Chapter 24 - New Mission (1/2)
Theoric seeing the shock on everyone's faces and the paling of Herlu's was somewhat surprised, he knew his reputation is well known around his circle of influence, but seeing the looks of recognition from even the most basic soldier here made him realize it spread farther than he thought, guess with a nickname like the butcher word gets around, he thought to himself.
Vott was taken through a whirl of emotions too, he never thought that the Theoric he was with was the Theoric, the butcher. He had a bad reputation for lashing out at the smallest things and ripping the limbs off of all his foes no matter how big or small the slight against him.
Herlu with a pale face went very quiet not knowing what to do now, the last thing he wanted was to get his head ripped off.
Laughing awkwardly he said- ”Well, umm, if Mr. butcher... (seeing the frown forming on Theorics face after being called butcher, he quickly changed his form of address)... I mean if Mr. Theoric vouches for Vott, I'm sure I was mistaken.” His back now drenched with sweat.
Bowing to Theoric, he turned nervously to his men,- ”Let's go.” he said scurrying away with them right on his heels.
A small cheer broke out amongst Vott and his men with the former laughing loudly at seeing Herlu flee.
Vott happily smacking the back of Theoric laughed- ”Haha, why didn't you tell me you were that Theoric, the butcher, nice to have you on my side, seeing the look on his face when he found out who you were was priceless.”
Theoric- ”Thought it would be easy to figure out after I told you my name and how I could speak to the king.”
Vott grinning- ”Didn't really think about it back then, just thought you were another big mouth spouting nonsense, gotta say though you have an awful reputation, though after fighting with you I can kind of see how you got it.” he said thinking back to how Theoric sliced through his enemies whenever he got the chance making a bloody mess.
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When Herlu was far enough away he slowed back down grumbling about his bad luck, wondering how Vott ever got to know Theoric.
He ended up going back to the sh.i.p.s which were stationed a good distance away from where the battle took place, trying to create as much distance as he could to forget about the humiliation he just went through.
From the shadows of the underbelly stepped out a regular blue caped soldier,- ”I heard about how Theoric embarrassed you in front of the men undermining your authority, I have a way you could get rid of him and Vott if you would like.”
Herlu not even realizing how strange it was for someone all the way out here to know about it was intrigued,- ”Go on, I'm listening.”
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Theoric sitting by the campfire with a few men as night fell, eating rations provided, had a rare occurrence when one of the men actually decided to speak of his own accord.- ”So why do you think they retreated? From what I saw it seemed like we would get overwhelmed eventually if King Odin keeps our stronger forces from fighting.”