Chapter 272 Abandoning The North Pt.I

"Move your asses!"

The captain of Wall Guard yelled to the fledgling soldiers, who had little to no awareness of their surroundings mid-combat. Some fledglings opted to look around to see what they were being warned about and others chose to reflexively jump out of the way. The former was hit by a barrage of large chunks of ore and balls of fire, whereas the others managed to avoid the attack by a hair's breadth.

The cyclops captain shook his head in disappointment when he saw the screaming soldiers and could only let out an exasperated gasp as he grabbed his spear.

In a fit of rage, he flung the spear so hard, it stabbed through a set of five griffins and manticores and sent them spiraling to the ground in a bloody mess. However, this was nothing in the face of the hundreds of griffins and manticores flying above the wall and launching attacks of lightning, fire, poison, and earth.

The cyclopes village wall had been under attack for six days straight now, and it was a wonder they hadn't struck the centre of the village already.

Cyclopes were considered to be one of the strongest creatures, but that claim was void once their opponent was capable of flight. There was no way for them to grapple flying opponents to the ground and they would eventually lose out in a battle of endurance.

This made it very obvious that the attack on their gates was a strategic move to wear down their fighting forces and make a complete invasion much easier. If the assault on the wall wasn't any sort of strategy, then the monsters were plainly stupid.

Either way, the cyclopes were fully prepared for a fight of endurance. With their reserves, they could go for weeks fighting with little rest. Even better was the fact that they allied with the west and the wyverns, meaning eventually the griffins and manticores would be stopped by their allies.

They simply needed to hold out.

The only problem with this was, it had been 3 days since they sent out a request. They had heard word that it could take several weeks to about two months travelling from one side of Larm to the other, but they were also told that to the rat men of the West, this distance meant nothing. They could easily complete the journey within a day or two.

So why hadn't they heard from them yet?

No one knew exactly why.

"Fetch me my spears, lieutenant!"

He spoke and two of the wall guards looked at each other, confused as to who he was speaking to. Angrily, he slammed their faces together then marched towards his tower as the battle unfolded.

All around him, the sounds of screaming soldiers filled his ears. He chose to ignore most of them as none of them were in actual danger. Cyclopes had low stamina, but their bodies were so durable, only wyvern king fire was known to actually hurt them.

Something as stupid as manticore fire, lightning and rocks weren't going to kill them. But they could die from overworking and lack of food for even a single day.

The chief arrived at his tower, where he saw a cyclops leaving his office with a bag of spears on his back.

"Oh boss, I was bringing your spears, but it was kind of hard to look through your shit."

The guard spoke, making the captain sigh.

"Good work, now get back out there and start throwing more spears."

He patted him on the back, took the bag, then sent him off. The captain followed right behind while fetching out one spear, before he heard a cry.

"Boss! We see some War trolls and Mountain goblins charging at the gates!"

"Huh? Ground soldiers?"

Confused, he walked over to the edge of the wall and looked down at the field. Truly, an army of war trolls and mountain goblins charged at their walls. A sight so pathetic he actually felt like laughing, but he held it back.

"Stupid goblins. Oi, don't let up the assault on the griffins and manticores! Keep shooting them down."

As he said this, he grabbed one random soldier and brought him close enough to whisper.

"Go back to the barracks and report to the king tha-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a shadow swooped by and landed in front of the wall. Both he and the guard he held looked over the wall and saw through the cloud of dust who the shadow belonged to.

A man with a ponytail sticking out of his head and black tattoos spreading from his neck to torso. He wore a loincloth around his waist with a black belt tying it together and heavy looking boots. In both arms, he wielded an axe with a silver glean. This green skinned cyclops let out a large roar then attacked the war trolls and mountain goblins that were mounting an attack at the bottom of the wall.

"What's that bastard doing here?"

The guard asked and the captain simply scoffed then shoved the guard.

"Get back to work and put them cowardly bastards down!"

"But I'm getting hungry, boss."

"Hm, go for a quick meal break then."

With that, the cyclops guard left contently with a smile on his face. The captain grunted while observing the green cyclops' assault on the trolls and goblins.

With a single swing of his axe, three heads were sent rolling. The goblins instantly became wary of him, but the trolls mindlessly charged at him, attempting to swarm him.

This was a useless tactic as the green cyclops spun himself wildly, creating a tiny cyclone and sucking in their bodies. He stopped once enough corpses fell to the ground and let out a roar that paralysed most of them and even some of the griffins and manticores.

His attacks were cruel and vicious. And that was before he encased himself in a red aura that gave him a boost in power and allowed him to release a flurry of unrelenting attacks.

At this point, most of the monsters were looking at him alone. The cyclops put both axes back then opened his arms wide with a grin on his face.

The tattoos on his body glowed with a white light, causing the sky to turn grey and clouds to swarm. The winds got heavy and the atmosphere felt tense. The monsters in the sky could feel the upcoming storm and they were shaken.

Flashes of lightning arced across the sky followed by a boom in thunder. He beat his chest once, then thunder echoed. Again he beat his chest, thunder followed once more. He repeated this, two more times, before lifting up one of his axes to the sky. White lightning struck the axe and his entire body.

After touching his aura, the lightning turned red and with a wave of his hand, the red lightning spread in a circular arc, blasting his foes away.

After ten minutes that felt like nothing more than a second, the battle for the day was over without the aid of allies.

The green cyclops had single-handedly won the war of the walls and returned to his abode. The captain of the wall merely scoffed then called for those who participated in the fight to get their meals and swap places with those who were on standby.

Some guards were sent to patrol the front of the wall to see if there were any oddities and some went further into the forest to smoke out any nearby enemy camps.

Overall, the day ended on a relatively peaceful note and the cyclopes celebrated with a large meal as was in their tradition after every victory.

However, the leaders of the village could not participate in this victory meal. They had to meet with the chief to discuss their plan of action.

The captain of the wall was currently standing in a room filled with a few other people on the same level. The cyclopes government head. Chief of mining, Chief of Food, Chief of construction, Chief of the City Walls, Chief of Military, Chief of Smithy and the actual King of the cyclopes with his right-hand man.

He looked around, searching for someone, but as usual, that person did not make an appearance tonight.

'Stonehard bastard.'

He thought to himself then tsked before focusing on the meeting once more.

"I thought you said the West were our allies!"

The Chief of Construction slammed down on the desk in a fit of rage.

"What of it?"

The king asked, confused by his anger.

"Then why haven't they come already? Building the walls took months of delicate work. Repairs won't be so easy."

"Are you insinuating that your walls aren't good enough to withstand such a measly crew of ruffians? Then that would make my assessment of you being as good as Dwarf elites to be wrong, no?"

"Eek!"

The chief of construction paused, then looked away.

"Our allies from the West will come. It's not even been five days since we sent out the request."

"But we don't need them."

Chief of military argued. He burly looking cyclops glared at the map on the table, specifically the West.

"The West is full of weaklings that can barely keep up with mountain goblins! It's an offense for us to take their help."

"The West… is full of weaklings, yes. However, times are changing and their leader is clearly not a weakling."

He corrected the chief of military's sentence as he looked at the West with a subtle grin on his face.

"The West is known for producing the weakest out of all the parts of Larm, but we also know that it causes random mutations in some monsters that make them the best of the best in Larm as well."

"Still, that is no reason for you to make us waste food for help."

The chief of military complained once more, making the king sigh.

"Come on. You're in charge of our military. I want you to think much more carefully about this."

The chief of military felt insulted by this, but as hard as he tried, he couldn't think any further than what he had already assumed. It was simply a waste of time in his eyes.

The king shook his head in disappointment.

"In truth, I stand with your view that the West is weak."

"Huh? Just now you said that they were strong."

The chief of construction argued, but all he got was a glare that made him shut his mouth.

"I said their leader was strong. However, I can't say the same for the entirety of the West. This is a test run for them."

"Oh? To see if they are worthy allies."

Chief of Military finally understood it and nodded his head, pleased.

"Indeed."

The other chiefs also saw the king's plan and were impressed. They wondered why they themselves hadn't thought of it first.

"Chief of the wall, what happened out there today."

The captain straightened his back, then responded to the question.

"We got a couple of griffins and manticores. Then some war trolls and mountain goblins tried to attack the bottom of our walls, but the blessed one jumped in and cleared them out."

After he delivered a quick report of the happenings, mummering could be heard amongst the chiefs. They all scoffed at the idea of the Blessed One interfering in the wall defence.

"What were you doing to allow that bastard to interfere?"

The chief of military grabbed the chief of wall by his armour and pulled him in close. The chief of wall was prepping up a fist to punch the chief of military should things get too bad.

"It's not like I could stop a man who swoops in from nowhere."

"Oi, oi, stop it you two. You're in the presence of the king. You shouldn't be acting so unruly."

The king's secretary got in between them and pushed them apart. As young as he was, his strength was such that neither of two wanted to fight with the secretary there to stop them.

"You said mountain goblins and war trolls came down, right?"

The king went back to the chief of wall's report.

"Yes. They weren't a lot, but they ran towards the wall like dumbasses. Haha."

He found it funny how they actually even attempted to take them down from the bottom rather than from the sky like the griffins and manticores were doing. If they performed a combined attack from the sky, there was no way the wall guard could keep up for so long.

"And nothing seemed out of the ordinary?"

"No. The scouts wiped out some of their nearby camps, but that was it."

The chief of the wall shrugged as he hadn't identified anything out of the ordinary. All eyes fell on the king who was in thought. For a moment, there was silence, followed by a thunderous roar from outside the tent.

The cyclopes were celebrating and things had gotten pretty loud.

"Is something wrong, king?"

The secretary asked.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking a bit too much. Go enjoy the celebrations. I'll be out with you in a few."

With that said, he waved off the chiefs and they left one by one. The chief of the wall was the last one to head out, but before he did, he looked back into the tent.

The king noticed this and smiled at him. The captain wasn't sure why, but he was getting a bad feeling.

'I'm probably just hungry.'

He thought, then went off to enjoy the party. The cyclopes went wild, but not too much as the next day was another battle for them.

However, contrary to the previous days, the next day could be described as the greatest loss the cyclopes had ever faced. So much so that the chief of walls could only look at the scene with a dropped mouth.

His eye was wide opened and the shock caused him to tremble. For the first time since the wall had been built, a side of it collapsed as an army of giants, minotaurs and other violent uncontrollable beasts attacked them.

Even that wasn't the most ferocious thing present.

The cyclops collapsed on his knees as he looked above at the creature with red scales that had a greenish lustre to them, black curled horns and a fang filled snout.

"W-What's a dragon doing here!?"