Warlock of War: My Ares System

"And you! Come down from there unless you wish to meet your end!" The man shouted, his dark red eyes suddenly snapping towards me, sending a shiver down my spine.

He was hundreds of meters below me, yet he noticed me without skills or skill of that matter… but how would he reach me?

Suddenly, from his trampled allies, Lu Bu picked up a long wooden bow about as big as his torso and stretched the string with his halberd serving as the arrow.

I immediately got up and attempted to run, but before I knew it, the weapon had whizzed past me, tearing out a chunk in my shoulder that made me click my tongue.

"He's strong… way too strong."

As I applied pressure to the wound, I thought for just a moment before peaking my head over the edge of the mountain, finding myself staring right at the beastly and almost demonic man right below me.

"I surrender!" I shouted, throwing my hands into the air, causing my shirt to be more soaked than before.

The man almost looked confused as he squinted at me before gesturing for me to come down, so I slowly wormed my way down the hill until I was right before him… and everything about him somehow changed.

His tattoo was covering a thick and deep scar that made me wonder what could have done this to such a sturdy being.

His red pupils were like two separate pools of blood, gathering the souls of each and every single soldier right here on this battlefield.

And then, finally, I didn't realize it from up top… but he was so tall that he was practically comparable to the hill behind me.

He had to be at least eight or nine feet tall with muscles bulging like that of a dwarf getting ready to smite the metal of the gods in order to forge a weapon so strong that even a godly being could be slaughtered.

"Hm?" He pursed his lips before grabbing my shirt, which suddenly turned into a suit of thick armor, which the man closely expected.

Wait… this wasn't here before… what the hell is up with this system?

[Malfunction fixed]

I looked up at the panel, only to have my hair grabbed as Lu Bu dragged me towards his horse, throwing me on it with barely any struggle.

I was still bleeding out, so I kept pressure on my wound, and as the remaining soldiers who weren't trampled on our side slowly gathered to Lu Bu's position, they began to question who I was.

"A deserter. We'll see his judgment when we get back… I have a strange feeling about him, though," Lu Bu muttered before hopping up onto his horse and beginning to lead the remaining soldiers down the dirt road where this small battle had taken place.

This clapping of horsefeet against solid ground resounded like a beating drum as we all ran back victorious over this small win.

I'm wearing the same armor as them, meaning I must be part of their side, but they did call me a deserter… so I must be careful about what I pick and choose to do next.

I won't ask anything for now, just so I don't draw suspicious attention towards myself by making them think I was a spy planted in their allied lines with their ally's trust.

There were so many points where I could fuck this entire thing up, so I sat quietly, all the way until we reached the end of the dirt road.

There was a decently sizable base camp with at least a few hundred soldiers ready to attack, but the strange thing was, it was right next to a large cliff that dropped straight into a massive river piercing through the mountain range.

It honestly wasn't that bad of a place to set up base camp because they knew they wouldn't be attacking from behind, above, and practically every side beside the one where we just came from.

That dirt road must be special… a trading route, possibly? Lu Bu was a warlord meaning he could take over land without the emperor watching over his back every single second that he went to war.

He must have a plan in his mind that I cannot fathom with my limited knowledge as of now… but I guess I should focus on actually living through this instead of being executed.

As I stared at the massively scarred back, which had been tattooed over in order to try and hide most of it, something clicked in my mind that I almost didn't remember.

[Heroic Persuasion]

As I activated the skill and my lips slowly twitched into a smile, I attempted to open my mouth and extract information since we were at the very front of the pack where most couldn't hear us… yet I still couldn't shake this feeling that gnawed at me.

I closed my mouth, attempting to reopen it and retry this again, but for some reason, no words came out beside a choking gasp for air.

"Fuck… I've lost too much blood…." I muttered before feeling my eyes roll back into my skull, and the rest… well, only the man sitting in front of me could tell.

…

"*gasp*... Huff… huff… huff… Damn… that's hot as shit," I groaned as the hot metal chains wrapped around my wrists dug further and further into my skin.

This pain was nothing, but I was scared they would actually melt through my wrists and tear my hands clean off… that wouldn't be the most fortunate thing.

"Up here,"

From my sitting position, I snapped my head upwards, finding myself in a large tent with a singular man, his blood-red eyes glowing as he stared down at me.

A lion… that's not a human, that's an entire lion, manticore, chimera… a monster.

"We patched you up. Shouldn't you be thanking me?" He asked, but his voice was so cold that I just couldn't reply as my eyes shifted down to my bandaged wound. "Your healing properties are quite good… though, you'll have a dent there due to the flesh being ripped out."