Chapter 44: Giving Directions.
"Heh, what’s going on?"
Damien’s eyes narrowed as the Eidolon army suddenly came to a halt. Then something completely inconceivable happened. The army began splitting itself into smaller mobile units before marching off in different directions.
Damien had no idea what was going on, but one thing was certain. He didn’t like it. The strategy was far too simple, yet frighteningly effective.
It was the sort of thing only a human would’ve thought of. How could a race of brainless creatures, who relied almost entirely on the intelligence of a single giant ram deer, suddenly come up with something so basic, and yet so profound?
Damien slowly exhaled a puff of cold air.
"That priest is acting far too human. I’m beginning to understand why the Chief never gave my Priesty the ability of speech. He deliberately limited his intelligence so it could only receive and carry out orders. Does becoming a priest grant them some special property I’m not aware of?"
His thoughts immediately drifted to Priesty’s ability to heal wounds with the ritual staff. Damien had always assumed the strange runes carved into the weapon were responsible for that ability, but now he wasn’t so sure anymore.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt there was something fundamentally different about the priests himself, something beyond simply being able to speak.
Damien quietly pushed the thought to the back of his mind before retrieving an arrow from behind his back. The priest’s decision had been completely unexpected, but after giving it a little thought, he realized there was still a chance to turn the situation to his advantage.
He needed undead, and now, instead of marching together as one massive army, the Eidolons were practically delivering them to him on a silver platter.
The Eidolons gradually began setting up camp once more. The newly appointed priest, now in command of the army, was far more practical than the Chief. Why wander around blindly when it could simply wait for its scouts to report back?
A cruel smirk spread across its face as it barked several orders toward the Eidolons hauling the giant machine. They immediately stopped moving, some of them collapsing onto the frozen ground in exhaustion after dragging the enormous contraption through the blizzard for so long.
The priest didn’t care. It casually ordered the exhausted workers to be whipped while it silently watched from the sidelines, completely confident in its own plan. As far as it was concerned, nothing could possibly ruin it.
Damien, on the other hand, was working very diligently on ruining that plan.
He absorbed Priesty and the remaining undead back into his body before quietly running ahead through the blizzard. There was no point attacking the army directly. The smarter approach was to wait for the priest’s scouts to come to him instead.
And they did.
Dozens of meters away from the main army, a scouting party of ten Eidolons steadily advanced through the frozen wasteland. They moved in perfect tandem, silently sweeping the area ahead of the army. Coincidentally, they had been sent in the exact direction of the human encampment. If they continued marching in a straight line for another day and a half, they would no doubt stumble upon the humans they were searching for.
But then, an arrow silently cut through the raging blizzard.
Carried by the powerful wind, it curved unexpectedly before burying itself straight through the eye of the leading Eidolon.
The creature froze where it stood, remaining upright for only a brief moment before its massive body collapsed face-first into the snow.
The remaining Eidolons didn’t suspect a thing.
Their first instinct wasn’t to search for an enemy, but to gather around their fallen comrade instead. One of them slowly bent down, reaching toward the corpse.
At that exact moment, another Eidolon standing near the back suddenly disappeared beneath the snow without making a sound.
From the exact spot where it vanished. A black furred Eidolon silently rose from underneath the snow.
It was dark, and the raging blizzard dulled both their sight and sense of smell. The Eidolons never noticed the dead stranger already standing among them.
The fallen Eidolon was finally turned over.
The moment they saw the black arrow buried deep inside its eye, the entire scouting party scrambled to their feet and let out furious growls, as they entered a defensive stance.
But the enemy never came. At least, not from the direction they expected.
Deep within the blizzard, Damien and Priesty were in an awkward position. Priesty knelt with both hands locked together, while Damien confidently stood on them, gripping the undead priest’s shoulders to steady himself.
"Alright, Priesty, don’t overdo it or I won’t be able to control my landing. Measure the distance properly and make sure I pass directly over their heads. You got all that?"
Priesty simply stared at him blankly before letting out a low growl.
"Right... good talk."
The next moment, Priesty exploded upward.
His locked hands shot forward like a catapult, launching Damien high into the raging blizzard.
Damien’s body soared over the frozen trees, the freezing wind violently whipping against his face as the scouting party rapidly came into view beneath him.
"Perfect".
Without wasting a second, Damien drew his bow and released in quick succession.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Five arrows left his bow.
Four of them found their marks almost instantly, punching cleanly through the heads of four different Eidolons before they even realized they were under attack.
The fifth narrowly missed, slicing past its target’s ear instead.
Damien landed directly in the middle of the scouting party, just as the four corpses collapsed around him one after another.
The surviving Eidolon instinctively spun toward Damien, but before it could even roar, the black-furred undead they had failed to notice all this time silently appeared behind it.
Its claws flashed and the Eidolon’s throat opened from ear to ear.
It desperately clutched at the wound as blood poured through its fingers before collapsing beside the others.
Damien turned to the last three and said sarcastically.
"The camp is that way".