Chapter 42: Plans Part 2
The large field stood surrounded by elm and oak, Hera would have liked to admire their beauty but her focus had been entirely devoted the Lamia that watched them from behind those very elms and oaks. The lamia at the time could be found stretching her bowstring far back in preparation for an attack. With sudden whip, the arrow searched for its target in a young goblin named Ben, who had only recently joined the core. Before he had time to react, Hera separated a small part herself and stretched into a small disk and blocked part most of the momentum, but the arrow broke through the shield and hit penetrated the goblin's leg. He held in his scream as best he could and not once did he lower his shield. To the contrary, he made sure to leave no cracks in the fortress.
In the month following the declaration of war, William had decided to incorporate shields into their tactics. Thomas aided this new strategy and taught the Spartan knights everything he could about shield combat. William made some adjustments to fit the Spartan battle style and created a new force to be reckoned with, the alliance between the shield knights and spartan knights would only grow from their and bloom into an impenetrable fortress when working together.
“Protect the goddess!!” Titan shouted to his team, Alexander then ordered his unit, “offensive positions!!” As six soldiers tightened the circle around Hera to protect her, the Ogre stood next to her as her bodyguard. The other six goblins raised their shields and extended their spears and moved closer to the area of the attack, making sure to stop halfway. The soldiers were now several yards from the forest where the lamia dwelled.
Hera, still behind cover, split her body in two, one was her real body the other was a small snippet that created a hologram of her. Ever since she and her brother gained sentience, she noticed that she had grown stronger; She did not know whether the world or her father had changed them, what she did know was that the many nanites that made up her body were increasing in number and growing unrealistically durable. At her birth, before she was sentient, she could only make three duplicates of herself and with every copy came a decreased resolution; now she could make 10 duplicates that only lost resolution after the fifth, similarly, her range had increased from 1000 meters to 10 miles.
The hologram walked through the Spartan knights, the goblins twitched for a moment before calming the bodies and their senses.
“My goddess!!” one goblin, still unfamiliar with her ways, called for her to return to the safety of the circle. "Do not worry, that is merely a copy of me, its destruction means little”
This duplication ability allowed her to scare the Drow into using all his magic power. Part of her was destroyed in his attacks but to her surprise, returned to her when the battle ended. The lamia cocked her bow and shot Hera only to see that very arrow leave Hera unharmed. It was as if that arrow had hit water, water that quickly found its equilibrium.
“Now now, we aren’t here to fight.” The lamia for the first time in many years felt a tingling in her spine, she had almost forgotten what it meant but her shaking hands gave away its meaning, fear. She feared Hera how had managed to trick the Duergar into thinking was human but it the Lamia now saw with her own eyes that woman was certainly anything but human.
The lamia cast a silent calming spell over herself. Shut her eyes for a moment and regained her courage.
“you plan to make a deal with the Medusa do you not?” Hera slowly walked towards the voice making sure to appear as docile as possible. “I am, I plan to make a deal with the Lamia as well.” The Lamia’s muscle contracted, and her gaze grew narrow. Hera stopped sensing the sudden burst of emotion.
“WE WILL NEVER WORK WITH THE MEDUSA!!!” Hera had known that they hated each other, but it was astounding to her that ran that deep, even mention of the Medusa brought such incomprehensible rage.
“Even if involves the sanctuary we call the oasis?” Hera turns her head, sensing an attack from the opposite side of the Spartan knights. The Lamia, seeing an opportunity, pathetically attempts to tackle an ethereal. The sound of skin hitting dirt reaches Hera's ears, she smiled mischievously like a child that successfully tricked her sibling. "You aren't the brightest tool in the shed, are you?" at the same time, with her main body, she ordered the Spartan knights to close their eyes for the time being.
“What are you!!” The lamia yelled for an answer that she simply couldn't wrap head around, the woman wasn't using magic or some sort of special illusion, it was real, she had even felt little particles swim around her as she tackled Hera. Her head turned to the Spartan knights who at that time were distracted by another matter altogether. There she saw a Smug Hera being shielded by several spartan knights.
"So you have the main body is that it." The lamia smiled for her genius and slithered and a terrifying pace towards Hera. Hera warned the spartan knights that the Lamia was coming and that they would have to close their eyes to fight her. Like the Medusa, the Lamia had petrification abilities, but unlike the Medusa, the lamias ability wasn't always active and it wasn't nearly as powerful.
Now in front of the first line of defense, The lamia contorted her beautiful and delicate hands to beastly black claws the replaced nails and fingertips.
“Get out of the way you LESSER RACES!!” the lamia extends her long body and sharpens her claws with magic, her aim was Alexander. She noted he was the most composed and more than likely the leader. Killing him would demoralize the other and make everything much simpler. This would be the lamias downfall. She underestimated the goblins, she underestimated Alexander the goblin said to be on par with William and Thomas in sheer strength. In battle prowess, he was only second to William.
The lamia lowered her claws to the ground and then launched her self into the air, the entire thing remained Hera of cats pounce. Alexander reached for the blade in his waist side and flung it straight towards the Lamias face. The lamia scoffed as she twisted her body in mid-air to avoid the attack. "USELESS!!!" she shouted her superiority but it was all part of Alexanders plan. Now that she was off center, he contracted the muscles on his left hand, the hand that held his shield. And with a loud crack of his wooden shield, he bashed the Lamias head to the ground. The lamia couldn't believe, her disbelief caused her reactions to slow and before she came back down to earth, she found herself surrounded by five spears on each side of her neck and then sixth a moment later. Even now that she lay defeated, she couldn't understand how she had lost, the Goblin shouldn't have been capable of moving her. She didn't know that the reason strength was the high mana concentration running through their veins. An increase made possible from the abundance in Scitus's kingdom. This was unique to monsters, the ability to grow stronger through the mana in the area, mortals trained years for what monsters could do by simply existing. The other side to that was that they would rapidly weaken in areas of weak mana concentration.
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The lamia raised her head as far as she could, and the realized a terrifying truth. The goblins could be considered goblins. “Hobgoblins?” she whispered unsure what to make of it. Hobgoblins shouldn’t exist, they were creatures of myth and legend, only talked about in the most ancient of books. Known for their intelligence, they often tricked physically stronger monsters by feigning weakness.
Her revelation was not entirely unfounded. Alexander was still a goblin, as was every goblin in the kingdom, they simply reached a halfway evolution. Another strange reality made fact by Scitus's kingdom. The hobgoblins were slightly taller at nearly four feet tall and their faces slightly resembled humans. The most obvious difference was the hair, goblins didn't have hair but Alexander than the other did. It was still, but on a closer look, black fuzz could be seen at the top of their skulls. This was known as Metamorphosis, a trait shared by all monster.
“did you think our military was weak Lamia?” Hera’s copy stood over the defeated lamia and had a smug smile on her face that protruded confidence.
The lamia suddenly heard someone else being dragged closer to her.
“how pathetic Lain, losing to goblins” The voice brought along with it the memories of many bloody battles and political disputes. It was Arlene, her nemesis. She lowered her gaze to see the Medusa in a situation not too different from hers. The medusa wore a long pitch black cloth over her eyes, her skin was a snowy but not sickly. Her hair was a dark black, rivaling even Sias. "Look who's talking?" the sudden hiss emanated from Arlene's hair. Her hair floated and moved like a snake, hissing at every direction. The medusa were capable of extending their hair several feet in any direction and with the help of the natural thermal vision, it was easier to attack even when blinded. But unfortunately for her, Hera made sure to make several countermeasures.
“I suggest, you stop trying to escape, or I’ll cut your hair.” The hair lifelessly dropped instantly. To the Medusa, their hair was everything, it was their rank and status symbol. Losing it wasn't an option. Ordinarily, no common blade can cut it, but she had heard the rumor of the Red witch allying herself with the New God and couldn't take the chance. The Goblins tried to contain their expressions for they knew that Heras cunning had just assured their victory. "Don't tell anyone that red witch is allying herself with us, it will make diplomacy harder." They remembered her saying as loudly as she reasonably could without sounding suspicious right before entering negotiations.
"Now that we are all here, let's talk peace." The two women whose necks were shackled to the ground by spears almost wanted to laugh at the ridiculous proposal in their situation.
“Peace? You have our necks tied to the ground with blades, and you want to talk peace?” Hera smiled and rebutted.
“you attacked first, remember?” Arlene said nothing, she knew was true.
"there is going to be an attack on the oasis soon." Their ears rose to attention. "Mern is going to attack our kingdom." While Arlene grew worried, Lain didn’t understand why it was her problem.
“what do us lamia care if your kingdom falls.” Hera smiled widely as if about reveal a terrible secret. Hera knew that whether the other species liked it or not, they were going to help.
“If the new god falls, Mern will take his territory. Miar will certainly not allow Mern to have a piece of the Oasis and will more than likely attack if the happens." Lain finishes her thought, "our sanctuary will be destroyed."
It was true, even if no god takes the Oasis as their territory, their mere presence will make the oasis into a war zone, and Miar will likely take the chance to enter the oasis and slaughter all the monsters living there. The new god hadn’t made the oasis into a desert, the reason was still unknown but it was a safer bet to have the New God live in the oasis then Mern, who would more than likely desertify the oasis.
“quite right. Our Great god has come up with a plan to prevent his death and even aid everyone around him in the process.” The two listen closely, now understeering the gravity of the situation. “we use the forest as a buffer, there are incredibly dangerous areas in the oasis, all we need you to do is to pelt them with small attacks, killing at least one person and guiding them to the dangerous areas. The lamia cover their territory, the medusa cover theirs.”Arelene's eyes furrow from behind her blindfold.
“you expect us to risk our people,” her blood boiled at the thought. "not without any compensation. I hear the Lamia have a shortage on food much like the Duergar's. With our hunting and farming, we should have food for sale by next year."
"a year, you want us to help you for something that will happen in a year?" Hera nodded and continued.
“of course not, there is a group of monsters called Yokai to the east of here, they are an agricultural community of monsters, we can buy their surplus and then sell it to you.”
"as for the Medusa, we can provide you with materials for clothing, we know you medusa have a love for cloth work. At the moment we have no factories, but we can buy some from other colonies that work in cloth and sell it to you." Now that the pleasantries were done, the true prize was about to be revealed. Hera smiled a wicked smile as if she knew the consequences of her next words.
"That isn't all, our God promises to aid any monster in this alliance without having to worship him. this is for at least six months” The two woman stomachs fluttered with excitement. A gods aid was not something monsters took lightly. “of course, we won’t assist you with your wars, but we will if there is an outside attack.” Hera had planted a small seed that was about to grow very large.
The two monsters smiled, if they could seduce the New God, they could finally rid themselves of their enemy and even take over the oasis. The New God was said to be human, a race weak to their lust and sexual desire, seduction would be a simple matter.
“ALLOW ME TO REPORT TO MY QUEEN!!!” They shout unison completely unaware that they had fallen into Heras trap. She later informed her father and be met with a long sigh. Scitus would have deal with the lamias and medusas attempts at seduction for many months hence.
A sudden portal appears and out of it comes Sia. She eyes the two monsters on the ground and smiles.
"you're just as terrifying as your father" Sia had finished with her business and now came to pick Hera up. Sia had the ability to teleport long distances and the ability to create temporary gates for transportation, though it was her most disliked spell due to its strange casting gestures.
“I’ll take it, that is a compliment?” Hera orders the two monsters release. Even after being released they didn’t move for fear of being killed.
"very well, tell your queen, the colony that assists's the most will be permitted to make a request of our God the all mighty Scitus.” The two regained their courage and then saw Sia and froze once more.
“Sia, forgive me for imposing on you, but We are going to have to transport several colonies in the area.” Sia sighed, she really didn’t want to gate people back and forth especially because of the gestures that made her look like she had constipation.
“I hear father plans to make a magic laboratory for you.” Sia’s frown suddenly morphed into a bright a bright
“Where are these colonies, I’ll teleport them right away.”