Far behind the herd, laid a large outcropping of stone, the sharp boulders jutting out of the ground. Deep in the shadows of these rocks laid a small beast, short limbed and stocky, it let out a malicious giggle, raising it's face, masked with a crudely shaped plank. Its eyed trained on a single animal out of the herd, farther out than the rest, and sporting a limp in its hind leg.
Without wasting any time, the small creature slithered towards the creature, keeping close to the ground as it sped forward in pursuit of its prey. The larger beast turned it's head, letting out a slight grunt, before attempting to speed up into a gallop, failing to do so, thanks to it's limp. Fear rose in the animals beady eyes, as it lowered it's horns, accepting defeat, but not before letting out a warning shout to it's herd, who all began to move away from the doomed beast, not expending any energy running. The horned animal gave one last forlorn glance to his herd, the young children he had sired.
The gray imp sprung up from the ground in an impressive leap, claws sinking deep into the hairy hide of the animal, grey knuckles turning white. The massive hairy beast reared back in one last futile attempt at survival, before the imp slashed his claws, taking a massive chunk of flesh and fur from the neck of the beast. Another snicker resounded through the grassy plains as the horse-like beast crashed to the ground, shaking the ground as the air rushed out from its lungs in one last cry, before the life left the beasts body, its eyes rolling back.
The imp smiled over its kill, laughing as blood spurted out of the ruptured jugular. After a moment, the joy left his eyes, realizing the next task at hand. Now that he had killed the beast, he had to drag the beast back to his master, a rather far distance to travel across the tundra. A sigh of exasperation hissed through the coarse mask that served as the imps mask as it looked up and down at the hairy corpse. It was easily four times the size and weight of the small gray creature, towering over the imp, even in death. Grumbling in its strange chatter, it took a grasp of the animals leg, glad his master had given him hands suited for such heavy lifting.
Viktor sighed, turning away from the sword he had been sharpening. It was idle, as he waited for his slaves to do their work, and he was rather glad to see one of his human husks standing at his door, standing strictly straight, showing stalwart satisfaction, waiting to be addressed before moving from his rigid state. Viktor had noticed a certain boost in loyalty ever since he removed the humans souls. It might've been one of his best decisions as of yet, and he mentally took a moment to commend himself for taking such action.
Viktor waved his hand in the direction of the half-metal human, giving him permission to speak, while still giving a stare that said 'Do not waste my time'. In a slightly echoed voice, the man spoke up. "We have finished work on the summoning room, we believe it to be fit for your wonderful standards, m'lord." Said the Husk, no longer holding the human fear that he once would've spoken with. As Viktor was about to speak, the husk opened its mouth again. "Also, the imps in your quarry have something interesting to report." Finished the man, before raising his fist in a salute, before being dismissed.
Viktor had been rather happy with the first bit of news, but was a bit concerned as he strode out of his Dungeons Heart, to check on his quarry and summoning room. He strode first to the summoning room, a mere few paces away, to gaze upon his newly finished place. Viktor let out a hearty chuckle as he stepped through the mahogany double doors, loving the sight. Though the room had functioned before, it was a sight to be seen now. The large room was lined with stone slabs, rising to about waist high, serving as workbenches. Each was armed with a small furnace, as well as one massive furnace on the far wall, currently unlit to save precious resources. Beautiful tapestries lined the walls, the silky fabric spinning wonderful tales of old, taken from other rooms around the castle.
"Yes. This shall do nicely." Viktor said, congratulating his slaves on their work, before he walked out of his castle, into the town. A few of the houses had been stripped down to provide material in his endeavors to expand, but a majority of the village stood, corpses still scattered around. Viktor made a mental note to use them later. As he reached the center of his town, he saw the quarry, a massive pit in the ground, rectangular in shape, slowly sloping downwards. At the entrance to the stony cavern stood two imps, next to a pair of torches, illuminating a ways into the pit. There was a scorch mark burned into the ground at the entrance, as well as a small trace of red pigmentation- could it be blood?
The imps spoke quickly as soon as their master neared. Their speedy chatter was still sounded a bit like gibberish, but managed to get the point across. However he did miss one part, and asked them to explain it more slowly. The imps quivered, before speaking again, straining to talk at a normal pace. "We... In mine. Strange black powder, methinks useful. Zagar takes bucket of powder to surface. We hear big boom, so we go looky. Zagar gone, black powder gone, big fire. We look more, got lotsa black powder. We keep down here. Black powder no like fire." One of them said, his speech choppy.
Viktors eyes lit up. This was quite the development. The imps had, not only gotten him quite enough stone to continue building, and iron to supply his troops, but now he was receiving some magical powders? This day was seeming almost too good to be true. As he left the mine, he took with him a bucket of the strange black powder, taking care to keep it away from any torches. He called out for all of his men, save the ogre guards, they wouldn't have the thought capacity to understand what was about to happen. Soon his slaves were gathered in the town square, with Viktor standing tall over them.
"Today, my friends, we have suffered a great loss, a loss of Zagar, an honorable imp and a hard worker." Viktor said, looking through the small crowd. "However, his loss has not been in vain. With his noble sacrifice, we now have a new weapon to use against those who would dare oppose us. Zagar was close to many, but we cannot afford to waste time in mourning. We must continue to grow, advance, lest we be struck down by another army, and insult the life of our precious imp friend. Now husks. Go, build up our walls with this stone, our walls shall stretch to the sky!" He said, gesturing to the stone dug up from the quarry. "Imps! Continue to dig, we must amass our resources, create a stockpile with no end!" Viktor said, raising both arms. "FOR BLOOD! FOR GLORY! FOR VICTORY!" He shouted to his men, raising their spirits.
As Viktor returned to his Dungeon Heart to study this new black powder, he was inturrupted by a furious knocking on his door. He stood up, glad he hadn't been creating a blueprint at that moment. He swung open the door, surprised to see an imp, with many arrows sticking out of the small creatures leathery hide. The imp let out a small squeak. "City... South-East. Long march. Large army. Scary." It spoke, despair in its childlike voice, before it crashed to the floor, dying in the puddle of blood that it had left. Viktor clenched his fist. He felt responsible for his children, and could not tolerate such slaughter of his innocents, disregarding the slaughter he had caused of this town not too long ago.
"Stamrad! Bring me corpses from the village!" Shouted Viktor, rage filling his voice. As the suit of armor approached with a lifeless body, Viktor let out only a grunt, none of the usual formal salutes. Unceremoniously slinging the sack of flesh and bone onto his table, Viktor let out a burst of magic, slamming his door shut, while alerting his men that he was not to be disturbed. Stamrad stood at attention in front of the stained wood, holding his blade steady, a bit curious as to what his master did behind closed doors.
