Chapter 6: Chapter 5: Attack on the tribe

[White Fang Clan]

It has been nearly two weeks since Darganth hatched and subsequently flew away. While the work on the ship continued, the resuming of the beast attacks slowed it down due to the constant need for the warriors to be ready to fight. Elstan initial assessment of needing three more week to finish the ships construction quickly proved to be wishful thinking. At their current pace they would probably need nearly twice that and this does not factor in the possibility of encountering a beast that damages it or kills some of their tribesmen.

At the same time, he was happy that Darganth kept to his word and didn't attack them. While his initial threat already caused him quite a few sleepless nights, his worries grew further when they found the corps of one of his preys two days ago. After hatching, he had estimated Darganth around a meter in length but now the wounds indicate claws over twice as large. While he knew that dragons would grow quickly in the first few weeks, more than doubling in size was still quite a growth.

The greatest worry he still held concerning him was the question what kind of dragon Darganth is. While they knew of two species of dragons, both were known for their red scales. His proclamation of being a member of a high tier dragon species made this even more dangerous. While they are no longer living on this planet, he knows of legends talking about other dragon species. Among those there is one constant concerning different high tier dragons, which is the danger they pose.

Dragons are well known for many different traits, with both known species and the dragons now only seen in legends being known for a wide variety of personality traits, few of them positive. While some are less prone to violence due to small mishaps, the general picture of dragons is quite bad. This was further influenced by their reclusive nature, with most beings coming into contact with a dragon only if it attacks them.

This leads to a general fear of them as the most prominent personality traits are their greedy, wrathful, prideful and gluttonous nature. The only well known positive trait is their wisdom, something that did little to stop their destructive behavior, except in the presence of an even more powerful being. In addition this trait increases their danger, as deception or traps rarely work as intended.

Now one such dragon was hunting just a few kilometers away from them and killing peak first class beast with seemingly ease. Despite these worries, maybe even because of them, most of the tribe worked with high efficiency and there were few conflicts. Even while distributing the first pieces of meat in months few spoke out against giving the warriors priority.

This nearly idyllic atmosphere continued throughout these two weeks, until shortly before nightfall a group of the workers and their guards returned running. After receiving their report, Elstan quickly called for all ready warriors.

“One of the teams encountered a group of bears, ranging from early to peak first class, all with ice elemental attribute. While they managed to run due to the bears malnourished state and the forest reduced their speed, they are still no enemy's to take lightly.” He said, causing some unrest and murmurs from the gathered warriors.

“I want you to use our superior number of first and second order individuals, while we third order individuals hold the bears at the peak back. Afterward we take them down with our numbers. If we let them into the camp, everybody we know will be in danger. And never forget the advantage their ice offers them, so don't try to conserve energy, hit them hard and hit them fast. We don't want them to start affecting the battlefield with constructs or our chances will dwindle. Now get ready!”

At these words the warriors started running through the camp, searching for everything they can use to increase their chances. Every last piece of solid material was used to create a barricade intended to at least slow their charge down. Additionally they brought enough stones and other improvised projectiles to allow even those warriors who train in melee weapons to pelt the enemy from afar. While it would not be as effective per projectile as the beasts ice attacks, they had more of them.

Once they were all ready, they took up positions behind their makeshift fortifications. Some even used the tents at the camps edge for cover, especially archers who hoped to gain better firing positions with at least some cover. While this kind of tactic held the danger of loosing some of the tents and crates, as well as wood intended for the ship, it didn't matter in this moment. Even their last few carriages were used as part of the barricade, with no tribesmen hoping that they would need them again. The only ones to remain out in the open were the few third order individuals that survived the basilisks attack.

After ten minutes of waiting there were movements on the forests edge, increasing the tension among the tribe. While they build their camp right at the coast, the distance to the forest was still only a few hundred meters, a distance that these bears could cross in just a few short second. The ranged fighters all prepared their weapons and, those that could, infused them with aura. When the first bear broke through the forests edge, all but one of them still held fire as they knew the futility of trying to wound a beast equivalent to the third order as second or even just first order aura users. While the arrow of a second order aura user may be able to pierce the fur, it could only leave meaningful damage when aimed at the eyes, something that was impossible on a moving target from this distance even with their aura enhanced bodies and senses.

The one to fire was the only archer among the third order fighter and one of the few women in their group. But before it could hit, the arrow was intercepted by a shard of ice that formed in its path. Cursing to have failed one of the few chances she would get to reduce the number of third order enemies, she knocked another arrow, this time firing slightly above the bear. Not bothering to defend against a missed attack, the bear missed the elemental wind aura the arrow held, instead of the previous neutral aura, that lead to the arrow curving slihtly downwards and hitting him in the back. Roaring in pain, the bear started producing a thin layer of ice, akin to armor, on important parts of his body. During this second shot the rest of the bears also broke through the woods, charging towards the camp.

While they crossed they were met with arrows from the archers, a few of them even directly killing the enemy, when the arrow of a second order aura user hit a bear in the early stage. The rest of the four hundred warriors joined in by throwing their improvised projectiles, some even having made makeshift javelins. Due to the early and intermediate stage bears not being capable to use their ice in any quick and meaningful way, this lead to losses, while the peak stage bears blocked those projectiles with their ice.

Even those at the third order threw projectiles of all kinds, trying to force the peak first class enemy’s to focus on defending and decreasing the pressure on their tribesmen. Despite this, the enemy charged straight towards them.

This was partially due to most of the third order warriors lack of training with projectiles leading to some of them missing. Their intended target using this freedom to fire ice shards and similar projectiles towards their position. This lead to both sides taking casualties during the bears charge, but the cover and higher projectile count lead to the beastmen taking less losses, increasing the already present numerical advantage.

When the two sides collided, this advantage quickly turned, as the bears greater mass allowed them to charge through the initial defenders. While they reduced the enemy momentum, these warriors received life threatening wounds in return or died outright. Now that the close quarters combat had begun, the third order tribesmen rushed towards the peak first class bears to tie them down from creating ice shards and blades. The archer stayed behind and another third order warrior used the fact that they had two more third order aura users than there were bears at he peak first class, to create as much chaos among the enemy lines, while regularly attacking one of the peak first class bears to force them to split their focus.

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While the fighting was intense, the bears were visibly malnourished and acted sluggish. This lead to the tribe gaining the upper hand once more, despite the beasts much more powerful body. But this still came at a high price, with every bear taken down managing to take two beasmen with it. While it was quite favorable, as the initial force consisted of over four hundred beastmen, they were fighting against around a hundred enemy's. If their fighting force is halved, they are going to be delayed even more.

This fighting continued for about twenty minutes, when the bears started to loose their hope. After their encounter with Darganth, they had fled every time they saw him flying overhead. This combined with his large scale hunting, left them with only few sources of food. When they found the beastmen, they hoped for a large feast to stop their numbers from dwindling even further. But now they had lost nearly half of the remaining early and advanced stage members.

While the peak stage bears still held, one of them was already dead. Despite this, the situation for the tribesmen was not much better, with two third orders dead and one wounded. But the attackers had another problem that slowly became more prominent. With each loss among them, the amount of enemy's they killed before loosing one of their own shrank. Each one of them had to fight against more and more enemies, quickening their demise.

By now the first few bears were hesitating to attack, clearly thinking about running away. The only thing still keeping them in the battle was the thought that the chances for survival were higher than otherwise.

This continued for a few more minutes, with the casualties among the tribe reaching over one hundred. Simultaneously the number of bears was also reduced to just over twenty. Starting to feel the pressure that being attacked on all sides resulted in, the first of the peak stage bears grew desperate.

Ignoring their opponents, some of them started blindly running deeper into the camp. While this was a futile effort for most of them, one was able to break free from the defenders around him. Looking in fear after the bear that directly made its way towards their families, the warriors wanted to run after it until they saw its previous opponents already doing so. Quickly turning back to their own battles, they hoped for the best.

The bear meanwhile was getting more and more distance from his pursuers. In its mind it had already won, having helpless prey just ahead. The only ones who could stop this would be its pursuers, but the distance between them was already too large. Despite this he felt nervous for some reason.

Making his way deeper into the camp, a familiar feeling was added to this. Not being able to directly find what it is, the bear ignored it. Making his way past tent after tent, trying to find the smell of just one beastmen, he suddenly stopped.

While slightly bewildered, the pursuers didn't want to miss this chance and continued closing the distance. When they were barely thirty meters away, the bear suddenly started to shake in terror, before turning around to flee. Surprised by this the group failed to react, allowing him to pass them and escape towards the battle.

Unbeknownst to them, the bear had felt the remainder of Darganths dragons fear. While it was barely noticeable by now, remaining only due to the long exposure time, the container they had used to ease the transportation still contained its traces. His fear from Darganth was the only thing that made the bear react at all, much to the tribes luck.

Not stopping his panicked run, the bear soon reached the battlefield. Not caring for any attacks headed his way, he just continued onwards until he passed by it. Much to the tribes surprise, the bear didn't attack any of them and simply fled in terror into the forest.

This panicked retreat was the breaking point for the rest. Seeing one of their own run in fear allowed this fear to spread. Not even knowing what he runs from, those furthest from the tribe started turning and fleeing.

This only served to further the panic, making the new last row flee like those before them. Soon this turned into a full rout, with the tribe watching in delight as more and more of their opponents fled. While the peak stage bears remained, indifferent to whatever instilled such terror in their kin, they soon stood alone.

Taking advantage of this, the tribe focused their entire power on the remaining peak stage beasts, hoping to thin their numbers to prevent further attacks. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, they soon turned to flee just like the rest did before them. But in contrast to the previous ones, they weren’t given an easy retreat, having every remaining projectile shot and thrown after them in the hopes of taking down just one more of them.

When they reached the cover that the forest provided them, they were down to just seventeen, with six of them being at the peak stage. Not knowing what to do next, they started wandering around the forest, hoping to find food before they collapsed.

The tribesmen meanwhile were starting to feel the exhaustion. All but a few started walking away from the battlefield, returning to their families and giving them the good news of their survival. The few that remained let their gaze wander over the dead, grieving for them.

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