Rebirth of the Phoenix God

At first, the situation was quite strange for the small group of men that was tasked with following this foreign mercenary. While it was obvious that he had to be the mastermind behind the sudden change of their tasks, for some reason he was also the only one that wasn't given a horse!

Yet, it didn't matter.

As soon as Fen given the order, he released the dams of his power, allowing his fire to take over. In but a single moment, the young man's catalyst surfaced to the physical plane of the world, seemingly pushing Fen's body down at the ground with its weight. Instead of opposing this momentary force created by his body requiring a few short seconds to accustom to its new situation, the young mercenary allowed his knees to cave in. 

And then, he took flight!

Using his lowered position, as soon as his legs no longer continued to dig into the ground with his wings taking over their own weight, Fen rapidly straightened his body, ejecting himself high into the air.

Keeping his wings coated around his body for a moment, the young man allowed his weight to dampen the momentum of his jump and bring him down towards the earth. Spreading his wings only a moment before he would split his head against some random stone lying on the grass field, Fen nearly instantaneously levelled his flight up. Feeling how his body was nearly torn by the forces that didn't allow such rapid changes of momentum, Fen could only gnash his teeth as he turned his head to look behind him,

This was the main and sole reason why he bothered with such a dramatic entrance. He could use the words to convince the people behind him about his authority, but in this world, the words didn't really have that much weight, especially for people who could see a bloody battle going on just a few tens of meters away from them. If Fen wanted to command absolute authority over the men that were assigned to him, he had to make sure that they would understand the power gap that was between them.

���After the commander!"

Hearing the voice from behind, Fen's eyebrows raised in surprise. While he could expect some kind of rallying voices that his assigned people would use in order to raise their own spirits, the words that he heard were strangely close to the militaristic order that he could see amongst the few veterans that partook in the conflict. 

'What are the chances…'

Fen's plan suddenly turned a little bit more dangerous than he initially expected it to be. Depending on the personality of the veteran or veterans that would follow him, he might have to face quite a tough fight later on!

At least, with his head turned back, Fen could confirm that the group of his men kicked the sides of their horses and started to chase after him. Forcibly stopping himself from moving at even a speed that he could casually achieve, Fen had to make sure that his tiny unit would be able to follow him closely. 

After all, if he wanted to leave the battlefield, he could do it completely by itself. What was important right now, was the fake threat to the backside of the enemy army that had to be showcased, and a single person - no matter as powerful - would never be able to rile the entire army against himself.

'Fuck… they are really going at it…'

In just a few moments, the hill where Fen's small unit formed no longer could offer them the protection from the eyes of the enemy army. Yet, instead of some instant reaction force forming up to face their potential flanking attack… Fen understood that he didn't have to worry about any counterattack at all.

Just a single look at the ongoing fight was enough for the young mercenary to understand an important point. The enemy side most likely didn't really trust its own mercenaries and veterans at all!

By forcing them to stay in the very middle of the entire army formation, whoever was commanding the enemies effectively made his best forces incapable of any sort of manoeuvre, something that veterans desperately needed to bring out their full potential!

"Men!"

Turning around in midair while allowing his momentum to keep carrying him forward, Fen looked at the group of just twenty men chasing after him.

"Ignore the fight! Do not let yourselves involve in it! Let's just let them kill each other, while we will get ourselves rich in their place!"

Rather than prompting his people to ride their horses even harder or stopping them from allowing their innate bloodlust to take over steering them towards the battle, Fen's words were directed to the serfs of the opposing army who have yet to start fighting. Given how both forces consisted of several parallel lines of soldiers, only the first and maybe the second line got to enter the fighting right now, leaving all the others free for Fen to scare!

"Yes, sir!"

On the other side, Fen's unit didn't require any additional motivation to follow his orders. Riding past the battlefield just a few tens of meters away from where the people were killing each other, they most likely could understand how much better it was to simply go raid the defenceless villages and towns instead of suiciding into the flank of this dense group of people that wanted their blood.

With just a few more moments, few more steps of the horses and few more swings of Fen's wings, the group already managed to detach themselves from the direct area of the battle, approaching the border of the enemy campsite. Even though the organisation of those small wars was as bad as it could get, some degree of logistic was still required to put the soldiers on the line. After all, a man could only walk so far without food or water to refresh himself.

Yet, instead of cutting the enemy force from the retreat or reinforcements, Fen directed his force around the boundaries of the camp. Not only was there nothing to rob there - even though raiding was never the true intention of the young mercenary - if he were to remain here, but even a small group of deserters would also be enough to deal with his entire unit, putting a complete stop to his plans.

"Keep going!"

Shouting to the people riding the horses below him, Fen swung his wings to gain a bit of height, before forming two fireballs within his palms. After locating what seemed to be the firewood storage area, the young man simply threw his fire in that general direction before returning to the skies slightly above his units. 

Using the moment when his eyes could see far further than anyone else on the land, the young man quickly spotted what seemed to be the closest village from the current position of his troops. Pulling his wings towards his body and decreasing his lift, Fen used a quick dive to level his path to the rest of his small group.

"Follow me. We need to take a slight detour, but we will be there shortly!"

Shouting his orders as loud as he could in order to make them hearable through the noise of the nearby battle and the clacking of the horse's hives on the road, Fen pointed his hand in the direction where he saw the village.

And in just a few moments, his group appeared right at the outskirts of what was most likely the home to quite a few of the enemy soldiers.

Angling his wings against the wind, Fen quickly dampened his momentum before coating his additional limbs around his body and dropping down to the ground. While descending down from the height of about six meters made his knees feel like if he cut his legs away, the effect that this kind of heroic descent had on his men was worth it. Just a single look at their awed face was enough for Fen to tell that they would be willing to jump into the fire was that his order.

"Everyone… I led you here to raid… But I have to admit to something."

With his wings already protecting his entire upper body, Fen swung his fiery sword around to make sure his people would see that he was ready to fight.

"I never intended to raid anyone in the first place. All we need to do is make sure that every man in the army that opposes our forces will be convinced otherwise. That's why…"

Sweeping the closest area of the village with his eyes, Fen quickly raised his hand and pointed at three different houses that didn't seem to be doing all that well.

"I need you to force people living in those places out, and then to dismantle those buildings. Take the wood they are made out from and set the biggest campfire that this country has ever seen!"

In one moment, Fen could see how the looks on the faces of his people changed. Some allowed their relief to surface on their faces, finally realising that they weren't about to slaughter women and children that were left behind. Some didn't bother to hide their fury.

"Like if I care for some mercenary orders! If we are raiding we are…"

The rest of the sentence of the man that dared to speak out was cut, where his neck no longer had to be bothered with supporting the weight of his head. Using his wings to instantly add himself a lot of momentum with just a single swing of them, Fen launched himself forward, cutting the disobedient's man's head with a single swing of his fire-made sword.

"Anyone else has some doubts whether my orders are absolute?"

Raising his corporeal sword towards the line of his sight, Fen appeared as if he didn't pay absolutely any attention to the people around him. Lowering the intensity of his catalyst, the young man allowed the stable fires that made up the blade of his weapon to turn violent, quickly swallowing all the dirt and blood that was left on it after the short clash. 

This absolute confidence in his authority and lack of care about any potential attacks was what most likely broke the last bit of the autonomy within his men minds. No longer daring to even raise their heads at this seemingly god-like figure, the group dispersed, quickly forcing the three families hiding in the designated houses out… Only to let them do whatever they wanted the next moment as they proceed to cut their houses to pieces with whatever sharp thing they carried or could find around the area!

"Sir… Thank you…"

Before long, one of the men that Fen classified in his mind as veterans approached the young man with a troubled look on his face. From the looks of it, while he was happy about the way the things played out, speaking out like he was about to do was something that still terrified him, especially after Fen's showcase.

"What do you mean? And why aren't you working?"

Rather than bothering with the morel troubles of a man that he would most likely never see again in his life, Fen was close to disregarding the courage that this man managed to work out to approach him… when he recalled all those times when he was in the position of that simple soldier. 

This short moment of his memories appearing was enough to lessen his determination, making the young man's expression a little bit lighter.

"Okay then, what do you want?"

Initially scared off by the first reaction of his temporary commander, the veteran almost managed to run away, most likely unwilling to push his luck any further.

"Sir… I just wanted to thank you for sparing this village. In fact… This is where I was born… And in fact, one of the homes that were chosen to be dismantled used to be my own. When I saw my mother and sisters being pulled away… If any of those fuckers were to lay their hands on them, I was willing to break my oath and kill them all before either killing myself or getting killed by you… But you spared them. And for that… I don't have anything that I could offer to you outside of my honest gratitude and eternal hope that someday, I will be able to repay this debt."