"The Stator Rebellion."
"An event I used to ensure my rise."
"At first, I worked with Stator, giving him the poison he needed to even have a sliver of a chance at success. It's just a shame that he did not have the talent to succeed."
"But that does not matter."
"After all, making him win is not my only way to power success and the riches that players like me can only dream of.
Daniel Price, Head of House Wresb, who goes by the player name Greedy Green Little Shit.
….
The Black Death walked quickly towards the epidemic centre, exuding confidence that helped to calm the men under him. He had begun moving the moment he got a report that something had gone wrong. He was accompanied by his usual 20 elite personal guards and Kriggeelx, his expression dark and deep in thought as he quickly ordered his competent friend and vice general.
"Something is seriously wrong! There have been too many coincidences lately. Gather up the men, Kriggeelx, and take them to the armoury. Make sure to get every man you can understand!"
"Because we are going to need them, and if those 'travellers' truly did not have any sort of military-grade weapons, the first thing that they would do is try to procure them for the thousands of rebels without them!"
The Black Death ordered in an authoritative tone he was used to using when giving commands on the battlefield.
"Yes, general."
The crimson goblin vice general said, quickly turning and going in a different direction to rally soldiers together. He could only hope that he could find enough soldiers unaffected by this mass poisoning to put up a good fight against these rebels who were likely to outnumber them now that a few tens of thousands of soldiers were incapacitated, but they were still far better trained than the rabble of peasants that make up the majority of the enemy force.
Upon finding the area of camp that was full of poisoned goblins, he was graced with a ghastly scene, making his fists clench as the goblin general calmed his raging emotions, finally having experienced the pain and swelling hatred that his enemies had many times in the past for the first time understanding why he was so hated and feared by the surrounding countries.
It was one thing to die in battle and another to die on the floor, your skin shrivelled and wrinkled face wracked with pain crawling on the floor as your body slowly imploded from the inside out, vomiting black blood.
As at least in battle, you can die heroically, fighting to your last breath instead of dying racked with pain as your organs shut down one by one.
The Black Death was familiar with each and every poison the soldiers in his army used, usually only allowing them to have it in battle due to how dangerous accidents happened, and this was one of the most deadly toxins that his alchemists had ever produced.
Given the goblins' terrible state, a double dose of this horrible poison is likely to have been used and laced in the food they ingested, as each soldier had been trained by him to resist the effects of almost all the poisons known to the world. Even if they would eventually succumb, they could resist its effects for a short time, giving them more time to get treatment.
Sixel was the name of this poison with terrifying effects. He had used it in the past to incapacitate entire enemy armies, and after waiting for an hour, all his men had to do was walk around and finish off the now defenceless soldiers who had not died to its effects initially without even needing to lose a single man.
Commoner or noble, no matter your status in society, the poison kills you all the same, showing no distinction based on the status of the individual.
One may initially think that compared to other poisons that can kill you within a minute, this one, which can take around 30 minutes to an hour to kill, depending on the victim's constitution, was useless or worse.
But that would be an ignorant man's thought, as the terrifying part of this poison, which was a mix of venom from the most dangerous and poisonous animals and plants, was not in its effects that can usually kill you within 10-15 minutes once symptoms have been first found.
But the fact that it can be dormant within someone's body for an extended period, allowing his goblins with enough time and men to potentially poison everyone in an enemy army before disappearing, so its use in war could be far greater than a poison that kills a man within a minute being able to infiltrate entire armies if used correctly.
The Black Death did not know how widespread this position was but took action immediately after recognising which poison had been deliberately used to incapacitate as many of his men as possible, hoping that the poisoner had not managed to get through their large camp and position everyone food being thankful that he had not eaten yet.
"Find out exactly how much Sixel has been stolen and arrest every single alchemist that has practised or taken it out of storage within the last few days!"
The Black Death ordered in a cold tone, determined to find the culprits behind this attack and wondering why so many goblins were seemingly working together for no good reason to destroy his army.
'Seems that this rouge alchemist made his move before I secured the toxin and medicine storage.'
The Black Death thought, sighing, annoyed that he did not take stringent enough measures to secure the safety of his men as he saw a few goblins be taken away on stretches of clothes covering their bodies.
Even some goblins from his own tribe seemed to be involved in this surprise attack for one reason or another despite The Black Death being respected by his entire tribe and having no issues for his past ten years of rule being able to rule effectively from afar despite the great distance allowing him to spend the majority of his time commanding the most important defensive army in the goblin kingdom.
The only thing the black-skinned general did know, though, is that he would do everything within his power to find out every reason for this rebellion that seemed to occur for no reason, whether his victims had skin left or not.
What surprised him was that an alchemist was already present, seeming to be giving the antidote to the poison, saving many lives as if he knew that this would happen and made an extra batch of antidote just in case not that they did not have many bottles of such an antidote in storage. Even if the soldiers were still unable to do battle, this would help lower the casualties they took from this surprise attack by an unknown force.
It would seem that while these rebels had been able to infiltrate the army to a point, they had not managed to get to the elite soldiers or too many of the alchemists, though he would still need to check how much damage this rouge rebel alchemist had as he would not be surprised if there was hardly any antidote to this poison left in their storage as that would be the most important things to destroy.
The only problem was the timing because if you destroyed the antidote stocks too early, then the enemy would get suspicious, but failing to do so or doing it too late may allow them to get the antidote out, especially if the enemy was the one who crafted the poison in the first place.
Luckily, it seemed that they still had plenty of antidotes remaining.
The Black Death walked calmly over to the alchemist who was gently feeding a white liquid to a poisoned soldier, and a few seconds later, he looked much better, the antidote quickly purging his body of the toxin that was slowly decaying his body as it was transported through his body vier his blood.
The NPC goblin soldier was lucky that the poison had not gotten to his heart yet, or he would have been beyond saving.
"What's your name, sir?"
The Black Death asked this alchemist, a sneaky little goblin who seemed more interested in his patients than the general who could take his life at any moment.
"Antank Wresb, general, I happened to be experimenting on the antidote to Sixel and rushed over when I heard about the poison outbreak. It seemed that most of the soldiers on this side of the camp had been poisoned for some reason."
The goblin said, happy that the soldier lying on the ground's breathing had returned to normal, and with a small scheming smile, he went to save another goblin soldier who looked to be on his last legs.
Then, the sound of a warning bell and a shout resounded through the camp, though being so far away from the voice being on the other side of the camp, only Master level and above fighters would be able to do it properly.
"Enemy attack!"
"We have traitors amongst us!"
"Protect the general and the camp."
The voice shouted, making the black goblin general's eyes harden suddenly.
"Oh, it seems whatever the voice shouted is the reason why this side of camp has had so many issues."
"General, you may want to respond after all our lives depend on it."
The small goblin said casually, as if the current situation had nothing to do with him going from one man to the next, giving them the antidote they so desperately needed.
"Thank you for your work and for responding so quickly. It was lucky you were working on the antidote and were nearby to help."
"I'll remember your name, Antank Wresb."
The Black Death said in gratitude as he gathered men and prepared to defend the army camp. He ordered one of his bodyguards to blow a horn to signal all soldiers to be alert and resist the enemy. This would mean he would not have to wake each one up one by one, as the other military officers who were still in fighting condition would immediately begin to rally men together to resist the enemy.
It was now the black goblin general was thankful that he had sent Kriggeelx in advance to the armoury, as a bunch of poorly armed peasants was far harder to kill than well-armed peasants, even if their skill as arms was no match for his trained soldiers anyone could kill if given a sharp enough weapon.
As The Black Death walked away and got out of earshot, Antank muttered under his breath, smiling slightly.
"I can assure you it was not luck that brought me here at the right time."
….
"Take the armoury!"
Stator roared as tens of thousands of players charged a shieldwall that was defending the armoury. While he expected resistance, thanks to the bell notifying the camp of danger, this amount was unexpected, as if ten or so minutes before this annoying crimson goblin vice general had been sent here to defend it from attack.
Nearly 8,000 men were in a tight shield wall protecting the doorway to the armoury, led by the same crimson-armoured general who had arrested the players before. The majority of the men around him wore similar crimson armour, while ones that didn't wore the same black armour, that he had seen on the elite soldiers at the gatehouse.
Standing in the centre of the front line was Kriggeelx, stabbing a charging player as he deflected another attack with his shield. At first, he was worried seeing the vast number of players facing him until they just attacked like the sea in waves, charging and receding like the tide. They continually attacked the sheildwall head-on, having no other way of breaking it as they had no access to artillery and magic as the few player magicians, even if Antimagic Crystals were not active, would be no match for the NPC's mastery of magic.
Unknown to the players, the Antimagic Crystals that had been activated was actually a good thing for them; otherwise, the skilled magicians in the goblin army would rain fireballs on them like catapult stones, burning hundreds if not thousands of them alive with their magical fire which the players would struggle to mount any sort of resistance against.
"Hold them back!"
Kriggeelx called out to his men. His formation had swordsmen at the front and spearmen behind who helped to support their comrades, thrusting their spears from behind their brothers in arms and taking the lives of many players who struggled to get past their phalanx-like formation.
"Get around the side of them, attack them from all sides."
Stator called out to his men, knowing that the only way to disrupt and destroy a phalanx formation was to attack it from the side, back or with javelins, even if they would do nothing much against the solid shield wall of the goblin. However, the goblin phalanx made a small box around the entrance so that no matter which side they were attacked from, no players would be able to get through or find a weakness, so they could only charge it again and again, taking hundreds of casualties with each push.
The warning bell and rallying horn had long been heard throughout the camp, and Stator knew that time was rapidly running out. Even if his initial ambush had killed around 15,000 goblins and incapacitated another 30,000, that still left over 50,000 goblin soldiers to deal with, not to mention the master and expert fighters within their ranks.
Under the leader of a master strategist, their little rebellion stood no chance if they could not get the majority of their player's arms as, up until now, Stator and the better-equipped players stayed back so as to preserve their combat power even the thousands of weapons they got from the slain goblins was not enough to equip his large player army which was 200,000 strong.
But the goblin formation looked like an unmoving castle, one that Stator had to breach but failed every single time, as, unlike the 20 or so goblins at the gatehouse who were easy to surround and kill, these few thousand elite goblins had far more comrades to help them out if they ever found themselves in a pinch seamlessly working together as they had tens of times in the past.
Whenever someone finally managed to get one of these elite goblin soldiers to create an opening, a friend would come and block their finishing move.
As the minutes ticked by, Stator knew that he could not waste all of his time here trying to get all their troops' weapons. He began to send the better-equipped players to other parts of the camp to finish off, ambush, and kill as many goblins as they could before they managed to gather together because if the army came together as one, there would be nothing that Stator could do to win the battle.
Their advantage was in surprising their opponents, but most of that was lost thanks to the heroic efforts of The Black Death's elite soldiers, who sacrificed their lives to warn the camp of the incoming danger. So, it was only a matter of time before the Lethal Legion gathered together.
'Damn, let one bug get away, and the whole plan goes up in smoke.'
Stator thought, getting increasingly frustrated as this was not how he expected things to go.
This stalemate continued until Stator heard a loud, authoritative voice that sent chills down his back.
"Lethal Legion, kill the traitors!"