11 Fire Dagger Tribe Fall (1)

The Fire Dagger Tribe was a small tribe. However small it was today, it possessed centuries of history, and witnessed the rise and fall of many human kingdoms. However, with the Dalian Empire exiling them in the harsh mountains of the North, their tribe slowly lost its former glory. Frontal confrontations had always ended as their loss, but the appearanced of four druids in a single generation gave them hope.

They did not know, or could not imagine the strength of the Dalian Empire. They did not know that there existed magi. Communicating with imperials was something that was never made possible, mainly because of the Empire's lack of interest in doing so and their contempt of their kind.

They could not know that just like they possessed druids, the empire possessed acolytes. The kingdoms that they cohabitated with in the distant past never involved mages, otherwise they would have not survived.

The past month, however, they very quickly understood their mistake the hard way.

Jorg Bullwater was a monster. Literally. Lizardmen were taller, stronger, faster than regular humans, and Jorg represented the pinnacle of his species, as the last remaining member of his tribe, the Bullwater tribe. 

The barbarian chieftain might have been hailed as a great king if he was born in another land, another era. Unfortunately, it had met with Jorg this day. Eric Aurelius watched the combat with horror, years of training allowing him to appreciate the duel between chieftains for what it was.

Jorg deflected the barbarian's spear with extreme precision, his movements minimal and his strikes lethal. Using a warhammer and shield in combination allowed him to be an unbreakable tower of steel in terms of defence, yet as fearsome as a giant whenever he hit his opponent. The sounds of bones being broken could be heard each time Jorg managed to land a hit on the chieftain.

*CRACK*

Jorg could not compare to Lewis in terms of weapon mastery. Still, he was a master on his own right. And to top it off, he possessed the strength and agility to exploit his barbaric fighting style to its very limits. Lewis might be nimble enough to challenge Jorg, but defeating him when he entered this state of frenzy was unconceivable, even after the incredibly lucrative past month.

At some point, Jorg managed to hit the barbarian chieftain's rib cage, which resulted in the latter falling to his knee. Without hesitation, Jorg crushed his head with his war hammer. There was no honnour, no fanciness in this fight. It was pure brutality, as blood rained onto the grass, tainting its innocent green in a crimson color.

The rest of the barbarians, who stayed put until now, were now completely broken from within. They had lost. Ever since the imperial mages arrived, they started to lose. Their poisonous attacks were treated with potions and antidotes. Their strategy were outwitted by Lewis' innovative ideas, and their skirmishes completely crushed using the numerical superiority of the imperial army Eric Aurelius had gathered.

Still, it was a one-star mission after all. For the Magical Court, it represented the lowest difficulty level for medium-term missions like this one. It could have been dangerous. Regular acolytes might have found the druids troublesome. If they did not know anything about alchemy, the 800 imperial soldiers who were infected with the grey fever would have died, dealing a crushing blow to the imperial army. If they did not know anything about strategy, the imperial camp would have lost its logistic route to skirmishers and, by extension, their source of food, weapon and thus be completely isolated from the Empire in hostile territory.

If they were weak, they would not have managed to deal with the grand-knight level chieftain. Eric Aurelius was strong, but whether he was strong enough to deal with a chieftain who had everything to lose was another matter altogether.

This was not an easy mission.

However, for someone like Lewis, who possessed an enormous stove of knowledge and experience, it was beyond easy. 

In a single month, the imperial army successfully captured the fire dagger tribe. 

But...

Of course the druids would try to escape and take revenge.

Unlike the barbarian warriors who respected the tradition, druids were gifted with more intellect...This made them more cunning, but at the same time, much more predictable. And Lewis knew this would happen so he prepared a gift for them.