Humans
2205 คำ
Julius began ordering his homunculi to gather in the forest. He obviously didn’t bring everyone, just the amount that he could manage.
Eisha was also able to control a few homunculi so she brought along a few while Proto was actually able to take control of 2 faceless homunculi. So, coupled with Julius’s current limit of controlling 20, a total of 32 homunculi were rushing over to the gathering spot that Julius designated.
Since Julius was able to form an agreement with the elves, he exited the oak tree with Arlayna following after him.
“Are you going to fight?”
“Yes, I did say that I will lend you my services.”
“Then wait for our people to finish preparing! We can go together,” Arlayna proposed.
Julius thought about it and eventually agreed. It would be better if they grouped up together instead of going separately.
If they went separately then met later on the battlefield, the elves might mistake his homunculi as enemies because they had a rather grotesque appearance.
“Alright, we’ll go together. My people are currently gathering nearby so it will take a while.”
“I’ll let you know when we’re ready.”
Arlayna walked away towards where Julius assumed to be the elven barracks’ location. He thought that it wasn’t proper if he followed after her but Arlayna turned around and called to him.
“What are you doing? Follow me!”
“...Is that appropriate?”
“Well, I need to change out my equipment because we aren’t hunting monsters. Also, it isn’t appropriate for YOU to just idle around town. I brought you here so you’re my responsibility. Just follow me, okay?”
Julius nodded and followed after Arlayna.
She led him to their armory where Julius waited outside for her. The elves that were coming and going were guarded against him. Julius was never bothered with how people looked at him so he didn’t care.
Also, he expected this much, he was an outsider after all and he looked every bit human-like those who were trying to take over these elves’ homes. He just stood there and waited for Arlayna to finish.
It took a while but the elf quickly came out in a hurry and tossed something over to Julius. Julius reflexively caught it and saw that it was a quiver full of arrows.
He looked up at Arlayna with a confused look and said, “I don’t need this.”
“I bet you don’t but even I can tell that using mana all the time to form arrows will exhaust you sooner or later.”
“...”
Julius remained silent because this was indeed true. He didn’t know his limit yet so it could be dangerous if he kept on shooting Wind Arrows but suddenly collapsed mid-battle because he couldn’t handle the strain of over-drafting his mana.
However, he didn’t like receiving things from people, especially if they were for free. The last time he received a gift, it was booby-trapped and he was injured from just trying to open the box that contained it.
Arlayna could see the struggle on his face and immediately said, “Just take it. Treat it as compensation for helping my team out earlier.”
“...Alright.”
Julius checked the quiver just in case and saw that nothing was wrong with it. Each arrow was crafted meticulously and was of high-quality. He strapped it on the back of his waist and moved around a bit. After making sure it was secure he turned to Arlayna who nodded her head.
“My people should be ready by now. How about you?”
‘Eisha?’ Julius asked telepathically.
‘We’ve all arrived at the rendezvous point. We’re just waiting for your command, Prince!’
Receiving the news from Eisha, Julius nodded at Arlayna before he continued to relay his thoughts to his wife.
‘My Love, we’ll be moving with the elves later. They might be alarmed at first but don’t act hostile. Our enemies this time are the humans, not the elves.’
‘Yes, honey~’
Arlayna brought Julius to the place where the elven army had gathered up. They weren’t many in numbers and it was understandable because this was just an elven town, not a city.
The only elven city would be Fara’thelas. It was located where the Tree of Life was and only the elves were privy to its location. The Tree of Life was something many races, other than just the humans, coveted.
It had the power of creation and longevity so it was only natural many wanted its power for themselves. The elves didn’t abuse the Tree of Life’s power because they treated the tree like a deity that watched over them.
Their vast source of mana and power over nature originated from the tree. Some legends say the elves were children of the Tree of Life, created to protect the tree from threats and to safeguard its powers.
Anyway, the number of elves who were combat-capable wasn’t many. Julius counted around 100 or so on his minimap. They were still indicated in yellow, but Arlayna, who was next to him, was indicated in blue now which meant she saw Julius as an ally.
“You can wait here, Julius, our commander will be addressing everyone.”
“I should go. I’ll have to go and rendezvous with my people and I’ll regroup with you later.”
“Okay, just so you know. We’ll be moving towards the northeast. If you can, regroup with us before we pass the river.”
“The river? Alright then.”
Julius didn’t know of any rivers inside the forest. He hadn’t mapped out too far in yet so this was a good chance. He quickly relayed his orders and a few homunculi set out to scout the area deeper into the forest.
Most of the elven warriors were gathered here so there would only be a few of them patrolling the forest.
“And take this. If we’ve gone past the river, you can use this to find us,” Arlayna gave Julius a leaf.
He could tell that the leaf wasn’t ordinary by the aura it was emitting but he couldn’t understand why it was only half a leaf.
“I have the other half. It’s enchanted with a spell so that both halves will seek each other out.”
“I see. I’ll make my move then. Until later.”
“Yes.”
Julius bade his farewell and went away. Thankfully, the gathering spot was just close to the periphery of the town so he didn’t have to walk far before he exited the town the same way he came in.
The elven guards allowed him passage without giving him too much trouble. Julius quickly rushed towards the rendezvous point where Eisha was waiting for him. A few minutes later, he quickly arrived.
He saw his wife sitting down on a boulder near the edge of the clearing he had designated as the spot and Eisha quickly noticed his presence.
“Honey!”
Julius saw that his army was ready and waiting. All the faceless homunculi were waiting on standby in the clearing with some of them perched on the trees, acting as a lookout. He noticed that there were some monster corpses nearby and the homunculi were feasting on them.
“Had some trouble?” Julius asked as he pulled his wife into a tight embrace and leaned in for a kiss.
“Not really~”
“We should get going then. We have to regroup with the elves.”
“Alright.”
“Eisha, since you can control 10 of them. Train them as your personal guards. Every Queen needs her escorts.”
“Okay~”
She was the Queen of the Fiends as shown in her status screen so naturally, she needed her own retinue of guards.
“Let’s go. It’s time to hunt some humans.”
Julius led his army out. 32 homunculi in total plus himself, Eisha, and Proto totaling 35 in all. It was only a third of the elven army, but Julius thought that it was enough.
He was only going to be dealing with some humans, not those Mysantises. In all honesty, Julius didn’t see the humans as too large of a threat. They were cunning and had strength in their abilities and intelligence but if he was just as cunning and intelligent, the humans’ fundamental abilities which lost to the homunculi wasn’t going to be enough to threaten them.
It just didn’t make any sense to Julius that a race far superior to those monkeys could lose so miserably. They were magically superior and had the terrain advantage, yet they couldn’t keep the humans out of their forests.
It turns out that they were far too peaceful and merciful. Julius deduced that after scaring off or warning the humans, they didn’t take any extreme actions like killing them. The elves were merciful and didn’t kill unless they needed to or were forced to do it. This was something the system informed him regarding the elves.
Julius wasn’t going to be so kind, however. He’d have his homunculi kill and feast on the humans’ corpses before teaching them a lesson that being too greedy would result in a disastrous outcome.
He didn’t know why he had such violent thoughts but it didn’t matter since that’s exactly what he wanted to do right now. Murder and tear apart those humans.
******
Elsewhere at a city bordering the large elven forest, a pot-bellied man was chuckling to himself as he pulled along a female elf by a leash over to his bed.
“Mhmmmm!!!” The elf had a gag in her mouth so she could only muffle out a yell in protest.
“Shut up you b***h!”
The man smacked the elf across the face. The force of the hit tossed the elf onto her backside and the fat man mounted her. Just as he was about to take his meat out, a knock was heard on the door.
“City Lord, there’s been an update regarding the situation in the Elfeyer Forest.”
“Tsk...we’ll continue this later!”
“...”
The pot-bellied man was discontented at being interrupted but the reason was just too important for him to dismiss. He had been planning the attack on the elven forest for a long time now.
He wanted to conscript the elves as a workforce because he needed to build something in the city he was managing. Since he didn’t have enough workers and slaves, it was only smart of him to look to a different source of manpower.
The elves who bordered his town and lived in ‘his’ forest were naturally the target. He had also tasted the forbidden fruit of interracial s*x and wanted more. He had been secretly capturing the elves in the forest and taking back both the men and women.
The men were put to work while the women were forced into becoming s*x slaves for him and his ilk.
The female elf in his bedroom was one of the elven elders’ children that he had just kidnapped a few hours ago. He had gone out of his way from the frontlines to come back to the city to take her and expected a violent reaction from the elves to come later. He didn’t expect them to retaliate so quickly.
“Bast, what’s the situation?” the city lord asked after he dressed himself and exited the room.
“It’s as you’ve planned, Viktor. The elves quickly took action after finding out that the woman in your bedroom was captured.”
“Hah! It’s all going according to plan. Lure them into the trap and quickly take care of them. After that, we’ll raid their town and capture all of them. They’ve been living quite peacefully in my forest, exempted from paying any taxes to me, the lord of this land!”
City Lord Viktor was not only a narcissistic and perverted man, he was quite cunning with his schemes and battle plans. He didn’t acquire his position as city lord through bribery or connections. He just had that ability despite his rotten personality.
“Let’s quickly take care of those long-eared baboons. I want to quickly enjoy myself later.”
“Yes sir.”
- ผู้เขียน
