"Ha ha ha ha ha, Hello there human, how can I help you?" Twinklehands was sitting in a chair, dressed in purple and gold silk, just as blinged out as Gnarlo was.
"I have come here to tempt you to switch sides…" Maro had his hand on the pommel of his sword.
"Oh ho ho, very brave of you Human, may I ask who you are, it's hard to negotiate with an anonymous party" Twinklehands motioned a servant to pour them some wine
"I think your guess is close, I am Maro, One of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Moon Empire, slayer of green fucks and race traitors yada yada yada… my title is getting a bit too long"
There was 0 surprise on Twinklehands' face… He took a moment to respond. "And are you in a position to negotiate… last I checked there are almost half a million men marching towards your city"
"That was funny, half a million… I counted only a couple thousand heavy Dwarf and some Human Cavalry… if you think any of those other races will do anything to benefit you, at best they will only slightly detract from your objective…" Maro was slightly amused
Twinklehands took a sip from his goblet and gestured to Maro to drink, poison or not. Even if Maro couldn't heal himself, his liver was strong after all his alcohol abuse. Not bad… good grapes.
"I assume you want us to fire into the backs of our own forces… not very honourable" Twinklehands twirled his cup
"A Gnome speaking of Honour… Honour is something you practice with opponents you respect… are you telling me you have respect for any of those beasts out there?"
"Very closed minded of you 'King', you don't see any benefit of a couple hundred thousand bodies on the field… your mind may not have a skill for tactics" The gnome spun some of his gaudy rings around his fingers
"I am not known for having patience with Orcs and other green and furry beasts… I have even less patience for Race Traitors… besides I single handedly infiltrated your camp and walked right in after decapitating one of your Orcs outside. It is you who has no mind for tactics, leaving Orcs as your guard" Maro rubbed the pommel of his sword, getting impatient
"Ha ha ha, got me there… lets start negotiating, what are your terms?" Twinklehands brought his jeweled hands to his face.
"You will pledge allegiance to our empire and our Gnome King, you will abandon all your siege equipment here and my men will escort all gnomes behind our walls, I will set fire to everything and kill any non gnome to make it seem we raided your rear line. What you get is to continue your life and you become free to pursue whatever business opportunities you wish, start a new chapter of your life in our Empire." Maro looked at him coldly
"And what if I refuse?" Twinklehands casually kept looking over to the exit, hoping he wasn't giving himself up
Maro knew right away he was stalling… screw it… lets have some fun.
"I will not harm you, I will leave peacefully and your entire army will break upon our walls… we will unleash our forces after the fact to raid and pillage hundreds of kilometers in every direction as whichever stewards are left will prioritize defense of their own territory, leaving the rest of provinces to fend for themselves… It won't be anytime soon but slowly and surely, the borders of the kingdom will be pushed back… every victory for us brings us thousands of new citizens… after we break this army, there will be no mercy, our wall is unbreakable, we will pin the skulls of every one who challenged us there." Maro was done. He wasn't going to kill him here, he wanted to show him how futile their efforts were… he didn't need to convince anyone of anything… he would show them.
Twinklehands was fidgeting with his rings furiously… he seemed like he was truly contemplating it.
Maro noticed that there was a rhythmic hammering sound going on outside… there was a pattern to the bashing… It was a message. Maro gripped his sword handle tightly.
Maro smirked, Twinklehands was careless… he had been used to manipulating Orcs, Beastmen and Goblins too much… he lost his touch… Gnarlo was way sneakier than him.
"Ha Ha Ha, so that's how it is… no worries Twinklehands… after this battle is over… the war will rage for years… I will enjoy breaking you… I know your worst fear is financial destitution and lack of status… unlike you I hang around Gnomes a lot. You will be my personal slave… no better yet you will be the personal slave to King Gnarlo, Tamer of Trolls… that is a punishment far worse than death"
Twinklehands was shaking "Now!" He yelled
Maro drew his sword in hand and a dagger in the other and watched as Orcs and Wolfmen piled into the tent… fucking idiots… too many people in cramped quarters, only favoured him… Maro changed his stance, kept his sword close to switch between opponents faster and activated [Bloodrush].
His aura of bloodthirst triggered the instinctual nature of the Wolfmen, one of the larger Wolfmen accepted the challenge and pushed through a couple of Orcs and other Wolves, only for them to get in the way and stumble towards Maro… all Maro had to do was hold his sword up and he killed two Orcs, his sword was too long for the tent and kept it embedded into the Orcs body. He drew another dagger.
The beasts and orcs tried to pile on him… Maro's hands were cramping from stabbing with the daggers non stop… The tent was a tightly packed mosh pit… all of their long weapons were useless.
Maro couldn't even see what he was stabbing anymore, he was suspended in the air by all the dead bodies, blood was absolutely everywhere… Once the commotion came to a stop, it took him 5 minutes to squirm his way out of there.
Completely soaked in blood, he popped his head out and Twinklehands screamed like a little girl and took off running.
Maro shook off as much blood as he could, walked to the next area of the Stewards tent and took the pillow case off… he looted whatever Jewelry Twinklehands had in his quarters and then flew up through the tent to find Twinklehands… he was going to let him go but that man was wearing Kilos of gold and jewels, he was going to take those.
He quickly saw the little Gnome running to the temporary stables and intercepted him…He flew hard into the ground on purpose to create a big dirt explosion.
"Twinklehands, leaving so soon? I promised to let you live and I will… but I also promised to make you destitute… all your jewelry in the bag please."
The gnome looked into his bag and saw that he was already robbed… he got a little angry but couldn't do anything against the man that slew almost 40 orcs and wolfmen by himself.
"Don't make me start cutting off your fingers for the rings" Maro smiled
Twinklehands complied in anger and took off every piece of jewelry he had… "Your silk robes look expensive too" Twinklehands complied again and stripped down to his underwear.
"Thank you for your hospitality Steward" and Maro flew off to find his men.
Maro knew he had pissed off the gnome and caused him to double down on their offensive, he welcomed the challenge and the mistakes he would make out of anger.