Chapter 43: Confident Damien.
The unforgiving blizzard continued raging as Damien struggled to see more than a few meters ahead.
"Go find my arrows."
The two undead immediately scattered into the snow while Damien stood where he was, quietly waiting.
He knew he couldn’t simply return to camp empty handed. At the very least, he needed something convincing enough to prove he hadn’t spent the entire mission wandering around the forest.
Besides, returning as he was wouldn’t be much different from committing suicide.
Damien clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"It’s best to prepare beforehand. There’s no telling whose side Andrea will take... and who knows what that barefooted bitch would do the moment I stepped back into camp."
Just thinking about it made his head ache, which was strange. He was an undead. Headaches weren’t exactly something walking corpses were supposed to get.
That alone proved just how utterly fucked he knew he was.
"The storm’s bad enough to blind me, yet those dumb Eidolons are still marching... don’t tell me they somehow know exactly where our camp is."
His thoughts came to an abrupt halt, the dead man narrowed his eyes.
"No, they’re heading in the wrong direction... That chief might be big and stupid, but even he should understand basic strategy. If he already knew where the camp was, he would’ve attacked immediately instead of wandering around like this."
Damien folded his arms.
"He’s searching, and fortunately for humanity, I seriously doubt that oversized idiot has enough brains to deceive humans."
He paused before quietly adding coldly.
"Craftiest creatures of them all."
Before long, the two undead returned.
Dozens of black arrows had been recovered, though Damien knew plenty more had already disappeared beneath the rapidly rising snow.
He accepted the bundle before securing them behind his back.
"That should be enough."
Without another word, Damien and his two dead Eidolons began their short journey to the Eidolon army, they were two thousand of them, but the dead man was confident in his ability to make their dead his slaves.
Soon, hundreds of white furred Eidolons marched in loose rows, hauling massive wooden crates and thick bundles of supplies looted from the ruins.
Several of them were dragging the giant cloaked machine across the frozen landscape, its enormous wheels leaving deep tracks that were quickly buried beneath fresh snow.
Damien slowed to a stop atop a small snow-covered ridge.
From there, he finally spotted the two figures he had been looking for.
The towering Eidolon Chief strode near the center of the army, while the newly awakened priest walked beside him.
The two occasionally turned toward one another, their mouths moving from time to time as though they were discussing something, before both looked back toward the path ahead.
Damien narrowed his eyes.
"This is unusual".
...
The Eidolon Chief suddenly grabbed the newly promoted priest by the shoulder, his claws digging into the black fur beneath.
"Watch yourself. I may have graced your lowly blood with speech and intelligence, but you are still my servant."
The priest immediately lowered his head.
"I know the grace you have bestowed upon me, my Chief, but continuing to march like this will not allow us to find the foul-smelling human creatures any sooner. We should spread out instead. Order the lower beasts to scour the frozen wastelands, and sooner or later, they will find them. Then you shall have their heads lined from the Blood Sea all the way to your city gates."
The Chief fell silent, seemingly weighing the suggestion.
"Those unclean creatures are crafty and untrustworthy. We must not take them lightly. Things have changed since they first appeared. They have grown stronger. It used to be that a single one of my slaves could rival dozens of them, but now only a handful managed to fight a winning battle against hundreds of us inside our own city." His expression darkened. "They even took that idiot Priest and turned him into a slave through their vile sorcery."
The newly appointed priest bowed even lower, his sturdy back bending far beyond what should’ve been naturally possible.
"My Chief, we possess the advantage of numbers, while they possess the advantage of stealth. Once we take that away from them, they will be no different from..." He paused briefly.
"What was the saying our great god once used? Ah... sitting ducks. Yes, my Chief. They will become ducks waiting for slaughter. Besides, we also possess the machination left behind by the savages who once resisted our great god. With it, even their strongest warriors will have no choice but to fall before our might."
The Chief’s tar black lips slowly curled into a crooked smile.
"Very well, my servant. We shall attempt your little scheme. But be warned... should it fail, you shall be punished."
He released the priest’s shoulder.
"My army is yours to command."
With a contemptuous snort, the Eidolon Chief turned and walked away, leaving the priest frozen in his bowing position. He didn’t move an inch until the Chief had completely disappeared into the blizzard.
Only then did the priest slowly straighten his back. Without warning, his head turned in Damien’s direction. It was almost as though he could see straight through the raging snowstorm.
Damien immediately lowered himself behind the ridge.
The blizzard made it difficult to see anything, but there was no telling what that newly awakened priest was capable of. At the very least, Damien noticed he wasn’t carrying a ritual staff.
He couldn’t understand a single word the two had said, but that wasn’t Damien’s concern, better to leave Andrea’s problems to Andrea.
Besides, Damien was confident the Eidolons couldn’t actually hurt them, seeing first hand how terrifying the dormant abilities of his fellow men were. In fact, not too long ago, he killed a sturdy woman who could create tangible afterimages, Damien was confident if not anything else.
He glanced at Priesty lying beside him before looking back toward the newly appointed priest.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"Apprentice Priest... So you can also talk."