The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 899: Honest Soldiers

Rae watched carefully all night, but none of the Demons seemed interested in coming creeping into the tent.

Honest people were boring.

So, first thing in the morning, she brought out some of the Royal Rank whale meat for the soldiers. They were stationed near the inland border, so they wouldnʼt have had a chance to get any of it when the whales arrived, and the meat would be a change for them, where the boar monsters were every day sorts of meals.

”There was a flying whale herd not long ago in Drodh. Here, fry this up for the unitʼs breakfast. If there arenʼt any threats during the morning scouting, we will likely move along, so this might be the only chance to give it to you.” She explained to the cook.

”Oh, flying whale? That will be a change. Let me find a nice spice combo for that, and I will save some for soup tomorrow.” The cook agreed easily.

The soldiers brought back meat regularly, and while whale was a different flavour set than usual, the unitʼs chef had enough spices to keep the soldiers from getting too bored with their meals.

The smell of frying whale meat drew out the soldiers who were lingering in bed until the last minute, as well as Karlʼs team, who were enjoying the cool, dry air of a morning in the inner steppes.

It was more like home than the constant humid warmth of Drodh, and a pleasant change for the team.

Hawk took off to scout, hopeful that they would find something close enough for this unit to fight. Delta and his group were good, and easy to work with. Fighting on a team with people you knew was better. They wouldnʼt do strange things, and they were already aware of the tricks that the Karlʼs team could pull.

But when he got to search altitude, just below the cloud cover, he found that there wasnʼt anything for hundreds of kilometres. He could see multiple smaller villages, two other army units, and a river. But no undead or any other obvious threats.

That wasnʼt what he was hoping for. There was a whole invasion going on, but there were thousands of kilometres of border, and he couldnʼt wander too far, or they would have to find a new group to work with.

Even as far as he had scouted today, they would have to switch units if the attack was on the outside edges of his range.

[Nothing to attack. But there is a village not far away full of Orcs. Maybe they want some stuff?] Hawk suggested.

[Not a terrible idea. The Orcs should at least be entertaining, since we canʼt find anything to fight. Take a tour closer to the border and see if they are just staging for an attack in a few days, and we will prepare to move to the village when we get your report.] Karl agreed.

Hawk flew for another half hour, making a serpentine pattern into the territory of the Undead.

[I found their city. All the undead are here. So many zombies. Just zombies everywhere. The city has vampires and some living things, but there are at least three cities worth of zombies outside.]

Karl mentally calculated where Hawk was, as it was certain that the Army would know the location of the cities, and it was important that they knew what one was preparing for an invasion.

So, he went looking for the unit Commander to explain the situation.

”Almost directly north of us, across the border of the dead zone, there is a city half the size of Drodh, full of undead. Hawk says that there is a zombie horde three times that cityʼs population gathered and waiting for something.” Karl explained.

The Commander took out a map and gestured at a city marking.

”That is called Ekh-Bhor. Itʼs the only city of that size in the direction you indicated. Itʼs not far from the border, but if they start to march, theyʼll only be two days to Bhakh, and there are ten thousand people there.

I will send a message to have the units in the area send a scout to verify the numbers. But youʼre saying that there should be hundreds of thousands of undead gathered outside the city?” He asked.

Karl nodded. ”Thatʼs what Hawk reports. You can verify it, as he relates the number of undead outside the city to the number of people inside the city. But it should be close enough if you know how many are in the city.”

The Demon focused for a moment and sent a System message to someone, then frowned.

”Military Intelligence already knew, they just didnʼt relay it, as itʼs not in our zone. I still donʼt know what theyʼre planning to do about that. But so many zombies is more than the border force will be able to deal with.

Even if the Leg Regiment finished their engagement today, it might not be enough to deal with that many zombies.

Honestly, what Iʼm more worried about is them using portals to send them somewhere else. Sure, theyʼre gathered at the border now. But if theyʼve got necromancers and Lich Lords with them, they donʼt have to just march across the plains. They can attack wherever they want.

The cities all have barriers over them to prevent unwanted portals, but a whole army appearing just outside of town isnʼt any less dangerous.”

The Commander rubbed his temples, then took out a flask from his inventory and took a long swill.

”There is a good reason why I donʼt think too hard about all the possibilities. Itʼs best to just focus on what is going on around us, and leave the rest to someone else.

For all we know, this could be one huge feint. Gathering the armies at our border makes everyone else watching the Undead think that theyʼre about to invade Drodh. But they could be planning to use portals to hit Unzatharb, Gabil or Nabibun.

Sending a whole fleet across the channel to the last two is implausible on the scale they would need. But portals would work just fine.”