Chapter 29: A New Enemy

The days past and went and the dark elves were somewhat accepted into the colony with the condition that they would keep themselves seen at all times and would keep watch of the kingdoms perimeter. Sia disliked Scitus's decision but Scitus felt no need to be wary of them and owed them for warning him of the ogre attack a few hours before it happened. Just like goblins who are considered monsters, not everything is as it seems to be. He would trust them for the time being and have the assassin knights, who grew in number after the arrival of the new goblins, keep a close eye on the perimeter of the city and check inside the forest for dark elf activity.

"He doesn't trust us." Her brows furrowed and her face had an unpleasant look as if she had just spotted the dead carcass of a long-dead animal. "Daughter" The dark elven elder spoke with a calm voice, he had no hint of agitation, "He has been kind to us, letting us live on his lands without having to worship him, despite the one causing him problems being one of our former members." The elf knew this, she knew that Scitus had been lenient and had even gotten the red witch off their backs who would more than occasionally pester them by entering their village. "I know father, but it still frustrates me." She hated when others thought poorly of her family simply because they were born differently.

“wait.” She looked at her father, his silver eyes pierced into her, asking what was wrong, “what is it.”

“I’ve made a mistake is all.” She remembers how she looked down on the goblins for being of a different race, she thought them no different the beasts.

“most Mistakes can be fixed daughter, and if they cannot be fixed they can be bandaged up and made anew.”

She smiled, happy that she had such a kind father.

"Elder Gian" A dark elf came into view from a nearby tree, his lungs were begging for air, the dark elf had not let them rest, he couldn't the information he had was far too important.

“Minotaurs.” Was all the elf had to say for the elder to understand how grave the situation had turned.

“warn Scitus immediately. ” she looked at her father, she didn’t want to leave his side, “NOW!!”

“But what abou..”

“go!!” She ran with all her might, into the forest, towards the city. Her tears watering the ground below her.

She didn’t stop, she ran for an hour until she finally she made it to the City, part of it had been torched to the ground and near its center stood Scitus, beside him the blood witch.

………………….

3 hours earlier:

"do you know what's wrong with him Sia?" Scitus asked as Sia inspected the gnarling ogre, her eyes were filled with madness and rage. Rey stood close by concerned, after all, it was his aunt tied to the logs like some animal. feeding her was nearly impossible, in the end, it was decided an animal would be placed in front of her to eat, in these cases, The ogre ravished the dead animal in minutes. Water was even more tricky, they had to cast a sleeping spell and then waking her up to drink the water in her mouth, any other way would have caused asphyxiation.

“She is showing signs of corruption.”

"Corruption?" Sia finished her inspection and looked back at Scitus. "there are two major types of Corruption when talking about monsters, Moral corruption, and absolute corruption."

Robin, who was behind Rey, patted his lower back. "thank you" Rey smiled happy that he at least had companions again.

"Absolute corruption gives a person great power but in high doses, it deteriorates the mind and after a certain point the mind cannot be restored."

"but the drow is still sane." Scitus mentioned. "People with strong minds can withstand the madness to a certain extent, ordinarily its only Morally corrupted people who ever use true corruption though."

"Moral corruption is just like it sounds, it really only applies to monsters though. Intelligent monsters who do something Morally wrong, like kill one of their own for their own benefit get this, their skin color turns a different shade and their body begins to produce a pungent odor that " She looked at Scitus, her eyes telling him that he should remember this.

“are.” Rey interrupted and Sia answered faster than he could ask. “no, she still has time to be saved, but the method of saving her is hard to come by.”

"Tell me," Scitus asked.

"I need to kill or otherwise sever the connection she has with the drow. The drow is the one who is actually corrupted, the ogres are merely Surrogates at the moment. The corruption spread to them because of the mind control he has on them."

“Only then can we help to cure their madness.” A short silence shadows over them. the silence is broken by Scitus who says, “we could kill him or much easier we can cast the mind down spell on him.” The mind down spell is a spell that causes a person brain to force sleep. It is essentially a sleep spell but with stronger effects that it becomes more of a coma than sleep.

"then." She shakes her head, "I'm the only one who can cast that spell, and I get the feeling you don't want me helping you more than you need to." She was correct, Scitus did not want to heavily rely on her. The first reason is that she would eventually ask for a favor in return, secondly is because it would weaken his overall standing with her and lastly, it would weaken his country. Like medicine that helps the immune system fight sickness, Sia helps the country at cost, but like the immune system, his population will grow lazier and complacent, letting Sia do all the work. The end result, a poor immune system.

“Can you cast the spell on an object?” this would be an alternative, a smaller price to pay.

“yes, but..”

"we can use the assassin knights to sneak up on him or maybe the Spartan unit."

"That could work, but it would be very dangerous, especially if this drow is using true corruption to increase his powers. It seems the only reason he didn't fight head-on last time is because he is a coward but goblins aren't exactly something to be feared in small numbers." she didn't think that any of the goblins could hope to fight the Drow head on especially if he was corrupted. Even the strongest goblins, William and Robin, probably couldn't beat him. She sighed, wondering why they couldn't just kill the ogres. Seeing scitus work with the Goblins, she knew that he could come up with a way to kill all of them, or at least most of them, with some casualties to the goblins.

“we’ll use that to our advantage” Her ear perked up, “The drow may be stronger, but I have my own trump cards to deal with people like the drow,” Scitus said, proudly showing his teeth to Sia. He wasn’t lying, when he found out about the dark elves, he had to come up with a way to deal with them if the need arose. The answer was much simpler than he first thought.

"Plus we don't have much of a choice now." she raises her brow, "he's here, and he brought a hell of a lot more ogres."Scitus had been keeping an eye on the perimeter of his territory, he made sure to only cover the areas he knew the Dark elves wouldn't cover because of its distance from their village.

"how many?" her demeanor changed, she was now in attack mode, her casting hand had already been lit with a fireball...

“100 or so.”

“Looks like he’s been spending the last few weeks in search for more ogres.” Scitus nodded.

“How many can a person control?”

“Not this many that’s for sure, at least not without corrupting yourself further.” Not only had he brought more ogres, but he had probably corrupted himself further to do it.

"what the hell did you do that pissed him off this much?" The ogres were still an hour from their position, this would give them time to prepare for the attack. "I think it has something to do with a goblin that I killed," Scitus recalled Rey's words, about how there was a very powerful being behind the goblin king.

"what?" She didn't understand why a Drow and a goblin would be connected with one another, Drows were still mortals despite being called monsters and for that reason, they still held monsters with contempt.

"Shhh!!!" Scitus had to think of something and fast, he didn't have time to entertain Sia's questions.

"Sia, hide inside the encampment, we can't let him know you're here or he'll run away again."

“are you orderin..” the hint of agitation was quickly wiped away by Scitus’s next words

"We don't have time to play this game, Sia." His eyes burned with determination, even the easily irritated Sia couldn't say no to him. She quickly entered the wooden walls, they were much bigger than the last time. Scittus had come up with new designs to make the city walls much sturdier than last time and at each of its corners stood an archer tower much to Cecilia's delight. Each wall side had two exits, big enough for only goblins and a single ogre to pass through, these were made in the case of an emergency. the walls also had another feature, large triangle reinforcements on the inside, these were made to hold the walls sturdy even after relentless slamming, they also served another purpose that would only come to play near the end of the battle.

"Robin" Scitus called telepathically while Robin was training in the woods with his unit and many other units that joined.

“Yes master” the goblins looked at each other, wondering why Robin was called.

“I’m going to need you and your troop to make traps at the edges of the forest.”

"Seresa." He sent a telepathic thought to Seresa who was not far from him, he could see her and saw her back suddenly straighten. She turned her head to Scitus.

“yes, owe!!.” She was called in the middle of class causing Hera to give her a good smack with her ruler. “its master.” She stared down Hera, who smiled.

“Alright, class is over everyone.” The young Goblins had been learning English and Seresa was Hera’s assistant. If her father was calling in the middle of class it meant it was something important.

“What is it Seresa?” Hera asked the Shaken Seresa.

"we need to get ready for battle." To Hera, Seresa was worried, she was worried because she was told the plan and she was told about the enemy. She turned to Hera "Hera, here is the plan"…

An hour came and went.

“Let’s do this.”

Time went by and Scitus ordered for an assembly.

The goblins were waiting for their god's speech, he would make one before the battle, the Ogres were closing in on the kingdom, it wouldn't be long before their thunderous footsteps would be heard.

"Not long ago!!!" Scitus spoke with an authority that chilled the bones of every goblin in the audience, his face seemed different than his ordinary slightly angry expression. "goblins were mocked and seen as the weakest!!" The crowd was silent, "The truth is you are weak!! And this weakness will be your strength." The goblins looked at one another, wondering why their god was saying. "You were unintelligent and physically weak. The ogres can easily crush us." Almost if on cue, the ground began to shake beneath them. The ogres had arrived. " Use the fear inside you, use it as your power!!"

"Some of us may die. But hold your head up, and puff out your chests. For today we will prove to this world that even the weak can fight the strong!!"

"RAHH!!!!" The maddened screams of the ogres echoed throughout the encampment. "Soldiers!!" The army that had been training for the past few weeks straighten their back. "Look at your families, fight not just for yourself but for them too. they will be your strength when you feel like giving up remember your family and fight again, fight until every bone in your body is broken, fight until you are unable to get up again."

“now go and fight!!”

"AHH!!" The soldiers shouted in unison, their bodies stopped shaking. Their god was right, they may have still been weak, they still couldn't hope to match the ogres in a head-on battle, but that wasn't the point, the point was to protect what they had. This fight wasn't to prove their superiority, it was to guarantee their future and to do that, they must fear the present and use it as their strength.

Under all the commotion, none of them noticed Scitus whisper under his breath, Only the few closest to him would ever know that he casted a strengthening spell that day, one of the few spells that he managed to learn that month.