Imperial Army makes its move 5

Mago wiped off the blood from his face and scanned his surroundings. He could feel several groups of people moving towards him at a steady pace. They would arrive at his location in two hours at most and they numbered in the hundreds. Meanwhile, Mago's squad had barely managed to travel a few kilometers while he was fighting.

If things were to continue like this, they would be caught by the end of the day. Frowning Mago quickly decided on what to do. He quickly stepped into the pools of blood that had formed from the three corpses and started to create false tracks and leads to misguide the tribesmen that were following him and his men. It took Mago around an hour to create several false leads but he was finally done. Looking at the bloody mess and footprints that he had created, he nodded with satisfaction and started to sprint towards his squad all the while trying his best to erase any traces they had left.

He knew this wasn't a long-term solution but the tracks would probably buy him and the others a few precious hours. While running Mago wondered how were the other squads and his regiments doing.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bismark was feeling annoyed. He had been stationed at the damn dam for close to two weeks now. The first week and been glorious. There wasn't much to do and he could easily nap and laze around all day long every day. But after the first groups of tribesmen had arrived to investigate the dam, had things completely changed. The group had been killed easily but what followed made him more and more frustrated.

These damn pests just kept pouring in. It started with a few dozens, then it became a few hundred and now there were several thousand enemies. The other two regiments were forced to retreat from their ambush sites because the number of enemies kept increasing constantly and they were going to be overrun soon if they had stayed. Now they were also at the hastily made barricade, which had during the week turned into a fort, with the other regiment.

The only upside, which frankly didn't comfort Bismark at all, was that the main army had managed to move unhindered for a week now and advanced a good bit in the jungle.

'I didn't sign up for this!' Bismark screamed in his mind while cursing at Mago.

Well, to be fair he really didn't. Mago had basically forced him and Ragan to come along.

Looking down from the shabby walls that the brigade had built around the dam Bismark could estimate that they were outnumbered three to one. While they were behind walls and the defending side which gave them a small advantage, he knew that the following battle would be atrocious.

Ragan who was standing next to Bismark wore a solemn look. He as well was cursing Mago in his mind.

"So what is the plan here?", Bismark asked Claude with a resigned expression. He had just arrived at the command tent with Ragan. Looking at the sea of enemies had made him feel depressed.

"We defend the dam.", Claude replied wryly and earned a blank look from Bismark and Ragan.

"That's it? That is your genius plan?", Bismark asked in disbelief.

"What do you want me to say? There is no grand master plan here. We hold on to the best of our abilities while hoping that the army sends out reinforcements and that they arrive in time. We have already sent out a messenger.", Claude sighed.

"How long until they arrive? If they arrive...", Bismark muttered gloomily.

"At the earliest in two days.", Claude replied.

"Great, just great. I should have begged Mago to take me with him to the enemy territory. I'm sure he is happily prancing around the jungle without a worry in the world.", Bismark snorted.

Somewhere deep within the southern jungle Mago sneezed while desperately running to catch up to his squad while being hunted down by hundreds of enemies. 'How in the hell can I be coming down with the flu in this hot and humid weather?' he frowned.

"Most of the scout squads have already returned. Mago and his squad are the only ones still out there and according to the other squads they are being hunted down by hundreds of tribesmen.", Claude told Bismark with a smirk.

"So if you want to go and help him, be my guest.", Claude continued.

"Ah, how could I abandon all of you? What could you possibly do without me.", Bismark shamelessly said while waving his hands in denial.

"Well then dear Archmage, get back up on the wall and be ready for combat.", Claude commanded. He didn't really like Bismark but he knew that an Archmage would be indispensable in the upcoming battle.

"Ay ay, sir.", Bismark nodded while giving a mocking salute before leaving the tent with Ragan in tow, making Claude roll his eyes.

'Damn cocky brat.' Claude thought to himself.

After a few hours, the tribesmen started to shown signs of moving and everyone knew they would attack soon. Most of the soldiers started to get nervous but Bismark just lazily yawned while leaning on the wall.

"So, how many shamans have you found?", he asked Ragan who was beside him.

"Around three hundred.", Ragan replied.

This caused Bismark to slightly lift his eyebrow and ask; "Oh ho, quite the number. What is their strength like?"

"Twenty of them reach the standard of a High Mage, the rest are simply regular Mages.", Ragan answered.

"So just small fries.", Bismark smirked. He clearly didn't place these backwater shamans in his sights.

"Do you want the High Mages?", Ragan asked while cracking his knuckles.

"Yeah, otherwise it will get really boring.", Bismark replied while twirling his dagger on his palm.

"Perfect.", Ragan smiled. He perfectly knew that under his friend's lazy attitude was a sadistic monster that loved to play with those weaker than him. The memory of his first spar with Bismark made him still shudder in fear.

Ragans greatest strength was his speed and ability to unleash bolts of lightning, but they were all useless against Bismark and his time domain. Bismark could create a domain around him that was fifteen meters in diameter. Within his domain, Bismark could freely control time. He could speed himself up and slow down his enemies or stop them entirely for a short while. This of course had some restrictions, such as if the opponent was stronger than Bismark, his ability would be heavily weakened.

But against Ragan who at the time had been equal in strength, the domain was more than enough. With his speed being reduced to that of a snail, Ragan could only watch as Bismark had leisurely walked up to him and started the trashing. After that one time, he had never sparred with Bismark again.

A few hours passed before the sound of a horn could be heard coming from the ranks of the tribesmen. It was the signal to start the attack. They instantly charged towards the wall, the shamans of the Beast tribe at the front, with their superior physical traits and transformations activated.

"God they look disgusting.", Bismark grunted while looking at the different human and animal hybrids.

Arrows started to rain down from the walls, with the Imperial soldiers opening fire the moment the enemies came within range, down below the walls, some soldiers were ready to reinforce the gate against the battering of the tribesmen.

The Beast tribe had no siege equipment with them other than some ropes made from vines and a crude log that worked as a battering ram. It was honestly quite a pathetic sight when compared to the well-equipped Imperial soldiers.

Hundreds of enemies fell to the arrows every minute and at first glance, it looked like the tribesmen wouldn't even be able to scale the walls, let alone break down the gate.

But when the men from the tribe managed to reach the gate with the log, the shamans took over. With their high physical strength, they hammered at the gate and the result became quickly obvious, the gate would break down after a few more hits.

"Everyone, get into positions, surround the gate!", Claude commanded and most of the melee soldiers from the wall started to rush down. Only the archers and some mages stayed up on the walls. The mages easily prevented the men from climbing up with their ropes so the regular soldiers didn't really have much to do there.

After a few minutes, the gate finally gave in and enemies poured inside and the soldiers could hear the cheering of the tribesmen. Cold sweat started to bead on the foreheads of the imperial soldiers. Without the advantage of the fort, they would be most likely overrun. The enemies heavily outnumbered them and they even had hundreds of shamans with them. While their brigade had also around two hundred mages, they didn't have too much hope. Only around fifty of them were at the rank of High Mage, and since the enemy had closer to a hundred more mages, they would have their hands full.

But contrary to their expectations, the moment the shamans charged in, sprouted fountains of blood from their throats and a lone figure holding a dagger appeared before them.

"Aren't you guys a bit too pathetic? While you can't be considered fully-fledged mages, at least try a little bit harder.", Bismark said while tilting his head, sneering at the fallen shamans. Not a single drop of blood could be seen on his clothes, just the blade of his dagger was slightly dripping with blood. Bismark had simply created a small distortion of time around himself and used wind magic to speed up and dashed up to the shamans, and enveloped them within his time-freeze domain, and slashed their throats. While it used up over half of his mana, he had instantly killed most of the High Mage shamans.

'The unique affinities truly live up to their name as monstrous powers.' Claude thought while gazing at the dozen dead shamans on the ground in shock. He now finally understood why Mago placed so much importance on recruiting Bismark and having him lead the mages of the brigade. No one that was weaker than Bismark could escape his time-domain. He was like a god within it. The only way was to destroy it was with brute force, which required the opponent to be stronger than him. So an Archmage at the late stages, or a Sage at least. Or a powerful Warrior like Mago. But even Mago could barely win in a fight against Bismark. They were quite equally matched.

Meanwhile, Ragan who was still up on the wall looked down and figured it was his turn to shine. He drew mana from his mana pool and electricity started to crackle around him and run through his muscles, giving him unbelievable speed. With a flash of blue light and a patch of slightly scorched ground following him, Ragan dashed towards the remaining shamans that were still coming inside the fort from the cracked gate, followed by hundreds of tribal soldiers.

When arriving before the shamans, he channeled the electricity that was coursing through him into his palms and unleashed a current of lightning upon the enemies. The shamans had no time to dodge before being burnt to a crisp by lightning.

"Ah, I see what you mean, lazy bum. They really are a lot weaker than regular mages. They have no form of defense against magical attacks, they purely rely on their physical bodies, which defense frankly isn't even as powerful as some yellow-ranked Warriors.", Ragan surmised.

"Who are you calling a lazy bum you damn manwhore.", Bismark frowned, displeased.

Meanwhile, both the imperial soldiers and the tribesmen were completely stunned. Both sides were gazing at these monsters with a fearful look. But soon the imperial soldiers broke out in cheers. They could finally see a chance of victory. With their new determination, the imperial soldiers charged forward and after an hour of fierce fighting, they drove the tribesmen out of the fort.