( Rudra's POV )

Sometimes Rudra wondered if he was living life on easy mode. 

His life in general was by no means easy. He probably lived one of the most adventurous and dangerous lives of any human ever alive, but from time to time he felt like he was a game's most advanced player who had come down to hunt monsters in the beginner village. 

Looking at the dumb Mercenaries giving the Bloodfall clan troops a chase, Rudra felt a little sad that there were no exciting unexpected developments. 

Ofcourse, he had devised the strategy hoping for this exact outcome, but he secretly wished for some more difficulty and struggle, something to let his creative juices flow and express themselves to the fullest, but this fight was like a beginner level fight where the opponent had taken the bait and were now on the verge of being annihilated. 

" Dwarf, be so kind and hand me the signal flair, my back hurts and I can't bend over to fetch it " Rudra said as he asked Sebastian to hand him the signalling flair gun. 

" Old man don't you think it's too early? I think we should wait a few more minut- " 

Sebastian actually began giving Rudra advise to which Rudra simply rolled his eyes and kicked Sebastian on his butt at such an angle that he crashed against the table where the flair was kept which bounced into the air for Rudra to effortlessly catch. 

" Thank You very much for your help second legion commander " Rudra said as he walked out of the tent leaving Sebastian under the mess of a broken wooden table. 

" Ouch- now I have back pain " Sebastian grunted and complained as he stood up rubbing his back. 

Despite his way of the wind senses, Sebastian never saw or felt the old man's kick incoming. 

Day after day the dwarf became more and more convinced that the old man was pure evil, as he kept coming up with more and more dangerous strategies and lived a life completely opposite to the teachings of the way of the coward. 

At his age a man should stay at home away from battles and every mess possible, yet here the old man was in the middle of an active battlefield where he had absolutely no ability to defend himself. 

" The old lady in my village was right. The most evil ones are the ones who live the most " Sebastian commented as he felt assured that the only reason why the old man had survived for so long despite having such a personality was because he was the kind of lifeform that even god was unwilling to claim and send to either heaven or hell. 

Walking out, Rudra pointed the flare gun towards the sky and released the red shot. 

The Bloodfall clan had prepared 3 signalling shots for the elites. 

The red shot meant that everything had went as per plan and that the time to attack was immediately. 

The yellow should would have meant that everything they had planned had gone to hell and that the elites should retreat without fighting. 

The green shot would have meant that there was no need for the elites to come at all as the fight had been completed by the Bloodfall clan themselves. 

It was the most optimistic outcome of them all, but also the one that was most unlikely. 

******** 

( Neatwit's POV ) 

Not even a full 4 hours ago Neatwit had freshly returned from completing his tier7 promotion when he saw a large elite legion preparing for war. 

Neatwit enquired as to what was going on and was filled in by master of chaos about how Max had approached the elites with a proposal and how sir Jhonny had accepted the deal. 

Half the current elite legion was to be led by sir Jhonny personally as they were planning an incursion in the heart of the enemy territory and destroy the 6 orbs that the mercenaries were supposed to protect. 

While the other half was to be led by master of chaos to help the Bloodfall clan push back the enemy from their homeland. 

Usually, Neatwit would not personally take part in such a battle as it did not require his presence, however, having freshly ascended to tier7 he wanted to take this fight as an opportunity to test his newfound powers to get a grasp of his strength before jumping into actual high stakes battle. 

Hence Neatwit joined master of chaos's party that was waiting a few kilometres away from Bloodfall lands for the signal to join war. 

Upon seeing the red flare, Neatwit smiled a bright smile. If it had been yellow or green he would not have gotten an opportunity to stretch his muscles but this gave him the perfect opportunity to do so. 

" You go right, I go left? " Neatwit asked master of chaos as the duo flashed at each other a knowing smile. 

The two god's burst ahead of the elite legion charging at supersonic speeds while the rest of the elites charged with high spirits at normal pace, dividing as planned to go to both the southern and the eastern front. 

************ 

( Meanwhile Gurdan ) 

Gurdan saw the flare shot up from the Bloodfall fort and frowned. 

Flares in the middle of battlefields was never a good sign, it always signalled that the opponents were cooking something that needed large distance signalling, but the question was what? 

Just what were the Bloodfall clan cooking? And what did it mean for him? 

A bad premonition rose inside Gurdan's heart, he felt something was about to go seriously wrong. 

On one side he looked at the retreating Bloodfall legion and couldn't resist the urge to just circle them and butcher them to pieces, but on the other hand his instincts screamed at him to run! 

Just as he was wondering all this, a duck seemingly flew and sat on his head and began pecking on his skull. 

It was a peculiar duck, one that was part of some mythical tale but Gurdan couldn't exactly recall what tale? 

Irritated by its presence and not having the patience to deal with it at the moment, Gurdan snapped the neck of the duck to kill it. 

It was at this moment that the earth started to quake and the heavens opened as a massive asteroid appeared in the sky heading straight towards Gurdan. 

Looking at the natural disaster headed his way, Gurdan finally recalled the tale about the duck. 

These were the fucking eldritch ducks, the favourite beasts of nature, the one species whose killing was considered taboo by the universe itself. 

If anyone defied this will and killed an eldritch duck, a terrifying calamity would befall them and in his impatience Gurdan had made the mistake of killing one. 

" Where the fuck did an eldritch duck come here from? " Gurdan wondered as he used 

[ Continental Slash ] to destroy the asteroid headed towards him. 

As he wondered this question, thousands of eldritch ducks flew in the sky over the battlefield as they began harassing the Mercenary soldiers. 

*Quack Quack Quack * 

* Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack * 

" Don't kill them- DON'T" Gurdan screamed but it was for naught. 

As he saw the dumb Mercenaries kill the ducks one after another, he felt his scalp go numb as goosebumps arose all over his skin. 

Not even the Mercenary King could save the Mercenaries now. 

His forces were doomed. 

Doomed because of ducks. 

—------ 

/// A/N - Chapter 8/20, end of day 2 ///