"I'm Going To Kill You!" Peter screamed as he pseudo walk/ran at me.
As he came closer with the growing intensity to do something stupid, he angrily pulled out his sword and literally ran.
"Haaaah!" Peter screamed as he came to me while I stood by.
Just as he was close enough to attack me, two people came to my rescue.
"What are you doing, Lady Marva!" Peter angrily asked the black woman who blocked him with her thin sword. Then consecutively, Peter felt something tighten around his legs and found it to be vines.
He looked aside and asked with confusion, "You too, Lady Velma? You can't do this; I have a right to kill him!"
"While that may have certain truth to it, you forget that this is war. It is unavoidable to not lose something."
"Something?" Peter widened his eyes, "I didn't lose something, I lost MEN and not a few, but HUNDREDS!"
"Hundreds of innocent lives that came to support the Religias. Instead, they ended up dying by not only to their own side, But to a fucking Tax!"
"A Disgusting Fucking Tax that probably has done more crimes that this army of bandits could have ever done!"
Velma quietly listened to this. It wasn't her own army that was at loss and she knew it pained Peter greatly.
"What he did was only to stop it, Lord Peter!" Marva countered, "I was with him when we fought against the OVerdriven monster and you know what? Nobody could have defeated him, if it weren't for Henry, you might be looking at far more dead Dragonoir soldiers than there are."
"That's it, isn't it!" Peter said, "Where are the bodies?"
Peter looked around, "I can't see any bodies, can you? Where are my men, Lady Marva?"
Marva understood what he meant.
"How do I go back home so empty ? How do I face my people and their families who have gone through this massive loss and don't even know it?"
"And what do I have to show them? Ripped clothes, maybe a strand of hair or two, I don't know." Peter said, anger and reason brimming against each other, "How do I bury them?"
"Peter" I open my mouth, "I know what happened was extremely wrong to you and your men… but I didn't know the results would be this devastating."
"And what if you did, would you have changed your choice?"
"Probably not." I say as everyone widens their eyes, "To destroy evil you need to condone lesser evil yourself."
"Lesser Evil!" Peter tried to come close in anger, "You call the deaths of hundreds of men Lesser Evil!? Haha… you… you and your father are the same, I can see it clearly now."
"You two may look like heaven and earth, but your still made from the same fucking shit!"
"Let me pass, Lady Marva, Velma!" Peter gritted his teeth, resolute in his way, "We want justice."
As the Valkyries were about to say something, they saw a change.
Behind Peter, thousands of Dragonoir soldiers were inching closer with an angry look resembling their lord.
They were in pain too, some more than others. They lost their brothers unnaturally today and wanted answers for it.
Their faces were filled with pain and hatred combined. A mixture anyone with knowledge knew to avoid and now there were thousands approaching them with the same look.
Marva gritted her teeth while Velma looked carefully at the situation. They couldn't do anything unnecessarily anymore. They had to be careful in their way, one wrong move could start a fire that could turn into wildfire.
But they weren't the only one who were advancing.
"ADVANCE FOR OUR LORD TAX!"
A Religias soldier with visible injuries screamed out his lungs. What seemed like a useless provocation turned into power as many Religias soldiers slowly backed behind Henry.
Their numbers increasing drastically and climbing the same level as the Dragonoir's. They didn't have the same intensity as the Dragonoir soldiers, but there was grit in their eyes, one that would follow them to death.
"For the man who has saved our Lord!"
"For the man who has bested the Bandit King!" ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel{f}ire.net
They have their motive too. They weren't stepping up for no reason but because they believed in someone.
Yes, they knew how cruel Henry's actions and words were, but they didn't care. This was the man who has unequivocally ended a war that was going on for almost half a century or even more.
The pains and scars bandits dealt to their normal lives were rough. But finally, someone came and not only did he step up the game but turned it around and said checkmate to the opponent.
SO there are some causalities but that was common, war without causality is inevitable.
Peter looked dumbfounded at the sudden entourage of men. He knew he had the right reason here and nobody would conjure against him but here he was…
With the Valkyries and Half of the Religias soldiers standing against him.
Peter gritted his teeth in anger, 'How dare they talk against me, to face ME!'
As Peter raised his ring hand to do something stupid, I step closer.
"You sure you wanna do that?"
For reasons unknown, Peter listened to me and I speak.
"We both have the same number of men against us and we both are strong leaders that won't admit surrender… but are you sure you want to face the man that did that." I point to my own creation of destruction.
What I did right now made everyone widen their eyes.
In direct words, it was clear aggravation.
This could clearly start a war that could end more lives that there was on the battlefield but I still did it.
Even though Peter was hotheaded and brimming with rage right now, he still was a leader. And above all, a leader's biggest strength and weakness were his people.
He needed to look out for them.
Peter who should have been angry and screaming curses at me, looked down on the ground.
On the small puddle of blood, he saw both our reflection. He saw how mine reached above his and seemed insuperable. Then he looked back at the destruction, the cause for his anger and felt his resolve take a step…
Peter, on the inside admitted defeat. But outside, he made himself look as strong as possible but there was a tiny glint of tiredness in him that said everything.
"This is not over!" Peter said, "You will pay for this, Henry."
"I will personally make sure that the Tax pay for this." It seemed a bit comical hearing that sentence.
"The Dragonoir family won't forget this day." With that, Peter turned and walked through his own people that slowly backed away with their lord.
"Lord Peter!" I call him.
He stopped but didn't turn. Only sided his face as I saw the corner of his eye.
"At least we should get back to camp and tend to our people."
"No need." He looked ahead and started walking, "We will go straight home."
Just like that, Peter walked away from what could have been his only mistake and I created an even stronger enemy.
Yeh… it'll turn out alright.
I didn't think hard about it and turned around to look at the destruction I produced.