Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Chapter 889: Mountains And Valleys

Amongst the minor lords, there was not a single one who did not have to deal with issues and challenges relating to their current mission, but Ourlon undeniably had landed himself into the most restrictive realm amongst his peers, not that it made things specifically harder for him and his troops.

In truth, the fact that every and all ways of power were restricted here except for battle arts was an advantage, it greatly limited the scope of what they could be faced with, meaning that surprises were few and small, and also, Ourlon was a master of battle arts, and he had specifically trained his troops to also rely on them exclusively, even the simplest of soldiers working under him knew at least one simple battle art.

But that was not to say that the conquest of the realm he had been assigned was simple, not at all, first of all, it was a vast realm and the topography was extreme, as it was filled nearly exclusively with tall, steep mountains, and deep valleys, going anywhere either required much manpower to build bridges and roads, or for one to be adept at rock climbing.

Not to mention, the opposition was rather fiercer, the livings of this realm, the Hitobito, were without a doubt, an ancestral human species, they were similar to the humans Ourlon knew and which he had once been, but tended to be taller and simply be stronger to begin with, they also existed alongside other species, some of which seemed sapient but were simply not nearly as intelligent, making the Hitobito the ruling force by default.

Their strength and ferocity was impressive, and the usage of arts seemed to come naturally to them, and after observing their traditions and architecture, it became obvious that Tochi had definitely either been founded by the a Hitobito in the past, or that the ones who did stumbled upon this realm and decided to emulate it, bringing battle arts with them back into the main world.

There had been a few battles against the livings, Ourlon’s followers were mostly outmatched in terms of proficiency with battle arts, only his elites could match or surpass the opposition, the people of this realm simply seemed to all be born with good proficiency on that way of power, and basically treated the sharpening of it as a way of life, fighting was viewed as an important craft, and every living soldier yearned to acquired merits and strength on the battlefield to ascend the ranks.

When Ourlon first arrived in this realm alongside his warriors, they had to carve their way through the aggressive wilderness, as besides being filled with mountains and valleys, every biome is extreme, the peaks and bottoms are occupied by many different environments, all of which are somehow incredibly difficult to traverse, the forests are either dense or accompanied by a strange gimmick, and the smallest of swamps seemed to be made from acid.

Not to mention the wildlife, which is also incredibly aggressive for no particular reason, it is no wonder that strength is so highly valued in this realm, everything seems to want to kill everything else, the beasts, even if absolutely and obviously outmatched, will try to strike you down, they simply do not care, or perhaps they don’t comprehend the concept of not having the means to win a fight.

Ourlon spent a lot of time just trekking through the land before finally finding a fort situated right before a deep valley, which was filled with countless monkeys that moved about using the thick vines that grew across the ravine, the place was occupied by bandits garbed in mismatched clothing and wielding worn out weapons, even they could wield battle arts with good proficiency, but the difference in numbers was overwhelming and the undeads were able to slay them all and take control of the small fort, making it their de-facto main base of operations.

Then, they focused on securing the wild lands surrounding them, finding ways to pacify the creatures somehow, or at least acclimate them to the presence of undeads.

The bandits had not chosen this place to settle down for no reason, by ascending further up the mountain, which was simple as they had placed ladders, one could see far and wide, including a few camps linked by great bridges, the bandits certainly planned how and where to strike based on what they could observe from here.

But there was no need to guess, as Ourlon made sure that a few of the bandits were not slain on the spot, and were instead made to tell him everything they knew, they weren’t very cooperative at first, but that was nothing a little bit of torture could not solve.

This was how Ourlon was able to learn that although the mountains were vast and treacherous, there was one place that truly radiated power and wealth over great distances, basically the superpower of this realm, which, according to the bandits, had only truly risen to great twenty years prior.

After control of the area was seized by force by a man called Chikara, who renamed the land Seinaru and has since been ruling over the prospering lands and crushing any and all opposition without mercy.

He apparently held the title of Kensei, which was basically equivalent to titling him the strongest man alive, during the start of his conquest, Ourlon had yet to even catch a glimpse of this man, and in fact, he had rarely ever clashed with his troops just yet, Ourlon preferred to take advantage of the fact that actually moving troops around was incredibly difficult due to the terrain of this realm, and also due to certain beasts of great power sometimes prowling around.

So he focused on striking down lesser nations and taking small forts, going as far as to destroy bridges or causing collapses to block off the known routes, spreading disarray and chaos, causing people to flee toward Seinaru, naturally believing that the nation overseen by the Kensei was the safest place to be with the emergence of a ruthless warlord.

The minor lord’s goal was simple, rather than rushing to confront the main threat, he was taking out any possible reinforcements that could help them, and willfully allowing refugees to to escape, aiming to crowd Seinaru, forcing them to pay attention to the situation within their own territory.

When Ourlon received the order from Loimos, he had already made tremendous progress with that strategy, knowing that it was working thanks to having the assistance of the nightbirds, who could move around and relay messages faster than anyone else.

He kept close watch of Seinaru, but still, not even a single sight of Chikara.

Everything public seemed delegated to his children and grandchildren as well as his subordinates.

‘Is he really going to force me to go and drag him out myself?’

If needed, Ourlon would burn Seinaru down, once the strongest man was felled, he would be able to assume control over the population.

And once that was done, he would surely be able to lay his sight upon the great beasts and creatures as well.

Hopefully, all of this within a reasonable time frame so as to not run late when the time to follow through with the general’s order came.