A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1713 - 1713: The Emperor - Part 7

The ground seemed to rumble. That fear set in again – the fear the men had felt from the start. The dragon and its nest that Samuel had feared that they were walking into. But after all, he decided, this was no dragon. The coiling around his heart was not the claws or teeth of a mighty beast. It was more the rigorous constriction of a giant serpent.

It was not only fear that such a creature invoked. A dragon might bring about a sense of awe and mightiness, but the slithering of the giant serpent did bring out something else. It was that which was hidden in the long grass, away from the naked eye, so cunning, so intelligence, and so likely to make a man shiver with frightened distaste.

The rumbling grew louder, and through the trees, they caught glimpses of gold and of silver.

Karstly's eyes were wide with surprise, and Skullic was no different. The more that rumbling went on, the more they could spy of their enemy through the trees. Men in heavy plate armour, and horses upon horses, lofting their banners in the wind – the likes of which Samuel had never seen before.

It was more richly decorated than that of royalty. The way it sparkled in the sunlight made it seemed as if it were not threads that had been used to sew it at all, but rather true gold. There was decorated a creature that Samuel could not describe in a single word. Horse's hooves it had, and wings to go with it, as if it were a pegasus, but that was where its likeness to a horse ended. For a head, it had three, all of them with a serpentine quality, with tongues slithering from their mouth, and a giant serpent's tail coming from the horse's rear to complement the picture.

A mythical creature that had not yet a name, drenched in silver, with a true ruby for its eyes, and true rubies to mark the speckles of blood that lay at its feet. With those true rubies, Samuel had to assume the gold and silver that bordered it were true as well, for why would such a man, wielding such banners, spare only that expense alone?

Karstly said the name, almost at the same time that Skullic did. Not a name that was ever truly spoken by the high-ranking officers and Generals of the Stormfront, not unless they said it in a whisper, with a nervous glance to the corner of the room, to ensure that none might be listening.

""Tiberius,"" the two of them said together.

"Indeed," Hod replied quite promptly.

There, as if summoned by the name that was spoken of him, was revealed the silver-haired Emperor Tiberius, swaggered in armour so richly decorated that every sword strike on it would have freed up a fresh jewel, from diamonds, to rubies, to sapphires. The man spared not the slightest space for steel to shine through. It was only those jewels that he did so allow.

For his swaggering, he did not seem particularly bothered that his plan had been foiled. And now none needed ask no questions as to what that plan had been, for they saw the fullest extent of Tiberius' army streaming down that hillside. They came forth, and only seemed to continue, these rather well equipped men. There must have been a battalion of a thousand soldiers dressed entirely in plate metal – a rather indulgent expense, even when compared to the rest of Tiberius' display.

He had a heavy armoured horse division, and archers that marched with swords on their belts, seeming as if they would be almost as competent in the melee as normal infantrymen. Then he had his spearmen, with spears longer than Samuel had ever seen. They must have been a full three feet in difference.

Each battalion of that army of his was impressive, but what was most impressive, most certainly, was the size of it. Twenty thousand, Samuel did suppose, if he was being conservative, and that was not to count the recently routed men that had run his way. If he added those numbers to his own, then he would almost certainly—

"…Are those heads that they're carrying?" Skullic murmured, squinting his eyes, able to see a mighty distance. It wasn't long after until Samuel saw them too. The last line of men to move out of the trees, and their armour was bloodied. They were drenched in it, and those heads that they did carry, they were still dripping blood as they walked along with it.

Hundreds of heads, for hundreds of bodies.

"Deserters," Tiberius sniffed disdainfully, as his men threw down those heads into the valley, to join the bodies of their comrades below. "When you swore loyalty to your General, you sealed your life against his. What were they thinking, supposing that they could live and flee, when he had already perished?"

"…That damn rogue," Skullic cursed, clenching his fist. He couldn't make out Tiberius' words, but already, they had put together the picture in their heads as to what Tiberius had done.

Karstly had a different point of comment. "…He slaughtered three thousand amongst the trees without us noticing. Without disturbing those crows…"

"Indeed he did," Hod said. "There is a man that knows how to twist the world around him, to create a certain effect. Camouflage of a strategic sort. He's dangerous."

"That much is obvious to me," Karstly said hotly, sparing the Minister a look out of the corner of his eye. "And if not for you, I would have run straight into him…"

"He came looking for your head in particular," Hod said. "I would not fret too much on it. The trap was laid with the intention of being perfectly blind to the likes of you."

"And yet the problem is that I was blind to it, Minister. I need not your comforts," Karstly said.

Hod shrugged. "Very well. That is easier for me then. I shall say instead what I think. Your arrogance almost cost you the lives of eight thousand men. You believe yourself to be a General above the calibre that you are. Take note of the battlefield in front of you, Karstly, and find modesty. There is still much growth for you to do."