While the army from Frithe sailed across the large sea, Bidi had this sense they were in danger. Less than half their army returned back to Gerak, and they would be greatly outnumbered if an attack came soon, which she greatly anticipated. Her foolish husband painted a large target on their backs.
The objective set out by King Stix was to kill everyone in Gerak, even the common folk. His plan to eradicate those living in Gerak was solid, but he didn't account for many variables.
King Stix's army landed in west Gerak, led by Storm Evasion. They would make their way east to the castle where they heard the wizards lived in peace. George had twenty thousand troops, and he would need to retain them all to storm the castle. But something odd occurred.
As they were slaughtering everyone without a Frithe uniform, men and women started fighting back. They were in the port city of Jox Galu, and women were fleeing to warn the other cities to prepare for an invasion. But the men stayed and fought.
The brave men from Gerak were greatly outnumbered, but that didn't stop them from protecting their city. Many of them had never even been in a real fight their entire lives, but they did what they could with steak knives.
Only twelve of the Frithe men were killed, but the battle would spark a revolutionary moment. A few of the Gerak men had proper weapons, but Storm's forces overpowered them easily. One thing was certain, the Gerak towns would not fall easily.
With a population of roughly two hundred thousand, Gerak was the most heavily populated region in all of Frithe. Storm was ordered by King George not to return until everyone in Gerak were dead, but they had lost the element of surprise. The other towns and cities would know that King George put a bounty on all people from Gerak.
Losing the element of surprise forced King Arthur to react. He sent one thousand troops to meet the army and try to kill as many of them as they could. But it was too late, by the time King Arthur's army met with the army of Frithe, they had already burnt three entire cities to the ground and killed thousands of men and women. And they had only lost nineteen men in the process. Most commoners were not equipped to fight a military man, and most stood no chance.
It was the third day of the March eastward, and they were in the process of burning down a small village where there were no survivors, not even the children were able to escape.
King Arthur's men watched from a distance as children were rounded up into a small barn and burnt alive. Their bellows beaconed the Gerak army to hasten their march.
Modern warfare was often dictated by numbers. Gerak had Gad fewer numbers, and they all knew they would surely die defending their region. But these men were brave. They were about to fight an army with twenty times the number they had, but they rushed the barn and tried to save the children.
The smoke killed the children before the Gerak army made it to them. But the battle was now on. The leader of the Gerak battalion was a bold man. He would fight until his last man was dead.
The Frithe army killed most of the Gerak army, but Blaze had one man mount a horse and return with news to the king. He would be the lone survivor of the battle. Blaze, the commander, died when he took a spear to the chest, but the Frithe army was greatly damaged. They had lost nearly two thousand men.
Storm continued his march east to the next city, but this city would not fold as easily. Every man who could hold a sword was standing just outside the farming city of Hakan. They only had about one hundred men, but they refused to die without trying to protect their homes.
Of these men was an ex army man. He led the men into battle, but they stood no chance. What was one hundred men compared to eighteen thousand highly trained men.
The ex military man, Keif Angus, would flee before he died. He watched from a distance as his home went up in flames, but he was no coward. The only reason Keif fled the fight was because he had a son who was too young to fight, and he wished to have more time with his son, but he killed eight of the Frithe men, and he traveled to the next city to warn them their village would soon be burnt to the ground.
It was there, Askan, that Keif found his wife and children. He told them they needed to flee to the forest. He knew cities weren't safe, but Keif promised them he would find them after the army was gone, but Keif's wife had a concern. How was she supposed to provide for three young children? Keif didn't know, but he entrusted his family with his eight year old boy, who he had taught to hunt with a bow.
Keif waited with the rest of Askan's fighting men for the battle to begin. While Keif escaped once again, he went straight for the castle. He knew the towns and villages had no chance to withstand such a great force.
After a few weeks of burning villages and towns along the way to the castle, the Frithe army had finally made it, but they were greatly battered. They now only stood around fifteen thousand men. They set up camp about a mile from the castle and waited for further instructions from Storm. They had more men than the Gerak army, but they had no way to climb the castle walls. They were at an impasse.
Storm thought their was only one entrance and exit to the castle, so he decided they would starve the castle members and wait for them to come out to seek provisions.
While Storm waited, he sent one thousand of his men to burn the rest of the villages, towns and cities that were not along the way. He wanted to end civilian life in Gerak, but he was deceived. The defenses of the cities were enough to kill the thousand men, and few of them retreated to warn Storm. He had now lost a valuable thousand men. While that thousand men killed thousands of people, they were no longer his service.
Storm waited and waited, but the castle gate never opened. Queen Bidi was smuggling in supplies from the secret passageway. Storm was very confused. A year passed and the gate remained drawn. He was furious. So he had his men build ladders to climb the walls. He thought he would see all of the men dead of starvation, but the second the ladders were full of men, archers came out of nowhere to protect the castle.
The men who were climbing the ladder would mostly die, but finally, a few of them made it up the entire way and dropped the draw bridge. They were met by an army of nine thousand men, and the battle was epic. But the Frithe army proved to be too much. But the Frithe army now only numbered in the hundreds, and the sorcerers still hadn't played a role in the fight. They were eagerly waiting their turn in the castle.
Storm entered the empty castle, and he was immediately hit by a spell. His eyes started to bleed, then he exploded as if a bomb was in his stomach. The Frithe men were afraid, but they stormed the sorcerers who numbers in the thousands. The men stood no chance, but they killed hundreds of mages.
The sorcerers killed all of the military. And now there were few military men left on the planet. Everywhere was left defenseless, and the age of the wizard would soon start.
In the storming of the castle, King Arthur was killed. Typically, the throne would be given to his eldest son, but his son was still a boy, so Bidi met with the council. "He is not yet ready to rule the kingdom," Bidi said, referring to her son. "I should rule until he is ready."
The council was now made up of a majority of women, so they saw nothing wrong with this proposal. The male council members didn't even protest. They felt Bidi had done an excellent job ruling while Arthur was otherwise disposed. They all nodded, then they addressed the next topic.
"There are probably many concerns about the state of our army," Bidi said as she looked over the agenda.
Mika had an opinion on the matter, but she didn't want to seem daft. The kingdom had always been protected by a large army, but Mika waited for someone else to address the issue. Then Hamish, a male spoke up, "we must rebuild our army as quickly as possible. There is no doubt the Tortu and Frithe armies will come again. We must be ready for them."
Mika then spoke up, "my queen," she said, "this last battle revolutionized warfare. We have two thousand nine hundred seventy four sorcerers remaining..."
"And?" Bidi asked.
"The time of the wizard has begun," Mika said with a grin.
Hamish spoke again, "what are you suggesting?"
"We need to focus on training mages for combat!" Mika proposed.
"Mages number in the few, Mika," Bidi said, "even if we train our sorcerers to kill, they can still be killed. We need an army to back them up. I don't think we need the largest army, but Tortu and Frithe will attack again once they have the numbers to do so. We lost dozens of thousands of men and women to this raid. Cities and towns were burnt down to the ground. Not only am I suggesting we regrow our army, I am saying we need to place militia in all cities for the event of another attack. I agree we should make our mages lethal, but there aren't enough mages to protect everyone."
"We could revolutionize warfare," Mika said, "we should attack Frithe and Tortu while they have no armies. We must go on the offensive. Your rule could expand the entire planet, my lord."
Bidi was curious, but she was hesitant, "and what sacrifice would that require?"
"We must kill all other kings and queens and implement your rule. Frithe is ruled by a single king, and Tortu has five kings. We must kill them all!" Mika informed.
Bidi wanted magic to thrive, but she didn't want to kill her parents. She was conflicted. As she furrowed her eyebrows, she was having an internal battle with herself, and she replied, "I do not wish to expand. I only want what is mine to flourish. I have no problem with the regions remaining as they are, but we need to implement new rulers into other parts of the world, ones that won't try to end sorcery."
"Are you suggesting a new form of government?" Hamish asked.
"Democracy is for fools," the eldest councilor said.
"We cannot let those who oppose sorcery rule," Bidi slammed the table.
"Do you wish for a new line of kings and queens?" Hamish asked.
"Yes," Bidi smiled crookedly.
"But who?" Mika asked.
Bidi was stumped. She didn't trust anyone to uphold her order and maintain their sense of individuality. She didn't have friends, but she knew she couldn't trust her parents, especially her father. "I will need a bit of time to decide. There's almost half a million people on the planet. I will find someone."
"What of the other kings in Tortu?" Hamish asked. "They will hear that all of the armies have fallen. This could force them to invade foreign lands and occupy them as their own."
"There's only three kings in Tortu left. They will kill each other trying to claim Pedon and Tardash's land. We will let Tortu live in civil war for a while," Bidi answered.
"What if they come for us? The armies of Tortu now have the largest armies. They could be here tomorrow if they made haste. We have no defenses."
"Could they hear the news so quickly?" Bidi asked.
"It takes less than half a day to travel to Tortu," the eldest council member said. He breathed deep, "most kings have spies in all kingdoms. We must assume they know."
"I don't have time to recruit an army," Bidi huffed. "What can I do?"
"Pray," Hamish suggested.
The elder councilor sighed, "even King Vran could wreak havoc with his measly two thousand men."
"I don't have any time to train men to fight. Arthur cost me my entire army. I need answers..." Bidi's frustration grew.
"You still have one hundred archers in the old capital. Bring them here," Hamish suggested.
"What if we went into hiding?" Bidi asked.
"Unwise," Mika said, "we have defenses here. If we moved, we'd have no protection. Bring in the archers. It's a good idea."
Bidi just nodded her head, then sent for the archers. She knew the Tortu kings would hear of the weak armies, but she didn't know where they would strike first. She had many decisions to make. If any of the Tortu kings were smart, they would surely launch a global attack and take over the entire planet. Up until this point, their armies were far too small to realistically attack Gerak.
Bidi sent a few spies to each of the three remaining kings' districts. She needed to know if they planned an attack on Gerak.
As the most farm rich land on the planet of Frithe, Gerak made sense to attack. They had such rich soil that yielded a lot of food. The Tortu kings were certainly thinking of attacking, but Bidi didn't know how fast the news would travel. This made her anxious.
Tortu was possibly the worst place to live geographically. They were covered in deserts, with few areas of land to actually farm. Most of their goods were imported. Tortu also had a small population. The population of Tortu was only around half what it was in Gerak, despite being a larger region.
The promise of better lands would surely excite the Tortu kings, but would they get news quickly? Did anyone escape the battle? Was Bidi perhaps being paranoid?
A few cowardice men from the Frithe army escaped and went back to Frithe. They would seek council with King George. George would have them all hanged for abandonment of the war, but he now knew his entire army was gone. He, too, felt vulnerable from an attack made by the Tortu kings, so he sent for Pedon and Tardash to speak about the three other kings of Tortu.
After they arrived in his hall, Tardash spoke, "were we successful?"
"My army has been defeated," King Stix replied. "There were great casualties in the battle, but the sorcerers remained intact. The entire Gerak army was defeated, but those who reported to me claimed that there are thousands of sorcerers, much more than I imagined. I have called you here, because I have a fear of being overtaken while I regrow my army. What do you know of the other Tortu kings?"
Pedon frowned, "they have very small armies, maybe five thousand in number, but they are ambitious kings. King Vran would often send attacks on my army to create a message for me, but his numbers have always been too small to actually occupy my land. I don't know what he knows, but King Vran is very ambitious. His land borders mine, and he has surely started to settle into my land in my absence. His army may only be a few thousand, but he is a bold man. He is a master of seizing land."
"What of the other two?" King George asked.
"The other two won't hear of the battle as soon. They occupy the southern parts of Tortu. They are very isolated, but each of their armies numbers around five thousand. They don't attack as often as Vran, but they may consider an attack soon. They will know Frithe is now defenseless. They will wish for better lands to provide for their people. This would suggest they would attack Gerak first. There are many possibilities," Pedon replied as he walked a bit closer to the throne.
"I only have a handful of knights to protect Frithe. I thought my forces would overwhelm the Gerak army. I have lost everything in one battle, and I have gained nothing in return. Sorcery is still prevalent. How quickly could we raise and train an army? We cannot be left defenseless," George pounded his fist on the arm of the throne.
"What makes someone from Frithe join your army?" Tardash asked.
"Love and respect for me," George said as Camille rolled her eyes.
"Then you must offer a salary. More men would join," Tardash reasoned.
"I already supply housing and food. Why should I pay my army?" George fussed.
"He's got a point," Camille stated meekly.
"Soldiers have never been paid in Frithe!" George hissed, "and we had the second largest army on the planet before this mistake I made. Did you pay your soldiers when you were a king?"
Pedon interjected, "no, my lord, but these are desperate times. The three of us have lost our entire armies to Gerak. While we could get by without paying our men in the past, we no longer can because we must offer great incentives to grow as quickly as possible. What is to stop any of the Tortu kings from launching an attack on your kingdom? The title of king has been striped from Tardash and me, because we no longer have land to rule over. We came to you for help, and to help you as well. But our kingdoms have fallen, but we still possess a great amount of wealth. We could help you grow your army if you grant us favor in return."
"And what exactly would you want?" George asked.
"I cannot speak for Tardash," Pedon said, "but I only wish to remain wealthy and see sorcery ended."
"What do you want, Tardash?" George quizzed.
"I want to be king once more. If we win the war, I would like for you to grant me all of Tortu to rule over," Tardash answered.
"I see," George stroked his beard. "And what is to happen with Gerak? What would I do with it?"
"You can have Gerak," Tardash replied as he glanced over at the chambermaid who was eyeing him. Tardash was a good looking young man, and the chambermaid was curious as to why he had never had a wife or children. She was attempting to seduce him.
"I will give Gerak to my eldest son," George declared. "My castle is small. I need an army to defend it. How soon can we start recruiting for an army?"
"Right away," his advisor said, "how much would you like to offer the new members?"
"Ten silver pieces upon enlistment," George said. "Go on, Deacon, go tell the people they will be paid to enroll in the army."