It was now the day of the meeting between the birdmen and the lizardmen village leaders.
The antiheroes had worked very hard to improve the overall technological advancements of their village, and their fruits were showing blatantly.
What was once a run down tribal village with only a few slimes living here was now a bustling center of activity.
Ashley was giving Helen a piggyback ride as the antiheroes strolled through their newly developed village, checking on the progress in each sector.
"I love you, your excellency!", Helen shouted with delight from Ashley's back.
"Hehe. But of course. Who wouldn't love me?"
"Only a bad guy of course!"
"That's right. Only a bad guy would hate me."
Trevor smiled kindly as he watched the interaction between the two. It was a lovely scene.
Rithargus waved to the antiheroes smiling as they passed him working with a couple of goblins. He seemed to respect them much more than the last time they had seen him.
"That's what I like to see. Smile and wave.", Garett whispered.
However, the peace did not last very long.
A few moments from then, the antiheroes heard something.
It sounded like... orchestral music?
It was loud, and approaching the village.
There were also cheers and hurrahs in sync with the music.
Claire rushed out to where the antiheroes were while panting and looking at them with a light smile.
"Those must be the people of the birdmen tribe. They are very... how do I put this... extravagant and flamboyant. They like to put on a big show in everything they do."
"I see.", Trevor said.
Samantha and Ashley both looked somewhat annoyed. Ashley put Helen down softly and dusted her off.
"Were going to go and see whether these people are good guys or bad guys. Be a good girl and go back into your home for now. Ok?"
"Ok!"
Helen ran off into her home and the antiheroes looked forward in the direction which the sounds were coming from.
They stood there waiting with their arms crossed and glaring eyes. They of course did not trust anyone aside from their own subjects- who even then they still kept tabs on. How much less then, did they trust people who they had never met? And warmongers at that. From what Trevor had heard from Arlo, the lizardmen were not the instigating party for this war, but rather the birdmen.
How then, should they react? Of course, there were always two sides to a story. Trevor did not fully trust the information that Arlo had given him, but it was probably safe to say that the birdmen were at least the ones who instigated the war. Whether or not there was good reason for it was to be determined.
The birdmen then came into view from behind one of the houses as they walked onto the streets of the slime village.
A hawk lead the front, followed by an owl, a bald eagle, a woodpecker, and a swan. Following the 5 birdmen was an entourage of 4 female birdmen, a canary, a raven, a sparrow, and a parrot. They were making sounds with their mouths which a bird should not be able to make with their chirps alone- and yet they still did so.
The canary played sounds like a trombone, the raven like a flute, the sparrow a saxophone, and the swan a piano. It was a full orchestra of music.
Not only this- but these birds were walking with swagger.
The hawk at the front was flexing his muscles and showing off his thighs as he walked. The other four were imitating him.
"Behold, people of the slime village! Erasalis of the birdmen tribe has arrived! Gaze in his majestic form!!!", the bald eagle shouted.
Ashley's left eye was twitching in disgust and Samantha's face said 'good grief'as she rolled her eyes. She had clearly seen this type of person before.
They looked like a squad of football players running into the stadium with the cheerleaders and band behind them.
Erasalis flexed even harder as he was introduced. Many slime people and goblins had stopped their work to stare, but not in a good way. Rather than being awe inspired by the magnificent grace and style of the birdmen, they instead looked very unimpressed.
"Who do these birdmen think they are to come into the village who their excellencies lead and act like this?", one slime said.
"Something ought to be done about this.", one of the goblins agreed.
Coran and Berith had arrived and were now standing behind the antiheroes. After they both genuflected, Berith spoke up.
"Should we do something about these people?"
"Not yet. Let them do as they please for now assuming they do not cause any harm to anyone. I would like to get on their better side if possible, but if they disrespect our authority or harm our subjects that would be a different story.",Trevor explained.
"I see. We will stand by then."
Berith and Coran then stood to the side with a number of other gathered slimes and goblins, while keeping a close watch on the birdmen.
The birdmen then advanced down the road to meet the antiheroes.
"Two demons... an elf... and a spirit? What's going on here?", Fergo stated.
"This village is much more developed than I imagined... I have never been to the slime village before, but has it always been like this?", Erasalis asked.
"No, I have been here before once. It was most certainly nothing like this. The development in this village right now is completely different from the small tribal gathering that was here before.", Yirald stated.
Samantha stood forward.
"Welcome, leaders of the birdmen tribe to our humble village! We are the antiheroes, who you have likely heard of already. We thank you for accepting our invitation to this meeting, and we would like to guide you over to a dining hall where you may wait. We will be serving light snacks before the meeting will be commenced. Please follow us!"
Erasalis felt completely taken aback by the woman who had just spoken those words. He felt that in all his years, out of all the birdmen females who he had seen, that not a single one of them had the same charismatic appeal that this demonic woman had. Even if she was a demon- covered in veins and her hands clawed and ferocious, there was some sort of force compelling him to want to listen to her.
Then, Erasalis once more buffed himself up and began smiling and waving to the slimes and goblins who were on the streets.
But wait a minute.
Why did they all look unimpressed?
Why did they all give him such a nasty look like 'get out of here'.
Could it be....
They were uncultured!?!!
A vein burst in Erasalis' mind. He could not tolerate those who had witnessed his magnificent form and looked at him not in awe- but in disgust.
'Perhaps this will be the next place which we will purge of the lack of culture'
"Lets go boys! I wanna see those hips moving! Work it! Work it! That's right!! You go Fergo! Mmm!!! Come on Yirald, put a little more spunk into the walk! Looking great as always Relu! Tora, flex those magnificent muscles a little bit more!! That's it! There you go!"
Erasalis began encouraging his boys to show off everything they had.
Perhaps he could get his people motivated to work harder, and the others would see them in a different light.
But no dice.
His boys did their best to flex and look good in front of everyone watching, but the looks on their faces did not change.
How could they not be in awe in front of such strength and magnificence? Perhaps they would have to witness a fight themselves...
'I suppose we will have to put on a little spectacle.'
----
The birdmen were lead to the reception hall, and Erasalis kept a joyful expression on his face. He looked and acted like the cheerful captain of a football team who put on a confident expression even when his team was down.
However, on the inside he was plotting.
He didn't want to leave the village without them coming to realize the magnificence of the birdmen tribe.
That woman... the determined... she too had come and viewed his village in its full glory, and yet she was relatively unmoved by it.
Could all these people have taken after her?
Erasalis sat down and began consuming some vegetables that had been prepared. There was no meat. This was because the antiheroes decided that serving meat to a meeting among lizardmen and birdmen would leave little options if they were to rule out any seeds of cannibalism.
They could have served something like rabbit, but they decided to go with the safe option and not include any meat in the delicacies.
The antiheroes then left the dining room.
"We'll be right back with the other party who will be taking part in the meeting when they arrive. Please wait here patiently until then." the blue demon told him.
Erasalis felt his heart flutter as he said "Of course!", and the antiheroes exited the room.
-----
"After all this is what suits me best! Did you see how those birdmen were looking at me!? They were haughty but as soon as they laid eyes on my beauty none of them could resist fidgeting and wavering in their conviction. Still.... what filthy creatures. To think that they would come into our village flaunting like that in the first place...."
"Bear with it.", Trevor told Samantha.
"I know..."
Ashley looked just as irritated as Samantha was.
"What arrogant pricks... we should peg them down a notch..."
"We need to be patient.", Garett said.
"Yeah... yeah..."
The four then walked to the northeast entrance of the town where the lizardmen would arrive from. The birdmen had entered near the southeast end.
After waiting patiently for a while eventually they saw a group of figures in the distance.
A party of five lizardmen were traveling across the plains. They seemed to be riding pigs, and at the front was a lizardman covered from head to toe in leather armor that was decorated with bones fangs and other animal charms. The others were dressed similar to him aside from one who wore a full suit of armor with a halberd, and another who wore what looked like a more professionally tailored outfit- still made from leather however.
Also, the antiheroes saw Arlo among the lizardmen riding the pigs.
The group of lizardmen rushed forward and eventually had reached the antiheroes.
"Welcome, leaders of the lizardmen tribe to our village! We are the antiheroes, and we thank you for coming all this way to hold this discussion among the leaders of this area. The birdmen have already arrived, and are currently enjoying some light snacks in the reception hall. We will lead you all there and after some formalities we will head over to the discussion room.", Samantha explained.
The leader of the lizardmen nodded as he dismounted his ride. The other lizardmen as well dismounted their pigs and began tying them up to a nearby post before they follows the antiheroes to the reception hall.
"This is... as expected of you all. I cannot believe that this village has transformed so quickly from the state it was in before.", Arlo stated in amazement.
Trevor smirked.
"I see you have noticed the fruits of our hard labor. It took much effort to get things to this point, however we have no plans to stop here. Wait and see- I can assure you that greater things will come."
"That I believe."
Pilir-who had taken his helmet off- and Yerth were looking at Arlo with annoyed faces at how he was speaking with the antiheroes in such a friendly manner. To them, the antiheroes were enemies that they would have to overcome at some point if what Arlo had said was true. They could not understand why Arlo had taken such a submissive tone.
"They don't seem all that powerful to me... what was this that Arlo was saying about an intimidating aura... that elf man doesn't seem like anything special.", Yerth whispered to Pilir, who nodded in agreement.
For just a second.... it was just a single moment... not even a sliver of a moment... Yerth thought he felt a cold chill run down his spine. It was as if someone was glaring daggers into him and piercing through his very being.
However, when Yerth looked up, there was nobody who had any malicious stare. Even the demons seemed to be smiling and welcoming the lizardmen
'What was that just now... my imagination? Probably.'
The lizardmen were then led to the reception hall. Rocko stayed mostly silent, taking in the situation.
Arlo seemed to be having a good chat with the blue demon and the determined. They were laughing it up and talking about the time he had first met them.
"I look forward to working together with you all in the future. I expect that you all will be expanding your influence from here?"
"You haven't noticed? We have already obtained many more subjects since the last time you were here. Just take a look around."
"You don't say!? You're right! There are plenty of new faces here!"
Samantha beamed with pride at showing off the people that they had subjugated.
'To think they forced Arlo to concede everything... his pride... his dignity as a warrior... he wasn't even able to negotiate a reasonable price on those potions...' , Yerth thought.
They arrived at the reception hall.
"Alright everyone. I will ask you to please remain calm when you enter. Do not cause any sort of conflict while in our domain. We have invited you all here for a peaceful discussion, and we do not wish for any fighting to break out right now.", Samantha said.
The doors opened to reveal the birdmen sitting at a round table together- 9 of them in total. Some were snacking on some light dishes while others sat there flexing their muscles. The leader of the birdmen flashed Rocko an angry glare.
Rocko stared back at him.
It was a mental war that had already begun.
Ashley floated nonchalantly into the middle of the staring contest between the two, completely ignoring the mood.
"Quit it with the drama. We have a meeting to start."