When the warriors went to rest and sober up, the children and elders prepared for the unavoidable battle.

To calmly prepare herself, Blue-amethyst left her daughter to her own father who is an elder on the night before.

Inside her own tent, she wore a shoulder leather peace and looked at the frowning Sandworm nakedly sitting at the edge of her bed.

"For the first time ever, I willingly brought you to my bed, I was ready to face your after sex's I love you' bullshit. But instead, once the did was done you couldn't be bothered to speak. You were really changed by her. In a good way."

Blue-amethyst sighed and looked up. "Thought she does like pillow talk "It isn't complete without it." she says."

Sandworm looked at her infatuated eyes.

The woman he coveted, the woman who despised him. He pursued, pleased, impressed. when all failed, he chose to use his authority and had her to himself. But it didn't change a thing. She despised him even more.

Then Zhi Rui came and through nudges and curt words he was shown a new method of living, now he's more satisfied with his own actions and obtained true respect. Even the woman of his fixation came looking for him.

This is a ruthless world, nothing is ever purely free, it can only be considered a disease if someone was to be born good. You train a fifteen old child to fight so he can protect your interests, and not for his own safety. That's the world he lives in.

H never doubted it for a second.

That's why sandworm always thought of Zhi Rui, he analyzed her every action to see what could possibly be her intentions.

Blue-amethyst looked at his lost gaze and frowned.

Sandworm stood up rolled a thin bed sheet around his waist and without a word he left.

BLue amethyst stopped and just staring at his back, the vein in her forehead bulged up.

----

----

----

As the morning passed slowly and the raindrops grew lighter, the noise only grew, two meters deep trenches were dug in a circle around the tribe with a small wooden bridge in the entrance. A warrior held the rope, with a pull it would be discarded.

Barricades were left slightly behind the trenches in various random places, they already had some unused built in a case of emergency. and just had to build a little more.

Sandworm oversaw and directed the defense measures.

A seemingly burly man came and slapped his back.

"HaHA! you're working like a maggot!"

Sandworm cringed but held himself back. he turned

"And you, how's the work?

"Same, same, actually I came here to tell our jobs on the spiked barricades are ready." He said and winked.

Sandworm nodded and saw the men going away. a mass of complicated feeling came over him.

----

----

----

Afternoon came, the sand reflected the heat, and the ones resting from their work were overwhelmed. But they remained equipped, only their helmet was off, the enemy might be too conceited and won't bother with a surprise attack, but they cannot afford to risk it in groundless assumption.

The enemy took their sweet time, it was four in the afternoon, and no sign of them had appeared.

Zhi Rui stayed inside a provisory alpha tent. Her eyes were closed and she was meditating reflecting on the moves of her physical arts, today she would put them to test.

After one hour, Zhi Rui felt the sand around the tribe move and gasps.

She opened her eyes and smiled.

Bue-amethyst stood in the lead of a twenty bow-wielding warriors. She got up on one of their shoulders a looked ahead.

The warriors all looked at her silently. expecting the enemy's news.

"Their numbers are above three hundred." Her words cut through the silence and struck everyone's mind.

Some almost buckled to their knee on the spot. The only thing holding them back from throwing their weapons on the ground was the silent tent in the middle of the tribe.

"Stand ready!" Sandworm yelled. Forty light armored warriors formed a semi-circle in front of him and behind the heavily armored warriors

Heavy armors and weapons opened the way and took damage, the more swift and lightweight dealt the gradual damage. While the archers would use the tribe's tents to maneuver and shot well-aimed arrows randomly, the rule was to find a new place after shooting an arrow three time in the same place.

Feeling the sound of steps moving and screams of command and compliance made Blue-amethyst's heart beat fast.

Imperceptively by the others, she grinned wickedly.

She wanted it, every time she fought in her life an unknown high came over her head. Making her bloodthirsty and ecstatic, like in the day Zhi Rui appeared, she got wet.

As they came closer, she could see at least fifty warriors atop lizards, a hundred man wielding longbows, the rest were free and walking as a horde.

An enormous wooden carriage adorned with glowing green stones slightly rare in the place where they lived came slowly being pulled.

Slowly, as if on purpose, they neared without cries of war or scream only stern calm indifference.

Their lizard mounted warriors stopped five meters away from the trenches. the people inside where trembling.

the three hundred were spread around the trenches encircling from the front. As things were going it would be a battle of attrition, picturing that sea two hundred warriors charging in their own merely hundred with a hundred more archers on the other side. It was a lost battle.

Zhi Rui 's image didn't even appear on their heads, they were frozen due to fear.

Slowly the carriage was pulled to the front. Showing complete confidence that they won't need to retreat and that they were comfortable letting it stay there.

Slowly the side door opened, a thick-bodied man with a wide waist and a fat belly covering his muscles stepped out. His face was pallid.

His eyes bloodshot, with dark eyelids.

He walked in front of his army. mounted atop a lizard and stood tall.

Blue-amethyst stood on another warrior and watched from higher ground. while Sandworm stood in the middle of his formation.

"I'm BLue-lizard, the alpha of the lizard tribe..." His voice echoed reaching everyone clearly in the region.

"I understand, that this is a world of ruthlessness and that resources are scarce. War is inevitable! I had that ingrained in my head since young. But my father also taught me: War is the last case act. Unless your livelihood is in danger, there's no excuse to kill. I sent my boy here as a messenger! Everybody! everywhere! knows better than to kill a messenger!

He waved his hands pleadingly " He came in here in good faith! My boy, he...."

Tears streamed down his reddened cheeks.

"I wanted to take over this land by strong arms! but not my boy! he wanted his people to prosper! He said repeatedly to me. "Father, it's going to be harder to take care of everyone, but at least when we pass the worst we'll have them to share of success!" We fought numerous times! but he never caved."

He put his hands down and shook visibly in despair.

"Pieces! His body was torn apart and his honor was degraded! I Wa-"

"A rapist." a small voice cut him.

Sandworm stood straight and he looked with indifference at the men. "Your son had the fetish of strangling a woman he laid with to death. He called disposable. he usually did it with those who were about to turn fifty and headed towards a peaceful life as an elder.

The man stared with bloodshot eyes at Sandworm, he couldn't understand, he had triple their numbers, with what gal do they dare to quibble?

"YOU DARE TO PIN FAULT ON A DEAD MAN? WITHOUT PROOF!?"

"Sometimes, it was the opposite." Blue amethyst spoke, "He would take women who just turned sixteen and became officially an adult and tormented them for the whole night. They often become physically cripple or emotionally unstable."

His rage was repeatedly answered with cold and indifferent words, spoken without so much as a flinch, the soothing matter of fact tone keeps the warriors slightly calm, while ridiculing the enemy.

"MEN!" screamed Blue-lizard.

Al three hundred stood ready.

Numerous sound of metals and grunts resounded chaotically.

Blue-amethyst looked at it with squinted eyes. She had seen Zhi Rui's military methods before suddenly felt calmer.'

Even though the tension was building there was no sound from the alpha's tent.

Blue-lizard remained with his hand in the air. A few seconds passed, until a minute. The tension dispersed and the ferocious pose turned almost comical. His face boiled red.

The enemy knew it was a bluff and called it. He lost a bet, but soon he breathed in deeply and showed how he composed himself.

"No, my boy wouldn't want it like this." He said and smiled deprecatingly.

"In respect of my boy, I'll give you a chance, even though you stepped on my goodwill, even though you killed my son, for the barbarism, I'll allow those who surrender to live."

Even though he had an obvious blunder just a little ago, his words struck the minds of every insecure warrior.

Fear opened the cracks on the skull and his words shoved itself inside. They trembled visibly.

Anxiousness overcame the mind and the first one took a step forward to surrender suddenly stopped.

"ARCHERS! FIRE WHERE I AM!" Sandworms words echoed and he jumped down to the ground together with his soldiers, without a second a whip made out o bones slashed those around him. People were dumbfounded. Soon they started hitting back and he was cornered. Blue-amethyst was confused.

"Do as he said." Zhi Rui's soft voice came from the back.

Blue-amethyst didn't hesitate and pointed her finger arrow rained down all around sandworm killing everyone around him and two of the arrows found their way inside his shoulder and back.

As the dust settled, a whooshing sound came and three archer had their head cracked to the side. Zhi Rui stepped down and picked up her thrown heavy hammer. She jumped up, some times in the heavy armored infantry then she would go back to the more swiftly fighters a total of twenty died at Sandworm's hands, while ten were finished off by Zhi Rui.

The words of Blu-lizard were momentarily forgotten as they stared at the bloodied Warhammer, in Zhi Rui's hands.

She held it, and with her cape touching the ground she walked slowly. as she passed by Sandworm she whispered.

"Should you had been indecisive for two more seconds, you'd be dead."

Chills crawled on his spine, the visage of three archers falling with a blown skull was still there, and that could've been him.

He thanked himself for choosing to betray the plan in the end.

Blue- lizard together with some other tribe alphas were trembling.

"Instigating the despair ever present in my fellow men, so they would leave, and leave me with the ones you already have in your plan, a fight would break out, and before even reaching arms with you, we would be defeated from inside. Such a good plan, to win without single bloodshed on your side."

Zhi Rui voice traveled as she walked slowly to her tribe's entrance.

"Great schemes, you have underhanded tactics that I can't fathom the depth of. I liked the part where you said, you'd let live those who surrendered. But you forgot to mention you'll be using them as cannon fodders to the war."

Zhi Rui chuckled and reached the tribe's entrance. earlier she had waited for him to offer this pardon, those who'd be tempted were her warrior, those who didn't react were the traitors. She tracked and killed each one of them, now her army only has the necessary sheep.

And Zhi Rui couldn't help but laugh internally as her eyes grew blood red.

'After a few days, I can finally release this stress.'