Valkyrie's Shadow

Winter's Crown: Act 6, Chapter 19

Winter's Crown: Act 6, Chapter 19

Chapter 19

?Hey! Be more careful when you do that!?

Amidst the chaos and screaming of the Goblin army camp, the Death Knight stopped in its tracks and looked up at Ludmila.

?Your task right now is to raise Squire Zombies – look at what you did to that one.?

The Death Knight turned its gaze back down at its most recent victim – which was now a Squire Zombie awkwardly clawing its way over the ground. It was originally a Bugbear, bisected just below its ribcage by a swing of the Death Knight’s flamberge. Its entrails caught on a tent peg…now it was stuck.

?Lord Cocytus is expecting fully-functional soldiers for the army, so kill in a way that leaves them intact! Also, do not look up at your commander when you are being addressed in combat: enemies might see that and follow your gaze to locate and identify them. Now, try again.?

With a casual swing of its weapon, the Death Knight destroyed its botched Squire Zombie. It looked around for a bit before pointing at a different Bugbear that was starting to inch away. Three Squire Zombies walked up to it, reaching out to hold onto its arms and legs. The Bugbear struggled in vain as the Death Knight approached, blade brandished before it. A wail of terror and despair rose as the Bugbear helplessly watched the point of the flamberge slowly slip between its ribs.

It made one last, brief attempt to free itself before its head sagged forward and its limbs went limp. After several moments, the Squire Zombies let go. The new Squire Zombie now stood on its own, looking around for fresh victims. The Death Knight stomped off towards its next target.

?You will not always have the luxury to do that, so try to be faster about things. Just knocking them down and running them through is fine.?

Ludmila shook her head as the Death Knight continued with the exercise. Two hours had passed after her initial demonstration, and they were now on their sixth Goblin army encampment. The four Elder Liches were split into two contingents, each following their respective sides of the river trickling down into the central valley. Ludmila flew back and forth with Nonna, observing their progress, making corrections, and offering recommendations.

Broadly speaking, the Elder Lich commanders were capable of successfully fulfilling their objectives for each camp. After the first two assaults, however, Ludmila had identified some worrisome trends. Even now, she was working to correct the problematic behaviours demonstrated once in a while.

If she were to describe the sense of it, it was that the overall behaviours of the Undead contingents were more careless…or perhaps savage would be more apt. Well, no, she probably didn’t need to mince words: they acted like Undead. If a common person were to think about Skeletons and Zombies tirelessly pursuing and tearing apart their victims with a zealous hatred of the living, then the initial displays from the Undead forces under the Elder Lich commanders would be exactly that.

It cast a different light on how Undead servitors were said to carry out orders according to the perceived intent of those ordering them around. In the two attacks that Ludmila had personally directed so far, the Death Knights carried out their attacks in a way that favoured precise tactics which methodically flowed together to achieve greater objectives. There was little flair or spectacle involved. It was the way that she thought battles should be conducted, and thus the Undead carried out her commands according to that intent.

With the Elder Liches, they took on the Undead ‘flavour’ that was on clear display below. The assault was conducted with the force of sheer brutality; attacks carried out in a way that prioritized chaos, terror and despair. Demihumans and parts of Demihumans tended to fly into the air far more often, and there was a lot more noise and destruction. One could almost feel every possible drop of fear being wrung out of their enemies. The Death Knights appeared to revel in every second of it. If the Elder Liches were not slated for a full night of this training, Ludmila thought they would have been more flamboyant in their use of spells, as well.

This wasn’t to say that the Death Knights didn’t have ‘fun’ performing their tasks under her command, but the difference in their stance as to how the enemies of the Sorcerous Kingdom should be handled set different bounds for their overall conduct. To Ludmila, they were belligerents to be exterminated post-haste. To the Elder Liches, they were made to regret every remaining second of their wretched lives for the very idea that they had made themselves the enemies of His Majesty’s realm.

As to which was more effective, she couldn’t really be sure. Her methods were methodical and efficient, allowing for a quick cleanup of each camp once things got started. The brutality of the Elder Liches had a swiftness of its own, but things became quite messy as each camp turned into a carnival of carnage that ended up drawing things out. In the end, it came out to about the same time per target encampment, so she only moved to make corrections when specific behaviours affected their outlined objectives. Lord Cocytus would ultimately decide what methods would be employed.

The sounds of battle died down, and the Elder Lich conducting the assault floated down to face the remnants of the encampment’s defenders. It cleared its nonexistent throat loudly, drawing their attention. Ludmila leaned forward, wondering if they might finally gain a different result.

“E-Elder Lich…” the Hobgoblin, surrounded by its soldiers, breathed.

Ludmila frowned. She hadn’t known what an Elder Lich was until recently. The idea that she might be more ignorant than primitive, tribal Demihumans didn’t sit very well with her.

“Indeed,” the Elder Lich said in a deep, raspy voice. “You are being presented with an offer.”

The Hobgoblin’s brow furrowed, and it exchanged glances with several of its fellows.

“What…what offer?” It asked.

“Surrender,” the Elder Lich answered, “and become our captives. Otherwise, you shall be slain where you stand.”

The Hobgoblin officer set its jaw. In the end, the answer was the same as every camp previous.

In the aftermath of the battle, the newly-raised Zombies – which were now in excess of what they needed for encirclement – were marched back up to the passes, each transporting a corpse with it. Ludmila figured that, even if she didn’t have suitable advanced scouts to patrol the border, she could just stuff the passes with tens of thousands of Zombies: making them impossible to get through without running into one.

The Death Knights lined up their Squire Zombies for inspection while a Shadow Demon was sent ahead to scout the next camp. The Elder Lich commander marked out Squire Zombies that failed to meet standards, ordering their destruction. It then flew up to speak to her.

“Negotiations have once again failed,” it said. “Would it not be better to subdue them if the purpose is to secure prisoners?”

“The purpose is not to secure prisoners,” Ludmila replied, “we have many methods to do so, should we desire them. Our purpose is to offer them a choice, as civilized nations would do. I admit that the response might always be a bit skewed due to perceptions of the Undead in the world at large, but it is still something that should be practised. Many of our nation’s policies are aimed towards encouraging its acceptance in the world, and an army must consider that it must often serve to uphold both foreign and domestic policy. Arbitrarily butchering everything would have the effect of tearing down the goodwill built up by the efforts of His Majesty and His Majesty’s government.”

The Elder Lich remained silent as it appeared to digest her words. Did it really understand what she was saying? They, too, were servitors who had their own interpretations of their master’s will. Everyone had their own interpretation, for that matter. Still, Ludmila believed that, when it came to establishing favourable relations with neighbouring nations, it was Humans who possessed the best sense of how to go about things.

“I believe that fear of His Majesty’s might is sufficient to secure the cooperation of others,” the Elder Lich said after several seconds.

“Fear on its own is insufficient,” Ludmila told the Elder Lich. “For fear to sway the decisions of others, there must be meaningful alternatives to what they are being dissuaded from. Threats lose effectiveness when one feels that there is nothing they can do otherwise. They will just develop close-minded views and prepare themselves to fight, or decide that everything is meaningless and go on to live out some shallow and pointless life. As you can see, they may decide to do this on their own anyway, but we should always at least make the effort.”

Be it in warfare, dealing with one’s subjects, or anything else, it was a piece of wisdom that she and her friends held in common. They each applied it in their own, unique ways, but the fundamental idea remained the same.

Leaving the Elder Lich to continue with its training, she had Nonna bring them over to the other side, where the other contingent was conducting their next attack. From their vantage, a flash could be seen from between the trees as a Fireball exploded within the Goblin army camp. The rising wisps of smoke made her turn her head to scan the basin.

Between the attacks on the northern arm of the Goblin army and the sabotage efforts of the Shadow Demons, a thin haze was starting to form over the upper reaches. It had the benefit of masking their nighttime assaults: the smell of smoke filled the air and only more haze would be seen the morning after. The ongoing sabotage would also be harder to detect. A part of her wondered if it was too much, however. Her opponents might instead be alerted to the idea that something else was going on beyond their notice.

Over the next few hours, the training forces continued to make their way west, following the mountain valley. An hour before dawn, they arrived at the head of the northern arm’s advance. She looked northwest towards her home: it was a bit over 10 Kilometres to the Katze River, and 20 Kilometres to the canyon. The Goblin army had advanced within 30 Kilometres of the harbour town. She would have to scour the area just outside of her territory during the day to ensure that no scouts or other forces lingered.

To the south, she could see what they had identified as the main body of the Goblin army, with its many camps clustered in the central valley. It had advanced slightly as well, just over 20 Kilometres from the canyon leading into the Vale. Her original strategy was to arrest their advance by sabotaging their logistics, but just seeing them so close to her home made her want to act immediately to drive them back.

A Shadow Demon flew up from below, coming to a hover before them.

“Is something the matter,” Ludmila asked.

“A difference in equipment,” the Shadow Demon answered. “Similar to the first encampment destroyed.”

“On both sides of the river?”

The Shadow Demon shook its head, gesturing downwards.

“Only the north. Shall we proceed?”

Ludmila looked out to the east. She wanted to wait for the contingent on the south side of the river to complete their last camp and join them for the final attack of the night, but it was too close to dawn.

“I’ll come down with you,” she said. “Did you notice anything else about this camp?”

The Shadow Demon shook its head again and led them down to where the two Elder Liches commanding the northern bank awaited.

“It looks like we’ve finally found another of their stronger camps,” she said. “Since this is the last chance for you to fill out your Squire Zombie ranks, bring all of your Death Knights into the fight.”

The Elder Liches nodded in affirmative and flew off to organize their forces. Ludmila scanned the camp from where she and Nonna hovered overhead, trying to make out any strangeness that might indicate an unwelcome surprise.

“Say, Nonna,” she asked, “do we have any records of extraordinarily strong Goblinoids up north in Tob Forest?”

“We have nothing approaching an official census,” Nonna said, “and it is difficult to gain an accurate measure of how strong an individual is without another individual close to their level that can sense their strength. Why do you ask?”

“With so many Goblins in the upper reaches,” Ludmila said, “I am wondering if there is something like a Goblin Hero lurking out there somewhere. I suppose it is more likely to be a Hobgoblin or Bugbear Hero, as Goblins are fairly weak as a whole. The bunch at the pass was already an unwelcome enough surprise as it is.”

“I stand by my statement that there was no precedent for the existence of such a force,” Nonna told her. “Statistically speaking, of the nine million subjects of Re-Estize, only 600 are Platinum-ranked Adventurers or better. If Hobgoblins follow the same ratios of strength as Humans, there is no logic in there being so many in this force.”

“That is a flawed way of looking at things,” Ludmila said. “It assumes that any person capable of being an Adventurer becomes one. In reality, it is Adventurers that are extraordinarily rare, as it is a risky and unstable vocation. Based on what I have come to learn about levels, all people possess them, regardless of their lifestyle. The majority of Humanity engages in civilian vocations, of which it is difficult to measure levels in without concrete benchmarks. There are priests in temples capable of casting tier three and four magic, yet only serve their congregations. Arcane craftsmen are another example. If there is a correlation between crafter levels and materials, then any smith or tailor capable of fashioning those goods would be the equivalent to Platinum rank purely in terms of levels.”

“Even factoring this in,” Nonna said, “the ratio is still out of place for a force of this size.”

“It is not the only factor,” Ludmila explained. “The main driver here is the nature of tribal Demihumans and this Goblin army. Unlike Humans that live safely within the borders of Re-Estize, the Abelion Wilderness is a highly competitive environment where only the strong can thrive. All individuals pursue martial or mystical professions to survive, and conflicts occur regularly between them. They are driven to be strong, in perhaps a similar way that our Adventurer Guild undergoes combat training. Out here, however, the weak die, but they can afford that.”

Below, the huge encirclement of Squire Zombies and Zombies could be seen closing in on the perimeter of the camp. Occasionally, she spotted a Shadow Demon flickering between tents.

“This Goblin army will have collected strong individuals throughout its migration from wherever it came from,” she continued, “so the ratio will be much higher than a peaceful, sedentary population. It is not a population of a hundred thousand that you can apply the ratios of mostly civilian populations to – it is an army of a hundred thousand that has potentially fought its way through millions, drawing the strongest from those populations.”

“In that case,” Nonna said, “the idea is not so far-fetched. Would that not mean that civilization has a weakening effect on individuals?”

“Well, inlanders are often considered ‘soft’ for a reason. The tenets of my faith are strict when it comes to the pursuit of one’s vocation, but in safe places where religion and culture do not counteract the lack of urgency in personal development, it would most likely end up as you say. I do not plan on letting that happen in my demesne.”

The Death Knights below advanced across the encampment barricades, and Ludmila turned her attention to the fight. With twenty Death Knights in the fray, it went as poorly as expected for the Demihumans. Even if they were part of the elite forces of the Goblin army, it was an utterly overwhelming assault. The Death Knights, acting with what seemed like greed over their last chance to net themselves high-quality Squire Zombies, started picking the camp apart like crazed city folk trying to secure scarce goods in a market plaza.

Alarmed by their rapid progress, Ludmila made a quick scan of the camp, locating what appeared to be the strongest Hobgoblin.

?Do not kill that one – we will be taking it as a prisoner.?

The Death Knight that was rearing back for a massive swing at the Hobgoblin abruptly stopped and turned away to take down another one nearby. After a moment, the Hobgoblin peeked out from behind its shield in confusion.

From beginning to end, the final attack of the night lasted two minutes. Ludmila shook her head, wondering if the Elder Lich commanders had also been caught off guard by the ferocity of the assault. There wasn’t even a chance for them to demand a surrender.

The coming dawn was starting to frame the eastern ranges in dim light, and she rubbed her chin as she examined the hundreds of corpses below. In all, 17 Goblin army encampments had been destroyed overnight – roughly one-sixth of the estimated forces that had encroached upon the upper reaches.

?Start transporting all these corpses. You can send them up to the nearest pass. Good work tonight, everyone – I hope that you will put what you have learned here to good use in the future.?