Chapter 12
At the High Priest's command, the Goblins reversed formation and pulled off the battlefield.
The undead gave chase.
But the Thornstake force was no disorganized rabble. Their retreat looked chaotic at first glance, yet every Goblin priest stayed behind to cover the others.
They were prepared to die if it bought their tribe time to escape.
Even the High Priest remained, despite the risk that Lilith might run him down.
The undead cut down several wounded stragglers before Lilith called them off.
Not because she wanted to let the Goblins go.
The Ossuary Colossus had reached its limit.
The transformation was Lilith's strongest weapon. It could raise her combat power dramatically for a short window, but the toll on her body and mind was brutal.
Without it, she had no idea whether she could still hold her own against the High Priest.
And chasing a cornered enemy was always dangerous.
The Goblins had appeared at the Blighted Forest without warning. Lilith had no way of knowing whether reinforcements waited nearby.
Their territories weren't far apart. Another Goblin force could arrive at any moment.
Pursuit was too great a risk.
Here, at least, the enemy still feared the Blighted Forest—while Lilith could draw on its power.
The Ossuary Colossus collapsed around her.
Lilith dropped back to the ground, her legs nearly buckling. Sweat sheened her forehead and the bridge of her nose. Her head spun, and she fought to catch her breath.
Morwen flew to her side.
"My Lord, are you injured?"
Soul fire gathered around Morwen's hands as she prepared to heal her.
Lilith waved her off.
"I'm fine. I just overdid it. A good night's sleep will fix it."
She surveyed the battlefield.
More than a hundred Goblin corpses littered the ground, several priests among them.
The losses were real, but hardly crippling for an entire tribe.
Lilith had lost her share of Specters as well.
"I need mixed formations," she said, frowning. "Specters have too many weaknesses fighting on their own. But Skeletons and Zombies are too slow to cover a forest this size. A surprise attack could tear them apart before reinforcements ever arrived."
She turned to Morwen.
"Process the bodies and return to the Territory."
Lilith headed back first.
As she walked, she replayed the battle in her mind.
This had been her first true war against an organized native race.
And the result had been a draw.
Lilith hadn't really won—but neither had the Goblins suffered a decisive defeat.
More troubling was what she'd learned about their hierarchy.
A High Priest clearly sat nowhere near the top of Goblin society. Lilith already knew of the Archpriest and the High Chieftain.
There might be other ranks above him besides.
One High Priest had nearly been more than she could handle.
How powerful was their High Chieftain?
Lilith was now certain the Goblins fielded at least one Elite-ranked fighter.
That was an enemy she had no chance of beating.
If they commit everything to wiping me out, can the Blighted Forest really stop them?
The question sat heavy on her.
For the first time in days, Lilith felt genuinely weak.
She needed to get stronger—fast.
She also had to prepare for another war that could break out at any moment.
After this battle, she would never underestimate the Goblins again.
The moment she returned to her Territory, she ordered Morwen to track the tribe's movements.
The next time they attacked, Lilith refused to be caught blind.
The outer Blighted Forest needs a real defensive network too.
Now that the Goblins had found her, she could no longer treat the forest as an impenetrable natural barrier.
Once the battlefield had been cleared and the spoils gathered, Lilith set about reorganizing her forces.
She commanded nearly twenty-five hundred undead in total.
Excluding the scouts stationed in the Frostlands and the workers and guards deployed to the Verdant Forest, only about fifteen hundred remained for territorial defense.
Her army had been stretched across too many duties.
Most of those assignments relied on lesser undead, though—troops with little combat value even when present.
Whether Lilith had one thousand of them or two made little difference in a serious battle.
Once the count was finished, she reorganized her forces into mixed detachments.
Every group contained at least three different types of undead, each covering the others' weaknesses.
Lilith spread the patrols across the outer Blighted Forest, with Specters coordinating their movements. No unit was posted too far from its neighbors, so that nearby groups could reinforce at a moment's notice.
"Now I wait for Morwen's report."
Lilith frowned.
She had done everything currently in her power.
She wanted desperately to grow stronger, but meaningful growth didn't happen overnight.
All she could do was hope the Goblins delayed their retaliation.
Every extra day meant more time to prepare.
After the Goblin corpses had been dismantled, Lilith noticed her Warehouse once again held 1,500 Mana Crystals.
I can upgrade the Barracks.
The upgrade might not deliver an immediate jump in combat strength, but it offered hope, at least.
Lilith hesitated.
Do I upgrade the Barracks now... or save another five hundred Mana Crystals to charge the Throne of the Undead Empress?
The costs were now close enough to make it a genuine dilemma.
Charging the Throne had grown far more tempting since she unlocked Gargoyles. Another Investiture would guarantee her a new Hero Unit.
But scraping together the remaining five hundred Mana Crystals would take time.
The Barracks had its own appeal.
Most Structures capped out at Lv.9.
Her Barracks was already Lv.8.
One upgrade left.
What would happen when it reached its maximum rank?
Lilith had no idea.
She wanted to find out.
Charging the Throne promised guaranteed power—and more waiting.
Upgrading the Barracks was a gamble.
Lilith weighed the two options for all of five seconds.
Then she opened the System interface and pressed [Upgrade].