Dur’kor and Blaer were in a bit of a bind. Mighty Vaile had been emotionally disturbed by… something, and they for the life of them could not figure out what it was that he was so upset about. Vaile had claimed that they had managed to take the prince of the Bestiral Kingdom captive, only for his interrogation to end with him, as Vaile had put it, ‘glitching out of existence’. Whatever the word ‘glitching’ meant, it was obvious that it was bad, but neither of the two faction leaders understood anything coming out of Vaile’s mouth when he had tried to explain it, although they did feel a certain disquieting sense of déjà vu when Vaile had talked about it.

But now there was a bigger fish to fry than the erasure of some fictional prince who never had actually existed, as the King of the Bestiral Kingdom, King Laiyun Symbah Bestiral, was now leading the forces against them from the front. The man was a one-man-army, and despite the Beastmen forces arrayed against the mongrel king being of a higher level than and of the frontline soldiers of the kingdom, King Laiyun was able to not only hold his own but lead his forces into what could be described as ‘Victories Only Slightly Above Being Pyrrhic’.

However, this was of no consolation to the Beastmen Tribes. The Beastmen were each individually powerful, but the constant hunting of their kind over the ages had left their numbers quite a bit lower than that of their foe. Even a pyrrhic victory for the Kingdom could be a decisive defeat for the Beastmen, as even if they managed to inflict terrible losses upon the kingdom and its men, the loss of even a single Warband was a terrible blow to the United Tribes’ war effort.

Add in that Vaile was more distant after the ‘incident’ and that he was less willing to take to the field or go behind enemy lines and the situation could be seen as even more dire than initially thought. Likewise, the tribes had discovered evidence that an unknown group was conducting recognizance against them, slowly shrinking the area in which they were sneaking around and moving ever closer to Vaile’s current location.

Vaile was in danger, but he was not willing to leave just yet, according to his own words anyways. While the captured queen had been moved away, Vaile stayed in the same cave room that the cage had been in and was unwilling to leave until his ‘investigation’ had concluded. Thankfully, after a few more days of isolation, Vaile emerged ready for action. It was then that the war once again shifted into the favor of the Beastman Tribes.

…

It was only a day after Vaile had left his isolation behind, and it seemed that he had come to a realization within the now empty room. He had, in his wisdom, seen that the currently united tribes would eventually turn on each other either after or during the war as the two arguments as to what to do with the Kingdom and its citizenry. This led to him drafting a contract that would fuse itself to the very souls of all Beastmen, present and future alike. It was worded simply and accompanied by a map of the old holdings of the Beastmen from before the Kingdom had even stepped foot anywhere nearby. Blaer had already reviewed and signed the contract, and now it was her father’s turn.

Dur’kor looked over a map of the combined territory his ancestors once called their undisputed stomping grounds, looking carefully at how it was now divided into two separate areas, split by the river that ran between them. The river in question cut the territory into two nearly equal halves, with one labeled on the map by an insignia of a four-horned caprine skull with bird wings emerging from its sides and the other labeled with a picture of an axe ringed by a thorn-covered circle.

These two areas were the ones set aside for each of the two factions after the war’s inevitable end, as determined by Vaile himself, in an effort to keep the United Tribes from eventually weakening itself by having the ’Mercy’ and ‘Malice’ factions fight each other during and/or after the war. According to the oaths sworn at this time, both factions would honor the territory of the other and only enter if the other demanded assistance.

Dur’kor Wildheart led the ‘Mercy’ faction because, despite his intense hatred for the Kingdom, he felt that the Werean were merely descendants of Beastmen whose abandonment of the Beast Gods had led to their power weakening and their bodies changing. Blaer Wildheart led the ‘Malice’ faction and, unlike her father, had no interest in ‘rehabilitating’ the Werean, instead intending to draw out every bit of misery and pain she and her supporters could from those that had wronged them.

Blaer had already signed the document with her own blood, and after looking it over, Dur’kor did as well. With that, the specially prepared scroll burst into flames and the power of the contract was etched on each and every Beastman alive, no matter where they were or what they were doing. The two factions were still as one for the time being, for until the last bit of resistance had been crushed there could be no peace or division. This contract was merely a means to an end, which was something all understood on a fundamental level.

…

A few days after the document was signed the counter-counterattack against the Werean commenced. Bolstered by Vaile’s presence and his ability to travel leagues in mere minutes, the Beastmen once again ran raid after raid, this time fully utilizing the tactics Vaile had given to them. The juggernaut that was King Laiyun could not be everywhere at once, and after making sure he was in one place the various warbands would attack other places before vanishing long before the Lion King arrived. After another few days of this, what little traces of civility that once held the Kingdom together finally gave way and even the capital of the Kingdom was overrun with violence and anarchy. Like the meathead he was, the king tried to impose order through violence, only to have his men join in the rioting as they ran out of food and other supplies. Soon, only the most loyal of the Bestiral Kingdom’s soldiers were at his side, and the final stages of the war could begin.

…

Vaile looked over his shoulder again as he walked through the rapidly spreading greenery that was quickly overtaking the whole of the Bestiral Kingdom’s territory. He could swear that he was being watched from afar and from up in the massive trees, but he was unsure of whether the one stalking him had malice of some other emotion in its heart, as the feeling he was getting was not so clear cut as to be purely one thing. He checked his minimap again, but still saw nothing save for the markers that labeled the Beastmen that marched alongside him. It was freaking him the fuck out, and he wanted it all to stop.

Perhaps the one gazing at him was part of the conspiracy to keep him from learning more about the nature of this world, as during his attempts to investigate the area on which Prince Laiyunoh had been erased he was attacked by no less than 5 different beings, all equally as dangerous and equally as anomalous. They did not belong to any race he had ever seen in the game, and all vanished long before he was able to inspect their broken and beaten bodies.

Worse still, when they had attacked, the Beastmen were utterly oblivious to their presence, which made him look like he was shadow boxing or putting on a show. Still, at least he had figured out one truth and after that he had temporarily halted his investigations, after which the assassination attempts had ceased.

As he checked over his shoulder again, he thought he saw a bit of movement, but it may just have been the rustling of the branches and leaves. But he would soon be able to avoid having some person on the tree branches stalk him, as he and the (currently) united tribes were about to set foot on the last great battlefield of the war.