Page 232 of The War God’s Favorite

The War God had enough. After a few more minutes, he angrily walked back to the main building, yelling for the generals to gather. All men assembled in less than a minute.

“We are attacking the next City in two days at dawn,” he said. “Warn all the men we are taking no prisoners.”

No one dared to protest or even raise a single concern. Two days would be plenty enough for the men to rest, and the next City could be reached in two hours by foot. One would have been crazy to object to the War God when he had this murderous glare on. He was merciless with his enemies, but his men knew Kairen could be as deadly with anyone who disrespected him, too.

Hence, just as the War God had ordered, the Army arrived at the next City exactly before dawn, two days later. Just like the Black Dragon flying above them, the soldiers were actually quite excited. This was the last battle,and victory after victory, they had gotten to the last City needing to be freed. Even if this one would be just as heavily consolidated, the mere thought of ending this war soon was enough to energize the troops. Just like Kairen, many of these men had families or lovers they were all dying to return to.

As Kairen stood forward, lines and lines of soldiers behind him, an Eastern soldier, probably some general, appeared on top of one of the City’s walls.

“Imperial Army! You have fought brilliantly until now, but we won’t let you win this City! Our great Eastern Republic won’t submit to some barbarian country who...”

“Shut the fuck up.”

The man stopped talking, shocked by the War God’s words. Kairen hadn’t yelled, but his voice was powerful enough to be heard all around. Some men snickered behind him, making fun of the poor soldier.

“We... We are not going to s-step down in front of the tyranny, and...”

“I said, shut the fuck up.”

Some of the men behind Kairen laughed at the man’s baffled expression, but the War God wasn’t laughing. Instead, his glare was absolutely terrifying. The poor spokesperson tried to stutter something, but it came more as some pitiful squeak than any word. It was indeed hard to dare open his mouth when being glared at by the most terrifying black eyes in the world. The most spine-chilling beast wasn’t in the sky.

“W... We... d... don’t...”

Kairen quietly took out his sword, and in a silent deadly movement, sent it flying. The distance should have been hard to conquer, even for an arrow. However, the blade went right into that man’s head, perfectly in the middle. He fell backward and out of sight.

The large door stood in front of them, surely barricaded, but this was the twelfth door they were facing in those few weeks. The soldiers knew exactly what to expect. Kairen glanced up, waiting. The dragon kept circling lazily until the War God clicked his tongue.

“The sooner we’re done, the sooner we go back,” he muttered, still glaring at his dragon.

Just then, Krai finally flew down, apparently headed right into the door, but a few meters before, finally spit its fire. The door melted in seconds against the pressure of the heat. Even the men started sweating under their armors, but they watched the door disappear and got ready to fight.

“All men, ready!” yelled the Generals in unison.

Kairen took out his second sword, and with one swing of his hand, all the soldiers started moving at the exact same moment. The Imperial Army was perfectly trained to do what they had to. The Generals alone were enough to guide the men, while Kairen marched in front. Anyone who got in his way wearing the wrong armor was killed instantly. Many men tried to fight him, as it would be the ultimate honor to be able to kill the Dragon Empire’s War God, but they were greeted with death instead.

He was like a machine. He didn’t stop, didn’t flinch, and kept going with nothing to stop him. Krai, too, was flying over the City, looking for any spot where it could attack and bite a few enemies. The dragon was only too happy to have an opportunity to end this war as soon as possible. It even wandered off to chase some men who were trying to flee the City, as the beast had no pity for deserters.

On the ground, Kairen was leading his men silently. They were barging into a building, making sure the inhabitants were safe and the enemy was killed and moved on to the next one. It was harder to progress because the Eastern Army had no remorse in taking hostages. Somehow, they had to find a way around any situation, but after twelve cities of the same scenario, all of his men were trained to act accordingly.

The War God didn’t even have to yell any orders, the Imperial Army was the best in the Empire. Instead, Kairen focused on the larger buildings, or the houses where many hostages could be held. One was particularly barricaded, and he kicked the doors open. Something felt strange inside that place.

It was... too silent. No one had progressed that far into the City yet, but he was almost surprised no one had raided such a big mansion. Was this a possible trap? That thought wasn’t worrying him one bit. He had faced countless traps and rendered all of them useless. His enemies were smart, but his strength and stamina were hard to overcome. Not only that, but his Dragon Blood made his enemy cry in frustration, for any injury that they barely managed to inflict onto him was absolutely useless.

However, his instincts were telling him something was wrong with this place. The large rooms would have been perfect to store men or weapons, but it seemed empty. The ceiling was strangely high, too, as if one of the floors had been taken out. From the outside, the roof seemed robust, so why...?

The answer came a couple of rooms further in. Kairen’s instincts warned him first, and he placed his sword in front of him. Another trap, surely. When he kicked another door open, however. There was quite a surprise behind it.

Two young dragons, facing him with their yellow angry eyes. The two beasts stood still, but they were not restrained in any way. Kairen frowned. The Eastern Army shouldn’t have any dragons. Those two were unknown, he had never seen those before. They were young, obviously not adults. He swung his sword around. Finally an interesting battle.

There was no record of a man able to single-handedly kill a dragon. Let alone two dragons. The War God had a smirk on. They had really worked hard at trying to kill him.

One of the dragons suddenly growled, and they both jumped on him. The room was big but just enough for those two to attack. No adult dragon would be able to sneak in there, but those dragons were the size of three or four adult men, not even half of Krai’s size. They really had prepared the perfect trap.

Kairen barely dodged one of their claws, and the other dragon furiously growled, jumping next. The War God didn’t have time to think. He raised his sword and, at the right moment, stabbed one of their flanks, making the dragon screech in pain. However, right next to him, the other jumped, and tore Kairen’s armor off his chest in a loud metallic bang. The pieces of metal fell, with holes from its claws in it. The War God frowned.

He jumped to get on one of the dragon’s backs, using it as a stepping stone, and attacked the other, aiming for its jaw this time. He barely missed it, but his sword still opened a large cut on the beast’s neck. Both dragons were now injured and furious, and they attacked back. The War God felt a sharp pain, and saw his blood flowing from the injury. He glanced down. How long had it been since he had seen the color of his own blood? The injury was large, and strangely, at that moment he was reminded of Cassandra. Something about the pain, maybe. He looked up, and both dragons got ready to jump again.

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