The hospital was a rather gruesome sight to behold, the room was filled with men on beds with wounds ranging from concussions to amputations. it gave chase the creeps, reminding him of a serial killer's basement.
looking around he saw a woman in white cloth, covering even her head, giving orders to what he knew as medics. Once he saw her lackeys leaving her side, stepped close.
"I assume your perplexed about the situation."Not giving them time to ask the question she already knew they had, she quickly informed them. "Our medical supplies have been cut, those feinds have found the villages where we get them from and have begun terrorizing them, even raising some to the ground."
just from the tone of her voice one could tell she was scowling. she sounded elderly and had probably seen a few of these men on better days. Noah and chase were a bit taken aback. Usually the factions that come into power to serve the demon king kill randomly.
this time specific villages were somehow found and targeted, and they were able to keep them out of commission. They were fending for themselves and didn't have anything to give to the churches war efforts.
this means 3 things. 1: The thing they are fighting for is more important than anything they originally thought. 2: there is is a traitor in our ranks. And 3: this battle had to end quickly.
"Is this not classified information?" Noah asked.
"Well it would be if people didn't start coming up with their own conclusions after seeing the state of this place. Someone started saying we would sacrifice them to win the battle"
'I keep forgetting that while this is a fantasy world, this is medieval times.' Chase almost chuckled but then he thought about it. This is a world where demons and fantasy creatures are real. Having superstitions and losing trust in people was bound to happen.
That doesn't matter. Chase had to get back on track. he was going to go to bed and then find out what they were fighting for. what had all these bodies gone towards. and then in the panic, he would leave this place. cool people were here yes but that means nothing if these interactions ended with them dead in battle.
He could very well die himself.
"well this is complicated. Obviously things are going to ramp up quickly" Noah said, worry clear on his face.
"Well let's get out of here" said Chase as he looked at a man with half of his face removed, likely from hellfire. he felt very unpleasant.
for the first time in this new world, he felt like praying. "we should get to planning and leave these people"
once outside the physicians tent, rumors and truths started spreading across every encampment. Men began sharpening their swords, mentally preparing themselves, some looked Petrified by fear. This was mainly the beginners, some of which were drafted like him.
Chase felt bad just thinking about it. You just get drafted from an unimportant village to go to the military by the church and now you're entering the super difficult endgame mission. Lots of people were going to die.
Just then he felt a strong presence exit the main tent.
using his metal gauntlet to move apart the curtains, out came a man who looked like he would be the talk of the town if he stepped into some unknown village.
his broad shoulders towered above everyone else. at a large 6'10 his robe was black instead of the typical white, with a blue cross going over the middle part of his armor that resembled a knights, but one could tell his armor was made with enchanted metal from the way the obsidian colored mantle glowed.
his cape that cascades down like a river flowing from his upper back in the wind. Going down the middle of the cape are 3 mana crystals that helped boost his already powerful abilities.
lastly his sword. the hilt was black but it had mana stones imbedded on both sides where the hilt meets the blade. The blade was glowing blue and humming with power.
Chase couldn't sense mana. Just his normal senses could tell that this man was easily capable of taking a good portion of this small army.
he was involuntarily tensing up. Turning to look at Noah, he saw a similar reaction though he was visibly able to control himself more.
one could guess why. this world was filled with powerful people. there were ranks to describe their power.
rank 1: you can use mana for small scale spells and to boost your physical prowess for short bursts. at it's weakest your spells might not even be effective. at it's highest you can chain multiple deadly spells together and fight for multiple minutes at a time while burning through mana.
this is where most people who can use magic stop. 60 percent of people who can use magic stop here. with his physical might, Chase was at the top of this spectrum.
rank 2: this is where the actually strong come in. people who can wipe out decent sized areas with their attacks. the side effects of these people fighting can destroy infrastructure around them. most can pierce the sound barrier with how fast they are. truly scary to go up against.
he felt that Noah was around here in terms of strength. much stronger than him, but more to the low-mid end of the spectrum.
then there was rank 3: true monsters. individual attacks from the people casually destroyed multiple buildings, if they truly wanted to move no mundane human was capable of tracking them. these guys were also usually local big shots so they would carry special weapons and gear. they can also shoot out mana all around them and the pressure from their strength can give mundane humans heart attacks and cause rank 1 opponents to freeze in their tracks.
Whoever this monster was, he seemed to be on the high end of that spectrum. he didn't even do anything and everyone in the camp got uneasy.
their were even stronger ranks, but if you were a mundane man, this was the highest threat level you could come across.
usually b+ rank adventurers, high profile mercenary's or law enforcement, these were the strongest people who didn't need to have ties to major factions to get this strong.
From his helmet his eyes looked around the encampment, he seemed a bit angry judging from how hard he was squeezing the hilt. everyone just wanted to know why he had his sword drawn. He eventually seemed to calm himself."LET THIS BE KNOWN"
using mana to enhance his vocal cords, he had the volume of a speaker but incredible bass was added to it. the gravel in his voice still hinted at his obvious displeasure.
"THERE IS A TRAITOR IN OUR RANKS"
Only a few could have guessed that. Most just assumed the bastards under the demon king got lucky. Before everyone could stress out even more his voice boomed again.
"SO WHAT?!"
everyone was shocked and wondering if he had gone more mad than he had already seemed.
"WE CRUSH THROUGH THEIR RANKS, AND TAKE IT! TOMORROW WE CLENSE
THIS FOREST OF DEMON SCUM!"
everyone was confused about what the "it" was but cheered anyway, the speech got the job done once they realized he wasn't gonna blow up the camp.
The giant began walking to the edge of the encampment, intending to do patrols. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.