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Some time later, after the tent was set up, the scout, now relatively cleaner than before and with a full belly, stood before Grud, his tribe elders, and chieftains from the tribes who jumped on the war bandwagon.
"Report." Grud said to the scout.
"Chieften, our latest update from the two fronts are-" the scout started, but was interrupted by Grud's raised hand.
"What do you mean 'two fronts'?" Grud asked.
"Ah, since Commander Orin sent the request for reinforcements, your sons Orin and Voro split the army to different sides of the contested land to hold off the Rising Horn and Frozen Fang tribes." the scout clarified and started relaying the updates of the two fronts.
In the report, Orin was fending off advances from the Rising Horn tribe. Due to the amount of terrain he had to cover while fighting off and delaying the enemy, he had to break his half of the army down into raiding groups to defend the territory and combine a few raiding groups if they had to take on a bigger target. As of the latest report, the Rising Horn forces had given up sending in scout and advance parties to get killed and started marching in with their main force. Orin's forces, being vastly outnumbered, have moved on to purely harassing and delaying tactics.
As for Voro he has after capturing the supplies form the first Frozen Fang advance party, his half of the army captured another before the enemy got wise to what he was doing, but by then, he had already built a basic barricade at the mouth to the ravine and fortified the the sides of the ravine where people could climb up to try and get around.
At first, Frozen Fang threw a few of their border tribes at the barricade, but their attempts failed, and by the time the main force of the Frozen Fang tribe arrived at the barricaded ravine, the barricade was fully built, well reinforced, and was shooting at them with the very arrows that they had supplied to the advance parties.
So far, Voro's half of the army has halted all advances of the Frozen Fang tribe, but at the same time, has also taken more casualties than Orin's half of the army because they could not retreat with hit-and-run tactics like Orin could.
After the scout was done with the report, Grud asked, "How many days march are each army?"
"About a day and a half's march for Commander Orin, and almost two days for Commander Voro." the scout replied.
Grud leaned back and pondered all the information as the elders and chieftains around started discussing and making known their suggestions. When he was done thinking, he sat up straight and the rest of the tent quietened down.
"How many other men do you have with you? And do they know the way to my sons?" Grud asked the scout.
"I have two other men with me, and we do know the way." the scout replied.
Grud nodded as he made his decision. "Three-quarters of the army will reinforce Orin; he has more terrain to cover and is in open combat with the enemy. The other quarter will go to Voro to hold the barricade. Those with mounts will ride ahead first, and the rest will follow. We move out in an hour." Grud said as he got up and headed out to have a private meeting with the rest of his family that he brought along, especially those who were shamans.
Grud briefed them on the situation and told them to organize themselves into two groups before returning to his personal wagon to get armored up.
When he entered the wagon, he saw Mita scooping a cup of cum out of the cum bucket and taking a sip.
"Really, Mita? You do this now? How am I going to fit my penis into my armor if you drink my seed in front of me?" Grud complained weakly as he started pitching a tent.
Mita simply huffed as she said, "How is it my fault that I am addicted to your seed?" She then put down her cup and got on all fours. "I think I have finished digesting all your seed in my stomach; the seed in my womb will take a lot longer. So you can use my back hole to calm yourself down." she said as she wiggled her ass, making some of his seed trickle from her cunt.
***
Before the hour was up, Grud walked out of her wagon in his centipede armor to see the riders off. The only difference from the usual cavalry units was the addition of wagons attached to the unit.
Unlike the more close-combat-focused of Grud's children, most of his children who chose the path of a shaman had little to no riding experience, so they rode in wagons instead.
As for Grud, as the leader of the army, he was obligated to stay with the main marching army. So now that they knew where the enemy was, for moral sake, he was to be visible most of the time as they marched toward the enemy.
The scout who reported the update to Grud and the rest of the leaders fetched the scouts he was with, and two of them went with the cavalry to guide them to the two fronts, while the last scout was ordered to lead the way until they met up with another scout group a few kilometers ahead. From there, they would have enough guides to split the much slower marching army.
***
Voro slumped on the ground, exhausted. He took a water skin that one of his warriors had handed him and drained it greedily, but with every gulp of water and every deep breath he took, Voro flinched in pain.
He looked at the offending wound and saw the cause of it. Just under his left arm, the side of his copper armor was dented in, a heavy club blow that caught him while he had his weapon raised for a strike.
Voro flagged down a medicine man who started helping him out of his armor the moment he pointed to the dented area.
"Ooo, that looks bad." the medicine man commented.
"How bad? Will I still be able to fight?" Voro asked.
"We shall see," the medicine man said as he looked at the aggravated red patch of skin that would most likely turn dark purple in a matter of hours. "Let me know when you feel a sharp pain." the medicine man said as he started lightly prodding Voro's ribs from below the bruised patch.
The first rib prodded gave no response, the second gave Voro a sharp but manageable pain, the third and fourth rib, however, made his whole body flinch back in pain.
"One cracked and two broken ribs. I would say that you are not able to fight, but I know that you will not listen to me. All I can recommend is that you fight only with your right hand and use a light weapon. Other than that, the only other thing I can do for you is give you something for the pain." the medicine man said.
"No, the medicine for the pain muddles the mind. I cannot afford that now." Voro said
The medicine man nodded. "Then I will be back shortly with a poultice to apply to your wound."
Voro leaned back against the wall while taking shallow breaths, trying not to breathe too deeply as not to aggravate his broken ribs. 'I hope father gets here soon, I don't know how much longer my men and I can hold out.'
Voro and his men had been holding the barricade at the ravine's mouth for weeks. At first, things were going well, but as the days wore on, the enemy pushed, prodded, and tested his defenses. And soon, if there was no major assault on their barricade, there were endless small raiding parties attacking the weaker defenses leading to the tops of the ravine, forcing Voro to further split his manpower between the main barricade and the two defense lines to the tops of the ravine, which was where most of the casualties came from.
As for Voro's current injury. It was because his forces were finally spread thin enough that the barricade was finally breached during a three-prong attack against all defense lines, and the enemy managed to get enough ladders to temporarily overwhelm the barricade wall defenses, but at great cost.
From where Voro sat, he saw many of his men and even some of his siblings being carried away from the defenses, either injured or dead. 'And I also hope that father brings enough men to avenge my fallen brothers while he is at it.'
***
On Orin's front, they could no longer safely perform hit-and-run tactics. They had long run out of arrows to shoot at the marching enemy due to the enemy taking the arrows shot at them for themselves and breaking beyond repair any that were damaged, and spears were too valuable to just throw at the enemy.
So, unless Orin wanted to attack with a sling and stones, which was not a good idea if he wanted to limit his casualties, he had to resort to other tactics to slow the enemy advance.
That tactic turned out to be Orin getting his half of the army to riddle the whole area and every path that they thought the enemy was going to march through with spike pit traps, and the wooded area with spring-powered traps using flexible young saplings. All of which was aimed more to maim than kill.
At first, the staggering amount of traps and the casualties they caused brought the enemy army to a stop. Then they sent their scouts to spot traps and clear the way, only for them to get ambushed by Orin's men.
When the enemy lost too many scouts, they sent out what scouts they had left with an armed escort of warriors. From there, it turned into a forest fight between raiding groups, but even then, these small scout-led groups were no match for Orin and his men.
The problem came when the enemy capitalized on their superior numbers and sent groups of warriors further to the flanks. That was where Orin faced the same problem as Voro. They were beginning to be spread too thin.
"When is Father sending reinforcements? I do not know how much longer we can delay the enemy." Orin muttered to himself as he was riding away from the latest group of warriors he and his men had desimated.