Ares cut through the enemy with his blade. It was as though he was cutting through butter. He was just that strong that he could cut through flesh, sinew and bone without a single feel of resistance. Yet… even though he knew this was all happening, feeling the blood splatter against him and around him like a red mist, he didn’t actually… feel anything.

There was no horror, no pleasure, no… anything.

He cut through them as though he was tearing through paper and letting them drop. Yet though he could hear them drop, he did not listen to such a thing. He didn’t listen to the cried, the shouts, the screams, or the howling pain. He didn’t listen to the clash that had crashed around him.

It was as though he was cutting through sunflowers. He did not think of them as people, as beings he was snuffing the light out of. No.

Yet. The thought did cross his mind.

These were people. They had lives. Well, they had lives before he slew them. They had wives, husbands, children… they enjoyed eating with their family, they enjoyed art, crafting, fucking. Probably.

Yet even so… he slew them so casually. Why?

Why did Ares commit such a horrible thing to another. To take away life without batting an eyelash.

Ares paused, a sword piercing through his chest which grew aflame to protect him. No.

He knew why.

Behind him, a pair of piercing eyes struck his back. Not one pair, two, three. Three pairs of eyes. His back, he hoped, seemed broad to them. For once day, all three of them may have to step forward for others to stare at their backs. Behind even them, was something quite important too.

Rivea stared towards his back, and so did his three children. That was enough for Ares to pierce and slash through a number of beastfolk without any emotion. Ares did not realise just how awful that seemed, at least not at the time of cutting through everyone and being showered in hot redness.

Then finally the screams pierced through his mind, the voices managing to reach him. He paused for a moment, a rhinowoman trying to push him down. Yet her strength left her as Ares twisted his blade inside her, aiming his blade to cut down a boarman right beside her in the same swing, before, kicking them away.

The Reptai growled and snarled, leaping forward to meet the enemy. Yet Ares seemed more… annoyed?

This was his prey, why were they butting in to his business? It’s not that he was enjoying the hunt, but rather, he needed to blow off some steam. At least, that’s what he was telling himself at the moment.

“Head to the other side, I’ll handle this side.”

A few Reptai left at his words, though a few remained nearby. One of the leaders of the Reptai stuck to him.

“We cannot leave,” they said.

“No. Leave me, at once. You need to support the other side. I can handle this side.” Then Ares shifted the earth ahead of him so the beastfolk had to funnel into him.

The Reptai growled before they marched off, heading off to the other side to reinforce it so that the enemy had to face a number of Reptai almost equal to themselves, under heavy arrow fire. Even those that were facing Ares, they had taken hundreds of arrows every few moments as they were instructed. They had a single pattern, and the whistling noise of death surrounded them.

Ares raised his arms on either side of him, a blade pointed up and away from the enemy as he invited them forward. “Come. You wanted my head, didn’t you? Come.”

They remained still, for he had apparently killed a hundred or so warriors that lay between he and them. Ares could see. They were not combatants, not the professional kind that he had employed. They were just people.

Yet even now… he could not forgive them.

“Come…” he said. “You threatened me and my family… what did you think was going to happen?” Ares asked. “Now come.”

A few stepped forth to meet him, but they fell under the blur of his blade. They dropped at his feet, dead. The rest hesitated, but Ares did not wait for them to come to him. He stepped forward. With each step, death came to his enemy, one by one. Arrows shot forward towards him, and yet they disappeared. Just like with each life, the numbers fell.

Once Ares had thinned the enemy down, several hundred dead, they began to break and fled to regroup. A few were killed by their own allies due to the fleeing, and some of them even on purpose to make an example out of them, but soon they had regrouped on the other side with the rest of the enemy. Ares had shot out a few arrows on the retreating enemy, but quickly returned and swiftly made his way to the other side.

The Reptai chased the enemy a little too far away for Ares’ comfort.

“Return! Return, Reptai! Return!”

A few Reptai commanded in such a way as well, a handful of Reptai dying since they had gone too far. Ares hissed out, wincing in pain, before he then raised a hand, covering the back of the Reptai as the arrows poured over from the heavens.

Finally the Reptai were safe as Ares finally returned back to the fort. “Damn it… we lost three Reptai when we didn’t have to.”

“They are within the flames now,” one Reptai said.

“Too soon.” Ares almost snarled at the Reptai, but kept his cool. “Even a single Reptai dying is too much, especially in that way.” He tried not to upset them with his words, but… it was quite harsh.

“We will remember such a thing,” the Reptai bowed her head.

Ares sighed. “I shifted away their bodies for later.”

“We thank you.”

“No problem.”