The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 444: Will They Stay?

With the extra trolls, and the army joining their flank, the fight turned into a steady advance toward the barrier, which was still steadily deploying more monsters.

Then, the mages made a fatal mistake.

Whatever spell they were using to find monsters had gathered them two hundred swamp trolls, short and long-armed monsters who typically covered themselves in moss, mud, and swamp grass to keep their skin from drying out in the sun.

They left the barrier like everything else, but when they got near the front, they just turned around and started attacking the monsters around them.

Trolls were challenging to control, and once they understood that all the other Trolls were fighting in the other direction, they just turned around and changed teams.

They didn’t have a proper swamp around here for them to live in, but they might be fine in the forest if they survived this battle.

The troll village could get them settled if they needed.

Now, their numbers were rapidly expanding, and the Swamp Trolls were even healing the wounded. It was devastating to the enemy, even if the militia didn’t trust monsters who had only changed sides two minutes earlier.

Amie frowned and stopped walking, which caused Dominic to stop with her.

"There is a living puppet in that group." She whispered.

"And?"

"Only a few powerful necromancers can use that spell. It’s not easy to clone the soul of a living creature to create puppets. I think that I know who we are up against." She replied quietly.

"Someone your Sect has met before?"

Amie shook her head. "Not directly. Though some surely have. The King of Shersdonia is a Necromancer Lord, over level fifty, from what I have heard. I think that he is the one who has been supporting Prince Kaizon, and who is summoning all these monsters.

It even explains the blood ritual that we couldn’t break.

Blood Magic is a branch of the Necromantic Arts.

The problem is that, other than the mages from one Sect in his country, there is no way to tie any of this directly to him. At best, we can tie it to his nation. But he will just throw the Sect to the vultures if they become a diplomatic issue."

Dominic sighed. Plausible deniability, the fallback of every national leader.

Dagos was vehemently anti mage, but that was because of the nonhuman aspect. But Necromancers were humans who had learned a forbidden art. If Kaizon had managed to control Dagos, Skiple would be stuck between two hostile allied nations, and the two could work together to control a huge portion of the northern shore, which would truly land lock Axbridge.

Well, not anymore, as Axbridge was working with Mitfield and Cygnia, who both had large coastlines on the eastern side of the continent.

But at the start of the war, it made perfect sense.

The question was if the support was ongoing, or if it had been a limited agreement.

If it was ongoing, this could be much more like a proxy war than fallout from a civil war. That was something that the politicians would have to sort out on their own.

Before the armies could reach them, Dominic felt the power in the area shift as portals began to close, and the mages retreated.

"Who had money on them running before we touched the barrier?" Amie called.

The militiamen laughed as the barrier began to crack, now that the Ormsted Sect had stopped reinforcing it.

That let the armies advance much more quickly, as the flow of monsters had stopped, and the ones left had no outside guidance, only their own instincts to go by.

And most species were not masters of tactical thinking.

The trolls were celebrating the departure of the mages, who could actually injure them.

Most of the monster species hadn’t mastered fire, or had no need of it. So, while a Goblin camp could be dangerous if they started waving torches around to burn the trolls, the ones that were summoned here were no real danger.

That let them rampage with impunity and stock up on monster cores.

Village Trolls would normally have no need of such things, but Dominic was in Wistover, and they knew that they could trade with him. Trading monster cores for the good cooking equipment, blankets and other housewares was an excellent deal.

However, with the number of monster cores available in the region, the price would absolutely plummet.

They held great value in the cities because everyone needed them. But what happened when everyone on town had dozens or hundreds of them? More than they could possibly need, even to upgrade spell gems and trade skill cores?

They became little more than a trade item.

That was far from Dominic’s mind as the number of monsters dwindled. He would never have no need for the cores, as they could be stockpiled for crafting and didn’t go bad.

They could also be used to purchase from the Merchant’s Guild caravans, who would value them the same as always until they realized just how abundant the cores had become.

The army was picking most of them up, which meant that they would be turned in for credit with the officers.

But that still left whatever farmers and militia had decided to fight.

Whatever, it was fine. Alexis would know what to do about it.

There was no heroic last stand. Not that day. Instead, the monsters broke when they realized there was nobody stopping them this time, and the survivors fled off into the wilderness, desperate to get as far from Wistover as possible.

They would need to be hunted down later, but that was a job for the Adventurers. Rogue monsters kept them in business, and business would be good for some time.

Colonel Wilkes patted Dominic on the shoulder as the battle came to an end.

"Good timing. It looks like the Baronies are fine, and the town took minimal damage."

"They were aiming for us, not general destruction. They even left most of the farm houses. But that’s a good thing. If we didn’t lose too many people, the recovery shouldn’t be too painful.

How are things in the industrial district?"

Wilkes shrugged. "Intact, as far as I know. The Adventurers started near the warehouses, so they should have been well protected until the army was fully deployed."

That was excellent news.