Life After Death

As Blag entered through the sturdy door, made entirely out of dragon bones, he could see a huge Lizardman almost twice his size. The black Lizardman turned to regard Blag with a keen gaze. This Lizardman was the chief of his tribe, Goro. The tribes are usually called by the chief's name as he is the most influential and powerful person of that tribe, who represents the tribe in all occasions.

Goro had defended his title as chief on two previous occasions, and with nobody to challenge him this time round, he had retained his chief's position. His muscular body was one of staggering proportions. If one stood them side by side, Blag and his more balanced body type would appear childish in comparison. He is also a mutated Lizardman who inherited great regeneration speed and strength.

An old scar marked the black scales on his chest, his memento from previous war. The great sword on his back was an unadorned, heavy sword almost five meters long and made entirely out of dragon bones and tendons. It was the symbol of the chief and it had been enhanced by sharpening and grooving it to make it more lethal.

Blag approached the chief and stood in front of him. The entire room is decorated with relics and trophies left behind by previous tribe leaders most of them are swords while a few are of other types of weapons. The trophies consisted of skulls of different ferocious beasts. The entire arrangement created a coercive pressure and atmosphere to the one facing the chief but Blag was unfazed and looked at the chief with conviction.

"Why did you come here?" asked Goro in a somber and cold tone. The relation between them was not hostile or strained but this was the way that Goro communicates with everyone. Once Goro tried to act in a friendly manner but it instead made people more afraid of him. This is due to the mutation in his physiology making his feature and voice threatening.

"Chief our tribe should not ...." Blag was interrupted by Goro before he can complete his sentence.

"Blag you are a great hunter and very important for the village but you should not meddle in things on which you have no control of." Goro said in an emotionless voice.

Goro knew what many of the tribesmen thought of the upcoming war but even he was powerless when facing the will of all the tribes combined. Those who oppose the alliance will be the first to be destroyed to make an example to other deserters. Although Goro's tribe was not hot blooded and did not get riled up by the recent events they have no choice but to go with the flow.

"We can come to a settlement with the dragons they should also be reluctant to go to a war." Blag proposed.

"Do you think those arrogant overgrown lizards will listen to us, they don't even view us as equals. If you have nothing else to say you can leave." Goro resumed with his earlier work of looking through the scouts reports and letters from alliance leaders.

Blag did not have anything to refute the chief's answer. Their tribe has no other choice. Even leaving the Great Lake is not possible as they are weak on solid ground and finding such a great place is very difficult. Even if they are lucky and come across one it might already be occupied by other forces. Even traveling in such a small group is dangerous and they will easily become food to predators out in the wild. Their ancestors traveled in a huge group comprising of many tribes to reach this lake. As there is safety in numbers, even then the loses were huge. The population of intelligent civilized life is very low compared to all the species on MBN. So they can't expect to talk their way out.

Goro seeing the frustration on Blag's face replied, "You don't have to worry so much. Before the losses become very high the rulers of the world will interfere and put an end to it."

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Alyx after deciding to infiltrate both sides of the camp, before proceeding with the next step of Ax's plan, went to the body reconstruction plant in his travel pod. Each house given to newborn Aon has a personal travel pod. The distance between different facilities is astronomical and travel by foot is time consuming. Aons at lower ranks use these travel pods and portals to go from one place to another.

In an earlier meeting with Neo, Alyx learnt that small changes to the body can be freely made at the body reconstruction plant. Upon hearing that Ax came up with this bold plan to infiltrate the Lizardmen and Dragons. Changes like appearance and sex are the only things allowed for free and upgrading the body costs CP. According to Ax's plan the body remains the same but the appearance will be changed to fool them. Alyx changed his appearance into a Lizardman and it took just a few minutes for it to be completed.

'It feels like I'm wearing a costume. Do you think it will work?'

*Do you have any better idea.*

Alyx reached near to the surface and parked his travel pod in a desolate cave and started walking towards the Lizardmen site. After going through many narrow tunnels he was able to reach an underground lake with a settlement in its marshes.

"Hey which tribe do you belong to?" Alyx heard a shout just as he came out of the cave. He was shocked and got flustered for a moment on what to say. But Ax threw him a lifeline.

*Just tell him you are a lone Lizardman who got banished from his tribe for not willing to participate in the upcoming war.*

"I'm banished from my tribe for refusing to participate in the war and looking to join a new tribe." Alyx answered the Lizardman coming towards him from afar.

'Just how unlucky I have to be to get caught unprepared. I wanted to gather some information before taking on a role which will make our infiltration smooth.'

*But your actions don't reflect any of that. You did not even try to hide or be subtle in you movements. You staggered in like it's your backyard*

'You should have warned me.' Alyx grit his teeth at Ax.

*Some idiot told me to keep quiet and learn while observing him*

'....'