After noticing this, he tried to calm himself down. With some time, the others began to relax as well, until only a few of them were left staring at him; most of them being backers of Shavril.
Once the report was over, and everyone was returning to their posts, Lucius called Shavak, Avankor, and the chief to the side.
"Shamira, I will speak to you later," the chief said to Shamira, who seemed content on being a part of the discussion. However, from the serious expressions on everyone's faces, she could tell that this wasn't the time for debate.
"So why have you called us here... Havon?" the chief asked, a skeptical tone in his voice as he pronounced 'Havon'.
"I plan on going to the surface tomorrow morning. I'll need you to come with me since you're more familiar with the path to the clan lands. Avankor, you'll come with us as well since your mantle can act as a blanket against the decay," Lucius replied after some thought.
The chief seemed shocked, perhaps at the tone that Lucius was using whilst speaking in the presence of two kings.
However, Lucius didn't care in the slightest, he was done with the political nonsense. The number of enemies they had to fight against had doubled over the last few minutes, enough time had been wasted already.
"Why the clan lands? What do you seek there?" Shavak asked after a moment of silence had passed.
"If the golems are fighting against the necromancer's forces, we need to extend an offer of alliance," he replied.
"We've already tried allying with the golems. The behemoth tribes only respect power, and to them we are but pests," Shavak explained.
Lucius took a moment to think about this, before staring Shavak in the eyes.
"Power? If power is the only thing they understand, I myself can be quite fluent at it," he replied finally.
During the rest of their discussion, it was decided that they would leave after all of them had rested. Of course, Shavak would have to remain, his duty as king superseding any notable role he could play in the mission.
After they were finished, Shavak and Avankor left in a hurry, apparently having other matters to discuss.
"Are you really Havon?" the chief asked, just as Lucius was about to leave.
Lucius stopped for a moment, his back turned to the chief.
"I healed you, didn't I? I'm as real as Havon will ever get," he replied, before continuing on his walk back to his room.
That night was the first of many nights he would spend planning the downfall of the largest organization on this side of the forest. Some of the tactics that came to mind were so inhumane that he questioned his sanity. Though he wasn't surprised since his mind was still in tatters, after all, the scars that infested it were still fresh.
*
The next morning, the three of them met up at the exit and began their ascent. Just as before, Lucius felt a strange presence staring at him from the murky waters of the Nightmare Forest, though he was wise enough to stare back too long.
Once they were at the surface, Avankor called on his mystic mantle, and the group began their travels. It was a race against time, as Avankor couldn't keep his mantle up forever, so they had to find a balance between stealth and speed.
Avankor and Lucius were speed devils in their own right, however, the chief was but a normal forest creature so they were forced to move at a slower speed than either of them would've liked. However, the chief proved to carry his own weight as they directed them past necromancer camps he had seen on his way to the den.
The camps were pits of purple soup, from which new undead were spawned nearly every minute. Seeing this made Lucius realize just how powerful the necromancer was, in fact, it was as if the necromancer himself had a sort of cheat system.
"I don't think I can hold out much longer," Avankor whispered hoarsely, a fatigued expression on his face.
His mystic mantle now only stuck to a few parts of his body, and even the blanket he had cast on the ground was beginning to let a lot of holes through.
"How much longer can you go on?" Lucius asked. He knew he was pushing it, but so long as they could get into the clan lands, and out of necromancer territory, he was certain he could protect the group alone.
"Maybe a few more trees, but no more than ten," Avankor replied.
From what the chief told them, apparently there were about 100 trees away from the clan lands, meaning they would have to walk through decay for the rest of the journey.
Using branches to protect themselves would've been a viable option, if not for all the vegetation being covered in decay. To add onto that, his reserves were completely drained, so there would be no more get-out-of-jail-free cards this time around.
"Will you be able to run?" Lucius asked. At first, Avankor nodded his head, before rethinking and slowly shaking it in the negative.
Anyway, it wasn't as if Lucius had expected he'd be able to.
"Once your mantle runs out, both of you get on me," he said after some thought. Both the chief and Avankor stared at Lucius as if he were insane.
"Trust me, it'll be okay," Lucius added, before wrapping his tail on his back and creating a sort of circular shape with it.
Once Avankor had reached his limit, Lucius got on all fours and asked the two to get on. After a moment of hesitance, Avankor took a step onto the circular platform Lucius's tail made and sat atop with crossed legs.
He was big enough to completely fill the space, with his knees poking out on either side. Seeing that there wasn't any space, he picked the chief up and put him on his back.
The chief had an embarrassed look on his face, after all, even as an adult creature, he was being handled like he weighed nothing.
As Lucius began moving, Avankor sat in silence, a skeptical look on his face as his mystic mantle began to completely disintegrate.
Once Lucius touched the decayed floor, a chilling burn began to gnaw at his hind legs and hands. And for a moment, he faltered... but that was all.
