Chapter 24: The Army of Beasts
"The day has finally come, aye, Valon?" Vargan grinned, the dwarven king standing next to me.
"It has," I replied simply.
We were standing deep within the forest, positioned only a few miles away from where the Meadow of Love began. That line marking her territory was obvious, as far ahead of us I could see the change in scenery - the tree leaves became pink, the bright green grass looked like it was growing, and a deep mist filled the air.
We were on a small hill, standing a couple dozen feet above the flat ground around us. Beside me stood Raya, Ragnat, Ragnot, Ragno, and Podo. To Vargan's side stood his generals.
Behind us, a large mass of bodies stood - a collection of dwarves, cyclops, and dire wolves. The mass of subordinates stretched for as far as my eyes could see - an army of roughly 40,000 troops split into battionlions that were led by Pack Leaders and Commanders.
It was less of a joint army and more of two armies standing next to each other - the huge collection of dwarves and cyclops numbered roughly 15,000, all standing in organized lines with glinting armor.
My army was both more and less impressive - standing next to the dwarves and cyclopses was a disorganized and messy collection of 25,000 dire wolves. Compared to the organized and professional-looking army of Vargan's, my mostly mindless collection of beasts was much less intimidating.
However, the number of my troops still exceeded his - even with me massacreing much of the dire wolf population. Compared to the intelligent creatures from the Land of Iron, who were relatively normal with families, my mindless wolves were mating machines.
Shera, Runa, and Layna weren't just outliers amongst the wolves - all dire wolves loved to mate, and the pups grew up rather quickly. As a result, the dire wolf population still far exceeded the Land of Iron's, even with it being cut practically in half by my hands.
Along with the numerous wolves, there was also a mixture of other monsters that I forced under my rule, such as trolls and demon birds - though their numbers were much less than the dire wolf count.
On each of the dire wolves was there own set of armor - being much smaller than normal armor, but big enough to cover their torsos and heads. The gear wasn't anywhere near as impressive as mine was, but it was still enchanted armor nonetheless.