I have Nine Lives

Chapter 123: Brilliant turn around

The plan was rather simple as he found out about the survival of those two hedgehogs and the tip from the snail elder, he found a good way to get rid of the golems that were supporting the hedgehogs using their own people!

He already shared the information with all of the other troops and thus they knew when to get out of the way when the plan will commence.

Lindo went among the snails as he got close to the two tied hedgehog guards.

The duo was still conscious even though they looked to be rather weak, their pale faces shown that they weren't really uninjured.

Seeing that Lindo was approaching them made the duo glare at him, they hated what happened up till now as their brethren were killed and injured and all they could do was watch, while they would have tried to do something with the wall they were surrounded by snails and if anything happened they would have been poisoned to death.

While they loved their people and hated what was happening but if it were for them to die for nothing, dying wouldn't help the surviving hedgehogs at all so they gritted their teeth and endured watching everything that was happening, at least the lions were in a similar situation to them, this soothed their aching hearts a bit.

However Lindo's approach made them both puzzled and wary at the same time, they knew that he didn't come here with good intentions as he whispered something with the snail elder and then went ahead to share what he talked about with his compatriots.

Was he going to force them to open the wall so his troops could escape?

They were inclined to do as he wanted, they knew that any more fights would lead to needless deaths at this point, both sides were injured and exhausted and any more fighting wouldn't lead to anything good, maybe they would even wipe each other out which was something that only the snails would want to see, while they were currently under Lion's jurisdiction if both sides died they would be free until another batch of the Lion tribe would find them, thus they could even run away.

Lindo coughed taking the attention of both guards, they looked at him, waiting for him to talk.

Lindo approached them until he was practically nose to nose with them as he told them:

"I have an offer for the two of you that you can't refuse."

The duo looked at each other before looking at Lindo, what was this offer they couldn't refuse?

Lindo nodded as he took a few steps backward to create a little bit of breathing space between them and said:

"You will help us win this battle, even if you want to or not."

The duo's eyes narrowed as they looked at Lindo and they sneered in unison as they said:

"Think you can make us betray the tribe? While we have opened the wall that's the furthest you can get from us!"

While they were scared of death at first, witnessing their brethren heroically sacrificing themselves against the invaders while they were tied and stashed away, unlocked some feelings in them that they didn't really have before. Pride to belong to the hedgehog tribe and an undying will to protect said tribe.

Lindo's plan needed the wall to work so if the duo didn't work with him complications would arise.

He was the only one who could move normally under the hawk-like gaze of the hedgehog shaman... but Manitola could also do it if he was the one to stay there so the shaman wouldn't doubt anything if his eyes ever moved across the place they were at, if he found it empty he would be suspicious but if he saw someone there his suspicious would surely be smaller giving enough time for Manitola to employ the plan.

Lindo started to go back to where he was before as he didn't have the means to force the duo, he could see from their gazes that they would be a tough nut to crack and he knew the best person to crack that nut.

Manitola kept to herself as she rested by herself until Lindo came, she asked him gently:

"Have you found the best way to save them?"

Lindo nodded as he told her the plan which made her eyes widen and then light up as she said:

"This seems like a good plan, I understand, stay here I'm going to help those two see reason."

Manitola left her place leaving Lindo there instead as she trudged through the corpses just as he did.

After a short while, he reached the snails and entered the snail encirclement meeting with the guard duo.

The guards recognized Manitola as she was the official princess of the foxes and she had traveled amongst many tribes of the Sparron continent when she was young, the moment they saw her they thought that she may have come to help them, while she did came with the Lions it was pretty much obvious that she didn't come by her own will, at least that's what they thought.

"I would have bowed to you, your highness if these bindings weren't restraining me so."

One of the hedgehog guards said as he eyed Manitola, he had quite the deal of respect for the leaders of the continent, just as everyone else from the hedgehog tribe did.

Manitola didn't mince words with the duo as she clasped her hands together before unleashing a pink domain of hex energy that engulfed the duo making them slack-eyed as they became mesmerized by her technique, they were pretty much her puppets now, this was a technique that she couldn't use often due to the enemies that she had encountered, every one of them either had some type of mental resistance so even though she might be able to charm them she wouldn't be able to get full control of their bodies and souls.

Manitola then untied them as he let them get up and move closer towards the wall.

The wall slowly started to shake as Manitola controlled the hedgehogs to move the wall but unlike before the wall didn't open up.

The wall's shaking attracted the attention of everyone as they looked back at it, the hedgehogs were especially surprised considering they thought that the guards must have died by now, surprisingly they were still alive and kicking!

The wall shook continuously, harder and harder! Until the spikes that made up the wall slowly started to levitate and after that, they started to spin at immense speeds as if they were drills.

The hedgehogs started to smile thinking that they had won this, the guards finally escaped and they were ready to get rid of the lions!

However the moment they thought they won they realized something horrifying, the spikes weren't targeting the Lions but them!

The spinning spikes inserted themselves in the skulls of the top brass as they flew at immense speeds not even leaving after-images behind.

The top-brass who were the hearts of the golems then fell to the ground with big clean holes in their heads, their grey matter spilled on the ground in huge amounts after their bodies hit the ground from such an altitude.

Only the shaman had enough foresight to dodge the spike that was meant to claim his life but that didn't mean he came unscathed as a big slash appeared on the right side of his face still dripping blood and scarring him for life.

The hedgehog shaman was as angry as he could be as he clutched his chest, his heart was beating too fast because of his anger and he was ready to have a cardiac arrest only for him to close his eyes and breathe in and out for a few seconds before stopping clutching his heart.

He knew that they have lost the initiative, somehow the Lions got the guardians under their thumbs and made them work against their brethren.

The shaman was still angry but he didn't let that get in the way of his thoughts... what could they do in this situation? The wall surrounding them was tall and surrounding the whole village, controlling the wall meant controlling the lives of everyone inside it... Even though it took a lot of power to control the wall they didn't need to shoot more than another volley before every hedgehog that survived would meet their doom.

He took a few steps backward as he felt his head growing heavier and his consciousness being depleted.

The blood loss combined with the exhaustion was making him blackout.

Landers looked at what was happening and he was confused, what was going on? Who was doing this?

Lindo smiled as he finally got up from his hiding spot and ran towards Landers and Felix with that big smile on his face.

The moment Landers saw his smile he realized that what was happening had to do something with this little bugger, he felt quite proud due to his ingenuity in a deadly moment and he would have patted him on the shoulder if he could...

Finally, this was another victory for the Lion tribe, a pricey one but still a victory...