Dawn came and Ares basked in the light. He used his powers to make it rain above him so he could cool down. He even showered his army, letting the enemy watch as he showed off his powers. A random small area with water pouring across it… it was a weird sight, and Ares was hoping it would boost the morale of his people.

After all his title, Master of Waters, wasn’t just for show.

“It looks as though the enemy is beginning to move,” Xan said as he chewed on some cobra doner that Ares had summoned.

Ares nodded. He eyed up the enemy, who moved and formed a large body. “We have a saying where I come from, and I want to hear your opinion on it.”

Xan threw Ares a look, not entirely certain what the phoenix king wanted.

“There is a concept known as synergy, it’s when two things come together and they become more powerful than if they were individually doing something.”

Xan slowly nodded his head.

“So when they attack, I’d like to synergise with you, if that’s alright.”

Xan continued to slowly nod his head, yet did not say anything. He did not press the issue.

Ares smiled. “Don’t worry… I’ll let you know when the synergy is required.”

“If that is what you say,” Xan said as he took another bite of the cobra doner.

Ares continued to smile with his thoughts purely on how cool the fireworks were going to be. Ares stopped smiling.

Fireworks?

Gunpowder?

Guns?

Ares wondered whether or not he should introduce such a dangerous technology into the world, but he was snapped back into the world by Runar who kicked him across the face. She was currently feeding with Lana.

Ares rubbed the side of his cheek. “Your daughter is pretty damn mean,” Ares said.

“My daughter? Don’t you mean our daughter?”

“That’s the joke.”

Lana seemed completely unimpressed by his awful attempt at humour, but Ares had gotten used to her looking at him in such a way. He wondered if the look of regret on her face was towards engaging with his joke, or becoming engaged with him.

Ares waited until Runar was done feeding to take her from Lana, carrying her around to the walls. “You see those guys?” Ares pointed her to look at the giant army.

Runar’s face was a mix of surprise and confusion.

“Daddy is going to deal with them all, just for you, okay?” Ares kissed her forehead. She squirmed and then looked up at him. He embraced her tight. “Everything is going to be okay, okay?” He looked over to Ozar and Ozri who were walking under him. He walked over to them and was just about to pick them up when Runar threw up all over him.

“…” Ares looked to Torak, who had been looking after the twins.

Torak looked up at Ares and then down to Runar. “I suppose she is rather annoyed she isn’t napping.”

“I suppose so,” Ares said.

He cleaned himself up before then slipping back into his armour as the enemy began to take their position, moments away from charging forth. The rhinoman in the distance was giving a speech. Ares could hear it, of course, but he paid it no mind. He decided his own people needed a speech.

“So we are gathered here today, the same reason we were gathered here yesterday, not much has changed.” Ares looked up and thought about how he could have worded that better. “We are gathered here today because we have about ten to twenty thousand enemies waiting to come and take our city. I don’t know about you, but I like our city. That’s our city. Rivea. That’s our city. We were all there when it was formed, we all drank from the fountain that Rivee has allowed us to protect, right?”

Ares stopped. He was butchering this entirely and then he turned back to look at Xan and looked back at his army. “Look, we have a guest and I really don’t want to embarrass myself infront of both another king and the Storm Lord, so let’s kill everyone and then get back to business. Once we’re done killing them all, we’ll take the loot, split it across everyone, and we’ll have a week long festival.” Ares looked between all the faces of his army. “Reptai too. We’ll have a feast, then we’ll have some competitions, we’ll have prizes, I’ll get married right after and then we’ll have another week long festivity because of it, that’s two weeks of partying.” Ares looked at all the warriors. “There’ll be tons of fucking too.”

With that he raised his sword. “Work hard and then play hard!”

The soldiers looked between one another, raised their spears and repeated the phrase after him.

‘What horny bastards,’ Ares couldn’t help but think before he heard the roaring and screaming of the enemy beginning to descend upon them.

Ares turned and pointed to one of his own Roaring Tridents. “Play it,” he said.

The Roaring Trident saluted and then began to gently thrum against the drum. It began, a beat so low and still. Ares raised his sword as he stepped forward. He scanned the area and saw the large group of warriors pour down.

Ah. They were going all in for this attack. It didn’t really surprise him, it did make the most sense…

Ares turned back to Lana, whose eyes were firmly glued on his back. He nodded at her. “I’ll be back in a moment, alright?”

Lana glared at him but she didn’t say anything.

Ares swallowed as his body grew colder. The drumming did not fill him with the warmth that he had expected. His eyes fell aside and a number of images flashed through his mind, but he looked back at Lana.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I am still afraid of death.”

She nodded her head to him.

“If I see you fall, I will come to drag your body out,” she said.

“Don’t.”

“Don’t die, then you can stop me.”

Ares smiled and nodded.