Chapter 448: Invasion [14]
Vale shook his head, his expression filled with disdain.
"I also can’t believe this is what you’ve resorted to... working for a no-name goblin."
"No-name?"
Kharos laughed, clearly amused by the remark.
"That no-name broke through your garnet-powered barrier and defeated Caius all on his own, and you still call him a no-name?"
"On the grand scale of things, he’s insignificant."
Drel, who had remained quiet until then, frowned at Vale’s remark.
"On the grand scale of things, you’re insignificant as well. Stop trying to act like a smartass."
Vale sighed.
"You do realize that being powerful isn’t enough to pass the King’s Games, don’t you?"
Kharos merely smiled, clearly amused by the confidence in Vale’s voice.
"Why worry about the King’s Games when you’re not even a participant?"
"Who says I’m not a participant?"
The statement immediately changed the atmosphere.
Both Kharos and Drel froze, their expressions shifting as the meaning behind Vale’s words slowly sank in.
Neither of them had expected that answer.
Drel was the first to understand how that was possible.
"You’ve joined hands with a candidate!"
"Bingo."
Drel smiled forcibly:
"Who, if I may ask?"
He did not expect an answer.
But much to his surprise, Vale responded:
"Krazg the abyss chameleon."
Both Kharos and Drel froze in shock at the name.
"Krazg!" Kharos exclaimed, his expression changing immediately. "The Krazg that leads an army of orcs. That Krazg?!"
A realization flashed across Drel’s face.
"That explains the orcs."
Vale ignored his reaction and casually changed the subject.
"Since I answered your question, how about you answer mine?"
Neither Kharos nor Drel responded.
Vale waited for a moment, but when it became clear that neither of them intended to say anything, he asked anyway.
"Where’s the clan’s graveyard?"
"Eat shit!" Drel spat in response.
Vale sighed, seemingly more tired than offended by the answer.
"If you tell me the location of the graveyard, maybe I’d put in a good word for you two."
Drel’s expression hardened as he glared at Vale.
"I told you not to act like a smartass!"
Vale scoffed.
"Under Krazg, victory is guaranteed." He said, seemingly confident in the outcome of the invasion. "You don’t have to follow Caius’s decisions."
Kharos smiled at that remark.
But before either of them could say anything else, he suddenly swung his axe.
A blood-red cleave tore through the air toward Vale.
Yet it struck nothing.
Vale had already vanished, disappearing from its path just in time.
"Damn it!" Kharos cursed, his grip tightening around the axe. "I forgot how fast he can get."
"Enough about him," Drel said, turning his attention back toward the settlement. "We should focus on protecting the graveyard."
Kharos shrugged.
"I doubt he knows where it is. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be going around interrogating goblins."
"That doesn’t mean he won’t find it."
Drel’s expression remained serious as he looked toward the direction Vale had disappeared.
"We can’t ignore this..."
"Indeed, but I think we should get to the commander first and hear what she has to say. For that ice-cold princess to tear a signal, it must really be important."
Drel clicked his teeth.
They had broken away from the rest of the clan’s combatants the moment they saw the signal, treating it as something important enough to warrant their immediate attention. Still, he couldn’t help but question what could possibly take precedence over the graveyard now that they knew the enemy was searching for it.
"I still think the graveyard takes precedence."
"And what if Vale is lingering around, watching us, so we lead him straight to it?" Kharos asked, raising a brow.
Drel froze.
He hadn’t considered that possibility.
More surprising was the fact that Kharos had been the one to think of it. Drel had always considered him more brawn than brain, the type to solve problems with his axe rather than stop and think about them, so hearing him raise such a possibility genuinely caught him off guard.
"Let’s head to the commander first."
Kharos immediately ran toward Zarah’s location, with Drel following close behind, although the latter still couldn’t shake his concern about the graveyard. He knew the danger it was in, and every second they spent away from it made him more uneasy.
Drel gave one final glance toward the direction of the graveyard before reluctantly following Kharos.
Meanwhile, Vale, much like Kharos had suspected, had remained in the area, watching the two of them from a distance in the hope that they would eventually lead him straight to the graveyard.
But instead, they suddenly changed direction and headed toward the location where Wes was fighting the female goblin.
Vale clicked his teeth in frustration and turned away.
He needed to find the graveyard as quickly as possible.
Yet, as he walked, another thought suddenly occurred to him.
He had heard that Kharos had been killed by Eli and had lost his innate skill.
And yet...
Here was Kharos, alive and well, seemingly possessing that same innate skill.
Or was it another blood type skill he’d acquired?
Vale wondered, but he didn’t have time to ponder the possibility for long, as a familiar voice suddenly echoed inside his head.
"Have you destroyed it?"
It was Raghul.
The two were communicating through telepathy, allowing them to speak without being physically near one another.
"Not yet. I’m still having a hard time finding it."
"I’ll be making my way soon. Find it before then."
"Are you coming with the rest?"
"Not yet. There is no point in killing them off if they’re just going to come back to life. I intend to destroy them completely."
"Noted. I’ll try to find the graveyard as soon as possible."
The conversation ended, and Vale’s expression became serious as he looked across the settlement.
The search could no longer be treated as a simple task. If Raghul arrived before he found the graveyard, there would be no excuse for his failure. And Vale had no intention of being the one who disappointed him.