Shalltear’s first task when her Lord vanished was to deliver the death knights.

When she passed through the gate and appeared again in the center of the Green Claw village, there were immediate outcries of happiness and relief that she had come back. However, when she was followed by the malice emitting death knights with their great tower shields and swords as long as a lizardman was tall, cries of dread came up uniformly from the ranks.

Shivering and dread from their numbers was so overwhelming that even when the lizardmen descended to their knees and bowed their heads, the shadows cast by the central bonfire revealed shadows that shook like leaves in a breeze.

The guard complement on the walls was copious, and the walls themselves had been raised by several feet. In addition, Shalltear noticed that sharp wooden stakes were embedded in various locations and at various heights several feet back from the dirt mounds which she disdained as subpar security.

She ignored their fear to point at the sharp wooden spikes thrusting out of the ground. “What are those?” She asked, looking down at the lizardman bearing the blue sword.

“Frog traps, Lady Shalltear.” Zaryusu said without raising his head, “The frogmen like to jump over walls, I thought that if they are so eager to impale themselves, let them.”

Shalltear furrowed her brow and let her imagination work, the weird running creatures reaching the wall, leaping over, crying for blood, one horrified moment when they looked down and saw the rows of spikes waiting for them, then impaled by their own weight and dragged down the base.

It was a slow, painful, brutal way to die.

‘I love it.’ Shalltear thought and looked down at the lizardman who spoke. “This was your idea?” She asked, blinking her crimson eyes as she looked at the unassuming lizardmeat.

“Yes, my Lady. Do you not approve?” He asked of her, and to that she shook her head.

“No, it is a marvelous idea. You’re one to watch.” She remarked with a smirk.

“Th-Thank you, my Lady?” Zaryusu half replied and half questioned, he was rife with uncertainty made worse by the malice-riddled beings at her back. “May I ask what purpose those… beings, have?” He pressed his luck by asking, but clearly pleased by his torturous weapons, she reached up and patted one of the death knights on the waist. Its dark flesh gave under the seemingly light touch of the armored vampire, she grinned down at the lizardman.

“Your security. These will help protect you both while my master works, and after my master leaves. You all belong to him now, be grateful… the King over Nazarick deems you worthy of serving him!” Shalltear shouted her proclamation into the deepening darkness of the quiet night, the crackling of flames seemed to applaud her and cast the dread shadows of the death knights long over the reassembled body of lizardmen tribals.

“Where is our new lord, my Lady…?” Shasuryu inquired, daringly raising his face to meet her eyes despite the look of hate from the death knight which was still radiating violence enough to make the bravest lizardman quiver with terror.

“He has returned home for the night and will come back in the morning, when he does, you will follow him to the heart of the frogman territory and prove that you deserve to exist.” Shalltear’s eyes fell over the masses.

“The world eats the weak, if you want the protection of the strongest in the world… prove it and then be grateful he acknowledges you.” Shalltear’s words dripped like venom from the fangs of a snake, but if it was venom, it was sweet and charming venom that struck the hearts and souls of the lizardman like flint to flint, it ignited a spark which caught fire in their hardy souls.

“We will, Lady Shalltear, we will!” Zaryusu and Shasuryu shouted, and their outcry of promise was taken up by the others until it became a mix of religious intonation and battlecry.

“We will. We will. We will. We will. We. Will. We. Will.” The chant went on, and the lizardmen began to rock back and forth in a rhythmic pattern that synchronized together that seemed to slowly become a form of eerie worship.

Shalltear watched as their eyes became glassy, distant, and a zeal came into them very slowly but surely, which reminded her of the human test subjects. ‘Like the ones who defeated the Empire champions… fanatics… Good, very good, it is just what my master deserves!’

Shalltear’s sense of satisfaction as well as her Lord’s ability to inspire devotion continued to rise as she opened the gate again. “Take these death knights and use them to protect yourselves, when our Master comes back, there will be a lot of work to do. Maybe he will even consider rescuing those captives of yours that the frogmen have already taken. He’s got them running home right now, and no doubt that the survivors Heketi took of your people are kept guarded. You have nothing to worry about though, these will obey you. All you have to do is sit and wait... If you want to be rescued, that is...” She let the statement hang.

“We will.” They answered, then Shalltear stepped through the gate and was gone.

“You heard Lady Shalltear.” Zaryusu spoke up immediately when she vanished, “We’re to go and rescue our people with these death knights, by the command of the King of Nazarick to prove ourselves worthy!” He shot to his feet and raised his frozen sword skyward.

For a moment all was stillness and silence.

Only the huffing noise of the undead broke the moment, and the crackling of the bonfires sent sparks of glowing orange into the air where it flickered and died away.

Finally he spoke, extending his hand outward toward the other chiefs, “You heard her, ‘maybe’ he will rescue them, and we ‘must prove we are worthy’ and ‘use these death knights to protect ourselves…’” He looked the chiefs over, “This was a warning. If we won’t rescue our own people, why should he bother to rescue any of us at all?!”

Shasuryu thought that over, his brother had never looked stronger, more certain, and the more the statement went through his head, the more true it seemed like it could be.

Crusch Lulu, for a moment as her red eyes focused on the lizardman she was rapidly growing to love, believed he’d gone mad. But as he made his argument and held his sword aloft while six impossibly strong monsters stood ready to defend the village, she believed.

‘Some of our people are captives, leaving them there, waiting for a king to save us after he bestows us with weapons that could rescue them? After he gives us the means to protect ourselves? No… we would shatter all faith and confidence in us that he now holds. His emissary’s words were cryptic, but we must act or be forever held in contempt!’

“Then we have to go. Chiefs! We take one of these creatures with us, and then we alone rescue the captives!” Crusch spoke up and shot to her feet while the words tumbled out, tails began to pound the ground in unison, and the motion carried the night.