After the death of the red soldier, the formation of the army came apart in its entirety. They were barely hanging on when the golem was destroyed. From what Henry could gather, the red soldier commanded a great deal of respect and reverence. It was a good choice to take him down without any fuss or dey. The soldiers began to panic immediately after seeing the red soldier being severed in half.

  The soldiers bounced their gaze between their now-deceased commander and the gigantic beast that killed him. Rage brewed in their hearts but fear stirred all over their body, overwhelming the rage they felt for the death of their commander. If the beast could kill their commander and destroy the golem with ease, they shuddered to imagine how easily death would come for them from the beast.

  The soldiers dropped their weapons and began to flee. Some were even too scare to run and could only stand frozen in pce as they either wet or shat their pants. Some even broke down straight away, crying, bawling, and begging for mercy. Some were confessing all the wrongs they had done in their life as they prayed for the gods to be merciful in their afterlife. Looking at the pitiful state of these soldiers, Henry almost felt sorry for them. Almost.

  He was at war. He was well aware of this very fact. And there were many lives at stake. Letting these soldiers flee would be foley. Steeling his heart, Henry cut down the fleeing soldiers with his Jetstream Breath. He didn’t use it continuously like always but let it loose in bursts. He aimed for their heads. He aimed for a swift death for these soldiers. They were enemies but he didn’t hate them. It was just fate that they were on opposing sides.

  “I have already killed many today… Thousands… What's ten more among the lot?”

  Henry did not kill the one who didn’t flee. Not yet, at least. Since the mages were all taken care of, he could take his time, though not as long as he would like. Time was still against him. He assumed his human form and approached the soldier that was nearest to him. The soldier was on his knees. His pants were wet all the way to his ankles. He was shivering uncontrolbly. His arms were raised, indicating his submission.

  As the soldier had a helmet on, Henry had to pry it off so he could look at the soldier’s face. Not because he was curious about what the soldier looked like, but because he wanted to gauge their expression as he extracted information from them. What Henry didn’t expect was that the soldier in front of him was only a boy, barely a man. Henry froze when he saw just how young the boy was. The soldier was younger than Henry was when he passed away.

  “P-please… Have mercy…” the boy soldier said fearfully with tears and snot coming out of the respective orifices, not accounting for the other stuff that was oozing out of his more… private orifices.

  Henry snapped out of his daze at the boy’s whimper. He couldn’t afford to be lenient now. If he showed weakness now, he was afraid he would repeat the same gesture in the future. This was not a forgiving world. Weakness would surely lead him to his demise. Once again, he steeled his heart and began questioning the boy… no, the soldier. “Where were you heading?”

  “Ulrum!” the answer slipped out of the boy’s mouth immediately and smoothly.

  “How many more are heading towards Ulrum?”

  “T-thousands… And more. I don’t know. I’m not sure. I’m just… I’m no one. Just a foot soldier.”

  “Tell me about the war machines and the Syers. How many of them and what kind.”

  “I don’t know. I truly don’t know. They don’t tell me any of this.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” Henry growled. He wasn’t loud but his intent was clear.

  The soldier shrieked. “I don’t know! I truly don’t know!” The boy couldn’t hold it in any longer and began to whimper, but he tried his best to keep his whimper as quiet as he could.

  Henry felt his heart being wrenched and torn open. “So this is war…” he muttered inwardly. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had four women back in Ulrum, he might have even set this soldier free. But as, there was too much stake and he couldn’t afford the risk. Henry closed his eyes as he readied himself to take the soldier's life. However, he opened them in the next second. The least he could was to look the young soldier in the eye as he killed him. He brought his cws down and the young soldier colpsed to the ground, unmoving.

  It felt different from experimenting on the vampire, probably because he was once human and he was always a soldier, drafted.

  Sighing, Henry looked for his next victim. He chose the one that was closest to him. He pointed at the soldier. “You, talk. The same question I asked this one.”

  The soldier, instead of talking, began to scream incoherently and also started running.

  Henry was left dumbfounded by the soldier’s reaction. He expected the soldier to whimper and beg for mercy, not this. Henry sighed again and made quick work of the soldier with an Aura Bde.

  Next, he chose a soldier who seemed to be the one who was most sound of mind out of all the ones that were in despair. Henry approached that soldier and took off his helmet, revealing an elderly face underneath. The man had ashen gray hair and the scars on his face were abundant.

  Unlike the others, this soldier hid his despair and fears well. He was not sobbing or whimpering like the others. He kept a defiant look at Henry. In fact, Henry could tell this soldier still had some fight in him. He probably did not flee because he knew it was futile. A seasoned soldier, indeed.

  Henry knelt down before the soldier and looked him in the eye. He repeated the same questions to this elderly soldier.

  “I will say nothing,” responded the soldier. “Just kill me.”

  Henry could smell fear in this soldier but when the soldier asked to be killed, the fear scent did not intensify. The soldier feared his circumstances but not death. After a brief thought, Henry understood the soldier. Death was a sweet release to the soldier. He didn’t fear death but that didn’t mean he didn’t fear pain. Henry spat a tinge of venom on his fingertip before applying it to the soldier’s wound. In seconds, the soldier curled up on the ground and writhed, while screaming and wailing in agony.

  “I’m going to the deepest depth of hell for this…” Henry had such a thought.

  After letting the seasoned soldier suffer for a while longer, Henry gave him the antidote, which was his saliva. Since Henry didn’t swing that way, he spat some saliva on his finger and applied it to the wound which he administered the venom into. He didn’t know if it would work this way. If it didn’t, he would have to resort to other methods, which he was not looking forward to. However, the result spoke for itself as the soldier ceased writhing.

  “Look, I don’t enjoy any of this and I’m sure you don’t either. So, why don’t we make this easy on both of us? What say you?”

  The soldier raised his head with much difficulty and gred at Henry. “Go to hell, monster.”

  Henry sighed. “Fuck… Why can’t you people just py along… Why must you all make this so… difficult for me? I mean, I’m not even the aggressor here. You were the ones that attacked my home first and yet, you are all looking at me like I am the bad guy… like I am the evil monster… This isn’t fair…”

  “Cease your yapping and kill me already! I will not betray the kingdom.”

  “Evidently not,” Henry said and granted the soldier his wish.

  The remaining soldiers either shrieked or simply stared without a sound, they were too horrified to remember how to use their voice.

  Turning away from his test victim, Henry gnced at the ones that still remained. At some point, the remaining soldiers had taken off their helmets, probably because it was getting hard to breathe or it could be a show of submission. Whichever the reason was, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that they answered his questions.

  Henry knew this wouldn’t be easy but he didn’t want to give up. He was already behind the enemy’s lines. It was an opportunity that was hard to come by. Rather than wait for them to show up at the doorstep, intercepting them before they amassed their forces was a much better tactic, or at least Henry thought so. If he knew where all the troops were, he could get the drop on them. They used these golems to escort the important offices, not knowing that they had just made themselves an easy target to Henry.

  Henry approached the next person and this one immediately threw in the towel.

  “I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” the soldier shouted. “J-just… spare me… I will not divulge anything about you. I swear.”

  Henry doubted it but he didn’t let the soldier know. As they say, ignorance is bliss. “Fine. I’m sure you have heard the questions. Same ones. Answer them now.”

  “The assault troops numbered over eighty thousand. Ten thousand in reserve, waiting near the capital in case they needed more. The strategy is to have half of the combined forces to charge from the front. While the Ulrum forces are distracted, the rest would come in from the sides. They will be light infantry units, no machines. There will be Syers to guard the commanding officers and the mages.”

  Henry wanted to ugh. He used to find the Syers so threatening but now, they were no better than these foot soldiers. Still, he didn’t intend to lower his guard. After all, he had yet to face an army of Syers. Unlike humans, these mechanical soldiers had no fear nor the weakness of pain. They would fight to their death. They would keep on fighting even if they were gravely damaged. They were disciplined and organised. Henry simply hoped he would never need to encounter a battalion of them.

  Without being told, the soldier proceeded to spill even more information, ones that Henry did not ask for but they were more than welcomed. The soldier went as far as telling Henry the key individuals he needed to be cautious of. The Arch Knights, they were called. There weren’t many of them, around two per battalion at most and only some of the battalion had them. However, a single one of these Arch Knights was on par with the strength of a thousand.

  “Oh? Is the red soldier one of these Arch Knights?” Henry asked. He didn’t sense the red soldier was different from the others and also significantly stronger. Yet, Henry easily felled him without breaking a sweat.

  “Red soldier? Ah, you meant Captain Lewison?”

  “Whatever his name is— or was.”

  “N-no… Captain Lewison isn’t one of the Arch Knights.”

  Oh? How do they compare with that… red soldier?

  “Uh… Captain Lewison is strong but… he’s no match for an Arch Knight. He’s more of a leader than a fighter. The Arch Knights are… feral. They don’t listen to anyone but His Majesty and the proxies appointed by His Majesty.”

  Henry raised an eyebrow and suppressed a chuckle. He wondered if the soldier realised he just given himself away. By referring to the king as “His Majesty”, it only exposed his remaining loyalty to the kingdom.

  Perhaps realising his mistake, the soldier’s face paled and he began trembling uncontrolbly.

  “You know, even if you didn’t slip up, there’s no way that I would trust you. I mean, you did just reveal everything to me you know about the army just because you fear death. If the kingdom threaten you the same as I had, what’s stopping you from telling on me?”

  “No, no! I won’t! I swear. I—”

  “Enough,” Henry muttered and made quick work of the soldier. “For what it’s worth, you have my thanks and mercy.”