The swamp water was calm. There was nothing in sight, at least not anything worth noting. Most of the things had perished in this lakeshore.
Thus, it was also silent. There was nay the fluttering of insect wings nor the croaking of a single frog. But there was the sound of footsteps or rather… the sound of legs sifting through water?
There were two lizardmen treading the knee-high water. Var Agus and Kurgher were the ones. Behind them were rafts carrying loads and loads of fishes. This was the offering.
"Bring them forward" Var Agus was the first to truly break the silence as he spoke some instructions to his chieftain friend.
Kurgher didn't decline, he started pushing one raft after the next further into the lake until the water covered his entire head and he could push no further. The momentum from his actions carried over however and the rafts slowly but surely headed towards the center.
It was only once they stopped that waves started to spread out with the rafts as the origin. It took no time for them to rise out of the water and for a large head to appear under the radiant rays of sunlight.
"Lernaean…" Kurgher muttered before sucking in a cold breath. It was a single head that had come out of the water, but the majesty of their deity was not lessened nor increased by numbers.
Var Agus trembled. The hydra head which came out looked indifferently at everything. That included themselves and the food, in its eyes, they were equal.
Since they were equally garbage, the hydra disapproved of the offerings. Nevertheless, the draconic head opened its hideous maw and sunk its teeth onto the raft anyway. Stalwart waves were sent everywhere.
"Ho- Hold on!" Var screamed. The giant waves were starting to rush towards the shore and the calm waters were once again agitated. Even as Var and Kur struggled to get closer and closer to shore, the hydra didn't pay them any mind and suck its teeth onto the next raft.
While Var took the matter with great pride, Kurgher was much more indignant. Why did visiting a deity have to be this hard?! Var thought it was a necessary test of will but all Kurgher could see was a monster feasting on their fruits without holding any regard for them.
Just as Kurgher was hit by another wave and forced to sink into the water the lake surface started to vibrate.
"ROOOOARRRR!!!!" The reason was none other than the hydra itself. Another head, which may or may not have been sleeping originally, sprung up like a serpent on the watch. What it was watching was its fellow head that had eaten the free buffet on its own.
It was at this point that Kurgher rose from the water surface with a disgruntled expression. Var Agus spoke no words as he watched calmly. It had been like this when he first went there too.
"Lernaean! I, Var Agus, the fourth Shaman of the Reeds, have come to beseech your guidance" Var Agus asked piously. Precisely because he had gone there before it was that he knew how to get their Deity's attention.
Piously included keeping his eyes closed while awaiting a response, Var was therefore unable to see what followed. Three more heads popped out of the water and turned to look at Var and Kurgher with a hint of annoyance.
"Var!" Kurgher suddenly shouted before pushing himself onto Var and both falling into the knee-high lakeshore. Var couldn't even protest for a single second before he was forced to sink into the cold water.
It was also then that he noticed an oddity. The cold water had suddenly turned boiling hot. Var Agus' eyes shot open and were dazzled by flames soaring above his and Kurgher's head. This wasn't how things were supposed to play out.
By the time the flames stopped pouring out of the jaws of the annoyed head, Var and Kurgher had already swum to another edge of the swamp.
"That thing is a f*cking monster Var!" Kurgher shouted incensed by the senseless attack. As the war chief, he grew up well-educated on the stories of their deity.
It spoke greatly about its handsome strength but looking back at it now… all the stories failed to account for the creature's horrible temper! No, they had left out its horrible temper.
"You learned something from this thing?!?" Kurgher shouted out furiously unable to believe such could be the truth.
"Well… It was my master that told me about the-" Var was not even allowed to finish before Kurgher grabbed onto his body with his toned arms wanting to pressure him. He was unable to once he noticed the deity was not done just yet. He lugged Var as he ran instead.
"ROOOARRR!!!" Another roar thundered at the center of the lake and bright flames which shone even in the broad daylight were plain to see in the distance behind Kurgher and Var Agus.
Kurgher was madly dashing out with Var in tow, but the two did not stop their conversation even when death was looming behind them.
"Var! I trusted you!" How could he say he learned it from the hydra if it was from his master that he learned of humans?! Why was he giving that monster any sort of reputation? What did it do to deserve it?!
"Trusted…? Kurgher! What are you insinuating right now?!!" Var shouted in response to Kurgher's outrage.
Kurgher didn't respond, they only continued running through the marshland which was their natural terrain. Yet, Var understood very well what Kurgher had meant and he knew what he thought about it. Kur had been conned!
"That Eon human is too suspicious Kurgher!" Var screamed before struggling to break off from his hold. The shaman's and the war chief's positions were equal but when it came to strength that was definitely not the case.
Nonetheless, while not all Lizardmen were naturally endowed with strength, keeping hold of someone unwilling was no easy task without an overwhelming difference in power.
Just as the flames were about to reach them, Var and Kurgher fell into the ground. The water in the marshlands was only slightly below knee level here but it served just as well as it had previously.
Plus, with the limitation of movements all bosses suffered from, the flames were not very strong by the time it had reached them.
Though safety was now practically guaranteed, neither Var nor Kurgher wished to speak to one another on the topic of the events that had transgressed any longer. It wasn't until they caught back up to the conquest team that they finally said anything.
"Gasp" Var was shocked to find a burning village with Lizardmen fighting tooth and nail against the members of their Reeds Tribe. Well, it was more tooth and really long nail. The battle was not at all even, it wasn't even a struggle at this point.
Kurgher who saw the sights of his tribesmen eliminating foreign tribes with ease couldn't help but become excited. This was something he as war chief had facilitated.
Someone like Var Agus might have been stubborn but not him, he was more than willing to give Eon a chance. The sight before him only reassured him that this was the right decision too!
Var noticed the glow in Kurgher's eyes, he knew that there was no point in arguing with him anymore. He decided to separate from Kurgher.
The two parted ways, one was heading straight into the Village while the other one seemed to be more keen on sneaking into it. Var was of course the one doing the sneaking.
"Kurg is…" He was telling tribesmen he had observed to be firm believers of hydra about Kurgher's thoughts as well as the beliefs of the other tribesmen and how skewed they were.
By the end of the raid which Eon was secretly supervising, Var Agus had assembled a group of silent believers. The shaman showed up with tens of lizardmen following behind him to the final roll call. Though Var had been silent about gathering the members, he only planned on being silent for that phase of his improvised plans.
"Are you betraying the tribe Var!?!" Kurgher exclaimed noticing the odd tension between his group and the ones behind Var.
"...I've come to say parting words" Var did not agree with the term of betrayal. They were if anything defecting from the erroneous side of Kurgher. In his eyes, Kurgher was the one betraying decades of history.
"Parting words? Hahahaha, Var, why aren't you willing to stay?" Kurgher asked back making sure to slam his new equipment to make a statement. If Var wanted to leave there would be dire consequences.
"You don't understand Kurgher… if I betray our God Lernaean then what did they die for?" There was no room for negotiation, they had to part ways.
Amidst the flames from burning huts where ashes rained the two lizardmen who led groups of the same place were in a deadlock. Both sides were quite even, Var's group was losing out slightly but otherwise pretty even.
This was problematic because if they battled the losses would be bad. The thought that this was all a bad idea briefly crossed the minds of those present. But if they didn't, their pride would be severely wounded.
All this thinking became nothing when a spear was suddenly launched from within the thick of Kurgher group.
"Huh?" The Kurgher lizardmen weren't even able to react to the change before Var Agus' allies retaliated in response! There was nothing they could do to turn back.
Within the destroyed area of a different tribe, the Reeds tribe was having an internal conflict.