I destroyed what little holdouts of the Ogres there where left in the walled town. Moving to location of the last settlement of the southern region of the Ogre territory.

  I walked there and as I did so I felt the weakening of the drive and the swelling of despair. The Darkness was suffocating all around me it seemed leech at my thoughts. Sitting down on a rock protrusion I felt a deep well of assorted emotions. What was I doing? I was commiting what was a text book war crime. These were living beings, they had thoughts and feelings, and just cause they where butt ugly by human standards wasn't a excuse. Was it? Nor where they a threat to my family or my friends.

  Why was I doing this? The question plagued me, I knew the answer. However it definitely did not go down well, it was a single reason, a single word. Yet it was infinitely more complex. I was having to weigh to evils, it was bit like the trolly problem too. Either I kill almost everything I come across till I get home or I sit here or pull back to the ruins and wait out the timer. Why the first option, power the whole "the Strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must" I didn't exactly like the idea of doing this all for power either.

  'Taking Power for righteous means was always a slippery slope to tyranny', something my history liked to say. It also was true, if I became all-powerful went back to Earth then it would be my sole duty to keep myself in check.

  However on the Flip side If I didn't have the power I would be as helpless, like a sandcastle during the rain, I would wither the storm until I took to much and melted.

  Honestly, 'what the fuck' man I was what seventeen I was probably going to spend my eighteenth birthday in here. Here I was having to weigh the morality of helping my people at the expense of tens of thousands of others possibly more. Sitting here was certainly not going to help me, so I slowly stood up placing my emotions into the nice little bottles in my chest.

  I moved onwards trying not focus on the figures that my mind conjured in the absence of stimuli. Raising my head high I moved onwards, I saw the fourth and final settlement I saw the stone palisade that stood stalwart. Yet no guard stood at the gate. Waltzing I saw emptiness throughout the settlement. No tents or animals just nothing. Dam, oh well it was always a possibility moving back this time I ran full speed. Large steps echoing out as I bounded through the Darkness.

  'Kien, we need your help, there's a Yeti and an Ogre army approaching!' Anastasia spoke telepathically, halting in my steps I quickly turned and made way to Anastasia and the puppet army. As I crested over a hill I saw them roughly two thousand for each side. Yeti clad in pig iron wielding spear and shields formed a modified phalanx formation. The Ogres on the other hand where very unorganized but each one could plow through the ranks of my regular puppets and equivalent to an elite. However that problem would hopefully be solved by Anastasia's new puppets.

  Approaching the slope of the wall I saw Anastasia perched onto a puppets shoulders. The Yeti and the Ogres stood far apart leaving the center of the formation alone. This would actually help in the long run as I could do some sort of shock and awe tactic. First off I would need to coordinate with Anastasia.

  'Im here Anastasia, all of the four settlements have been cleared out, the last one though fled before I could get to them.' I reported as I watched to cautious of approach of both sides.

  'Thats wonderful we don't need a third front right now in this skirmish.' Anastasia replied as she was busy tweaking the front lines. 'Alright what have you found out?' I responded as I looked over the current forces.

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  'Honestly not much but the Ogres do this weird chant thingy, it does a whole host of random stuff from buffing, debuffing, cursing, and attacking' Anastasia replied while she pointed to the war drums in the back under heavy guard.

  'Well when they attack I'm going to harass them from behind, Im at about three quarters full on Mana, so I could wipe this army out but if a larger or more elite one roles through we're cooked.' I explained as I survyed possible attacks. The less Mana I expended the more prepared we would be against surprised but the more likely said surprises could occur.

  The first line of Yeti and Ogres climbed up the stairs. The Puppets descended using numbers and leverage against the giants that they where fighting against. When the Puppet-Ogres jumped into the fray it was chaos to say the least as they sent a few flying with their superior strength. Reaching out with fungal spores I temporarily brought back a one or two of the Yeti and the Ogres and used them to attack on their shocked brethren.

  'Go get 'm' Anastasia said as I jumped into the air and slammed into a war drummer. Like a leap frog I jumped from group to group between Yeti and the Ogre sewing chaos and confusion.

  I crash-landed into a group of Yeti they immediately began to try and attack me and in these small quarters my knifes allowed me to easily avoid and attack the weak spots in their armor.

  Ducking a spear strike I sent a slab of earth into the offending creature. At the same time I stabbed into the leathery portion of another Yeti's armor killing it.

  When I was about to get overwhelmed I jumped high Into the air and into the Ogre ranks. They whistles an eerie tune as they tried to crush him.

  Sliding against the ground I whipped around and cut the Achilles tendon of the closest Ogre causing a roar of pain as he stumbled hopping on a single foot into his friends. Using my smaller stature I weaved through and around the various stomping feet and swinging clubs.

  'Kien, far flank Yeti go' Anastasia spoke suddenly causing me to nearly trip before I quickly stood up and to action blasting off through the enemy ranks. With a push of my feet I soar into the sky before gravity's hands pulled me down. I saw a glimmer of the Left Flank. Not able to see anything out of the ordinary I moved closer. The Yeti had begun to circle around the left flank in a c-formation trying to whittle down our forces I moved quickly lunging once more into the air I crashed into the join part of the formation specifically the part where that linked the wider army to the part trying to encircle us.

  Their where shrills of alarm as pulled out my club and began using it to capture the area around me. Earthen tendrils heeded my calls wrapping around and throwing some of the more zealous of my attackers.

  I had foiled the strategy however in turn I found myself deep into combat. Twirling around like a barbarian ballerina I did the waltz of war. Stepping in around the surging tides of enemies from all directions using [Flow of Combat] in order to not get overrun.

  Eventually the Yeti had begun to make a slow retreat, I knew what it was as soon as I felt a small but strong group la hiding out in a out cropping. They where planning on decimating our army by pulling back their armies in an attempt to lure us into a battle.

  I held up my hand and explained the problem with Anastasia.

  'Ah the tricky bastards, are you sure you're not distant cousins?' Anastasia joked at me.

  "Wrong type of Primate" I responded before spearing an Ogre with an spiral of rock.

  Eventually the Ogres also retreated this time we sat back and threw their own stone clubs at them taking out a few of them.

  With the skirmish on pause me and Anastasia pulled back into an Office I created.

  "Alright how do we want to play this? Do we lower the slope and skidoodle skedaddle outta here?" I asked her as I once again made a topography/Political map of the caves we had explored and the major settlements we had seen marked creatively as 'Yeti-Town 1" and "Ogre-Place 1" and began to lay out the problem with each.

  "If we double down we could be soon fighting a Superior force that out numbers and out guns us ten to one." I mused as I imagined what would happen if both forces pulled themselves into the Meat grinder.

  "The Second one requires us to maintain and hide our ruin base in order to be effective" Anastasia replied. I began to speak before stopping thinking about it and continuing.

  "Let's go with plan—"