The goblins in the village were getting back from a hunting party and were celebrating the kill of two boars they were going to eat along with whatever domestic animals they planned on slaughtering. Other than the twelve goblins that still had short spears and slings, Paul couldn’t tell who was or wasn’t a warrior among them. He knew who the chief was from the last time.

The chief was surrounded by several sycophants, warriors and women alike, all vying for his attention. From what Paul could make out, it was the chief who killed one of the boars.

Liora had taken a third of their forces to the other side of the village this time. It was going to be her mission to capture as many of the fleeing noncombatants as possible. Unlike the last village this one had one-hundred-fifty-one members.

Paul would have to be much more careful about this battle.

He had his troops arranged in two battle lines, group a and group b. Each had zombies arranged in the from lines as shock troops with skeleton spearmen in the back. Some of the zombies had shields, but most didn’t. He even equipped twenty-two of them with the clubs and spears taken from the first village.

There were six longhouses, each about twenty feet deep and ten feet wide. They were haphazardly placed around a central fire pit in a circle. Probably placed that was to funnel attackers down into the center.

The chief’s hut was placed on the western side of the of the fire, tightening the gap on that side. Along that side as well were two goat pens thirty feet by thirty feet, filled pretty well with goats.

The slave pen was to the northeast and had seven occupants. Two males, three females, and two children, all goblins. The slaves plus the over abundance of goats means the tribe must had been raiding recently and had come back with some goodies.

Paul would be attacking from the south and Liora would be hitting them from the north as goblins funneled north away from the fighting.

Once Liora was in place Paul pulled mana into himself from his tethers. The fist mana he pulled was from the darkness tether. Bringing into himself the dark mana from the source. He combined the darkness with earth and began to draw earth mana into himself at the same time. Gathering the mana, he began casting a spell on his troops, empowering their necromantic energies making them stronger for the battle to come.

Purple and black fire began to burn in their eyes and a dark mist seemed to emanate from their joints. A symbol of Paul’s magic coursing through them.

Once the spell was cast, he began gathering more mana. This time from his fire tether. He tugged the mana from the source through his tether making it into flames inside himself. This time though, even when he had enough mana to cast his spell, he continued to gather more.

Gathering mana could be a time-consuming process if you weren’t properly attuned to the tether, you were using and would be difficult to use during the battle unless he was shielded by his troops, but even then, things would change on the battlefield, who knew if he would still need the spell, he wanted by the time he had the mana to cast it. Since becoming undead, he could still use his fire tether, but it was weakened and his darkness tether was so much more powerful it was daunting.

Once Paul gathered enough mana, he began casting again. This time he shaped his fire mana into a large ball of fire he launched a massive fireball at the chief and his gathered sycophants. Screams filled the air as the fireball smashed into the group. The fireball killed seven goblins immediately and caught several others on fire as the ball splashed in every direction.

Quickly Paul began casting a second fireball. This time he launched it at a large group of goblins gathered to the left of the firepit. The fireball hit and killed twelve goblins immediately catching around twenty others on fire.

Paul wasn’t sure if he killed any warriors with his second volley, but he killed plenty of goblins that hopefully it damaged moral as badly as if he had killed only warriors.

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Some of the goblins seemed to know what to do when on fire and rolled on the ground trying to put out the flames, while other ran around wildly, even catching two of the longhouses on fire. As the buildings began to burn, other goblins ran out of them.

Fourteen goblins immediately grabbed their spears and began charging where the fireballs had come from. Paul commanded group a to move up, positioning itself between a couple of the building, ready to intercept any goblins that made their way around the buildings.

Group b, also moved forward, but not to close. The longhouse to their right had been lit on fire and was starting to burn.

The goblin came rushing from between the building and began attacking the wall of zombies with wild abandon. As the zombies help the ling and took swipes at the goblins, or attempted to grapple them, the spear wielding skeletons from the back row began poking at them from the back ranks.

More goblins began to make their way towards group b. They made their way between the building set on fire and the building next to it. They surged forward right into the waiting arms of the zombie line of group b.

Melee broke out of both ends. As Paul’s troops fought the growing goblin numbers, Liora’s troops made their way out of the forest.

Ten goblins engaged in battle with Paul’s troops perished quickly causing three to break off and flee. As they fled towards the other end of the village, they were confronted with Liora’s troops. Forced to engage the smaller army the slightly wounded troops were killed easily.

Liora’s forced began quickly capturing the women and children who tried to flee themselves.

An enemy shaman appeared from between two of the buildings and began casting healing spells on his warriors. Those that were ready to flee began gathering around the old shaman. He must have had a powerful earth tether to be able to cast healing spells so quickly.

From the back ranks, Paul began pulling from his air tether. It was not as powerful as his darkness tether, but was still strong.

The battle wasn’t turning in the goblins favor by any means, but they began putting up an even more staunch fight with the shaman’s appearance. Now they seemed less likely to surrender, which defeated the purpose of the battle.

After Paul had gathered enough mana, he maneuvered so that none of his troops were between him and the shaman. Lifting his hand above his head, a giant bolt of lightning ripped from his hand and struck the shaman in the chest, hitting several goblins along the way.

Goblins screamed and began running in every direction. The ones fighting the zombies and skeletons directly threw down their weapons and surrendered immediately.

The awesome display of magic on the battlefield sapped the last of their moral.

Liora and Paul gathered the last of the goblins in the middles of the village. Paul had his troops gather the dead and bring them into the village center.

While they did that Paul did a quick count of his remaining troops. He had lost twenty-two zombies and four skeletons. Unfortunate losses, but with the appearance of the shaman, it couldn’t be helped.

He managed to kill sixty-one goblins and captured eighty-five, with the rest escaping into the woods. He had also pressed the seven slaves into his service. Ninety-two new bodies weren’t bad.

On the positive side he managed to kill more goblins than troops he lost.

Once the dead had been gathered Paul looked at the remaining goblins.

“You are now mine.” He said in a loud voice, careful all could hear him. “You will do as your told, or you will die.”

While speaking Paul had gathered the dark mana necessary to raise the fallen goblin from the dead. Unlike the three goblin he raised as zombies from the last village, this time he diversified. Casting his magic, he raised thirty-one zombies and thirty skeletons, bringing his numbers to one-hundred-twelve zombies and two-hundred-twenty-six skeletons.

“I am Paul Alaricson. You will serve me loyally in this life or the next, but you will be loyal. Do you understand?”

Most of goblins nodded weakly, eyes locked on their undead comrades. It was clear they were terrified of Paul and his power.

“This is Liora Starfrost my lieutenant. You will listen to her words as if they were my own.” Paul pointed at Liora, who floated next to him wordlessly.

Paul looked around. Except for the two buildings that burned to the ground the village was still intact. There were still four longhouses. It would be much trouble to rebuild the two that burned down, plus an extra one for his original goblin forces.

Until then the new goblins could sleep outside. The nights weren’t cold and it hadn’t done more than sprinkle since he had arrived.

“Liora. Go get the other goblins. We will set up here.” Paul said.

“Of course.” She said and made her way back to the original village.

“What is this village called?” Paul asked no one in particular.

“Goblins don’t name their villages.” An older goblin said.

Well, that was no good. Paul would need to eventually expand again. He would need more food and more servants. More servants and goblins meant more villages. It would get confusing if none of them had names to separate them from one another.

“This village is now called…” Paul thought about it for a moment. “Gravewell.”