Hey! Transition type chapter. Felt like it was necessary to do it before the battle. Enjoy!

An hour of passing caravans on the dirt road, the two made it to a large clearing with thousands of men standing blankly. Some were wounded, others without even a scar, but they all had a grim look present on their face.

Seeing the two approach from the east, the soldiers stiffened instinctively seeing the massive wolf, however, as they saw the horse at its side, they calmed down. Speaking professionally, a soldier in tattered leather armor, missing the vast majority of any steel plates it once held called out to the two, “Halt. You seem to be the forerunners of another contingent. May I ask how many more were recruited with you?”

Sharing a confused look, the two kept a small smile on their face, “How many?”, “Why should we care about the dying village’s numbers?”

With the two acting like that, the soldier’s expression hardened for a moment. Waving his hand to the listless men behind him, he continued, “We all are farmers, tradesmen, and common folk. Hold your tongue, even if you are adventurers, you cannot afford to segregate yourselves too much. You can never know when a fellow’s spear will strike from behind, you know?”

Taking a short moment to register the response, Andrew sighed slightly and his small smile turned into a cold smirk. “As per the fledgling knight’s promise, please requisition some basic armor for me. Weapons are covered; I just need something to wear. Something to cover my body from the spears coming from behind,” laughed Andrew indifferently.

The soldier, entirely unfazed, merely nodding his head towards a large tent saying, “That is where you can request goods, services, promotions, payment and so on. Anyways get out of my sight. Very, very few people like you tend to last more than the first clash.”

Commenting from the side, Rywen muttered, “Friendly man. Now if I weren’t being paid I would walk away now. Oh well, politics and all of that; can’t have you walking around naked like that…?”

“Andrew.” With a casual nod, Andrew started growling to the wolf. A second later, he was bounding forward to the war camp’s center of operation.

The smell of dusty, aged leather flooded into Andrew’s nostrils causing him to cough once trying to clear the strange, almost palpable smell from his mouth. Nearing the entrance, Andrew barked, “Stay here and don’t kill anyone,” and dismounted from the wolf.

With a slight scoff, the wolf turned away and stood silently as if uncommitted to agree to his request. Rolling his eyes, Andrew turned from the wolf and entered the tent. Followed by the adventurer, Rywen, the two slipped open the flap and entered.

Inside the large tent stood four figures, all but one in uniform military fatigues with battered, well-used armor resting on stands behind them.

Two men and one woman stood in line in front of a small plain, ebony desk with rim-rod backs in full military fashion. As the woman glanced over to the two incoming men she scowled slightly. Turning her attention back to the other three, she spoke. “Dismissed, this information will be confidential until otherwise noted. Commanders, prepare your respective squads and outfit any of those newcomers who require it.”

The leader had fading scars that marked her otherwise flawless face, framed with a set of short-cropped, chestnut hair that lay in light curls around her head. Three retreating figures brushed past the duo, one even laughing mockingly, “Good luck, you may need it today,” as he faded from view behind the leather flap.

With critical, upturned eyes, she glanced over to the two, judging their physiques before finally smiling weakly. “You two are some of the better specimens, I suppose. But, and I mean this seriously, do you have what it takes to survive that field?”

Laughing lightly Rywen spoke, “We’ll find out. Not much more we can do beyond that. Regardless, this one here is looking for something to wear so he doesn’t have to walk around indecently.”

Immediately a slightly offended look shot towards the adventurer as Andrew scoffed, “Please, I’ve been around nudist goblins for days. This is nothing. Although to normal people, he is right in that regard, but what were you talking about previously with the other three?”

“An operation. Taking the fight to them to avoid needless casualties. Anything more is off-limits… unless you’d like to volunteer?” Spoke the woman with a mocking smirk, clearly not giving the two any credit.

Rywen immediately laughed as he spoke, “You got that right. Hell, I’ll fight to live any day - not go out to die.”

With his interest piqued Andrew paused for a second before commenting, “What would you have us do? Well, clothes is a prerequisite as I’ve said before. Run up to their flanks slashing at their heels before turning to run. Or something to that effect, maybe?”

The woman’s smug face fell into a small show of shock, but she righted herself quickly. “Ahem. Well, are you truly serious? Should you agree and back out then I’d have to send you to either stay at a separate camp entirely for information control or lock you up until after it’s over. Currently, thirty veteran soldiers are being held in standby so that they may strike at any time.”

“No, you can’t be seri-” started Rywen before Andrew continued, “Yeah, shoot. I’m game for it.”

Sighing slightly, the woman ignored the other man’s look of shock and continued, “Meet up an hour south-west, or try to make contact with the other woman you saw in passing. Likely, she’ll still be in camp.” Turning her gaze towards the other man, she smiled, “And boy, do realise that you’re part of this now. Thank your friend, here. Anyways, grab something from behind you,” nodded the woman towards the well-used armor standing behind him.

Looking over the armor, he noticed it was divided into four categories: One being lightweight, used primarily for scouting parties. Another being slightly heavier; still holding both the leather and cloth, but small iron plates were added in as well. The other two would be considered heavyweight. One almost entirely metal, ranging from around 50 pounds of iron surrounding the owner’s body, and the other was no more than a portable wall. Two inches of steel surrounded the body in this design, only opting for a few millimeters where joints are concerned.

As he looked towards the armor he all but forgot about his, now hysterical, partner-in-crime. Turning his gaze over the four, he mused self-derisively, ‘Well, this one isn’t much a choice, but what do I do about that.’

Unceremoniously picking up the medium armor. Andrew quickly pulled off his leg guards, put on the new pants, and threw on the heavy leather jerkin over his chest. Rolling his shoulders back and forth testing the new fit, he muttered, “Yeah, I knew it. It’s too annoying,” he threw off the jerkin and received a strange look from the woman in the process.

Turning his back around, he withdrew a small iron dagger in front of him - blocking her line of sight - and began to get to work. The dull blade managed to end many creatures, but it was less than ideal for this task. Eventually, he gave up and pulled out his great ax and carefully cut the shoulders off of the jerkin.

Seeing such fine control over the massive ax for what would be a meaningless task to begin with, the woman was stunned. But she held her tongue. Rywen, on the other hand, opted to voice his dismay, “Why are you doing that? Firstly you involve me in a suicide mission, now you wrecking your armor that finally got?! You have a death wish, don’t you?”

Glancing over to the two only after his work was done, he saw the woman give an involuntary nod as Rywen gave him a scathing glare. Speaking indifferently, “That kind of thing on armor is annoying. How could I swing this guy here if I had restricted movement? It is only logical that I deal with it before I die because of it, you know?”

Exhaling deeply, the other man opened his mouth to begin another speech, but the woman cut in. “Go now. I have no idea what the hell is wrong with the two of you but do not disappoint… well, yourselves. I really have no expectations for you two at this point. You’ll probably die, but good luck. Anyways, find the girl or ride there yourselves, it’s up to you.” As a small sigh was heard, she promptly waved them off and turned to work on the paperwork on her desk.

Placing the modified jerkin over his shoulders, he shrugged a few times, rotating his arms to test his new equipment. As the corners of his mouth raised, he put his leg guards back on and left the tent soundlessly.

Just as he pulled himself up onto his somewhat rebellious, silver mount, a miserable cry was heard from inside. “Wait! Wait, you bastard!”

Seeing the man emerging from the tent, Andrew casually spoke, “Are you ready? And don’t look at me like that, I promise you won’t die. Just stay behind me and end the cheeky ones.”

With an exasperated sigh, “You’re awfully confident about this, can I know why you’re involving me in all of this?”

With a small shrug, Andrew spoke out with a small grin creeping up, “That’s just how it happened, she kept talking and brought you in all of this. I’m sure you still have time to run to another battlefield if want to abandon the money on this one.”

Turning his back, Andrew growled quietly, “Hey Wolfie do you think you can track down the female that came from the tent before?”

“Wom-min, smell weird. Blood and flower, I find.” Barked the wolf as it turned its two noises towards the air and set off in a light jog.

Seeing the man whom he had brought with him leave, Rywen eye’s flashed with indignation; however, he didn’t bother trying to refute Andrew’s words. If he had wanted to he could have easily left the confines of the camp to look for an easier job.

‘Well, I can always run later,’ thought Rywen with a wry smile as he mounted his horse. Patting the neck of the beast, he spoke softly, “Catch up to the man. He might be fraud, but even if the chance is small, he very well may be interesting.”

Andrew noticed the horse sauntering over to him but paid it no mind. A quiet bark or growl back and forth told him all he needed to know about the changing directions of the woman. Eventually, as the wolf stopped pacing back and forth in the interior of the camp, Andrew suddenly felt like he was being thrown off his mount.

Just as his mount slowed to a stop, the wolf pounced forward clearing a small bonfire and nearly tossing Andrew off into the ground - or fire itself - in the process. Narrowing his eyes as he righted himself on the wolf, Andrew spoke out coldly, “What is the purpose of this?”

“Wom-min - leave. Horse seem tasty, I eat?” Growled the wolf as he cocked his heads to the side, completely maintaining his stride.

It Andrew a moment to remember who he was dealing with and could no longer feel even remotely agitated by the wolf. Not even raised by human hands; born from the wild’s itself. ‘Maybe I have too high of standards for wolves, goblins, and other little creatures like that. We’re all human - whether we wear, fur, scale, bone, at least in this ‘age,’’ laughed Andrew as he thought about it all.

At this point the horse and rider managed to catch up to the wolf, showing the impressive abilities of the horse’s speed. Not bothering to speak too much, Andrew only nodded once towards the pair and turned his head in front of him.

Hearing a soft growl Andrew's eyes lit up brightly. “Hey, wom- um Commander? As an acting representative for this military, should you really be hiding in a tree?”

“No ones here ~ Just ignore it, fellow adventurer,” spoke a hardened voice trying to act coy. However, with his eyesight, he could completely see the woman’s outline in the tree’s leaves.

With long, dark hair fluttering occasionally in the wind, her lithe body trembled in the tree. Speaking rather nervously, but still in an attempt to act composed, she continued, “Hi~ Well, it seems I was found out, now off you go! Nothing to see here, just a simple woman admiring this wonderful nature of ours.”

A small smirk, Andrew opened his arms wide - one of which still holding onto the massive battleaxe - and spoke gently, “I know you’re scared of at least one of us - I’d wager me, actually. But do not fret my friend and I here will not do anything to harm you.” Turning his gaze, he lightly patted the necks of the two heads in succession as he continued, “We came on orders, you know? That strange woman in the tent, I know you saw us, or rather, you would have it you weren’t hiding right now.”

“R-really? You're saying, you came from the General’s pavilion? But you two aren’t regular military. That much is clear. Are you sure you two are not simply bandits waiting to take advantage of me…” replied the woman hesitantly as she curled herself behind the trunk of the tree removing herself from Andrew’s line of sight.

“If I wanted to then we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” started Andrew before being cut off by Rywen.

“ - That’s what they all say, isn’t that right miss? I cannot speak of this fellow too much as we had just met. Yet, being in the same room as we were just in, you must recognise this armor. Although modified on a whim, it should still be somewhat familiar, right miss?” Cordially replied Rywen with a polite bow, finishing it with an almost imperceivable wink, standing straight up.

Seeing the man’s behavior, Andrew sighed, “Yeah, yeah, shoulder plates are seriously annoying. Anyways, will you get down or what?”

Getting an annoyed glance directed his way - by both parties, if he could see her head popping out of the tree - Rywen continued, “Clearly, my friend here isn’t good with words. He simply can be considered to be pragmatic, he has little experience in the actual flow of conversation. Anyways, feel free to stay in there as long as you’d like, but please tell us where we may meet up with the others who were placed on this mission. So long as we have some information, we surely wouldn’t have to bother such a maiden anymore, isn’t that correct Andrew?”

“Yeah, yeah,” replied Andrew casually, feeling the heated glares of the two were not exactly comfortable, so he stepped out of their conversation, saying, “I’m going to feed this one, give me ten, twenty minutes or so. Bye.”

As an indifferent hand was raised signalling his departure, Andrew took off on the wolf. Within moments, the wolf brought Andrew downwind to an incredibly large boar guarding a small den. Seeing the scene Andrew sighed but didn’t hold back. First hurling a throwing knife at the beast, he stuck the pig directly in its raised throat before it even had time to react to the predatory scent the wafting in the air. In a smooth movement, he sprang up from his seat on the wolf and severed its head.

Depositing the corpse and throwing the knife into his inventory, he walked up to the lazily drooling wolf. Seeing the wolf’s eyes flash with surprise and anger towards Andrew, he sighed before growling back, “Move to another spot. These ones are still aggressive enough to be annoying.”

The pair walked off from the scene and chose a small forested clearing to resume their meal. Due to Andrew being absolutely famished from the day’s trek with only fruit in his stomach, he crossed his arms as he stared at the wolf devouring the raw meat.

After a few seconds of the wolf devastating the corpse, Andrew decided to walk up to the wolf. Pressing one hand on the nearest head of the wolf, who snapped at him instinctively, Andrew scoffed lightly and held it down while he proceeded to chop off a yet untouched, hind leg.

As he walked away with the leg, the wolf stared at him furiously but quickly turned his attention to the remainder of the corpse as if entirely forgetting about the small incident. Using his great axe as if it were a skinning knife, Andrew peeled away the skin and fur from the severed leg and immediately took a bite.

As the bloody chunk of meat entered into his stomach, he felt it roll, thrash and otherwise try to rid itself from the meat. However, within seconds, it calmed down greatly. Andrew then took another bite and another until only bone remained, muttering, “Well it easily tastes better when it’s cooked, but as a last resort, it should be fine.” Given his vitality stat, his stomach was three times as strong as a normal person, allowing him to eat raw meat with little to no problems attached. However, such a thing was of little point to Andrew who measured himself within real aspects rather than the numbers.

Seeing that wolf was now content, Andrew immediately jumped up on the lazily resting wolf’s back, calling out, “Let’s go back, hopefully, we’ll have some answers by the time we get back.”

At first, the wolf only sat there unmoving, with a gentle voice Andrew spoke out, “Please? Anyways, it shouldn’t be too long before you get strong enough to hunt anything on this prairie by yourself. Hell, I’d even go so far as to say humans simply wouldn’t cut it anymore. Now can we can we go, or do you still wanna hang out here for a bit?”

Perking its ears, the wolf thought about it for a long while causing Andrew to get bored and begin to lay on the wolf’s back. After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, the wolf barked, “I kill snakes? No Pro… blem?”

Raising his body back to a sitting position, straddling the wolf, Andrew casually spoke out, “That much depends on you. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised all the same. From what I know, you’d probably still have to avoid eating them because of their venom, but beyond that, sure?”

Accompanied by a feral growl that tore through the woods, scattering the resting birds and critters, the wolf bounded forward. Struggling to stay on for a moment, Andrew held a wry smile as he realised his mistake in getting the wolf riled up.

In a few short moments of feeling the wind drag across his body, Andrew was greeted by a sight he didn’t quite expect to see. Shaking his head, he turned the wolf around to give the two a bit of time.

However, hearing the padding steps of the wolf, the woman quickly covered herself and buttoned up her military fatigues - missing a few in the process.

With a wide smile covering his face, Rywen spoke out happily to Andrew, “What brings you here so soon? Alas, it was about time anyways, eh?”

“Not, ‘eh,’ but yeah that’s correct,” started Andrew as he turned back to the two. Still seated on the wolf, Andrew saw the flushed faces of the two, where the woman desperately tried to hide herself - from both Andrew’s eyes and the wolf’s feral grin - the other man did not. Dressed only in a small linen cloth that wrapped around his waist, he grinned from ear to ear as he looked over towards the woman.

“Whatever, you kids have had your fun. Now let’s go back to the camp or whatever so I can find real food.” Even though he had eaten some of the meat, it was nowhere near enough to keep him after essentially fasting for the entire day.

A look of surprise came on the woman’s face as she mumbled, “Well, you see… you may have to eat quickly because it’ll happen soon. And why did you have to bring a damned wolf!?”

The wolf, once still looking away by Andrew’s orders, turned around to stare menacingly at the human woman. At first, confidence was present on her face, but seeing the wolf’s stare land on her body, she shuddered and hid behind Rywen.

Andrew seeing this, let out a wry smile as he replied, “Why not? It seemed convenient for both of us at the time. No more, no less. Now, anyways we’ll talk on the way, but get dressed, get mounted - the horse, if you were wondering - and let’s get going.”

Crimson dyed her cheeks, but she quickly followed Andrew’s orders. Considering she shooed her horse away as soon as the wolf came along to hide, she was forced to join on the other’s mounts - Rywen’s horse for a few reasons.

Nearing the small camp, Andrew only saw at most fifty people trudging along restlessly. Commenting from the side the woman spoke with a forced smile, “In two hours we began our raid, I hope you two are ready.”

Chappy Approved? Threw that in there for you.