Duval Estate.

Morty, the sisters, and Gerard stood before the goblin scouts as they reported what had happened at the quarry. After they gave their report, Morty spoke.

"So they WERE attacked but were turned to stone?"

"Yes, General!" One of the scouts said with a sloppy salute.

"So then we have nothing to worry about. With the attackers dead and some forces sent to clear out whatever attacked them, we can send some dragues to clear out the bodies and get back to work." Morty said.

"Perhaps we should wait until they return before sending anyone?" Gerard asked.

"Fine. We'll wait." Morty conceded as he, the sisters, and Gerard stood by and waited for the troops to return victorious.

Then they waited, and waited, and waited. A couple hours, and several refills, later they saw signs from the far side where the cleared land and the forest met. Morty scoffed as he saw the patchwork uniforms of the troops as well as the dragues following after them.

"About time. Now then, can we-"

"Wait. They look to be running." Orga stated and pointed to the goblins.

Sure enough, they didn't appear to be coming back with glorious victory upon their shoulders, but were seen to be screaming and fleeing like their wretched little lives depended on it! The Red Cap officer wasn't among them so Morty couldn't knuckle-wrack him for whatever the hell was happening. But SOMEONE was going to pay for this fuck up!

"Someone wrangle them!" Morty ordered and groups of goblins and some Red Cap officers rushed to intercept the fleeing goblins and dragues.

Morty marched over to the group of scared shitless goblins and demanded an explanation. The dragues wouldn't, or couldn't, answer though. What they could get out of the goblin grunts was little more than something about stone lizards. Well that's next to fuck-all-useful, Morty thought as he dismissed the grunts and the dragues to return to their work before calling for a handful of the other local Red Caps to assemble to discuss ideas.

"Alright everyone. The stone quarry has been attacked. We're not sure exactly by who yet. Only that they can turn people into stone. I don't care how. What I DO care about is retaking that quarry and resuming work! So gather as many men as you can and anything that explodes!" Morty ordered.

The Red Caps saluted and hurried to carry out his order. Grunts were taken from training and drilling, others were kicked out of their tents or beds while dragues were bullied into a supply train for the thrown together force. He even saw some dragues being bludgeoned as they worked quickly to move one of the newly casted cannons!

While it wouldn't win any beauty contests, it at least looked like it'd stay in one piece after a single shot, Morty thought as he watched the piece of iron artillery being pushed along with a small box containing cannisters of grapeshot within. A source of iron they had, a source of gunpowder though? Not quite. Most gunpowder they had left was reserved for the Red Caps, the rest of his forces was using some kind of hillbillied fertilizer mixture that seemed just as likely to blow up the soldier as it was to carry the small iron ball to its target.

He had no idea where it came from or what it was made of, but if it worked he wasn't going to bellyache for long, Morty thought as he watched as a growing company of goblins formed quickly around him. At least this way he didn't have to worry about buying crates of gunpowder and potentially setting off alarms from the ATF. He'd still have to order some to keep the Red Caps and the artillery locked and loaded, but at least it wouldn't be to such a degree that it was begging for the Fed's to show up wondering what he was doing with it.

He doubt they'd accept "reenactment" as a good excuse for ordering several pounds of gunpowder, Morty thought as the last of his troops were cajoled into formation before his Red Caps marched to the front and saluted to show that they were ready to move out. He nodded and pointed towards the woods.

"Right. March men!"

At his words, the troops began to march at a steady beat and rhythm. Unlike when the first Red Cap and his troops marched off, these troops were more disciplined and had more Red Caps to worry about driving their clubs on the heads of any that might slack in their formation or march out of step. Morty marched with them. Sorta. He wasn't in formation but he DID lead from the front! Kinda. He had taken a position in the center of the company where a small circle was cleared around him and the sisters. Gerard remained behind to oversee things at the manor while he marched to war.

Morty enjoyed the march as he looked at his force of goblins. Red Caps in officer dress leading from the front, stiff backed and eyes forward as they marched. The higher up grunts that marched along three steps behind them in five rows. Uniforms, mostly, clean and unsullied with gear that was also largely tended to.

But after that, quality became something of a luxury as the rest of the goblins and dragues had little more than scraps and poorly tanned leather as clothing and whatever they could get their hands on when it came to weapons. Some had crude muskets with jagged and rusted blades and splintered wood with dented barrels while others wore tattered furs with buzzing flies and maggots as they carried planks of wood or crude tools.

Good thing their jobs were to die then, Morty thought as they continued to march. Keeping his army fed and equipped was important. But when the majority of their jobs were to throw themselves and bury his enemies in blood and bone, giving them expensive equipment was pointless. It also helped incentivize them to perform better. The better they did during their training, the better their equipment was.

None of them would become Red Caps though, Morty thought. Or even Noble Goblins. Whatever allowed them to form seems to have run its course in the spawning pools and what he had was what he got. He'd just have to wait until nature did its work if he wanted more. For the Noble Goblins it wasn't an issue since they didn't see alot, or any really, combat. But the Red Caps were being whittled away and if they didn't put some hustle into breeding then it looked like they weren't going to last long.

He was brought out of his thinking as he spied the small cadre of flamethrower goblins. They were instrumental during his little Troll War as they spewed burning oil on the trolls. Their gear had been adjusted afterwards to account for little things. They were now dressed in full garb of blackened leather robe, gloves, cap, and boots with a set of dented, scratched, and scorched dual tanks on their back which gurgled and sloshed as they went. He couldn't see their faces through the heavy leather mask and tinted cracked goggles they wore. It was like looking at a plague doctor that decided burning the infection out was a better solution.

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A small group of grenade laden trogs also followed along, as much as they could anyway. They mostly just hobbled along after them, occasionally being distracted by something they saw or smelled before a Red Cap handler would rush to get them moving again. Attempts to drive them back into formation were mixed. Trying to force them with club strikes did nothing more than jiggle their bellies or even outright break the wooden clubs! Most of the time they had to resort to a form of "baby-speak" to get them to follow with promises of snacks. Something the Red Caps HATED by the way they were quick to bash in the brains of any goblins that thought to snicker a little too loudly at the display.

They tried to get a trog to haul the cannon but was soon forced back upon the dragues when the trog spent more time staring at its reflection and making stupid faces in the dull metal than pulling it. At least it seemed to enjoy it enough to stand guard over the artillery, Morty thought as they neared the junction before starting down towards where the quarry was.

He couldn't hear anything other than the marching of his troops as well as the occasional bitching and moaning from the grunts and dragues mixed with the mixed phrases of Cajun French they picked up from him and English with a smattering of... German? He turned towards the sound and found that the flamethrower goblins were amicably talking with one another in perfect German!

Which was a surprise. The only goblins that had any grasp of a language to be fluent in it was the Noble Goblins and the Red Caps, who were both at least partially bilingual. So that a group of specialist troops had a grasp of a language that he only could piece together parts of from his time in Uni practicing his language skills with a foreign exchange student. How they had gotten so good at it he could only guess at. Not like he had anything in German for them to study like French and English.

Cunning linguist and cunnilingus aside, they soon arrive at their destination and Morty saw the quarry. As well as the robed and uniformed statues scattered around the area before it. Cultists in purple robes and goblin grunts were frozen stiff save for their clothes. As they marched he looked down and saw that even parts of the foliage had turned to stone as grass broke and crunched with their steps. Bushes and trees closest to the quarry were partially turned to stone as well. Some bushes and lower hanging branches bent and groaned under the heavy weight of their stony limbs.

"What the hell did all this?" Morty asked as his troops kept a look out for the attackers.

"Cockatrice?" Orga asked as she turned towards her sister with a questioning look.

She shook her head.

"Too intact. Gorgon?"

This time her sister shook her head.

"Too many dead."

Morty and the sisters pressed forwards as they continued to give hints as to what might've caused this as his troops marched around and investigated themselves. Some poked or toppled statues. Some breaking apart as if they were statues all along while others broke into pieces of bloody stony gore.

The sisters got their answer soon however as several grunts shouted out and made to flee as those standing next to them seemed to flash petrify!

"LIZARD!!!"

That was all they needed to hear as the sisters closed ranks around Morty while his forces got to work fighting these "lizards". Which should've been easy to do, he thought. But it would seem that either his forces weren't as deadly as he thought they should be, or the lizards were tougher than he figured.

From where he was being hidden behind the sisters, he couldn't quite see what the lizards looked like. He would catch glimpses from time to time through their arms and hear their strange stone grinding growl that reminded him of a gator's growl. But that was it. He couldn't actually SEE them! Which made trying to order around his troops harder.

But at least they had the Red Caps for that, Morty thought as he turned to the side and saw a goblin grunt go from flesh and bone to rock and stone within the span of an eye blink! He turned his gaze to where he was looking and saw what they were fighting. It was like a gator rolled around in a quartz pit, he thought as the four-eyed, six-legged, beast growled and waddled its bulky frame from its hiding spot among the nearby stone and closer to the calcified goblin. With each movement its apparently stony scales or hide scratched and ground against itself. A gator taking a dip in a quartz pit was about right as its hide was covered in pale stone scales and the crystal.

Morty patted himself for a weapon before recalling that he didn't actually HAVE a weapon. Given recent events he should probably start packing. The stony lizard rushed the stoned goblin with a headbutt that sent the thing to the ground with a wet crash as semi-petrified viscera broke apart. Morty watched as the beast picked out the "rarer" of the bits before snapping it up and eating it exactly like a gator would!

"Holy shit." Morty cursed as he watched the beast act almost one-one like a gator. If it wasn't for the six legs, four eyes, and stone and crystal covering its body he'd think it really was a gator!

Unfortunately it seemed to have decent hearing and growled before turning its head towards Morty. After seeing what had happened to that goblin he wasn't going to take any chances and threw his mostly empty glass at the beast! Fortunately, his aim wasn't half bad and he nailed the beast in its face that sent the glass flying into its glassy eyes!

It rumbled and growled and thrashed as it shook its head and tried to claw at its eyes to clear the glass. The sisters took the noise to intercept the stony lizard before it could retaliate though. They rushed forwards and began to slam into the beast's head over and over again with mighty blows. It growled and lashed out but couldn't do much more with its eyes disabled. Eventually a crack rang through the air and Morty saw the head of the beast split open after a hit by one of the sisters that resulted in purple colored blood leaking from the wound.

"YEAH!!!" Morty cried out as the sisters stomped on it a few more times just to make sure.

He then turned his gaze to the rest of his forces. The battle was going about as well as he had hoped. Plenty of dead goblins that had turned to stone. But that was the point of having sheer numbers. Where one fell another took its place. After being driven by the Red Caps, the goblins crawled over their stony kin until they threw themselves upon the lizards and began to bat and stab at them where their hides were thinnest or aiming to blind them.

Then he heard another growl to his right. He turned and saw one of the lizards rushing towards him. He immediately felt his skin start to stiffen as the beast sprinted towards him with a maw full of jagged stone teeth. Morty raised his left arm to block what he could from the beast when he heard a voice to his right cry out.

"GENERAL?!"

Morty was forced to the side as a weight threw itself upon him that got gradually more heavier as he fell. He turned as the breath was knocked out of him and he saw the bloody frozen visage of the Red Cap that had saved his life. Blood poured from his orifices' as whatever the lizard did didn't completely do its job. But he could hear sniffling from nearby and turned and saw one of the trogs sobbing as he stared at the petrified form of the Red Cap.

"Boss?"

The trog cried thick heavy tears as thick yellow snot dripped from its nose. Morty did his best to point towards where the lizard was last he saw.

"It killed him!"

The trog looked up at Morty confused then glanced back at the stony Red Cap before looking up to where the lizard was being held back by a trio of flammenwefer gobos. Whatever the lizard used to petrify didn't seem to work against them for whatever reason. But that didn't matter as the trogs spent FAR too many seconds putting two and two together before a growl emanated from its throat and it turned towards the lizard with a snarl before charging into the fray!

He tried to force up the statue pressing down on him but had a hard time. Partly because he couldn't seem to move his left arm all that well, and also because being turned to stone tended to make you weigh alot! He grunted and groaned as he heaved as best he could while the sounds of battle raged around him.

Flammenwefer goblins took advantage of their immunity to the lizards' gazes and sent burning napalm over their stony hides and into their faces. The beasts didn't seem to care about the former but REALLY didn't like the later as they reeled and snapped blindly and desperately. Some even seeming to go into a death roll as they latched onto anything nearby and thrashed violently!

The sisters eventually hurried over and threw the statuesque Red Cap off Morty with a crack. It seemed they weren't unscathed from the fighting around either as patches of their thick hide was gray and splotchy in some areas. But they didn't let it bother them if it even did, Morty thought as they assisted him up.

Morty hissed as he stood on two feet again. He turned and looked around while rubbing his stiff bruised or broken left arm. Despite there being ALOT more statues than before. The battle itself was a success. The lizards, whatever they were, were being killed off as once it was revealed that taking out the eyes made killing them alot easier, to a degree, they rushed to capitalize like the vicious little shits that they were.

He noted that he didn't hear the cannon sound once this entire time and turned to find the drague crew nothing but stone with a partially stoned trog standing over a bloody lizard as he continued to gaze into the metal. What bits of him were calcified was torn off where new flesh began to regrow instantly.

"Well. I've had enough excitement for one day." Morty declared as it appeared things were coming to a head.

"Uhm, Master?" Orga said with no small amount of concern.

"What?" Morty asked.

The two sisters pointed down to his left arm as they both stared. He frowned as he looked up at them.

"What? It's bruised or broken. It'll be fine."

The two sisters shook their head. Which caused Morty to look down at his left arm. It took a minute to process what he was seeing. But the second he did, he screamed as he stared down at his now calcified limb.