Sanguine War Era

Chapter 8: Battle Is Nigh

Heizen's encampment, Plateaus of Haui, Peacius, 5th Day 1st Phase 1457th Set

Drunken soldiers with flushed faces were slowly stumbling back to their own tents with some support from their sober tent mates. Some were mumbling inaudible stuff while others were screaming and shouting as if they were cheering for the arrival of their Emperor. Gradually, the canteen was left with the group sitting at the small table and Teiga's tent mates. The group was still enjoying their meal, Tailun was chomping down of the lavish dinner, Devius was savouring the layered pork meat with his eyes closed, Yiun was just scanning the table for the next thing to eat while the mage was just sipping red wine from a silver grail.

"Shouldn't we go already, guys?" questioned Teiga nervously.

"Whaaaa? *HIC* De nait ish sill yung *HIC*" replied Hanco drunkenly while he swayed his head around like it was desperately trying to balance itself on the neck.

"Yes, I believe it is time for us to go if Hanco is already drunk," supported Baverus while he deftly attempts to carry the now-sleeping guy who kept saying "damn". "Teiga, go and guide Hanco back to our tent."

"Right."

Baverus made his move first out of the canteen as if he was trying hard to escape from something while Teiga struggled to get a hold of Hanco and stabilise him. Just when he managed to stabilise the drunken mass of muscles and turned to the exit of the canteen. A deep and sharp gaze shot into the backs of the last two soldiers in the canteen. Hanco was immediately sobered up and pushed the rooted Teiga along out of the canteen, it was as if their roles were switched. As he was being gently pushed out of the canteen, the young soldier subtly turned his head back to find out where did the gaze come from. He only turned his head enough such that the person who shot the gaze will not notice Teiga turning his head and enough for his eyes to look at the culprit using his peripheral vision. The eyes of the curious soldier met with the fully opened eyes of Tailun who usually only have small eyes such that it looks like his eyes were closed the whole time.

"Look forward to the next day, Teiga!" shouted Tailun as he lifted up his golden grail to sip some red wine.

The young soldier quickly turned back his head and walked briskly out of the canteen with Hanco to avoid another fight with Tailun.

The two soldiers sluggishly walked back to their tent. The flames of the torch lamps were flickering with orange cinders jumping out of the lamps. As they walked past tents, they could hear loud snoring, people whispering, praying or just soldiers gambling. Teiga raised his head to look forward and realised that the path from the canteen to his tent leads straight out of the camp. At the end of the path, the black silhouette of distant hills bit into the starry sky. The moon was absent that night, making the environment darker than usual.

"Hanco, what is the name of the guy who keeps saying damn?" asked Teiga out of the blue.

"His name is Deirus Karvun. Don't know why he keeps saying damn though. Maybe he has some story behind it?"

Again, awkwardness befalls both of them as Hanco tried to stay sober while Teiga was contemplating whether his tent mate needs any form of support while walking. Arriving at their tent salvaged the situation as both of them quickly entered to see both Deirus and Baverus already asleep before going into deep slumber themselves.

***

Heizen's encampment, Plateaus of Haui, Peacius, 5th Day 1st Phase 1457th Set.

The deep orange morning sun quietly levitated up beyond the hills with little to no sound of wildlife interrupting the serenity of Haui. Even the usual sound of crickets couldn't be heard in the night. Everything was as quiet as a burial ground. At the middle of the encampment, a fully armoured soldier climbed up a wooden watchtower with a large battle horn the size of a tent sitting at the top. Along with the horn were neatly arranged hand-held flag poles with different coloured flags. There were fully black, red, blue, green flags... The soldier made a robotic step forward towards the battle horn, took a deep breath and blew into the horn. A sharp and loud sound that lasted for exactly 10 seconds reverberated through the encampment. Next, the soldier took a green flag and unrolled it before placing it into a flag holder by the side of the horn. Soon, soldiers wearing light armour ran out of their tents towards the arena where the watchtower stands. Teiga was among the stampede of soldiers rushing towards the arena, the sound of armours hitting each other was almost as loud as the horn. The once deserted path that Teiga and Hanco took from the canteen back to their tent was now filled with soldiers marching uniformly towards the arena. Soldiers also consistently marched out of their tents to blend into the marching soldiers. It was as though the march had a fixed sequence of soldiers joining the march from their own tents.