Chapter 70: Warning
The minotaur tribes were slightly larger than Goblin tribes at fifty to hundred per tribe. These tribes existed independently of one another though on occasion they would trade and form large temporary colonies of up to 1000 minotaurs; however, such a gathering was rare. The tribes had similar belief systems but even so certain tribes despised other tribes and there was always a war going on in one place or another.
The minotaur territory had changed ever since Scitus's arrival. The expansion of his land was growing rapidly and in only a few years it was likely that their entire territory would be consumed, they couldn't allow such a thing to happen. So when the Godless had requested a temporary alliance, several minotaur leaders joined in the coalition. Many young men non participating tribes also joined in not only bringing honor to their families but also to protect their homeland.
Countless gods have come into the oasis before, and each one brought with them a new plague. Drought, famine, disease, whenever a god entered the oasis, something terrible would happen to the land. History could not repeat itself, they had to stop Scitus's expansion.
After several days, the minotaur army grew to 6000 young men and a few 100 young women. Although not a matriarchy, Minotaur women had a strong influence on the political landscape of a minotaur tribe, minotaur female elders would give advice to male leaders, if the male leaders failed and whatever point and the female elder was correct, the female elder would then take the position of the male leader until she saw fit to relinquish her power and give it to the strongest male in the tribe. The men were the soldiers, the women rarely fought but they could certainly hold their own since their physical bodies were not much different from the men. This tradition went back many years back, to the time of the monster era in which monsters dominated the Ferren continent.
Although many tribes wanted to stop Scitus from expanding, many other tribes were just as afraid of his wrath. If the coalition failed, what would become of their tribes, their land, their ancient monuments? Therefore some leaders insisted that they simply retreat deeper into their land and hope Scitus does not expand. Gods were terrifying creatures, the fall of the monster kingdoms was in part because of the invasion of the gods from the Soen continent to the far southwest and the Karaen continent directly east of the oasis.
These tribes were in the minority, the majority were neutral and often only offered verbal support and allowed any willing men and women to join the coalition of their own free will.
The town they had built to accommodate the coalition was near the center of the minotaur territory and only a few days travel from La Guardia. The town ate away at resources at a rapid rate, most of the surrounding land was quickly becoming barren and the animals were beginning to disappear from the area.
Around noon that day, a young woman who appeared. Her skin was pale and her eyes were a reddish gold, her nails were a charcoal black that slowly seemed to crow into sharp talons.
"The God Scitus." she whispered and yet her enchanting voice reached all citizens, "disband today, or tomorrow you will be annihilated." The sudden announcement startled everyone present, how had the god discovered their plan? their group was large but the minotaur territory was large, how had the god scouted the entire place and found them? the first reaction of some minotaurs' was to attack the strange pale women.
"wonderful, I am hungry being so far away from that fat piece of meat." Her eyes glistened as several hundred minotaurs charged towards her. Her teeth sharpened into fine points, her eyes burned a scarlet red her nails turned into black talons that covered the tips of her fingers.
"vampire!!!!" one of the five humans in the town shouted as her eyes widened with fear and surprise. Vampires did indeed have a small piece of land in the oasis but it was negligible and not large enough to be considered a territory. The reason was threefold, the first was that their population was incredibly small, the second was that they had a low reproduction rate and lastly, their headquarters was actually in the forbidden forest just beyond Ansil's territory. The oasis was dangerous but that only applied to humans and gods. There were too many monsters in the oasis, it could be said that the oasis was the final remnants of all the monster kingdoms, no god nor human dares enter this place and attempt to take it over. The godless were strong enough to take a piece of land and a very large one but this was because they chose the worst piece of land; few monsters lived there to begin with and so no one bothered them.
The Forbidden forest was different, the chaos of the world dwelled their even travel between planes could happen unintentionally. One moment the sun could shine high in the sky and in the next the world would be in complete darkness. It was said that long ago even before the monster era, something terrible happened there, no records remain of what truly happened, only small references to some great calamity that befell humanity forcing them out of the Ferren continent.
Vampires were such terrifying creatures, they had chosen to live in the outskirts of the forbidden forest, granting them safety from Nearby gods.
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The minotaur's charged in unison but Eveline hadn't even moved, she readied her talons and then slashed just as several dozen minotaur's were only a few feet from her. Magical energy penetrated their flesh and cut it apart. If they were any other race, they would have been sliced clean in half but Minotaurs were known for their massive physical defense and magical defense.
Just their massive bodies reached Eveline, she disappeared. Suddenly they heard a scream behind them. a few of the minotaurs managed to turn around in time to witness a terrible scene, something that would haunt them for a long time after.
On one of their fellow kins neck was Eveline, her eyes were blood red with gluttonous eyes, her teeth dug deeper into the Minotaur's neck. Eveline clenched her teeth tighter and tighter until the minotaurs flesh was completely torn off. The open wound spurt blood like a fountain and the geyser of red flowed into Eveline's mouth where it quickly evaporated in nothing.
Her blood-stained mouth dripped onto her clothes, her eyes slowly turned to the dozens of minotaur around her, she whispered, "I'm hungry." She suddenly lunged onto another minotaur and began feasting on his blood.
The minotaurs used their massive log sized clubs to attack her but their attacks would more often connect with more of their kin while Eveline easily jumped from meal to meal. The minotaurs' slowly began to give each other room and after a few seconds, only six minotaurs surrounded Eveline, not including the one she was feasting on. All around the minotaurs were bits of torn flesh and muscle from the people she had killed which had already reached six after only a minute since the initial attack. "not enough!!! Not enough!!!" her eyes were filled with madness as she easily tore through the seventh minotaur. As soon as their kin fell, the minotaurs used their clubs to beat down on the mad vampire, each club created a small crater beneath the vampire but even after several blows from their mighty clubs they only heard laughter.
The vampire was laughing with glee. "you think you pathetic cows can kill me?" her expression suddenly turned solemn as she grabbed hold of one of the clubs with her small pretty hands and then with a swift motion destroyed it. "no, today you all are simply my food." She began to cackle as dirt and blood mixed beneath her.
Suddenly a sword swung at her with intense momentum and strong killing intent. Before it could cut Eveline down however, it was stopped by her hands. "how cute, the humans have come to play." The young women in silvery armor looked on at the vampire with dread. She was not familiar with vampire hierarchy but she couldn't shake the feeling at the one in front of her was near the peak. That wasn't what frightened her, what but tore down her morale, like a small mouse against a cat, was the vampire's scarlet eyes. She had heard long ago from her old king a story of such a thing. "blood starved vampire!!!" she shouted as she took a few step backs allowing the minotaurs to attack again. When a vampire starves even once in their life, their blood lust could forever be affected, it robs them of their reasoning and makes them tear and kill until they are sated and even if they are sated; if there is blood nearby they will continue to eat until they collapse. The sickness was well known to vampires and was called, "blood hunger sickness."
"she was normal just a moment ago." The women thought for a moment and then realized that her sickness might have been triggered when she drank the minotaur's blood.
The woman tightened the grip on her blade as her human allies arrived. "we'll attack together" a young man with silvery armor said, this was the woman's brother.
The five humans attacked together as the vampire finished with her eighth minotaur. Their blades easily cut through her flesh as she was unable to stop each blade at once but even so she only maniacally laughed as her limbs grew back as quickly as they were cut off. Using only her talons and newly formed arm, she used a forward thrust and dug into the young man with the silvery armor's chest , she tore out the piece of metal and used it cut off another knight's thigh clean off, in the same instant using her free hand she dug into the hole she had just created and reach into the silvery armored man's heart and tore it out. For a few moments, the young man was in complete shock as he looked at the gaping holing his chest and the fell to the ground with a dull thud. Beside him was his sister who screamed as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"DIE!!!" she screamed as she thrust her blade through the vampire's heart only to be met with a sadistic smile, "Fool!! My heart stopped beating a long time ago!!!" using the young woman's moment of shock, the vampire grabbed hold of her neck choking her into dropping her blade. The two knights still standing were filled with complete fear as they tried to strike the vampire but she easily blocked one blade with her left hand used that same blade to stop the second one. she did not even bother to look at them, her eyes were completely focused on the woman in front of her. Her teeth were getting ready to bite into the woman's neck when a voice suddenly resonated through the entire town.
"stop!!!" it was another woman's voice, as everyone looked up to gaze at the woman who floated up above, their hearts further sank into despair, it was the red witch. The vampire, however, ignored these demands and bit into the young woman's neck. The woman tried to scream but her neck was held too tightly.
Before the young woman could even try to stop the vampire from drinking her blood, she suddenly felt the hand, which only moments ago had the might of a thousand men, release her.
The next thing she saw was the vampires head pinned to the ground unable to move, all of this was done by a single hand, hand as beautifully and cared for as the princess of a kingdom. The hand pressed down on the vampires head without any force, it was as if she wasn't holding down a monster but simply petting the vampires head. The red witch sighed, she didn't think things would get so out of hand.
"Release me you bitch, I'm hungry!!!" the vampire shouted, Sia used her free hand to punch the vampire in the face causing massive fractures to the vampires pretty face. "blood I need blood!!!" the vampire shouted as if her face wasn't nearly just caved in by a massive punch. "you're a pain." Sia disdainfully said as she began to chant several spells almost at once and finally finished it off with a single word, "sleep." With this word alone, all 6462 people collapsed and began to sleep, all but one the young woman who was at that time grabbing hold of her neck to prevent her blood from leaking.
"This is a mess." Sia said as she dug her fingers through her charcoal black hair. "You, let's make a deal, shall we." Sia smiled as she looked at the young woman and then her dead brother.