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It was a hard life being a Grandmaster. Rewarding and very important but hard.
As Grandmaster, you weren’t just responsible for commanding the military forces of the local country and leading them against their many, many foes but also for coordinating the villages, making sure the wagons ran on time, soothing over disagreements and scouting out new locations for villages that had been compromised among many other things.
Atalanta had been Grandmaster of Greece for nearly two hundred years now. A hundred and 58 years to be exact. And even today, she was still facing new challenges that her response would keep the Greek villages safe…or doom them entirely.
…Well, it could always be worse. She could always have it worse.
She could be in Ser Bogatyr’s position, having to oversee over a hundred different countries and their respective populations. Or be stuck in the Nordic Countries, dealing with Frost Giant hordes, raging blizzards and plagues.
Or Romania.
Oh yeah, that place sounded like a complete and utter nightmare. She wished Grandmaster Daciana all the luck in the world with the foes the Smurfs under her rule were facing. Dragon-riding, weather-controlling wizards who worshipped and got their powers from the literal Devil were no joke.
Anyway, while her people had to deal with constant monster attacks, they were more than capable of fending them off and the Monster Hunter Villages (Or the Monsterbane as some called them) had earned quite the names for themselves throughout the magical world, for both their triumphs against the legendary monsters of Greece and for the skills they had learned in their battles against such foes.
Javelinwood for its medicinal knowledge of how to counteract snake venom.
Hornbreak for their incendiary weapons and mastering Greek Fire.
Shiprest for seaside rescuing operations.
Thanks to the Monster Hunter Villages, less and less Smurfs were dying every year from these monsters.
Of course…that left the other threats.
The Dark Fae.
The evil Wizards.
And of course…the rogue Smurf groups. Both the brigands and the elemental-based cults who fought them and everyone else.
And their Clay-Born servants. Either directly or indirectly, they were fulfilling their creators and masters’ agenda by disrupting the Order’s operations and attacking towns.
Though…something had changed as of late.
The Infernal Scorchers. A cult of Fire Smurfs that were one of the most destructive out there. Entire forests and towns had been reduced to ashes by their actions. It didn’t help that some of their chapters had access to dragons which they used to bring down more destruction.
Though…their destruction paled in comparison to the destruction unleashed by the Belgian division of the Shadowmoon Cult when they got their hands on the Books and started a war that destroyed so many villages across the country centuries ago.
Anyway, every day, she thanked the Great Smurf that the Infernal Scorchers in Greece didn’t do so. Or that the different rogue Smurf groups weren’t that keen on working together and preferred fighting each other when they couldn’t fight the Order.
Anyway, reports had come in from all across Greece.
Left and right, Infernal Scorcher-held locations were being hit. And they were being hit hard.
Infernal Scorcher villages, bases and outposts were drowned in storms of fire and blood. Convoys and shipments were ambushed. High-ranking Infernal Scorchers were strung up, charred beyond recognition.
They had captured a few survivors who were pleading for the Order to protect them. While she wanted nothing more than to kill them all on the spot, she had to keep them alive…for now.
They had information.
Apparently, at their main village, there had been a revolt by the Clay-Born who had killed the local Scorch Lord and destroyed a device known as the Binding Core that kept them from rebelling. Some of the Clay-Born had dragon-like features such as wings and fire-breathing that had been a result of using dragon scales as part of a modified ingredients list. One even had the ability to change sizes.
Dragon-like Clay-Born…now that was something she hadn’t seen or heard of before.
Didn’t some guy by the name of Cadmus do something similar a few thousand years ago? But with dragon’s teeth instead?
As far as she could remember, the warriors created from dragon’s teeth didn’t display any dragon-like abilities besides strength.
Anyway, the Infernal Scorchers seemed to be trying that kind of thing…and it had bitten them in the tail big time.
While she had been worried at first about these Dragon-like Clay-Born (Dragon-Born as some of her subordinates had taken to calling them) targeting THEM next, she had noticed a pattern.
They seemed to be exclusively going after the Infernal Scorchers and other rogue Smurf groups who created and used Clay-Born. Everyone else was left alone for the most part.
It didn’t do much to reassure any of the other Grandmasters. Especially Batzing who had rallied for an immediate extermination of all the Dragon-Born and the Clay-Born they had freed.
Batzing was the most extreme out of all of them when it came to dealing with the Clay-Born. He even had a specialised task force dedicated to actively hunting down Clay-Born. Where he found the time for that with the other threats present in Germany…she had no idea.
The official policy on Clay-Born was a bit…muddy at times. And had been responsible for countless disagreements among the Order’s members. It didn’t help that they had a blind spot for when it came to information on the Clay-Born.
Some Grandmasters thought that it was best to kill any and all Clay-Born they encountered just to be on the safe side. Others argued that they should be trying to find out more.
The arguments never went anywhere.
Their interrogation of the frantic Infernal Scorchers had given them more knowledge about the Clay-Born than they had in…well, a very long time.
Anyway, Grandmaster Bogatyr had charged her with making sure the Dragon-Born wouldn’t pose a threat to the Order or those under its protection. He left the exact means of doing so up to her.
He didn’t mind how she did it. All he cared about was the results.
She hummed as she stared at the most recent report, re-reading it over and over again.
How to best approach this?
“We should go over there and destroy them! We outnumber them and our troops are well-trained! We can strike while they’re still weak!”
Weak…
Atalanta laughed mirthlessly.
Batzing was a fool. He was underestimating just how much strength the Dragon-Born possessed.
They weren’t run-of-the-mill Clay-Born. They were dragons. And they were taking out Infernal Scorcher areas at an alarming rate.
Going after them would result in nothing but casualties and expenses. And they would have another enemy coming after their collective tails.
They already had enough.
There was no sense in adding more to the pile.
That left only one other option…Negotiate.
“Reach out to them and find out what exactly they want,” Grandmaster Olaf had quietly advised when it was just them before taking his leave.
She weighed the pros and cons of it…and the long-term consequences of it.
If she negotiated with the Dragon-Born and found out what they wanted, it could be the start of something new.
She had a few guesses on what the Dragon-Born would want.
This wouldn’t be just one done-and-dusted meeting. This would be the start of a new way of things.
The Dragon-Born would want freedom from the Order’s persecution of their kind. Not just for themselves but for all Clay-Born in Greece and beyond.
And…she found herself agreeing with it.
Given what they had learned…it was clear that the Clay-Born only fought them because they had no other choice. Even when they weren’t working for dark masters, they were fighting them because the Order hunting them and the Clay-Born needed to eat too.
Besides…it would allow them to worry less about the Clay-Born and put more focus into defending themselves against their other foes.
And so she began preparing…
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The sounds of mayhem and battle could be heard even from where she was standing. This Infernal Scorcher settlement had been one of the biggest ones in their part of the world and it only took an hour for it all to burn down.
Atalanta wasn’t phased at all
Her guards were waiting quite some distance away. She could feel their nervous eyes burning into her back, wanting so desperately to be there by her side when the time came.
And soon…it did.
In the smoke-consumed settlement, she could see a large shadowy form standing up and roaring at the top of its lungs triumphantly. If she hadn’t known who it was, she would think them to be a Devil.
But she knew who it was.
The leader. Or one of them at least.
The Dragon-Born who could change size.
All of a sudden, the Dragon-Born looked in her direction and then she was hearing the sound of gigantic wings flapping as the very, very large Dragon-Born came towards her.
“So…they’re the Smurf they sent to try and take us down?” The large figure hummed as he paced in front of her, burning orange eyes focused on her the entire time, “Thought they would send an entire army.”
“I am not here for violence,” Atalanta began diplomatically, “I am here to negotiate. To find out what you want.”
That got the large Dragon-Born to stop in his tracks, surprise appearing on his face for a few moments before fading away, “Don’t you hate us?”
“We’ve learned some things from some Scorchers who found themselves in our custody,” Atalanta admitted, “And we have a saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You’ve been doing a lot of good.”
“We aren’t doing it for the Order,” The Dragon-Born hissed, “We are doing it for ourselves.”
“Still,” Atalanta cleared her throat, “At any rate, I am not in the mood to start a war with your group. It would not go well for either party.”
A sudden thought came to her, and she spoke, “What’s your name?”
“…Echion,” The Dragon-Born muttered. Just like one of the Spartaoi.
“Echion,” Atalanta repeated, “Now…I would like to make a deal with you.
If I have your word that you will not target any villages or locations associated with the Order or our allies, I will give you my word that I will hand over any and all Infernal Scorchers in custody to you for judgment, I will try my best to get a hold of maps of known Infernal Scorcher-held areas in other countries…”
Echion tilted his head, clearly tempted but it wasn’t enough.
“…and try to argue for the rights of Clay-Born everywhere with Grandmaster Bogatyr. To try and argue for an end to automatic persecution of all Clay-Born.”
“I…I beg your pardon?” Echion asked, raising an eyebrow but she could see the hesitant hope dancing in his eyes.
“Well, it’s only logical,” Atalanta shrugged, “Why should we keep fighting each other…when we can join forces and fight against the ones responsible for all this?”
“…Your proposal…is sound,” Echion said hesitantly, “But that doesn’t change the fact that your Order has killed a lot of Clay-Born who had no choice. Who were never given a choice.”
“I know…” Atalanta sighed, “And there is no number of apologies that will ever truly make up for that.”
“You lot can’t be entirely blamed, though,” Echion murmured, “The Clay-Born have dealt their fair share of wounds to your people, regardless if we had any choice in the matter.”
“Right,” Atalanta nodded, “What is important is that we try our best to move forward as one.
I won’t lie. This is going to cause quite the stir across the Smurf world and…I might not be successful, but I’ll try my best,” Atalanta sighed, knowing that it was going to be a real smurf-fight to bring change of this level into reality.
“…You might not be the only Grandmaster for this push for change,” Echion suddenly said, “We have found communications that paint an interesting image of events in the Nordic Countries and…my mate has predicted that another Grandmaster will have a personal reason to aid you.”
“Who?” Atalanta asked, raising an eyebrow.
“…Kenneth.”