The ruse of being in the process of casting fire worked, and Grud was now where he worked best, in the middle of the fight, butchering men left and right.
For men who had never truly faced a monster of a man like Grud, they first approached him like a particularly dangerous beast and engaged him four or five at a time to give each other ample spacing to maneuver.
While surrounding Grud, they tried to bait him from the front while those at the sides and back tried to attack him, but with Grud's bare feet on the ground, he had no issues sensing who and when someone made a move, allowing him to react and defend himself like he had eyes at the back of his head.
And whenever Grud struck, whether his large knife was blocked by armor or weapon, his monstrous strength would overpower anything in its way, maiming or killing anyone who did not successfully dodge.
Within less than a minute, a dozen elite warriors lay around Grud as other elite warriors struggled to get into an impromptu formation around him.
Grud found this pace of enemies coming at him to be too slow, and stepped out of the circle of corpses to charge anyone who was more well-armed or armored than the common rabble he had been slaughtering so far, and along the way, he also veered toward any foxhole he sensed, and kicked their cover open to expose them for the rest of the army that was on the way.
***
Ko'Rune, Head Warrior of the Frozen Fang tribe, was currently standing a hundred paces away from Grud, slaughtering his elites. But Ko'Rune now had bigger problems than one monster in human skin rampaging in his lines. Now, due to Grud's interference, his ambush has been exposed, his men are in disarray, and over beyond the treeline, he could see and hear the Rock Claw army charging toward his army.
He was torn between two choices. Lead his main army against the Rock Claw army or regroup and rally the elite warriors that were currently being slaughtered by Grud.
After a couple of seconds of deliberation, Ko'Rune made the hard decision to deal with the monster that was currently ripping at his army's throat. He called the senior commanders under him, put one he trusted in charge, turned and ran in Grud's direction.
While a handful of elites were currently being slaughtered by Grud, Ko'Rune stopped and gathered those on their way to face Grud so that they could attack as a bigger whole.
When he gathered twenty or so men, he told them, "We can no longer treat him as a dangerous beast that we can hunt down with tactics. We must treat him as an unstoppable monster that we must be willing to trade our lives for to take down. If not, we are all dead. Charge! Sawrm him!" Ko'Rune shouted and ran forward.
The rest of the elites followed him, going around each other to get a better angle to swarm Grud, and in the rush of things, the elites did not notice Ko'Rune running ever so slowly than what he was truly capable of, letting others overtake him in the charge.
'Only the smart live long enough to have the glory.' Ko'Rune thought to himself as the other elites started throwing themselves at Grud.
***
As Grud beheaded one of the three elites surrounding him, he noticed more than twenty elite warriors charging him at the same time. The remaining two elites that had encircled him until now noticed the twenty elites incoming, looked at each other, and nodded before charging me at the same time.
Grud swung my knife at one of them when they got within range, only for the man to abandon his weapon and reach out to grab my swinging arm. Even with Grud's swing moving at superhuman speeds, the elite, whether by skill or accident, caught Grud's knife-wielding wrist, but it didn't stop Grud's blade from slicing into the elite's side, cutting through a couple of ribs with ease.
But what the elite, who was all but dead, accomplished, was holding on with all the might remaining in his dying body, essentially sealing Grud's right arm and the knife inside his body.
Not wanting to waste his fellow warrior's sacrifice, the other elite used the distraction and threw his club at Grud, forcing him to shield himself with his arm. That left Grud exposed as the remaining elite jumped at him, knife drawn and aiming to disable or seal Grud's left arm, giving the other twenty elites behind him a better chance to take down this monster in human flesh.
Unfortunately, unlike the previous elite who caught Grud off guard with his actions, the elite who threw a club at him was much easier to read. So instead of giving the charging elite a hand to block or disable, Grud gave him a foot to the chest, sending the elite flying and causing him to crash into a tree, and when he hit the ground, he did not get up. But he did buy enough time and attention for the first of the group of elites who followed to have the initiative move on Grud.
The first of the elites that Ko'Rune gathered reached Grud from behind the buying man who had sealed his arm, and practically jumped over his dying fellow warrior, hand axe raised high, ready to be brought down on Grud's head.
Not bothering to take a swing at the axe-wielding elite with his free hand, Grud uppercutted the midair elite with his right hand while the dying elite was holding on. This caused the dying man to loosen his grip, and Grud took the opportunity to jerk his arm, powering his blade through the other side of his body.
From there, Grud moved in a blur of motion, killing and maiming with every strike. And sometime during the flurry, Grud had retrieved his spear with a tendril of mana, increasing his lethal reach.
When the last elite surrounding Grud was slain, he looked around to see who was next, only to see a well-armored man running away from him. Grud shrugged, thought he had done enough, and headed back to the blockade. He gave himself the excuse that he had to leave some killing for the others, but in reality, all this fighting had gotten him raring to go for a good fuck, and he could feel his balls throbbing and his hardening dick straining against the leather armor straps.
***
Over in the Rock Claw blockade camp, Mita felt Grud closing in and felt the barely restrained lust flowing over their bond, and knew what she was in for. She excused herself from her conversation with her daughters and went to her's and Grud's private wagon to prepare for what was to come.
***
Seeing all the elites he had gathered slaughtered like livestock, Ko'Rune decided that there was no cowardice in running away from Grud. When he looked back and saw that Grud was nowhere in sight, he sighed and ran toward the sound of fighting that was already taking place between the main bulk of his and the Rock Claw tribe.
Ko'Rune arrived on the front to try and rally his warriors that were currently getting pushed back, but try as he might, the domino effect was already playing itself out as up and down the line, Frozen Fang lines were already collapsing. It was then that Ko'Rune realised that he had made a gamble and lost badly.
By diverting all the elites to try to take down Grud, the rank-and-file warriors had no elite to rally around, so when the elites on the Rock Claw side breached the line, there was no elite from his side to counter.
By now, he realised that the Frozen Fang army was doomed. 'No point wasting my life here. Better to return to the tribe and warn them of an imminent retaliatory invasion. If they blame me for any failures, I am sure the blow to my reputation can be softened by saying that Grud personally took to the field. Nobody but my most strident political rivals would blame the destruction of my army.' Ko'Rune thought as he called out to what little commanders left to call a retreat before turning and running.
As Ko'Rune ran, he heard a louder commotion than usual and turned around to see what was going on. That was when he saw a face he recognized. It was Voro, the commander of the blockade that had stopped his march. And like his father, Grud, Voro was larger and stronger than the average man, but what worried him now was that Voro had locked eyes with him and was charging toward him with four other men around the same size, all of them were no doubt the spawn of that monster Grud.
Ko'Rune turned back around and ran as fast as he could, hoping that the other retreating warriors would act as unwilling interference until he got clear and the Rock Claw warriors stopped pursuing him. But his hopes were dashed as he suddenly felt a sharp impact and a searing pain as something hit his right calf, making Ko'Rune tumble to the ground and roll a few times before he looked down at his leg and saw the shaft of an arrow that snapped in half from his roll.
Ko'Rune saw Voro closing in on him and tried to hobble away as fast as he could, but the inevitable happened, and Voro and his posse caught up to him and started beating him into unconsciousness. Before Ko'Rune faded, he knew that his death would not be a quick matter.