Maxwell found himself both surprised and very grateful. As Bunet had captured the second invasion, the grass pixie clans had sent into his lands, stopping them at the undead hornets outpost and making sure they never got any further into his kingdom. Though he was surprised to find the grass pixies had invaded with a fleet of grass warships on a sea of moving grass.
Honestly, it showed that the grass pixie's magic was not only powerful but was able to bend the laws of nature itself. Well, not bend them, Maxwell thought, but more swap them, as the more he thought on it, the more the entire grassy phenomenon was an advanced version of the grass maze that was earlier deployed. It was just the growth part of the maze taken to such an extreme as to be ridiculous.
Well anyway, he now had the leaders of the fleet and their crews captive, as Burnet had captured them all. Though he wasn't sure what he was going to do with nine grass warships, Burnet had also got him; he figured such powerful magical creations would be more than good enough for a new round of necrotic experimentation.
Though that would have to be later. As he would be busy at the moment trying to get some kind of diplomacy going with grass pixie clans. As he figured he could get peace in return for all his current prisoners easily enough, though how he would go about contacting whatever government the grass pixie clans had would be another thing entirely.
He had figured earlier that Wormer would be his best bet for peace talks, as he was the one best suited for talking to fairies. But he wouldn't risk Wormer until he was sure he had a safe route to whatever would be considered the main government capital for the grass pixies. As he wanted no doubt in the certainty of whatever agreement was created, he didn't want to risk Wormer being killed in some skirmish.
So at the moment Wormer was in the underground of his realm creating more of his creations to defend the underground with his small clan in case of an underground attack. Maxwell used his necrotic vision to look around his domain. He saw that many of his citizens had been slain in the two invasions. His smog rage catapults and undead hornets had thrown themselves into the battlefield with a berserk that had slowed the enemy advance.
He hoped he would be able to make their sacrifices worth it by negotiating, at the very least, a ceasefire, if not an outright peace with the grass pixies, considering how many of them he now had to bargain with. Though his eye saw sight turn towards Horter for a moment, who was gathering his strength. Maxwell had expected Horter to be a tad more upset at being left out of the fighting.
Especially considering Maxwell's three current commanders were his miserable rage catapult, Burnet the wasp zombie commander, and Horter the zombie butterfly commander. Having the miserable rage catapult, who had been leading the first defense of the kingdom, and considering the miserable rage catapult was the youngest and least experienced of the three, some may have very well considered letting him lead the first defense an insult. Though Horter hadn't, in fact, from what Maxwell could tell, Horter was taking it in stride.
He had sent a lot of his butterflies over to Bunet's battlefield not to intervene but to recruit. As Horter had used his undead butterflies hypnosis abilities to take control of the magical insects left behind by the grass sea. He then had these newly recruited magic insects come over to his side at the undead butterfly outpost, leaving Bunet to finish the battle on her own with the grass sea insects interference.
Without the hope of reinforcements from those insects magically changed from the grass sea, the sailors of the nine warships had ended up overwhelmed and trapped below deck on their own warships. So Horter found himself currently fielding the largest army of the three at the moment. Not only did he have the undead butterflies that his outpost was constantly creating, but he also had those greater magical insects enslaved to his hypnosis, meaning that of the three, he was the most ready for a battle, though there wasn't likely to be one as the grass pixies had already lost two armies. Maxwell couldn't imagine them risking a third.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
The crafters had taken much longer than their farmer and hunter cousins in their grand ritual. But the results of their grand vision and slow, methodical precision were plain to see. As the hunters had harnessed the power of the predators they had hunted while the farmers had pushed the power of growth the grasslands had to its absolute limit. The craftsman had used their skill over GRASS SHAPE to create the final weapons that would allow them to be the final nail in their enemy's coffin.
As their grand ritual of GRASS SHAPING ended, the nine elders were gone; in their place stood a nine-headed grass hydra with the elders hidden deep within its torso, providing it life and the power to heal. This creature of power and versatility let out a roar from each head, for which it revived a hundred hissing roses in return.
As unlike the farmers and hunters before them, the grass pixie craftsmen did not have magical armor form around themselves to fight better. No, the magical craftsman instead combined their skills and might to craft grass snakes, which they ride deep inside to protect themselves in battle while also repairing their creations from the inside while in battle.
The horde of grass snakes led by a nine-headed snake hydra let out one more hissing roar in unity before charging towards the walls of the kingdom. The horde of grass serpents had the promise of death in their emerald eyes as they slithered ever closer towards their goal. The horde knew to attack from the West as had been the plan, and hopefully the other two attacks would have already made it deeply into the smog kingdoms defenses, the grass pixie crafting elders within the grass hydra thought.
Yeah,no, why would the grass clans would risk a third army? Not when he had already captured two. Then he thought about it. "Unless they don't have a way to communicate, and so the grass pixies don't know the two armies had been defeated and captured." Maxwell said aloud to himself in his voice made of necrotic magic.
Maxwel thought of the what a train of thought might lead to, especially for his current situation. Then he decided not to think about any more except to see later if maybe he could build a train out of necrotic smog and twigs later, but that would be for another day. For now he was going to have to figure out how to establish a route to the capital of the grass pixies while not departing from his defenses in case the grass pixies tried something else.
Maxwell thought of the future, and while he did that, Horter prepared for the present as he brought his super weapon out of the smog wall. Horter was on his cloaked butterfly ship hidden above the army of grass snakes heading towards the smog kingdom. "Nobody said I had to wait for you to come to me." Horter said with a sense of smug superiority that was radiating off him for what he was about to unleash.
So the third and final battle of the siege of the smog kingdom was about to unfold will this third army of the grass pixies be victorious when the others haven't? Who is to know only when all is said and done will the truth be revealed and history be written down for those that came later to know.