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In the night sky full of blazing stars, the chilly wind whistled through the top walls, emitting a forceful sharp sound that resounded over the approaching breeze, fanning the dense fog formed from the cemetery to the Eastern walls.
There were Mini campfires allocated evenly on top of the walls with guards stationed on their respective post in the cold breezy night. With such a pleasant weather, taking a break in-between was vital. The guards emptied their individual station, went ahead to the blazing campfire, warming themselves and took out processed ration to snack on.
“Man , today sure is a cold night”
“Yeah, a cup of warm tea right now would be nice ..”
Footsteps vibrating through the stairs as a man, clothed in different armor walked up to the top of the walls
“Then should I get teas for you?”
“Aa-h ! Captain! No-”
“Get back to work, you loads of shit head!!”
“HAH!”
Just when they were about to get back to their respective post, a loud impactful sound resonated through the air. Crows, hordes of crows that solely inhabit trees nearby circled on top of the cemetery, chirping frantically implied to be frightened of something.
“H-hey, you see that?”
“Yeah, crows? They are acting strange....”
“N-no! Not the sky, look there!”
“O-oi what is that .....”
“Un-undead!?”
Thousands of azure blue faint light amidst the fog, swaying left and right, gradually emerged from the thick gray fog, approaching the giant walls. Shortly, the noise attracted the attention of the surrounding guards causing a huge commotion.
“W-what! Why are undead here?”
“T-they are marching here!”
“With b-blue light?!”
“humans are leading them?”
“We’re under attack!”
“Oi! Move it!“
“Captain! Unde-”
“I can see it, you idiot! How many are there?!”
“Judging by the number of blues ...2 thou ... n-no .. At least f-five thousands!!”
“How could this be?, Oi! You! Inform the General, request for immediate assistance!”
“Y-yes!”
Panicked, a guard clumsily dashed off the stairs, and rushed off to the noble district, finding the one in charge of defense in this city.
In a study room filled with plenty of books on the bookshelves that filled the room with a rectangular window, a person with silvery white short hair and stern face with a thick bushy, well-cared beard was seated on a luxury chair was quietly enjoying the peaceful, serene night, holding a book in his left hand and a glass of red wine prepared by his servants on his right.
Hartwig Myles Zealbe, a middle-aged veteran general that fought through various wars and due to his military feats, he was given his position. He had sworn genuine loyalty and serve only to the royal family, living in a luxury life on par with its position in the military, with immense wealth and thousands of soldiers under his command.
A gentle knocked echoed through the silent room.
“Come in.”
The wooden door slowly creaked open; a handsome butler clothed in gentlemen’s suit stepped into the study room, took a graceful professional bow with his right hand on his chest and left on his back.
“My lord, a guard has brought urgent news from the Eastern gates.”
“Bring him in.”
“Yes”
The butler took a bow and eexited the room. In the mean time, General Hartwig placed the glass onto the desk and marked the book he read before returning it onto the bookshelves. Moments later, the door was knocked and a guard came in without permission to speak, he blurted.
“S-Sire!! Un-undead-”
Normally, it was rude and could be executed from the manners he portrayed, but General Hartwin appeared to close an eye due to the seemly urgency of the news.
“Hold your breath young man, speak clearly from the beginning.”
“Y-yes!”
The guard reported everything he knew, from the beginning of the noise seemly made by crows and the march of an undead legion.
“Undead with blue glowing lights you say....”
Hmm…Did the statue get destroyed? If it gets destroyed, who could have done that? What is the enemy objective? Still, blue lights..; it was similar to ‘that’, but ‘that’ had a different color…
Naturally spawned undead had an empty eye socket which, deprived of life and from the verbal report; it seemed to him that the undead was burning with life.Undead generally was troublesome to deal with; it took 2 soldiers to typically destroy an undead. And it was reported that they saw at least five thousand of them with several variations. With such, the Kingdom must muster at least ten thousand soldiers to deal with them.
But will the undead granted them the required time to muster such large force?
Obviously, that was out of the question.
Yet, it was a taboo in this Kingdom to meddle the affair of death. Those corrupted were eliminated long ago and only those with authority knew the secrets of necromancy held within the Kingdom.
Who could have known the secrets of necromancy? Was it the remains of them?
Still, there were no reports of criminals able to perform such deeds.
Moreover, it was reported that they were marching here in a neat formation.
He naturally came to a conclusion; somebody was controlling the undead legion. The one leading must be a formidable foe, able to command thousands of undead was no easy feat.
And to minimise the casualty, he must deal with them promptly. The only group of elites who was capable of such was under the command of the King.
Only one decision was left for him.
That was, to stall for time and wait for them to arrive.
“S-sire, your orders?”
“Gather any available nearby soldiers! Fortified the Eastern wall, go now.”
“Hah!”
The guard dashed out the room following the given orders.
General Hartwin took a golden bell on his neat desk and shook it violently before a butler came knocking.
“Your orders, my lord?”
“Send a messenger to the King, request permission of deployment for “them’.”
“Yes, My lord.”
He stood up and walked to the window, gazing the luminous moon while stroking his white beard.
Undead .. An unforeseen chaos was soon to sweep over the Kingdom….
Three days prior to the disturbance,
Why is this happening to me?
Melia, the only Dryad in this world, born of nature, and her solemn task was to defense the forest, fending off a hostile force that brought harm to the forest.
Of course, to a certain extent, she allowed human hunters to hunt wild beasts for food. Only those who overstepped their boundary were deemed as hostile to her thus were her enemy.
Yet, the boundary was still a gray area, what determined the boundary? How far could the hunter go? Only she will decide.
Having lived for millennium, she had extensive knowledge of the world and naturally knew who not to mess with. Generally, nobody in this forest could threaten her existence.
Until that being stepped into the forest, she cowered in fear for the first time. She could see every living being’s Mana capacity. Yet, she couldn’t see the flow of his Mana and the limit of his Mana capacity. She concluded that being was powerful, stronger than she could ever imagine and definitely had unimaginable Mana.
I must get rid of him. That creature is dangerous! She thought. Even though her monster’s instinct was screaming at her to run away, she will at least fight to protect.
She went to borrow a few goblins from a creature that controlled a huge part of a forest, for random assault intended to kill the group he was travelling with. Surely, that group was no threat, butchering them was an easy feat for her. But she wanted time alone to deal with that being.
The goblins failed. They couldn’t get rid of the group.
She used a spell to knock them coma. Expectedly, he was not affected, still, he allowed his guard down.
Chance! She thought.
She fired her topmost spell she had, draining the energy away from her precious trees she loved.
She underestimated him.
Not even a scratch was on him
She finally came to a realization.
She was too naïve, that being was too from her reach.
She sighed.
Why is this happening to me?
She walked with a heavy step into a part of the forest, unknown to humans, where a seemly large settlement secluded deep in the forest and pondered on that being’s plan.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
He only told me a part of his plan! Without a doubt, he is hiding something. Then again, He was insane, regardless of how powerful he was, clashing with thousands of soldiers alone was suicide. Yet on second thought, with the Kingdom resources, they might not be able to destroy him. Especially that council, they were stronger than me. But comparing them to him, the distance was still far. I would rather take the Wrath of a kingdom, than an unknown creature that could shake the continent....
She sighed.
According to that being’s plan, Melia was tasked to assemble a large army to assault the kingdom from the south and was only given 3days to travel which was practically impossible. With the limited amount of time, mustering a large force was a challenge.
Being a protector of this forest does not mean that she had the authority. She had to negotiate her way through, convinced that creature to assemble an army. She could use mind manipulating skill to control. But, there was a catch, if the victim had a strong will, the magic will not be useable. Furthermore, that would damage the relationship she had with that creature. Yet, even without a discussion and considering that creature was a hard nut to crack, she could already predict the outcome.
Melia walked further into the deepest part of the forest and arrived at her destination, the goblin village.
Ahead of her was a pair of wooden gates with a few green short humanoid guards armed with wooden spear safeguarding the village in front of the gates.
The gatekeeper goblin recognized her presence and yelled to open the gates. The sounds of the gates swinging inwards attracted the attention of the resident; they identified the one before the gates to be a mighty one and everyone freeze, cease to move an inch of muscle.
Melia stepped into the settlement; she came here often and was not surprised by the scene before her, thousands of green short and tall goblins filled the area.
Tents manufactured using beast’s leather was expanded out in this vast settlement. The tents were neatly arranged in a circular position accordingly to status. This goes without saying that the external were meant for small tents representing no status or peasants, and inner were for larger tents represented top brass of the community.
Mainly two types of creatures lived in this settlement.
Goblins, they had natural green skin and were all ugly, with a deformed face and were generally very short in height. They were unintelligent equivalent to that of a human baby, unable to process thoughts and only followed the command.
Hobgoblin, an evolution of goblins that reached an adult stage that had an intellectual of a teenage human, able to process thoughts and gave simple orders and commands. Unlike the goblin, they have fern green skin, rough baby face with immature tusk protruded out of its mouth. They had an average height of 170cm.
Goblins were over-flooding the village simply because they have a high fertility rate and they don’t interbreed with each other. The goblins believed in order to breed strong and healthy offspring; they had to seek copulation with the other races and generally preferred humans because humans would be easier to break.
A slight bow was given to her as she walked pass the swarms of goblins entering the circular tent formation searching for the largest. She entered an exotic large tent that befitted the status of a ruler in the center of the village.
The interior was wide, decorated with the skull of beasts as a war trophy hanging on the sides of the tent. The ground was covered with beasts’ leather, giving a smooth sensation to one’s feet. A handful of the soft cushion was laid out left and right of the tent on the ground with a short wooden table placed in front of them. At a corner of the tent, a devilish menacing giant axe was hanging which seemed to be cursed with an evil aura enveloped the axe.
On the front of the tent, a four-armed creature clothed with leather pants was seated on a short legged armed chair covered with wolf pelt that seemed like a throne to him. Unlike the goblin’s skin, it had a dark green skin that made him a good predator in the forest. That creature was tall and had a large frame built like a giant. A long scar was beneath its eye, and it appeared to be proud of its scar. A pair of sharp tusk was protruding out from its mouth and war paint was applied onto its bare muscular body and face, further deepened his ferocious image.
That creature was the King of the goblins, the final evolution of goblins, with an intellectual of a young adult; however, only one in a million chances that a goblin could evolve into a King.
“How nice of you to grace us with your presence, oh mighty one”
“Vurt, we meet again.”
Melia took a seat at an emptied cushion before a female hobgoblin brought warm tea for both of them, and bow, leaving the pair alone. She took the teacup with a gracious movement befitting a lady and sipped the tea and began to mull over on revealing the incident to him, inclusive of the demised goblins.
The strange silence persisted for a few moments before Vurt broke it.
“Well, What seems to trouble you? Share with me if you will.”
A few days ago, Melia had asked to borrow a few goblins for unknown reasons. And now that she came back, Vurt related the incident to the troubled she faced. Of course, He was curious about the whereabouts of his kin, but since Vurt trusted her enough, if she does not have the desired to tell him, he would not insist.
The atmosphere soon replaced with gloom and bitterness. With downcast eyes and a guilty face, she said.
“Did my face give way?”
“Undeniably.”
“Ha ... Indeed, you’re right. There is one matter I need to consult you with.”
“Hoh... Surely you jest, you have lived for thousands of years, with all the accumulated knowledge, what matter involve me, a lowly bring, needed to consult with?”
Apparently, compared to Melia, Vurt was still a young King. He had always admired her because she held immense power and profound knowledge which he strived to gain that seemly unreachable goal with his own effort; she was a being that he aimed to take over as a protector of this forest.
The atmosphere soon turned around, she spoke with a mischievous grin.
“Heh, the fearsome King of goblins being humble, truly a rare occasion.”
“Fearsome? Sheesh, I’m a pebble on the roadway in front of you, Oh mighty one.”
A cheeky grin slowly formed on his mouth, but soon replaced with a serious face.
“ So , tell me your problems, Melia. I might not be of use or wise, but I could at least suggest some rational ideas.”
Melia sighed
“Very well…”
His eyes widen as she shared the recent events that happened, not leaving any single detailed behind and that being’s plan that could pose a threat to this forest.
“A-absurd.. a-a .. Being capable of such feats.”
Throughout his entire hundreds of years; Melia was the only unbeatable opponent he had. She was strong. He used various ways together to try and defeat her, but to no avail. And here came a being out of nowhere, who literally had not used a single bit of his overwhelmed power, leaving Melia lay flat on the ground, getting her ass kicked.
Who the hell is he?
A moment later, Melia’s bittersweet voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Vurt, what do you suggest? Shall we comply?”
She was on the verges of crying but bit her lips hard to restrain her tears from falling. She added.
“No choice, Vurt. Unimaginable consequences were waiting at the end of the road for us if we chose the latter. He probably could with ease wiped out this land. The outcome was undesirable, the burden to bear was too heavy for me, lives would be deprived and races living among the forest would cease to exist. There is only a choice. We obey and we shall survive.”
Vurt thought for a moment, but his answer was fixed long ago.
“Melia, you have known me for hundreds of years. I shall tell you my answer I will never bow down to anyone without a fight, even if the chances of defeating him are close to naught; I am willing to bet my life to opposing him with all I have. So, let me shoulder the sins you bear, let me shoulder the dreadful consequences we chose.”
Vurt pause took a deep breath and proclaimed with dignity as a King.
“And let him come, for we shall unite as one, hold our ground and fight to our death as honorable warriors. Blood will be spilled, life will be destroyed and history will be recorded for the time we fought shall be our last we live. For you my dearest friend, I would not grieve over the choice I made today. And this is my decision as a King of goblins.”
Crystal clear tears erupted, gradually streamed down from her watery eyes. She knew the outcome. But Vurt’s verbal endorsement had backed her sense of security, she had a comrade, willing to lay down his life and defense her - the forest.
With such an emotional speech, Melia had to stop the tears from flowing. She rubbed her eyes and wiped off the leaked tears with her hands. Gradually, she smirked.
“That was too much of a speech.”
“Tsk, just when I thought to be emotional.”
The pair looked at each other and burst out laughing. The warm exchanged proved that the pair’s relationship was beyond friends.
“But thank you, Vurt.”
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More time is needed to write the next few chapters
Due to final year project:(
Stay tuned :)