Chapter 200 - 172: Please Be Our Leader
"Feeling a little better now?" Oreco asked with a smile, glancing around the battlefield. He drew an Arrow from his Quiver, his posture still vigilant.
"Yes," Evita knew what he was asking. Although she had just taken her revenge, the arm gripping her Lance still trembled slightly. It wasn’t a tremor of fear, but an outward sign of the roiling emotions within.
Sporadic fighting still echoed in the distance. The towering Ogres roared as they swung their great hammers, but Evita knew victory belonged to their side. "If not for that arrow just now," she said, "I might not be here to see this."
"Now that you’ve calmed down, you’ll need to mature quickly. The burden of the entire race rests on your shoulders now." Oreco came to the young Centaur’s side. "My own child will be born soon. Our people must have a future. The Clan Leader’s golden necklace is a heavy weight to bear."
"I will, Oreco."
"But don’t be too hard on yourself. Take it one step at a time," Oreco said with a hearty laugh. "Your father once discreetly suggested that I should be the next Clan Leader, but I refused him on the spot. I know my place is helping our people in battle. I could never perform a ’feat’ like charging into the forest alone to find a Unicorn."
"Oh," Evita said, lowering her head shyly. "You’ve never said any of this before."
"That was Chief Shire," Oreco said, gripping his bow and beginning to walk toward the distant battlefield. "He said you’re grieving and need to learn how to be a Clan Leader from scratch—something you’ve never experienced before. He told me not to put too much pressure on you. You’re a proud Centaur. Appointed by your father under such circumstances, you were bound to push yourself too hard."
As he walked away, his voice was swallowed by the din of the battlefield. Evita remained where she was, her gaze fixed on a point in the distance. Across the field of battle, on a man-high wooden platform, a short, Green-skinned Goblin seemed to be standing.
"A worthy Clan Leader?" she murmured to herself.
Then, Evita turned and walked toward the red cloak Evil Throat had dropped.
She didn’t open it to see what was inside. Intuition told her there was something very wrong with its contents. It was best not to look. She would just hand it over to the chief when the battle was over.
Then, Evita tightened her grip on her Lance and reared up on her hind legs. With a thunderous clatter of hooves and a cloud of dust, she charged toward the distant enemies once more.
...
"Looks like that should do it." Shire lowered his telescope.
He hadn’t joined the Charge when he gave the order, choosing instead to quietly watch his subordinates and the Centaurs besiege the Evil Throat Army.
Without the Slave Soldiers who had drunk the "Holy Water," the enemy’s threat was drastically reduced. They were just a few Earth Goblins and Ogres—nothing his forces couldn’t handle.
’These scattered, fleeing goblins are a bit of a problem, though.’ He frowned. He couldn’t spare the manpower to catch them now; that would have to wait until the Evil Throat Army was completely dealt with.
’Fortunately, this whole area is my Domain now. No matter how far these goblins run, they can’t get away. Once the battle is over, I’ll have Red Eyes and the others ride the Worker Ants on patrol and round them all up.’ Shire rubbed his temples. ’I wonder how long it will take to catch them all.’
’The next stage of Forest Whisper will probably take a while to activate,’ he sighed softly. ’But that’s fine. It’s just a matter of a few days. The prize is still within reach, after all.’
’Next, I need to think about taking over the territory that belonged to the Evil Throat Army. And to the north, there’s the even stronger Feathered Serpent Goblin Kingdom.’ Shire stroked his chin. ’Once I’ve recruited all those goblins, I need to question them thoroughly about that Kingdom’s true strength. Why did the Earth Goblins, even with their crazed Slave Soldiers, not dare to attack it?’
’Is that Evil God really that powerful? If it is, why would it allow the Earth Goblins to exist for so long?’
In the distance, the last Ogre fell to the ground with a heavy THUD. Shire stood on his tiptoes and scanned the battlefield. Seeing that the fighting had ceased, he grabbed the railing and jumped down from the platform.
A short while later, he frowned at the few dozen goblins kneeling before him. "This is all you caught?"
"The others, they ran! They ran away!" Red Eyes shouted. The hundreds of other goblins had bolted and vanished during the chaotic battle with the Evil Throat Army. These were just the ones who had been too scared to run, kneeling on the battlefield and begging for their lives.
"Fine. Get on the Worker Ants immediately. Form teams and start searching the woods for them." Shire waved his hand, dismissing his subordinate to the task. "Remember, I want them alive, not dead. If any are injured, just toss them into the Worker Ants’ cargo compartments."
He grabbed Red Eyes and began giving him detailed instructions, then beckoned Buck Teeth over. "You, take a few others and tally the results of the battle, especially our own losses. Find our wounded as quickly as possible so they can be treated."
Buck Teeth nodded and immediately gathered a few goblins to help him with the cleanup. The battlefield was littered with bodies, but some were surely still alive. Their side had little goblins and a Unicorn, and they could take the wounded to the Tree-man Domain; they had plenty of ways to heal them.
’I need to find Shan Xi Ao and the others right away.’ Shire glanced at the kneeling goblins. There was no point in making them perform the ankle-touching ritual now. Even with them, he wouldn’t have enough to activate Forest Whisper. He might as well wait until Red Eyes caught some of the runaways. ’There’s no rush.’
He turned, about to head back to the Fortress to see the little goblins. He had deliberately kept Shan Xi Ao and his people inside during the battle, fearing the frenzied Slave Soldiers might harm them. After all, the little goblins were his people’s most important "production tools" at the moment. But after just two steps, he froze.
Shire stared in astonishment at the Centaurs arrayed neatly before him. Evita then stepped forward from their ranks.
"Chief Shire," she declared in a loud voice, "on behalf of the entire Golden Mane Race, I swear this oath: we ask you to be our leader."
Hearing this, Shire frowned. His relationship with the Centaur Race had been one of cooperation, but what Evita was saying now sounded like a pledge of fealty.
"You..." Before he could finish, the hundred-plus Centaurs across from him crossed their arms over their chests. In unison, they reared up, then slammed their front hooves down on the ground, and bowed their upper bodies low.
In his mind, on the Black Obelisk, the strange glyph representing Forest Whisper flared to life.