I became a legion lich

221 Determination of a leader

“But even if we identify the enemy, how do you plan to reach him amid so many skeletons?” The orc spirit questioned. “We cannot move away from our real bodies or transmit our spells beyond this forest.”

“Our allies don’t have these limitations, but they don’t have enough power to pierce through tens of thousands of enemies and still manage to kill the unknown leader.” He concluded, but the troll spirit had no response.

“What if we used teleportation crystals to bypass the army and reach the enemy leader as soon as we identified him?” A slime spirit raised a gelatinous tentacle and spoke, drawing the attention of everyone else. The spirits had their own teleportation crystals, but they never had a reason to use them, as they couldn’t get away from the tree that was their original body.

“We can’t use these things. We’d be severed from our original body and bleed out the energy we’ve accumulated over a century.” The orc denied the idea, but the slime spirit shook in denial.

“I didn’t tell us to do this. We have strong allies on our side who can do this.” The slime spirit pointed at the ogre and the two demihumans who were attending the meeting as representatives of the allied clans, although they were mostly watching the meeting until now.

“That would be suicidal. Even if they are able to teleport and assassinate the enemy leader, the army will not magically disappear. They would be trapped between enemies and cannot teleport back, as it takes time to charge a crystal with mana. .” The goblin spirit spoke, but the ogre who had been silent until now raised his hand and spoke.

“Me and my clan are willing to try your plan.” The ogre Patriarch spoke, startling all the spirits. “This is war, spirits. Our enemies plan not only to conquer us, but to annihilate us all.”

“If it weren’t for your warning and request for an alliance, my clan would be fighting alone and we’d probably be dead by now. My best warriors and I are willing to lay down our lives if it means our people can live.” The proud ogre patriarch spoke and the demihumans beside him nodded in agreement.

The spirits’ expressions lit up with hope and were moved by his sacrifice, but the ogre continued to speak.

.....

“But I have a request to make. In exchange for our sacrifice, we would like you to accept that our people live here and enjoy the blessings of the forest just as your own demi-humans do.” The ogre patriarch made the request he had been waiting for since he was summoned here.

The spirits looked at one another, confirming that their kin were on board with the idea of accepting more demihumans. Currently, the forest was incapable of supporting so many demihumans at once, and the only reason his own people never starved is that the trees could bear fruit year round,

They purposely kept the size of the forest small to avoid conflict with other territories, but with their neighbors dead or becoming their allies, they could expand beyond their current borders.

“We agree. We will accept your people and care for them as our own people.” The orc spirit spoke as their representative, making the demihumans smile widely.

They were more than willing to die if it ensured their people would never starve again.

All the spirits suddenly looked in one direction, interrupting the gathering and causing the demihumans to stop laughing and draw their weapons. They knew that the spirits could sense everything within the forest and something that caught everyone’s attention would not be a good sign.

“Have the enemies arrived yet?” The ogre patriarch asked while using gigantification, growing up to 10 meters and absorbing the element of light and abundant earth thanks to the presence of the spirits.

He was an experienced warrior and was aware of the fatal weakness of his racial ability, so he activated it before the enemy approached them.

“No, that’s not it. The lookouts we put in the way between us and the skeleton army just came back to report and said they’re less than an hour away from here.” The orc spirit explained, focusing its attention on the watcher’s report.

According to the goblin standing watch, two wyvern skeletons were flying ahead of the army, followed by countless black insects. The flying monsters separated from the rest of the army and would arrive in less than 10 minutes.

“A vanguard force to attack us and test our might?” The patriarch guessed as he returned to normal, but the spirits weren’t able to respond right away. Gigantification couldn’t be maintained forever, and the cooldown increased the longer he spent transformed.

“It’s not impossible. None of us have an affinity for air or can cast spells that high in the sky, so we could only defend ourselves without fighting back if they attacked us from the sky.” The slime spirit spoke worriedly.

“Speculating like this is pointless. Get ready to fight and shelter as many non-combatants as you can underground!” The orc took the lead and the spirits disappeared to help with the evacuation.

Beneath the forest of spirits, there was a small underground city where demihumans lived. There wasn’t enough space at the top of the forest without cutting down trees, so the spirits created this place for them to inhabit.

“Please allow our people to also shelter underground as well.” The ogre patriarch pleaded and the spirits easily agreed.

“Just hurry them along. Wyverns are extremely fast creatures, so they could be on us in a few minutes.” The orc spoke with concern for the lives of the innocents and the ogre nodded, before running away to his own camp accompanied by his guards.

*************

Just as the spirits had surmised, the wyverns arrived in less than five minutes and the wasps a little later, but they didn’t attack right away. Despite their fears, the flying skeletons just hovered in the sky above the forest, completely blotting out the sun and obscuring the entire sky above the forest.

The sight of thousands of black hornets flying overhead and the sound of thousands of wings beating was enough to send shivers down the spines of the bravest demihumans and the most cowardly of them pissing themselves in fear.

The occasional splash of acid that fell like drips only added to her panic. They had no way to defend themselves against something as unpredictable as small drops randomly falling from the sky, so they could only hope they didn’t get hit.

The only ones who could defend them would be the spirits conjuring a magic shield, but something big enough to cover the entire forest would take a lot of energy and they needed to save as much of their strength as possible for when the army arrived or the bugs started raining acid really.

They knew that these splashes were just a drizzle compared to the oncoming storm.

The undead army became visible half an hour after the wyverns, much to the demihumans’ surprise. The undead ran all the way here, cutting travel time by almost half.

Sounds of gulping were heard throughout the camp as the demihumans realized how numerically disadvantaged they were. The ogre king ordered them into position, but that only made the difference between them seem even greater.

The demihumans didn’t have an adequate strategic formation, they just gathered according to their kind at the edge of the forest. Trolls and ogres took up the front lines, orcs and minotaurs covered the sides while goblins and kobolds took the back lines.

All ogres had already activated gigantification by the time the skeletons became visible, to avoid attacks during transformation.

The leaders of all the clans were scattered throughout the army, holding teleportation crystals provided by the spirits in their pants or chest pockets to teleport the moment the spirits identified the enemy leader.

The spirits, on the other hand, were divided, half of them at the edge of the forest as they watched the skeletons and the other half focused on dealing with the acid rain once it started.

They were impatiently waiting for the undead to start attacking, but the undead did nothing after approaching, just waited in the distance.

‘What are they waiting for?’ The spirits thought in unison, sharing a mental link to communicate despite being in distant places. The skeletons were too far away for their mystical senses, so they could only wait for the skeletons to get closer before fighting.

*************

“So this is the spirit forest? It’s almost the same size as the Faltra forest, but the trees are different.” Athos spoke as he watched tryhe acacia forest in the distance, ordering the army to stop marching.

“It’s strange that the forest has such a small size with this number of spirits. Perhaps they avoided expanding too much to avoid conflicts with neighbors?” Treevor asked at his side, guessing why the forest was small despite the numbers of spirits that inhabited it.

Neither of them seemed the least bit nervous about the battle to come and they kept a close eye on their enemies, scouring the edge of the forest in search of spirits.