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The next day, while Grud's part of the army was still making its way toward Orin's battlefront, a rider coming from said front brought news.
"What do you mean the battle is over? Was there really an army?" Grud asked the messenger in confusion.
It is true, my chieftain, there was a column of Rising Horn tribe warriors, but they fell prey to the might of our shaman's… magic?" the messenger reported, still clearly trying to make sense of what he had seen the shamans pull off.
That was the level of secrecy surrounding their newfound magic that Grud had exposed, and even he could only imagine the scramble for power it would cause among his chiefdom's neighbors, whether friendly or not.
Not understanding how his family's shamans had defeated an entire army before he could even see any action himself, Grud asked the messenger to describe how the battle went, and grilled him on the details.
"Burned the whole column of marching warriors before they could react…using wagons to move fast while doing so." Grud muttered to himself after the messenger was done reporting what happened, more impressed than surprised. 'Why didn't I think of that?' he thought to himself.
"Regardless of the victory, we will march forward and secure the contested land." Grud said, 'I will only decide what to do when I hear from Orin.'
***
At the end of the day of marching, before Grud was about to turn in for the night and punish Mita's womb again, one of the sentries ran up to Grud. "Chieften, we got a messenger with a report from your son Voro."
Grud nodded and told the sentry to bring the messenger to the command tent.
"Report." Grud said when the messenger arrived at the command tent.
"Heavy casualties, but they managed to hold out until our backup arrived and pushed the enemy back." Grud summed up to himself softly, but the messenger heard and still gave him a "Yes, Chieften."
Despite holding a defensible position, Voro's team was performing worse than Grud expected. "Rest for the night. Tomorrow, you will lead a hundred men to reinforce the barricade. Dismissed."
***
The army led by Grud eventually arrived in Orin's operation area and ran into a group of Rock Claw warriors searching for enemy stragglers. From there, they were led to Orin's hidden camp.
When they closed in on Orin's camp, Grud woke and cleaned Mita up to get her in some presentable clothes to greet their son. And when they entered the camp, Orin and a few of his other sons who followed Orin were there waiting.
Before Grud could dismount from his horse, Mita hopped down from hers and ran toward her sons, hugging each of them before fussing over their injuries. The only thing that marred the scene of Mita meeting her sons again for Grud was the predatory looks the other men were giving her.
He could understand the stress these fighting men had accumulated from their hard battles, but he could not tolerate them openly lusting after his wife. This was easily solved by staring at them with a sliver of killing intent to give them a chill down their spine, and when they traced it back to him, it was more than enough to send the message "Mind what you are lusting after."
As Grud walked over to greet and hug his battleworn sons, he thought, 'It may not be the worst idea to let the men blow off some stress by conquering a few enemy tribes. It would also send a message to our enemies not to mess with us.'
After the greetings were over, Orin invited Grud and Mita to his command tent to share more in-depth details about their current situation.
"So you suspect that the tribes that requested our help are in some kind of cooperation with the enemy? How and to what end?" Grud asked.
"I have no proof, but they are suspiciously unwilling to fight the enemy. Maybe the enemy promised them something, or they want us in a weakened state to have better negotiation power after everything settles." Orin replied.
"Maybe… maybe…" Grud said as he rubbed his beard, "Unfortunately, we cannot end things like this. Since we have no proof of those who requested our help colluding with the enemy, we will let things with them lie for now, but keep an eye on them. As far as things go, our deal with them still stands. But I have just brought a second army out here as reinforcements, and I cannot let them go home empty-handed, nor will it be fair to ask your men to share the loot they have fought for. So, I have plans to invade the Rising Horn and Frozen Fang territories to raid their tribes for loot and slaves."
Orin, the rest of the family, and various tribe leaders readily agreed to the plan, with a few expressing concerns, but they were outnumbered by those who supported Grud's plan.
"What about Voro?" Orin asked, worried about the latest reports from his front.
"There is little to worry about. I sent nearly half my army to reinforce them. They should be able to hold out until we finish plundering a few Rising Horn tribes. It should be easy. If your reports are accurate, they started by sending the tribes nearest to us to buy time, and you killed them all. Then they sent their main army, and the shamans burned them all. That means the smaller tribes have lost most of their warriors, and the Rising Horn tribe itself has lost too many warriors to do anything about our invasion." Grud replied.
"Then why don't we just conquer the whole Rising Horn territory?" one of the chieftains from a smaller tribe that tagged along asked.
"You could, but as I always say, you can only keep what you can hold, and me and my men are not going to stay so far away from our tribe to hold the land. If you want it, your tribes will have to make the investment to hold the conquered land. For now, my objectives are loot and slaves while the enemies are weakened. If you choose to stay and hold the land after I am done, that is on you." Grud answered.
After a few seconds of murmuring among themselves, the chieftain who asked the question said, "Thank you, Chieftain Grud. We will discuss this among ourselves." turning to the gathered chieftains from smaller tribes.
"Good." Grud said and turned to Orin. "How long before you men are ready to move again?"
"Two days." Orin answered.
Grud nodded and stood to leave, "Good. Rest well, and I will see you tomorrow." Grud said as he offered his hand to Mita.
She shook her head and said, "I want to spend some time with my boys." to which Grud nodded and gestured to Orin with his eyes to look after Mita.
***
Over on Voro's front, things have been peaceful since his shaman siblings arrived and rained fire on the Frozen Fang warriors… relatively… instead of a full-on assault of the barricade, for the past two days, since reinforcements arrived, the Frozen Fang forces have been performing night raids, probing the defences.
On the second night, they actually managed to somehow sneak two of their men into the encampment and almost kidnapped a shaman who went to take a night piss, but they messed up when they failed to knock the shaman unconscious on the first blow and caused too much of a ruckus.
After that failed attempt, security was beefed up, and all the shamans gathered in a few large tents that were guarded around the clock.
On the morning of the third day, tears of joy almost came to Voro's eyes when he got news of reinforcements marching to his position, and happily greeted them when they arrived. The moment the greetings were done, Voro wasted no time changing the guard and making sure all his men got some rest.
It did not take long for the enemy to notice the fresh-faced and clean-armed replacements and sent out probing attacks that were easily pushed back, and from the reports of the fighting men, it seemed like the Frozen Fang warriors themselves were not fighting to kill and fought defensively before retreating.
A few days later, another hundred of Grud's men reinforced Voro's position. A couple of days after that, a messenger arrived at camp to report to Voro. "Your father, Chieftain Grud, orders you to hold the position. The Rising Horn army has been destroyed, and your father is leading his army to raid a few Raising Horn tribes in retaliation before coming here to battle the Frozen Fang and raid their tribes in retaliation."
'Just hold position?' Voro mentally snorted to himself. 'I have been doing that for weeks, and now with the new magics my shaman siblings bring and the hundreds of men in reinforcements, we can defend for weeks!'