The Crimson Tale of Conquest

Another two days passed; the early morning light revealed a large, assorted army marching towards the forest across the grassy plain. Their foot falls trampling the grass underneath, leaving a clear trail of where they've traversed. The small armed force of warriors was made up of those from the city's militia, the Hunters Guild, the Mercenary Guild, and two separate Dragon slaying Guilds. In the center of this formation, surrounded by their personal guards, Drakove and Vadim sat atop war horses, their silver-colored armor tinted with blue hue, that gave of a pale silvery light. Their Mithril armor reflected the morning rays, making appear to be ablaze from afar.

Stationed outside the forests edge stood Lucilla and Sara. An even smaller force of Fay, monsters, and young Dragons positioned behind them. Morella, Judieth, Cristina, and Aliaa stood slightly behind the two, acting as backup for when the fighting breaks out. While the others wore their usually battle gear, Sara had borrowed some from Cristina's ship. She wore the same type of assassin's garb as Aliaa, an all-black outfit that covered her from head to toe, with sturdy boots. It was similar to the Shinobi garb that Fox-kin used. She had light leather armor around her torso and wore metal arm guards. Extra cloth draped over her legs similar to a tasset to protect her thighs. The bottom half of her face was hidden behind a mask so she wouldn't be spotted by her brother. Until she can get close to her father herself, she and the others agreed that it was best to keep her hidden incase her brother tried killing her and called it an unfortunate accident.

"They're almost here." Lucilla spoke as the armed force came into view. "You ready Sara?"

Taking a deep, but shaky breath, Sara gave her teacher a firm nod. She was only here to try and get close to her father and hopefully end this. She didn't plan to kill anyone, but she knew her teacher and the others didn't have any real qualms about doing so, this was war after all. She only hoped her father didn't know about her brother's secret dealing, otherwise the only way to end this would be the death of them. The thought made her want to curl up and hide.

"I'm ready when you are teacher." Sara answered.

"Good." She responded before turning to Cristina. "Are the young Dragons going to be fine?"

"I assigned small groups of twenty for each of them three dragons ta help combat the Dragon slayers. We don't know how many were hired so this may have ta change eventually." Cristina reported. "doesn't help that we're short on people."

"That's fine. How about all those that refused to join?" Lucilla asked turning to Morella.

"Fay aren't warriors, so many still don't want to participate. I've instructed them to either head towards the 'Lost Country' or Cristina's ship." Morella explained, one half of her face covered by a mask. "So, we still only have about a thousand here to fight. While the other side has three thousand."

"Honestly and impressive number for a city state to have." Judieth pointed out. "Normally it would be less, but I guess 'Prosperty' would have the money to hire so many extra fighting power."

"Really? Isn't the city one of, if not the largest city on the continent?" Inquired Lucilla. "Wouldn't it's size suggest a great deal of fighting force?"

"For a city state, sure. But they couldn't have more than a thousand soldiers on average. Then all that manpower is spread throughout the city to help maintain order. The city just doesn't have the leeway to use its own soldiers like that." Explained Judieth wearing her raven's mask.

"Hm, good to know." The Silver haired woman answered.

-- -- --

Despite seeing them ahead of time, the Lords army still had a distance to cover before they were capable of engaging. Not that the opposing force was going to get that close to begin with, instead they got as close as they could, but still outside of range from any attacks and started setting their encampment.

Lucilla debated on attacking them while they set up, but before she could come to a decision one a group of three men broke from the others and approached them. Riding on horseback they quickly made their way over to their location. The lead rider was a young man in his early twenties, he didn't appear to be wearing proper armor, but he was dressed in rather fine clothing, indicating he was probably someone with influence.

"Recognize him, Sara?" The monster woman asked.

Sara nodded her head in affirmation as she answered. "That's one of my brother's followers. I've seen him come in and out of his office completing task on his behalf."

"Stand behind me a little. If he works for your brother, he'll probably try something to get rid of you." Lucilla said. "I need you alive so we can talk with your father and hopefully end this stupid fight." She grumbled.

Just as the two of them finished their exchange the well-dressed man and the two solders on either side of him stopped directly in front of Lucilla. The man looked down at Lucilla as if he just seen something truly unpleasant. He then reached into his pouch, which caused Lucilla to grip the Handles of her swords, the blades of which were currently wrapped in cloth. He pulled out a rolled-up document and tossed it in her direction, landing on the ground in front of her.

"Pick it up you beast." He said with venom. "This is a document that my Lord has so graciously prepared for your surrender."

"... What?" She responded befuddled. She picked up the document and read through it. After she finished reading and looked back at the man, her frown had deepened significantly.

"You can't be serious. This basically say's you want the people here to be slaves...." She said, clear disbelief in her voice. "What ma-"

"What did it say?" A voice exclaimed behind her.

Turning around she saw a Dryad and other fay getting ready to cast some magic, but Lucilla simply raised her hand indicating for her to stop. Noticing this the Dryad glowered at the woman. Why should she stop? They came to pillage her home, and kill her friends, what would she like her to do? They were going to fight anyway.

"He's trying to goad you in attacking, don't fall it." Lucilla said when the Dryad didn't back down right away. "They want to cement the idea that they are justified in attacking you by showing how violent you are."

So far, the denizens of the forest have yet to harm a single person from 'Prosperty.' While the young dragons breathed fire to intimidate the citizens, they have yet to do anything that could be considered harm. It's to the point where most people now see them and just think of it as part of the scenery. To the point that despite the fact the Lord and his son keep calling the inhabitants of the forest dangerous, it wouldn't take much to convince them this whole thing is unjustified.

Of course, a large motivation for people to come here was for the money and learning that the Lord and his family is in the wrong won't stop them from attacking. Yet it'll still keep others from participating, so to quickly gain more loyalty Vadim sent over a 'Representative' to initiate peace talks. At least that's the story he told. In reality he planned to have his representative be attack by them as proof that the 'Creatures of the Forest' are dangerous and must be culled.

That's what Cristina and Judieth predicted at least. Lucilla figured they try and pull something, but didn't really know what. When she brought this up with everyone the other day, the Vampire and the Doctor came up with a number of theories, this being one of the more likely outcomes.

So, when the finely dressed man saw the Fay backdown, he frowned in dissatisfaction. "If you don't want peace just have to say so monster." He spat as a red colored Spell stone slipped into his hands. He made sure Lucilla noticed but kept what he was doing hidden from the force behind him, which wasn't hard since they were still a distance away. He then noticed Sara and smiled. despite the cloth mask covering her face, he was close enough to recognize the girl despite it. A smirk formed on his face as he charged Mana into the stone.

Lucilla noticed and saw the smirk appear on his face as he tossed the stone at Sara, who was still behind her. Without thinking Lucilla formed a quick Ice dagger and sent it flying into the Spell stone, causing it to fly back at the finely dressed man and his two guards, which then exploded in his face, knocking all three of them and their horses over. For half a minute the only sound that was heard was that of the panic horse as they whined and galloped away from the danger. The first to react was the guards of the man who quickly got up and started carrying the Representative with them.

Lucilla snapping out of her shock started casting another spell but changed course when the man dropped dark yellow colored Spell stones while being carried away. Large earthen walls rose into the air, pulling the earth around it to do it. Making a small waterless moat directly in front of the wall. Lucilla clicked her tongue in annoyance as she looked back to Cristina.

The Vampire pirate smiled as she approached the wall, once close she pulled her fist back, and with black flames coating her fist she punched the wall. A shockwave was sent out causing everyone to stumble as the earthen wall shattered in a rain of dust and rubble.

"Guess the fighting starts now."