When Ares awoke in the morning he continued his morning routine of running and lifting before the representatives had come to speak with him. He also saw Roshe waiting for him alongside the group. Ares nodded and then walked over to Roshe first.

“Hey Roshe. I’ve had a few thoughts about what we spoke about yesterday.” He then raised a hand and dropped down about a hundred sets of the human armour. “Can you try and fit these into whoever has a suitable body type for our currently set of soldiers? Or just ask one of the Captains and such to do it. Focus on getting whichever soldiers are missing armour kitted up, once you’ve done that, come to me and we can discuss the next phase.”

Roshe nodded and was about to leave when Ares quickly recalled the second, and far more important task. “Also, from now on reduce the work day of the crafters, of all of them, by about half. Then for every four days of work, have them take the next day off for crafting. We shouldn’t overburden our crafters, and I’m sorry for taking so long about it.” Ares rubbed the back of his neck.

“Understood. Thank you for looking out for us, Ares-kin.”

Ares shook their forearm and then nodded before heading in to speak with the representatives to see if they needed anything. They had started to grumble about the long work hours of the crafters, and Ares laughed.

“Yes, I understand. I have informed Roshe about it just a moment ago, he’ll be telling the crafters about the plan. If he hasn’t told the others, send whoever is in charge of the various crafters to speak with Roshe about what the plan was and they can let those working for them know.”

With that done, Ares left. He leapt into the air and then flew off and made his way to the oxfolk waiting for him at the base of the mountain, Asyllia following right behind him.

Ares landed down at the fort again, the Marching Blades saluting him. “Having fun on the last few days on watch?” Ares asked, chuckling.

Gantal bowed her head and then reported to him of a few sightings to the North-East, apparently there was a lot of movement, though they didn’t know whether or not they were human. They had sent out a few scouts just a little while ago. Ares nodded, furrowing his brows in thought.

“Thank you.” He said as he then left to the oxfolk. Such sightings may be bad news. Ares looked out in the distance but saw nothing on the horizon.

He approached the oxfolk, speaking with Nohka, the grandchild of Sohka. She was a fairly thin oxfolk, a rarity to be sure, though was heavily clad in all sorts of bone jewellery.

“Everything good?”

She nodded.

“Alright, great…” He said as he rubbed the side of his neck. “I’m here to count how many of you there are, did you split everyone up into their various crafters and such?”

Nohka led him over to the various groups of crafters and such. There was a large mass of oxfolk near the various groups, though Ares didn’t really worry about them at the moment. Instead he spoke with the various crafters, counting each of them out. He wrote down into the ground how many each set had, though the language was English and he kept is abbreviated so he doubted many of them could really read it. Though then the thought came to him. The human language was pretty similar to English. Or was that just how the words translated within his mind? He wasn’t sure.

There were a couple hundred crafters that could make melee weapons, about fifty that could make ranged, just over three hundred that could work as leather workers and tailors, and then about eighty tailors. He was surprised at how few there were, all things considered, though these were those that were willing to help in the cause only from Sohka’s group at the moment. The others were still half in to becoming Riveans.

Ares cleared his throat and motioned his head to the large group over one side. “What are they doing there?”

“Those are of our tribe and a few others who wish to become soldiers.”

“Soldiers?” Ares looked out to them once more. He counted the various groups and he stopped after about a thousand. In his estimation there were close to about three to four thousand in total. He reached up and then rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling quietly. ‘Fucking hell, that’s a lot.’ He thought to himself before he looked up at the sky. He could feel the jitters in his body. His army had not just double or tripled, it had increased tenfold. Yet, if he could really convince the other tribes in their entirety, then… he would have an entire legion’s worth?

Many of the oxfolk had died during the onslaught against the humans. They had been cautious, only coming to the battlefield with about the same as the humans. An equal amount remained behind with the more vulnerable, and some had left around until they had been called by the Horns from their safe places.

Right now only Sohka’s tribe had committed to fully joining him. Sohka had held so much sway on his tribe and Ares believed they had a good enough relationship. The others were still of half minds, and so Ares had allowed them to watch how he treated Sohka’s tribe. Though soon he’d have to ask them to leave, to view from elsewhere once he had integrated the oxfolk into his tribe. There were close to about forty or so thousand of them, well, closer to thirty thousand with how many had joined him and how many had left to pursue their luck further West.

“So…” Ares began. “Those are all the oxfolk willing to become soldiers…” Ares could see that most of them wore heavy furs and carried with them some weapons. Ares ran his fingers through his hair and inhaled deeply. Still, no doubt, these wouldn’t be enough. It was a start at least.

He turned to face Nohka. “Nohka, your tenure as Horn is almost at an end but… are you any good at battle?”

Nohka raised her brow. Ares dealt with her feral form quite easily, though she had impressed him with her ability. She was no Sohka, but they were definitely related. Ares lifted her up onto her feet and smiled. “I have a proposal for you.” Ares then motioned his head to the soldiers.

Ares spend the rest of the day counting out how many group he could form using the six by six method. When he grouped them together he saw he had nearly a hundred squads. He rubbed the sides of his neck and then nodded his head. He could pretty easily fill out the rest by including his own people. He looked over to Nohka and nodded.

“Today is the day.” He said to her. She raised a brow and he looked out to the group once more. “Today is the day.” He whispered.

Finally the scouts returned to mention that they had seen a large number of beastfolk moving around, though not so much an organised army, but a travelling group. The scouts were not allowed to go nearer as they were warned to remain away and so returned to inform the King of such a matter. Ares thanked them and let it go, though informed the oxfolk of such a thing.