Chapter 4

Title:"Prelude to bloodshed"

Just before the supernova...

On the sea, where Drachau Hailous's fleet were, a battle was occurring.The Asuryan shipa was constantly harassing them, having a skirmishing tactic which seemed proved ti be effective.The fast Asuryan ships with magically-enhanced ballistas was slowing their landing down. Drachau Hailous was using their improved corssbows to fire back ballista bolts of their own, but their enemy ships are just a tad bit fast. By now they had atleast lost a hundred or so ships from the run and gun tactics used by the Asuryans.

"Damn it, they're too fast, have the ballista operators correct their aim properly!" shouted Hailous.

"Yes, my lord!" said a guard near him who quickly left to relay his orders.

"How long till we reach the shore?" asked Hailous to a servant near him.

"We should reach the shores by half and hour." answered the servant politely.

Just then, a large turbulence on the sea happened, ships swayed and hit each, the fast Asuryan ships completely flipped due to this sudden turbulence.

"W-what is happening?!" shouted Hailous to his servants demanding an answer.

"My lord, look" answered the servant as she saw a little ball of flames on the horizon and pointed at that direction.

"What is that?" asked Hailous with a fear in his eyes, he was hving a hard time stabilizing himself from the great turbulence.

Then a messenger barged inside his room wobbling from all the shakes happening on the ship.

"My lord, a great battle is happening on our main fleet, they can't send any reinforcements if needed, we are all on our own." reported the messenger as he struggled to hold himself standing.

"I understand, tell the higher command that we shall do our part of the and destroy this nuisance of a fleet that was on our way." said Hailous while nodding.

"You, tell the ships on the outer formation to do ramming tactics, also they're free to use each and every ammunition they have, as for the ships in front, I want them to increase their speed!" shouted Hailous as he barked his order to a nearby servant.

"Yes my lord."

"Khaine, please help them" prayed Hailous.

inside the flaship of the Asuryan dispatched fleet.

"What's happening there, I want answers!" shouted an angry prince while pointing at the direction of the small sun.

"My lord, there's no answer from the main fleet, I believe that lord Teclis has engaged the Witch King from the looks of its scale and sheer mana." answered an officer respectfully.

"I don't want your opinions, I want you to contact the main fleet and ask them for instructions! Our skirmish tactic won't work forever!" shouted the prince at the officer angrily.

"Of course my lord, sorry for my mistake." said the officer as he immediately used transmission magic to try and contact the main fleet.

When the officer was trying to contact the main fleet a large ship managed to come close their ship and rammed it, causing a large damage in the hull. The prince who was furious, became much more enraged by this act.

"I want everyone to continue their skirmish, hit the ships on the center while evading the ballista bolts from the escort ships!" ordered the prince without hesitation.

"But my lord, the ships on the center of the enemy fleet has increased their speed, we will be encircled and flanked once we try to pierce on the enemy postions, but if we won't do this our ballistas can't reach their position.

'Damn it, the whole plan is doomed.' cursed the prince in his mind.

"My lord, our ships are requesting orders, the enemies ballistas are now hitting them." said one officer.

"My lord, please order the retreat, we can still get our revenge when we're alive, dying here would be pointless." convinced another officer.

"Retreat..." The pricne finally ordered as he gritted his teeth in anger and humiliation he felt.

All the ship under his command quickly got his order and started to retreat.The fleet of Hailous who saw this was happy, their enemies retreated and they would be able to complete their mission.

"My lord, they retreated!" said an officer under Hailous.

"There's no time to celebrate, we need to-" Hailous's words was cut short as a powerful shockwave hit them. Their ships shaked and their were sent to the shoreline crashing. Ship after ship crashed on each other causing destruction and confusion amongst the Druchii.

As the shockwave weakened the druchii under Hailous was tidying themselves up, looking for injuries and such. The enslaved engineers were checking their ships for the possibility of it to be used once again. Meanwhile Hailous was busy reorganizing the troops, even though their army is ruthless and bloodthirsty they still have discipline, they aren't the same as beastmen tribes or Skavens who is considered the enemy of all races.

"Status report officer." ordered Hailous to a nearby officer.

"Yes my lord, we lost about 102 ships, most of them were escorts and only about 1/16 are destroyers.We also have about 5,000 men dead and 23,000 injured. The rest of our 80,000 strong men are either fine or has minor injuries." answered the officer.

"That's great news! Has the command sent new orders? What about the shockwave and little sun, have they said what it is? " asked Hailous at the officer anxiously.If they were to lose that battle his troops would be attacked in rear and forced to march and quickly conquer the beastmen tribe federation while waiting for relief.

"No my lord, but they said that we continue with the original plan and secure the beaches for the provisions and meet up with the main army once it lands, on the enemy capital, as for the matter of little sun they didn't said anything, only the words 'We've got it all controlled'" answered the officer as he looked at the message he got from the main fleet.

"Then I want a couple of divisions of Dreadspears and Dreadshards to march onward and secure the target villages, we can't have the enemy take this position or else we won't have anything to eat!" barked Hailous to a nearby idle officer.

The idling officer quickly stood up and organized 15 divisions of dreadspears and Dreadshards. Under the command of their appointed commanders they looted and occupied the nearby targrt villages and secured a foothold on the beaches.

On a certain nearby beastmen village, just before the supernova...

Gruntor was doing his usual rounds on his village. Checking up everyone's situation and the like.He didn't missed a single day doing this. He thought that it could make him closer to his subjects. But as he was checking on a local hunter, the hunter stopped talking to him and stood there dumbfounded without moving, just looking at the direction of a little. Gruntor, who found this weird also looked at the direction and once he saw what it was his face drained from all blood.

"T-tell everyone to evacuate!" he shouted to the hunter who still stood there without moving. Gruntor shaked his body and he returned to his senses and carried out the task. Gruntor on the other hand started to shout for everyone to evacuate but before he could even do this a powerful shockwave was felt. It threw him to a stone house and he crashed inside. Everything in the village was destroyed by the shockwave. The villagers was injured, some dead. Gruntor who has hit his back to a wall started to feel dizzy.

'What is happening...' where his last words before passing out..

Gruntor regained consciousness when the sky is already dark. He struggled to stand up so he just sat and laid his back to the cold hard walls. He just sat there without moving still thinking on what has happened.

"This is all a dream, yes a nightmare I would be woken up soon and everything would be fine..." he comforted himself. But as minutes slowly passed he still didn't "woke up from the nightmare" this lead him to the conclusion that this was all real. His tears started flowing.But he remembered his subjects and quickly stood up even though he felt pain all throughout his body. He started to walk and search for his wife and children, and any survivor. He slowly made his way through his house amd there he find his wife and 2 children sitting.

"My love, are you okay? How about our children?" asked Gruntor with haste as he inspected his wife and 2 childrens body, looking for injuries.

"We are fine just some scratches and bruises how about you are you fine, we tried to look for you but we don't know where you are." asked Gruntor's wife to him.

"Yes, just some back pain nothing much, you just stay here, I'll go look for any survivor or anyone who needs help." said Gruntor as he kissed his wife and 2 children on their forehead.

"But it's dangerous out there, we don't know what is happening!" protested his wife.

Gruntor just smiled at her and started to slowly walk to the door.

"Please by safe" whispered his wife as she saw she can't do anything to change his mind.By this time Gruntor already made his way out of his out and strated to go through each and every house he could find. He successfully helped 6 other villagers and they too, in turn helped with rescuing others but a loud marching sounds could be heard from the direction of the beaches. This didn't sit well with Gruntor as he hasten his search and rescue but the loud sound was quickly approaching their village. He decided to run back home amd prioritize evacuating his family but wveryis for naught.

Thousands of armored Druchii soldiers armed with spear and shield bearing the crest of the Witch King appeared and marched towards their village with great discipline. The one leading them was riding on a black chariot pulled by 2 black horse. He just quickly surveyed the village and he thrown his arms forward, ordering the soldiers to attack.

The Dreadspears started to run slowly at first but they quickly pick up their paced and was now sprinting towards the viilage. Their boots made the world tremble.Their discipline was put to show as they all ran with the same speed and their formation wasn't compromised in a bit. Once they entered the destroyed village they quickly searched each and every one ofbthe buildings and rubbles to look for any minor injured poeple to be used as slaves.

Howls and cries was heard all throughout the village.The heavily injured villgers was just stabbed through their heart by the soldiers. Many people tried to fight back but all of them was instantly killed by either a crossbow bolt or a stab by a spear. The villagers who has minor injuries were dragged to the center of the village and chained. Many people begged for their heavily injured family or friends but their beg fell on deaf ears as the soldiers summary executed them in front of theirbown two eyes. On the good side, they rescued everyone from the wreckage of their homes.

Gruntor who just arrived on their home was captured by some soldiers. They quickly checked him for any major injuries and didn't find any so they dragged him to the village center. Along the way he struggled and tried to escape but the soldiers were stronger than him and he has an aching body.

On the village center everyone who has little to no injuries was kneeling their cries and curses can be heard.

"You daemons! You killed my wife!" shouted a male beastman as he charged towards to nearest soldier, but was quickly stabbed by the nearby soldiers and his neck slitted for a good measure.

Everyone saw this scene and the people who was thinking of escaping immediately dropped that thought and just accepted their fate.

"Cough* I won't tell you my name because you're not worthy to know it, you lower life forms. Actually, you should be thankful,for you get to serve us, the Druchii for the rest of your pitiful useless lives. Well, at least you get to tell your grandchildren, I once served the Druchii.Of course that will happen if you actually survive.Now, my orders are tobhave you rebuild this village to a military camp so you would do just that or else you will be chopped into pieces and fed to your family and friends." announced the commander as he got off his chariot and started to walk around the villagers.

"Now what are waiting for?" he asked them as he saw no one was moving, this offended him greatly, he is a commander of 3 divisions and he would be disrespected by low life. He can't let this continue so he walked towards the direction of Gruntor and dragged the one beside him.

"Tell me your name." ordered the commander to the beastman.

"W-Wargor, my lord" answered the beastman named Wargor.

"Then Wargor, can you help me with some matter?" asked the commander.

"I-I will gladly do so m-my lord." Wargor trembled as he thought of the worst.

"Very good, then please say hi to your gods for me will you." said the commander as the slitted Wargor's neck. Blood gushed out like a fountain and his lifeles body dropped to the ground. Everyone was terrified and they started to stand up and follow the guards who was waiting for them.

"Hahahaha, slitting someone's neck always work like a charm." laughed the commander as he walkes back towards his chariot. But as he was walking an officer of him stopped him and delivered a message directly from the high command.

"What does it say?" asked the commander.

"Uhm... this commander they didn't tell me." answered the officer truthfully as he extended his hand with the parchment. The commander reached for it and unfolded the parchment as he started to read it.

"D-does this mean..."