Chapter 480

The suns were setting, and the plans I’d suggested and then refined were already given to every one of my elites, and through them, to every soldier who stood on the walls. Those who stood as the bulwark against our attackers would work in accordance with my commands, as always. A part of me couldn’t help but flick my eyes over the demands of my various Skills that had to evolve. Absolute Dominance required that I dominate the leader of a country, and I had no doubt that this war would provide that opportunity to me before too long. Then, Combatant’s Bloodlust still required Horde Coordination’s evolution, which was to lead a group of at least 200 to battle and find victory five times.

In hand with Horde Coordination came that of Conquerors’s Rebuke, where I needed to lead 100 into battle and rout my enemy. Once this battle turned from a siege, and we drove the Misti Hawar from the Shandise, surely I would have plenty of opportunities to get the next four successes in this, to say nothing of whatever battle it was that led to them understanding that they’d decided to seek out their own destruction at my hands.

The only other Skill that, according to my Status, could evolve was Nemesis, which required me to kill five tribal level leaders. I couldn’t believe that none of the Misti Hawar that I had killed so far were of that level, but given that it said that it had to be individual combat, perhaps I could try to set up some duels instead of mass army warfare on this. After all, the thought of my entire Status page being unable to be evolved further was an attractive one, even if a part of me would demand that I push myself further to continue to find opportunities to evolve once I was there.

With that same thought in mind, I glanced at that bottom part of my Status, so long neglected and left vacant: Evolutions possible, but not currently foreseen. Progress further, and such possibilities will be presented to you. That hadn’t changed ever since I evolved to become Keel, and every time that I’d asked Nievtala about it, she’d been entirely unwilling to give me any information. Instead of her usual desire to talk and to sneak additional information or advantages my way, she had refused entirely, as if truly prevented from being able to speak.

As such, even though I long considered my goddess to be a dead end in terms of information, I continued to wonder what kind of things I might do to even learn how to evolve again. I knew that part of the issue was that now that I was Keel, to the System's perception, I could be considered a person instead of a monster. People didn’t evolve anywhere near as much as monsters did, and different stages of life weren’t considered different evolutions like they were for monsters. Beyond that, I had no doubt that there were other members of the Administrative Body that didn’t want to see me evolving again.

Regardless, I hoped that the inevitable conclusion of this war against the Misti Hawar would provide for me at least a peek into what I might have to do to experience that explosive growth once again. After all, something that was hidden from me now, that had been hidden from me for so long, must be a sizable increase. For example, the heretic evolutionary path, which I’d never thought too deeply about, could potentially offer me immense growth, though I couldn’t help but suppose that following it would have cut me off from support from Nievtala. The thought of being against the other gods without any support was intimidating, to say nothing else.

Despite that, I couldn’t help but hope that, if there was something beyond being Keel that would grant me strength that I couldn’t yet understand, strength that might be able to stave off that fate that my dreams seemed to promise me, I could find it, and the earlier the better.

I shook the thoughts from my head, instead focusing on the real and present danger. Every day of the siege would present greater danger, as the Great Hunter’s spawn grew stronger and my people were wounded and cut down. However, depending on Nievtala’s willingness to bestow more of the weakest Kha with the lowest potential to push them ahead, we could see greater growth in that time. Beyond that, those of my people who had potential to grow, but had yet to find an opportunity to prove themselves could take these battles as opportunities to fight and kill and grow in a way that this idyllic life had stolen from them.

There was a thought that whispered in the back of my mind, that now that we had a taste for warfare, none of the Saharliard could be satisfied with any meaningful time of peace. How could the Conqueror’s people find excitement in a life without strife, in a land without opportunities to grow? After all, I was far from the only one of our number who wanted to continue to grow, and those young ones who had never truly experienced the exponential growth that my original swarm had in our escape from the humans were sure to have their ambitious number who saw this opportunity for what it could be. There would be no prayer for peace after that.

With that in mind, I looked at the walls, where my people were gathering, each person holding at least one bar of unfinished metal. Ytte, and by extension the entirety of the Kha’Tal caste of workers, had been pushing themselves to continue refining metal for all sorts of weapons and tools to be wielded. When I’d passed on my command and gave the news that the unfinished ingots would already be plenty valuable, even without the refinement and additional effort necessary to make them into tools, shouts of excitement began to fill the air.

I stood in the center of the city, and as I stretched my awareness out, I watched with my eyes as well as my thermal vision and Tremorsense. Though that didn’t give me as clear of a view as I would like, I could, by drawing on Spear of the Many to increase my intelligence most of all to get a picture of everything that I wanted to see. I couldn’t know just what our enemies were going to bring tonight, after having been visited with a return strike in the harsh light of day, but I knew they wouldn’t be prepared for our newest defense.

The knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to fight on the walls, that I would need to hold my current position while trusting the entirety of the battle line to my people under the command of my elites, wasn’t one that I welcomed. Even so, I agreed with my plan, and I had every confidence that tonight would result in a rousing success, one that would allow me to step forward on several of the long-stagnant evolutionary quests for my Skills.

The last light of the suns had set nearly an hour before, and still the Misti Hawar hadn’t begun their assault. I wasn’t surprised that they were waiting for true darkness to fall before beginning again. After all, regardless of their cowardice in engagement, the Misti Hawar were clever and knew how to leverage their strength. Even when cornered earlier today, they didn’t hesitate to twist our comfort of pressing forward into a disadvantage.

When I began to worry and think that the Nyust’taa would somehow decide to pull back for the night, the first sounds of warning from the walls sounded where the guttering light of torches found unnatural shadows. The darkness deepened more than any other night, and the enemy committed much more to the siege than ever before. The shouts of my people’s pain started to sound then, but I still didn’t begin my part of the plan. After all, I needed to make sure that my enemies were entirely committed before I sprang the trap.

Nearly fifteen minutes of battle sounded, growing more pitched as I waited, but still, I kept my awareness stretched to watch and listen to my people there. The flames that had long been our defense against the Misti Hawar lost efficiency by the day, and I swore I could feel the excitement in the furry menaces grow while they took and established footholds on the walls.

It was time. The enemies were surrounded, with dozens and hundreds of Misti Hawar too committed to the walls to escape my trap. The stage was set.

And then, in near unison, my people began clanging the metal bars together, and I pulled deeply on my sonilphon, strengthening the sound while I used Spear of the Many to strengthen my magic stat. The sound rang out, as if hundreds of bells were rung, and I kept the sonic waves rolling, disrupting, and preventing the shadow magic from continuing to rip through my people’s flesh.

With screams of challenge, my people’s patience, now tested, was rewarded with the beginning of the slaughter.