March

It is near spring when Tisus marched his army out of the Kingdom. A large force of some eighty-thousand men of various skills and duties. He knows about the Arcadian's bombing force, and as such, fielded more crossbowmen to shoot them down.

The army composition he has is much more pronounced than the infancy shown by the Arcadian's system. Leaning more in their specialization when it comes to ranged weapons, their mode of warfare would be vastly superior to the Arcadian's. But even so, he must trust his own in order to win.

Eventually, his army reached the outskirts of the Freian Kingdom. He camped his army outside as he sends a diplomat inside to speak of alliances.

The night came and went and he sees the diplomat come back in one piece, "My lord." The Diplomat begins, "They seek your presence in their court."

"I see." He pats the diplomat, and raises two fingers up, signalling his bodyguards to come with him, "I'll be speaking to them, you may stay in the camp for the meanwhile." The diplomat bows and disappears into the camp.

On his steed, he rides with his 40 bodyguards, each of them carrying a different weapon for specialized occasions. He rode safely with them, and it makes them an effective squad on their own.

Eventually, he reaches the royal court where the king of the Freians sits quietly upon his throne. He bows, as is the proper courtesy to anyone above you. "Rise." The king says eventually. He is aging, but still young, perhaps in his fourties. His eyes are tired, tired from their war between the kingdoms of the north.

"You seek for my presence?" Tisus asked, standing up, his eyes meeting the king's.

"You inquire for my alliance against the Arcadians, correct?" The king asked, still seated upon his throne.

"Yes, sir I did. I believe that my forces paired with yours would be enough to singlehandedly destroy Arcadia's forces." He argued, "Plus," He continues, eyeing down the king, "I don't think you have any incentive to refuse, do you?"

The king grit his teeth, he held his fist tighter but he breathed out, he knows that the wars slowly chipped away at his forces. He knows well that he can't possibly beat or even defend from Tisus' forces.

"Fine." He said, defeated.

"Then shall we talk about the agreements of our alliance?"

The king stood up and headed to an auxiliary room right of his throne, "Follow me." With that, Tisus and 10 of his bodyguards followed the Freian King.

In the grandiose study room of the Freian King he sat, two of his loyal advisors sitting beside him, with Tisus sitting in front as his bodyguards guarded the doors and exits. "Well then, shall we begin?" Tisus asked.

"Yes, yes." The king groaned.

The day went on, and Tisus left with 20,000 more men, including several thousand armored rhinoceroses. As for the Kingdom of Freia, well, it lives, for now.

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The war room of Arcadia is loud with the yells of the generals, other high-ranking officials that make up Astrian's army.

"Our spies report Tisus Magnus of Sicily marching an army towards Arcadia, why do you think we should not apprehend them now!?" Yelled Lieutenant Shua.

"They are 100,000 strong! We would be committing too many men into a meat grinder if we so much as attempt to attack them now." Argued General Zoroan, wiping the sweat off of his forehead after learning of the spy's reports. A 100,000 strong army full of crossbowmen and strong infantry.

"Surely you jest, Zoroan. This is the largest army that we are about to face. The least we can do is dwindle their numbers while they run theirs!" Shua argued back, he eyes down the general in a bit of contempt. But Zoroan shrugs it off.

"Crossbows! Shua, they have crossbows! And they are more well-versed in the arts than us! Not even our bombers could possibly hit against that!"

Astrian raised his hand as the lost-in-thought Emperor began to spoke in front of the angered crowd, "I've decided." He said. Astrian's words are law, and it is the final say in the arguments of the war-room, "Zoroan, run a conscript and increase our numbers as fast as we can. We need more men, even if they're not specialized, we just need more trained men."

Zoroan nodded and headed out straight away, Lixus then darted his head towards Astrian, "A conscript!? Have you gone mad!? Our men would not be strong enough, we'd be a mass of broken formations!"

"We'll have time to get them trained, General. We'll be fine."

"But we need to act quickly!" Yelled out Shua.

"You must not panic, lieutenant. No matter which route he takes he'll be delayed by at least until the next year. That would give us plenty of time to have a large-standing army. We would not equal his, but we would surely be close." Said Astrian.

"False! I would think that Tisus would be capturing Treoa and sailing straight into us right now." Said Shua.

"No, no. I reckon he'd gather more allies in the north and expand the number of his army further!" Suggested Lieutenant Medio.

"Or maybe," Lixus started, "He'd fully circumnavigate the bay and march from the north!" He and the other people in the war-room went into a heap of joyus laughter.

"The north! He'd have to pass the Larrowans by winter and lose half his army. I don't think even the 'great' Tisus Magnus would be able to pull it off." Astrian said.

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It was winter by the time Tisus arrived at the foot of the Larrowans. 'Perhaps', he thoughts, 'perhaps what I did was poorly planned. But there is no choice now.'

"My general." Tisus' right-hand man Lipold called out to him, "Should we perhaps wait for the winter to pass?

"The Arcadians will have caught up to our location. We must set a foothold in their land now."

"But, general-"

"Lip, we would lose a thousand men. And if you were to ask me if Sicily is worth a thousand men's lives, then you would only get one answer from me."

"And what would that be?"

Tisus didn't answer and merely marched his men into the cold reaches of the Larrowans.