The Monster King's Legacy

Chapter 69 Preparing for Battle

"We were able to establish some form of partnership, master, the plan has been enacted."

"Mn... That is good, this way, we will be ready for what may come, depending on how the human does." Ithil said to a female elf standing beside him in what seemed to be his study. This female elf, also happened to be the same elf leading the scouting team from before. Unsurprisingly, Ithil appeared to have a hand in this.

"What shall we do about the other, master? They seem to be planning something... else." She said, closing her eyes as though to hold herself from saying something else.

"Let them do what they please, for now. We'll take care of that soon." He said.

"As you wish, master."

"Keep in touch. For now, you're the leader of an elf scouting party." Ithil said before dislodging his attention from the elf standing beside him.

"As you order, master." She said, disappearing as though she was never there the very next moment.

...

Back at the camp, the place buzzed with activity as goblins worked tirelessly to prepare for what would be interpreted as an impending attack.

Lance stood, surrounded by several key figures of his clan and the elders of the newly joined tribes. A detailed map of the surrounding terrain was laid out before him, marked with symbols representing traps, defensive lines, and fallback points amongst other things.

"This isn't going to be a simple fight," Lance said, his eyes scanning the group. "The enemy will outnumber us, and its going to be a fight against beast and they will be coordinated from what we've seen so far. No matter what, we will not let any slip past us into the camp. That's where the defensive line here come in." He said, pointing to a position on the map. "This team will have nothing to do with the main battle and instead stand as the last line of defence." Lance said, explaining everything that had to be explained.

"That's all, for now. Work like there's no time left because we don't know when the enemy will appear." Lance said.

'Now, we're the only ones left around these parts... there's no way we can form any alliances in the end, we'll have to rely on ourselves going forward.' Lance thought to himself.

...

Elsewhere, the cloaked demon that attacked Lance and his tribe stood outside a cave, its entrance wide and its interior the type to be rendered completely dark even under day light.

"How much longer?" He said, seemingly talking to himself when a voice responded from within the dark cave.

The voice was hoarse, "soon... in a day... maybe two..."

"Is there no way to hurry it up? That tribe has quite the number of walking sacrifices. If we can get them, our work here will be done and we can return. We still haven't drawn much attention from the bigger tribes, its best we leave before they decide to take us seriously." The demon said.

"You think I don't know that? It appears you are telling me what to do." The voice said, its tone unfriendly for a short moment. "Unless you want to take with you, useless rotten flesh, you will wait until I say otherwise, got it?" The voice from within the cave said, his eyes glowing a faint red through the darkness.

"Y-yeah... whatever. Take your time."

...

The next day, even after waiting expectantly, nothing happened, there was no attack, and no sighting of any suspicious movement in the forests. Even then, there was another disturbing piece of information they discovered from the scouts that went farther into the forest to scout for any abnormalities.

They happened to reach the closest tribe to theirs, but the place where the bodies of several ogres once laid was now empty. Out of suspicion, they visited a few more tribes, or at least, where these tribes used to be, but it was the same. Clearly, something was not right.

"We need to report this immediately."