The hyenas were still ready to strike. The enemy commander had said that she would give them a chance to survive, but they couldn't just trust her like this. In case the enemy went against her word, they would die fighting.
"What is your proposal?" the black general asked.
Shira only continued smiling deviously. "Does it matter? Two Lords are surrounding you. You have no choice but to accept."
The black general gnashed his teeth. He hated it when someone talked down to him like this. Sadly, there was nothing he could do. These two Lords could eradicate all the hyenas easily.
"Okay," the black general conceded. "What will you have us do?" he asked.
"You all need to win a life and death duel. If you win, you join our Tribe. If you lose, you die," Shira said as she slowly crept on land. As soon as she came on land, the others noticed that her stomach had a huge bulge. Apparently, she had already finished eating her prey.
The black general narrowed his eyes. "This sounds too good to be true. What's the catch?" he asked.
Shira only continued smirking. "Since you're the losing party, I will decide who fights whom. That's the catch."
The black general looked at the floor with furrowed brows. This still sounded too good to be true. After all, if they would join the Tribe when they won, it would make no sense for the enemy to pull any dirty schemes. This would only weaken the force of their Tribe. No commander would weaken their own Tribe like this.
"Okay, we accept," the black general said.
Shira snickered a bit. "Very well, follow me," she ordered to the hyenas. "You're allowed to create a pathway to the mountains. Forcing you to swim is too disgraceful," she said.
The black general was a bit surprised at that. The enemy commander even considered their honor? Apparently, this commander was a rather respectful and honorable snake.
"Follow her commands," the black general said.
Surprisingly, the hyenas weren't as distraught as one would imagine. Joining a Tribe with two Lords was incredible. On top of that, they only had to win one fight. Most of the hyenas didn't care about their family back home. In actuality, now that they were forced to join another Tribe, they started getting annoyed at their old rules. Maybe, losing this war was a good thing.
The few Earth Movers that remained created a pathway to the mountains. Since they didn't need to make the pathway big or defend themselves, they reached the other side in only a minute. After that, they simply climbed over the mountains. Something like this wasn't hard for land beasts.
As soon as they reached the top of the mountains, they could finally see the River Tribe. The rivers immediately confused them. Surprisingly, the hyenas didn't know the concept of a river. After all, such rivers would give easy access to invasions from the ocean. That's why they didn't have rivers in their territory. They only had some isolated lakes for water, nothing more.
Yet, they kind of liked the look of the rivers. For some reason, they found them beautiful. They also saw something else that shocked them.
Behind the mountains was an army of around 100 land beasts. This showed them that the River Tribe didn't even attack with their full force. On top of that, they also saw their other tribesmen standing there. About 20 hyenas stood beside the army, and they all looked at an imposing-looking viper. The hyenas quickly realized that this viper was also some sort of commander.
When their tribesmen saw their siblings coming over the mountain, they felt relief wash over them. They were happy that their army didn't get destroyed. The more hyenas there were, the better they would feel.
Silva looked at the approaching hyenas, but as soon as he saw Shira leading them, he knew that the enemy was no threat anymore. Apparently, his army wasn't needed today.
"Do you want to watch your tribesmen prove themselves?" Shira asked Silva with a smirk.
Silva narrowed his eyes. Shira looked very happy right now, and that couldn't mean anything good. She was definitely plotting something. Yet, there was no benefit to running away.
"Sure," he answered. Then, he instructed his army to scatter. They weren't needed anymore.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Everyone heard powerful steps, as Morn also walked over the mountains. "Follow me. I will lead you around and introduce your new home," he transmitted to the already proven hyenas.
The hyenas were shocked. A Lord was personally showing them around the Tribe? This was an incredible honor! Most of them hadn't even seen their Matriarch in their life. Before the attack, they also hadn't seen the princess before. Lords seemed like existences that never crossed their paths. Yet, this Lord volunteered to do such menial tasks?
"I am Morn, and I'm the Elder of the River Tribe. It is my duty to answer your questions when you require guidance. The small octopus beside me is the Oracle, Orthar, and he has the same duty as me. You can visit either of us anytime you like. There is no punishment when asking for our guidance," Morn told them.
The hyenas only now noticed the small octopus beside the massive pangolin. To their shock, they also felt the power of a Lord from him. They could visit two Lords whenever they wanted? This sounded too good to be true. All of this already felt like they were dreaming.
Also, the hyenas noticed that these two Lords weren't the actual leader of the Tribe. Didn't this mean that there was a third Lord? On top of that, that Lord would need to be even more powerful. Otherwise, these Lords would never follow them. They wondered how mighty and imposing the leader was and how they were able to keep such powerful Lords under their rule.
Morn led the proven hyenas to the Spire, while Orthar followed Shira and Silva. The tribesmen only had one rule that they needed to follow, but that wasn't true for the commanders. Since the commanders had more power, they had to adhere to more rules. One of these rules stated that meaningless genocide was not permitted. There had to be a reason. Orthar followed them to keep an eye on Shira.
After some minutes, they arrived at the eastern arena, the closest one to the hyena's territory. It was a three-kilometer-wide, lowered ring. It was made out of earth with many deep rivers going through it. In total, around half was earth while the other half was water.
"As discussed earlier, I will decide the opponents. When it's your turn, you will enter the arena. After that, I will announce the start with a clap of my tail. Then, you will fight each other until only one survives. The winner gets to eat the loser and join the River Tribe," Shira explained.
Immediately, Silva noticed Shira's plan. This was not good!
"Why do you get to choose the combatants? To make it fair, the combatants should choose themselves," Silva interjected.
Shira only smirked. "Because I have won this battle, not you. Additionally, they have already agreed." Shira slithered closer to Silva and smirked at him while looking deep into his eyes. "And there's nothing you can do about it," she slowly whispered.
"Oracle!" Silva shouted as he looked at Orthar. "This is a violation of fairness!"
"She has won the battle, and they have already accepted. It's at the boundary of the rules, but still with their accordance," Orthar transmitted emotionlessly.
Silva narrowed his eyes, and his body shook in frustration. He knew exactly what Shira would do, and he knew the approximate outcome. Not many of the hyenas would survive, while many new recruits from the sea would join the Sea Camp. Shira's army would become way bigger while he would only get a few.
The black general noticed their reactions and started frowning. Had he committed a mistake by accepting Shira's conditions?
The first two combatants were quickly chosen, and the black general's suspicions were confirmed. The last fire hyena of their group was facing off against a jellyfish with the water attribute. This was clearly an unfair matchup.
The black general had a lot of battle-experience, so he knew how the fight would go. The jellyfish could easily sacrifice some of its tentacles to block the powerful but very exhausting attacks from the hyena. In his opinion, the hyena only had a 10% chance of winning.
Sadly, no miracle happened. The hyena quickly died to the jellyfish and was pulled out of the arena. After that, a hyena with an earth affinity was put against a wooden fish. Obviously, this wooden fish had an affinity for the wood element.
The hyena had an incredible defense, but the wooden fish had incredible stamina. The wooden fish easily outlasted the earth hyena. The black general already realized how all of this would go, and he grew angry and frustrated at himself. He shouldn't have accepted Shira's conditions.
The black general gnashed his teeth. Why had he been so stupid? There was a high chance that the two Lords wouldn't have gotten involved in the war. After all, they hadn't gotten involved before the princess had attacked. If they continued fighting, they could have, at least, taken a lot of enemies down with them.
Yet, by accepting this condition, nearly their whole army would get destroyed without even taking many enemies down with them. Immediately, the black general looked with blood-filled eyes at the grinning Shira.
"Don't commit a mistake," Orthar transmitted to the black general. "You have already accepted her conditions and fell into her scheme. Accept the pain of seeing your comrades die and become stronger. After you join our Tribe, you can directly challenge her and take your revenge."
The black general grew even more frustrated. That was because he had abandoned his plan of attacking Shira. If he attacked now, there would be no doubt that the Oracle would get involved. This was nothing more than a meaningless death.
"Shira is our common enemy," Silva transmitted to the black general. "Follow my commands, and we will be able to kill her quickly."
The black general looked at Silva, but he didn't trust him. He had already been fooled by a snake. He wouldn't be fooled by another one! Because of this, the black general didn't answer and ignored Silva.
Silva also grew frustrated. Shira had destroyed the black general's trust towards the Tribe. Silva already realized that he wouldn't be able to convince the black general to join his side in the short run. 'Was this also part of your scheme?' he thought angrily as he looked at Shira.
Shira was only smiling slyly as she watched the slowly ongoing massacre in the arena.
