Green Monster Epic

With effortless grace, Pennyrai controlled the magical model of 'Doomsday Thunder' above her head, ensuring its destructive lightning didn't strike the drow party. Simultaneously, she waited with a hint of pride for the expressions of awe to dawn on the faces of these backcountry bumpkins before her magical prowess.

Having been embroiled in cutthroat competition for survival since childhood, none of the drow who had risen to the position of Matron Mother were simple individuals.

In contrast, Philemon, the drow's collaborator, possessed decent strength and a set of powerful equipment inherited from the Church of Nature, but he was far behind in terms of cunning and strategy.

The rise of the Church of Nature had only occurred in the last hundred years. Before the Father of the Oak fell and remained the sole core of the natural pantheon, the position and influence of the Nature God, Oghma, were not as dazzling as they are now. Similarly, the Church of Nature's position in the wilderness a century ago was not significant, which meant that the internal power struggles within the church were not as brutal or intense.

At that time, the Church of Nature didn't have as many talents as it does now, allowing Philemon to easily ascend to the position of Northern High Priest based on his strength as a high-ranking legend. After all, the Church of Nature didn't need to handle tribal disputes; they only needed to spread the faith of the Nature God and act with the Oak Tribunal.

Now that the Nature God has risen and replaced the Father of the Oak's position in the natural pantheon, the Church of Nature has naturally become the leader in the actions of many wilderness churches. Philemon used to be able to preach dutifully and act with other clergy members, without requiring much talent. But now that he is required to lead other church members as the Nature God's representative on earth, his mediocrity has been exposed.

His belated responses to several major events in the Northern Territory had caused the Church of Nature to suffer minor losses in its power struggle with the Oak faction, and Philemon's fault was the greatest. If he didn't have powerful backers supporting him behind the scenes to continue presiding over the situation in the North, he would have been replaced by other talented individuals who had emerged.

This time, taking advantage of the opportunity to capture the troll chieftain Arier, Philemon was full of confidence and wanted to make a big splash, both helping the drow break the stalemate in the Northern Territory and bringing the Snowme tribe back to the natural alignment, adding a merit to his record of achievements.

However, in the eyes of Pennyrai and other cunning Matron Mothers, this guy's plan was full of flaws and had almost no chance of success.

To expect a powerful tribe to abandon the hatred of near-extermination and join the ranks of a former enemy based on the so-called prestige established by a mere legendary leader within his tribe was an overly optimistic assumption.

At least, none of the drow Matron Mothers, who had reached their current positions and strengths with blood on their hands, would be optimistic about this.

The reason for ultimately cooperating with Philemon was simply that the drow had made the most advantageous choice for themselves after some thought.

In the eyes of the drow Matron Mothers, killing or not killing a mere legend was just a matter of a thought. Even the leader of a so-called powerful wilderness tribe was just a slightly stronger alien in the hands of the drow Matron Mothers.

What could Lillian and the others gain by killing Arier? A pile of loot that wasn't particularly rich, and a weakened but possibly more hostile enemy.

There was also the possibility that the Oak faction would take the opportunity to provoke peace between the wilderness and the drow, causing the drow's plan to integrate into the wilderness to fail.

What could the drow gain by leaving Arier alive and letting Philemon persuade him to let go of his prejudices, cooperate with the drow, and sign a contract with the Church of Nature? A pawn wedged into the wilderness tribes. Even if it couldn't help the drow much, it would be enough to divide the tribes in the North and prevent them from uniting, which was enough for the drow Matron Mothers to let him off.

Not to mention selling the Church of Nature a favor through this matter, making communication and interaction between the two forces more harmonious; and…

Anyway, the spoils from Arier had already been plundered by Deborah and the others after they captured him, so their interests hadn't suffered much loss. Moreover, through Arier's whereabouts, Deborah and the others learned of the existence of the Crescent Lake ruins. In the future, they could slowly search for the demiplane where the ruins were located. Even without a key beacon, they would have a chance to find the ruins.

The weighing of the pros and cons between killing and releasing only flashed through the minds of the cunning Matron Mothers, and they already knew what choice to make. Then, they conveniently gave Philemon a chance to preside over the negotiations with Arier, persuading him to surrender and sign a contract with the drow and the Church of Nature.

It was just that the Matron Mothers of the five major members of the Hothian Federation, avoiding Philemon, the Northern High Priest of the Church of Nature, met to discuss and rejected Philemon's whimsical plan, instead making a plan that was more beneficial to them based on the situation.

Arier must be released, but how to ensure that the released Arier can still lead his tribe is a very important question. The Snowme tribe's chieftain Arier and the troll legend who is no longer the tribe's chieftain are still the same person, but their essence is vastly different to the drow.

None of the leaders who can lead a tribe in the wilderness are simple-minded guys. After learning the news of Arier's capture, they will inevitably make corresponding reactions to prevent their tribes from falling into crisis.

The drow Matron Mothers have no way of controlling what kind of response plans the wilderness leaders will make. All they can do is use the resources and strength in their hands to try to develop the situation in a direction that is beneficial to them, and the most important thing is to preserve the position of Chieftain Arier.

Since the wilderness tribes believe in the law of the jungle, then the drow Matron Mothers will let these guys see the huge gap in strength between them. When the strength gap between each other is not large, opponents often choose to confront in order to gain self-leadership; but when the strength between the two is very different, then the weaker party needs to rely on the stronger party, at least taking into account the stronger party's attitude and interests.

When Pennyrai and the others confronted Allen and the others at this time, they only had a few incompatible words before immediately attacking each other. It seemed that they were acting very recklessly, but in fact they were just showing off their strength to Allen and the other Northern Territory powerhouses, using facts to tell them the difference in strength between each other.

From the beginning, the drow never thought of completely angering the tribes of the Northern Territory and returning to a state of war with the wilderness, which was not in their interests.

The lightning of the 'Doomsday Thunder' continued to fall from the sky, but in reality, if someone could calmly observe, they would notice that at least half of the lightning bolts were not landing on the walls of Nasir Fortress, but were instead striking the wilderness and fields outside the city.

With Penny Leight's spellcasting ability, she couldn't possibly lose control of the range of her released magic attacks. Not to mention this city wall, which was only a few miles wide, even the residential areas behind the wall where trolls and gnoll commoners lived could basically be covered by her magic as long as Penny Leight had them within her field of vision.

It should be known that there were at least ten thousand elite warriors from the three races on the city wall, as well as a spellcasting team composed of hundreds of spellcasters. They all had some self-preservation ability to varying degrees, and could make limited blocks and dodges against the falling lightning. On the other hand, the commoners of the two races within the city walls were weak and had no armor or other protective gear. If the 'Doomsday Thunder' were to fall within the city, it would cause even greater damage to the two races.

On the battlefield, no one except the Drow noticed all of this, but there was one person who saw everything.

Ariel's eyes were filled with anger and sorrow, but there was nothing he could do. He could only watch his clansmen die one by one before his eyes, and the walls of his tribe being ravaged time and time again.

Being forced to sign an alliance contract with the Drow meant that Ariel had no other choice. The signing of his true name under the witness of the Nature God and the Spider Queen Lolth, two powerful deity avatars, and leaving his spiritual imprint, its binding force was no less than a magic contract supervised by devils.

The Nature God might not care about the re-election and betrayal of the wilderness tribe leader after signing the contract, but Lolth, who has always been known for her brutality, bloodiness, lewdness, evil, and vindictiveness, would not mind finding a little fun to play with during her eternal and boring time.

Ariel naturally valued the tribe and power very much. Most of his life's efforts were spent on it, so how could he easily give up! However, Ariel was also extremely rational. He also knew very well that without his life, these external things were nothing more than fleeting clouds, and would not follow him into the River Styx to accompany him for eternity.

Although his lifespan was not long, he still had decades of time left. He had never thought of giving up this beautiful world.

Weighing the two evils, Ariel finally chose his own precious life, which was the only thing he truly owned and controlled, but this did not mean that he had not thought about the tribe.

Philemon took too long to persuade Ariel, which gave Allen, Maggot Eye, and their other northern neighbors more time to prepare. All of this was actually Ariel's way of fulfilling his responsibility to the tribe as a chieftain in the environment and situation at the time.

Perhaps, in the eyes of others, Ariel's persistent refusal to surrender was just to fight for his own maximum benefit. However, if Ariel had taken the initiative to show goodwill and surrender to the Drow after being captured, his gains might not have been less than if he had persisted in resisting for a long time before surrendering.

The earlier he submitted to the Drow, the more beneficial it would be to the Drow from a timing perspective. It was even possible that due to the time difference, the Drow would gather a large army to go south and cooperate with the surrendered Ariel to completely control Nasir Fortress in their hands.

The Drow naturally coveted the benefits brought by controlling Nasir Fortress, and the corresponding rewards given to Ariel would definitely be much greater than if he dragged on until the end before surrendering.

The reason why Ariel didn't do this was because he couldn't bear to see his tribe, which he had spent half his life managing, truly become a vassal of the Drow. After fighting wits and courage with Allen, this hobgoblin, for decades, Ariel believed that as long as he bought the other party a certain amount of time, then Allen would definitely join forces with Maggot Eye and Tim to make an effective response.

Although this would inevitably lead to the Snowmite clan being led by the nose by Allen, this hobgoblin, and the Snowmite clan would likely fall into the green field's design in the future, at least from the current reality, Ariel believed that this was the best choice for himself and the Snowmite clan.

Ariel sighed helplessly. At least the Drow's actions were restrained, otherwise, how many of his clansmen would have died in this war! Now, he was wearing a set of unbreakable and solid shackles, and even his hands and feet could not move freely, so how could he have the ability to do anything for his clansmen!

Maggot Eye woke up from Bobby Earl's arms. The healing potion and the magic power of the scrolls echoed each other, trying to restore his charred body. At this time, the gnoll's violent aura had long since dissipated, and his eyes became confused. Looking at the thick layer of dark clouds in the sky, and feeling the terrifying magic power fluctuations in the depths of the dark clouds, he was very pessimistic about the situation in the city.

Originally, he thought that the alliance of the three races, with the help of the other members of the Thorn Ring team, would be enough to deal with any of the Drow's plans. However, after truly fighting against the Drow, Maggot Eye realized that there was such a huge gap in strength between them and the Drow.

The safety of Nasir Fortress was not the real reason for Maggot Eye's depressed mood and will. What really hit him was that the Drow's power had cut off his hope of regaining his homeland and burying himself in the burial grounds of the past leaders of the Raven Claw tribe.

Don't look at Maggot Eye's performance in the past few decades, which has always been mediocre, but if you carefully observe the development and management of the Raven Claw internally, then it is not difficult to find that Maggot Eye himself invests no less in the tribe than Allen, in terms of proportion.

Ariel embezzled a large share of the Snowmite clan's annual income for his own private assets, and used public property to cultivate his own bloodline descendants, so that they could control important positions in the tribe.

In contrast, Maggot Eye's behavior is similar to Allen's. He hardly ever embezzles tribal benefits to accumulate his own private property. On the contrary, many times he contributes resources that are beneficial to the development of the tribe from his own treasured harvests to fill the tribal public property.

As for his own bloodline, Maggot Eye treats everyone equally. At most, he personally takes the cubs with a bit of talent and ability in the family by his side to teach and train them, but he rarely uses tribal resources to cultivate his own bloodline in a way that mixes public and private interests.

What Maggot Eye seeks is to be able to lead these gnolls back to the Cold Wind Ridge homeland, which has four distinct seasons, mountains and rivers, and continue to reproduce and inherit.

Now it seems that, at least in Maggot Eye's lifetime, it is impossible to counterattack Cold Wind Ridge and take back their homeland from the powerful Drow.