Dimitar and the thousand or so soldiers behind him were fleeing as if the Grim Reaper was on their tails; their screams for help were hitting the high walls of the headquarters and rising towards the starry sky.
The first to heed these calls would be the guards patrolling on the walls. In those moments when the moon was hidden behind a cloud unlike the stars, a voice was heard from the headquarters front.
"Stay where you are; if you approach, the archers will fire!"
Unease brought by the destruction of border outposts one after another prevailed in the region under the management of the Mercenaries these days; the ordinary soldiers, feeling this most heavily, were practically performing their duties on pins and needles.
"It's us, don't attack; we were ambushed, they are after us, please let us in!"
While the commander who had switched sides was shouting for his life, those outside the wall had already been reported to the commander on duty, and through him to their superiors.
No matter how much he begged, the situation wouldn't change. Some whispering would start within the group whose advance stopped due to a few warning shots fired.
"Why aren't they letting us in!"
"Oh no, did they realize what we did?"
Just as the grumbling, increasing one by one, was about to become audible from long distances, Dimitar exploded like a silent bomb.
"Shut your traps! Didn't you see what happened to those who tried to flee before?"
After the veiled threat, the voices would be cut off like a knife; undoubtedly, his soldiers hadn't forgotten that tableau of savagery that took place right in front of them.
Fortunately, what they feared wouldn't happen to them. Before the slowly opening gate, numerous soldiers came out and secured the entrance. Subsequently, with the bridge whose steel chains slowly began to be lowered, they crossed the water pool around the headquarters and connected to the land.
Nafız hadn't sent back all the soldiers she took captive along with Dimitar; a force of a thousand people would both draw less attention and be sufficient to meet the figure necessary for her plan.
Dimitar had become the last person to enter the headquarters with the air of a loyal commander, but he certainly didn't expect to be dragged away by two guards linking arms with him the moment he took his first step.
"Where are you taking me? Who are you?"
Seeing himself practically plucked from the crowd before getting the chance to open his mouth, the commander had gotten quite flustered.
"Shut up, the Headquarters Commander-in-Chief wants to see you!"
Dimitar's facial expression changed rapidly with what he heard; aside from the event happening by following a more official protocol, he knew as well as his own name that he would be subjected to a strict interrogation.
"Get inside!"
Dimitar, brought forcefully to the command center in the middle of the headquarters reminiscent of medieval castles built on a large area, paused first to tidy himself up.
While drawing a deep breath into his lungs, knowing this could be his last, he didn't shy away from acting roughly. When he finished all his preparations, he put on the emotion mask he had pondered over along the way and firmly grasped the door handle.
"Sir, you summoned me!"
The interior of the room he entered had a dim atmosphere due to insufficient lighting; light didn't leak out from the windows covered with thick curtains, and the thin smoke of the candles on a large table was mixing gracefully into the air.
"Dimitar, what is happening? Where is the commander of your unit?"
The toughest-looking one among the three people sitting behind the table spreading unrest shouted with an attitude that could be a perfect example of demanding accountability.
While the veins protruding from the side of his forehead writhed like worms, both his hands were on the table, clenched into fists.
"Sir, I am very sorry, Commander Antuan lost his life in the ambush we fell into!"
Dimitar had perhaps spent most of the road thinking about how he would construct this sentence, because the person who was the leader of the military wing of the support headquarters and the commander he stabbed to death were brothers.
"I'll flay your skin!"
The commander starting the interrogation had sprung from his seat like a wild animal; in one step he crossed the table, and in the next, he was about to grab Dimitar, whose face had turned white as a sheet, by the throat.
"Victor, get a grip!"
While Dimitar, from whose neck joints cracking sounds were coming as it was squeezed with full force, was suffocating in pain, a booming male voice came to his rescue.
The person speaking hadn't shouted, and while words left his mouth, they didn't carry an intent of bullying either; they were just applying a strange pressure on the addressed person regarding doing what was said.
"I apologize, sir!"
Victor, who hadn't finished breathing heavily through his nose, would withdraw two steps to the side of Dimitar, whom he was harassing with predatory gazes; on this occasion, the traitor commander came eye to eye with the person he feared most right now.
"I want to hear everything that happened down to the smallest detail!"
Support Headquarters Commander-in-Chief Fox Jurij, the sole boss of the largest and best-equipped of the three support headquarters.
This man was the most key part of the big gamble Nafız started to play. The blue-eyed man, who looked to be in his mid-fifties and clearly had come here in a rush without being able to tie up his hair falling on his broad shoulders, was waiting for the answer he wanted from Dimitar, on whom he fixed his eyes as if he could see even the darkest corner of his mind.
"Sir, when we arrived at the last surviving border outpost under the leadership of Commander Antuan, we realized the enemy had already captured it!"
"With the vast experience and directions of the ranking officer at our head, we were going to succeed in surrounding them in a short time; we all had the excitement of destroying these vermin that have been a nuisance to us!"
Dimitar hadn't stuttered for a moment while showering the man he killed without mercy with praise next to his brother; although these actions were done to soften Victor, on the contrary, they ensured the angry man got impatient.
"Cut it short!"
Seeing the drops of blood accompanying the sounds coming from the clenched fists of the grieving brother, Dimitar would continue speaking after swallowing with difficulty.
"When the attack order was given, four shadows burst out from inside the outpost, and each appeared in front of different walls. These were two orcs and two creatures; the orcs, one female and one male, were accompanied by a grizzly bear and a gorilla with giant dimensions!"
With the last sentence, Jurij's expression would change dramatically; although they knew whom the giant bear belonged to, they had no information regarding the newly appeared animal.
"Ignoring this last effort of the enemy, we assaulted directly inside; even though we suffered some losses, we managed to get half of our forces inside!"
At this moment, Dimitar trembled as if remembering the most shaking event he experienced in his life again; if she had the opportunity to see this state of his, even Nafız couldn't have helped but appreciate him.
"Whatever happened, happened after this minute, sir; following a black mist rising from inside the outpost, the screams of our dying soldiers started to echo!"
"Was there an explosion sound?"
The third person, who had been sitting silently in his place since the beginning of the events, finally spoke; this man was the person responsible for ammunition shipment and administration at the headquarters.
"No, the black mist appeared suddenly as if it came into existence from nothingness!"
"Continue!"
While Victor burst out impatiently, he was also shaking Dimitar roughly with one hand.
"While we were experiencing the shock of the event, arrows started raining upon us from all sides. Even though we wanted to go inside the outpost to help, we couldn't leave our positions as we were under heavy fire!"
"Shortly after, I saw some colored lights being added to the arrows; unlike the arrows that couldn't pierce our shields, these attacks were leaving us helpless!"
"We had no choice but to form a defensive circle with three thousand soldiers where our commander was located. I don't know exactly how long we stayed in this situation, but when the mist inside the outpost started coming towards us, we felt our time was up."
"Why didn't you ask for help!"
Listening to the tightening of the circle around his brother, Victor spoke with panic as if he was the one living those moments.
"We followed the standard procedure, sir, but the enemy was targeting the communication tools we sent as if specifically!"
"Continue!"
Jurij was showing some amount of understanding to the grieving older brother, but he also had an attitude as if angry at his interruption at the point where events got knotted up when he spoke.
"The mist was approaching step by step, and we were so surprised that it was as if we could still hear the screams of our dying friends. Even though the sounds came a bit weakened and muffled, I am sure even now that what I heard was their voices!"
The turning of the three commanders to each other would be so sudden that even if they rehearsed this thousands of times, it seemed impossible for it to be with the same fluidity.