With it being a moonless night, the forest was even darker than usual, but goblins were creatures of the wild. Whilst they were monsters they were one of the few monster races that could be played or reincarnated into. And when such happens, the intelligence of goblins was increased by a significant margin, to the point where they were known as some of the best engineers in Elysium matching the prowess of dwarves, and also shrewdest merchants, unmatched by any other race. But intelligence and shrewdness was something this troop of a hundred goblins lacked.
They were the rear guard of the main force, Tetum had led the others to chase after the elves, smartly corralling them in a certain direction, and that was towards the territory of the necromancer they had faced earlier today. He hoped to catch the necromancer off guard, and then use the elves as cover to properly invade his territory. This hundred goblin force comprised mostly of the injured and almost dead or those really weak, their jobs was to escort the prisoners with them, and the town spire recently advanced elven town back to base.
Most goblins were archers, in fact until they evolved into their higher variant of hobgoblin, they're mostly trained to be long range fighters. This was due to how weak they usually were as ordinary goblins, of course whether they would like to admit it or not, their tiny size was to their advantage, making it harder for them to be attacked, and keeping relatively unnoticed from the majority of large opponents, however.
*Whoosh*
An arrow flew out of the forest and found purchase in the neck of a mounted goblin who was at the forefront of this line of goblins and elves. The elves which numbered roughly around two hundred or there about, where all chained to massive carriages and being forced to pull them as beast of burden. These carriages either held injured goblins and their wolves, held the plunder the goblins had gained from the elven town. Another arrow flew, bring down the wolf of the goblin, and then there was another, and another, and another.
The accuracy utilized for these kills were amazing, while some of them went wild and even hit the prisoners, it was still enough to take down fifteen abled bodied goblins in less than a minute. By this point chaos had already broken out, no one was sure what was going on, and there was no one more scared and at the same time hopeful than the elves, their capturers were being attacked, and even if there were injuries showing up on their side, the goblins were still the target.
"Everyone! Get under the carriages, quickly!"
A teenage looking elf (they actually all looked like teenagers) swiftly ordered the other elves, the carriages were made of metal, plus they were roughly three to four meters long, which explains why it needed so many elves to drag and push. Such movements were bound to be severely exhausting, but right now the carriages served even better as a defense for all of them. the goblins really couldn't put up a fight, the moment they died, zombies took their place, soon enough the injured were also killed, and of all the goblins that were leading their captured slaves back, none of them remained alive.
"There's a necromancer around, you guys should be careful, don't make a sound" the elf that seemed to have taken the position of leader ordered to his fellow elves as they were all huddled under five different carriages. All they could see was the shuffling movements of zombie goblins, and then the face of a man dropped down, scaring them so much that they took quite a few steps back.
"Are you guys going to remain hiding under the carriages of do I have to kill you all too. It doesn't matter what you guys choose, you would be leaving this place one way or another, so what choice would you be making?" Rezar asked as he crouched down to stare at the faces of the elves, however there was something off about them.
For one their ears were shorter than normal elves, it was no larger than normal human ears, just a lot more pointed and wider. Their eyes were a dull silver grey, and they had horns. They didn't look like any species of elves he's ever come across before, but given he doesn't remember much from his past life, and there was still much he also didn't know about Elysium. So seeing a strange new species of elves in a frontier land that's not been fully colonized yet shouldn't be that much of a surprise.
Rezar got back up to his feet and watched as the elves slowly shuffled their way from under the carriage, judging by their numbers, they should be about 70 to 80 of them, but Rezar knew he was not good with numbers, so he would rather not jump to assumption until a proper census has been taken. He turned to Gynaika and Lenore.
"The both of you will be responsible for leading the elves back to the settlement, the goblins will push and pull the carriages, or better yet I'll leave ten ants with you guys. Even as undead they can still lift ten times their body weight. Let two of them drag a single carriage each, the undead goblins will help, make sure the elves don't run away and if they try anything funny, kill them. I'll take the rest of the undead and hunt Tetum down. See you guys at home." And then Rezar turned and vanished into the forest, with much of the undead in tow, Lenore suddenly turned to Gynaika and asked.
"So what did he say?" Gynaika rolled her eyes, but she knew exactly what Lenore was asking about.
"why are you asking Lenore, do you feel threatened by me?"
"Get over yourself Diviner, climbing into bed with you can either make or break him, and I'd rather not served a broken man who does nothing but cater to the whims of a woman with too many schemes in her head," Gynaika raised an eyebrow as the procession of prisoners started moving, she moved ahead a bit before turning to Lenore.
"He said yes, but… I would have to do everything he says, live as he says, die if he says so, fuck another man if he says so, and smile with jaws wide open if he decides to marry a 100 wives. He would give me the power I need, but I would have none over him or his kingdom except in the bedroom of course or where it really mattered. He's not as young and as gullible as you think he is; he thinks farther than most.
He knows to truly conquer and build a kingdom he would have to make deals and play politics, arranged marriages, trade deals, political gathering, espionage and all those really nasty things you can think. To survive all that, he cannot be under someone else's thumb, but he also knows how to respect talent and take responsibility for it. He knows he needs me, I know he does, but he's not going to let me use that against him, because he also knows, that I need him too, right now we're both just playing with our lives to get the maximum gain." Gynaika said as she looked up at the night sky, silently cursing about how dark it was.
"So you don't love him? Or do you think you can ever fall in love with him?" Lenore asked as she moved closer, Gynaika raised an eyebrow and said.
"Are you stupid or something, love doesn't matter, not in this game we're all a part of. Love is for children, we will be loyal to each other and fight each other's battles, and not because we love each other, but because its required for us to both survive. Lenore my dear I think you should wake up, because dear child… Love doesn't exist."