by Marcus Sloss
There was a wall facing south that stood tall while the other sides were open to see. I saw a map etched into that wall so I went that direction, while I waited for the others to gather. I had to tell my harem guard they were an outer perimeter on these meetings. I let Ruby and Yvette stay at my side. Mainly Ruby because her tits looked great in that outfit. If there were no snacks, then I would stare at a nice cleavage.
Virtue came to my side with Nate. The man looked perfectly fine and completely recovered. This indicated to me that multiple healings from griffins got easier. Nate was ready for more war. He quickly told me Donnie was doing fine. In a few days, he expected the young count would be on his feet. One of the four shamans I got from Raxune sent him and the other wounded back to Fernlan. That was a relief. I was sure Mina and Poe would ensure he recovered quickly. King Aves peeled himself out of his small nest and joined us.
“Welcome back to the war Gryff,” Barice said for King Aves. “Care to explain how you got lost in a portal?”
“I most certainly can. I was pulled into a private meeting by the advancing seven. Irony here. Seven days from now, they want to trade Aroxa for a hundred billion souls.” I said and Virtue dropped his staff. I watched him as he collected it, and his jaw from the floor. “Do you have something to say Virtue?”
The old shaman muttered some before collecting his bearing. “A hundred billion. What would you do with that much wealth or power?”
“King Aves would have to decide. I merely gave an exuberant number to test their resolve. Apparently, Maurta loves his only daughter. That was a tough one for me to comprehend. Aroxa is billions of years old as a champion. She must be a book worm or something. If I live that long it will be because I am all powerful or I retire. I can only survive so many encounters before I lose. I think Raxrune understands that too.” I said as I pointed at King Aves. “He fought her and won the challenge. I will let him decide. The advancing seven know it could be that they collect the stones and I do not show up with Aroxa. There was no binding contract because I could not guarantee it.”
“I will gladly trade that weak troll for some war boar. Insignificant shaman… How much war boar does a hundred billion souls buy?” King Aves had Barice say while he bored his eyes into the shaman.
“All of them, a few thousand times over.” Virtue replied while ignoring the slight.
“It is settled then. War boar for us to feast on, then some extra for us to breed. That would solve my wants. The rest free slaves with. I think that is fair human Emperor Gryff.”
“I agree. Now the second part of what we talked about. Glowvia has an elvath preservation planet. It is my understanding the planet is small and overcrowded. It is also the most proflic location of known elvath. She informed me she is cross breeding at this point from a lack of males. Glowvia specifically asked for some of these males from Vin be sent to Entria for breeding. Not as slaves. This leads me to these questions. How much do we know from them, and how vast are the Nagolands?”
Hai raised her hand to talk. “What I say are my own words. While you were away this morning the griffins flew out here in mass. That wall you see on the east to west road.” Hai said while pointing to the west. A clay wall twenty feet high cut across the road in a north-south direction. It was an effective block unless you were willing to go off the road. “That was placed down and the Horde around the wagons with prisoners were rapidly removed. Let me start by saying these male elvath are weak, pathetic, and sniveling cowards. I say that in shame, as that is what they are to us. Weak. They even fear us proud warrior elvath.”
Hai was disgusted and it showed on her face. I rolled my hand forward and she did not get the meaning. “Continue on… Where did they come from and what did you learn that I can use?”
“Yes… Most were still in shock of being captured and requested to go home to their coastal dwellings. I think the Horde found ripe seaside villages. They raided these and captured all. Shocker though, there are women, but just as many men. The way Nagolands was described made it seem vastly larger than our three continents. It has central great lakes, mountains, and well everything a planet has. I showed him a map of Vin as it is recorded now and this is what he drew.” Hai said.
She leaped off of Lord Nova with grace and tucked into a roll. Off to the side of the map wall, she pointed to an image. On the wall was indeed a map of Vin as I knew it. To the left was a landmass that dwarfed our three continents. It was a lot to take in. The shape was a mix of an oval and a square. The drawing was hard to describe because the depiction of the continent was so varied and unique. There was still the overwhelming fact it made our three continents look small.
“It is so big,” I muttered.
“That is what she said…” Ruby chuckled out. Hai snapped her fingers to get our attention and continued.
“He said there are billions of elvath over there. Our elvath language is different and yet similar. As if our separation through time has formed our own versions of the same dialect. They call their continent some form of ‘is and home’. He said they have armies that will eventually make their way to fight off the Horde. At least he thinks so. I went down the line to ask professions. I heard painter, writer, and other high society occupations. When I asked where the fishing elvath were he said an influx of humans from a few years ago took over that job. The elvath found manual work of hauling in fish beneath them. The tide of fleeing humans was absorbed into the elvath as manual laborers. Their stories of war here on these lands were considered a fable to gain access to our jobs. They were allowed to take those employment fields as it benefited the Rarish Empire.”
I thought about this and decided to add it to the figure out later list. If they were using humans as slave labor I had to imagine that the humans would rebel if not treated well. These were not the Horde after all. Then I thought back to humans having human slaves and I realized it mattered very little about species. I hoped our refugees who flew west were okay and I would deal with the issue later.
“Okay… There will be plenty of time to talk to the Rarish Empire when they find us. What are you thinking about the combat situation? There are still a lot of others alive here,” I asked.
“I think these ones around us want to surrender, like the others you control. They have no standing orders like those guarding the caravan. They were told to assemble and wait to be loaded onto ships to go west. That was what your new shamans informed us of anyways,” Barice said for Lord Nova. “The caravan… I say we partition sections off and cleanse the Horde around them. Contain the damage at least. We may lose a few wagons full of slaves. The guards of the caravan have orders from cyclops at the harbor to defend to the death, but not to allow any harm to the elvath. The issue is even if we kill the cyclops the order is still valid. The harbor is sending ships out. Each ship that leaves is getting the sails burnt and the oars destroyed. They are piling up outside the sight of the harbor. The returning ships are ignoring them. I say we continue that strategy. They will starve or die of dehydration. Reduce their ability to move. Meanwhile, the cyclops in charge of the harbor has to know something is wrong. He is not sending any more wagons forward. Troop reinforcements have stopped coming in and his caravan to the portal has halted. We saw a portal open and cyclops survey the new castle and no planetary gateway. They quickly retreated. So I recommend we sack the harbor and use your enslaved Horde to get the prisoners off the incoming ships. Then have that cyclops of yours order them back out to sea where we disable the ships for salvage later.”
“Who thought of disabling the movement on the outbound ships. That is brilliant. I wish I had thought of that. Also as much as I hate to admit it, removing the harbormaster is vital. We will need to reduce the damage to the main defense if we want a deception.” I said and turned to Halsad. “Brief us on the defenses of the harbor. I need to know where the Horde leadership is ruling from so we can capture that and put our own in place.”
Hai went to the right side of the map wall and indicat
ed a drawing. I glanced it over and felt it was insufficient.
“How far is the flight? If I ride someone with speed like Dina?” I asked trying to figure out if it was worth the trip to get a recon with my own eyes.
“Two hours to two and a half. Lirkon can take you. We need the rest anyways before we fight again. Things are calm here and the teams stopping outgoing ships are already in place. We can spare half a day.” Barice said for King Aves.
I looked at Nate. “Nate have Urshoe give the new shamans the locations of Uhara and Iceshore. Task two of the new four shamans to support the dvaren for now. I want the other two shamans to work out of Castle Riza. Any Major or above can use those shamans to move goods and troops in and out of the castle or here. Once you have the two selected keep them here ready to go. I may want a rapid assault via portal. Really I am not sure what I will decide, merely trying to be prepared.” I said and turned to General Halsad. “Halsad, I need your fastest dvaren able to capture structures assembled. I roughly know what I want to do, which is to burst in and kill the current command. Then exfill back out. I want elvath on archer support. Only the most efficient and we should not need more than a few hundred.”
They accepted their orders. I found Lirkon not far away and when I went to board I saw a stream of guards following me. Heavy dvaren infantry, harem guards, and even a few humans Nate trusted to hire.
“Virtue up you go. Ruby you too. Yvette, you are next. I guess we can add a half hour of flight time and not rush it. I need a dozen griffins to land here to take more troops to scout.” I said to the air knowing they would hear. I went into Lirkon’s saddle. I helped Virtue get situated then watched Ruby’s cleavage as she got went up the side. “Lirkon if you would be so kind as to make room for others to land. Establish a hover please.”
We did a slow circle as my guards mounted onto griffins. I took this time to look over the Horde that casually surrounded us. There was a piece here I was missing.
“Virtue, as I look over these orcs. I see some encampments where the orcs wear collars. The ogres I have never seen collared. Some shamans are slaves. I guess can you go over why they are here if they are not forced to be here. Is there an incentive?” I asked Virtue. The remaining the griffins joined our flight and we flew at a decent speed to the west. “Like right there, all those trolls are wearing collars. Oh, see that ogre is too. First time seeing that.”
I saw Virtue glance down at the trolls around the fires. Large tents decorated the landscape from where the Horde rested. I was still in shock they were simply letting time pass instead of fighting us. I reasoned that most of these troops were here at the request of Aroxa and Raxrune. Both were not in a position to command them. Maybe I would have to make deals with them. If I was receiving as many soul stones as I expected then they were little use to me to trade. Another thing added to my list… I flipped my bag from my back to my lap and notated trade Horde slaves for humans. I was sad to see my list so small and the paper so clean.
“Let me start with arriving into this universe. The seven were given what has been termed the Horde. Old battle tactics from ancient wars. Remove superiority by removing electricity. Then swarm your foes with easily replaceable troops. Everyone knows this as their strategy by now. Ogres were not part of that equation. It was orcs, trolls, and goblins. We shamans certainly were part of that formula but on an extremely limited scale in the beginning. The cyclops were always the managers from the start. Eons ago they proved capable of handling fodder troops efficiently in a time that predates this universe. All these tactics are implementations from the warring universe. At least so I have read.”
“Why were shamans and ogres added later?” Ruby asked. She had closed her robe and leaned into me to block some of the chilly wind.
“That is what I am getting to… We… And by we, I mean the advancing seven. We conquered the first few races easily. The number of worlds in orbit around a sun was and still is the highest at the center of this universe. There are more there than anywhere else because the most advanced species could utilize power to move planets into habitable orbits. What the seven require a god to do, the oldest species could do on their own with technology. I established the early days were chaotic times. Those first few planets were everything to the advancing seven. They were not given unlimited troops to fight forever. The warring universe gave enough to Warg to secure a foothold. Their expansion from that point would be achieved with their own troops. That meant they were going to have to produce as much as conquer.
“The first species were cleansed from their systems. All that could be enslaved were sent to the warring universe. That bought the advancing seven accolades and a wave of us shaman. We were given our first planet. Now I have never visited that world. I wish I could because the stories of its grandeur are inspiring. The orcs were given dozens of worlds that were shared with goblins. The trolls a few of their own, also shared with goblins. Easy enough to follow. This is where Glowvia learned her skills at managing planetary farms.
“Female orcs can birth up to triplets, it is semi common for twins, and very common for a single babe every three months of your time. Goblins single or double ever three weeks. Trolls ever four months. Let that sink in. You have general populations with zero inhibitors besides resources on planets that they stripped bare to reproduce. In the beginning, there were no free Horde. Every soldier and support creature were slaves. A few million years later and the number of slaves grew beyond what they could support on the planets they held. Maurta was pulled from his study of the universal portal and tasked with opening new planetary gateways.
“It was on this second chain of planets ogres were discovered. To this day I think they are better than the elvath. The warring gods disagree. The ogres are renowned fighters and they slowed the endless tide of the seven. Warg worried he may end up stagnated in his mission so he sent half the shamans into the fray. It was a bloody endeavor and eventually, the ogres surrendered. Sort of. This was from ancient times and the story can get wobbled from age. The way I understand it is the ogres have no central government or authority. They merely conceded that the endless Horde was better to join with as a team than to fight. They were promised goblins as slaves to improve their lives and they accepted.”
Lirkon asked a question as Virtue paused. “Ask him how often the seven would extend deals like this. We were never offered and I wonder why?”
I relayed the message and Virtue frowned. “You griffins were never offered… I actually don’t have a good answer. Normally we do extend acceptance offers that results in surrendering species either joining the Horde or being protected by them. Gryff can attest there are many alien species on our trade worlds. The big difference is they are never given the sheer amount of living space the core members get. Back to the early days of the ogres.
“As you can imagine ogres changed the dynamic of our fighting forces. If we encountered a tough opponent that walled themselves in, then ogres could smash those defenses. The expansion post ogre addition is much grander and rapid than pre ogre. It was something I studied because it bothered me. I learned that Warg hid the new allies from his parents. The ogres were used to smash open resistance worlds and then orcs were poured in. The entire time zero new planets were handed to orcs, trolls, or shamans. Warg invested all his gains into ogres. He knew eventually they would be sought to fight elsewhere in large numbers. He also knew from Glowvia they needed space to reproduce. Ogres do not live in cities. Ever. So Warg awarded thousands of planets to millions of ogres so they could spread out and reproduce naturally. Glowvia was instrumental in properly spreading the ogre numbers to ensure they increased. Female ogres struggled and died in childbirth much like you humans did in your ancient past. While the men fought and died the women fought to give birth and died. This left things somewhat balanced for a long time until there were female shamans instructed on how to properly birth an ogre baby. Once fewer females died in childbirth the numbers rocketed.
“Finally Warg
felt safe to gift new planets to orcs, shamans, trolls, and goblins. They conquered and slew until they grew too big. By too big I mean as slave masters handing out collars. There were not enough collars to put on new slaves. Also, think about this for a moment. You control ten million humans. You manage them, fed them, handle them, and let them grow. They turn into ten billion humans on your orders. While you are still only a few thousand cyclops and seven gods.”
“They grew too big too fast… What did they do?” I asked.
“This was a pivotal moment in Horde history. The cyclops were an upper echelon species even in the warring universe. Then you factor in Sion. The five interceded at this point. Funny enough Sion attacked during a civil war of sorts. The seven decided the cyclops needed collars and they needed to be forced to turn their women into breeders. This, of course, did not go over well. The cyclops were given many privileges and latitudes. They were not common goblins to be bred.
“The civil war saw the cyclops numbers decimated. At the same time, all expansion ground to a halt. This was the time Sion struck and the elvath prepared with the time this provided. The elvath learned to adapt to life without electricity… besides to send away expansion ships. We theorize there are up to billions of elvath hidden deep in the universe or living in dark space away from habitable planets. We… including you, may never know though. We also theorize that humans, dvaren, and thousands of other species are doing the same thing. Which to a point is irrelevant for this conversation. This whole history lesson is around the collars. Those collars were a sticking point to cyclops. When the upper universe learned of the civil war here they went ballistic on their cyclops. The fact that they could eventually turn into rebels… well, that placed them directly in the upper gods targeting for enslavement. There was no dispute, you became a slave or you died. It was the only time I have heard of upper gods coming here to help the advancing seven.