The process had not been loud, but it had been absolute, dark magic that didn’t need flas or theatrics, only certainty. One by one, they had been forced forward, shoulders pinned, scales scraped clean of mud and blood where the mark would go, and then the seal pressed into place with a cold pressure that made bodies jerk even when pride tried to stay still.
Kaiser finished branding the whole camp in about an hour, when the sun was finally up and the lizardn were all looking at each other uncomfortably.
Now, in full daylight, they kept glancing at each other’s torsos with that sa uneasy awareness people had when they realized a private sha had beco public. The brandings were all placed on their upper centric chest areas, a clear stigma of slavery and servitude. Not hidden. Not subtle. A ssage ant to be seen from across a fight, from across a campfire, from across a lifeti.
"Good," Kaiser said as he pushed his hands off the Queen, the last to be enslaved.
The broodmother’s chest rose and fell shallowly beneath the mark, her unconscious face slack with lingering sickness and bruises from Grath’s "capture." Kaiser’s posture loosened after the final seal, like a craftsman finishing a batch of work and finally allowing his shoulders to drop.
"Now, with all the lizardn under you, what are you planning?" he asked Ludwig.
"First things first," Ludwig said as he was silent during the whole ordeal. "We need information. Enemy Numbers, locations, troops, foes, potential allies, and finally terrain." Ludwig looked at the Lizardn, "Whoever brings the most useful information regarding these subjects will be permitted to skip one battle of their choosing." He delivered it like a contract clause, not a kindness, clear, asurable, and imdiately attractive to anyone who understood what "five battles" could an for survival.
The Lizardn all looked at Ludwig like he was so sort of divine entity, to enslave and still give them choice to not fight. No tyrant ever did that. Even the champions, proud, scarred, used to hierarchy, hesitated as if trying to decide whether this was a trick. Ludwig didn’t soften his expression. He let their confusion work in his favor. Confusion made people talk.
"I know," a slim looking lizardman who had finally had his bowls assorted and no longer was he clearing both ends spoke up.
He stepped forward with caution, eyes flicking once toward Kaiser’s hands, then toward Gale, then back to Ludwig’s face. His breathing was steadier than most; he looked like soone who had survived the worst of the poisoning and now wanted to ensure he survived the aftermath too.
"Tell all you know then."
"There are about five races in these planes." He said.
"Tell sothing I don’t know..." Ludwig looked frustrated. The impatience was deliberate. He wanted them to understand quickly that vague answers would earn them nothing.
"Yes, euh, yes, orcs, so far there are four orc tribes."
"Three," Grath said.
The lizardman was confused.
"One of them died to the Red Tusks yesterday." Ludwig explained.
"Then three Orc tribes. The Red Tusk is the strongest. And the second strongest are the Boar Tribe."
"Used to be, they died," Grath interjected.
"Yes, that leaves Yellow Mountain, and... well you."
The "well you" carried a hesitant edge, like the lizardman wasn’t sure how to categorize a tribe that had just been conquered by twenty orcs and a "shaman" who branded souls. Ludwig let it pass. Nas weren’t important yet. Numbers and threats were.
"How strong is yellow mountain? Compared to us." Ludwig asked.
"Twice the number at least... I don’t know about tactics, but they have two shamans. We avoid fighting them, in fact we only chased the War Tribe because they are weakest..." The Lizardman said.
Ludwig looked at Grath disappointedly and sighed, "Fine. What about other races."
"Trolls are the second scariest, they’re very vicious and hide in forest, they’re lacking numbers, but not even the Red Tusk would take them on directly."
The ntion of trolls sharpened Ludwig’s attention. Vicious. Forest. Low numbers. That ant ambush predators, territory control, and fights that turned into bleeding from places you didn’t realize you’d been cut.
"What about the scariest?" Ludwig asked.
"Ogres, they’re very vicious, and they’ll fight tooth and nail to the last one of them. They’re as big as trolls, though they don’t have the sa regenerative ability, they are far more agile and stronger. A deadly race that is not divided but kingless still."
Ludwig thought for a mont. He pictured ogres not as dumb brutes but as disciplined killers, the kind of enemy that didn’t scatter just because you hit them hard. "Kingless but not divided" was a contradiction that usually ant there was an internal rule keeping them unified, culture stronger than politics.
"What are the conditions to be king?"
"Each tribe has their own rules. The goblins, the greediest and most cunning. For us, the one chosen by the three Lizardn Queens. For the Orcs, the strongest warrior. The Trolls, the one that brings back the most at during hunt season. And the Ogres..." he remained quiet there for a second.
The pause wasn’t theatrical. It was fear. Ludwig saw it in the way the lizardman’s throat worked, in how his eyes flicked away as if naming the rule might invite attention from sothing distant.
"Speak up?"
"The horns, we don’t know much, but all I know is, the only one to ever beco an Ogre king had two horns."
"I see," Ludwig thought for a second about the implications. And if he could even use that information to his advantage. After all, he too can grow horns. The thought was not hope, it was calculation, an exploit waiting to be tested. He filed it away and said, "Numbers, locations,"
"I know a bit more about that," A champion spoke.
He looked like a veteran. With old injuries to match. Ludwig felt like this champion had seen a lot of battle so he could be useful. One eye was clouded. A scar crossed his jawline and disappeared beneath his throat scales. His stance was steadier than the others despite the brand, and he spoke with the tone of soone who had survived long enough to respect practicality.
"The Orcs number the two hundred in total give or take. The goblins are the most nurous, quite frankly we believe they are in the thousands. The lizardn co next in terms of numbers. A hundred and eighty mbers of our Green Scale tribe, and two hundred of the Blue Scale tribe. And only sixty of the Dragon Kin Tribe. They think they’re the strongest since they have a slightly bigger build and co from dragon lineage."
"Aren’t all Lizardn the sa?"
"Yes, but they believe they’re the chosen ones," the champion shrugged.
The shrug said more than the words: pride made tribes invent superiority even when biology didn’t support it. Pride was useful. Pride made people overextend.
"Then cos the trolls, we believe they number fifty or so, they usually are divided in groups never in tribes. The ogres are about a hundred in total, and they’re the most worriso in direct confrontation. Though..." he said.
"Though?"
"It’s been years since they were last seen, and no one is foolish enough to go to their territory."
"Hmm, do you know the location of the Red Tusks then?"
"They’re a roaming tribe, so pinpointing them is difficult, but from what you said that the Boar tribe had died yesterday... we can assu that they’ll be heading toward the Yellow Mountain tribe. Or they might have already gotten there by now..."
Ludwig turned to Kaiser who said, "If what they’re saying is true, we’ll need to get the Red Tusk under control. if they absorb, no, from what we saw they don’t absorb other tribes... if they kill off the remaining orc tribe, then it’ll lower the troops you can lead."
The point was simple and brutal. Becoming king required bodies. Losing orc tribes ant losing the easiest manpower pool. Even if Ludwig ruled lizardn, the Tower’s "orc king" conditions might not care about that. This trial wasn’t a normal world; it was a scenario with requirents, and requirents were traps disguised as goals.
"You’re right, we’ll have to head there then. Where is Yellow mountain?" Ludwig asked.
"It’s a day’s march toward the setting sun," one of the other Lizardn said. He wanted to assist with information however he could.
"Good, we’ll set up a scouting force to see and check on the Yellow Mountain. The three of you who answered, you’re free to skip a battle of your choosing. As for the rest, I’ll choose of you lizardn who are fast and agile. Assist in scouting and you too will be given a skip."
The lizardn looked at each other with joy that they were ’awarded’ for their information and the rest were rearing to participate in scouting. After all, it’s far safer than an outright war.
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