Chapter 157: Blood soaked sand
The sand sways and flows over the dunes as a trail of dark, aged blood slowly sinks between the fine particles of the desert. A body lies decayed and shattered with the wrists and ankles being shattered, brusing showed great force had been exerted.
No sound could be heard as the body of this Jackrixis scout was tortured for information as his fingers,toes, and eyes were eaten away by sinister magic.
A large cloaked covered Skeleton dived its boney hand into the sand, prushing off the wet blood on its hands. It no longer paid anymore attention to the being it had just broken and linked back into the deserts grasp.
It would only be 4 days later that the corpse would be found having been picked at by scavengers during its time alone. 4 Jackrixis brought the young scouts body home to be burned in hopes the spirit would be purified and be sent to the gods.
Over the course of 2 months, many scouts had been lost with those found showing signs of being tortured with magic having been present. This caused a great upset among the tribes at the treatment of these young scouts bodies.
Once word spread to the other tribal lands is when the darker forces took action, ramping up their attacks on weaker tribes and people.
A land that was stable was now starting to slip, and the peace was being challenged as the malicious forces strike at everything they could.
For the weaker villagers, they were attacked at night with overwhelming numbers and had to face brutal foes. While the stronger clans and tribes were sabotaged or homes being set on fire. Leaders are going missing during hunts and being found dead in a river.
Because of these problems that couldn't be ignored, armies were created using the combined forces of multiple clans to find these groups and exterminate them. This left less manpower to be put towards finding the new enemy that was slowly picking off their scouts.
Chaos reigned as a war between the clans and tribes against the dark forces that led to both open battles and hidden fights. The only reason the dark forces openly attacked was that it stopped the search for them but also to show their own strength.
With less attention on the borders, no one noticed as an entire tribes lights were extinguished as they died in the dark. No magic users among them to help and no blessed to defend them.
At the end of the silent butchering, only the blood-soaked sand was what's left of their existence in the world, their bodies and bones taken by magic. All homes and weapons were burned and stolen to add for the undead army's armoury.
It was only after multiple alarms sounded by the gods followers, and tribal elders did the news that more than 3 outer tribes had fallen. This led to another armie being raised by the gods blessed to go and defend the outer lands and kill the new enemy.
Leafing the army was the blessed of Nyx,Minerva, and Renka, while the blessed of Themis,Caer, and the twins stayed behind to fight the dark forces.
This spilt of forces wasn't ideal, and the chaos caused had already made them lose 3 tribes. They would still have to march to the outer lands first and then find the enemy.
So once more, the rixis race was on the move while the Blues sat back and tinkered and created their weapons and armour. While also helping with things like building and cooking, which they took a liking to and became skilled at.
A migration of the outer tribes began towards the main base of the Sand striders who would be helping with this battle. Since many of the tribes and people killed were under their clan, they made sure to put their entire force behind killing the threat.
This choice caused problems in itself as many groups and factions disagreed with how things were being handled. So they decided to get in the way of things and make it slower than it needed to be. This could be from food delivery's to weapons storage anything to slow down what they didn't agree with.
Jack was watching this with an annoyed expression as nibbled on his fingernails, which is a bad habit he couldn't shake.
"I can't imagine how they would be if I didn't have my skills to help keep the peace I imagine instead of slowing things down. They would outright steal them or destory stuff and maybe start assassinating eachother"-Jack
"Yep, ambition and pride mixed in with greed and jealously always ends badly"-Renka
"I can see that. My skills don't stop it, but just slows it down and weaken its overall influence"-Jack
"It's better than nothing, Jack, and I think you won't need anymore of those, which means you can focus on better skills"-Renka
"I don't really know what to get next, maybe some sort of magical boost or a racial bonus of soom kind against certain affects"-Jack
"Or one that helps the gods like giving us the chance to gift more abilities to more mortals like our priests and templars that would be very useful"-Renka
"Could be though I don't want to have a complete religious monopoly I'd be happy with a 60/40 split that seems more healthy"-Jack
"That's why your different Jack most would want ultimate control over their own creation and have them listen without fail"-Renka
"That's not sustainable and has many negatives and the positives I don't think are worth it"-Jack
"Beside my strength so far has been in team building and a diverse range of people and skills that overall let us beat things more powerful than ourselves"-Jack
"This is what you hope will give you the win, right?"-Renka
"Well, I mean, I may be wrong, but I imagine they're not looking for the strongest beast created but the most versatile civilization"-Jack
"Well, fingers crossed"-Renka
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
MRgold1
MRgold1 sorry for the wait. I had a few days away from home. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading
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