chapter 56: New plans, New Allies, New Enemies
Her olive skin shined underneath the sunlight but her face was still blocked by the suns brightness, as she descended her face become more and more clear, her marvelous black wings complimented her deep black eyes that enchanted any who lay eyes on her, she was like a fallen angel, Eleka was her name, The harpy queen.
Contrary to her beauty, the harpies behind her exuded a repulsiveness that made it difficult to lay eyes on them. they had old and withered faces on a molted raven like body. Their feathers were in tatters and appeared to molt with every step. Their legs were twisted and birdlike and yet stood just fine as if it were natural. They could speak the human tongue, but it was slow and difficult for them to do so.
“the army large, numbering in the thousands. They separated and one is closer than the other by three days. the closer one is traveling nearly thirty miles a day while the other is closer to fifteen.” The harpy queen calmly reported her findings of the week, she and her kingdom had spread all across the mountains to the Kingdom of monsters and occasionally reported the enemies progress.
Scitus hadn't expected the armies to separate and although it would become more difficult to deal with them in one fell swoop, he also thought that it was fortunate that smaller force would arrive. Mern didn't yet know but Scitus had managed to convert the goblin and Kobold tribes to become his followers and his army had grown significantly. They were no longer a small three hundred strong colony. With the admittance of the entirety of the goblinoid territories, his population grew to one hundred and eighty thousand subjects, half of which were Kobolds. The entirety of the goblinoid territories had joined him, many still did not know Scitus was human and he had intentionally hidden this fact from them. Lying to them was simple, he simply told them he was a vampire, which most of the goblins were satisfied with.
“I can’t let them know I am human yet but in time they will learn” he explained to his closet allies. “the bigger a group becomes the more easily they can be swayed by a single idea. If the idea becomes that human god is bad, the consequences will lead to this countries ruin.”
The harpy queen, however, knew the young human was indeed human but she paid it no mind for humans had been kind to her in the past, however only three since her birth over six hundred years ago. Although her age was long she had truthfully only been alive for a little over a hundred years for the harpy queens existence was a special one among the harpies and could not easily be shown to the world. When the harpy queen was unneeded she would slumber and her body would slow down and like a perfect statue she would remain still until the day she would be needed, it was a form of self-petrification to preserve her youth for a longer period of time.
She had sensed the god's descent causing her to awake from her slumber, she had ordered her people to search for him as soon as she learned the god was protecting goblins and now she had finally reached him and he had promised to help her people.
Later Scitus and the Eleka talked about future plans alongside Sia, Seresa, Robin, and Hera. They had previously planned to take down the entire army in one fell swoop but the plans would have to be changed after discovering the armies separation. Although scitus's population grew, the number of warriors effective in battle had not increased by much, it would have been simple to send the entire force of kobolds and goblins against the army but even among his strongest soldiers he estimated they would only be able to take down a few soldiers before all being killed and even if the plan was successful it would be a pyrrhic victory but most importantly he would lose the trust of his subjects. The point of a king was to protect those who could not fight, if he used them it would be difficult to give them a sense of security, thus causing cracks in his society that could be easily exploited by foreign entities.
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Halfway through their conversation, they were alerted by a goblin, that a human had entered their territory. Hera got up from her chair and checked while the rest of them continued conversing about the plans.
“what if we use this hill here.” Robin suggested as he pointed on a spot on the poorly drawn map. “no if we use that to set our traps, it would leave an opening here.” Seresa quickly pointed to the southern border of the kingdom.
"how about this, we set traps to the west, we place a civilian army here to the south, then we then gear them up to appear intimidating and then we put our forces further southwest here and they will push them into the traps," William suggested who would lead the frontline force.
"the enemy army will not be intimidated, they don't understand the power of our army yet so setting up the illusion of a massive force of goblins won't be very effective," Scitus interjected.
"Father." Hera reentered the tent with a strange smile on her face. "I think we have just obtained a valuable ally." Hera stepped aside and allowed another to enter.
It was a woman with long black hair and pale white skin. She was like a human doll; it was eerie and her presence gave off an aura of fear. The first thing her golden red eyes laid upon was Scitus as she licked her lips enticingly as if looking at some delicious meal.
She bowed and introduced herself, "Hello, I am Eveline, a vampire." Her introduction was short but effective in explaining her intentions.
Sia was giggling to herself in the corner while Scitus felt mildly perplexed by the vampire's demeanor. "we meet again, human." she licked her lips again as if remembering some lingering taste.
With a dead and cold expression, Scitus responded, “I thought I killed you.” The vampire smiled, “almost, but you bled.” Her voice was calm, concise, sweet, but more than anything, haunting.
"I heard of your plight down the grapevine and decided to aid you, for a price." She twirled her strait-laced hair with her finger, looking at Scitus and only at him as if everyone else unimportant.
“My blood?” Scitus responded with a cold glare. Her expression instantly changed into one of absolute glee but almost as fast she regained her calm. “no, that would kill me; though I must admit, I can’t forget the taste.”
"simply being near you will suffice. You exude mana, and how I crave it. I've been starved for so long that I fear I'll rampage if I see another drop of blood, but if I am near you, I can maintain my sanity." Scitus turned to look to Sia for advice, he was met with a slight smirk and an amused raised brow.
“Vampires are creatures that feed of mana, blood is the most potent mana source in any living thing, but they don’t necessarily need to drink it. If a vampire is starved for too long it can have lasting effects and they may lose their sanity whenever they feel the most minor forms of hunger. You Scitus, have so much mana that it literally leaks out of you, any normal vampire can feast off you and completely sate themselves in a matter of hours.”
Scitus's ears perked up, "Normal vampires?" Her smile grew wider, "correct, this vampire, however, is special, she requires more than her ordinary dosage of mana." The vampire's gaze remained on Scitus.
“I don’t exactly know what type she is but, basically the reason she didn’t die when she drank your blood is probably because of her special constitution.”
Sia looked at the vampire and saw the mana in her chest being quickly devoured to maintain her soul intact and attached to her body. It was extraordinary, she had never seen a vampire so easily devour mana, but then her eyes turned to Scitus who produced such a massive amount of mana that the vampire could easily fill herself to capacity in a matter of seconds. When she had first met Scitus she hadn't bothered to use her arcane sight; if she had she would have probably more easily believed his tale of being a god.
As the vampire was being accepted as a new ally a sudden loud trembling shook the earth.
"WHERE ARE YOU HUMAN!!!!" with every step she took the earth shook as she ignored the screams of the nearby goblins who desperately ran out of her massive feet's way. Stomp!!! She destroyed a half-constructed cottage, STOMP!!!! Her foot crushed a nearby house. Her wings expanded, knocking down a nearby tower along with the guards inside.
“GET OUT HERE NOW!!!!” the dragons gaze then focused itself at the massive source of mana that hid itself at the center of the town. It was so much mana that it even surpassed hers but she did not falter and headed towards the tent.