Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Expect ambushes soon, I have a good feeling about this…" Litrakq had been unusually cheerful lately, and for some reason, this was putting her soldiers on edge, especially since her activities lately had been to call random soldiers into her tent only to inject them with poison.

She was using the less useful soldiers to create something that she would then hand over to the lumberjacks, granting them a strong resistance to the toxins used by the elves, unfortunately, the ones that were experimented upon often died, so everyone was uncharacteristically active, doing their best to not appear lazy, always seeking something to do.

But in truth, their commander was neither happy because of the poisoning or the newfound will to work of her soldiers, instead, she was happy because it felt like she was making personal progress right now.

Her elven blood seemed more active than normal ever since she had arrived here, before now, Litrakq had been dealing with nothing but humans, she had sharpened her sword skills and honed her control over fighting spirit then.

But now, it seemed that her very body desired to instead pick up a box, and connect to nature, and in turn, that was exciting her mana.

Litrakq's mana and fighting spirit were conjoined, and could not be separated, but one could still be favoured over the other, so currently, her mana was less refined than the fighting spirit it was attached to.

The elves often used mana in conjunction with their connection to the natural world, she herself wasn't seeing much progress in that department, but something else was occurring that was absorbing a lot of her attention.

For some reason, being near those elves, and being exposed to their unique, regional techniques was making her feel weird, it was a similar feeling to when she consumed a red vial, only much fainter, slower and far less violent.

Her bloodline was being naturally purified it seemed, she could feel a connection forming to the jungle, a faint thread linking her to its natural toxins as well, the commander was uncertain if this was normal or not, she was aware that it wasn't for others, but couldn't help but wonder if Dimios had known all along that this would occur by sending her here.

Reaching for something around her neck, she pulled what resembled a coin attached to a chain necklace, the significance of the design representing what looked like a large castle being overlooked by a tree was lost on her, but it was something Dimios had given to her.

He had claimed that it was a rare privilege, but that he was granting it to her because he believed that she had what it took to be formidable, as apparently, this coin-like object was something that would allow a certain 'Loimos' to know where to find her, whatever that meant.

Dimios had mentioned many names and titles to her, but it was undeniable that the all-powerful warrior seemed to particularly revere the one called Loimos, apparently a champion of the empire, a warrior without equal who had felled enemies of immense power.

Since Dimios revered this man, she would do too even if she had no idea of who he was.

Litrakq looked at the coin for a few moments, finding something comforting about how unnaturally cold it was, it felt as though something benevolent looked over her when she held it like that.

After a while, she focused again on the task at hand, the commander strongly believed that the elves would have no other choice but to confront them down into the jungle, and they would probably do so at night.

Elves were not known to have any sort of nightvision, but they could traverse the area they lived in even with their eyes closed, so she did not doubt that they would be able to attack even during a moonless night.

But considering that the tree chopping could only occur during the day, as her lumberjack unfortunately could not see in the dark, ambushes and skirmishes were sure to occur during the day as well.

Litrakq made to go around and inform her soldiers to be prepared for what was to come, most here had only fought against humans before, so it was important to drill into their skulls that even if they looked alike, humans and elves were two completely different things.

There would hardly be any direct confrontations between the two sides, elves would pop out of the trees and bushes, attack, and then would proceed to most likely retreat immediately regardless of whether they were successful or not, despite being strong, they reproduced less rapidly, so they were very protective of their lives, and wouldn't push forward unless explicitly instructed to do so.

So the dirt-blooded soldiers needed to be wary, and be ready to strike back the moment enemies appeared, of course, their main job would be to protect the lumberjacks and help in bringing the chopped wood back into the camp.

Litrakq was well aware that the chances of her soldiers being able to actually fight back were slim, but she couldn't just go ahead and tell them to merely act as meat shields, that would just demoralise them, and she was unwilling to constantly use her fighting spirit to invigorate them back into a good morale.

So she simply decided to slightly lie by omission, nothing much, but leave out just enough that they don't realise that they are very likely to die in a very gruesome manner.

She had heard that getting it by an elf's arrow from up-close generally resulted in torn limbs and an absurdly large hole through your chest or guts.

Worse if you were hit by more than one.

Thankfully, it seemed like those elves were more proficient in poisons, so they were probably not the most powerful bunch around, that made things a little better.

She then went to her lumberjacks, who weren't much less nervous than the others, even though none of them had ended up poisoned by whatever she gave, all lumberjacks who had been deployed had ended up dead.

"Listen closely, we are going to proceed slowly but carefully" she pulled out a map she made "In this area over there, you'll begin by trimming the edges of the jungle, do not venture too deeply, others will be there to take care of the bushes and other overgrown plants, only proceed forward once everything is cleared, alright?"

The lumberjacks nodded.

"Good, you are starting right now"

"Let's not waste any time, we'll have that mountain conquered eventually!"

The armoured giants raised their axes and marched out, more confident seeing that their leader seemed convinced that this operation would succeed.

'Lots of them will die, but it's worth it'