Chapter 3: The law of the jungle

Dialogue "sample"

Thoughts 'Sample'

Techniques [sample]

Author notes -sample-

Chapter 3

The law of the jungle

The Great General of Ylem had taken a small retinue to travel to the Capital of Galdam. He didn't want to cause the wrong impression by bringing too many soldiers, so He only took twelve of his most elite warriors, his advisor, and a few servants.

"Be on guard, my Lord. We have received news of bandits in the area." One of the guards said.

They were currently traveling around the northern outskirts of the Red Woods, very dangerous creatures live in the deep of that forest, and even some human tribes. since the State of Aglioso lies south of this forest.

"Hmph!, then we should have gone through the most direct route." The General was angry that they took such a round way path that would delay their trip for over two weeks since He did not enjoy traveling.

"That would have been worse, my Lord. The direct route to the Capital of Galdam passes through the Klaive Plains, that territory used to belong to the Kingdom of Sundar, that's where most of the battles occurred, over a million lives were lost in that place, and…well, many think that the land is cursed now." His adviser said.

"That's nonsense! Don't tell me you believe in ghosts and curses." The General said.

"My Lord, nor your grandfather or the other Kings wanted to claim that piece of land, they all knew there was something wrong with it. I will not make any claims of ghosts or curses, but it's best to stay away from there, there have been many strange occurrences in that place." The advisor said and the King seemed to calm down.

"ON GUARD!" Someone yelled. They all turned around to see one of their scouts running. "BANDITS!"

"TO ARMS" The leader of the guard commanded. "PROTECT THE LORD"

Arrows started to fly from the forest and they all pulled out their shields.

The current Great General may not be as great of a warrior as his grandfather but He was not weak either.

"Come here, you cowards!, I'll chop you to pieces!"

The General yelled with confidence but even He felt some hesitation when He saw the huge number of people coming from the forest. They looked human by their height and all were wearing wooden masks.

The guards and General started to fight the bandits and were able to hold their own. But the servants were left defenseless and were soon killed by the bandits.

The advisor was not fearing much better, being surrounded by three masked men armed with swords.

"Give me that!" The shortest of the bandits said to the advisor while pointing at the bag He was carrying.

The advisor paled. The most important item in their retinue was in that bag. The Sundar ring that his Lord was planning to present to the Emperor was there. His Lord didn't trust the servants with it, so it was entrusted to him.

The advisor clutched the bag with all his strength. "No….I can't give you this!"

One of the bandits lost his patience and stabbed the advisor.

The General finished killing another bandit and turned after hearing a familiar voice screaming in pain.

"No!, Conrad!." He charged at the bandits with fury.

The shortest of the bandits took the bag from the corpse and ran away while the other two fought the General.

Once the other bandits had finished looting the bags that the servants were carrying, they sounded a signal, they all stopped fighting and ran deep into the forest.

The General and his guards knew that it was useless trying to chase them and were forced to continue their journey as they were. They could hopefully get more provisions and help the wounded in the next town.

The most distressed was the Great General. Not only He had lost his closest friend but also the gift He had prepared for the Emperor. He could only hope that the Emperor would believe their story and not be offended by the lack of a gift.

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The short bandit was rushing through the forest, jumping from one tree to the next one with incredible agility while carrying the old advisor bag.

"This was bad" He mumbled.

They didn't expect to encounter soo much resistance, they had truly underestimated the dwarfs. In the end, they had lost many members and the loot didn't seem that impressive.

Once He considered that He was at a safe distance. The bandit stopped to rest on top of a tree and decided to inspect his loot.

The first items that He took out were disappointing.

"Books…ugg. I can't even read the dwarf tongue."

Then He found a small bag with gold coins.

"That's better."

But the best item was the last. A small box that seemed to be made with pure gold and decorated with valuable gems.

"Whoaa! What is this!"

He took the box in his trembling hands. He had never held anything this valuable before and could not help but wonder…if the box is so valuable…. what's inside?

With great trepidation, He opened the box. Inside it, was a simple jade ring. It didn't have any fancy decorations and it was just smooth jade all around.

He looked at the ring with a mix of disbelief and disappointment.

"Why would they put such a simple ring inside a box like that?."

He went to grab the ring in order to inspect it further, believing that there must be more to it.

The moment his finger touched the ring, He felt something pulse inside the ring, like a heartbeat.

"This!...what is this." He could feel some sort of connexion with the ring. The bandit picked up the ring and started to put it on his finger. He was completely entrance at the moment and failed to notice a group of demonic apes approaching from behind.

These types of apes were common in the Red Woods. They would hunt in groups and would use tools like rocks or big sticks to fight.

The bandit was so distracted that He did not realize that a big demonic ape was about to smash his head with a rock until it was too late.

"What!" !! [BANG!] His head was hit and He fell off the tree, breaking his neck with the fall. The ring was still on his hand.

A small demonic ape who was on the ground approached the fallen bandit and inspected him. The apes were attracted to anything shiny and would take it to their homes as some primitive decoration.

The jade ring on the bandit's hand was quite polished and shiny so the ape immediately took it and ran away with it.