The Paladin Order Reformed - Chapter 36

I spent the next few days recovering from my injuries, the process was sped up immensely by Lili’s recovery spells. When I was finally well enough, Rett announced to the entire camp that I was to be the new chieftain, his announcement was met with expected suspicion and caution.

I don’t blame them of course, I never wanted to become the chief, but it’s something we’re all going to have to get used to I guess. After that announcement, he explained our new plans to everyone.

When I was recovering is when Rett and I discussed everything in detail, there were quite a few things that I brought up during those conversations. Most importantly I feared for the other members of the Moon Claws clan that were still on the demon continent.

I asked what would happen to all the Moon Claws living on the demon continent, he then enlightened me to the current state of demonic affairs.

The demons are reliant on the other tribes under its banner to supply them with the majority of their troops and supplies, after so many years of waging war with humans, they began to lose their influence over the other races.

The Moon Claws, on the other hand, has strong relations with all beastmen tribes and was the prominent wolf-man faction. That put the demons in a very peculiar position, having to juggle their losing war with humans as well as having to please the various factions supporting them. Effectively diminishing any chance of them directly attacking the Moon Claws clan on the demon continent.

If they were to attack the clan on the demon continent for defecting, then they would make an enemy of all the other beastmen tribes.

I would love it if they tried, then they would have to fight two wars, then we could probably drive them off the human continent, well if humans weren’t in the midst of a coup and possible civil war.

But I doubt that’s what they’ll do, the demons will most likely capitalize on the chaos caused by the instruction in the Paladin Order. So I focused on the force we have right now, there were now a considerable amount of troops under my command, the Moon Claws had more troops before but Rett gruffly explained that most of them were used as firebolt fodder during the war.

Before I was born, the Moon Claws had started to become a surmountable force among the Demon armies factions. The demons started to fear that they could become strong enough to overthrow them, so they started whittling down their numbers by sending them to fight impossible battles alone.

They were strong enough to win every time, but they suffered many casualties. The clan’s forces today are but a shadow of what they once were. After answering any of the questions I had he told me our current troops count.

Right now the main fighting force consists of 500 Moon Claw wolf-men, 300 other beastmen of varying species, and about 200 demon soldiers.

Many of the demon soldiers deserted after the announcement, but the ones that had no family or any real ties to the demon army stayed for various reasons. So we were left with roughly 850 soldiers, it was further broken down by specialties.

There were 300 light infantry, 100 heavy infantry, 100 ranged infantry, 50 beast Riders (Their version of calvary), 50 recon troops, and the remainder occuied different logistical or support positions.

As for the other Moon Claws soldiers still the Demon army, Rett has already sent runners to the all the major demon supply posts with unassuming messages. The messages are just general statements that’ll hopefully escape suspicion, but there’s a clause written in the Moon Claw’s ancient tongue that gives the order to gather at a specific location at a specific time.

Hopefully, we can gather them before word of our desertion gets out. I wish the demons were worst of our concerns, we still have to travel about 620 miles to get to Hampton. That’s a lot of territories to cover especially with such a large bounty on my head, but hopefully, with the force of battle-hardened beastmen I’ll be able to get there in one piece.

The next few weeks were spent trying to fix logistical nightmares, due to the many things that had to be addressed before we could even begin to think about traveling. First were the rations, seeing as there wasn’t a supply caravan coming from either humans or demons, we had to find a way to restock the already depleted reserves.

Food wasn’t too much of a problem seeing as wolf-men were extremely good hunters, I showed the cooks how to smoke and cure the meat, giving a bit more longevity to our supplies.

Next were funds, as of funds… we have no funds. The coffers were basically empty and we would have no way to acquire the needed supplies that ranged from basic necessities to weapons.

So we did the only thing that we really could, we raided nearby demon occupied towns. I specifically ordered them to only attack Demon soldiers to keep from harming civilians, they were ordered to only kill demons if they did not surrender.

We infiltrated the town by acting like we were a regular force that needed to resupply, once their guards were lowered and we were inside the town, we forced them to surrender and killed anyone that resisted. There were minimal casualties and the only deaths were demons foolish enough to revolt.

We took as much supplies and equipment as we could without endangering the populace of the towns itself. Even if the towns were demon occupied, I didn’t want to keep it from being able to defend itself or feed its people since the inhabitants at its core, were humans.

We took what we could and repeated the process at several other towns, this quickly gave us the coin we needed while also giving us a surplus of weapons and equipment. Heck, we even got enough food to it made the meat and jerky we got obsolete.

Although, they still ate it. I’m starting to think that I could just run this army by using only meat and it be just as effective. Moral rose leaps and bounds after I showed the cooks different ways of cooking and seasoning meats. Seems like the fastest way to gain an armies respect is through their stomach, for wolf-men at least.

The only problem we encounter came when the demon forces became notified of our ploy, making our strategy obsolete. Thankfully, by the time the surrounding towns were alerted, we had already gathered enough supplies to last us for about a month, giving us more than enough food to make the trip to Hampton.

After a week of preparation, raiding, subjugating, and preparation again, we were finally ready to start the march to Hampton. I had to change my initial traveling plan, instead of following the coast like what I was doing with Lili, we would march on the main road that led to Valdera.

The reason being it was the only way to effectively utilize a supply train, which is the only effective way to transport the supplies we gathered, even if it made us more exposed. We would have to stick to the roads until we got close to Valdera, then we would diverge on a smaller road to bypass Valdora. I don’t know how many men are garrisoned there, but I don’t want to take any chances.

We traveled over two weeks, making great time. We hadn’t met much resistance on our travels, our scouts had a couple of minor conflicts with bands of demons or humans, but they were quickly dispatched. As we were getting closer to my hometown, nostalgia began to fill me.

I rode a horse with Rett and Lili flanking my sides, as I did I contemplated what I would do moving forward. I thought about what I would do when I saw Aliece and Sir Richard, I honestly don’t know what I would tell them. Had I failed them, would they see me as a failure? Would that even matter anymore? I don’t know, but a knot formed in my stomach anyway.

As I was lost in thought, movement in front of me caught my attention. I looked up to see one of our scouts quickly riding towards us. I knew it was a scout because of the molted green wool cloak that he was wearing, it helps disrupt a person’s figure, but it didn’t help that much when they were riding since he was obviously visible.

He approached me first, not bothering with pleasantries, but it didn’t really matter given the circumstances. He wiped a sweating grimy brow and said with an urgent tone.

“Chief, there’s smoke coming from the direction of Hampton.” Anything else he said was lost to me, I stared past him towards the treeline where Hampton would be. I strained my eyes, and sure enough, there rose a thin column of smoke just visible above the trees. Panicked, I yelled to Rett.

“You stay with the men.” My voice rose above the clattering of hooves and marching feet, ringing clearly in the air.

“Beast Riders, anyone with a horse, follow me!” Without waiting to see if anyone heeded my orders, I galloped towards the town. Fear traced my spine, I was not a stranger to fear, but it strangled me, gripping me stronger than it ever had before. It was difficult to breathe, the only thought I had was of my need to ride faster, even as the column of smoke became close and thicker.