Chapter 186 Hidden Scheme
When the sun rose in the East, the Warriors of the Allied Tribe stirred.
The water in the lagoon slowly receded, and the Kraken, which had helped guard the City during the day, followed the tide as it returned to the Sea.
The women and children who were old enough to work were busy delivering food to the warriors, which would give them energy to fight the battle that had yet to start.
This was the only role that they could fulfill during the war, and they took it very seriously.
The warriors who had stood vigil during the night were relieved of their duties and had been ordered to rest as much as they could.
Their rest would only last for a few minutes to several hours, depending on the Necromancer’s mood. An hour of rest might not be enough to recover their strength, but they didn’t have any choice on the matter.
Fortunately, the Necromancer didn’t order his men to attack right after sunrise.
On the Necromancer's side, the Three Great Tribes, the Orcs, the Goblins, the Ogres, the Trolls, and the Kobolds all ate their meals as they waited for the Old Necromancer to give them the signal to attack.
Currently, the Leader of the Unholy Army sat on a makeshift throne that stood on a raised platform. His head was resting on the palm of his hand as if he was sleeping.
No one dared to disturb him, for they had already seen the Fate of those who angered him.
They knew that a battle was going to happen, but until the Puppet Master moved his hands, the puppets did not dare to move on their own.
Sebastian, who had been observing the Old Necromancer the entire night felt that something was amiss.
However, he just couldn’t put his finger on it.
Safiya, who had been given the permission to climb the pyramid, brought food for the two teenagers.
But when she saw that the two of them were still sleeping, she put down the food on the table and left without another word.
It was only two hours later that Ethan stirred from his slumber and opened his eyes.
“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” Sebastian said through telepathy in order to not wake up Lily, who was still using Ethan’s body as her hug pillow. “Your food has already been delivered, so eat now while you still can.”
Ethan nodded and gently pried Lily’s soft hands from his body. A part of him was reluctant to do so, but he understood that Sebastian was right. It was better to eat now while he still could.
But as soon as her hands were no longer holding onto something, Lily’s eyes abruptly opened and looked at Ethan in a daze.
Clearly, she was still half asleep, and it would take her a minute or two to snap out of it.
However, Ethan was feeling mischievous, so he lightly squeezed her cheeks, forcing her to smile.
“… You’re sleeping on the floor tonight,” Lily said as the last dregs of sleep disappeared from her body.
Ethan chuckled before quickly apologizing to her.
Lily ignored him and went to the table to pour some water into a bowl to wash her face.
The handsome young man shook his head helplessly and did the same.
A few minutes later, the two of them ate in silence, while Sebastian reported everything that happened when they were sleeping.
“He hasn’t stirred from that throne of his the entire night,” Sebastian stated. “This is supposed to be a good thing, but I feel uneasy about it.”
“You, too?” Ethan asked. “I’m feeling the same thing.”
Lily, who had just finished eating, looked at Ethan and Sebastian with a frown.
She wasn’t feeling anything out of place, but if her two companions were both feeling uneasy then something must have triggered this feeling.
“I don’t want to say it, but last night’s attack seemed rather odd,” Ethan explained after seeing Lily’s imploring gaze. “It was… too easy.”
“Exactly!” Sebastian agreed. “Although it didn’t look that way during the actual battle, when things settled down, I found that everything wasn’t as dire as I initially thought it would be.”
After hearing both of their explanations, the frown on Lily’s face deepened. She tried to recall the battle that happened several hours ago, but she didn’t find anything suspicious about it no matter how hard she tried.
‘Are the two of them just being paranoid?’ Lily thought.
Of course, she didn’t say her thoughts out loud and simply listened to Ethan and Sebastian, who were both feeling that something was wrong.
An hour later, Ethan and Lily descended the pyramid to see the general situation of the Allied Tribes.
To their surprise, their Elite Guard was already waiting for them at the base of the Pyramid and stood at attention the moment the two teenagers made their appearance.
“We are going to head to the city walls,” Ethan said.
Rex and the other warriors nodded and immediately stepped into a defensive formation with Ethan and Lily at the center.
The Tide Bringer was their anchor, so they would do their best to protect him at all costs. The young man had already become used to this treatment, so he didn’t say anything and just allowed the warriors to do their duty.
When the warriors on the city wall saw him, a bit of life returned in their eyes, and they all gave him a nod of greeting.
Ethan sighed internally because he still wasn’t used to being treated like some kind of deity that was worshipped by people.
However, if simply being there was enough to keep the morale of the Allied Tribes high, he was willing to adjust to being the receiving end of their fervent gazes.
After looking at the army in the distance, Ethan felt as if the trauma he had experienced was slowly, but surely, recovering.
He no longer felt panicked when facing an army that numbered in the tens of thousands and was able to observe them from afar with an appraising gaze.
The young man was still unable to shake off the uneasy feeling in his heart, but since there was nothing he could do about it, he just kept a calm expression on his face.
A few hours later, the sun had already risen to the zenith, but there was still no movement from the Old Necromancer.
Time passed without a care for the feelings of the people on the battlefield, and before they knew it, the sun had already set in the west, shrouding the world in darkness.
The lagoon was once again filled with water, creating a defensive moat that stood between the Unholy Army, and the Allied Tribes within the City of Zentris.
Suddenly, just an hour before midnight, the Necromancer opened his eyes.
The sound of countless wings flapping in the night sky spread in the surroundings, which immediately made the warriors of the Allied Tribe stand in attention.
The Necromancer slowly raised his hand and pointed at the Ancient City in the distance.
“Attack,” the Necromancer ordered.
Right after he said those words, he closed his eyes again and resumed the resting position that he had taken for the entire day.
This time, flying Undead Monsters, which numbered over a thousand, split and spread in the skies like a net, moving to the East and West sides of the city.
Naturally, Ethan summoned the Kraken once more, which immediately attacked the flying monsters within its range. However, this time, the Flying Monsters were prepared.
After a few dozen of them were destroyed, they immediately turned and flew higher into the sky, stopping just out of the range of the countless tentacles that rose from the surface of the water.
Soon, these flying monstrosities descended on the city, and another battle took place.
Ethan and Lily fought side by side, with the young lady transforming into her Demi-Wolf Form, destroying the Flying Monsters that were targeting Ethan from the sky.
While this was happening, a pair of eyes watched her closely, observing her movements, and appraising the spells that she was using on the battlefield.
This same pair of eyes would shift their attention to Ethan from time to time, memorizing his battle style as well as his performance.
That night, nearly two hundred warriors on their side died before the Undead Army retreated.
Just like what happened the first night, the nagging feeling that Ethan had pushed to the back of his mind returned.
This time, it was stronger than ever, making him feel very concerned.
He didn’t understand why the Necromancer chose to attack at night, knowing that the defenses of the City were at their strongest at such a time.
Also, he didn’t use any part of his army aside from the Flying Monsters under his command. The more Ethan thought about it, the more anxious he became.
It was as if their enemy was toying with them and was only focusing on decreasing the Allied Tribe’s manpower.
For him, it was normal to have casualties during a siege, but the more he tried to find a justification for the Necromancer’s strategy, the more confused he became.
He wasn’t aware that, as the warriors piled up the dead bodies in the plaza to be set ablaze, a pair of greedy eyes, who wished nothing more than to devour him at this very moment, watched him from a distance.
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Somewhere in the Necromancer’s Camp…
The Kobold Shaman secretly took out a smooth rock with the etching of a trident on it.
He said a few words, and the rock glowed faintly, replying to his prayers.
After exchanging information with each other, the Kobold Shaman returned the rock to its hiding place and exited the tent.
He then looked at the City in the distance before shifting his gaze to the throne of the Necromancer in the center of the army.
There was a scheme at play, and he needed to uncover what it was.
Although he and his Clan were about to take a big risk, he still believed that they would have no future if the one who won this battle was the Necromancer.
Also, the mere thought of having the decrepit bastard possess the Tide Bringer’s body revolted him to the point that he wanted to personally stab the sleeping Necromancer and burn him until only ashes remained.
However, how could such a thing be easily done?
‘Just what is going on here?’ the Kobold Shaman thought. ‘Why isn’t he ordering a full-scale siege against the Allied Tribes?’
This was the same question that the Three Great Tribes, the Orcs, the Goblins, the Ogres, and the Trolls were thinking at the moment.
According to their estimate, although the casualties would be great, they would be able to overwhelm the defenders if they all attacked at the same time.
But since the Necromancer didn’t give such an order, all of them were stuck and left to wait for the moment when the Necromancer’s hidden schemes came to light for everyone to see.
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