A couple of days had passed, and now a heavy snowstorm had once again descended on the land. The winds howled and snowflakes danced in the air as Leah stood tall on an elevated platform, as her army stood below before her.

  Her eyes were on her system panel and she felt a sense of satisfaction, as she observed the large number of evolution points she had passively accumulated over the past days. To her surprise, she had already amassed over seven hundred points.

  Her gaze shifted from the window displaying her points to the legion below.

  "Generals," she called out, her voice cutting through the icy air. "Step forward."

  At her command, Yventil, Boko and Elise moved swiftly through the crowd, and came up onto the platform. Without a moment’s hesitation, they knelt before her in unison, heads bowed in respect.

  Leah's gaze remained steady as she looked down at them. It was now time to ensure their strengths matched the weight of their positions.

  "I will be evolving you all." she announced.

  They all looked up at her, their eyes gleaming with anticipation.

  Leah summoned their evolution panels. She then allocated three hundred points across the three of them.

  A deep red glow enveloped their bodies, swirling and expanding as their forms reshaped. When the light finally receded, their new appearances came into view.

  Boko had evolved into a blood hobgoblin. He was even taller now, his form broad and powerful. Black markings ran all over along his muscular frame.

  Yventil had become a blood high elf. His once-slender frame had gained defined muscle, his features sharper, his movements more refined. The same dark markings elegantly traced his body.

  And Elise had evolved into a blood fairy matron. Her once wild and predatory expression had been replaced with something far more regal. Her robes were now darker, a deep crimson with streaks of black woven through the fabric.

  Leah observed the three of them, pleased with their transformation. She had taken them from what they once were and forged them into something far greater.

  "This is just the start," Leah said, her voice carrying through the air. "Now, let’s prepare for war."

  ***

  Leah soared through the blinding snowstorm, her dark silhouette cutting through the swirling wind like a blade. Behind her, dozens of blood fairies trailed in formation, their wings beating as they followed their queen through the storm-choked sky.

  She came to a stop midair, hovering as the cold wind whipped around her. Below, veiled by the storm but unmistakable to her senses, was a vast sprawl of movement—thousands upon thousands of snow goblins, scattered across the white plains in clustered camps.

  Leah narrowed her eyes, then gave a sharp motion. The swarm behind her slowed, forming ranks in the sky.

  She turned to Elise. 'Focus on one camp at a time. Begin converting them.'

  Elise nodded. With a sharp command, she and her army of blood fairies descended, red streaks vanishing into the storm below as they homed in on their first target.

  Leah didn’t wait to watch.

  She turned, streaking back toward the forest’s edge. The storm began to thin slightly near the tree line, and waiting just where snow met trees was the rest of her force—hundreds of blood goblins and elves standing in formation, ready and eager.

  Through her blood connection, Leah sent a single command. 'Begin.'

  Without hesitation, her legion surged forward.

  Like rivers of crimson spilling from the forest, they charged down the slopes of snow into the plain below. From above, Leah followed, her wings spreading wide as she watched the army split into two.

  To the west Boko led the goblins, and to the east Yventil led the elves, each leaving to attack separate camps.

  But below, as her army thundered across the plains, two figures remained unmoving.

  Leah’s eyes narrowed. She slowed in the air, then descended in a swift glide, landing lightly in front of them. The snow crunched under her feet as she looked between Ibbi and Gabriel.

  Ibbi sat casually on a rock, her axe across her lap, while Gabriel stood with his arms folded, watching the distant battle.

  "Why haven’t you joined the fight?" Leah asked, her tone cool but curious.

  Ibbi grinned, ears twitching. "I don’t want to leave your side. Feels wrong not being near you."

  Gabriel nodded. "I feel the same. And considering the same backgrounds that we have, I feel compelled to fight with you."

  Leah paused, placing a hand under her chin in thought. Her gaze lingered on them for a moment. Then, with a small smirk, she said, "Well… it would be quicker if we divide from the main force and attack camps by ourselves."

  "Follow me, then." Leah said, stepping off the ground.

  She hovered just above the snow, wings unfurling, and then took off in a burst of speed. Ibbi and Gabriel sprinted after her, sending snow hurling behind them.

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  They quickly came upon a large camp that loomed ahead of them. Dozens of crude wooden towers and sharpened stakes lined the perimeter, but no watchful eyes caught their approach. The storm cloaked their arrival.

  Without hesitation, they soared over the wall. Ibbi landed first, crashing into the middle of a goblin squad. With a sweeping arc, she decapitated the entire group in one savage motion. Heads rolled, and red sprayed across the snow.

  Gabriel moved like a beast unchained, sprinting low to the ground, his claws raking open goblin throats as he weaved through the panicked crowd. The howls of the dying followed him like a song.

  The snow goblins scrambled to organise, but it was already too late.

  Leah dove from above, her blood tendrils snapping out like crimson lightning. They pierced goblins mid-step, yanking them into the air or slamming them into walls. She zoomed across the camp, a blur of red and fury.

  In less than a minute, silence fell. Hundreds of corpses lay twisted and broken in the snow.

  Leah hovered in the air, a speck of blood trailing down her cheek. She wiped it away with the back of her hand. A smile spread across her lips—cold, wild, and triumphant.

  Tendrils unfurled from her back once more.

  She landed in the center of the slaughter and plunged her blood into the bodies around her.

  "We’ll build a massive army." she whispered, grinning as the corpses began to turn into blood goblins.

  ***

  Throughout the snow plain, the storm began to break apart.

  The howling winds softened, the swirling white gave way to patches of pale blue sky, and shafts of light pierced through the thinning clouds. As the veil lifted, the battlefield was finally revealed in its chaotic, brutal glory.

  Shrieks, roars, and the clash of weapons echoed across the open plain. And at the very front of an ever-growing army stood Leah.

  Her blood armour surged and pulsed around her like a living entity, wrapping her in crimson blood that morphed and shifted with every movement. She slashed down snow goblins left and right and skewered foes, flinging them aside like rag dolls.

  She was no longer ambushing camps. Now she fought in the open, boldly and visible.

  She had sacrificed her stealth, but it no longer mattered. The storm was ending, her legion was growing with every passing moment, and her enemies were buckling beneath her might.

  The snow goblins in front of Leah and her legion had also swelled in number, now likely numbering in the thousands.

  But even so Leah still ploughed through their ranks. Behind her, the crimson tide of her legion crashed forward, devouring all in its path. Converted snow goblins rose where enemies once stood, swelling her forces by the second.

  The battle raged for hours, relentless and bloody.

  By the time the sun had broken fully through the clouds, Leah and her army had carved a path across nearly the entire snow plain. The mountains now loomed before them, jagged and imposing in the near distance.

  As Leah slashed down a snarling hobgoblin that rushed at her, its body crumpling into the snow, a deep horn sounded from behind the enemy lines.

  She froze. All around her, the snow goblins began to hesitate, then break formation. One by one, they turned and fled, their snarls replaced by shrieks as they raced towards the north.

  Leah narrowed her eyes, her blood tendrils twitching.

  Ibbi came to her side, axe slung across her shoulder, Gabriel just behind her, claws slick with blood.

  "What’s going on?" Gabriel muttered.

  Leah remained quiet, watching.

  Then, from the sea of fleeing goblins, a new force began to appear—disciplined, more heavily armoured, and advancing in tight ranks. A long line of snow goblins, larger and bulkier, emerged from the gaps between the retreating ones. Their movements were uniform. Controlled. Unlike the wild scrambling of the rest.

  Ibbi narrowed her eyes. "These ones…" she said slowly. "They’re not from the plain. They’re the ones that protect the mountain."

  Leah narrowed her eyes, gaze fixed on one of the towering goblins breaking through the crowd. Above its head, a glowing red title floated: 'Hobgoblin – Elite'.

  Ibbi stepped in front of Leah, planting her feet into the snow, her blood axe rising with a low hum. "Let them come." she muttered, baring her teeth.

  The line of hobgoblin elites smashed into the front of the blood legion like a boulder thrown into a stream. Blood goblins and elves were launched into the air, some splitting apart from the sheer force of impact. A massive hobgoblin slammed into Ibbi, and though she blocked the hit, she was sent skidding backwards through the snow.

  Leah’s eyes gleamed. She surged forward, soaring just above Ibbi, and activated her blood empowerment skill.

  She landed a hard kick to the chest of the hobgoblin that struck Ibbi, but he barely moved and only slightly stumbled in the snow. His eyes locked on her with fury. Then, with both hands, he raised his enormous great axe and brought it down.

  Leah pivoted at the last second, the weapon cleaving through the air and slamming into the ground where she stood a moment before. Another hobgoblin to her side swung wide but Leah ducked and rolled, and then quickly burst up into the sky.

  Snow spiraled around her as she soared above the battlefield. She came to a stop mid-air, tendrils twitching, breath sharp.

  Down below it was chaos. The couple hundred hobgoblin elites had broken straight through her lines, cutting a bloody swath through her army. Her legion of blood goblins, which had grown to thousands throughout the day, was being torn apart. For every elite they struck down, ten more soldiers of hers fell.

  Leah's fists clenched as she stared down at the battlefield. She wasn’t going to let them gain the advantage. With a sharp breath, she clasped her hands together, her focus narrowing. All over her body, thin blood tendrils began sprouting like a crimson web unraveling from her skin. In the hundreds, then thousands, they surged outward and dove towards the ground below.

  The tendrils latched onto the bodies of fallen snow goblins and her blood legion alike. As long as she could siphon blood from the dead, sustaining herself, and in turn pump her own blood into her soldiers, the legion could keep fighting, again and again.

  Around the battlefield, blood legion corpses twitched and began to rise. Blood reinfused their flesh, pulling torn limbs together, reigniting hollow eyes with glowing crimson.

  Hovering above the battlefield, Leah began singling out each hobgoblin elite, directing large clusters of blood soldiers to swarm them through her blood connection. One by one, the elites fell under the weight of sheer numbers and coordinated fury.

  As the sun began its descent beyond the snowy horizon, shadows lengthened over the battlefield. Most of the once-devastating hobgoblin elites were now scattered bodies on the bloodied snow. Leah wasted no time and reanimated them too.

  Soon, the tide had fully turned. Where once the hobgoblins carved through her lines, now they were being hunted, surrounded, and destroyed.

  At the center of the battlefield, only one elite remained, locked in savage combat with Boko. A circle had formed around them, silent and tense. Leah slowly descended, her blood tendrils retracting into her body as she landed near the dueling pair.

  Boko was wounded. Gashes ripped across his arms, chest, and cheek but he stood tall, unwavering. The elite roared and lunged, but Boko moved more quickly. He raised his axe and cleaved through the goblin’s shoulder.

  The hobgoblin howled, raising its weapon for a final desperate strike, but Boko batted it aside with a snarl and drove his axe into the elite’s neck.

  A sickening crunch. A spray of blood. The elite’s body fell limp, eyes rolling back as it collapsed.

  Boko yanked his axe free and raised it to the sky with a guttural roar.

  The legion exploded into cries of triumph, their victory howls echoing across the snow plain.

  Leah smirked, rising back into the air.

  She hovered above the battlefield and looked to the south, where the snow plains stretched wide and flat into the distance. It was open and spacious, perfect for what came next. She would build a bigger camp, one worthy of her ever-expanding legion.

  But then her gaze shifted north, where the looming mountains pierced the clouds. Ibbi had said the goblins all came from the mountain. That could only mean one thing.

  A goblin dungeon was somewhere up in there. Good. That would be her next objective.