Chapter 251: The Haven of the Vanquished

After running for several days, the kingdom’s decimated entourage came to a halt.

They stumbled into the encampment they had established deep in the forest, just beyond the shaman’s territory. This was the staging area where the harvesters, craftsmen, and hundreds of men assigned to strip and haul away everything the tribe owned were stationed.

Upon seeing what remained of their army come sprinting in, beaten and soaked in blood, panic gripped the entire camp. Alarms echoed between the tents as reserve soldiers scrambled in confusion.

Several subordinates burst into the main tent, shouting to the commander on duty:

"Captain! It’s an emergency! The prince is coming back!"

The captain left in charge of holding the camp’s line burst out of the tent with his sword drawn. Behind him, the reserve garrison rushed out to meet the returning royal force.

"What happened?! Your Highness! Are you alright?! What happened at the gorge?!" gasped the captain, paralyzed by the sight.

Prince Caelen did not answer. With eyes wide from trauma and a pale face, he collapsed to his knees on the dirt, gasping for air. Beside him, General Valerius could barely stand. Even for a warrior like him, surviving such a clash and running for two straight days had left him exhausted, his armor dented and his body pushed past the brink of collapse.

The captain felt panic wash over him as he watched the prince collapse and General Valerius lean on his sword’s hilt, his face bloodied and his breathing ragged.

"Medics! Tend to His Highness and the General!" bellowed the captain, spinning toward his watch officers. "Seal the camp entrances! I want log barricades along the perimeter, archers on the watchtowers, and every reserve soldier armed at the treeline!"

The camp’s garrison scrambled in all directions. The echo of the vanguard’s destruction had turned the forest’s quiet into a nightmare. No one understood how an army of three thousand legionnaires had been pulverized, but the sight of the prince kneeling in the dirt was enough to seed terror of an ambush.

"Captain... are we being pursued? Are the shaman’s beasts behind us?!" asked a lieutenant with a trembling voice as he drew his blade.

Valerius raised his head, spitting blood onto the snow.

"They are not... pursuing us..." rasped the general, halting the officer’s hysteria with his gaze. "But if we don’t fortify this position... any opening will turn this camp into our grave."

The captain didn’t wait for a second warning. He grabbed two of his messengers by the collar and roared orders:

"Reinforce the front stakes! Bring up the pit traps and prime the barrier enchantments! If that tribe decides to march out of the forest, we won’t survive if they catch us in the open!"

A pair of servants handed Prince Caelen a cup of water, which he gulped down before shattering the vessel against the ground. His face was pale, but his eyes burned with rage and powerlessness as he stood up, confronting General Valerius in front of the reserve guard.

"It is a humiliation!" roared Caelen, pointing a finger toward the thicket. "My father entrusted me with the force of the Golden Rose, and two Royal Auditors were torn apart like vermin! How am I supposed to return to the capital and report that a tribe of savages crushed our vanguard?!"

Valerius, leaning against a tent pole while a medic attempted to bandage his wounds, clenched his jaws before replying in a cold tone:

"Your Highness should thank the gods to still be alive. Those were no simple savages; that shaman controls high-tier beasts and destructive magic that bypassed every evaluation our mages had. Continuing the assault right now would be suicide."

"We still have the reserve battalion and the hundreds of men in this camp!" insisted Caelen, taking a step toward the general. "Order an immediate restructuring! We will use the harvesters as cannon fodder if necessary, but I will not retreat empty-handed like a beaten dog."

"Enough foolishness, Caelen!" bellowed Valerius, addressing him by his given name. "If we send these men into the gorge without reinforcements or a strategy to counter the white shadow harassing from above, we will only succeed in getting everyone slaughtered. My duty is to protect the crown and the lives of the survivors, not feed your pride."

The atmosphere in the camp turned taut. The reserve captains lowered their eyes, intimidated by the clash between the crown prince and the supreme military commander.

A silence fell over the camp, cutting short the clash between Caelen and Valerius. A freezing breeze swept through the thicket, causing the torches to flicker and bringing with it a presence that made every soldier’s skin crawl.

"So... you haven’t left?" echoed a soft, childlike voice, seeming to originate from every direction at once. "Then there is no need for any of you to leave this forest."

Before the first captain could react, the air fractured.

SWOOSH!

A white blur swept across the camp at high speed. The front line of the reserve guard didn’t have time to raise their shields. In a fraction of a second, a trail of blood painted the snow as ten heads flew into the air, cleanly severed from their necks.

"ENEMY! THE WHITE SHADOW IS HERE!" shrieked an officer amid the chaos, drawing his blade in desperation.

"Protect the prince! Defensive formation around His Highness!" bellowed General Valerius, ignoring his severe wounds as he tried to throw himself between Caelen and impending death.

Yet the orders came too late. Without the iron-masked auditor present to read the air currents and intercept attacks at speed, the kingdom’s reserve force stood zero chance. The clash turned into an outright slaughter.

The white blur zig-zagged through the tents and panicking soldiers, shredding enchanted steel armor as if it were paper. Every time Freyja’s shadow swept by, dozens of soldiers fell decapitated, dropping their weapons onto the earth. Heads flew by the dozens with each passing second, accompanied by the dull thud of bodies collapsing into the snow.

"No! Stay away from me! I am the heir to the kingdom!" shrieked Caelen, stumbling backward in horror as he watched his honor guard get dismembered in the blink of an eye right before his eyes.