Chapter 5 He's Going to Be the Death of Us

Lyra's POV.

She was seven when she learnt the most fundamental rule of life on the crownlands; it's every girl for herself.

The memory of her mother leaving her on a broken wagon in the middle of the forest, remains properly stored in her mind. A reminder for whenever she foolishly considers trusting people again, beastman or not.

"Pay attention, mutts"

The Captain of their unit, Marcus, an ascendant with an ego the size of a mountain.

"The band must've reached Greyholm by now. The commander wants it neutralized and needs us to find out how they got past us in the first place. If we fail, it's going to be your heads"

'Of course it was'

They've spent days tracking this band of monsters, so far all they know is it's likely an army of goblins with some hobgoblins from the tracks they've found but the one that troubles them is the single large one amongst them. 

'It's going to be either a troll or an ogre'

But the captain insisted on it being just a very fat hobgoblin and when she pointed out the unlikelihood of that and suggested they requested reinforcements, she got a slap for it.

Lesson learnt.

Their unit consisted of one ascendant, nine whispers and five beastmen including herself. Hardly enough to take on over a hundred goblins, hobs and a troll.

But Captain Marcus like a lot of the other humans she's seen on the wall are all after chances for achievements.

He practically volunteered for this mission and no doubt chose few men to assist him so the feat would make him look more impressive.

The moment they got an estimate of the band's size they should've requested appropriate reinforcements to deal with the threat, which no doubt would've involved another ascendant and Marcus would have to share the glory.

'He's going to be the death of us'

The Captain's plan was stupidly simple; each village had a garrison of at least twelve whispers and the most recent reports from Greyholm indicated they had an ascendant for a Chief which was already rare plus a hunting party that had some whispers.

Their unit was just a few hours behind the band and Marcus estimated the village could easily hold off the monsters long enough for him to swoop in and claim the credit for everything.

He no doubt couldn't believe such an opportunity fell on his lap.

"Hurry it up," he ordered.

Their horses rushed down the only road leading in and out of Greyholm, the humans at least.

The Captain decided beastmen didn't need horses so he had Lyra and the others run beside them, easily keeping pace with the steeds

By now they already saw signs of combat and bodies of goblins, even a hob or two.

"Damn it, they've probably already dealt with the band. Faster!" 

The beastmen arrived first, taking in the horrific scene as they entered the village. Bodies littered the snow in various shades of death, crushed, split in half, riddled with cuts, half eaten and guts spilled on the snow and even the buildings.

One of the beastmen sighed.

"Goblins were always a messy lot"

Lyra felt like vomiting at the sight of the mangled corpse but she couldn't afford to show any sort of weakness even amongst beastmen.

"Runt" 

At the mention of that word, Lyra turned to the alpha of their little pack of five, Gerad - a tiger beastman.

Runt typically meant the weakest link but that's not all it meant to beastmen. It was a word they used to address half-bloods.

"Take the roofs and tell us what we're dealing with. I smell goblins but there's something else here."

Lyra didn't argue, despite knowing this action would likely get her spotted by the monsters.

She was all too used to such orders by now.

Half-bloods are typically physically weaker than full blooded beastmen but one would think a mix with humans might grant the offspring the ability to use magic but no, all it does is weaken them.

She was expendable.

Lyra reached the top of the roof, looked ahead to the village square and kept her body as low as possible. What she saw sent a chill down her spine.

"It's a troll and it's trapped the remaining villagers in the square. And there's a lot more goblins than we thought." 

"Shit. What's it doing?"

The troll as she saw was behaving oddly. Trolls couldn't speak but its mouth was moving and its attention focused on a kneeling chained up boy with bizarre geometric tattoos lining his arms.

Another weird thing was the human kicking the boy with enough force that immediately told her the man was an ascendant.

'But why is he attacking the boy and not the troll?'

The boy on the other hand seemed to be the weirdest one amongst them. He was smiling.

The other beastmen kept quiet with a somber expression as they waited for orders. Lyra understood why, with a troll here, they'll probably not leave this place alive but the troll wouldn't be why.

Gerad opened his mouth to speak but….

BOOM!

The shockwave shattered nearby buildings and almost sent Lyra flying off the roof.

"What was that?" Gerad roared.

Lyra pushed past the pain in her bones from the shockwave and took position once again.

"That would be Marcus." 

"That impatient fool!"

At that moment the remaining nine riders entered the village, headed for the square to aid their captain and not give the beastmen a second glance.

"He's engaged the troll and I think he's about to….Argh!!"

An indescribable pain shot up her ears, practically piercing her brain.

"That bastard, we've told him not to use that so close to us."

The pain from the sound made by an enchanted tool the imperial army called a beast beacon—a whistle that released a sound only beastmen could hear but with the sound came immense pain. 

Lyra heard it was created by a dwarf with a particular dislike for beastmen outside the usual and it being an enchanted tool, it only worked when infused with lumen and with lumen quality differing with each tier so did the pain.

In the past it was used to hunt beastmen but since the beastmen joined the empire, its use has largely been frowned upon but that hasn't stopped some humans from using it to discipline beastmen in their units.

Lyra let out a low growl.

Once the pain subsided the other beastmen started moving towards the square and Lyra slowly followed them from above.

Marcus clearly used the tool to both call them and punish them. He no doubt rushed in thinking the battle was almost over.

Well he wasn't entirely wrong, the battle was over but what he didn't expect to see was the troll.

Lyra observed the fight as she drew closer to the square.

Marcus had blown a hole through the troll's arm with that entrance and it looked pretty ticked off. It quickly regenerated and sealed off the wound like it was never there before swinging his enormous axe at the young captain.

He barely dodged it, much to not only his surprise but Lyra's as well. 

The Troll was a class 4 monster and famously slow too. Marcus was a pretty powerful ascendant in Lyra's opinion but he barely dodged that attack.

Lyra watched as the other ascendant joined the battle as the nine riders arrived there as well cutting a path through the band of goblins.

'Where's the boy?'

Mere seconds later, Lyra herself was set upon by goblins on the roof.

She doesn't stop moving, one thing she knows about fighting while outnumbered, especially goblins is never stop for anything.

The first ones lunged at her from the roof ahead and with a single stroke of her daggers, she took

their heads off.

The troll roared in the background, followed by more shockwaves and Lyra cursed the day she was forced to join the empire.