The next day had passed by quickly, Ares had very little time to actually chew on what had happened the night before. He was dragging along the slaves, keeping them tied up with ropes and such as the Marching Blades marched behind.

The weight of so many people joining him had filled his mind with such thoughts that he had to shake his head. He would often have to reach back and then shift up a wall around the slaves as some tried to flee.

“If any of you try to flee again, I’ll slaughter you. Understood?” He warned them, though he went back to nursing his headache. “Damn it…” Life had become far more complicated. Dragon’s Spine already had far too many people living on it already, and he hadn’t yet secured it for his people, not in the way he wanted anyway.

The travel back was fairly slow due to the hundreds of slaves. He also had to feed them all, but that was no issue considering the meat that he had stored away in his ring. Yet on the way back he could see a large group of wolffolk riding wolves in the distance. He squinted his eyes against the horizon. There were close to about a hundred of them and they were riding quickly towards him, though they eventually began to slow down.

The tiny form at the head of the group was familiar enough to Ares that he almost went to go meet them half way, yet he decided that would have been a terrible idea considering that he had a group of rowdy slaves. They had yet to notice the wolffolk, evident by the fact that some of them had begun to fight amongst one another.

He had forgotten that a few of the slaves, the personal guards of the Commander that had come to face him had tried to slaughter their own people that fled. He split them apart by creating a wall between them.

“I worried for nothing it seems.” Heria shook her head as she approached, eyeing the humans up like they were her prey.

“No, not quite. I’m not so hot right now, I would love some rest but Kingly duties…” He shrugged and then chuckled as Heria hopped off the beast, noting the damage in the armour.

“What happened?” She asked as she walked over to him and then grabbed at the armour, pulling parts of it apart to see the red flesh underneath, cringing at the sight of it. She looked up at him with her brows tensed down together and then she pressed her finger along the scar.

Ares winced and then grabbed her hand. “Seriously, teasing your King isn’t the nicest thing to do. You are lucky I’m a wise and merc-”

Heria had grabbed his head and then pulled him in for a deep kiss, her tongue forcing itself into his mouth. Then she pulled back, licking her lips as a wolf would. “Shut up.” She said as she then marched over to Rori and Torak, growling at them in the beast tongue, before then doing so with the Marching Blades.

Ares wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, trying to hide the redness in his face. He shook his head and then he followed after them.

“What are these humans doing here?” Heria asked as the wolffolk surrounded the group. Ares wondered if she had come to betray him or some such, but those were just his dark thoughts.

“They’re our slaves.”

“Slaves?” Heria asked as she cocked her head to one side. “What did you have planned for them exactly?” She looked at him curiously.

Ares smiled. “Not sure, I’ll probably figure it out when we arrive back home. I’ll have the representatives try and figure something out too… How was everything under my absence?”

“It went fine. Nothing happened.”

“I don’t like the way you said that.”

“Don’t you have any faith in Lana or me?”

“I do.”

“Then nothing happened.”

“Right, sorry…”

“What happened to you? You faced a god and came back unscathed, then you went to face a human army and you were marked?”

“Well, some things happened… I’ll tell you later.”

“Tell me now.” Heria grabbed at his arm and then dragged him away.

Ares sighed and then recounted the tale of what had occurred with the oxfolk littered in arrows, seeing the army, meeting with the oxfolk, fighting the first army with a few soldiers, then the Commander who had hurt him, then finally with the oxfolk wishing to join him.

“… I don’t know whether I should be surprised or I should expect such things from you.” Heria rubbed her forehead. “As long as no other women come along with them, I barely enjoy sharing you with Lana.”

“Sharing me?”

Heria threw him a grin and then poked his side.

“Aren’t you a little… aren’t I a little young?”

Heria threw him a deathly glare. “You’re ripe.” She replied back and then licked her lips again.

“Seriously…” He sighed and then rubbed the back of his neck. “You are one terrifying beast.”

“Don’t you forget.” She replied with a grin across her face as she then wrapped her arms around his and then dragged him back.

Ares allowed himself to get dragged back to the group. He excused himself to go and speak with the humans, who had been split into two groups. One was much larger than the other.

“Hey, if you keep this madness up, I’ll have to kill you.” Ares warned them and then he eyed the groups up. “You, pick a representative to speak on your behalf.” He motioned a hand to the largest group before walking over to the Commander that he had beaten down, who had been gagged and kept bound especially harshly. He pulled the gag down and then dodged the Commander’s spit before slapping the man across his face.

“Alright, if that’s how you want to play it.” Ares said as he slapped the man again. “I am going to have you speak on this group’s behalf.” He said as he slapped the man once more. “Each time you are not gagged, I will slap you between each thing I tell you.” He did so once more. “I will also slap you now and again whenever I feel like it as you speak until you drop down to your knees and beg for forgiveness.” He gave the man a final slap and then put up the gag and pushed Leoni back into his soldiers’ arms and then made his way to the larger group.

“So did you pick a guy yet?” He asked as an older soldier walked over to him suspiciously.

“I am Onxos.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Onxos.” Ares nodded his head. “I want to know what you’d like to do with the other group.” He motioned his head to Leoni. “He ordered the men to come and kill you, so it’s really up to you guys what kind of justice you want me to inflict onto them. Either they’ll remain slaves, or I’ll kill them, or you’ll kill them. Unless, of course, you think of something else…”

Onxos waited for a few moment and then he looked back. “We’d like to offer them a chance to redeem themselves. A fight to the death, as is done in our homeland.”

“Alright. They get to fight with you, and if they win, they become slaves, redeemed of the sin that they committed. And if you win, you have killed them. Is that alright?”

“We shall fight one by one, a gauntlet. Would you let me lead it?”

“Sure. Though I do hope you understand if you guys are plotting something, well…” He motioned his head to the nearby wolffolk that were waiting on their large wolf beasts. “I don’t mind feeding the wolves with your bodies.” He grinned.

Onxos just nodded and then returned to their group. Ares let them deal with their issues, though put Torak in charge of overseeing them for now. The Marching Blades were ready and waiting to be given the command too, after all, they had been the ones to subjugate a large number of them. Ares walked around to check on everyone and to make sure they were all eating.

“Asyllia, thanks for coming and helping out.” Ares sat beside the dragonfolk. “I’m glad you arrived when you did.”

“There is no need for thanks. I am happy to have helped my King, there is nothing more to it than that.”

“So you’re happy helping me?” Ares chuckled as he then rubbed his elbow against her side. “Well, you certainly are a great help. I’m not sure what I’d have done without you…” He sighed.

“It is my duty to do such things.” She was about to continue when Ares heard some shouting.

Leoni had started to exclaim something. Ares shifted the wall between the two groups of humans again.

“Seriously, again?” Ares stepped up to Leoni who stared at him with rage, but he slapped the man and then put on the gag once more. Leoni tried to tackle him down, but Ares wrapped an arm around their neck and began to squeeze.

He looked at Onxos with a raised brow, who sighed.

“They did not wish to fight.”

“Alright, then…” Ares waited expectantly.

“You were the victor. You may do as you please.”

Ares set Leoni free from his bondage and then turned to the Marching Blades. “Do as you please with him, as he would have done to you.”

He turned back to look at the other humans as Leoni was dragged away. “Kneel and I shall give you a swift and painless death, on my word as King.” Ares said much more casually than he dared to admit.

Some dropped to their knees, others remained standing. Ares bowed his head and then went to work swiftly decapitating the men, their heads slipping off and dropping quickly, blood barely spurting out.

He stared at the remaining four that could hear Leoni’s screams and shouts and Ares bowed his head. “I can at least respect your decision.” Ares admitted.

It was the next afternoon when Ares arrived with a group of broken slaves. They had watched as he had tortured and slowly killed each man. The last man had dropped to their knees, begging for mercy, but they had already refused his mercy, and Ares was not the type to offer it twice for no reason. He had planted their bodies upright in the field letting all see what happens to those that wish to misbehave.

When they had finally arrived at the base of the mountain, Ares could see that a little bit of work had started. Many others had appeared to help the stonemasons work.

“When you left, we though we’d send more help for them to make the fort quicker… unfortunately it will take some time still.” Heria said.

Ares shrugged his shoulders. “It’s good, you are making great progress. I’m glad I could leave such work to trustworthy people…” He said as he turned to look at her with a smile, though she was smirking in return, a hand on his back.

Ares shook his head and then walked over to check on the others. He would have liked to help them, but they needed to figure this kind of thing out themselves, otherwise he would stifle creativity and the rest of them wouldn’t know what to do. Perhaps he should have the slaves help…

Then his mind was filled with a number of ideas of how to use the slaves before looking out into the distance. He smiled. He looked back to the blinded slaves and then crossed his arms as he sighed out. He narrowed his eyes and nodded. He knew exactly what he wanted to do.