FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Evrame's return to his camp would have been met with great enthusiasm even under normal circumstances. As it was, his returning to camp an extra few feet taller was the cause of a great commotion. It took a great deal of effort to quiet everyone down since they were supposed to be trying to keep their exact position within the forest a secret. Many in the camp did not know what to think of the situation. A sudden change like what had happened to their prince could be taken as either a good sign or an ominous one. Prince Evrame was fully aware of that fact and he tried to put on an air of confidence to reassure his troops.

The lion prince actually did not find it that hard to do so. He was feeling oddly confident even though he knew he was going to be engaging in a battle that he was likely to lose under normal circumstances. Things were not all that normal though. Unless he was being deceived in some sort of elaborate scheme he had come into a good deal of power he had not had just a few short hours ago. There were things racing through his mind that had not been there before and he just hoped that he was not under the influence of an enemy spell. Evrame could not see into the future, but he did think that he actually stood a chance of winning in the upcoming battle with the power he possessed.

What Evrame felt he needed to do was prepare, and not just normal preparations. He knew exactly where he needed to be for the best results to his upcoming battle. He had to move his forces immediately if he wanted them in place on time. Moving 10,000 people is no easy task even when they are a well trained army. There was a bit of grumbling about the sudden move, but it was not the first time they had been forced to do such a thing since joining up with Evrame. He was pleased to see that everyone was still willing to listen to him despite his changes. There were a few people that made signs to ward off evil whenever he passed by, but that was to be expected. Magic tended to make people nervous and Evrame knew that if those people did not have a great deal of faith in him they would have snuck off in the night and never returned.

It was not a long move, but he thought everybody was at least a little surprised by how big a difference the move made. They had only marched a few miles to the northwest, but the hilly terrain that they entered looked like it would work to their favor. The enemy was unaware of Evrame's move and they were able to take control of everything they wanted in the area and they were able to do so unobserved. Evrame's forces were going to be able to see their approach, but they would not be able to see where all of Evrame's forces were placed, especially since the Third Legion was currently lacking in aerial units at the moment.

His order to start digging in and to prepare for battle was meet with even more muttering than his order to get them to all get up and move in the middle of the night. They had all been expecting to keep moving in order to survive, but what Evrame was now ordering was for everyone to prepare for a battle they thought they could not win against the Third Legion. He knew they had to do this though. One way or another they were going to have to confront one of the legions eventually. If they could win one decisive battle against just one of them they would finally have a little bit of breathing room. Evrame's forces needed a break from all the running to recuperate and they needed a major victory to restore their spirits. They needed to think that they could actually win against Evrame's brothers.

They had most of the next day to rest. The Third Legion had to move carefully to avoid any ambushes that Evrame set up and their numbers also limited their speed a bit. Evrame spent a good portion of the day going around and reassuring his men, but he had yet to explain that he had supposedly become a god. He thought that would have made him seem insane. But, he did manage to have an effect on his little army. What had started out in fear among some of his forces started to turn into awe as he talked to everyone. Evrame noticed that the reverence for him seemed to have increased along with his size and he made sure to take note of that. He also took note of the fact that he seemed to grow a little bit as the day wore on and the amount of faith the troops had in him also grew.

Then it was finally time to consult with his commanders. "My prince, do you honestly expect to be able to take on the Third Legion? Our forces a well trained and you are an excellent strategist, but they outnumber us five to one and they are well trained themselves. I can't imagine us not taking significant loses even if we do win," said Zebrixas, the commander of the Emperor's Own. He was a panther that had spent most of his life in service to the empire and was just beginning to show signs of his age when he had fought his way out of Alancia with Evrame. After all they had been through the panther looked even older in the eyes Evrame, but no less noble and strong.

"I know what I am doing must seem strange to you my old friend, but I am certain that we can win with few casualties on our side," Evrame responded.

Some of the others shifted around in their seats around the strategy table, but Zebrixas was the only one willing to question Evrame, "I wish that I could have your confidence, but this battle worries me."

Truthfully, it worried Evrame too. He was still uncertain about whether he was under some sort of malevolent spell and the upcoming battle was going to prove whether or not that was true. Evrame could not voice his doubts to his commanders though. He needed them to be confident in him. "Trust me Zebrixas, I know what I am doing and we will have a great victory tomorrow," Evrame said and rested a reassuring hand on a shoulder of the panther that had seemed so much broader to him when he was child. Now it was the panther that seemed a bit more child like in stature compared to the oversized prince, but Evrame could never think of the panther in that way.

"I've always trusted you my lord," Zebrixas said. Evrame knew that to be true. If the panther had not trusted him then he would have never helped Evrame escape from Marame and Talame. After Evrame was sure that everyone was with him he went about setting up the line of battle for the next day and ordered everyone to get some rest as the sun started to set. It was around that time that the Third Legion finally came into view, but it was doubtful that either side would be attacking that night. Even with so many nocturnal species around engaging in night battles could still be very inconvenient. It did mean that everybody was going to getting up at the first signs of daylight tomorrow and everyone was expecting a long day.

Evrame found that he was not that tired. It appeared that being a god had also granted him with a bit more endurance than his former mortal self. He found something to do during the night. There were a number of scouting parties that were sent forth by the Third Legion to investigate the positions of his forces and Evrame knew where all of them were. He was sure that the commander of the Third Legion was cursing his luck when none of those scouts returned that night. Evrame also started to understand how dangerous a god could be on a battlefield since he personally hunted down every scouting party himself without any assistance. Groups of two or three scouts were of no danger to him and the element of surprise was always on his side. Evrame hoped that no one in the Third Legion had been visited by that Sarbon character or things would get very rough for him.

When the morning finally came everyone was feeling nervous as the battle lines were formed. The sunlight glittered off the armor of the soldiers on both sides and stood in stark contrast to the grassy fields that covered the hills. As was expected, it was the Third Legion that made the first move that day. They obviously hoped to crush Evrame's forces, but they were still being cautious and they were on the lookout for traps. Evrame was mostly staying behind the lines for the initial prodding attack that was launched against his troops. That was mostly because he wanted to be in a good position to give his messengers some very specific orders.

While Evrame could not see into the future, he could see things in the present very well. All the knowledge in the world was not available to him, but the knowledge of the enemies plans were. Just as soon as they came up with something Evrame knew about it as well. He knew exactly where he needed to push to make advances of his own, but the enemy was unaware of his own plans. It was a huge advantage that Evrame planned to exploit to its fullest. The initial assault against Evrame was a complete disaster for the enemy. He already had forces in place to surround the limited numbers of enemy soldiers sent against him and he was able to send word to the appropriate commanders about the greatest weaknesses in their lines. The enemy was taken completely off guard by just how quickly their own defenses collapsed. They tried to recover, but they could not do so fast enough. The end result was the complete annihilation of those soldiers while Evrame's own soldiers had only suffered a couple of fatalities.

A great cheer went up from Evrame's men while there was a barely perceptible ripple of unease among the lines of the bulk of the Third Legion. It was not a good way to start out the day for them. And things continued to get worse too. Whenever the commander of the Third Legion sent out messengers to his own army they were either intercepted by Evrame's men or barely made it before they could be killed. Signal flags worked no better since it appeared to the enemy that Evrame's forces knew the meaning of all their signals just as well as they did. The way Evrame's men seemed to know which messengers were headed to which commanders at all times had a very disconcerting effect among the leadership of the Third Legion and their fear began to leak down to their men. It also did not help the Third Legion that whenever the messengers did get through Evrame seemed to know exactly what orders had been given and he knew how to counter them.

Time after time parts of the Third Legion would find themselves isolated and destroyed. It was a slow process, but it appeared that Evrame's forces really were winning. Evrame could feel the faith that his troops had in him increase as the day went on. Power felt like it was flowing into him and it was causing gradual growth as it did so. The method for a god to gain power had not been a part of the knowledge that came with being the god of knowledge and virtue. It was a good thing to learn that he did not need to perform some sort of ritual sacrifices to obtain power and that power could be freely given to him. Evrame had no problem with earning the power he received in such a fashion.

He still had to survive the day in order to gain more power though. Even if the momentum of battle was against the Third Legion at the time they were not about to give up. The commander of their forces decided to drop most of his fancier tricks and massed his forces for one big assault against Evrame's forces. Evrame had been anticipating that course of action for a while. It had come as a pleasant surprise that the commander of the Third Legion was a little bit stubborn and had hung on to his strategies for so long. That had allowed Evrame to whittle down his forces even more than expected. Now, instead of being outnumbered almost five to one he was only looking at three to one odds. To many those odds would have still seemed very bad, but Evrame was confident in his ability to handle the situation.

While the enemy was massing up Evrame was giving orders to his own troops. He positioned them where they needed to be positioned and gave very specific orders about where everyone was supposed to attack. Then Evrame headed off for the frontlines of battle himself. It felt like it was time for him to make a personal appearance on the battlefield. That appearance came as quite the shock to an already disheartened enemy. Evrame was wearing his most impressive armor and he had decided to wear a bright red cloak that he normally removed before battles. He was trying to look as impressive as possible. The one they were supposed to kill was right before their eyes, but he towered over the men that made up the Third Legion. Two tall men standing on top of one another would have barely come up to his chest. He was dual wielding a pair of claymores as if they were short swords and they still looked undersized in his grip. Evrame secretly wished for one larger sword, but he was willing to work with what was available.

The sight of the giant prince was a bit of a distraction to the Third Legion. Having to move so rabidly to keep up with Evrame's forces had prevented them from bringing much heavy artillery along with them and what they had brought was destroyed early on in various different surprise attacks from small groups of Evrame's forces. Since Evrame was still armored everywhere except for his head, tail, and paws there was not much archers could do against him either. When they did try to shoot at his head he would either dodge or sweep the arrows out of the air with his own swords. The members of the Third Legion along the line where Evrame was advancing on were not looking forward to having to stop his advance, but they were going to give it there best effort to do so. Evrame had to admire their bravery and he was saddened that his brothers had forced a situation like this to happen. It was never a pleasure to have to kill his own countrymen.

Even though Evrame was a truly destructive creature all on his own, he was not the biggest threat on the battlefield. The lion prince had his forces carefully picking apart the defenses of his enemies while he decimated what should have been the strongest part of their lines. When Evrame knew what moves they were going to make at the same time they did there was no defense they could put up against him, especially not with his size advantage. Even if they could manage to dodge his swords there was a kick powerful enough to crumple armor waiting for them. The only problem Evrame had to worry about was not getting too far ahead of his own men.

It was easy to see that many of the members of the Third Legion were losing hope. If not for their training they would have dropped their weapons and fled. Their fear was affecting how well they were wagging their battle while Evrame's forces could taste victory. A bit of careful maneuvering on the part of Evrame's soldiers left the Third Legion surrounded and their defenses were falling apart. They realized the danger that they were in and tried to arrange a break out in order to retreat. But, Evrame was once again able to foil the plans of his opponents by making sure he was there to cut off his opponents' route of escape.

That was the most dangerous point in the battle for Evrame. Encircling an army that outnumbers your own is always a dangerous thing to do and the soldiers trying to get out of the encirclement knew the key to doing it was killing Evrame. He was heavily armored, but his armor had its weaknesses. The Third Legion had the numbers to exploit those weaknesses too. Evrame was saved more than once by his own soldiers. It appeared that even gods could use help and that would be a lesson that Evrame would never forget. Evrame took a few minor wounds during his fight, but after a certain point the conclusion of the battle was pretty obvious. Evrame had won and the Third Legion was going to be crushed. They did not surrender though. Under the leadership of Marame and Talame surrender was not an option. They had proven that early in their reign when they had an entire legion imprisoned or executed for surrendering in battle to the desert nomads in the northwest. It had been something that drove a number of troops to Evrame, but afterwards the nomads had been quickly conquered and things somewhat settled down within the military.

That made Evrame's task very difficult. He knew that the Third Legion would not accept an offer to join him. The survivors knew that if they could not be punished then their families would be punished in their place. This fight to the end was a necessary thing for all of them. Even though the end result of the battle was no longer in question it still took a long time to butcher an entire legion. But, in the end it was a great victory for Evrame's forces. It had cost him less than 500 of his men to achieve the victory and Evrame thought his men deserved to celebrate.

Evrame wished that he could have obtained more ale for his soldiers, but the lives of people on the run were not that convenient. What could be scavenged from the Third Legions supplies helped to make for a better meal than usual. Evrame could see that his men were overjoyed to have won such a lopsided victory, but they were all still very much aware that they needed to conserve their supplies. He did not take a very active role in the conversation himself. Despite taking a few injuries during the battle he had come out of the battle better than when he went into it. He felt stronger than before, but he had new worries.

Evrame's knowledge had grown and he knew things he had not known before the battle. The worst thing was that he sensed his brothers had also become gods and that they were much more powerful than he was. They were able to draw on the strength of an entire nation while Evrame only had the men that were with him and a few of the villagers that he had saved who believed in him. Evrame had a long way to go before he would be able to take his brothers on. There was something else to be worried about as well. Other gods were active within the Nolveran Empire. They were not nearly as powerful as his brothers, but Evrame felt the need to handle them one way or another before they could get to be out of control. It would also be a good way for him to gain his own power before taking on his brothers. Evrame was not powerful enough to know the minds of the other gods like he could mortal men, but he could at least tell where they were. He also felt something telling him that he would have to handle these other gods without his army. That was why he knew his men would not like what he had to say.

Evrame waited until the celebrations were dieing down before he called out, "My loyal companions, we have won a great victory today and I thank you for all the help you have given me to lead up to it." Evrame waited for the cheering to subside before he continued. "But, there is something I must do on my own. I will need all of you to disperse for now, go into hiding until I send word to you and I will know where you are and how to reach you. There are great powers at work that I must work to handle on my own for now before we will be able to achieve true victory. I realize this may sound strange to you now, but trust in me as you have all trusted in me thus far and we will have out nation restored to us once more."

There was a silence in the area. No one wanted to break up after achieving such a great victory, but they all trusted in their prince after what had happened that day. They were willing to do as they were told even if it did make them unhappy. Everyone made preparations to depart safely from the field of battle, including Evrame. He needed to leave his armor behind and take clothes with him that would make him look not so much like a prince. It was a good thing that one of the things he found out he could do was to control his own size and make himself as small as he used to be. That still made him a pretty tall and imposing figure, but he could at least get clothes from his fellow soldiers to suit his needs. He also gathered a few weapons that would not be that unusual for lone travelers to carry. It actually took more time to convince his most loyal protectors from the Emperor's Own to let him go off on his own than to actually prepare. But, once everything was said and done, Evrame's forces broke up and he headed off alone to confront the closest of the gods that he could detect.