Chapter 26: Hidden Foe

['Hoho, I'm the smartest being in the world,' you thought—not the smartest, but certainly a narcissist. Is this how extra brain matter alters a person?]

[It felt akin to being intoxicated and drunk. Your movements underwent a subtle change, swaying from side to side like a pendulum instead of standing straight.]

["Haha, Brother Chilly, is something wrong? Why are you dancing so oddly?" Ijan inquired, staring at Chilly in a peculiar manner.]

[Other ogres, reluctant to ask, simply nodded their heads as they observed Chilly swaying from side to side.]

[A few female ogres, not too far away, also took notice and couldn't help but wonder, 'Did he come to the battlefield after drinking alcohol?']

[It was a random thought that crossed their minds, prompting them to murmur among themselves.]

[You considered yourself omnipotent. It was as if all the knowledge and information in the world had come to you, when in reality, it was just a tiny boost of a few tactical ideas.]

[You looked at Ijan with a god-like gaze filled with divine power. With a completely un-mandatory pause, you said as you pointed upwards, "Forget the dance, Ijan, look at the sky."]

[Ijan did what you told, and so did the other ogres. They looked straight at the sky, at the sun, which was now slowly being covered by darkness.]

["This... what's happening!?" All the ogres around you raised their voices in concern. They were loud, loud enough to catch others' attention.]

[Seeing the bunch look at the sky, they too did, only to stumble upon this terrifying scene of the sun slowly being eaten away.]

[The camp was also in chaos as others copied the movements and looked at the sky.]

["What is happening?" asked an ogre named Kaus, standing beside Ijan.]

["This... the sun is un-sunning itself!" said Ijan, to which you gave a pathetic look.]

["Unsunning? It's losing its brightness?" further questions came in.]

["Yes. It's terrifying. Are we going to lose our sun?" Ijan tried to answer normally, but his wavering voice revealed his fear.]

[You compared them to a bunch of children because of their ignorance. With a slight chuckle, you said, "It's a Solar-"]

[But an Elder interrupted you. A loud roar came from behind due to the constant questions by the ogres, and to save the warriors from confusion, Elder Jerka came forward.]

[You noticed the half-twig man holding a smiling short staff, and his rear end was bulged as he shouted, "It's a Solar Eclipse!"]

[His words reached most warriors close by, including you and your group.]

["It happens once every 100 years! Fret not, this is normal!"]

[This helped alleviate the chaos and raised excitement as everyone carefully, albeit averting gazes, noticed and experienced the Solar Eclipse.]

[The sun slowly started to turn dark, first a quarter, then half, and then three-fourths, finally disappearing entirely.]

[It all happened in ten minutes, within which you and your team were back at the camp, resting again.]

[During the time you took to return, you had already understood what the Goblin King was trying to do.]

[Your body ached as you recalled the undeads.]

[The goblin king wanted darkness to manifest and zombify any dead bodies. He constantly sent goblins so that they could die and serve for the greater good later by becoming zombies. With many ogres being dead, it would only boost the Goblin King's Zombie Army.]

[As for Ogre King, he couldn't use his Shadow-Necromancy on the targets he hadn't killed personally. The fact that he only had limited shadows - the monsters he had killed previously, became a huge dilemma.]

[While Shadow Necromancy was bad in terms of numbers, the puppets surely had a deeper bond with the host after all, the same puppets were summoned again and again.]

[The constant drawback was that to maintain such puppets, the Ogre king's power would be drained constantly.]

[As for zombiefication, once cast, the dead bodies would rise as zombies and continue moving forward by using the energy of the surroundings! This meant the caster wouldn't waste his magic energy.]

[The only advantage of Shadow Necromancy was that the ogre king could use it even in the daytime, whereas Zombification could only happen in the dark.]

[But overall, zombification was winning.]

[You realized how much of a disadvantage you and the ogres were at.]

[You couldn't shake the weird feeling. Something was terribly wrong.]

[And you were right. You understood that when you looked at the completely dark sky, right after which the dead bodies started to rise once again.]

["Look at the battlefield!" screamed one of the ogres. Along with you, everyone stared at the battlefield where now, zombies stood tall.]

[They numbered: 3451]

["This is bad," you squinted your gaze. You had recovered and were ready to engage in the battle, but you were not so sure about your group and the other ogres.]

[Wondering what to do, you felt a tremendous amount of energy from a distant place. You instinctively turned your head towards the direction.]

[Three beings engulfed heavily in dark energies came marching along with the army of undead.]

[You recognized two of them: "The Goblin General and the Goblin King!?"]

[Goblin King] [Level 43]

[Goblin General] [Level 39]

[Other than them, there was one more being, seeing whom, you were left completely stunned.]

[A completely different being, not Goblin nor ogre, stood beside the general and the King. While he had the skin of a goblin, you couldn't help but curl your lips as you read the following word above its head: [Dark Wyvern] [Level 55]]

['And what's my Level?']

[Level 35]

["..."]

['Alright, first target will be General. Rest, I'll think about leveling up,' you cracked your neck once or twice as you noticed Ogre King walking forward with Ogre General.]

[Ogre King] [Level 41]

[Ogre General] [Level 39]

[You knew more than anyone that you had to join them if they wanted to have even the slightest chance to win.]

[Your skill-limited tactical awareness had ended but not before you caught something interesting.]

[Find and kill the culprit. [Difficulty: C] [Hard]]

['This is difficulty C, while killing the Goblin General and the Goblin King is A and S respectively. The wyvern, who is stronger, will be way more difficult... probably S too. Then does that mean... the one casting Zombification magic is someone else?']

[You concluded, 'There is a hidden foe.']

A/N: Join the discord: https://discord.gg/BSU2UZT4s2
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