‘BAM BAM BAM’ ‘BAM BAM’ ‘BAM BAM BAM’ ‘BAM BAM’ ‘BAM BAM BAM’

The sound of drums reverberating throughout the forest, intimidating the hunters in the Orca Village. Suppressing their nervousness, they tighten their grip on the weapons until, tight enough to make their fingers numb. Their eyes were staring dagger at the direction where the sounds came from.

“Is it done?”, said Duo Nan welcoming Acma who just arrive at his side.

“Yup, it’s done. But, for the next few days, please advise the hunters to avoid those areas”, replied Acma.

“Why? I thought it wasn’t fatal to humans”

“It wasn’t, but it will make them feel nausea and vomiting, in addition to a muscle cramp”

“You also said, you’re not sure about its effect to our enemies, so why do you use this gas?”

“...”

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”, asked Duo Nan again. His face darken.

“You asked too many questions. You should ask them on the platform”

“AHHH DAMMIT, I CAN’T FIGHT WITH AN UNSURE, RISKY FACTOR LIKE THIS. THAT’S WHY I ASKED. YOU WASN’T EVEN SURE IT WILL EFFECT OUR ENEMIES OR NOT, YET YOU STILL USE THIS GAS. WHAT IF IT BACKFIRE AND WEAKEN OUR HUNTERS INSTEAD OF THE ENEMIES?”, said Duo Nan with a supressed voices. His voice didn’t alert the hunters at the front, but loud enough to make his squad noticed his anger. His anger puzzled the squad because normally, Duo Nan was hardly got angry. But, considering the current situations, even the calmest could get stressed. So they ignored it.

“I wasn’t sure because I haven’t test it on them”, said Acma nonchalantly and wasn’t effected by Duo Nan’s anger.

“...”

This time, it was Duo Nan who didn’t say anything, but his face was clearly twitching from supressing his anger.

“Lets focus to our enemies”, said Acma.

Then, he turned his head and looked at the forest where the sound of drums came from. The sounds is getting louder and louder as it closing in toward the gate.

“Brother Duo, should we help to defend the gate? The enemies are moving toward the gate”, asked a nearby hunter carefully. He couldn’t help but asking because no movement was detected on this side of the forest.

“Elder Ma didn’t say anything yet, so we will stay here”, replied Duo Nan. That hunter nodded and slowly retreated to his previous position.

At the clearing in front of the gate, row and row of centaurs emerged from the forest. The troop that came today was clearly different than yesterday. They marched uniformly, lead by a robust male centaur wielding a giant axe. They wielded a shiny broad sword while the archers was using a long bows. The only similarity with the previous troop was they also didn’t wear any armour, clearly displayed their toned muscle on their bodies. They look strong.

After several minutes, the whole troops filled the clearing, facing the gate. Behind them, a band of war drummer still hitting their drum diligently.

Soon after, the robust male centaur raised its left hand, instantly halting the drum. Then it slowly move forward with a calm and steady pace, getting closer and closer to the gate. It only stopped after it reached a distance about 300 yards from the gate.

“HUMANS, RELEASE MY BROTHER AND I WILL GIVE YOU AN EASY DEATH!!!”

“WHAT IS YOUR OFFER FOR YOUR BROTHER?”, Elder Ma shouted.

“EITHER YOU RELEASE MY BROTHER, OR DIE PAINFULLY”

“ARE YOU A RETARD, CAN’T YOU UNDERSTAND MY WORD? WHAT IS YOUR OFFER FOR YOUR BROTHER”, shout Elder Ma again followed by a chuckle from the hunters.

“Interesting, a puny humans dare to negotiate with me. Listen up, humans. I will give you an hour to decide. If I didn’t see my brother by that time, then don’t say I’m ruthless”, it said arrogantly. It turned its body around and returned to its troop.

“Young Master Grufin, Young Master Grufin. I have an urgent news to report”, said a young centaur agitatedly.

Grufin turned its head and slowly put his great axe at the neck of that young centaur and then said,

“Who do you mean by Young Master?”

“I’m sorry Master Grufin, I’m really sorry”

“Good, that’s better. Now, speak”, said Grufin.

Grufin was respected but feared in its tribe due to its temper and ruthlessness. But, among younger generation, nobody could deny its strength. He fought with many other centaur tribes and also other beastman, but always returned victorious. Currently, Grufin was a candidate to become the next head of its tribe. But he already posed himself as a head and forced the younger centaurs to call him Master Grufin.

“Master Bardalph sent a messenger just now, saying that they got a problem. When they are waiting to launch an attack, some of their troops were poisoned and suffered from nausea and vomiting”, it said.

“Poisoned? Were they attacked by those humans?” asked Grufin.

“They say nothing about enemy, but they were poisoned while waiting inside a foggy area, 3 kilometres from the human village. Now they have retreated back a kilometre to recuperate”, it replied.

“Damn those humans, what kind of poison they use that even Bardalph can not detect”, said Grufin. The news made it shivered. “What about Bardalph, did he get poisoned too?”

“No news about Master Bardalph”

“Clever”, said Grufin smirking. “He must be poisoned too since he always fight at the front line. What do you think Glaraios?”

“We should delay the attack until they recovered”, answered Glaraios.

“Hmmppphhh, I say we attack immediately. If Bardalph have a strength to retreat a kilometre, it mean they still can fight. Glaraios, move our troops and pretend that we’re organizing them. Move the shield bearer to the front and archers on the second row. We must kill those human archers as fast as possible. I already said to those humans that I give them an hour, so we may catch them unguarded”

“As you wish, Grufin”

“Call me Master Grufin, can’t you?”

“Wait until you become the head first”

“I will Glaraios, I will”

“And you, send a message to Bardalph. Tell him to initiate an attack after 30 minutes”, said Grufin to the young centaur.

“Yes, Master Grufin”, said the young centaur as he dashed away.

On the western side of village, there still no sighting of enemies. Previously, when Acma went into the forest, he sent several drones to scout for an enemies. While Elder Ma and the leader of the centaurs were shouting at each other, the report from the drones came in.

“Master, I’ve spotted the enemies. Currently they were lurking inside the foggy areas, 4 kilometres from here”, said Alice.

“What kind of enemies?”

“It’s a werewolf”

“WEREWOLF?”, Duo Nan and his squad were the first one to respond. Their face turned pale and drained of blood. They were terrified because from what they understand, if they were bitten by a werewolf, they also might turned into a werewolf too. They were too focused on that fact so they seems like ignoring Alice who was floating in front of Acma.

“Brother Duo, I don’t want to get bitten. What should we do now? We don’t have a silver arrow, how do we kill them?”, one of the hunter said. He was clearly scared.

“Calm down brother. They may not be the same as the werewolf in our legend. Brother Wang, please report this to Elder Ma and wait for his order”, said Duo Nan. Although he said that, he also scared stiff deep inside his heart. He just putting a tough front to encourage his squad members.

“Yea..yeah, brother Duo is right. They may not be the same. I will go now. Thank you brother Duo”

Acma on the other hand was calm because he was wearing a full body armour, so there was no chance of him to get bitten.

“Wait, brother Wang. Don’t go just yet. Let Alice finish her report first”, said Acma. “Ooo..okay”

“Alice, how many they are and what are their condition?” asked Acma. What he wanted to hear the most was they showed the symptoms that they were poisoned.

“Their numbers is about 300-400 werewolves and currently they already retreated from that foggy areas after some of them start to vomit non-stop”, replied Alice.

“YESS!! My plan work”, Acma exclaimed. Even though only some of the werewolves were poisoned, it’s good enough because he managed to cut down some of their battle prowess.

“Okay, brother Wang, report to Uncle Ma what you just heard, but assure him that he don’t have to worry because we already have a solution”

“Really? But..”

“Just go. When you return, we will let you know”, said Acma confidently. When Wang was far enough, Duo Nan asked with a fierce gaze in his eyes.

“Are you sure you have a solution?”

“I have some ideas”, replied Acma as he waved his right hand. Immediately, the rest of his guardians appeared followed by his Supreme Guardians. He ordered Alice to line them up inside the wall.

“This guardians will handle all the werewolves that manage to slip through”, said Acma while he taking out several mithril swords which he got from the gorge yesterday and gave them to Duo Nan and his squads. They received it with a shocked face. They not even sure which one was more shocking, the sight of Acma’s guardians lining up outside and inside the wall, or the shiny mithril sword they just received. All of them were surreal. Looks like the youth in front of them was full of surprise.

“We still don’t know what a werewolf in this world is capable of but we don’t have to worry about that. Rather than worrying about something we’re not sure, let assume that they were the same in our myth”, Acma paused, looking at the mithril sword in his hand, he continued,

“I will lend you those swords. They were made from mithril, a holy iron, so I think we can kill those werewolf using these swords. But, please return them to me after the battle. They are my precious collection”, said Acma with a big grin on his face.

“What if this sword can’t kill them?” asked Duo Nan coldly.

“We will cut off their head”, replied Acma short.

“Next is about our new battle plan. All battle on the western and the eastern wall will be handled by me and my guardians to prevent any of you from getting bitten by the werewolves. So, you have to retreat far behind the guardians. If any of the werewolves manage to get on the wall, please pin them down with your arrows. Although we can’t kill them with a normal arrow, at least it will be easier for me to kill them”, explained Acma in detail.

Duo Nan immediately brought his squad to take cover behind the guardians. Although he was reluctant to leave the battlefield to Acma alone, he had no choice. He felt so helpless and powerless. All he could do was helping Acma by pinning down the werewolves just like Acma said, that if any of them managed to slip through.