Aerwyn mulled over his speech as he and Erit left the merchant s.h.i.+p. Erit making fun of him only made him cringe even more as he thought about his words. He hoped to show the elves that he stood with them, perhaps even rousing them to join his side but that was only wishful thinking. The elves of Lyr knew nothing of him other than he appeared to be a human necromancer. Even while he was speaking he knew deep down that they wouldn"t jump to his side if he only spouted some pretty words.He was too used to dealing with his undead who required far less convincing to bend to his will. It looked like his "great one" persona that seemed to fit so well on him, would require some accolades before it could be used on the more intelligent races inhabiting the forsaken lands. Still, it wasn"t all for naught. The speech, while not convincing enough for the elves to join him, may still bear fruit in the future when they witness his words becoming a reality.
Once out of the s.h.i.+p Aerwyn walked over to Earl Abery"s side with the hundred or so undead humans that took part in the battle as the elves of Lyr began trickling out from the merchant s.h.i.+ps. He looked over the two hundred men before him and grew curious as to what Earl Abery had told them to make them so calm despite facing their deaths.
"What did you tell them?"
"The truth, my lord." Earl Abery responded bluntly.
"What truth?" Aerwyn furrowed his brow and looked to the Earl.
"That they had a choice to make. They could die at my hands or be reborn through yours... They rightly chose the latter."
Aerwyn glanced back at the men before him, they were without armor or weapons, wearing only thin cloth and the fifty undead humans he had given the Earl were placed in such a way as to encircle them. The situation cleared some doubts Aerwyn had about the Earl"s sentiments toward his old countrymen as it was evident that the Earl was intent on keeping his word should they refuse to be "reborn".
"Good, let"s start then. Captains and other important personnel first." Aerwyn spoke before turning to Erit.
"Erit take some goblins and begin harvesting everything usable from the camp, load everything up on the s.h.i.+ps for now. Send some goblins to loot the dead soldiers along the way to Setrhyn too."
"Yes oh great one, i shall do as you command." Erit giggled, still making fun of the speech he gave to the elves but he chose to ignore her for now.
The first captain was brought before him by his undead humans and like Kers and Inik the man"s throat was opened. The men who witnessed the scene became rowdy for a moment before the tenebrous smoke began pouring from the man"s neck, making them grow quiet once more. As the captain stood up, gazing through the world with his new violet eyes the men relaxed even more.
One by one the men were turned and once again Aerwyn paid attention to the sensation he experienced when resurrecting them. For most, he found that they required less than the soldiers, only four souls worth of energy while a few even appeared to only require three but he was unsure, there was no number in his head to tell him exactly how much was used. It was a guessing game for the most part, with him making judgement based on past experiences.
The process took longer than it needed because he was so intent on figuring out how many human souls were required to resurrect one. He began to feel the sensation of his soul becoming fatigued when there was around sixty living human left. That wasn"t to say he couldn"t resurrect a few more, it was just that he decided to heed Tylin"s advice about making sure he always had some souls for emergencies.
It was midday by the time he stopped his resurrection. It would take too long for them to return to Setrhyn today with the elves of Lyr in tow if he had to travel at their pace so he decided to spend the night here.
"Chain the rest of the humans for now. If a single one attempts to escape kill them all." Aerwyn ordered the Earl, speaking loud enough so the still living men could hear his words. Then he looked to the elves who were gathered around in the merchant camp speaking amongst themselves.
"Get some food and water from the s.h.i.+ps for the elves as well." Aerwyn walked over to them with Erit once he gave the Earl his orders.
"My undead shall bring you food soon, we"ll be staying the night here so rest and eat. Who can speak for all of you?" Aerwyn question caused the elves to look around for someone to step up. When no one did Aerwyn scanned the crowd and his eyes landed upon a short elf with long black hair and a grey speckled beard, it was Semmy, the blacksmith of Lyr.
"Semmy right?" Aerwyn called out to the elf.
"Mmhm.." Semmy nodded and grunted out a reply.
"I need someone to pick through the cargo on the s.h.i.+ps and separate the things that were taken from Lyr. I have no intention of taking your goods, we"ll be bringing them with us back to Setrhyn once we leave tomorrow." Semmy said nothing further and simply walked over to the s.h.i.+ps, leaving Aerwyn standing in front of the elves.
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"...Ok great! If you need anything feel free to come and find me." Aerwyn clapped his hands as he spoke and left the elves to their own.
The undead fixed up the camp while Aerwyn ate and thought about the many things he had left to do. One of the more important ones was getting back to the breeding goblins he had locked up in Ardin. He had the undead leave some food and water for them before they left but he was sure they had run out by now and it"s not like the elves back in Ardin were going to go near them.
He also had to load up his new s.h.i.+ps with his share of the loot that he left in Setrhyn and then sail the s.h.i.+ps to Ardin which probably needed it"s tiny harbor to be fixed up before they could even dock properly. That was a.s.suming there was enough s.p.a.ce for all of them and that he had enough undead humans to actually sail them all at once, if he didn"t it would take multiple trips to get everything down to Ardin.
Aerwyn"s mind raced the more he thought about it and he remembered complaining recently about not having anything to do in his quiet days within the walls of Ardin. As night fell he felt like he would begin to miss those days soon...
With only an hour before dawn, Aerwyn awoke to the sensation of one of his undead goblins dying. In rapid succession, two more lost their lives as Aerwyn attempted to figure out where they were. It was some of the goblins that he had ordered to loot the bodies of the soldiers that fell during his chase. Aerwyn quickly closed his eyes, entering the darkness and searching for any undead that may be close to where the other had died.
He found a goblin only a few hundred meters to the south and Aerwyn jumped into it so that he could see through it"s eyes.
"Go north, be silent as you do."
The goblin heeded his command and began to silently creep north, it wasn"t long before the goblin reached the source of his undead"s demise. Hundreds of orcs, both green and red, were marching southeast directly towards Setrhyn. Aerwyn watched through the goblins eyes, no more than twenty meters from the orc horde as they marched by.
The red orcs were easily larger than Aerwyn, they wore mostly furs and carried circular s.h.i.+elds and axes. The much larger ones were the true orcs that Gebb had told him about, their skin wasn"t as green as he had imagined but more of a mix of green and red that appeared to create a brownish green color. Aerwyn could see their tusks as well, two large teeth jutted out from their bottom jaw that stood outside the orcs mouths.
Saying the were large wasn"t doing them any justice. They looked to be two and a half meters of pure sinew and muscle. Most of the true orcs wore a type of scale armor and carried a thick tower s.h.i.+eld along with a sword in a peculiar shape like that of a question mark. They marched mostly on foot except for sixteen that rode atop a two meter tall creature that looked like a bull.
It had thick brown mammoth like fur that seemed to snag together and two thick horns that wrapped around it"s head that pointed forward as if they were used to impale any would be aggressor. Riding atop the beasts were what Aerwyn a.s.sumed to be a type of n.o.ble-like true orc that wore st.u.r.dy looking plate armor that covered them head to toe.
"Garok na kreja rekka lok!" A voice echoed out from with their ranks causing the orcs to stop as Aerwyn continued to watch. The orcs began scanning the forest around them before one locked eyes with his.
"GOR CAK!" The orc screamed out as he pointed towards Aerwyn"s direction.
"RUN!" Aerwyn ordered the goblin as the orcs began charging towards him. The goblin only made it a dozen steps when Aerwyn"s world began to spin. The last image stuck in his eyes was the sight of the goblin"s headless body as the goblin"s head fell to the ground.