For two whole days, they walked.

Initially, the newly appointed Sihapis marched and even were having fun as they tried to maintain a steady rhythm.

But when their Masters collectively decided to not take a moment of break for a total of eight whole hours, all the excitement dimmed like the afterimages of a falling star.

They were allowed to sleep for barely four hours before the march would begin again. But the next time, nobody marched in rhythm. Or more precisely, nobody had enough energy to try maintaining a professional stance.

"All you got is this? How are you people even going to survive out there in the frontlines?"

On the third morning, a voice shook everyone out of their disoriented state.

Gripping his trembling legs, David looked up. The muscles around his eyes stretched as he tried to clear the mirages he was seeing.

Master Zamian stood in front of his disorganised claw members, his eyes judging each of them but not hostile.

With a sigh and a shake of his head, he started to turn away. But before he did, he adviced them.

"Members of Claw Zamian, I can see none of you are in the state to even walk properly. But I think I got a piece of motivation for you all...the reason we are trying to move out of this dense covers of the forest area so fast is because of the high number of savage raids in here.

Just last year, a total of around eight hundred people died from their raids. So do you still want to be stuck here like sitting ducks?"

The change among the thirty one members was visible. Even though the heavy exhaustion made them weak, they still got up and started walking again.

The "motivation" from the piece of news that Zamian had shared was so efficient that Claw Zamian, which was one of the claws standing at the backline went ahead of Claw Gabriel as well.

David gritted his teeth as he read through the lies of his Master.

'Now why would my kind attack here when there are atleast more than a thousand people together? The Hermanns never sent a raiding party of more than fifty members. Same for the other major clans.'

He really wanted to complain against this or atleast argue back but he didn't even have the energy to open his mouth; let alone talk.

With another deep breath, he took a step forward. David felt he has been doing this the entire morning.

The grassy fields were stomped upon by over a thousand men as they marched forward, led by fourty Masters.

By afternoon, the Sihapis had finally reached the end of the forest as they were greeted by a vast expanse of empty grassfields.

In the far distance, there was a sentry of some sort. And just behind it, a watchtower rose up to the sky.

David squinted his eyes as he felt he could see faint movements at the top of the watchtower. But the clouds overhead them provided little to no visibility for him to confirm his suspicions.

"Well done guys. We have entered the range of our enforcements. The Isikolo isn't that far now." Zamian declared cheerfully, his voice and his body posture devoid of any exhaustion as if he hadn't been walking for three days like them.

The only person David saw who was still holding on was the big guy walking beside Master Zamian.

Even the nameless girl was in no better state than them. Her hairs were spilled over her face as her eyes appeared slightly bloodshot, no doubt from the lack of sleep.

'She looks even thinner than she already was.' David observed.

At that moment, a yellow flame lit up the top of the watchtower, taking many of them by surprise.

At first glance, it looked like natural fire. But if viewed properly, one could see that the flames lighting up the watchtower against the canvas of the gloomy sky was devoid of the reddish intensity one could typically see in the natural flames.

'Not only that, the flames aren't flickering. It's as if I am seeing something at rest, almost like a glowing bulb minus the glass encasing.'

Chuckling, Zamian mused. "Ah right. How can I forget about our heavy security? So before we move any further from here, I guess it's better if you know the security rules around here."

He gestured his claw members to sit on the ground, giving them a momentary respite from the exhaustion.

A passing Master saw this and asked Zamian, "You sure you want them to rest here? Try to get to the safe territory as fast as possible."

"Yeah, you people go. We are coming." Zamian did a thumbs up to his colleague, then turned back his attention to the resting members of his claw.

"Firstly, as many of you can guess, that's no natural fire. Rather it's elemental flames, steady and brighter than the natural fire.

But we have been able to change their colours using mana, which had been a strange mystery for decades as to why they would change their colours from the original yellow to something specific for different individuals.

Turns out our bodies have this certain kind of particles which upon coming in contact with the elemental flame turns it into a different colour.

Anyways, that's not the topic of discussion. What you people need to know are the different colours used by the watchtowers.

This yellow you see? It means that the watchtower has spotted movements under their range but aren't certain of what it is. You can assume all the nearby outposts are right now on slight alert."

Even as he said that, the colour of the flames suddenly changed from glowing yellow to a deep azure colour.

Zamian laughed heartily as he muttered, "What a coincidence. You are going to get a practical demonstration right now, so watch closely."

He then pointed his fingers at the other claws, all of whom were quite ahead of them by now.

In a tone befitting a patient teacher, Zamian explained, "Now that most of the groups have entered the watchtower's range of vision, they changed the signal. Blue flames mean that whoever is approaching them is now within the attacking range of the nearest outpost."

His eyes then narrowed as his fingers counted something like he was anticipating something to happen.

And just as his fingers reached the count of five, the flames once again changed colours.

"Yeah, quite a good prediction I did there." Zamian chuckled once again, before he explained them again.

"Now the colour is green. That colour means that the watchtower is now sure that the approaching party is not a danger to them.

Generally, they don't show that green signal so fast unless the approaching party happens to be a large company of Sihapis like now or important Windsor officials. Or else they would need to get the approval from the outposts before getting the green signal."

Then in a thoughtful manner he added, "There are three more colours - red, orange and black. Red is for high alert, orange for low tier emergency situations. And black has a dual purpose - when the watchtower is glowing black, you know either you need to abondon the Isikolo or that a royal member has died.

I hope you got the implications."

David suddenly raised his hands. "So an invader's best chance at winning this place is to neutralize the Sihapis standing atop the watchtowers right?"

"Ah that's an excellent strategical question..." Zamian began as the flames turned back to yellow the moment the other claws passed the outpost gates.

"...But you see, we need to hurry on our way now. It's already close to evening."

Saying that, he waited for a few minutes as his claw stood up from the ground.

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