They ran for most of the day determined only to stop for rest when Gorvak needed it. However, despite his injuries he managed to keep pace with them until they stopped for dinner which greatly impressed the werewolves.
The ogre race was known for their great strength that even rivaled or surpassed the Beklaedning clans' strength, but they hadn't known that ogres also possessed such great endurance.
Gasping for breath Gorvak struggled to stay on his feet as the others prepared a meal for everyone.
"Gorvak, you should sit down while you can. Looks like it took everything you had to run with those injuries." Chronos said while gesturing at his side.
One of his injuries had opened causing blood to cover his side. Another werewolf offered him a strong healing potion to close it again; he had already taken one before they started running but it obviously hadn't been strong enough.
Taking the potion Gorvak said, "Thank you. I'm sorry for slowing all of you down, it's obvious that you aren't moving at your max speed."
He poured half the potion on his side and drank the rest.
"Hmm, that's fine, one more powerful warrior will always be welcome, but once we arrive, we'll need to have a priest look at you. Did you notice anything unusual while we were running?" Chronos asked.
"Wouldn't you have seen it if something was wrong?" Gorvak said.
"Not necessarily. Different races see different things, like for us werewolves colors are slightly muted, but we can hear and smell more than most. On the other hand, certain birdfolk can see more colors than other races. Since we all see things in slightly different ways I figured there was no harm in asking?" Chronos explained.
Gorvak thought about the journey here trying to find anything that might have stood out but that the werewolves hadn't reacted to.
"I can't think of anything, even my horns aren't reacting to magic right now."
"Your horns react to magic?"
"Yes, it's rare to find an ogre with strong magic but all of us can feel it being cast and somewhat resist it using our horns."
So, ogres had great physical strength and possessed magic resistance! No wonder they were considered one of the stronger races in the world.
Luckily for the weaker races the more powerful your race was the harder it was for a new member to be born, this included the Beklaedning clans members. It didn't help that Chronos' clan was very combative which caused them to lose members from every generation during both large and small conflicts.
Once Gorvak had recovered enough to stand, they went to the cooking area for food.
Today they had soup made with crocodile meat and various herbs that had been gathered during their run along with hard tack that all of them dissolved in the soup. It was almost inedible when not dissolved.
Chronos saw a whisper bird from the dragon paladins arrive and sat down with Aunt Freydis.
"I hope our sudden excursion isn't causing too many problems for the fort."
"Not many. Your friends passed the system to everyone in camp then went with Commander Stan to catch up to you. My Black Fang battalion is with them as well, so we'll meet everyone at the fortress before taking some members to hit the known ritual sites.
The lizardfolk are looking for more ritual sites in any suspicious rivers or streams but I don't expect them to find anything in the short term. Oh, and Commander Stan received a message from the royal court, an army of 15,000 is coming to the eastern edge of Dracon Fen. They're being led by the Leybound Crucible Knights to construct a crucible castle." Freydis said.
"Seriously?" Freydis nodded at Chronos' question. "I thought the crucible knights never left the capital."
"They do leave the capital on occasion. Mostly to construct cities or key defensive structures, sometimes to repair them too. Don't let their position as magic engineers confuse you, they're knights are excellent frontline combatants just as strong as any paladin." She hinted at their capabilities without giving away any important information.
Chronos was a little annoyed that she wasn't being straightforward with him, but she couldn't really tell him much. The Leybound Crucible Knights were one of the orders that answered directly to the king and had played a major role in the construction of the capital city.
Their order's methods were considered national secrets that only those who joined the order were qualified to learn. Discussing them outside of the order could be considered a betrayal of the nation, especially if other nations were to learn their secrets.
What Chronos did know was that any castle they worked on was called a crucible castle and possessed magic that could turn the tide of battle if needed. Since the kingdom's founding 1000 years ago none of these castles had been taken by an outside force and any castle lost to treachery was swiftly recovered by the royal knights and crucible knights before the traitors could uncover its secrets.
"I guess the king is taking this threat very seriously if he wants a crucible castle built. Or maybe he knows something we don't." Chronos said.
"He always knows something we don't, the Leighla assassins keep him updated on anything going on in nearby nations. The better question is what is the Vhalic empire doing that he feels the need to construct a crucible castle at this time." Freydis said.
"That's right. Dracon Fen has been a part of the kingdom for nearly 400 years, but we've never built a castle here before. Is there a major war coming?" Asked another werewolf.
"We've got tears forming all over the place, armies moving to protect territory that's not theirs, and now devils coming from the wasteland. I think the war's already here and we're just late to the party." Chronos stated.
Sometimes Freydis wondered how this nephew of hers managed to reach the right conclusion, most of the time, despite walking a path that shouldn't allow him to find it. He shouldn't have been able to encounter so many extreme situations just a month after leaving home but he had and now he knew.
"You're right. I just wish we knew where it started, instead we can only react to what the enemy is doing." Freydis said.
History had proven that when the tears appeared there would be a lot of idiots trying to take advantage of the mess for personal gain. Most of them ended up dead without knowing how they died and right now her goal was to prevent her men from being amongst those idiots.
Although thinking about how the clan acted both now and in the past, they were more likely to die while fighting whatever horror the other idiots released.
"That's enough talking. Finish your meals then we start running again. We're going to reach the fortress before sunrise, I want it prepared before the others' arrive." Freydis yelled at them before they could be further distracted by the conversation.
After finishing their meal, they started running again.
They ran well into the night and reached the fortress just before the haunting hour which was the time when guards were the most exhausted and ghosts or ghouls were the most likely to manifest.
As they approached the fortress a familiar foul smell hit them but this time it was much stronger.
"Spread out, I want as much information as we can gather." Freydis growled at the others.
Barking at each other they started searching the area while avoiding notice while Gorvak and Chronos stayed with Freydis waiting for a report.
When the scouts returned it was discovered that more of those black cloaked knights had already taken the fortress, but they hadn't repaired it at all. They hadn't been able to confirm the black robed priests within the fortress but from the smell there were definitely some here.
The scent also indicated that there were a large number of devil beasts inside, too many for their small group to deal with.
After reviewing all of the reports they decided to send a message to Commander Stan before planning an attack. Sending the whisper bird to him they then had to wait for a response which was very hard on the group of excited werewolves.
While they waited a commotion suddenly came from the fortress. Sneaking closer they saw ghosts attacking the walls of the fortress along with a few swamp zombies.
Looking closely at the ghosts they could tell that they weren't wearing clothes suitable for a swamp when they died. They looked similar to what the people they had freed were wearing.
"Hehe, serves them right. Don't they know that sacrificing people will cause them to rise as ghosts later on?" Chronos chuckled.
"Of course they do. They've been sacrificing people all over the swamp to prevent the ghosts from gathering." Freydis growled at him.