on the walls and had retreated into their huts.

Sacha waited a minute and then finally climbed to the top of the moat herself. When she reached the top, she saw that the woman who’d fired the first shot and killed Mathieu was running away into the village. She wanted to kill her personally for she killed Matthieu, an easily controllable leader for the warriors. Plus, if it weren’t for her, who shot immediately, they might have been able to avoid unnecessary casualties.

And although Sacha wanted to start a hut-by-hut assault, she wondered why there weren’t any hunters. Perhaps they were being lured in; however, the beast tide had made a strong impression on her, so she guessed that even if they weren’t all dead, not many remained.

“Archers,” she said to her elves. “Enter the village, release your arrows into the huts to clear them. Warriors stay on their flanks and make sure they come back alive. We’ve already lost too many comrades.”

She watched from the dirt wall, unwilling to risk her life for another chief’s ambition. Her elves split into four groups comprised of five archers and one hunter. Each one of them crept up to a hut, two archers on either side of the entrance, and one looking out to the surroundings. Releasing arrows at any stray enemy archers. When the four archers were in position, they released their arrows and the hunter rushed in to kill whoever was still alive in the huts.

Sacha counted seven remaining enemy archers. They’d given up their position and had all entered the chief’s hut. They took turns firing arrows and hiding back inside the hut ad continuum.

In this manner Sacha lost eight archers, and two hunters. She told her elves to stop clearing the huts and to charge the chief’s hut. When they did, the archers released their arrows at once taking out four elves, however, the counter arrows pierced just as many of them. Next the hunters ran into the chief’s hut and slaughtered the rest of the archers.

They let out a loud cheer and went on to kill every survivor including the young and old.

Although Sacha had gotten used to this sight and understood why the Great chief used this tactic, it still made her squirm a bit. “Everyone let’s go back. Since we’ve accomplished our mission, we don’t need to fight anymore.”

The elves nodded.

Yes, although they might be asked to intimidate another village into serving the Great Chief Maurice. The deal stipulated that after subjugating one tribe or convincing three tribes to serve him. Their contribution would be enough to grant them favourable status. Although Sacha had lost many men, she could now live in peace.

#

Two days later Damon arrived at the village. His nose flared up. He smelled diseases, and rotting corpses, but it wasn’t just him. Everyone smelled it. They all ran to the village gate. However, seeing that no one looked over the walls nor opened the doors they frantically climbed the wall to the village.

There they saw a massacre, a war crime. A few elves vomited, and others cried. Blood had pooled and dyed the earth dark red.

“Shit!” Damon ran to his hut. What he saw where seven archers including Fabienne lying on the cold dirt floor. Flies buzzed around their bodies and maggots ate their flesh.

The stench was strong. Damon’s eyes started to burn and tear up. He wanted to scream and find the person who committed such an atrocious crime; however, his throat had swelled, and his head felt dizzy. He wobbled out of the hut, sat down against its wall. His arms rested on his knees and his head looked down to the soil stained with blood. He vomited once, and then twice.

He should have kept her with him. He should have killed everyone in the purple mouth village. Were they the ones to do it? Did they run and make their way here as soon as they and realized what happened? No, he had to go and take revenge. He couldn’t let this go unpunished. The other elves were at the entrance of different huts, and they all cried or stood there in a daze.

“We have to find the ones who did this,” yelled Damon as he used his hands to push himself up. “We have to kill them all.” However, what he got, wasn’t what he expected. The tribes’ men turned to him with disdain and hate in their eyes.

Gabrielle yelled, “Didn’t you say you dealt with them? And now look. Ever since you came tragedy after tragedy has fallen upon us. You’re the devil. You’re the one who brings death upon us, no one else.”

The other tribesmen pointed their weapons towards him, and she took her bow in her hands.

Damon turned to Dominic, who averted his gaze in turn.

“Why would I do such a thing? I’m your chief. I wouldn’t bring harm to any of you.”

“No, you just recently became a chief. Three people died for you to become chief, perhaps it’s you who used magic to call those beasts because I’ve certainly never heard of anyone in the tribes’ controlling monsters. We’ve never even heard of so-called humans and even if they exist, you were probably chased out because of magic, and not for your ears. At least if we kill you, the spirits of the dead may lie at ease.”

With those words Gabrielle released an arrow.

He felt betrayed and torn. Apparently, his low charisma could only bring him so far.