As the two dragonkin ladies had expected, they spent their night back in Elysium, enjoying the comforts of ones own home while on the move and out in the wild. they both could agreed that such a way of traveling was trully enjoyable, no longer having to deal with less than perfect, or sometimes even pleasant conditions in the wilderness. After a pleasant breakfast with the rest of the girls who had returned to Elysium for the night, the trio returned to the dungeon floor, leaving the furvums they had ridden so far in the personal dimension of Rex. They continiued their way on the back of the thunderbirds. Rex was on one of them, while the two ladies sat on the back of the second bird, guiding it towards their destination.
A few dozen minutes later Rex mentally tuged the connection of the brand he had with the second thunderbird, causing it to slow down and wait for new dirrections. It would be rather hard to speak with the girls with all the wind howling as they flew.
"Noticed a slight problem that needs solving before we continiue on." He told the girls, pointing towards the ground in a dirrection slightly into the tigermen lands. "Remain on the back of the thunderbird and enjoy the show once they descend low enough for it to be possible."
He added and dropped off the bird he was on, dissapearing from the sights of the two girls and thunderbirds, the rather thick clouds obscuring their vision down.
"Would you please?" Xersia asked the thunderbird they were riding, not quite sure of the proper way she should be interacting with the bird. Though it seemed to be working, for just moments later the bird started to descend in a spiral manner. A short while later still, they emerged from the cloudy sky, revealing a rather beautifull scenario from a birds eyes view. It was pure vilderness, with forest stretching as far as the eye could see, every now and then either a field of grass or a speck of shimmering blue interrupted the endless forest, indicating either a meadow or some sort of pond, surrounded by the trees.
In one such meadow they saw something more. A bloodly battle was taking place there, though to call it a slaughter was propably a more accurate term. In the middle of said meadow was Rex, swinging his weapon and controlling multiple mana constructed chains with sharp, razor like edges to slice through numerous tigermen that were doing their damn hardest to swarm the sudden attacker. The sister eyes widened in realization of the aproximate numbers the group used to have, before the incident called Rex came into their path, then, a rather grim shadow crossed their faces. It was as Rex had told them. Such numbers of tigermen together were only ever seen during the advance of the horde. That was something that the councils had somewhat accepted, based on Rex warnings, so much so that even a contract was made with him to solve it. Though Xersia had a slight suspicion that the councils went ahead with the negotiation, creating a rateher specific wording for the contract. They probably assumed that Rex's group had run into an extremely rare, larger than normal feral tigermen group. It was likely that the councils simply secured a mercenary force for a rather gruesome battle a decade later. Now though, it was obvious that it is the real deal, and they are up and about a decade early. though with Rex on their side, she was not overly worried about their odds.
With Rex employing both spell and sword, the rather large group of few hundred tigermen were felled in quite short time and when the last one fell on the now bloodly meadow, the two mounts landed on the ground. And while thunderbirds were carnivorous by nature, tigermen were simply too foul to even consider taking a bite from any of the numerous bodies on the ground.
"Allow us to collect their left ears." Mora spoke, stopping Rex from continiuing whatever he was about to do. "We can use them to prove that the horde is trully upon us, not just a random large feral group wandering near our lands."
"I am quite sure that is what I said as well, but if you feel the need" he then stretched both hands towards the field of corpses "Be my guest. I will just chill out here while you do that."
The look Mora gave Rex was rather self explanatory, seven parts annoyance, three parts pleading. And while Rex did not use his own body to assist her, he did deploy several mana constructs that, once he was Moras technique, mirrored it and sped up the process multiple times over. With the assistance of his mana constructs, aproximately thirty minutes later, the two thunderbirds rose into the sky once again, leaving the meadow behind, pools of blood the only proof of the vicious cutdown Rex had performed there just a short while ago. The tigermen were SS class entities, so draining them was quite efficient and usefull for Rex. Sure, he was the big bad for the time being, but one could neevr be too carefull when prepearing for a possible enemy appearing on the horizon with might beyond anything one has seen so far.
The next several hours, the remaining time of their flight towards their destination, were rather uneventfull, the peak of the mountain at the foot of which Dragoncliff city was built, would have been seen even from above the clouds, but Rex had chosen to stay closer to the ground, providing the girls with much more diverse view before their eyes. They could even sometimes see a pack of creatures in some meadow, no doubt filling their stomacks with the soft grass there.
Finally, a rather peculiar looking mountain came into their view, from the distance that they were at, it looked like a crooked wizards hat, the upper part of it bent more than it should be. The hand gestures of Xersia indicated that the mountain was their destination, so after her polite commands/requests to the thunderbird they were on, the group slightly changed dirrection towards a certain point at the mountains base. With their destination in sight, the two birds slightly rose their speed, no doubt wanting to get this part of the journey over with. Rex had mentioned that he still had to make a small detour to a few other mountains on the floor for the rest of the thunderbird first generation members of his own colony.
In the mountain, at the foot of which Dragoncliff was built, was no thunderbird colony site, making the two large birds flying in the field of vision of the ground based creatures quite the alarming sight. Thunderbirds were known to occasionally grab a dragonkin or two if their ussual prey was nowhere to be found. Even more so in the case of a wandering thunderbird male, in search for either a mate or new home. The birds had their own hierarchy system, though dragonkin knew extremely little about it.
Quite a few of the hunting parties had noticed the two thunderbirds in the sky, hastening their return to warn the city. While the birds would not be foolish enough to try anything in the city itself, the day was barely past noon, many of the people working in the fields outside the walls or gathering something in the forest not too far from it. Should the birds pick some of the isolated people going about their business, even with the hunter squads further out protecting the perrimeter, there would be no saving the unlucky individual.
Though luckally, and to the bewilderment of the hunters that kept track of the thunderbirds, the pair flew straight towards the city, landing not too far away from its gate and just staying there. Though now that the birds were on the ground, an even more unreasonable sight was revealed to their eyes. The birds were not alone. They had three people on their backs. Whats more bewildering, one of the birds had a pair of trully gorgeous dragonkin women.
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"Tell your council that mercenary Rex has arrived and is waiting for them." Rex spoke in a calm manner, though his voice reverberated over the field, conveying his words to the nearby hunters. Thankfully, it seemed that the mindset of "this shit is way above my paygrade" seemed to be thoroughly ingrained in the thick skulls of the people here, resulting in a member of Dragoncliff council appearing rather soon before Rex.
"Now thats a face I seem to remember." Rex spoke, his mind bringing up the memories of the meeting, with the councilmember before him having been there as well.
"M-my appologies. We did not expect you to arrive so soon." He stuttered just a bit at the start, clearly a bit out of his comfort zone with the two thunderbirds before him. It was a rather common known fact that thunderbirds could not be tamed after all. Though Rex had not tamed them. Brands were an entirely different ballgame alltogether after all. Enslaving was not taming, not even close. He had asserted his dominance and laid a claim on the souls of the creatures serving as his mounts.
"Dont sweat it too much, though I do hope my mansion is ready for me?"
"Yes, of course. If you would follow me."
"No need. Hop on and dirrect the way. I will also need you to inform the guards of my thunderbirds. They will be coming and going quite a bit in the forseeable future after all. Would hate to have some unfortunate accidents due to negligence."
"How tamed are they? Could there be some bouts of violent episodes for them?" asked the councilman, clearly rather suspicious of the whole situation.
"They are not tamed man." Rex chuckled. "They are, for lack of a better word, bound. That means, when I say, no dragonkin for snacks, they would never 'snack' on them, unless attacked first of course, ordered by me, or they see someone attacking my girls, or pestering them for that matter. There is no disobeying my orders for the thunderbirds. The consequences are rather horrific and they are well aware of the fact."
"Understood. I will have the guards informed. Anything else?" the councilman asked as he finnally gathered enough courage to get on the bird Rex was on.
"Nothing super urgent, though there will be a thing or two once we reach our new mansion."
Due to a lucky coincidence, or maybee because his mansion had quite the garden attached, it was located rather close to one of the city walls, making it much easier for his thunderbirds to leave the city and then return, without scaring the shit out of too many of the city residents. Mora and Xersia also handed over the bag with tigermen ears, conveying the obvious truth that the horde is here now, and not coming in ten years time. With how active they are starting to become, dragonkin had weeks, maybee a couple of months at best to prepeare. Though Rex did note that there was no need to panic overly much. As per their contract his group would take care of the vast majority of the enemies coming with the horde.
Still, they should prepeare at least a few parties that are well trained and equipped for dealing with tigermen stragglers, or the crippled, but not finished off, ones. Rex's group would simply not have the time to doublecheck every one of the tigermen they cut down if they are trully dead. The sheer expected numbers would not give them the time for such actions. Rex also pointed out that they should also prepeare a couple of groups for the explicit purpose of harvesting tigermen hearts, pointing out the rather usefull properties and possible wide usage of said organ in quite a few alchemical recipies. Though he did not spell out said recipies. There was no need to create rather foolish ideas in some of the less reputable members of the harvesting crews to be. He simply withdrew one of the hearts he had harvested and explained the proper process of doing the same to preserve the integrity of the organ as much as possible, as well the storing conditions. Rex promised to provide the storage devices for the task as well, ensuring as large harvest as possible. He did mention that each and every storage device would be tagged awith a tracking spell as well a few other measures to ensure there are no accidents or misplacements of the items he would provide.
With that all dealt with, he informed the councilman that he would start some innitial purges the next morning, though that would include more scouting and advance parties like the one Xersia and Mora saw being culled, so there would be no need of their 'reinforcements' as of yet. Still, they requested personell should be ready as soon as possible, without compromising on the quality and skill of the would be assistants. Rex also guaranteed the rather thorough nature of his teams extermination skills.
The rest of the evening was spent exploring and getting familiar with their new mansion, as well as Rex placing a shitton of defensive measures around it. Since it would become a rather often frequented place, with more than a few of his girls no doubt spending quite a bit of their time here, the ambient and rich mana in the air being quite the draw. He would also move his cats here, facilitating their growth to a much larger degree than currently. Once Rex was sure the property had been properly warded and secured, they retired to Elysium for the night once again, though there was a very minor, yet rather significant development there as well. The sisters, as ussual, slept in the same room in Elysium, and they did request that Rex join them once he is done with his rounds, though that would be it- they would just sleep together, for now. Rex had no issues with that either. He was getting his nightly exercises with the other girls, thus he had no reason to rush with the dragonkin sisters. They were already in his grasp, it was only a matter of time till they fall entirely.
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"So, you are going now?" Asked Mora, a slight longing in her eyes. It turned out she was quite the clingy girl in bed, having nuzzled her way in his embrace and then clinging to him like a lifeline the entire night, though she was speeling entirely peacefull. Xersia on the other hand was the more dignified one, even in sleep, eventually finding her face pressed against his peck, though there was no desperat clinging, much unlike Mora.
"Yes, though there is nothing to worry about. You know where the gate to Elysion in anchored and I will meet you there in the evening. in the meantime you could scout out the city with the assistance of the council. Have them assign a knowledgeable lady to show you around. At the same time feel out their interest in trading with the outside world for some spices and the other things I have left with you, as well as try to have your guide share some gossip and rumors, if said lady comes from the commoner ranks."
"Understood husband. We will do as we have discussed, do not worry. With all the safety measures you have set us up with I strongly doubt an entire dragonkin town would manage to tear through them before you arrive, not to mention some random thugs and lowlifes that we could possibly encounter." Xersia teased back, a slight smile adorning her beautifull and otherwise calm face.
"Hoo, but we have yet to consumate our mariage. Do I already count as one?"
"We have the rings on our fingers, as well we have shared a bed, even if without the implicated activities. As far as our traditions are concerned, we are indeed joined as one family."
"Well, good enough for me for the time being. See you later, my lovely wives." Rex repplied with a devious smile, jumped on the same thunderbired he had been riding so far, and left the mansion behind. Before he would start clearing out the advanced and scouting parties of the horde, he stil had a couple of places to visit. He had claimed that he would have his own thunderbird collony, and there was no way he would not keep his word, thus it was his intention to first deal with that particular task, aquiring quite a few female thunderbirds for his two males to work with.
His thunderbird, recieving instructions, wasted no time, and once outside of the city picked up quite the speed, not only willing, but quite excited to finnaly attain a mate of its own. Who knows, maybee it could be one of those trully outrageous thunderbirds who had more than just one female as a mate. Such males were the pinnacle of thunderbird collonies, both extremely powerfull and well groomed.
It took them the larger part of the days first half to plow through two other collonies of thunderbirds, though they had quite the plunder to be content with after all of the ruckus and chaos they had created. From the two collonies they had acquired more than a dozen young thunderbird females, each and every one less than a hundred years old, which translated into the human age would be just barely eighteen. With the first task of the two taken care of, it was time to start some ingridient hunting, though the tigermen groups would surely and vehemantly object to such a classification of what Rex was about to do. Though, then again, it was not like they were intelegent enough to actually engage Rex in a phylosophical debate on the matter.