Every battle ended in tragedy.
There wasn't such a thing as a fight where nobody got hurt. It didn't matter who was good or who was evil, in the end, everyone would end up mourning someone they lost.
In this battle, that tragedy was even more prevalent.
There were indeed only 250 fighters on the Gehenna Tribe's side, and they were definitely weak by the standard of someone like Damien.
As he and his peers dealt with unreasonably powerful people and unreasonably talented geniuses on a daily basis, the average person would always appear weak to them.
However, the Gehenna Tribe wasn't necessarily weak.
Their methods may have had many weaknesses, but they survived in the cruel jungle for many generations for a reason.
Damien himself said it at an earlier time. The heights they'd reached with their backwards techniques were genuinely impressive.
Their opponents weren't weak either. They may have been common people, but they lived under the reign of a Count who would draft troops for random death missions regularly. They were forced to learn how to defend themselves so they could have hope of survival.
In fact, the training centers offered by the governing entity were one of the main sources of income for the territory. The Count's estate didn't even eat up funds like that from the extremely high tax rates.
In a place where fighting power was important for the most common of people, there was no such thing as an easy target.
The two sides collided without much conversation, and deaths immediately became commonplace.
The Gehenna hunters who took the frontlines immediately rained down attacks with arrows, culling several tens of enemies with ease.
Before the rest could advance, they took their swords out and charged.
Weapons collided and blood was shed. Body parts and chunks of flesh and blood started to paint the jungle's soil, creating the foundation of what would soon evolve into a huge mosaic of crimson.
There were no shields present on the battlefield. On the Gehenna side, it was because their bodies were more flexible than anything else. It was more efficient for them to dodge and use wristguards and similar light armor to block attacks.
As for the enemy troops…well, with a sadistic Count leading them, it was granted that they wouldn't be given shields.
The battlefield was quieter than a usual one.
The sound of weapons clashing would always remain the same, as would the screams and shouts of those fighting. However, there was a lack of explosions and large areas of madness.
The Gehenna Tribe had developed a precise fighting style meant for hunting with absolute efficiency. They aimed for weak points to kill enemies in the least amount of strikes possible.
Their opponents were humans. The Gehenna Tribe never hunted humans.
But they learned how quite easily by using what they knew about the weaknesses of their own bodies.
Their fighting power turned out to be far higher than that of the enemies, mainly due to their cooperation.
The enemies had good fighting skills. They couldn't match up to the Gehenna hunters who fought every single day of their lives, but not everyone on the Gehenna side was a hunter.
Only fifty of them were hunters. The rest were merely people who could pick up their weapons and fight for their families.
Against those people, they could fight properly and even kill. Over ten tribesmen had already died.
Still, the tribesmen had known each other for their whole lives. They lived together and interacted daily. Their understanding of how their peers would act in battle was at its peak.
The enemy was a force randomly chosen from throughout the Count's territory. Most of them had never even heard of each other's cities before, and because they had to make the trek to the jungle in silence, fearing the Count's personality, they couldn't get to know each other either.
They were extremely unorganized and often got in each other's ways. It wasn't rare to see one of them accidentally kill his fellow in the heat of battle.
The Gehenna people naturally took advantage of this. It was precisely because of the enemy's lack of coordination that they'd only lost ten people thus far.
They got more and more confident, and the grief that flooded their hearts every time they saw someone they knew and loved die helped them find the drive to keep fighting.
"Maybe victory isn't impossible."
In the heat of battle, where the Count's presence was forgotten, sparks of hope continued to collide in their hearts, making attempts to create a huge blaze that enveloped them.
It was probably because they couldn't see it.
They'd moved far away to make sure they didn't cause any collateral damage, and the explosive force had been contained within a certain area. Plus, the absence of two foreigners at a time like this wasn't something the tribesmen could pay attention to.
It was good that they couldn't see it. If they could, they would immediately lose all will to fight.
But the Saintess could see it.
And, without a doubt, it was taking place.
A battle on a completely different level from the one the Gehenna Tribe was fighting.
***
Tiamat and Darius were stealthy as they approached the Count and his people.
Their goal was to take the two Demigods as far away from the Gehenna Tribe as possible, so they didn't opt for a head-on confrontation.
Instead, they traveled far away from the clan, far enough that they could have sufficient space to fight while keeping their battle contained.
The Uruk ruled a relatively large territory in the jungle, so it wasn't hard to find a place that met their qualifications. From there, they focused their auras and locked onto those two Demigods, flaring their bloodlust.
Two heads immediately snapped in their direction, before turning to face the Count.
"Go ahead," the Count said with a smile.
"If you have been provoked, then you must answer accordingly. Go on and show them the terror I represent."
The two kneeled and bowed their heads, thereby vanishing into clouds of smoke.
They rushed several hundreds of thousands of kilometers to the west and finally laid eyes on the ones who dared to mock them.
"Hello."
Tiamat nodded, giving a mild greeting.
The two didn't respond. They merely flared their auras, directly combating those released by Tiamat and Darius.
The butler had a pompous expression on his face, as if he was looking at beings who weren't worth an ounce of time or attention.
The woman, on the other hand, remained completely stoic.
"I see. Straight to the point types, are you? That works out better for me."
Tiamat glanced at Darius.
"Which one do you want?"
Darius rubbed his chin as he looked them up and down.
"I'll take the woman. That butler looks pretty strong."
"I agree. I've been wanting to fight him since I sensed that vile aura he's releasing."
'Aura…?'
Darius didn't sense what she was talking about at all, but he let it be, thinking nothing of it.
"Since matches have been decided…"
Darius grinned wildly.
He was really starting to resemble Damien in his youth.
"...then let's get to the fun part."
Flames appeared in his hands.
And without a single second of delay, the first explosion of the day rang out on the battlefield.
