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Aerwyn took in a deep breath before raising his hand to gain the attention of the elves.

"For those of you that don't know of me, my name is Aerwyn, I am a necromancer, and Ardin is my home. The human army was defeated at Setrhyn, but shortly after the victory, the orcs attempted a raid which too was repelled..." As Aerwyn spoke, Erit pinched his back as if to tell him that he's said enough.

"...Setrhyn's necromancer, Tylin, will be here shortly to give you more information." Aerwyn continued.

"Perfect. Short and sweet." Erit proclaimed with a self-satisfied smile.

"I barely said anything at all." Aerwyn bemoaned.

"All that matters is that they heard the news from you first. When you tell a story, it makes you appear like a braggart, let others embellish the story for you."

Aerwyn passed through the crowd, entering his spire to eat while he waited for his undead to assemble. It took nearly an hour and a half for all of them to find landing areas for the ships, which was far too long for his liking, and once they arrived, he immediately headed back out.

They traveled for nearly two hours before Aerwyn heard the shriek of a jakku in his mind. He hastily entered the darkness and looked through the creature's eyes only to feel as if his breath was stolen from him. To the north of the orc village, Aerwyn could see hundreds of mounted Lok'ra marching towards it. Gromok had warned him that reinforcements were on the way, but Aerwyn never would've expected they'd all be true orcs.

He changed his vision to the jakku, watching over the ships, making sure it was still clear before opening his true eyes. He called over Earl Abery, Pontus, Nyris, and Gromok Grel, leaving only Rorik out of the makeshift meeting. Aerwyn was still furious with the mutt for hiding things from him and wasn't in the mood to hear his demonic voice.

"The orc reinforcements are nearing the village now, about five hundred mounted true orcs."

"We cannot fight them." Gromok cautioned abruptly.

"I agree, my lord. It's best to give up on the ships." Earl Abery chimed as Pontus and Nyris shook their heads in agreement.

"...I'm not going to just gift thirteen warships to a future enemy. I called you over to come up with a plan, not to warn me of what I already know."

"If the reinforcements are arriving now, they'll make camp outside the village while the commander gets updated on the situation. At that point, we have an hour or two at most before they send troops to the ships. A second scouting team should already be on their way to search for the team we killed this morning." Gromok added.

"If it was you leading them, how many orcs would you send?"

"Fifty to a hundred. After receiving the report of the failed raid, depending on the commander, they may send more. Either way, it's not a number we can contend with."

"..."

"My lord, If we still had the tenri, we could maybe send them ahead to cause a distraction away from the ships, but I fear the only option we have left is to send the goblins back and quicken our advance. Perhaps then we could still salvage a few ships and burn the rest before they orcs arrive."

"It's too dangerous sending so many bodies away. At worst they can act as a meat shield, at best even goblins can kill a Lok'ra if the circumstances are right." Gromok warned.

"Can't we just trick them?" Ren asked from Aerwyn's side, surprising him. He still wasn't used to hearing the brexil cats speak.

"Trick them how?"

"The same way we did the humans. Just send Gromok to tell them to go away."

"It's different, the humans didn't know about my power at that time. We don't know how much the orcs have gleaned about my power yet."

"That's not necessarily true, or at least I should say that it may be worth the gamble. The orcs that escaped only fought with the fallen for a short time. At most, they'd be able to discern by the eyes, but we can fix that, momentarily, that is." Nyris spoke as everyone turned their questioning gazes towards him.

"The fallen?" Aerwyn asked with a tilted head and furrowed brow.

"Ah, yes. Unlike the lesser creatures under your command, we don't have an aura of undeath, so we can't really be considered undead. We aren't exactly alive either, and since you're most likely a god that has fallen to the mortal realm, I felt as though it was an apt name for those created by your power."

"I love it! I've been fretting over that very issue for weeks! Our race needed a powerful name that would strike fear into the hearts of all the mortal races. The fallen... The fallen king Aerwyn..." Erit swooned.

"Um, I like it too!" Rin proclaimed in a way that made it evident that she just wanted to be a part of the conversation now that she could speak.

"Ok, let's try to keep things on topic. Nyris, what did you mean about fixing their eyes? Tylin told me there was no way to hide the undead's flames, I assumed it was the same for... the fallen."

"That's because the flames that make up the undead's eyes are ethereal, they don't interact with our world. Our eyes are simply a shade of violet, easily hidden by magic, at least for a short period of time. If we had more time and an enchanter, we could even come up with a permanent solution, but I digress, watch." Once Nyris was finished speaking, he raised his hand, and some dim light shot out from his fingers into his eyes. He rubbed his eyes for a moment before looking towards Aerwyn. His eyes were now the melancholic grey they once were before his rebirth.

"That won't do. Once the orcs leave our range, the spell will fail within minutes without being connected to our mana." Pontus pointed out.

"Of course, Gromok will just have to be quick in his attempts to convince the orcs to leave. Although there is some merit in capturing a few and learning whether they are even aware that the fallen all have violet eyes, let alone the ability to speak." Nyris continued.

"They will not obey me even if the magic works. I am not their commander, nor was I anyone important in life."

"Hmm... What if you told them a great force was on their way, a force large enough to make them retreat to the village? By the time they return, we'll have already left with the ships." Earl Abery mused.

"...They'll ask me where I've been for the past two days and how I know that an enemy force is on its way."

"Just tell them you and the others were forced to escape from the East instead of the West when the main force retreated. Say that when you left, you caught sight of the rest of my thousands-strong army that was on its way to reinforce Setrhyn, and you were forced to hide for the night. When it was finally clear, you decided to escape but noticed the army marching north towards the orc village, so you ran along the river ahead of the advancing army to warn the orcs."

"I'm... I'm not good at lying. What if they don't believe me? Or what if they do and force me and the others to follow them?" Gromok asked meekly.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

Aerwyn was astonished as he stared at Gromok, he had spoken with the orc quite a bit over the past two days and thought of him as a proud taciturn warrior. Yet Gromok now looked like an embarrassed child with cheeks as red as the setting sun. He wasn't even aware an orc could make such a bashful expression.

"You'll do fine, I'll be watching through your eyes. Go and notify the other fallen orcs of the plan, agree on a signal to attack as well just in case the plan fails." Aerwyn commanded to which Gromok nodded and halted his brolla, allowing the horde of running undead to overtake him.

"What's the plan if he fails to convince them to leave the ships?" Nyris asked.

"There are too many "if's"... It all depends on how many true orcs come to the ships. If the orcs send an amount that I'm confident we can at least force back, then we'll continue. We don't need to defeat all of them, just send them running back to their village. I want the ships but I'm not foolish, I've grown rather fond of the mortal realm, and I'd rather not be forced to leave it by having my head removed from my shoulders."

They continued their march north, and as a half-hour passed, another squawk was heard in Aerwyn's mind. This time from the jakku that was watching over the ships. Aerwyn quickly looked through the creature's eyes but was relieved to only see four Rozk'ra walking out of the forest, no doubt they were the second group of scouts.