Chapter 61: Real Enemies
In the middle of the night Astri was taken outside the United Tribe walls with Nature to discover a big army of Monsters lurking and preparing to attack Tyr’s army.
"Be careful. There are two leaders, one is a lizard with ten marks and a bear with twelve marks." Astri says.
Tell my guards to focus on finishing the leaders with Cyprian since they’re too strong. And the others can focus on the rest." Claud tells them.
They nod. Astri hugs and kisses her spouses, worried as always, but she needs to trust they will be fine.
"Be careful too, King Tyr. They’re aiming to kill you especially." Astri says.
"I can’t leave my beastmen on their own." Tyr speaks.
"I know, but don’t let them kill you and get what they want, that is to destroy all of us. Be careful, Shung."
He nods and leaves with the others. Astri sighs and asks Nature to keep them safe and sound.
Lee, Wayde and Shung lead the tribes’ beastmen and Cyprian leads Claud’s guards to find the Monsters’ leaders.
Right when Tyr arrived and told what was going to happen, the Monsters attacked them from the back.
Tyr sees a river of Monsters attacking them, killing the beastmen they could get in their surprise attack.
From that wave of Monsters he imagines that there are around 300 Monsters. It would be too hard for his army to defeat all those Monsters.
Tyr shifts into his big lion form and roars to get the attention of his army to the danger.
He gets relieved when he sees aid arriving from the United Tribe, because they would be mostly killed on their own.
Wayde kills on sight, decided to not let those Monsters enter those walls. Many monsters attack him knowing he’s a leader and is stronger than others.
However, Wayde has many beastmen to aid him and from the United Tribe, and soon Lee descends from the sky with his arm of feathered beastmen.
Hawks, owls, crows and eagles fly and attack with their sharp claws.
Lee’s massive eagle form can hold two monsters and with his strong beak break their heads. He throws their corpses on other Monsters to slow them and open space to be attacked.
The battle is bloody, Cyprian can take many Monsters down with fire, but when he finds the leaders he roars calling for Claud’s guards.
"Don’t kill them yet." Claud says in Cyprian’s mind, and his guards too.
They attack the bear and lizard, even having more than ten marks, the Monsters didn’t have a chance against Cyprian and Claud’s guards because all of them also have more than ten marks.
Cyprian slashes the bear with his dragon claws, keeping him down until Claud says the word.
"Why are you here, monster?" Cyprian wanted to ask, he wanted to make sure they don’t know about Astri yet.
The bear growls trying to get free, even severely slashed and with an arm almost ripped from his body, he doesn’t answer.
It was imagined he would never say the reason. Monsters don’t fear death or any kind of torture, but Cyprian is worried and wants to know.
"You can kill him. They don’t know. They only know that there’s a pure energy here, but don’t know it is her. Their main plan was putting Great Wall City against us and also making both cities weaker after killing Tyr." Claud says to Cyprian and his guards.
Cyprian gives a relieved sigh, then removes the bear’s head with a hit of his claws. The lizard was also killed instantly.
When both leaders are killed Cyprian announces their deaths with a proud roar, and instantly confident roars from the United Tribe and Tyr’s army answer loudly.
With the Monsters’ leaders dead, they attack with no planning, so they’re even easier to defeat.
It was a long battle, but the Monsters were all defeated. Cyprian, Lee and Wayde made sure no Monster were left to spread the word.
—---
Astri was pacing in the castle, worried. Everything they could hear was beastmen and Monsters roaring and screeching.
However, she can only feel more at ease because she’s not feeling any of her spousal marks burning and they heard Cyprian’s announcement.
"The Monsters leaders are dead." Galion says.
"Don’t worry, love. They’re strong and even if there are a lot of Monsters, we have two armies." Zin coils his tail around her and brings her to him.
She hugs him and relaxes more. Kai and Elias rub their heads on Astri, noticing she was worried. She smiles at them and hugs their heads.
"Thank you, my good boys. Everything is fine." She affirms.
Now Yuki is with Claud, she was playing with his clothes, then trying to eat his chin, calling his attention to play with her. Now that Astri is more relaxed, he can smile to Yuki and play with her.
—--
Lee and Shung coordinated things to pile the Monsters outside of the walls and burn them. Inside of the walls there was no lost or wounded and that proved to them how great their walls were.
King Tyr had a deep wound on his chest, but he looked fine. He was worried about his beastmen.
"Come inside the wooden walls, we will bring our doctors to treat all wounded. Bring your beastmen to be treated." Lee says to Tyr.
"I appreciate it. Thank you." Tyr speaks.
With other little tribes uniting the United Tribe, there were more doctors and all of them came to treat the wounded.
Being leaders, Tyr, Wayde, Lee and Cyprian don’t accept the treatment first. They prioritize their beastmen.
And Wayde, Lee and Cyprian know they have the most beautiful doctor to take care of them at home.
Tyr can see that the tribesmen are loyal and they see their leaders with pride and respect. He knows that his beastmen respect him, but he feels they are not as proud and happy.
He wonders if it’s because of this new way of living. Before, he thought that he was coming there to face enemies who wanted to dethrone him, but now he can see he has a lot to learn from them.
—--
It was already the middle of the day when Lee, Wayde, Cyprian and Tyr came back to the castle.
Astri was in the front waiting for them, she runs to them when she finally sees them and hugs her spouses tightly.
"I was so worried! Send a messenger to tell me you’re fine!!" She says, kissing them and then checking if they’re wounded.
They smile at her cute protective but also a little demanding way to talk to them.
"I’m sorry." They say in unison.
"Come. Let’s treat your wounds. We prepared your bath." She says and urges them to keep walking.
She looks at Tyr.
"You too, King Tyr. Let’s treat your wounds." She says.
He nods and follows them. They’re brought to the backyard and there were four filled bathtubs with herbs inside.
Of course Tyr never saw a bathtub, it’s something that only existed there. He watched Wayde, Cyprian and Lee getting inside after removing their clothes and soaking in, giving relaxed sighs.
"Ah... I love you, Astri. This is perfect." Lee says.
"Oh it is.." Cyprian and Wayde say relaxed.
Tyr does the same and he gets shocked with the arm water around his body, smelling the herbs, and relaxing his muscles.
"What is this thing? This is amazing. I need to make this for myself." Tyr asks.
"A bathtub. Best thing ever created by our mate." Cyprian answers.
"She made this? -
"Not exactly her. She had the idea and we built it. We love the bathtub now that we got used to bathing everyday. Before, what I loved the most was the kitchen supplies. It’s hard not putting that as the best when we eat delicious food everyday." Wayde says.
"It’s true." Lee and Cyprian agree in unison.
All of them gained more weight and muscles after they started living with Astri. Cyprian was more visible because when they met him he was skin and bones.
Tyr is deep in thought, wondering who Astri is. She made the Higher Priest leave his temple and gather all his guards.
The Higher Priest said she’s more important than himself, not only because she is his spouse. They created a city that is clean, prosperous, with laws no other has.
She created objects, food and a lifestyle he never saw. And, she has powers and could foresee the Monsters attack, preventing so much death.
Now his attention was on her entirely.