51 Looming War

Yellow Lake Region was a small region in the Extreme Wilderness. The Cultivator Clans and Sects didn't really care much about such a small territory, the profit they could gain by occupying it wasn't that much. The great powers of the Wilderness didn't care about the place, but that didn't mean that the various tribes had the same feeling.

The region was a great place to grow some low leveled poisonous and water element herbs or raise various types of amphibian creatures, even if it was also an incredibly harsh environment.

At the center of the region, there was the so-called Yellow Lake: it wasn't actually a lake, but a large swamp of yellowish waters. It was filled by large water trees and tall robust bamboos, where countless poisonous creatures lived.

The waters that formed the lake came from the Five Yellow Rivers. They were large natural wells that brought the yellow waters up from their deep deposits in the belly of the earth and made it flow towards the lake.

Every River cut the region around the lake, creating five separate regions around it. Each region was occupied by a different power: the Fire Earth Village, The Black Elk Village, The Forest Will Village, the Deep Water Tribe and finally the Golden Bone Tribe.

The first two were considered medium-big sized tribes, and the last three were considered little-medium sized. They were all Outposts, very far from the principal territories of those tribes, all except the Golden Bone Tribe that had its own village built on their side of the Yellow Lake Region.

That meant that even if they were between the weakest minor-medium villages, they actually were actually the most powerful force in the region. Why? Simply because all their manpower was present in the Yellow Lake Region. The other tribes only had small outposts instead.

The power of the Golden Bone Tribe was evident from the size of the territory that they occupied: it was the biggest chunk out of the five, right in the most fertile piece of land. Yet the Golden Bone Tribe never used their superior military presence to attack anyone from the other tribes, instead focusing on creating a series of defenses that could help them in a situation where they were being assaulted.

The territory around the swamp was where the outpost was built. The terrain was riddled with large holes in the ground. Looking closer, these holes were in fact caves. Many were hundreds of meters deep or even more, and most of them were still unexplored. They were usually filled with various creatures that used them as their lairs. Given the nature of the creatures living in the area being poisonous and very dangerous, that made exploring these caves very dangerous.

The sun usually was a big problem for the people coming the first time to the Yellow Lake Region. It was incredibly hard for people to get used to the blazing sun. It didn't help much the fact that the days seemed to be incredibly long. Yet, that wasn't the most vicious problem that made people go completely nuts in the Yellow Zone. There something even worst. Something unique to the area: they called it the Death Fog.

As the terrible name suggested, it was a fog that could kill people trapped inside it. How? It was a dangerous poisonous fog that consumed everything that it touched. Flesh, materials like leather, wood and ever stone was rapidly devoured. The Death Fog was randomly released by the lake and people were advised to completely avoid going near the zone it was in because it was too much dangerous.

As there wasn't any real method to predict the creation of the death fogs, not many people wanted to stay near the yellowish dirty waters. While there were some small groups of people, especially from the Fire Earth Tribe and the Deep Water Tribe, that went regularly to hunt in the swamp, most people tended to stay in the territory around it.

The herbs and animals were all placed inside some of the caves that had been already cleared out. Literally natural greenhouses and menageries.

Each tribe worked in their own caves and conflicts were very rare because people were mostly inside their respective territories. This made the Yellow Lake Region a very stable zone.

However, all this would change with a single move. A new Outpost Chief Raider came to power. She completely changed the Fire Earth method of engaging.

The entire region had been completely thrown into turmoil by the full-fledged attack that the Fire Earth had launched against the Black Elks. It wasn't a simple raid... they killed or imprisoned everyone. They literally moved to completely eradicate the Outpost of the rival tribe, making it impossible for the Black Elks to not retaliate.

War was looming at the horizon and the Yellow Lake Region would probably be the battleground on which the two tribes would confront themselves.

The Golden Bone Tribe and the Deep Water Tribe had immediately united into a defensive alliance, they sent a proposition even to the Forest Will Tribe but they had been mysteriously ignored by them.

This made the two tribes incredibly surprised: did the Forest Will submit to the Fire Earth? That was the only solution that they could come up with. Why else would a village like Forest Will have the courage to not accept their alliance proposal? Protecting their territories all alone? Ridiculous. Especially now that the Fire Earth was out for blood, they would surely be the next target.

[Black Elk Territory, Old Guard Tower]

The large wooden tower that stood for years in defense of the Black Elk territory was burning, wrapped by long twirling flames. All around it, stood dozens of Fire Earth warriors. Each one wore a bloody armor made of red scales and had a double-bladed ax.

Some of them were drinking, others were fighting between each other of laughing and talking in little groups. Between the Fire Earth people, there were some dark skinned women. They all had extremely long limbs and necks. Their ebony skin shined under the light of the burning tower. They were from the Black Elk tribe, women that the Fire Earth people had spared to keep them as slaves.

What about men? they were slaughtered. Almost all of the Black Elk men were killed in the assault, only the most intelligent people were given a chance to survive. The raiders knew that they could be used to do the many jobs that they weren't capable of doing or that they find very boring, like keeping notes on the payments or on the number of supplies remaining.

Enjoying themselves around the bonfire, the berserkers were totally unprepared for an attack. They were having fun, celebrating their swift victory. Nobody even thought about a possible attack. Who would dare to attack them?

Although they were incredibly confident that nothing would ever happen, the red-clad people still forced a couple of scouts to protect a large perimeter around the bonfire area. However, even the scouts themselves didn't believe for a second that it was a useful move.