I became a legion lich

113 Invading the mines

A minotaur was slowly pushing the cart full of ores. It was a white minotaur, so it must have been a female, but it was extremely thin, none of the characteristic demihuman muscles could be seen.

The female minotaur walked unsteadily, before falling to her side and passing out from exhaustion. One of the soldiers approached and spat on her in disgust, before whipping her in the back. The man seemed to be shouting something, but Athos did not understand because of the distance.

‘I understand. They enslaved demihumans and used them as miners. Demihumans are strong and robust thanks to the heritage of the giants, so they are excellent for heavy work and there is no cost other than food. But I don’t see any housing for slaves. Do they sleep outdoors?’ Athos wondered, but the truth was far crueler.

The demihuman tribes attacked the strongholds 5~6 times a year and were almost always defeated. They were rarely able to successfully conquer a stronghold, but the stronghold was quickly taken back by the humans, as the demihumans did not know how to use the stronghold’s large-scale spells.

Many demihumans were killed during the attacks, but the survivors were captured and enslaved. Many of them were bought by slave traders, but all the slaves captured by the platinum fist fortress ended up here.

Soldiers treated demihumans worse than cattle, feeding them once every other day and forcing them to work 18 hours a day. Slaves had no place to sleep, being forced to sleep inside the mines.

Deaths inside the mines were common, but the numbers were always replenished, so there were no problems for the humans. Even with such treatment, the demihumans were unable to resist.

Slave collars were placed around their necks and forced them to obey. The collars drained mana from the demihumans’ cores and kept them permanently empty, making them weak and lethargic. If the slaves disobeyed the orders received, the collars would drain the slaves of their life force, causing extreme pain and shortening their lifespan as long as the slave did not obey.

A second ore cart appeared and a black minotaur was pushing it, but he dropped the cart when he saw the white minotaur on the ground. He tried to run to her body, but the soldier whipped him in the face and yelled something.

.....

The male minotaur grabbed the female minotaur’s body and shook her violently, but the collar glowed and the minotaur began to convulse on the ground. Blood began to leak from all his pores as he bled out his life force.

Even so, the male minotaur refused to let go of the female minotaur’s body. The lashes continued to rain down on his back, until the soldier stopped as if he had given up and drew his sword, piercing the minotaur in the back.

The minotaur screamed for a few seconds, but the sword precisely hit his heart from behind, as if the soldier was already used to killing demihumans. Other soldiers approached to see the confusion and clicked their tongues, before dragging the bodies somewhere.

The first soldier entered the mines shortly thereafter and returned a few minutes later, followed by two orcs with pickaxes in hand. The orcs took the minotaurs’ place and pushed the carts to a carriage, before packing the ores into crates and loading the carriage.

‘Interesting. There must be at least a hundred demihumans inside the mines, and they seem weak enough for a single slash from my sword to kill them easily. thought Athos. There were only a few dozen soldiers and Athos had the confidence to kill them all, but it was then that a warning sounded in his mind.

Would the kingdom really leave this metal mine poorly protected like this? When could any bandit attack and steal the metals? Athos knew not, so he decided to wait a little longer. He did not consider the possibility of demihumans attacking this place, as they knew only one way to make war: attack from the front. There was no intelligence gathering, so they would just attack the fortress.

It only took 20 minutes for him to understand why. From the largest of the log cabins, two ogres emerged while yawning. Unlike the other demihumans, these were well fed and looked strong.

They walked around the little village as if they owned the place. Athos noticed that the soldiers seemed uncomfortable with the presence of these two ogres, lowering their heads as they passed. One of the soldiers brought a pig tied up and handed it to the ogres, who quickly ate it for breakfast.

‘So that’s the reason for so much confidence? Ogres are dangerous enemies according to Treevor, but they are still honorable, as are the other demihumans. How did the humans convince them to switch sides?’ Athos wondered.

The truth was, these two ogres were troublesome individuals, expelled from their own clan. They had a bad mentality of trampling on the weak and treating them like a slave, even others of their own kind.

After being expelled from their clan, they wandered aimlessly and unwittingly invaded human territory, where they were easily captured and enslaved, their pride trampled underfoot as beings they considered weak crushed them.

General Astrus bought them and placed them here as extra security and moved most of the soldiers back to the fortress, leaving only the bare minimum necessary for the mines to remain operational. The two ogres valued their own lives more than others of their kind, so they were obedient.

“Well, I’ve learned enough. Time to kill.” Athos spoke aloud with a devious smile. He had no description and ran straight towards the soldiers. The hive hawks split left and right, flying in front of him.

“Hmm?” One of the soldiers noticed Athos running and narrowed his eyes to try to identify him, turning pale quickly. “U-undead!”

His scream alerted all the soldiers, who spotted Athos and panicked slightly as they prepared for the fight. The tattered cloak he used to storm the fortress was accidentally melted into slime acid, so Athos was running around naked at the moment, not that there was much to see.

The two ogres looked disinterestedly at Athos, trying and failing to gauge him with the sight of mana. One of the soldiers yelled for them to get up and deal with the threat quickly, so they obeyed, even if unwillingly.

‘Yes, underestimate me and let your guard down. I want you to focus on me and let your guard down.’ Athos smiled inwardly as he cast his spells. He released a menacing but harmless black aura to the ogres, focusing all the soldiers’ attention on himself.

The first of the ogres placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder and spoke something in a language Athos did not understand, before stepping forward and facing the undead. The other ogre took a step back and crossed his arms.

Athos drew his sword and faced the ogre, before turning and running into the soldiers with the lightning impulse active. The ogre stared stupidly at Athos for a second and roared in indignation, running after him.

‘Yes, keep following me!’ Athos thought as he attacked the nearest soldier. The soldier wasn’t able to keep up with his speed and just slashed forward, praying to hit, but Athos cut him in half along with his sword and went on to the next one.

Both sharpness and toughness enhancing enchantments were worth their price. The sword could now cut through iron weapons with frightening ease, allowing Athos to cut soldiers in half nonstop.

The ogre roared seeing the soldiers he was supposed to protect dropping like flies and cursed the humans’ incompetence, but the collar around his neck began to activate and reminded him of his urgent situation. The general had left clear orders to protect the mines and the soldiers with their lives, so if the soldiers died, he would soon join them.

The ogre stopped playing and activated gigantification, growing to a height of 10 meters. He absorbed the water element from the winter cold and the earth element abundant in the region, his skin turning stone hard and turning a bluish tinge, the cold air gathering around him.

The second giant prepared to attack and activated the gigantification as well, but the hive hawk appeared behind him as it transformed, transferring a spear of black fire conjured by Athos onto the ogre’s back. The soldiers had ignored the hawks in the hive and focused only on the immediate threat. Now, they didn’t know whether to fight the skeleton knocking them to the ground, or the skeleton casting magic from the sky.

The spear pierced the ogre’s back and exited its abdomen without resistance, its body continuing to expand regardless of the wounds. His body reached a height of 10 meters, but there was a 60 centimeter hole in his abdomen that spurted blood, the giant fell to the ground holding his wound.

Athos by accident attacked one of the greatest weaknesses of the ogres. During gigantification, their bodies were temporarily vulnerable, so even simple attacks could be lethal.

The first ogre was furious and attacked Athos, releasing fists of aura trying to crush him. The skills were filled with the earth and water elements, so the aura fists were slower and tougher than normal, leaving frost marks where it hit.

Athos easily dodged the powerful but slow fist auras. The soldiers around him not so much. Athos circled among the soldiers, slashing the soldiers’ legs and letting the angry ogre’s attacks hit the crippled soldiers.

“Hi, what the fuck are you doing??” One of the soldiers yelled, but the ogre was too focused on crushing Athos to care. The necklace was already draining his mana quickly, but the ogre was too furious to think. His brother was still dying on the ground and all he wanted was to crush the undead responsible.