Ares leapt into the fray, as he would due to his position as the King. Yet this time he was constantly on edge. His mind raced as, with every passing second, he kept his attention on the various enemies ahead of him.

“Drive them away!” Ares exclaimed with blade in hand. He stood atop the wall as the thousands of enemies tried to pour in forward. A volley of arrows arrived from the heavens, yet they disappeared with a single thought from Ares.

The enemy used the two paths that had remained, the third path having been filled up by Ares when he left before, yet he had asked a couple from the watch tower to watch in case any enemies tried to sneak on by.

The drumming continued, sometimes drowning out the sounds of whistling death that had come from the arrows. Hundreds of the enemy had found themselves dead by the force of such arrows, and many more were injured.

Yet soon they had overcome the first step, getting to the walls and the fort. Yet when the first few had arrived, Ares raised a hand. The arrows shot at him disappeared, and then he focused his attention on the earth below.

The ground disappeared.

The giant hole that had appeared in it’s place was certainly a surprise, but not everyone had been taken by it. Many of the beastfolk had gone feral and had leapt off their falling comrades, intent on heading up to fight the Riveans.

Yet when they had come to the top of the walls, what they found was dead. A wall of shields, giant spears that tore into them, and then the shields again. Ares had disappeared as well.

Ares flew over the top of the enemy, who quickly changed their attention to the phoenix for a moment. Yet in that moment, Ares had given himself enough time to fly along by and then create an even deeper hole for the enemy. Now the path was made up of injured, crippled and dead bodies of the beastfolk.

The thousands continued forward, crushing those that they perhaps considered their friends and family under them as they did so.

Ares could not judge them for such an action. He had no doubt that his army would do the same given the situation, though he would hope such a thing would never have to come.

Ares then swooped around to the side where he caught the sight of many boarfolk. Ares dove down and then managed to catch the sight of the same boarman he had met earlier, who nodded over in his direction, and due to the action, Ares then piled on earth over the enemy, partly obscuring the vision from the rhinoman off near the centre and further back, but also as a mercy.

Yet Ares could not stop his allies from attacking the boarfolk, for it was a secret deal he had created during the night and he wasn’t going to spill the beans.

Yet the boarfolk finally then stopped, turning, and marched over towards where they had come from. The boarman raised a hand towards Ares, and so Ares dropped down to meet with him.

“We accept your deal,” the boarman said.

“Good.”

“We will aim for the head of Rhoshoka, though we will require your aid.”

“My aid, is that so?” Ares raised a brow. He nodded his head. “Of course, if this is a ploy for you to betray me, I do hope you have thought of something more creative than just this,” Ares joked as he then leapt up into the air as a phoenix and then returned back to the fort.

He shifted back into a human as he landed, throwing a look towards Xan. Xan nodded, understanding what was to come. Then Ares turned and he looked out to the enemy. He inhaled deeply, concentrating his will. Then he formed rain from the heavens, forming it so that it only rained on the path that he had created with the various holes.

“Xan, if you would be so kind?” Ares asked.

Xan nodded, and whilst he did so lightning rained from from the heavens, striking the enemy, following the water droplets that Ares had formed, so it wouldn’t just fry those directly underneath.

Ares tried to manipulate the water so more dropped down and tried to get the water droplets to drop nearer to one another before finally the lightning began to swim through the people and the rain.

The screams, the cries, the shouts. Yet Ares did not falter, he shifted back into a phoenix and flew off once more. Yet the rhinoman did not seem so disturbed. The boarfolk marched up, and a few thousand even rode aside to meet the rhinoman in combat.

Yet they met a wall of rhinofolk, who were large and powerful, and their horns gouged into the boarfolk.

Ares flew higher, casting a shadow down on the boarfolk before he dove down like a bullet. He piercing through a few rhinofolk, only to them come to a skidding halt. He raised his blade in hand as he came into melee combat with many rhinofolk, trying to keep the heat off the boarfolk that had come to aid Rivea.

Yet… Ares did not have to only worry about the rhinofolk. The buffalofolk were savage! They were like the oxfolk that he had faced, and yet… each did not use a weapon, they used their own bodies to fight. They went feral and each was far more experienced than the typical oxfolk that could go feral.

How did Ares know?

Well the buffalofolk had taken close to about ten seconds before Ares was on the back-foot, and not just on the back-foot, he was also being gored by large horns. Ares hid the surprise off his face, as though this was exactly his plan. Then he shifted into flames, burning those that were close, and yet that did not stop the enemy from sticking him with horns.

‘What is this absolute madness?!’