Even the Black Sorcerer looked frightened. “Your adversaries, my Lord!” the Black Sorcerer said shakily. “They have come to the meeting.”
The Sorcerer gathered all the chieftains and brought them to the Council Hall. Soon, everybody was sitting around a large table, occasionally glancing at the children. The Death Lord was nowhere to be seen.
“Welcome, warriors and enemies,” the Black Sorcerer said. “We are here to discuss the rules of this war. You may give suggestions.”
One war chief proposed to settle the duration of the war. “The fighting begins at the first rays of the suns and ends with dusk every day. All agree?”
The warriors nodded. As the meeting progressed, the Scavenger took up the clauses of participation, the type of weapons and powers allowed, the theatre of war to be only in the Moor of Death, and more. The seasoned and experienced Scavenger was doing all the talking and therefore the children soon lost interest.
Archer looked around his gloomy surroundings, which left him dispirited. The walls glistened red, like blood. A sudden bang on the table shook Archer out of his reverie. He looked to his side and saw the Scavenger had risen and was leaning over the table.
“It’s absurd. You can’t do that!” the Scavenger protested angrily.
The war chief glared at him. “What’s wrong with it?”
The Scavenger took a calming breath and tried to keep his voice low. “I simply cannot accept it. No war has ever administered this ridiculous rule. It isn’t fair.”
The war chief raised his hand. “It is completely fair. Backstabbing will be allowed for both the armies, not only ours.”
“I simply don’t agree.” The Scavenger spat out each word. He gritted his teeth. His fingers hovered around his waist, where his sword usually was. He suddenly realized that he hadn’t brought any weapon. He withdrew his hand.
The Death Lord’s cold voice boomed around. I politely request the Scavenger to accept this rule.
The Scavenger remained firm and shook his head in disagreement.
There is only one way to solve this matter, the Death Lord stated, and that is by voting.
The Scavenger protested, “We are in the minority. The voting process would not be fair.”
But everyone ignored him. Instead, they all voted in favour of the rule. The Scavenger could do nothing. He was left fuming.
“It is settled,” the Black Sorcerer said. “Backstabbing will be allowed in this war.”
The Scavenger was seething with anger, but he controlled himself.
The Black Sorcerer again said, “So be it. The meeting concludes, then. We will meet in the war, gentlemen.”
Saying this, everyone arose and bowed at each other.
The Scavenger and the children boarded their chariot and rode back to their camp.
Daniel turned to the Scavenger. “Why did you not favour the rule of backstabbing? After all, we would be able to use it too.”
The Scavenger’s face contorted in anger. “Backstabbing is not the art of a true warrior. It should not be used even in the most dangerous situations. No good warrior uses it. The Death Lord knows that we will never use it. It will give him the upper hand.”
Daniel understood and nodded back, saddened.
Soon they reached their place, where the warlords were gathered in a council area, waiting for them to arrive. Matt was also waiting for them. The Scavenger greeted everyone and then narrated the details. Upon hearing about the backstabbing rule, all of them spat out cuss words, cursing the Death Lord.
The Scavenger continued, “As you all know, the war commences the day after tomorrow. We need to decide battle formations, plans to attack and defence, and a lot of other things. Let’s start with battle formations.”
One warrior, dressed in black, stood up and bowed.
Archer figured that he was a Ninja.
“We can make an arrow formation,” the Ninja said. “It will cause maximum damage.”
Another warrior stood up and expressed his doubts, saying it would be a weak strategy given that the evil army had a huge advantage of numbers on their side.
The Scavenger nodded. “You are right, of course, but I have a solution. We can put a maximum number of warriors in the arrow formation and form a circle at the back of it for defence. Adding two spike formations on both sides of the arrow will lead to a perfect battle formation.”
Murmurs and whispers ensued in the hall. The Ninjas spoke, “It is an effective formation, indeed. We agree.”
Most of the warriors raised their hands in agreement.
“Then, it is decided. We will use this formation,” the Scavenger concluded. “The Trolls and the Ogres will be at the front of the arrow.”
Everyone looked satisfied with the strategy.
“Now for the weapons,” the Scavenger said. “Let us make a list of the weapons that we have. However, it’s a wise idea to construct more. We have the field experts with us – the Anvil Heroes.”
Archer frowned. He whispered to the Scavenger, “But you had once said that you and the leader of the Anvil Heroes weren’t friends.”
The Scavenger nodded and whispered to him, “Although most of the Anvil Heroes have decided to not help anyone and have retreated into hiding, a section of them have arrived here to help us. And that includes their Chief.”
Archer nodded.
The Chief of Anvil Heroes detailed the list of the weapons, which included tiger claws, brass knuckles, gauntlets and iron fans. He also listed various types of swords such as short swords, broadswords, ninja swords, cutlasses, hunting swords, sickle-swords, scimitars, backswords, long swords, side-swords, curved two-handed swords, boar swords, flame-bladed swords, axe-like swords, machetes, hook swords and katanas. There were hundreds of weapons apart from these. The children stopped listening after a point of time.
That is good enough!” the Scavenger praised him. “Please also explain the traps at our command.”
The Anvil Hero replied, “At midnight, we will show you the traps because at that time there is minimum chance of any enemy spies around.”
Everyone settled on the plans. The Scavenger asked everybody to rest
