Divine Beast Ascension

Oli was still visible. But his presence was still nigh undetectable while he stood in the shadow of a rock cluster on the other side of the tunnel’s exit.

The plan was simple.

By that point, most, if not all of Prodson’s perennials should be in combat. That left those potential reinforcements filled with only mortals and hardly anyone to protect them. Of course, Oli couldn’t kill an army on his own. But Oli was more than capable of instilling chaos among the ranks while the wildebeests are rushing back to the battle.

As soon as the final Prodson soldier exited the tunnel, Oli waited five seconds. That was more than enough verification considering how frantically the Prodson troops were trying to escape the tunnel’s expected collapse.

Then, Oli flapped his wings and took off as quickly as possible while remaining silent. He was only a few seconds away from ripping into the back line of troops.

“The Shadow Drake!”

To Oli’s surprise, he’d been spotted almost immediately. But it still didn’t stop Oli’s charge. It actually allowed Oli to speed up.

Furiously flapping his wings, the drake’s sharp increase in speed was too much for the nearby troops.

.....

FWOOOSH! Frrip! Frrip!

The spray of drake fire scattered the startled troops, allowing Oli to tear into a few soldiers with ease.

“It’s only a mortal!” Captain Khas shouted for all his men to hear. “The beast isn’t invincible!”

Some troops felt better hearing that.

But those facing the beast didn’t feel any different. With a single swipe of his claws, one or two troops would fall to the ground, dead on the spot. And those purple flames kept plenty of troops nervous to fire any form of long-distance attacks.

“This is a losing battle…”

Khas heard the other captain sigh in defeat. And it was hard for Khas to blame them. Still, Captain Khas prepared to take the drake on. *I hate fighting mortals…*

“Gorillas incoming!”

Just as Khas took his first step toward the drake, the other captain’s shout made Khas turn around in a half-stupor.

“There are available beasts even though they’re outnumbered?” Khas audibly gasped. He knew exactly what that meant before Khas could even sense the power of the charging apes. “Perennial apes! Prepare to defend yourselves!”

Alone, Khas sprinted with all his might to meet the gorillas ahead of his men.

At the same time, to the shock of many, Captain Khas fell to his knees and shouted, “We surrender! Please, have mercy on those who surrender!”

“VERO!” Ania’s immediate, booming shout was amplified with essence.

And the drake flapped his wings to climb the sky, no longer spewing drake fire as Oli flew by.

Seeing the drake pull away, Khas’s heart felt so much lighter. He kept his head down, though, now kowtowing to both mid-perennial apes standing before Khas. “Thank you! I can see you’re not savages, no matter what the Prodson Family proclaims.”

But neither Ania nor Fontu was pleased. They maintained their stern, battle expressions.

Ania asked, “And do your men feel the same way?”

Khas nodded madly. “Of course–”

“We stand by our captain! Through battle and through capture!”

A resounding cry rang out behind Khas, stunning Khas into a moment of teary-eyed silence. Behind him, seventy-five men rushed forward and fell to their knees, and twenty-five men did the same a split second afterward.

Thud!

“Please!” Khas begged even harder, slamming his forehead into the ground. A tiny crater formed from the impact and a trickle of blood fell down the side of Khas’s face. “Please, have mercy on us captives of war!”

Ania’s stern gaze lingered… She glanced at the remaining Prodson troops and the other captain.

At the same time, Fontu walked to the back of the kneeling troops and the drake landed there as well, keeping an eye on the remaining, unkneeling soldiers.

That’s when Ania sighed, raising her hammer for a powerful, essence-filled strike.

Captain Khas kept quiet, never stopping his full-body bow.

“What’s the meaning of this!?” the other captain shouted while drawing his sword.

Glaring back at the still-standing captain, Ania stated, “Sorry. But we don’t take prisoners.”

CRUNCH! FWOOOSH! CRUNCH-CH-CH!!

Purple flames and divine earth essence tore the ground apart, along with any soldier in the wake of those attacks.

Fontu charged straight into the standing captain. He shattered the man’s sword along with his body. And the soldiers near the captain were caught up in the quaking, opening ground beneath them.

The drake flew up again to rain down hell upon anyone still defying them.

And Ania, with her hammer in full swing, leaped over the kneeling soldiers. She swung her hammer in a downward arc from behind and ripped into the ground, despite the weapon’s bluntness. With that swing, dozens of Prodson soldiers faced an onslaught of stone spikes erupting out of the ground with phenomenal force. Some spikes even rocketed out of the ground, propelled by the force of Ania’s golf-like swing into the ground.

In a matter of seconds, those one hundred soldiers were wiped out. And the hundred men on their knees watched in confusion.

When Ania turned back to the forfeiting soldiers, she finally put on a happy smile. “At least some of you aren’t bastards hell-bent on enslaving ‘savage’ beasts.”

“Then…” Still confused, Khas thought back to what Ania had just same a moment ago. “But you said you don’t take prisoners.”

“We don’t. But we’ll always welcome new allies.”

A tremor spread throughout the kneeling soldiers. Only this time, that tremor rocked their hearts instead of the world around them.

Ania continued, “We didn’t expect to find any allies apart from the archer camp, but we’re happy to have you all. Unlike your self-proclaimed royal family, Iron just wants peace and equality. We haven’t even attacked a single city wall. Nor do we plan to.”

So many new thoughts and questions flooded into Khas’s mind, along with the minds of Khas’s men. But, at least, they had nothing to complain about. Because they were alive and unharmed.